The Red Sox have officially placed the recently-acquired Ian Kinsler on the disabled list and moved fellow second baseman Dustin Pedroia to the 60-day DL. Infielder Tony Renda has been added to the MLB roster to take Kinsler’s place.
Kinsler, of course, recently came to Boston by way of a July 30th transaction that sent a pair of minor leaguers to the Angels. The Red Sox also received about $1.83MM in the swap. The 36-year-old had already amassed four hits in just 11 plate appearances with the Red Sox and has enjoyed a strong season to date, accruing 2.1 fWAR across the 2018 season in part due to typically stellar defense.
It remains to be seen how the Sox plan to proceed in Kinsler’s absence. The “tight hamstring” probably won’t shelve the veteran for too long, but it’s not as though Boston has a host of capable keystone defenders. Following the removal of Kinsler from last night’s matchup, MVP candidate Mookie Betts shifted from the outfield to second base (his natural position, though one he hasn’t played since 2014).
As for Pedroia, it would appear that recent concerns were not without cause. Following offseason knee surgery, the veteran (and one of the long-time faces of the Red Sox franchise) hasn’t been able to make a clean comeback to the field. Of course, it’s worth mentioning that Pedroia has already been back on the disabled list for over 60 days, so this transfer won’t in and of itself affect his timetable to return to the field. Still, there’s been no word of any change to his status.
Would love to see Betts get 2nd base eligibility for my fantasy team.
I hope you’re enjoying Rochester, Byron. It certainly is delightful in the summertime.
Boston’ second base is cursed.
Just another Don Zimmer-like move by Cora. It turned out ok but he put one our most valuable assets in jeopardy of getting hurt. Cute move but really dumb move. If he gets hurt fielding something he isn’t used to or he makes an unusual throw and hurts his arm was it worth it? No, it was a dumb move putting Mookie in jeopardy. So far most of Cora’s dumb moves have worked out like Zimmer with the Cubs 1 year. All the other years they didn’t for Zimmer and we have that to look forward to. JD and Mookie are competing for an MVP, why in the world would you not bat both players in the first inning? More RBIs for JD? The data doesn’t support that ancient concept. Get JD an additional at bat and his .325 average will pay off in the long run compared to Pearce, Swihart! or Moreland who have all batted ahead of him against the Yankees. Dumb moves but Pearce hits 4 HRs there and people think it’s a great move. It was lucky, that’s all. He went against the percentages and it paid off. Over the long-term, these moves cost you pennants. If he believes he has spidey senses or intuition and he should follow it, someone above him needs to tell him to do the mathematically sound thing instead.
Somebody needs to become Cora’s advisor because he has no clue how to manage a bullpen, set a line-up or systematically rest his players while still putting a competitive team on the field. DD please get him some help or replace him. If you think his luck will continue this year then hang in there with him and have his replacement ready next year when his luck has run out because I can’t recall any manager who did illogical things and succeeded having back to back or even two good years as a manager!!
You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to know that his line-up should begin with:
Betts, Benintendi, JD Martinez, Pearce/Moreland, Bogaerts, Kinsler and the other half of Pearce/Moreland if Bradley sits or the hottest of the three remaining positions 3B/CF/C.
If Bradley is playing then he hits 9th for speed in front of the top of the order if both Pearce and Moreland are playing then C is the 8th hitter unless Devers is in then he hits 8th and catcher 9th.
DD please get Cora some help to figure out the many things he has no idea about when managing!! Thanks.
I fell asleep halfway through your post.
Lol
What is wrong with you guy! What makes you think you have all the answers and a team with a billion dollar budget doesn’t? Relax, deep breath, and stop thinking about don zimmer
That sums it up pretty well
you made it that far?
That post is like a big mound of garbage. You don’t have to dig in to know what it’s about.
You are right all comments should be the length of a text, especially if it represents all you know about baseball!!
When they meander and dont make a concise intelligible point then they should never be that long.
You made it further than I did.
I’m waiting for the movie
I started making a noose half way through
You wanna replace the manager of the team with the best record in baseball? I like the idea of getting players more regular rest. It’d obviously been working… and Betts came up as a 2B so I think he knows what he’s doing. Not like Wright being put in as a pinch runner…
I’d say Cora is doing quite well for a first year manager. Red Sox fans should be grateful they didn’t opt for Dave Martinez who really does a great impression of a deer in the headlights nightly in the WAS dugout.
Too long. Didn’t read
Whoa Jesus H, I had to get a triple espresso to finish this one, and I thought Yankees fans overreact.
If you complain about Cora the entire year like I have is it really over=reacting? How many times must one point out how bad a job he is doing before it’s not an over-reaction but a constant theme? I believe that I’ve pointed out how inept he is at least a dozen times. I think at this point it’s not an over-reaction.
Like every Red Sox fan I hope his luck continues but at some point it won’t and things will get ugly. We are fortunate because Boone is just as inept only he hasn’t had the luck that Cora has had so far. Let’s hope it stays that way.
Dude as a fellow Red Sox fan I think you were also talking about how bad Devers was and how you wanted to ship him out. I think Cora is doing a solid job so far. The Red Sox have literally wilted in September and October the last few years and something had to be done about that. This is Cora’s solution which he learned from Hinch in Houston. Only time will tell if he is right but so far so good I’m willing to roll the dice at this point.
Let’s fire Cora and Boone, cause they’re both doing middling jobs…
How many wins does this team have? And Cora is doing a bad job? If this is bad managing then I’ll take it every year! Geez
Yeah, the act of complaining all season about the team with the best record in baseball is the definition of over reacting.
Devers hasn’t been missed and we moved up in our fielding rankings since he got hurt!! DD got good additions without using any highly rated prospects so Kinsler instead of Devers works for me. Nunez is a far better defensive 3B than Devers and he’s just average!! Without his errors we’ve avoided the momentum swings that he caused. Plus, the number of infield hits to 3B has diminished drastically! Devers belongs in the minors since we don’t need to trade him to get a missing piece.
Hey tons of Cub fans thought Zimmer was a genius until year 2 when all the illogical moves didn’t work. JD should bat 3 EVERY DAY he plays. Mookie has slumped since the all-star break when had some time off to relax and hang out with other superstars. Cora rested his super stars too much in April when games were being missed due to rain. That’s what I complained about earlier in the summer.
Also, Houston had a magical year last year and if you think it happened because Hinch was brilliant, why isn’t it happening again this year? Simple, because injuries happen and whether you rest folks allot or a little injuries impact your success far more than rest. Houston won because they had luck on their side, they stayed relatively healthy and things that can go well did go well for them. This year, not so much. It’s hard to dominate because it takes so many things going right during the year to win it. Ask the Cubs and now the Astros. The Red Sox have experienced the same thing. Having good fortune throughout a season typically doesn’t happen two years in a row.
If you want to give credit to Cora for this year’s success so far, please explain all the bonehead moves. With a four run lead he goes to Kimbrel to get him some work. It almost cost us the game. Has he not figured out Kimbrel performs differently when it’s not a save situation? A good manager would have noticed that and started the 9th with Barnes since he’s been sharp lately and was ready to go. If he got in trouble, you have Kimbrel in a pressure situation. Common sense suggests that!!
Do you really like when he inserts Swihart in the 2 hole to ‘reward’ him for what he did the day before and risk winning the game that day? You think that is sound thinking? Or moving JD out of the 3 hole? That thinking ended a few years ago with advanced metrics. More at bats for the best hitters is what the numbers show and Pearce is a nice 4 hitter like Moreland so there is no reason to put them before JD. The number of bonehead moves is huge and growing!!
Cora needs an advisor who knows how to manage. He seems to get the touchy feely part of his job, just not the fundamentals of managing; setting line-ups, using his pitching staff and resting players without giving up games by sitting multiple stars in one game.
Things aren’t working because of what Cora is doing, it’s because talented players are performing well. Their great record is because they are hitting, pitching and fielding well (except for Devers). FYI they are second in fielding with 51 errors and Devers has 20!! Next highest total is 5 by Bogaerts and Nunez, then 3 by several. How is it not obvious to you that Devers is a terrible fielder? He hurts the team when he plays 3B. His bat has been replaced so why not send him to AAA to work on fielding and patience at the plate? Maybe by late September he can regain his ability to swing at strikes and help the team make a playoff run.
If we get complacent because we have a big lead then we won’t win the division. We need to continue to look at what we are doing wrong and fix it.! Cora needs an advisor so JD gets back in the 3 hole and never sits the same day Mookie sits. Our bullpen usage needs to reflect the game that day not rewarding guys so he can stay popular. If Kelly or any other relief pitcher is struggling don’t give him enough rope to hang the team and lose the game that day. Pick and choose the order of use based on recent performance and whose coming to bat. These are all things he would know if he was an experienced manager, so get him some help and see if he can learn his job. And Red Sox nation needs to give credit to the folks who deserve it, the players!!! And DD for his recent moves. Having the best record in baseball does not make it ok to ignore the issues. Cora and Devers are the two issues I think need fixing the most. If you are satisfied with what they are doing then it’s not likely we’ll improve because the issues won’t be addressed.
Let’s go make it 9 1/2 and keep an ever improving mindset for the remainder of the season! Urgency not complacency needs to be our attitude down the stretch so fine tuning problems needs to happen. I chose to point out the problems I see. If you don’t agree, that’s fine but I think it’s a bad mindset to say stop complaining we are way out in front. The great teams in sports history don’t think like that.
Take your OCD medication. It’s obvious to everyone, except you, that you’re obsessed. Seriously you have a problem.
Hey KD you know who had 29 errors at third as a rookie? Yes that would be Adrian Beltre. I’m not saying that Devers will be Adrian Beltre but you can’t look at just errors especially a young third baseman just some food for thought. Also Devers errors were mostly in the beginning of the season he was slowing way down as he was starting to make good decisions he is going to be just fine defensively at third.
Hey KD as for Cora I’m thinking you forgot how dysfunctional this clubhouse was under Farrell. Under Cora they seem to be a much tighter knit group they seem to like to play for him not so much for Farrell. While I also believe that a manager gets to much credit either good or bad, depending on how his team is playing, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see they are playing much better under Cora.
The playoffs are coming and the Astros and the Indians have great rotations and are built for the playoffs the Red Sox will have there work cut for them to represent the AL in the World Series. I can’t remember a time when the AL was this top heavy. Should be great games either way Boston needs to hold the best record and make the road go through Fenway to win the AL.
I think this guy just woke up wanting to be called an idiot today.
The Astros are still on pace to win close to 100 games. Hinch is doing the same thing this year as he did last year, and it’s working out for him. They’ve dealt with injuries but they’re still leading their division, and will end up with the 2 seed.
Even through all the injuries that the Red Sox have had Mookie, Holt, Devers, Kinsler, Pomeranz, Sale, Rodriguez, Pedroia, they still keep chugging along winning games.
The players are ultimately the ones responsible for the wins, but they’re playing for Cora. And you can clearly see a difference between this year and the last 2 years under Farrell.
Cora is the man for the job, especially this year. Will the same thing be said in 2 or 3 years? Who knows, but Tito was great in 04-10, but then 11 happened and it was just time to go separate ways. With what Tito has done for Cleveland shows that he’s still a good manager, but his time with the Sox needed to end.
I stopped reading after Don Zimmer move lol
The Red Sox should just hire you.
JD batted 3rd during the Minnesota series, he flip flops between 3rd and 4th, and the results have been pretty good. He said when he got here he was going to do what the Astros did last year, because it worked for them. Just because you don’t agree with him, doesn’t mean he’s lucky.
And the way he has managed the bull pen is 10000000000x better then Farrell did. Does he make mistakes? Yes, yes he does but he learns and doesn’t repeat them.
Cora is the best rookie manager this year, and probably the best manager that got hired last year as well.
What a stupid uninformed post.
Cora wasn’t the manager he was ejected after the first pitch, pay attention before you write a story
Yes thank you @GoRockies
Not any worse than John Farrell using Steven Wright as a pinch-runner, one of the dumbest things I’ve seen in years.
I hear Steven Wright visited a museum that has all the arms and legs of the other statues
It’s a small world. But he wouldn’t want to paint it.
Cora was ejected in the 1st inning of the game… I understand there are work arounds to that… BUT you also can’t completely rule out the possibility that Cora was actually following league rules and not managing from the clubhouse – and the bench coach panicked and made the call to move Betts. Either way… he’s certainly not MORE likely to get hurt at 2B vs the OF
I didn’t like Zim much when he managed the Cubs but he did win a division in 89 and Cora is on his way this year. He probably has valid reasons for setting up the lineup the way he does.
Loved Popeye in’89, but had no confidence in that team. Will Clark killed us in playoffs
@KD17
Zzzzzzzzzzxz snnnooozzzzeee
KD17 you must be a tortured soul. How is it possible for you to type so much negative jargon about a manager and team that presently sits 44 games over 500? Call me crazy but he seems to be doing something right. I know your type, I feel sorry for you. If your team being 8.5 games up on the Yankees doesn’t bring you some type of joy then your incapable of joy.
I couldn’t stop reading, it was like watching a car drive off a cliff.
You mention RBI’s as an ancient concept (which most will agree with), but then you immediately mention average as a metric, instead of something more meaningful like OBP or OPS.
Mookie played 14 games at 2B in 2014. He played there in the minors as well. Why would he suddenly get hurt?
Cora was ejected in the first, well before the “cute” move to play Mookie at 2B.
SaberSmuckers – Lumping OBP and OPS as ‘meaningful’ suggests this is probably a waste of time but here goes…. Never mentioned RBIs, I was talking about the concept of batting your best guys at the top of your order. The theory is that one more potential at bat will make a difference over time so flip flopping him between 3 and 4 makes no sense especially with your star batting .325 and all other 4 hitters not batting that well.
If you have any respect for OPS then you should never talk about metrics since it’s an “average biased” stat that is valueless. The components of the number try to account for the performance of a hitter but they count batting average twice but all other actions once. Made no sense in the 90s when it was introduced but sportscasters adopted it to show their knowledge of the game. Today, new metrics get much more recognition than OPS and rightfully so. Next time, if you want to criticize at least try to know your subject.
Clearly you haven’t played baseball because playing out of position is one of the fastest ways to get hurt. Taking grounders in the infield daily is great for an outfielder but the arm angle you throw at varies by position. How many times has Mookie thrown from the many severe angles a 2B needs to throw from? Many labrums have been torn by guys playing at unfamilar positions without extensive practice. Not to mention the risk of turning double plays. I’m not saying OF is easier, it’s just different especially from 2B because of the throws.
This was a very bad decision and we should be thankful that nothing happened. Why add unnecessary risk to your star player if you don’t have to? Again, VERY VERY bad decision!! LUCKY it didn’t come back to bite us..
If you believe Cora had no contact with the team after the ejection, then you are naive. All decisions like that had to be approved by him.
I think I hear your car crashing at the bottom of the cliff!! Thanks for your feedback.
too bad the king of pop (ups) is on the DL. KARMA for his douchebaggery when he left Texas.
What did he do when he left Texas?
Someone is a little butt hurt that Kinsler left Texas. Texas could of kept him by paying the man don’t blame him for wanting a bigger pay check.
Indians on Line 1: Ready to ship Jason Kipnis overnight to BOS. Tribe will eat the rest of his 2018 salary and will accept any player in return. BOS is only on hook for Kip’s $14.5M salary for 2019 and the $2.5M buyout of his 2020 team option.
Pass
Time for Brandon Phillips to come up to bat.
Phillips is hitting .204 at AAA. My guess is he may get a call-up on September 1st, but will see very limited action. If they had any faith in him, he’d have been up by now.
Bogey starting today. Devers expected back soon and Kinsler in 1o days. They will be fine.
The lineup that is in there today is fine but that line is getting very thin.
Maybe it’s time to transfer Pedroia to the Million-day DL and call it a career.
Sad, but likely true.
Cora is going to luck himself into a Manager of the Year award…how bout that!!
I’d love to see Cora get it but the writers have already decided to give it to Kevin Cash, who also has done a good job.
Bob Melvin will win manager of the year. Managers of .500 teams (like Cash) don’t deserve consideration for the award.
Cardinals should trade Koten Wong to the Sox. Make room for Munoz
Pass
And while you are playing Wong, what do you do with Bogey, Holt, Nunez, Devers and Kinsler?
I would never say that 2nd base was Mookie’s natural position. It was where he was placed by coaches who saw a little guy and automatically sent him to 2nd. Anubody who has watched his play in RF for the past few years would say that is his “natural” position but the right answer is probably anywhere between the white lines.
Kd17
Go to the top floor, take a deep breath and