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5/11-5/13 Red Sox @ Blue Jays Series Thread
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Post by grandsalami on May 11, 2018 22:41:22 GMT -5
For all the moaning our BP gets. We have a bipolar offense. We either score a bunch of runs or very few runs.
AB has struggled this season
3B/2B are far from consistent and Catcher is like having a literal pitcher at the plate.
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Post by station13 on May 11, 2018 22:43:27 GMT -5
The Sox are blighted by that 7-8-9 portion of the lineup. They hurt by not hitting and playing nightmare-rish defense.
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Post by telson13 on May 11, 2018 22:43:59 GMT -5
That was a total waste of a strong Chris Sale start. The Sox should win 75% of his starts but their offense dropped dead after the 4th inning. And then it took Brian Johnson all of a few minutes to dump the game. At this point I hope they DFA him. I guess when Wright comes back they do that? Or maybe they send down Velazquez because for some unknown reason Cora has it in his head that Velazquez can only pitch in the 4th inning? Velazquez should have been in this game. Unless he is hurt or something I really don't get it. The Brewers and D’backs both need starters. I’m not enamored of Johnson (I like Velazquez though, who has an unsustainable strand rate but looks like an FIP-beater given the low K rate), but he’s got value to somebody. He has control years and looks like a back-end guy who could provide depth. I’d like to see them move him and bring Poyner back up. My sense is that Beeks is a (far?) superior option, and MLB-ready. I don’t think Johnson has any real value to the Sox, but he certainly could to several teams out there. IFA$ and a comp balance pick? Prob wouldn’t get AZ 35, but $2M in IFA$ and the Brewers’ 74? And maybe a low-level lottery arm?
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Post by station13 on May 11, 2018 22:45:16 GMT -5
Waste of an amazing Sale start. Definitely need to give Siwhart a start at C and Pedroia/Thornburg cant come back soon enough. Time to DFA Hembree and Johnson. Mookie couldn't even get a hit, just release him too. Hanley is garbage and poison for the young players. Devers should go to AA for seasoning. Fire Cora.
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Post by pedrofanforever45 on May 11, 2018 23:15:16 GMT -5
Waste of an amazing Sale start. Definitely need to give Siwhart a start at C and Pedroia/Thornburg cant come back soon enough. Time to DFA Hembree and Johnson. Mookie couldn't even get a hit, just release him too. Hanley is garbage and poison for the young players. Devers should go to AA for seasoning. Fire Cora. Grade A troll job here.....way to really get the hook in I think he was being sarcastic and didn't use the italics.
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Post by pedrofanforever45 on May 11, 2018 23:21:54 GMT -5
The problem with this bullpen is that there are 3 guys up here or soon to be up here with no options in Johnson, Hembree, and Wright. Not to mention you have Thornburg coming in a week or two.
The first two are probably the two worst bullpen arms you have, but you have to keep them up here or you lose them.
The other problem is that you have Poyner down in AAA while these players are up here holding a 25 man roster spot.
There has got to be a trade or two coming really soon with Johnson and Swihart. Even beyond that the Sox should be exploring a Hembree trade and keeping Poyner in Boston. He could be better than Hembree already.
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Post by ramireja on May 11, 2018 23:32:27 GMT -5
Grade A troll job here.....way to really get the hook in I think he was being sarcastic and didn't use the italics. I get that, and thats why I called it a troll job....as in I didn't take the comments literally.
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Post by pedrofanforever45 on May 12, 2018 0:10:44 GMT -5
Give me a bullpen of-
Kimbrel Barnes Kelly Poyner Wright or Velazquez (long inning reliever) Smith Thornburg
This is the best bullpen the Sox can put out there at this present time.
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ericmvan
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Post by ericmvan on May 12, 2018 1:48:52 GMT -5
That was a total waste of a strong Chris Sale start. The Sox should win 75% of his starts but their offense dropped dead after the 4th inning. And then it took Brian Johnson all of a few minutes to dump the game. At this point I hope they DFA him. I guess when Wright comes back they do that? Or maybe they send down Velazquez because for some unknown reason Cora has it in his head that Velazquez can only pitch in the 4th inning? Velazquez should have been in this game. Unless he is hurt or something I really don't get it. Pretty sure they're saving him in case Price's hand is numb again tomorrow. But with Velazquez likely going down on Monday to make room for Wright, the better plan may have been to use him if needed (and they did), then option him and recall someone capable of going multiple innings for Saturday (and Sunday). Although looking at it, there's no clear candidate: Beeks would be on two days rest and Walden's 10 days aren't up yet. Workman probably wouldn't give you enough innings if Price leaves early. That means they'd have to select either Justin Haley or Josh Smith.
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danr
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Post by danr on May 12, 2018 1:51:29 GMT -5
Smith definitely looked much better tonight than he did earlier in the season. And. He. Throws. Strikes.
I don't think it is a good argument that the Sox can't afford to lose Hembree. I don't think they can afford to keep him.
I am reminded of an Earl Weaver story. One year the Oriole manager was having terrible problems with his bullpen, one pitcher in particular who was blowing up almost every time he pitched, and Weaver was using him a lot. A reporter asked him why he was using that pitcher so much. Weaver said, "I'm going to keep running him out there until they get me someone better."
If I were Cora, I would sit Hanley tomorrow, maybe even on Sunday as well. Maybe he would get the message.
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Post by soxfansince67 on May 12, 2018 6:38:23 GMT -5
Game shows how important Mookie is to the team - he really makes the offense go. Rough nights are inevitable - but someone needs to be able to pick up the slack. Benni may be getting on with walks and an occasional hit, but he isn't yet consistently making contact or driving the ball. If hitting seems to be contagious, lack of hitting seems to be as well - probably because of too much pressing.
Then we end up depending upon a bullpen that is also pressing....
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Post by jdb on May 12, 2018 9:34:47 GMT -5
Smith definitely looked much better tonight than he did earlier in the season. And. He. Throws. Strikes. I don't think it is a good argument that the Sox can't afford to lose Hembree. I don't think they can afford to keep him. I am reminded of an Earl Weaver story. One year the Oriole manager was having terrible problems with his bullpen, one pitcher in particular who was blowing up almost every time he pitched, and Weaver was using him a lot. A reporter asked him why he was using that pitcher so much. Weaver said, "I'm going to keep running him out there until they get me someone better." If I were Cora, I would sit Hanley tomorrow, maybe even on Sunday as well. Maybe he would get the message. I think Smith is rounding into form. Like you said he blew up early on but in his last 12 outings 11 have had 0 ERs. This pen will look different with Thornburg getting close and we have some time before trade season to see who needs to come or go.
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Post by Don Caballero on May 12, 2018 9:37:41 GMT -5
Morning gents, has Cora been fired yet?
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Post by grandsalami on May 12, 2018 10:21:17 GMT -5
Morning gents, has Cora been fired yet? Yes... and he has been replaced by ![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fc/Bobby_Valentine_on_May_22%2C_2012.jpg/220px-Bobby_Valentine_on_May_22%2C_2012.jpg)
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Post by dirtdog on May 12, 2018 12:57:43 GMT -5
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Post by DesignatedForAssignment on May 12, 2018 12:59:51 GMT -5
Give me a bullpen of- Kimbrel Barnes Kelly Poyner Wright or Velazquez (long inning reliever) Smith Thornburg This is the best bullpen the Sox can put out there at this present time. If Price & Wright pitch and stay healthy this week, then somebody gets traded away. Real soon. Thornburg ... Close. Edit. Maureen Mullen is a baseball whiz kid
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Post by dirtdog on May 12, 2018 13:00:22 GMT -5
Carson Smith looks like he is rounding into form even though much of the bullpen going through a bad spell. Sox not hitting with men on base right now is an even bigger problem.
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Post by patford on May 12, 2018 13:42:56 GMT -5
I have not researched it but my impression is there have been a lot of bullpen fires in MLB this year. Perhaps the past several years of teams increasingly leaning on their pens is taking a toll ?
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ericmvan
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Post by ericmvan on May 12, 2018 14:21:26 GMT -5
Smith definitely looked much better tonight than he did earlier in the season. And. He. Throws. Strikes. I don't think it is a good argument that the Sox can't afford to lose Hembree. I don't think they can afford to keep him. I am reminded of an Earl Weaver story. One year the Oriole manager was having terrible problems with his bullpen, one pitcher in particular who was blowing up almost every time he pitched, and Weaver was using him a lot. A reporter asked him why he was using that pitcher so much. Weaver said, "I'm going to keep running him out there until they get me someone better." If I were Cora, I would sit Hanley tomorrow, maybe even on Sunday as well. Maybe he would get the message. Hembree was very, very good for 13 appearances and unbelievably awful for 5. If he's going to keep that ratio, he's not good enough to keep around. But if he reels off another 13 outings like he had to begin the season, his numbers look very good again.
Right now, Hembree, Johnson, and soon and for at least a bit, Wright, will be guys you won't trust to pitch in a tie game. That's one guy too many. And you have two guys who are good enough to be ahead of Hembree in the bullpen rotation, in Thornburg and Workman.
Johnson is clearly the extra part, the odd man out. He and Wright are redundant. He's 9th on the starting pitcher depth chart, so it takes 4 injuries to make him useful, and he's probably never going to be a useful reliever.
Meanwhile, there are five spots on the setup relief chart, and right now it's Kelly, Barnes, Smith, Thornburg, probably Poyner since you want a LHR, Workman, Hembree, so it takes two injuries to make Hembree useful. You can keep him around and try to limit him to low leverage, and see if he actually is a 7th-inning option who's having a horrible spell, rather than a mop-up guy who can surprise with the occasional hot streak. He's one or the other but we don't know which yet. You'll have to do without Poyner or anther LHR as long as everyone is healthy, but there's someone on the DL more often than not.
I do think he ultimately gets traded to make room for Beeks as the LHR, but I see that happening at or near the deadline.
(Note that my earlier assertion that his collapse came in part because they moved him to higher leverage is wrong. He no longer has any career leverage split of note. It was just crap luck that he turned lousy just at the point where he had earned their trust.)
Meanwhile, BJ has 7 career starts with a 4.34 ERA. It's 6.43 in the first inning and 3.86 afterwards, the former figure not surprising given his 9.00 career ERA as a reliever. This is a guy who can round out the back of a big league rotation, and could easily be a #4 if they could eliminate the first-inning problems with a longer warmup. I don't think you have to DFA him and give him away; I bet at least two teams would want to give him a rotation spot immediately. Teams are smart now; they know that his awfulness in relief means nothing.
This is, I think, the fifth time I've changed my mind about whether to trade Johnson or keep him (most of those changes of heart I didn't argue here). But this is really easy.
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ericmvan
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Post by ericmvan on May 12, 2018 14:46:37 GMT -5
Smith definitely looked much better tonight than he did earlier in the season. And. He. Throws. Strikes. I don't think it is a good argument that the Sox can't afford to lose Hembree. I don't think they can afford to keep him. I am reminded of an Earl Weaver story. One year the Oriole manager was having terrible problems with his bullpen, one pitcher in particular who was blowing up almost every time he pitched, and Weaver was using him a lot. A reporter asked him why he was using that pitcher so much. Weaver said, "I'm going to keep running him out there until they get me someone better." If I were Cora, I would sit Hanley tomorrow, maybe even on Sunday as well. Maybe he would get the message. I think Smith is rounding into form. Like you said he blew up early on but in his last 12 outings 11 have had 0 ERs. This pen will look different with Thornburg getting close and we have some time before trade season to see who needs to come or go. Since April 19 he has a 29 ERA-, 9 FIP-, 31 xFIP-, 1.53 SIERA. He's allowed a .421 BABIP, but that's because opponents are 6 for 6 on line drives when the league has hit .630. The more important number is that he's allowed just 2 fair fly balls to the outfield of 19 balls in play.
When you credit him with two extra outs on balls in play for the bad luck, he has a 31 xWP- and 29 XP-. As of yesterday, that would rank 6th and 30th.
After last night, I think he moves ahead of Barnes. I like Barnes as the 7th inning guy, Smith as 8th inning guy, and Kelly as the relief ace.
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radiohix
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'At the end of the day, we bang. We bang. We're going to swing.' Alex Verdugo
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Post by radiohix on May 12, 2018 14:53:42 GMT -5
I hope my boy JBJ does some damage today. Go JBJ!
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 12, 2018 15:12:41 GMT -5
Morning gents, has Cora been fired yet? I agree it was a mistake to put in Johnson, but 99% of his calls have been good.
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Post by braziliansox on May 12, 2018 15:27:03 GMT -5
Joe Torre and company just robbed the As against the Yankees, what a surprise.
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Post by pedrofanforever45 on May 12, 2018 15:46:51 GMT -5
Vazquez isn't even putting up competitive at bats anymore.
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Post by pedrofanforever45 on May 12, 2018 15:51:36 GMT -5
We have offense. Nice.
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