8/25-8/27 Red Sox vs. Dodgers Series Thread

It seems like this has to be one of the all time leading years for Red Sox paternity leaves….

The two most amazing days in my life were being present for and watching my two sons be born! I am glad MLB supports players getting to be present for the birth of their kids.

Bonds was the best player in baseball even without the steroids. He got greedy and turned into a superhero with the BALCO connection, though.

Meanwhile, everyone assumed Acuna was the MVP this year, but I think Mookie has overtaken him at this point. I’d go Mookie-Acuna-Freeman as of today. Other than his absurd 2018 campaign, Mookie is having his best season.

Dodgers taught him a cutter from what I understand

It certainly does seem that way though (analytics dept is better than the coaching at the moment)

But Lynn has been a good-to-really good pitcher for four years before this. It is possible the Dodgers just bet the first half was an aberration.

Brasier… who knows.

It could also be the stadium (especially for the pitchers). The wall and small foul territory helps batters a lot. It hurts pitchers. LA has always been a good pitchers park. The weather is also a factor. SD is a huge pitchers park. The heavy fog and humid air blow in from the SW and knock balls down in SD. Hell, I used to work 2 1/2 miles from the Dodger’s stadium, and I am almost surprised balls don’t get lost in the smog. Some days in the summer we could not even see the buildings across the street. I worked on the 31st floor in a building downtown.

Bloom finds the right players, but Alex & Co are not maximizing their talent.

One of my favorite twitter follows recently is Kyle Boddy, who is the founder of Driveline and also worked in the Reds org briefly. A big takeaway from just listening to what he says is that most if not all orgs have the same analytics. A large analytical team is great, but what separates the Dodgers or Rays from other teams is how they communicate those analytics to the players. In my opinion, 25% of the work is having those analytics and identifying players strengths/weaknesses. The other 75% is being able to explain it to the player in a receptive way and structuring the training program so it will be beneficial. Dan Symborski of Fangraphs also mentioned something similar to this in his recent chat. 

Just looking at the year to year jump of their hitters recently, it seems the Red Sox do outstanding work there, but the pitching side may be lacking behind. Could also be small sample size like you said. 

Wishing for a Red Sox victory, of course, but also looking forward to watching Mookie play. In my top 3 Red Sox for enjoyment value (with Pedro and Papi) all time

Bush would be most at fault imo

And those two players have a combined WAR that is only 1.1 lower than Mookie's (it'd be a lot closer if Verdugo didn't take a super-extended all-star break)!

My opinion is the reason Betts "left" (I'm aware he was traded) and Braiser and Hernandez are doing better is due to the extraordinarily venomous attitudes so common around the Red Sox.  Yes these guys are pros making millions of dollars but they are still human beings.