Because of 1 game???
I disagree about never saying anything bad about Sandy's bat just because he's a very good defensive catcher. He's basically an automatic out and cannot be relied upon for anything offensively out of his batting position. Is there such a huge gap between his defense and Vazquez's that an automatic out should be penciled in for the 8 hole? The problem, of course, is that Vazquez isn't exactly Carlton Fisk (or Rich Gedman for that matter) at the plate.
No, but Swihart is probably Rich Gedman at this point — at least the 1986 Gedman vintage (.739 OPS) if not the peak 1985 one (.846). Blake has raked at a .706 OPS in 108 plate appearances since the break, and adds some speed on the basepaths to boot. I know it's been asked a million times, but is his defense really that horrific?
This sums up my biggest concern thus far. Maybe not Swihart so much as the other two, but those bats need to be in the lineup. As nice as it was to see Kinsler drive in a run with a double last night, it's been just as bad to see him striking out five times in 8 total ABs. Free Holt.
I'm sorry you missed Game 1. Leon was incredible behind the plate, best I've seen on all those 58 footers.
The question is whether or not Leon's superior defense is so superior as to justify his otherworldly awfulness as a hitter this year and whether the improvement offensively (though not dramatic) with the other catchers is worth a shot:
The crowd seemed fine last night but they were behind all game and there wasn’t all that much in the way of rallies to get people going. Your starter stinks and your leadoff MVP goes 0-4 it kind of sucks some of the air out of the building.
I think the crowd was rather dead last night compared to Friday which can be attributed to the difference in the way they both started.
It is a little soon to say that because we haven't seen him deal with Severino's slider under pressure. Severino threw a bunch of fastballs against Oakland and the Yankees were up early. If the Sox can get guys on against Severino early, will Sanchez have the confidence to call for the slider?
That's not true. Severino threw more sliders than fastballs against Oakland.
I thought Judge was supposed to be "classy." If that report is true, I can't stand the guy now.
There is absolutely no reason for him to give any real info on the lineup at this point.
Wait ‘til the Sox are down 2-1?
Genius. How did we ever make it this many years without such a brilliant mind in the dugout??
Kinsler looks to have lost a good bit of batspeed and gets overmatched by hard stuff. He hit his wall-scraper off a flat offspeed pitch that the Yanks were dumb enough to throw him. I can only scratch my head on Cora not using Holt.
But like you and I, they all have internet access, so undoubtedly they’ve seen this and are seething.
