The Left Field Solution
- Thread starter E5 Yaz
- Start date
You're right: It's not as though he depends on using the thumb in his day job
edit: He had a lousy April, rebounded in May until hurting his thumb with a week to 10 days to go and has played through it during June
Brentz with a great line:
Pete Abraham @PeteAbe 38m38 minutes ago
Bryce Brentz on being a little tired from the unexpected travel: "Nothing a Red Bull and 40,000 people can't fix."
Pete Abraham @PeteAbe 38m38 minutes ago
Bryce Brentz on being a little tired from the unexpected travel: "Nothing a Red Bull and 40,000 people can't fix."
If he was one of ours, we wouldn't be bitching and moaning about not being able to fix a thumb in 2 1/2 months? But you 're right, thumbs have ligaments etc. that can cause misery for a long time.
Backseat GMing here.....Buccholz to the Angels for Nava. Maybe LA throws in Pujols. I need to cool it on the grappa.
The thumb doesn't explain a defensive decline though; does anyone know if he's actually looking bad in the field, or if it's a SSS or broken stat thing ala JBJ?
He's never been a particularly good CF for a guy as fast as he used to be, and now he's lost a second step from his speed peak. Pirates fans have complained about his defense for probably two seasons now, considering he's almost certainly the third best CF in his own outfield.
Brentz has lost a ton of weight from two years ago when he was last up.
"He's off the Juice.!" - F&M
"He's off the Juice.!" - F&M
Man, this guy would fit in GREAT around here:
http://screengrabber.deadspin.com/alejandro-de-aza-redefines-boneheaded-play-1782619559
http://screengrabber.deadspin.com/alejandro-de-aza-redefines-boneheaded-play-1782619559
De Aza learned how to do all of that when he was with the Red Sox. He thought he could unlearn it in one year?
Bryce Brentz and Ryan LaMarre are both in today's starting lineup. Brentz is hitting sixth. The only reason I can think of to explain why the Red Sox have not already made a trade for an outfielder is that they're dead-set on getting Josh Reddick as soon as he proves he's healthy. Pitching is not this team's greatest weakness.
Wait, that's really the only reason you can think of? Holt may be back this week. They may just be trying to plug the hole until that happens.
Even if you buy that we can count on Brock Holt to be an adequate everyday LF, that still leaves Ryan LaMarre as our fourth OF and best RH pinch-hitter.
It's not whether I buy it, or whether you do, it's whether the Sox do. And if they do, then it seems unlikely that they're holding out for Reddick.
I'm not saying that I like today's lineup, but it just seems like one hell of an unfounded leap to say that waiting for Reddick is the only explanation.
How long is Young out for? Maybe I missed something, but if it's just a few weeks why would you make a trade?
Because some people have focused on playing fantasy baseball for so long, the only thing that comes to their mind when a player goes down to to trade for another one.
I imagine they'd give Ramos a chance at the 4th/5th OF spot before they made any type of trade too. Plus Benintenti is actually mashing in Portland now. I don't see this team trading for an OF.
Steve Pearce is having a nice year and is a FA after this year. With the Rays falling out, could be a deal there although they don't usually like to trade to division rivals.
I know it's Cafardo, but in his "time to make some trades" column today he says Swihart is just a couple weeks away from returning?
Brennan Boesh just started a rehab assignment as well. He was supposed to be the "pull in case of emergency" switch.
Uh, no. Swihart just became weight-bearing without a hard boot 5 days ago. He'll be in a brace until who-knows-when.
So while he may be ahead of where the team thought he might be, they thought it was a season-ending injury.
In LF, Plan A was Rusney Castillo. But he sucked. Plan B was Brock Holt. But he began to struggle like we knew he would as an everyday player, and then he got hurt. Plan C was Blake Swihart. But, aside from the qualms many have about moving him off catcher (which, by the way, look a lot smarter now that Vazquez is becoming a liability at the plate), he got hurt. Plan D was Chris Young. But he's a platoon player, and then he got hurt anyway.
And, of course, that's just the "who starts in LF?" part. Our bench is hurting, too. Sandoval sucked and got hurt. Rutledge got hurt. And our AAA depth is hurting. Even coming into the season, we were weak in high-minors OF depth (which is why we brought in Boesch and LaMarre and Murphy in ST). Then Boesch got hurt. And, on top of that, Travis got hurt and Marrero fell off a cliff.
I'm not sure if it's my fantasy baseball experience telling me this, but, yes, when nine players go down or dramatically underperform, it does enter my mind to trade for someone.
Boesch has a career reverse split--his OPS vs. RHP is .685. And he does not appear to have ever been a good outfielder, if the numbers can be trusted. So it would have to be a pretty serious emergency for him to be the answer.
Unless DD is going to spend the big chips (Benintendi, Espinoza, Moncada, etc.), I think the Sox need to get rental type players and then figure out 2017 in the offseason. This is true for LF, RP, and maybe even SP.
What's more sad is that that's a good thing because it means more development time for people who might actually make a meaningful contribution in Boston.
De
Not known as an everyday OF, but he's got a little pop in his bat and seems to be decent enough in the field. If he can be reasonably had he may not be a bad option especially when you consider his experience at 2B and 1B. A guy like this and Holt present a whole lot of flexibility on the field.
I wonder how many iterations of this same joke we've seen over the last three seasons. We're fast approaching quadruple digits at this point I'm sure of it.
This is what's really frustrating about the pitching situation. Even though they're getting hammered by injuries to the offense, they're getting good performances in small samples from the emergency replacements, like Brentz, Leon, and Hernandez. Yet, on the pitching side, everyone they call up just adds more gasoline to the conflagration, even people, like Elias and Owens, who've been perfectly serviceable starting pitchers in the past. It is beyond maddening.
On Brentz, I remember an article about Earl Weaver, and it said that Weaver was always willing to give a RH power hitter a chance to show he could hit lefthanders. The Gary Roenicke / John Lowenstein platoon was an example. Even though Brentz has had completely mediocre numbers in AAA, there's a reason to believe he could be serviceable as a platoon player in the majors.
2015 vs lefties: .266 / .377 / .391
2014 vs. lefties: .303 / .370 / .685
It seems as if the knock on him for a lack of plate control is primarily a problem vs. righthanders. This, combined witht the nice start to the season Henry Ramos is having, is why, as I mentioned in another thread, if they fall out of contention by August, they should have Chris Young as a "sell" option.
I think they would want to see a couple weeks of play from Reddick to see if the thumb is healed or if it sucked his power at all before spending any chips on him. (Which is to say nothing of the fact that it's a waste of prospects if they don't acquire some pitching as well).
Would he though? Trout has played a lot more LF than RF in his career, so unless you assume he's got "seniority" (therefore he would choose to play CF with JBJ in RF), it makes a hell of a lot more sense from a manager POV to put Trout in LF and leave JBJ and Mookie where they normally play.