The Boston Red Sox Have a Depth Problem

[CharlieWhigg]

https://redsoxunfiltered.com/2018/06...depth-problem/

The Sox have some really great hitters, but the depth hasn't been pulling their weight. Because of this, the offense just dies when JD, Benny, Bogey or Mookie go cold. Can the Sox fix this?

[Bellhorn04]

Problems are relative, other teams have them too, or we wouldn't have a 45-22 record. And the current slump has only been a few games long, really.

[moonslav59]

I disagree.

We have slumping players and players on the DL or being brought back slowly.

We have a nice bench.

We've been winning when Betts is out.

Bogey was our hottest hitter, when he went on the DL. We kept winning.

Have patience: Devers will adjust.

JBJ will have a hot streak.

Leon and Vaz have already been returning to .650-.750 hitting.

Nunez can do better, but I'm not sure if he's been affected by his injury too much.

Holt has done well off the bench, so far.

Our starting pitcher and pen depth has been fantastic.

[MADSTORK]

https://redsoxunfiltered.com/2018/06...depth-problem/

The Sox have some really great hitters, but the depth hasn't been pulling their weight. Because of this, the offense just dies when JD, Benny, Bogey or Mookie go cold. Can the Sox fix this?

Harper

[Youk Of The Nation]

Harper

Definitely, the Sox could easily get Harper. Pomeranz, Bradley and Swihart plus maybe thirty or forty bucks, maybe throw in a few Bed Bath and Beyond coupons and we're golden. I don't know why someone in the FO hasn't already taken care of this.

[fxkatt]

What we SEEM to be witnessing right now is a failure of position players to step up in the absence of big bats. If we do indeed have depth, it's up to them to prove it.

[Youk Of The Nation]

I disagree.

We have slumping players and players on the DL or being brought back slowly.

We have a nice bench.

We've been winning when Betts is out.

Bogey was our hottest hitter, when he went on the DL. We kept winning.

Have patience: Devers will adjust.

JBJ will have a hot streak.

Leon and Vaz have already been returning to .650-.750 hitting.

Nunez can do better, but I'm not sure if he's been affected by his injury too much.

Holt has done well off the bench, so far.

Our starting pitcher and pen depth has been fantastic.

I can understand and agree with most of your points except the one about JBJ. At this point he has been so bad any "hot streak" would have to be four months long to stabilize his numbers. He's just not hitting well. He's not even hitting poorly. He's just not hitting.

[moonslav59]

What we SEEM to be witnessing right now is a failure of position players to step up in the absence of big bats. If we do indeed have depth, it's up to them to prove it.

I view depth as the bench, but yes, our 6-9 hitters have done much worse than last year.

2018
slot
6 .718
7 .612
8 .571
9 .639

2017
slot
6 .750 (mostly Bogey, JBJ, Moreland, Devers, Young, HRam)
7 .693 (JBJ, Devers, Moreland, Vaz, Young, Rutledge, Pablo, leon)
8 .741 (Leon, Vaz, JBJ, Pablo, Young)
9 .640 (JBJ, Marrero, Vaz, Leon, Marco, Holt, Lin)

Wouldn't you think adding JD over Young (and HRam) would lengthen the line-up and improve the 6-9 slots?

Well, Bogey and Betts losing time didn't help,but this is the bigger culprit:

JBJ .726> .584
Vaz .735> .528
Leon .644> .639
Devers .819> .686
Nunez> .892> .632

[moonslav59]

I can understand and agree with most of your points except the one about JBJ. At this point he has been so bad any "hot streak" would have to be four months long to stabilize his numbers. He's just not hitting well. He's not even hitting poorly. He's just not hitting.

Not really. He "wasn't hitting" in 2016 or 2017 either, and then....

His hot streaks are usually Herculean.

Just last year, he was at .637 on May 23rd and got to .800 by June 11th and .850 on June 25th. Yes, he's got more PAs now than last May, but respectabilty is maybe .750 not .850.

[Larry Cook]

I think it is completely unrealistic to think this team can have depth when desperate Dave has drained the farm system in order to load up on front line starters and anchored us with tons of dead money.

We may have more dead money on the books than the entire rays payroll!

[Jasonbay44]

I think it is completely unrealistic to think this team can have depth when desperate Dave has drained the farm system in order to load up on front line starters and anchored us with tons of dead money.

We may have more dead money on the books than the entire rays payroll!

I mean most of the dead money is Pablo and Hanley and Dave didn't have anything to do with those signings.

[moonslav59]

I think it is completely unrealistic to think this team can have depth when desperate Dave has drained the farm system in order to load up on front line starters and anchored us with tons of dead money.

We may have more dead money on the books than the entire rays payroll!

Nobody is arguing about our lack of farm depth.

In terms of ML depth, how many teams have a better bench than this:

Moreland (He's now a FT'er, but he started as "depth")

Nunez (Playing FT due to Pedey's injury)

Holt (OPS over .800)

Leon (one of our hottest hitters over the last month)

Swihart (Okay, other teams are better here)

Pitching:

Our 6+ starters have been great (except for 1 start by Beeks)

Our pen has done great, despite all kinds of relievers going on the DL at some point this year.

[jacksonianmarch]

Nobody is arguing about our lack of farm depth.

In terms of ML depth, how many teams have a better bench than this:

Moreland (He's now a FT'er, but he started as "depth")

Nunez (Playing FT due to Pedey's injury)

Holt (OPS over .800)

Leon (one of our hottest hitters over the last month)

Swihart (Okay, other teams are better here)

Pitching:

Our 6+ starters have been great (except for 1 start by Beeks)

Our pen has done great, despite all kinds of relievers going on the DL at some point this year.

Your depth right now is Swihart, Leon, Holt/Nunez. The reason why I have Holt/Nunez there is one of them needs to man 2b. If you consider Holt a starter, the bench of Leon, Nunez and Swihart is absolutely abysmal. Many, many teams have better depth than that garbage

[notin]

Definitely, the Sox could easily get Harper. Pomeranz, Bradley and Swihart plus maybe thirty or forty bucks, maybe throw in a few Bed Bath and Beyond coupons and we're golden. I don't know why someone in the FO hasn't already taken care of this.

Oh God. Enough with these unrealistic trade proposals.

It would need to be at least $75 bucks and an Amazon gift card...

[moonslav59]

Your depth right now is Swihart, Leon, Holt/Nunez. The reason why I have Holt/Nunez there is one of them needs to man 2b. If you consider Holt a starter, the bench of Leon, Nunez and Swihart is absolutely abysmal. Many, many teams have better depth than that garbage

Leon is not "garbage". He's one of the best back-up catchers this team could have and needs.

Nunez is off to a poor start, but he's better than most teams' utility players.

Holt should be consider "bench", because Pedey is the starting 2Bman. Just because we are using Holt and Nunez at the moment, does not mean they are not considered depth.

I stand by my position that we have better depth than most teams.

(I see you left our pitcher depth.)