SoxProspects News
|
|
|
|
Legal
Forum Ground Rules
The views expressed by the members of this Forum do not necessarily reflect the views of SoxProspects, LLC.
© 2003-2024 SoxProspects, LLC
|
|
|
|
|
Forum Home | Search | My Profile | Messages | Members | Help |
Welcome Guest. Please Login or Register.
6/10-6/13 Red Sox vs. Rangers Series Thread
|
Post by cheers on Jun 13, 2019 23:16:42 GMT -5
I felt a completely different energy in tonight's game. This reminded me of last year Coming back from 6-1 was huge, as was the bullpen not giving up a run. Sweet baby jeebus, a happy jimed is the best jimed. Go, Merrimack boy.
|
|
|
Post by redsox04071318champs on Jun 13, 2019 23:21:47 GMT -5
Great win.
This is why I do think the Sox will nab the Wild Card spot. The Rangers could have left 3 up - not that cinches anything, but they had a 6-1 lead.
I got home, saw the score, turned away for a second, saw that it was 6-4, courtesy of a 3 run HR from JBJ and felt the Sox would find a way to win this game. Why I felt that way, I don't know. I do know that I still think Texas is a mediocre team.
It's a good thing they had the long ball working today. I think all their runs came via the HR. Martinez, JBJ, Chavis (nice to see him get a hold of one), Devers, and Bogaerts.
The bullpen was stellar today. Shawaryn looked great. Maybe that adjustment they made with him will continue to yield results. Brewer did well as did Walden. Workman was kind of nerve wracking and Barnes was solid again.
I guessed Hembree would be the only guy you can see coming in for the 9th, not that you dream about Hembree closing out 1 run games, but when I saw Josh Smith, I was like - ok, the Sox are going to push the theory that any schmuck can get a save - don't need to spend big $ for Kimbrel.
Well, for tonight, it worked, although when he hit the leadoff guy, I was like - oh boy, here they go.
Guess Hembree is injured with that forearm tightness. Guess we'll be seeing him on the IL soon.
|
|
|
Post by cheers on Jun 13, 2019 23:48:04 GMT -5
Well. This team is not underperforming the stats. It is about what it should be. Mercifully, outside of the GOOD teams, the AL is a dumpster fire. A WC2 spot is enough to make it exciting. This team is NOT going to win the AL east. 87 wins gives us a shot. As a happy aging Sox fan, I know that a shot is often good enough.
|
|
|
Post by cheers on Jun 13, 2019 23:51:45 GMT -5
So in 10-20 years when people ask you "where were you when Josh (C or A) Smith got his first Red Sox save?", will you remember? Probably not. I was in in Oakland Coliseum for Phil Plantier's first MLB home run. Does that get me crediblity? It should not, but thought I'd ask.
|
|
ericmvan
Veteran
Supposed to be working on something more important
Posts: 8,962
|
Post by ericmvan on Jun 13, 2019 23:56:16 GMT -5
So in 10-20 years when people ask you "where were you when Josh (C or A) Smith got his first Red Sox save?", will you remember? When Smith came in, I said to myself (and I bet others had this thought) "this will be remembered as The Josh Smith Game, win or lose." Lose, and it's the game where our cursed luck of late (Wakefield on the post-game blamed the slump on luck, and he's largely right) devolved to the point of parody. I mean, huge comeback, with heroic bullpen work, and then Hembree comes up lame before the seventh and you end up losing because Josh Smith is the only guy left? Seriously?
OTOH, if Josh Smith (.321 / .407 / .551 in 270 career PA vs. LHP) can face four lefty hitters in a row in his first MLB save situation and somehow nail down the save ... that would be beyond golden.
The strike three pitch to Mazara (about an 800 OPS guy versus RHP right now) may be the best pitch I've ever seen in my life, relative to talent and career situation.
I'll re-run the season projections based on xwOBA tomorrow, plus update the bullpen stats.
(I've been busy analyzing the relationship between MLB attendance (2004-2018) and various factors for my Science and Baseball SABR Committee meeting. Comparing 2018 to 2006, the decline in PA ending in contact cost the average team 3,389 paying customers per game, which is a 14.5% drop. In the long run that's more than a billion dollars in revenue annually. (The increase in HR is offsetting that, as is the improvement in pitcher's K/W ratio. There's a great explanation for that finding -- fans love home team pitcher strikeouts hugely more than they mind home team hitter strikeouts.) The other factor, as you might expect, is competitive imbalance, but it's not the lack of outliers that solidify attendance, it's the clustering of teams around .500. Which is to say the kurtosis of the distribution of win% across MLB is much more predictive than the standard deviation. 2018 was actually a good year for competitive imbalance (which is 60% current year plus 40% previous year), recovering 1172 fans per game from the awful year of 2015.)
|
|
|
Post by cheers on Jun 14, 2019 0:02:38 GMT -5
Thank you ericmvan for your work on our behalf. It is truly without parallel (even when I disagree with your conclusions).
|
|
|
Post by jimed14 on Jun 14, 2019 0:06:54 GMT -5
Oh my god, I'll remember that strike 3 for a long time! lol So in 10-20 years when people ask you "where were you when Josh (C or A) Smith got his first Red Sox save?", will you remember? When Smith came in, I said to myself (and I bet others had this thought) "this will be remembered as The Josh Smith Game, win or lose." Lose, and it's the game where our cursed luck of late (Wakefield on the post-game blamed the slump on luck, and he's largely right) devolved to the point of parody. I mean, huge comeback, with heroic bullpen work, and then Hembree comes up lame before the seventh and you end up losing because Josh Smith is the only guy left? Seriously?
OTOH, if Josh Smith (.321 / .407 / .551 in 270 career PA vs. LHP) can face four lefty hitters in a row in his first MLB save situation and somehow nail down the save ... that would be beyond golden.
The strike three pitch to Mazara (about an 800 OPS guy versus RHP right now) may be the best pitch I've ever seen in my life, relative to talent and career situation. Yep, I completely realized how ridiculously unexpected that was. It was like Bull Durham or something. lol
|
|
gerry
Veteran
Enter your message here...
Posts: 1,725
|
Post by gerry on Jun 14, 2019 4:23:20 GMT -5
Just heard a really cool note on WEEI- On this date in Red Sox history in 1957, Ted Williams became the first player in MLB history at the age of 38, to have 2 games in the same season where he hit two 3 run homeruns in a game. He hit these 2 homeruns (in this game) off of two HOF pitchers in Bob Lemon and Early Winn. He went on to hit .388 and had a OBP of .526 that year. Christ, what a immortal player. And we are so lucky to still have the same stadium, the same outfield, where he played along with the DiMaggios; as did Babe Ruth and Yaz and Mookie. For that matter, its the only place where every Red Sox player, and every Red Sox Hall of Famer since 1912 played. All others, but Wrigley, are gone. Fenway, the haunt of immigrant fans and their kids during WWI, Prohibition, the Great Depression, WWII. The Sox and Texans played in the Cathedral tonite. It’s good to be from Beantown. Old Ironsides, Paul Revere’s house, Bullfinch state house, the site of the Boston Massacre, Bunker/Breeds Hill, Dorchester Heights, the old burial ground, Harvard Yard, the Royal Rooters and Boston Pops, the Swan Boats and 12 Duckboat parades in 19 years, Faniuel Hall and Fenway Park. Hard to imagine that the old ballfield where we drank bug juice and scrambled over wooden seats for a foul ball nearly 70 years ago is now a historic monument, an international tourist site, replete with tours, hockey, football, rugby and James Taylor. The Patriots got their start there. The old Arena and Garden are gone where the Celts and Bruins, themselves historic/original teams, became legends. Could it be that our old, quirky, street conforming Fenway Cathedral is the strong beating heart of today’s high tech Title Town? What a comforting thought.
|
|
|
Post by pedrofanforever45 on Jun 14, 2019 5:20:59 GMT -5
Good thing they signed Xander to a extension before the season. He's on pace for the best season of his career by far. What a great move there. He's on a MVP conversation kind of season. On pace for 32 homeruns, and has a career high 12 percent walk rate, as said by the article. It's not out of the realm of possibility that he has a .300 average, 30 homerun, 100 RBI season in him as a short stop. That hasn't been done since Nomar. Someday when Xander leaves we will ask who will fill Xander's void, like we did with Nomar until Xander came. Favorite position player of the Sox is Xander. He wants to be here. He's pretty much the quiet leader of this team. He's as solid as it gets as a baseball player.
|
|
|
Post by jimed14 on Jun 14, 2019 7:54:18 GMT -5
Much has been made of the Red Sox' record vs. teams that are > .500, but what I find interesting is that they have played 17 more games against teams > .500 than the Yankees have.
|
|
|