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2018 Red Sox postseason roster
gerry
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Post by gerry on Sept 15, 2018 1:23:06 GMT -5
Nice. I see a 7 man Pen and 5 man bench. Plenty of time to finalize both. Don't know if Nunez or Barnes will be healthy in time. Devers, Lin or Phillips may yet have an important role. A Pen of Kimbrel, Barnes, Brasier, Workman, Eovaldi, Wright plus Hembree or Poyner, with support from the Rotation, would be very, very strong. There is time for this to sort itself out.
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ericmvan
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Post by ericmvan on Sept 15, 2018 13:54:15 GMT -5
The battle between Kelly, Thornburg, and Pomeranz for the last spot in a 7-man pen has become really interesting, in large part because it's now a battle between Workman and Johnson.
Meanwhile, the ball Moreland hit in his second PA last night is, I believe, a HR in 28 or 29 parks in MLB. A good sign, which we need badly:
149 wRC+, .299 / .368 / .549 (228 PA) through June 24 048 wRC+, .189 / .270 / .297 (200 PA) since
(Off-topic: what's eerie about that is this:
053 wRC+, .178 / .275 / .288 (251 PA) JBJ through June 23 126 wRC+, .285 / .349 / .514 (238 PA) since
There was precisely 1 game all year where both guys were hot. And it was rendered moot as Sale, Kelly, and Barnes shut out the Mariners on 4 hits.)
If Moreland continues to be a 50 wRC+ hitter the rest of the way, I think you have to start Pearce in the playoffs, unless there's a matchup that really favors MM. That means that Pearce is not on the bench, leaving you without a RH pinch-hitter, and that's something Brandon Phillips excels at. That makes the decision between him and CV really difficult. But if Moreland is actually turning it around, Phillips becomes less useful and three catchers is an easy choice.
In a similar vein, there's something like a 7% chance that Sandy Leon gets on a tear the rest of the way, so that it no longer seems like you need to pinch hit for him early, if at all. If Pearce is at 1B, then Phillips becomes an easy choice. If this should happen along with Moreland heating up, then Lin actually looks like the most useful 5th guy on the bench. That's a scary thought for the opposition, of course.
And the other factor here, which I'm not even going to break down ... you'll have Nunez and Kinsler and maybe Pearce all in the same stretch of lineup. How many relievers that are hugely tough on RHB does the other team have? [1] You might be using most of your pinch-hitters in one inning to counter that guy, and since Holt hits LHP well and Devers and Moreland do in Fenway, it makes it tricky for the other team to change to a LOOGY to counter. The more likely you are to do that, the less likely you are to hit for the catcher twice, and the more pinch-hitters you do need. That might be the tiebreaker if the CV / Phillips decision seems tough, as it does right now.
[1] I'll look into that question once we know who our opponent is, and not any sooner! By then we'll also know how well MM and Leon are hitting.
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Post by pedrofanforever45 on Sept 15, 2018 18:06:20 GMT -5
One variable in the playoffs (for the roster) is that if Pearce is starting in playoff games more times than not at first base, Moreland is available to pinch hit late in games for the catching position, making the need for Devers on the roster a little less valuable if need be.
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Post by pedrofanforever45 on Sept 15, 2018 22:16:26 GMT -5
Assuming a 7 man bullpen, you have 5 spots locked up in Kimbrel, Brasier, Wright, Eovaldi, and Barnes.
That leaves 2 spots open for 5 pitchers. Hembree Kelly Johnson Poyner Workman
Chose wisely. I'm probably taking Poyner and Workman.
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ericmvan
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Post by ericmvan on Sept 16, 2018 0:55:28 GMT -5
The battle between Kelly, Thornburg, and Pomeranz for the last spot in a 7-man pen has become really interesting, in large part because it's now a battle between Workman and Johnson. Obviously Poyner's in the running, too. I had dismissed him out of hand because he hadn't been very good for Pawtucket, and as a general rule of thumb, guys who aren't very good in AAA are not real good in MLB. That they never called him up after early June seemed to support that. But they've been giving him a chance and he has indeed been good. That suggests an explanation, and his PawSox Game Log confirms it.
Bobby Poyner at Pawtucket this year made Joe Kelly look like a paragon of steadfast consistency. Starting June 11 he had these stretches in succession:
6 G, 6.1 3 0 0 2 5, .130 / .200 / .174 (25 TBF) 4 G, 7 11 3 3 2 10, .367 / .406 / .600 (32 TBF) 6 G, 7.2 3 0 0 0 4, .115 / .148 / .115 (27 TBF) 7 G, 9.2 18 8 7 3 3, .409 / .460 / .500 (51 TBF)
You can see that the awful was more common than the great. He's now had a stretch of 5 G, 5 IP, 19 TBF that's pretty good.
The obvious question: did they give him a chance because they thought his problem was both fixable and preventable? They seemed to have fixed it after his first outing, against the White Sox,
Ordinarily, you can't gamble on a guy like this on your post-season roster because he doesn't tell you in advance when he's going to start sucking. The transition from Dr. Bobby to Mr. Bill can happen at any time, leaving metaphoric body parts strewn around the diamond and a safe lead in the dumpster. If he does earn a spot, it has to be because they think they've found a way to prevent him from turning into Dark Poyner.
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Post by dmaineah on Sept 16, 2018 18:10:49 GMT -5
Assuming a 7 man bullpen, you have 5 spots locked up in Kimbrel, Brasier, Wright, Eovaldi, and Barnes. That leaves 2 spots open for 5 pitchers. Hembree Kelly Johnson Poyner Workman Chose wisely. I'm probably taking Poyner and Workman. No way is Eovaldi "locked into a bullpen spot" maybe Wright, maybe
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Post by jimed14 on Sept 16, 2018 18:18:52 GMT -5
Assuming a 7 man bullpen, you have 5 spots locked up in Kimbrel, Brasier, Wright, Eovaldi, and Barnes. That leaves 2 spots open for 5 pitchers. Hembree Kelly Johnson Poyner Workman Chose wisely. I'm probably taking Poyner and Workman. No way is Eovaldi "locked into a bullpen spot" maybe Wright, maybe He absolutely is. He's probably the 2nd best pitcher in the bullpen as soon as he's there. It's why they traded for him instead of a bullpen arm.
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ericmvan
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Post by ericmvan on Sept 17, 2018 4:37:46 GMT -5
Assuming a 7 man bullpen, you have 5 spots locked up in Kimbrel, Brasier, Wright, Eovaldi, and Barnes. That leaves 2 spots open for 5 pitchers. Hembree Kelly Johnson Poyner Workman Chose wisely. I'm probably taking Poyner and Workman. They and Wright (who wasn't obvious at the start of the month) have now made 40 relief appearances between them in September. If you rank them by Leverage index entering the game, Poyner's highest-leverage appearance ranks 20th among those 40, with 1.52, which is just barely high leverage. He's not really being given a shot at it, likely for the reasons I cited above. Of the 19 higher-leverage appearances, Wright, Workman, and Hembree have 5 each, Kelly 3, and Johnson 1 (out of 2 total appearances, though). Average gmLI in September:
Pitcher gmLI Workman 2.19 Wright 1.80 Hembree 1.64 but 1.26 since his first outing on 9/3, which was bad Kelly 1.58 Johnson 1.44 Poyner 0.80
Workman, whose last three outings have been impressive, seems to have an inside track, while Hembree v. Kelly v. Johnson seems very much TBD.
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Post by FenwayFanatic on Sept 17, 2018 9:27:59 GMT -5
Workman, and either Poyner or Hembree would be fine.
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Post by mredsox89 on Sept 17, 2018 10:34:22 GMT -5
Echoing many statements above, but I think Workman and Poyner would be considered "locks" if the playoff roster had to be determined today
Would have been nice if Pomeranz or Scott had shown any ability to get lefties out, as that's a clear obstacle when putting this bullpen together, but so be it.
I think Hembree has the inside track over Kelly at the moment, though I certainly wouldn't be stunned if they stuck with Kelly purely based on what "could" be with him
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ericmvan
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Post by ericmvan on Sept 17, 2018 11:42:04 GMT -5
Echoing many statements above, but I think Workman and Poyner would be considered "locks" if the playoff roster had to be determined today Would have been nice if Pomeranz or Scott had shown any ability to get lefties out, as that's a clear obstacle when putting this bullpen together, but so be it. I think Hembree has the inside track over Kelly at the moment, though I certainly wouldn't be stunned if they stuck with Kelly purely based on what "could" be with him Let's see ...
Brian Johnson is good enough to be an MLB #3 starter, while Bobby Poyner has been a career minor league reliever who made it to AAA and a bit of MLB this year. As I just noted, Poyner had stretches of being completely awful in AAA that were longer than his excellent stretches. He's like Joe Kellly in capital letters; we just haven't seen the bad version up here.
Johnson could go multiple innings in a game while Poyner hasn't gone more than 2 IP in a game since June of last year.
Johnson has held MLB LHB to a career .214 / .279 / .357. Poyner allowed .253 / .298 / .405 this year to mostly AAA LHB. He's had a reverse platoon split his last three years.
Poyner was used just one once in high-leverage since his callup, when he was brought into the 8th against the Jays with a 3-1 lead (1.52 Leverage Index) to face two RHB and a switch-hitter. He gave up a solo homer to the second guy.
Johnson was surprisingly brought into a higher-leverage situation (1.81) in his very first relief outing since being moved back to the pen, on 6 days rest, against the Astros in the Moreland walk-off game. He was bad (BB, game-tying 2B), but the day after the Poyner outing just mentioned, he was brought in to clean up Scott's mess in the Mets opener and got out of a bases loaded, 1 out jam by inducing a GDP and went on to put up a 4.2 2 1 1 1 4 line.
Johnson's had some trouble adapting to his new relief role and wasn't good at all in his first 10 outings from the pen this year, but he's been excellent since then, with 10 good outings versus 3 rough ones. It's of some concern that his only two outings with 6+ days of rest are among the 3 bad ones, but they'll know that and will presumably tweak his side program to keep him sharper.
Right now, the last man in the pen decision is a very tough one between Johnson, who would be useful as both a LOOGY and long man (freeing both Wright and Eovaldi for strictly short stuff) and Hembree, who's mostly had excellent success in a very well-defined role of cleaning up dangerous innings. It would seem that Poyner has no chance.
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Post by dmaineah on Sept 17, 2018 15:01:22 GMT -5
No way is Eovaldi "locked into a bullpen spot" maybe Wright, maybe He absolutely is. He's probably the 2nd best pitcher in the bullpen as soon as he's there. It's why they traded for him instead of a bullpen arm. He was acquired to help get the starting pitching staff get through the season & audition for a possible play off roster spot, which has not gone well for him. And he'd be more like the 2nd worst pitcher in the bullpen if placed there.
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Post by pedrofanforever45 on Sept 17, 2018 18:01:12 GMT -5
So I see a Poyner versus Hembree debate on the gameday thread. I'll address it here rather than it to be lost on the GDT.
Bobby Poyner has a better homerun per nine rate in both the minors and majors this year. Poyner also has HALF IF NOT MORE THAN HALF the walk rate in both the minors and majors this year.
Hembree has a higher K rate and a higher groundball rate.
Poyner has been fortunate with a 92 percent LOB percentage. Even comparing old traditional stats like WHIP, Poyner has been better than Hembree across the board. Plain and simply, Poyner is going to give up fewer home runs and give up fewer baserunners.
Give me Poyner, all day.
I can see the argument for wanting to carry Johnson versus Poyner though. There can be garbage time if a game becomes a score of 5 runs or more on either side of the Sox losing or winning. In this case, you'd want Johnson throwing those innings and not someone else more important to throw low leverage. This is is especially true if you're going with a extra position player versus an extra pitcher.
Also NO BRIAN JOHNSON SHOULDN'T BE USED AS A LOOGY THIS POSTSEASON. That is ridiculous.
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Post by rjp313jr on Sept 17, 2018 18:40:51 GMT -5
Remember when people were giving Eovaldi a 4 year extension before they risked losing him?
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Post by pedrofanforever45 on Sept 17, 2018 19:39:40 GMT -5
Remember when people were giving Eovaldi a 4 year extension before they risked losing him? I still want him back if Price opts out, but that's for the off season.
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Post by telson13 on Sept 17, 2018 23:01:06 GMT -5
The battle between Kelly, Thornburg, and Pomeranz for the last spot in a 7-man pen has become really interesting, in large part because it's now a battle between Workman and Johnson.
Meanwhile, the ball Moreland hit in his second PA last night is, I believe, a HR in 28 or 29 parks in MLB. A good sign, which we need badly:
149 wRC+, .299 / .368 / .549 (228 PA) through June 24 048 wRC+, .189 / .270 / .297 (200 PA) since
(Off-topic: what's eerie about that is this:
053 wRC+, .178 / .275 / .288 (251 PA) JBJ through June 23 126 wRC+, .285 / .349 / .514 (238 PA) since
There was precisely 1 game all year where both guys were hot. And it was rendered moot as Sale, Kelly, and Barnes shut out the Mariners on 4 hits.)
If Moreland continues to be a 50 wRC+ hitter the rest of the way, I think you have to start Pearce in the playoffs, unless there's a matchup that really favors MM. That means that Pearce is not on the bench, leaving you without a RH pinch-hitter, and that's something Brandon Phillips excels at. That makes the decision between him and CV really difficult. But if Moreland is actually turning it around, Phillips becomes less useful and three catchers is an easy choice.
In a similar vein, there's something like a 7% chance that Sandy Leon gets on a tear the rest of the way, so that it no longer seems like you need to pinch hit for him early, if at all. If Pearce is at 1B, then Phillips becomes an easy choice. If this should happen along with Moreland heating up, then Lin actually looks like the most useful 5th guy on the bench. That's a scary thought for the opposition, of course.
And the other factor here, which I'm not even going to break down ... you'll have Nunez and Kinsler and maybe Pearce all in the same stretch of lineup. How many relievers that are hugely tough on RHB does the other team have? [1] You might be using most of your pinch-hitters in one inning to counter that guy, and since Holt hits LHP well and Devers and Moreland do in Fenway, it makes it tricky for the other team to change to a LOOGY to counter. The more likely you are to do that, the less likely you are to hit for the catcher twice, and the more pinch-hitters you do need. That might be the tiebreaker if the CV / Phillips decision seems tough, as it does right now.
[1] I'll look into that question once we know who our opponent is, and not any sooner! By then we'll also know how well MM and Leon are hitting.
Man, second-half JBJ for a full season would be a helluva player. I’ve still gotta think he’s got something more, given the awful results in the first half vs his xwOBA.
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Post by telson13 on Sept 17, 2018 23:05:00 GMT -5
Remember when people were giving Eovaldi a 4 year extension before they risked losing him? I still think 3 years at reasonable cost is a smart move. Idk what on earth his market will be, because someone’s always going to be enamores of his stuff. But I think 3/20-24 (I think I said something like that after his terrific Sox first two starts) is perfectly reasonable. I’m quite certain that, if he doesn’t bust out (maybe 10-15% chance he does?), he’ll be coveted at the deadline and return some prospects of value on a deal like that.
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danr
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Post by danr on Sept 17, 2018 23:52:33 GMT -5
Echoing many statements above, but I think Workman and Poyner would be considered "locks" if the playoff roster had to be determined today Would have been nice if Pomeranz or Scott had shown any ability to get lefties out, as that's a clear obstacle when putting this bullpen together, but so be it. I think Hembree has the inside track over Kelly at the moment, though I certainly wouldn't be stunned if they stuck with Kelly purely based on what "could" be with him Let's see ...
Brian Johnson is good enough to be an MLB #3 starter, while Bobby Poyner has been a career minor league reliever who made it to AAA and a bit of MLB this year. As I just noted, Poyner had stretches of being completely awful in AAA that were longer than his excellent stretches. He's like Joe Kellly in capital letters; we just haven't seen the bad version up here.
Johnson could go multiple innings in a game while Poyner hasn't gone more than 2 IP in a game since June of last year.
Johnson has held MLB LHB to a career .214 / .279 / .357. Poyner allowed .253 / .298 / .405 this year to mostly AAA LHB. He's had a reverse platoon split his last three years.
Poyner was used just one once in high-leverage since his callup, when he was brought into the 8th against the Jays with a 3-1 lead (1.52 Leverage Index) to face two RHB and a switch-hitter. He gave up a solo homer to the second guy.
Johnson was surprisingly brought into a higher-leverage situation (1.81) in his very first relief outing since being moved back to the pen, on 6 days rest, against the Astros in the Moreland walk-off game. He was bad (BB, game-tying 2B), but the day after the Poyner outing just mentioned, he was brought in to clean up Scott's mess in the Mets opener and got out of a bases loaded, 1 out jam by inducing a GDP and went on to put up a 4.2 2 1 1 1 4 line.
Johnson's had some trouble adapting to his new relief role and wasn't good at all in his first 10 outings from the pen this year, but he's been excellent since then, with 10 good outings versus 3 rough ones. It's of some concern that his only two outings with 6+ days of rest are among the 3 bad ones, but they'll know that and will presumably tweak his side program to keep him sharper.
Right now, the last man in the pen decision is a very tough one between Johnson, who would be useful as both a LOOGY and long man (freeing both Wright and Eovaldi for strictly short stuff) and Hembree, who's mostly had excellent success in a very well-defined role of cleaning up dangerous innings. It would seem that Poyner has no chance.
I can't remember disagreeing with you in the past but I do about Poyner. First of all, he isn't a career minor leaguer. He raced through the system in three years and was dominant at every level. Second, he gets people out. He doesn't walk anyone. I believe he should be on the post season roster. However, I don't disagree with you about Johnson. I have been a fan of him for several years. I wish he could be on the post season roster for all the reasons you detail. I don't see it happening because the Sox don't need another long man for the playoffs, especially the first round. They have Eovaldi.
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ericmvan
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Post by ericmvan on Sept 19, 2018 15:31:52 GMT -5
Not the roster, but the rotation. First, Pete Abraham keeps listing the post-season rotation as Sale, Price, Porcello, Rodriguez. And I've seen some folks here echo that. Does anyone seriously think that 2018 Rick Porcello is a better pitcher than 2018 Eduardo Rodriguez? The numbers, with ranks among 150 starters in parentheses. (For most stats it's the 150 SP with 70+ IP as a starter. xWOBA rank is all 156 pitchers with 350 BFP, and bWAR/32 GS is 151 pitchers with 14 GS or more. The latter two rankings include other pitchers' relief work.) Stat E-Rod Porcello xwOBA .290 (29) .307 (64) xFIP- 89 (36) 91 (44) FIP- 83 (25) 97 (69) ERA- 80 (32) 97 (77) bWAR/32 4.4 (26) 2.8 (59) WPA/32 2.12 (35) 0.12 (92)
Keep in mind that if you rank 30th of 150 starters in MLB, you're an average #2. That's what E-Rod is, right now. Porcello has pitched like an average #3, but with bad clutch performance because he was left in to cough up at least one big lead. Having two aces, a #2, and a #3 (actually at least two, as Eovaldi's numbers are actually a bit better than Porcello's, a topic we'll revisit later) makes you a post-season beast. Now, there are two separate arguments that Price should start game 3 and E-Rod game 2. I think the first is about 90% compelling and the second is about 75%. Together, I think it's a no-brainer.
First, because of the wild-card game, our opponent's ace starts game 3, not game 1. They go 2, 3, 1, 4. For the Yankees, this means that Happ and Tanaka are pitching 1 and 3 (or vice versa, TBD) and Severino (or Sabathia, if he reverses his late-season collapse) is pitching 2.
(The A's rotation is completely up in the air as Anderson is just returning from an injury and was hit hard his first game back, Cahill is out and missing at least 1 more start, while Fiers is their #1 in bWAR and WPA and 4th in xwOBA and there's no knowing how good they think he actually is.)
The last thing you want to do is send Price out against Severino and win easily and then have E-Rod lose a squeaker in the Bidet to Tanaka or Happ. Our #1 is better than their #1, our #2 is better than their #2, and so on right down the line. You want to match them up that way, as much as possible. E-Rod over Severino is already a big advantage; starting Price instead yields diminishing returns. Whereas Price instead of E-Rod against Tanaka or Happ is a significant upgrade.
But there's a second reason. This is IP/GS, with Price for his 8 full starts since his turnaround and Sale pre-injury.
6.8 Price 6.4 Sale 5.9 Porcello 5.4 Rodriguez
There's an off day after game 2, so you can use the whole pen for it. Meanwhile, Price will save you the pen when he pitches. So why would you ever start Price in game 2, and then E-Rod in game 3, where he's more likely to make you use everyone of importance, when you'll want to have a quick hook in game 4? It makes much more sense to alternate the guys who save the pen with the guys who tax it.
Fortunately, both of these arguments call for the same rotation. No need to weigh advantages versus disadvantages.
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Post by The Town Sports Cards on Sept 20, 2018 7:16:45 GMT -5
I think the listing of those 4 is more, these are your 4 starters more than this is the order 1-4. I think the order will be dependent on who we play, where we play, what the opposing pitching order will be (likely coming off a wildcard game) and how everyone finishes up the last month of the season. There's just no reason for writers to get into all that when we don't know any of it yet.
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Post by soxfansince67 on Sept 20, 2018 7:36:07 GMT -5
Seriously wondering if Nunez will be healthy enough - so another position to ponder. Devers, of course, at 3b - but opens a spot. Too bad - he is one of the few who are hitting at the moment.
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Post by redsox04071318champs on Sept 20, 2018 8:01:16 GMT -5
Not the roster, but the rotation. First, Pete Abraham keeps listing the post-season rotation as Sale, Price, Porcello, Rodriguez. And I've seen some folks here echo that. Does anyone seriously think that 2018 Rick Porcello is a better pitcher than 2018 Eduardo Rodriguez? The numbers, with ranks among 150 starters in parentheses. (For most stats it's the 150 SP with 70+ IP as a starter. xWOBA rank is all 156 pitchers with 350 BFP, and bWAR/32 GS is 151 pitchers with 14 GS or more. The latter two rankings include other pitchers' relief work.) Stat E-Rod Porcello xwOBA .290 (29) .307 (64) xFIP- 89 (36) 91 (44) FIP- 83 (25) 97 (69) ERA- 80 (32) 97 (77) bWAR/32 4.4 (26) 2.8 (59) WPA/32 2.12 (35) 0.12 (92)
Keep in mind that if you rank 30th of 150 starters in MLB, you're an average #2. That's what E-Rod is, right now. Porcello has pitched like an average #3, but with bad clutch performance because he was left in to cough up at least one big lead. Having two aces, a #2, and a #3 (actually at least two, as Eovaldi's numbers are actually a bit better than Porcello's, a topic we'll revisit later) makes you a post-season beast. Now, there are two separate arguments that Price should start game 3 and E-Rod game 2. I think the first is about 90% compelling and the second is about 75%. Together, I think it's a no-brainer. First, because of the wild-card game, our opponent's ace starts game 3, not game 1. They go 2, 3, 1, 4. For the Yankees, this means that Happ and Tanaka are pitching 1 and 3 (or vice versa, TBD) and Severino (or Sabathia, if he reverses his late-season collapse) is pitching 2.
(The A's rotation is completely up in the air as Anderson is just returning from an injury and was hit hard his first game back, Cahill is out and missing at least 1 more start, while Fiers is their #1 in bWAR and WPA and 4th in xwOBA and there's no knowing how good they think he actually is.) The last thing you want to do is send Price out against Severino and win easily and then have E-Rod lose a squeaker in the Bidet to Tanaka or Happ. Our #1 is better than their #1, our #2 is better than their #2, and so on right down the line. You want to match them up that way, as much as possible. E-Rod over Severino is already a big advantage; starting Price instead yields diminishing returns. Whereas Price instead of E-Rod against Tanaka or Happ is a significant upgrade.
But there's a second reason. This is IP/GS, with Price for his 8 full starts since his turnaround and Sale pre-injury. 6.8 Price 6.4 Sale 5.9 Porcello 5.4 Rodriguez There's an off day after game 2, so you can use the whole pen for it. Meanwhile, Price will save you the pen when he pitches. So why would you ever start Price in game 2, and then E-Rod in game 3, where he's more likely to make you use everyone of importance, when you'll want to have a quick hook in game 4? It makes much more sense to alternate the guys who save the pen with the guys who tax it. Fortunately, both of these arguments call for the same rotation. No need to weigh advantages versus disadvantages.
If last night's game is any indication, that might not be a problem. Good thing Game 2 is at Fenway. At least they have a shot, but you can't assume the Sox are going to crush Severino.
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Post by carmenfanzone on Sept 20, 2018 15:08:24 GMT -5
Everyone seems to assume the 4 playoff starters are Sale, Price, Rodriguez, and Porcello. If the team they are playing in the first round has an equal balance or right and left hand hitters, I would agree. But the Yankees are a right hand heavy hitting team. If the Red Sox play the Yankees in the first round, two of my starters would be Porcello and Eovaldi.
One of the three lefty starters would be used out of the bullpen and would reduce the need for someone like Poyner or Johnson. Which of the lefties not to start depends in part on how convinced the Red Sox are that Sale can go 6 or 7 innings. If he can't, he might be more useful as multi inning relief guy who they could use more than once in a series against the Yankees. If he can go 6 or 7 innings, one of Price or Rodriguez could be used in that role instead.
I hope Cora is at least considering this strategy.
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Post by Guidas on Sept 20, 2018 15:55:38 GMT -5
Remember when people were giving Eovaldi a 4 year extension before they risked losing him? I still want to do that. I think he's a solid #3 starter in the AL.
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Post by soxfansince67 on Sept 20, 2018 21:46:57 GMT -5
I think Kelly and Hembree really pitched themselves off of the postseason roster during the MFY series.
Those who did themselves a favor - Swihart, Wright, Eovaldi.
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