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9/17-9/19 Red Sox vs. Orioles Series Thread
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Post by ikonos on Sept 19, 2013 20:54:54 GMT -5
Why is the division countdown at 2? If TB lose this game then even if sox loses all the remaining games and TB wins all remaining games both are tied at 93-69 and I think Sox hold the tiebreaker. So essentially if TB loses today, Sox wins the division. What am I missing?
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Post by soxfan06 on Sept 19, 2013 20:57:56 GMT -5
Why is the division countdown at 2? If TB lose this game then even if sox loses all the remaining games and TB wins all remaining games both are tied at 93-69 and I think Sox hold the tiebreaker. So essentially if TB loses today, Sox wins the division. What am I missing? It's a stupid 1 game playoff with tiebreaker deciding home field for that one game.
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Post by mgoetze on Sept 19, 2013 21:01:20 GMT -5
So, back in August I was thinking... how about that Lackey boy for game 1?
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Post by johnsilver52 on Sept 19, 2013 21:16:16 GMT -5
So, back in August I was thinking... how about that Lackey boy for game 1? No chance of it, reports going around already it's going to be Lester, which kind of makes sense as the long time member and he has done pretty well since the AS break. There was very few of us Sox fans brave enough to support Lackey when all of that mess was being written in the media after 2011. I was one last year who posted at multiple places all last year that his never give up mentality would put him in a different category than many (most) other players who sign large contracts and get complacent with their lifestyles (see Josh Beckett). It shows with Lackey, never a quitter and has come back strong. Many of those same fans and not here was this going on, but those "fly by night" fans would have been the exact same people raising cain for giving him away now had Boston chosen to over this past winter. I'd take a dozen Lackey types over that winter of 2009/10. Epstein maybe didn't do his due diligence on the physical, but he finally chased the right mentality and work ethic in a FA.
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redsox04071318champs
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Always hoping to make my handle even longer...
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Post by redsox04071318champs on Sept 19, 2013 21:17:00 GMT -5
Fantastic game by John Lackey. I'm glad Farrell left him in to get the complete game victory. And it was clutch because it rested up Koji, Breslow, and Tazawa so they're available for the division clincher tomorrow.
And it would be very appropriate to have Koji on the mound to wrap things up tomorrow night. But then again a Gomes walkoff would be just as appropriate.
Playoff bound!!!
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Post by pedroelgrande on Sept 19, 2013 22:05:09 GMT -5
It's strange how there are much fewer posts when the team is winning the game and looking good. It might annoy you.
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Post by Chris Hatfield on Sept 19, 2013 22:42:03 GMT -5
Look, let me just say one thing, said with a straight face (rather than the hair-pulling or whatever the image was from a couple pages ago, which made me chuckle):
Voicing your opinion is fine. You don't have to be an apologist or always try to find a silver lining in things or anything. But there's a way to post those thoughts that doesn't derail things and make this board less fun to read. The sky doesn't always have to be falling.
Let me use a positive example. Norberto/pedroelgrande is one of our longest-tenured posters. I don't always agree with him, but he's generally got his head on straight, and he's one of the best posters on the forum. Now, for example, I know he's just as frustrated as other posters with Xander not playing. But you know what? When he posts about it, I don't want to start cutting myself the way I do with other posters. That's because when he posts about it, he's either matter-of-fact, or uses some (CLEAR) sarcasm (hm, in fact, see the above post), or something like that which at least makes it interesting. And the post isn't enormous. He doesn't call for Farrell's job every time, and he doesn't act like it's a goddamn crisis, and he doesn't flip out if someone disagrees. And he doesn't just harp on the same thing with every single post - even if he posts about things multiple times, there's an undertone that he's posted about it before and doesn't need to belabor the entire point again.
The point of this? Have a filter. Would you want to read your post? If not, don't post it. I probably abort a post on here that I've already partially typed for every 3-4 that I do post. Do you really need to post for the fourth time today about the bullpen management, or did you make your point already? When someone disagrees with your post, do you REALLY need to respond to get the last word, or are you posting exactly what you just said, but phrasing it differently? Debate is fine. Sometimes conversation is too. The sports talk radio, ohmygodthisishorrible stuff is awful to read. Unfortunately, it turns out we can't do post limits on ProBoards, which is the way we kept some of the noise in check on Yuku/whateverthehellitwasbeforethat. So we rely on everyone to contribute in a positive manner.
Thank you all for posting. We've got a great community on here. Let's just always keep in mind that community part.
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Post by johnsilver52 on Sept 19, 2013 23:00:55 GMT -5
Chris,
I understand this board u guys/ladies run here is much more tolerable than some others. If any I put up are "over the top"? Delete them please. No intention of offending anyone, nor of going overboard either.
Glad came back here again after a several year hiatus.
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ericmvan
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Supposed to be working on something more important
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Post by ericmvan on Sept 20, 2013 4:31:50 GMT -5
Some of these teams just need to move. Its as simple as that. There are plenty of cities out there that would support MLB teams that don't have teams. What would be really intriguing would be to open up a team in Mexico City. You also got cities like Memphis, Louisville, Portland OR, Charlotte, Vancouver, etc that could support teams. OK, it's OT, but it's a pet topic of mine ... The A's have needed to move for years, and I'm not sure that the proposed move south of the city makes that much sense. The Rays either need a new stadium or a new city. Of the other teams that aren't drawing well, you've got the three worst in baseball (Houston, Miami, and the White Sox), so that leaves three other disappointments in Cleveland, KC, and Seattle. Attendance should tick up next year in the first two, and the Mariners drawing 1.8 million while being bad yet again is hardly cause to move them. However, MLB hugely needs to expand to 32 teams, where you could produce a much saner and more balanced schedule (no two-game series, etc.). So you need three or four new cities. Excluding south of the border, I count 8 places that could conceivably support an MLB team, based strictly on size and being at least 140 miles from any existing MLB club: in size order, Montreal, Vancouver BC, Portland OR, San Antonio or Austin (the Round Rock Express are perennially first or second in PCL attendance), Las Vegas (the other big draw in the PCL), Charlotte, Norfolk, and Nashville or Memphis (Nashville's actually larger. Louisville would easily be the smallest city with an MLB franchise). And there's always the possibility of a third team in the NY area, in New Jersey. You should certainly be able to get baseball into 3 or 4 of those 9 places. You'd want Vancouver or Portland, but not both, to give each league three West Coast teams. Montreal and Las Vegas are the furthest two from existing MLB clubs and among the largest, but of course have problems to overcome; I know that there are people who want to bring baseball back to Montreal, and there's reason to believe it would succeed in the right park. At least one of the four mid-south cities should be in the mix; they are similar enough to one another in size and isolation to just base the decision on other factors (e.g., Charlotte finishing last in the IL in attendance even when first in the standings, but possibly that's the park). If Tampa needs to move, then San Antonio / Austin, New Jersey, or a second mid-south city gets in the mix.
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Post by gregblossersbelly on Sept 20, 2013 6:38:38 GMT -5
They were discussing where Lackey pitches on WEEI yesterday. Mut and Merloni. When Lou talks him off of the edge, they're pretty reasonable. Lou thinks Lackey goes in Gm 2 because he's been much better at home. Him home era 2.47 and on the road it's 4.39. Sounds reasonable to me.
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Post by Guidas on Sept 20, 2013 7:26:39 GMT -5
Some of these teams just need to move. Its as simple as that. There are plenty of cities out there that would support MLB teams that don't have teams. What would be really intriguing would be to open up a team in Mexico City. You also got cities like Memphis, Louisville, Portland OR, Charlotte, Vancouver, etc that could support teams. If Bud/MLB cared they would buy out Tampa's lease, let them move where they want (across town, Orlando, Charlotte, etc), but but make it conditional on not receiving revenue sharing for 13 years (the remaining time on the lease). The Oakland situation is just ridiculous. Their owners should either say "Give us San Jose in 18 months or we're going to Portland/Sacramento/etc).
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Post by Guidas on Sept 20, 2013 7:34:27 GMT -5
Another thing about Lackey that's intriguing - two more years at an AAV of about $8.5M. Gives them a whole lotta wiggle room if someone (COUGH Clayton Kershaw COUGH) actually reaches free agency after next year. Or if they decide to work out an extension with Lester in the off season. Very nice. Thank you, Theo.
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Post by gregblossersbelly on Sept 20, 2013 7:36:33 GMT -5
Another thing about Lackey that's intriguing - two more years at an AAV of about $8.5M. Gives them a whole lotta wiggle room if someone (COUGH Clayton Kershaw COUGH) actually reaches free agency after next year. Or if they decide to work out an extension with Lester in the off season. Very nice. Thank you, Theo. Jack Nicholson will become a Celtics fan before Clayton Kershaw pitches for the Red Sox.
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Post by Guidas on Sept 20, 2013 7:36:45 GMT -5
They were discussing where Lackey pitches on WEEI yesterday. Mut and Merloni. When Lou talks him off of the edge, they're pretty reasonable. Lou thinks Lackey goes in Gm 2 because he's been much better at home. Him home era 2.47 and on the road it's 4.39. Sounds reasonable to me. FWIW, I believe Buchholz's road ERA is even more minuscule than his home ERA. Might come down to the opponent/Buchholz's performance in his next outing.
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Post by sammo420 on Sept 20, 2013 7:40:53 GMT -5
Look, let me just say one thing, said with a straight face (rather than the hair-pulling or whatever the image was from a couple pages ago, which made me chuckle): Voicing your opinion is fine. You don't have to be an apologist or always try to find a silver lining in things or anything. But there's a way to post those thoughts that doesn't derail things and make this board less fun to read. The sky doesn't always have to be falling. Let me use a positive example. Norberto/pedroelgrande is one of our longest-tenured posters. I don't always agree with him, but he's generally got his head on straight, and he's one of the best posters on the forum. Now, for example, I know he's just as frustrated as other posters with Xander not playing. But you know what? When he posts about it, I don't want to start cutting myself the way I do with other posters. That's because when he posts about it, he's either matter-of-fact, or uses some (CLEAR) sarcasm (hm, in fact, see the above post), or something like that which at least makes it interesting. And the post isn't enormous. He doesn't call for Farrell's job every time, and he doesn't act like it's a goddamn crisis, and he doesn't flip out if someone disagrees. And he doesn't just harp on the same thing with every single post - even if he posts about things multiple times, there's an undertone that he's posted about it before and doesn't need to belabor the entire point again. The point of this? Have a filter. Would you want to read your post? If not, don't post it. I probably abort a post on here that I've already partially typed for every 3-4 that I do post. Do you really need to post for the fourth time today about the bullpen management, or did you make your point already? When someone disagrees with your post, do you REALLY need to respond to get the last word, or are you posting exactly what you just said, but phrasing it differently? Debate is fine. Sometimes conversation is too. The sports talk radio, ohmygodthisishorrible stuff is awful to read. Unfortunately, it turns out we can't do post limits on ProBoards, which is the way we kept some of the noise in check on Yuku/whateverthehellitwasbeforethat. So we rely on everyone to contribute in a positive manner. Thank you all for posting. We've got a great community on here. Let's just always keep in mind that community part. My advice is to add to the generic opening comment in these threads that tells you the rules are a little more loosely applied in here. It won't stop it altogether and it won't do anything for the other threads but it's better than repeating yourself every six months.
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Post by fenwaythehardway on Sept 20, 2013 12:23:45 GMT -5
They were discussing where Lackey pitches on WEEI yesterday. Mut and Merloni. When Lou talks him off of the edge, they're pretty reasonable. Lou thinks Lackey goes in Gm 2 because he's been much better at home. Him home era 2.47 and on the road it's 4.39. Sounds reasonable to me. I have a hard time taking a split like that at face value. He doesn't have any meaningful home/road split for his career, nor is there any real explanation of why he'd be a better pitcher in Fenway. I'd bet anything that those numbers are a pure fluke. I'm not sure how to run the numbers for this kind of thing, but it would be interesting to see a breakdown of the quality of his opponents in home versus away games.
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Post by mgoetze on Sept 20, 2013 12:34:26 GMT -5
I have a hard time taking a split like that at face value. He doesn't have any meaningful home/road split for his career, nor is there any real explanation of why he'd be a better pitcher in Fenway. I'd bet anything that those numbers are a pure fluke. Well, Lackey is mainly a groundball pitcher, but he's not much different from Buchholz and Lester in that regard. The pitcher where you should really look at home/away is Peavy, who is mainly a flyball pitcher - if the opponents have a nice big ballpark (*cough* Oakland) then you would want Peavy pitching there rather than at Fenway (especially if you give him Ells, Victorino and JBJ/Berry...)
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Post by fenwaythehardway on Sept 20, 2013 13:03:35 GMT -5
He is a groundball guy but it's not extreme. If we look at the 140 starters with at least 100 IP this year, Lackey has the 50th highest GB% at 47%. And even then, the median GB% is 45% (if I know anything about my ability to do math I'm getting that wrong somehow, but close enough), so he's pretty well lumped in with the majority of starters in that regard. He's certainly not nearly enough of a groundball guy to explain that split.
Any in any case, it's not like groundballs are any more likely to get caught at Fenway, so you wouldn't expect groundballers to pitch BETTER there, just that they would be LESS hurt by Fenway's hitter friendly tendencies than flyball guys. In other words you'd still expect a groundballer to pitch better away from Fenway, just to less of an extreme degree than a flyball guy.
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Post by sarasoxer on Sept 20, 2013 13:19:39 GMT -5
Another thing about Lackey that's intriguing - two more years at an AAV of about $8.5M. Gives them a whole lotta wiggle room if someone (COUGH Clayton Kershaw COUGH) actually reaches free agency after next year. Or if they decide to work out an extension with Lester in the off season. Very nice. Thank you, Theo. Jack Nicholson will become a Celtics fan before Clayton Kershaw pitches for the Red Sox. You don't know jack....then again, maybe you do.
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Post by gregblossersbelly on Sept 20, 2013 13:21:18 GMT -5
They were discussing where Lackey pitches on WEEI yesterday. Mut and Merloni. When Lou talks him off of the edge, they're pretty reasonable. Lou thinks Lackey goes in Gm 2 because he's been much better at home. Him home era 2.47 and on the road it's 4.39. Sounds reasonable to me. I have a hard time taking a split like that at face value. He doesn't have any meaningful home/road split for his career, nor is there any real explanation of why he'd be a better pitcher in Fenway. I'd bet anything that those numbers are a pure fluke. I'm not sure how to run the numbers for this kind of thing, but it would be interesting to see a breakdown of the quality of his opponents in home versus away games. Believe it or not, there are some things you can't statistically quantify. The fact that he sleeps in his own bed, takes the same route to the ballpark, knows where everything is in his pre-game routine. All make you feel more comfortable when you're pitching at home. I know some of you are throwing up now. But, it's sports not math class. Oh, and here's another. He has a knew arm angle since his surgery. Maybe, the mound at Fenway is suiting his delivery better now. Oh my! Sorry to piss off 3/4 of the site. If there are any golfers on here. You have a 125yd shot into a green on your home course. You whip out your trusty club. For me, a 9 iron. But, when you play on a different course. It's not so comfortable. Where's the wind, stance isn't quite right, not sure about landing area. All factor in your shot execution. Lackey has historically sucked at Fenway. That's why a lot of people questioned his signing. Mainly, because he was going against a great Sox lineup most of the time. But, he's found something. It's working. And, I would keep doing it.
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Post by charliezink16 on Sept 20, 2013 13:43:06 GMT -5
They were discussing where Lackey pitches on WEEI yesterday. Mut and Merloni. When Lou talks him off of the edge, they're pretty reasonable. Lou thinks Lackey goes in Gm 2 because he's been much better at home. Him home era 2.47 and on the road it's 4.39. Sounds reasonable to me. Speaking of Mut and Merloni and playoff rotations, I remember in July when Mut was all for leaving Lester off the playoff rotation in favor of Doubront. Millar came on the next day and tore him a new one, it was hilarious.
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Post by Guidas on Sept 20, 2013 13:48:34 GMT -5
I have also heard a lot of MLB pitchers say over the years that the mound varies from park to park and that some guys feel more acclimated to their home mound simply because they pitch off it more often. Not saying this is the qualifier for Lackey, but many of these guys - especially starting pitchers - are creatures of ritual and habit. The more comfortable some are, the better they perform. Other guys couldn't care less and are of the "Just gimme the ball" mentality. Who knows? But I think as long as Buchholz looks good in his next start we all feel pretty comfortable with some combination of Lester-Buchholz-Lackey in games 1-3.
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Post by mgoetze on Sept 20, 2013 14:33:36 GMT -5
The fact that he sleeps in his own bed, takes the same route to the ballpark, knows where everything is in his pre-game routine. All make you feel more comfortable when you're pitching at home. Must be a much better bed now than the one he had back in LA, as he had a higher home ERA than away ERA every season from 2005 through 2009.
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Post by gregblossersbelly on Sept 20, 2013 14:48:12 GMT -5
The fact that he sleeps in his own bed, takes the same route to the ballpark, knows where everything is in his pre-game routine. All make you feel more comfortable when you're pitching at home. Must be a much better bed now than the one he had back in LA, as he had a higher home ERA than away ERA every season from 2005 through 2009. Maybe, going through a rough marriage(Not blaming her, I know she had/has cancer but if you're not happy the rest doesn't matter) made that bed not as comfortable??
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Post by fenwaythehardway on Sept 20, 2013 15:32:17 GMT -5
I have a hard time taking a split like that at face value. He doesn't have any meaningful home/road split for his career, nor is there any real explanation of why he'd be a better pitcher in Fenway. I'd bet anything that those numbers are a pure fluke. I'm not sure how to run the numbers for this kind of thing, but it would be interesting to see a breakdown of the quality of his opponents in home versus away games. Believe it or not, there are some things you can't statistically quantify. The fact that he sleeps in his own bed, takes the same route to the ballpark, knows where everything is in his pre-game routine. All make you feel more comfortable when you're pitching at home. I know some of you are throwing up now. But, it's sports not math class. Oh, and here's another. He has a knew arm angle since his surgery. Maybe, the mound at Fenway is suiting his delivery better now. Oh my! Sorry to piss off 3/4 of the site. If there are any golfers on here. You have a 125yd shot into a green on your home course. You whip out your trusty club. For me, a 9 iron. But, when you play on a different course. It's not so comfortable. Where's the wind, stance isn't quite right, not sure about landing area. All factor in your shot execution. Lackey has historically sucked at Fenway. That's why a lot of people questioned his signing. Mainly, because he was going against a great Sox lineup most of the time. But, he's found something. It's working. And, I would keep doing it. So let's ignore the STATISTIC that this entire conversation is based on. You can't start with "the guy's ERA is X on the road and Y and home", and then turn around and go "it's not math class, dorks!" when someone introduces a stat to the conversation that you don't like. Maybe, going through a rough marriage(Not blaming her, I know she had/has cancer but if you're not happy the rest doesn't matter) made that bed not as comfortable?? Ok, so we're just making stuff up at this point.
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