2:10PM Eastern
Red Sox
Kutter Crawford (R)
1. Tommy Pham (R) LF
2. Rafael Devers (L) 3B
3. Xander Bogaerts (R) SS
4. Alex Verdugo (L) RF
5. J.D. Martinez (R) DH
6. Eric Hosmer (L) 1B
7. Christian Arroyo (R) 2B
8. Reese McGuire (L) C
9. Jarren Duran (L) CF
Royals
Brad Keller (R)
1. MJ Melendez (L) C
2. Bobby Witt Jr. (R) SS
3. Salvador Perez (R) DH
4. Hunter Dozier (R) 3B
5. Nick Pratto (L) 1B
6. Michael A. Taylor (R) CF
7. Michael Massey (L) 2B
8. Nate Eaton (R) RF
9. Kyle Isbel (L) LF
Gametime Temp: 93°F
Chance of Precip: 0%
Another brutal heat and humidity day.
If I remember it, Sox have played every day for 18 days and finally get tomorrow off. And just in time for some tough matchups.
If this was football, you’d say the Sox layed down. 3 hits in 6 innings and two of those out of the 8 and 9 holes.
All over now anyway. Down 5-0 in the 5th. I'll be impressed if they somehow manage to finish the season above .500.
Duran is a disaster in Centerfield.
That was the one thing I noticed on Duran watching some Worcester games earlier in the season. It gets interesting on the deep flies. The question is, can he do what Kike did last season? Kike was iffy on an everyday basis, but learned to be outstanding.
How much does it help Verdugo, being the one to have calm his team-mate down for a change? And they just said Pham? This has got to be one of the most , um, emotional outfields we've ever had. rofl
Maybe send the Outfield to the mound to try and settle Darwinzon down?
This team has completely fallen apart.
Brutal!
I'm following the Mets for the rest of the season. Not as my new team but I do need to follow a team that I like and have a chance to make it to the post season, and not named the Dodgers, Yankees or Astros. I met a man at Cooperstown on my trip there and we hit it off real well. I promised him if the Mets get into the World Series (no sure thing but possible) and play the Yankees I will get tickets and fly out to wa tch it with him. What else can I do? My Red Sox are a total shit show run by a total incompetent named Bloom, a cheap bastard of an owner who thinks we should be a small market team and when he doesn't think that way, always misreads the market as his former satrap Lucchino always did. And right now being hammered again by Kansas City, one of the worst teams in baseball, it will get a lot worse than better this coming week when we have to take on the Braves and Yankees. A curse on both of you Bloom and Prune Face.
Darwinzon is the new Robles. They’ll keep running him out there no matter how bad.
Duran seems like a great kind but a very bad outfielder.
Quote from: longgame on August 07, 2022, 05:54:57 PM
Darwinzon is the new Robles. They’ll keep running him out there no matter how bad.
Duran seems like a great kind but a very bad outfielder.
How many holes has Bloom created in one week? He traded our go-to catcher for career backups. Traded a healthy set-up man in Diekman and brought up Darwinzon. Also this week he DFA'd the only one capable of playing CF. Unless Kike' plays against Braves, Im drawing a blank.
Over the past few weeks Duran has played the worst centerfield I have ever seen watching MLB. I don't mean just the Red Sox. I mean ever Can anyone recall worse.
Good question. Not sure I've seen one struggle defensively as we've seen in CF.
Seeing some of these young players come up makes me wonder just how much bandwidth there is in the current farm system to enable a young player to grow at a position via practice reps. Seems backwards to me. Refsnyder spoke of the coaching at the big league level. Seems like money would be well spent to develop these kids before they get here.
Not only have we seen Duran now flat out miss a few balls, he is having a hard time tracking them in general and doesn't know how to get to a ball in the air. Then there's not going after the ball behind him, not running to the one that kicked toward him (was called a HR anyhow) and not diving back to 1B. Just so many fundamental problems that have not been overcome by raw talent.
In general I can't believe the product this big market team is putting on the field. They've managed to get worse as the season goes on and now have even more work to do in the offseason - while maintaining some charade about making the postseason this year after losing 3 of 4 to one of the worst teams in the league.
One has to wonder whether Bloom can judge talent at all.
From what I understand, our best CF in the system that's getting close is
Rafaela at Portland. He is a natural, batting .280 with 8 HR. But he likely won't make Boston until very late 2023, more likely 2024. A lot of playing outfield is innate ability as well as the instruction. Listening to Soto explain how he plays the outfield is interesting for a 23 yo. Of course he's a generational talent. Abreu is the promising RF at Portland, but only at .214.
The 18 yo CF Miguel Bleis is in our Top 5, and is getting rave reviews, but he's still down in the Florida League., probably 3-4 years away.
Quote from: Sea Dog 23 on August 08, 2022, 10:25:24 AM
From what I understand, our best CF in the system that's getting close is
Rafaela at Portland. He is a natural, batting .280 with 8 HR. But he likely won't make Boston until very late 2023, more likely 2024. A lot of playing outfield is innate ability as well as the instruction. Listening to Soto explain how he plays the outfield is interesting for a 23 yo. Of course he's a generational talent. Abreu is the promising RF at Portland, but only at .214.
The 18 yo CF Miguel Bleis is in our Top 5, and is getting rave reviews, but he's still down in the Florida League., probably 3-4 years away.
Rafaela can flat out play ball. This is his breakout season hitting. If it continues, I can see him easily by next season's end. His big hole is swinging at balls a foot out of the strike zone.
I've watched the current AAA CF'er, Granberg, only once or twice, but not enough to know how he is at fielding the ball. He's had one OK power year, but strikes me as a 10-15 HR, .275 guy ten years ago. I guess that would be something like hitting .250 in this day and age. Big power drop this year, and dropped from .300 to about .260 going from AA to AAA. IF he's a solid CF'er and Duran needs to regroup down in AAA again, why not? He's already 26 years old. Not like he's going to ruin anything.