9/21-9/24 Red Sox vs. Rays Series Thread

Moving this from the last gameday thread.

At the start of the last series, I'd thought if they were going to do a bullpen game, you'd probably do it on Thursday, because you're probably going to try and keep Porcello on his schedule. They've got Miley as the probable starter for Thursday, so if you do that, you can do the following.

Rays: Rodriguez/Owens/Porcello/Miley
Orioles: Hill/bullpen/Rodriguez
Yankees: Porcello/Miley/Owens/Hill
Indians: bullpen game/Porcello/Miley

Limits Rodriguez and Owens to two more starts. Better than the plan I had.

EDIT: By the way, Jon, this series is four games and goes through Thursday.

EDIT2: Lovullo confirms that the bullpen games won't come against the Yankees: www.csnne.com/boston-red-sox/lovullo-respecting-playoff-race-pitching-schedule

.500 would be nice, but I have two wishes: 1) Third place; 2) Beat the Yankees.

So, basically, win all three series against AL East opponents, and I'll be good.

Either win out and blow up the entire postseason or just lose every game by pitching Craig Breslow in every game.

If they win out they would have played the post-trade deadline span at a 108-win season rate. Even now they've played at a 90-win rate since then.

Chen maybe?
even Lackey

Yeah, Gallardo's a no brainer.
It's pretty much the definition of low-risk - no one's taken it yet (of course there's self-selection)

It's going to be a weird offseason - you can't have like 8 pitchers sign $100 contracts can you? A couple of pitchers I predict are going to be left standing when the musical chairs end.

YES, YES, YES Brian! The foundation that the kids are forming over the last couple of months is priceless. There really is no comparison at this time. If not now, when? These kids have got to raise their game....they have! These kids need to believe they can compete and win.....they are!

That darn protected pick is no substitution for what they have accomplished lately.

I'll say this again -- it isn't just the protected pick. It's ALL the picks.

Going into tonight's game, with two weeks left there were 8 other teams within 3 games of the Sox one way or the other. EIGHT. I'd like to have picks ahead of as many of those 8 teams as possible. This team has drafted so well, that having the strategic advantage of picking several picks earlier each round and not having a couple of players snatched just ahead of us might be the type of advantage that this organization can really leverage.

Well, this is a great game for the bullpen to be giving away. The kids continue to contribute. They now know they can play in the bigs, and the fact that the Sox bullpen is basically a patched-together mess at this point that is going to cough up games shouldn't affect their mojo all that much. So the kids can play well and the Sox can still stay in the lower echelons of MLB. They only have to finish one game worse than another club to jump them in the draft order.

This is a great year to accidentally/subconsciously tank because the lower middle of the standings are so tightly bunched that a couple of games are likely to make a significant difference in the club's draft position. There are other years where the way the standings are distributed your position is locked up within a position or two at this point. Not this year, in the place the Sox are situated.


EDIT: Well, the kids aren't going to let the pen give the game away THAT easily!!

Lord almighty Xander, that's all

Xan the man.