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Recent Posts
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Post by juanpena on Apr 26, 2022 19:40:15 GMT -5
They're chasing pitches everywhere and taking pitches right down the middle. This is pathetic.
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Post by juanpena on Apr 25, 2022 20:11:08 GMT -5
Travis Shaw, Rob Refsnyder, Tyler Danish are all on the Boston Red Sox. None of them belongs in the major leagues. Wonderful roster construction, Chaim.
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Post by juanpena on Mar 9, 2022 11:38:53 GMT -5
Ya, I totally agree that it is about base stealing. Just not sure how it is supposed to be safer. I mean wouldn't you expect more injuries just from more stolen base attempts? I think there may be some confusion on this. Some people have called for a double base at first -- with half of it in foul territory -- to prevent injuries at first base. I think some might be getting that confused with the slightly bigger bases at all bases to encourage more steals.
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Post by juanpena on Mar 7, 2022 20:14:24 GMT -5
Moving on: hmm if you go up to $230-$235 player have gotten $25-$30 per year on cbt, increased minimum wage, a pre arbitration pool, and a dh in both leagues that are direct financial gains. If the owners had gone up to $230M last week, I bet players would be on the field now preparing for the season on March 31. Instead, the owners' "final offer" to save the season didn't go up a dollar from their previous proposal.
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Post by juanpena on Feb 3, 2022 16:25:02 GMT -5
They will always charge the highest possible prices they can get people to pay, regardless of costs. This is 100 percent true. When "The Producers" came to Broadway in 2001, it was a huge deal that tickets were over $100, but costs were high due to brilliance of Mel Brooks, the high-priced star power of Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick and the large, elaborate song-and-dance numbers. But once producers saw people would pay $100 or more, it became a standard for pretty much every show, even ones much cheaper to produce. And people kept paying.
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Post by juanpena on Dec 2, 2021 8:17:53 GMT -5
I hope the lockout doesn't lead to an abbreviated spring training. If there is a full ST, I tell Duran, "watch everything JBJ does in the field and pick his brain as much as you can."
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Post by juanpena on Dec 1, 2021 23:57:00 GMT -5
Kinda looks like Duran is going to be packaged away I think it means the opposite: Duran starts the year at Triple-A with the hope he rakes, shows he can hit in the majors and pushes JBJ to the bench.
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Post by juanpena on Dec 1, 2021 16:50:22 GMT -5
Now I would talk to Verdugo about an extension. Why? Just because you can get him cheaper than Devers? I like Verdugo well enough, but there is nothing special about him. He's basically decent at everything but excellent at nothing. Why tie him up to a long-term deal to give you 2-3 WAR a year?
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Post by juanpena on Nov 26, 2021 17:18:25 GMT -5
One caveat to the strong regular-season finish, though: The Sox tattooed him in the playoffs.
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Post by juanpena on Nov 23, 2021 14:27:34 GMT -5
Great move by the rays locking up Franco. Love it for them and love it for baseball He'll have some amazing trade value from day 1. They'll probably deal him the second they decide they need to do a rebuild, whenever that happens over the course of the next decade. Their lease at the Trop ends in 2027. Wherever Stu Sternberg gets taxpayers to build him a park, one of his selling points will be that Wander Franco is on the team.
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Post by juanpena on Nov 16, 2021 10:02:37 GMT -5
Although I love your optimism and would like to believe that the Sox have what it takes to build a solid rotation within their farm system I have my doubts. Maybe Whitlock and Houck can become solid and Seabold could also possibly be something valuable which would all be great. But you include Mata and Ward with the mention of 2023 and being ready. Ready for what, double A. Neither Mata or Ward has been successful beyond high A and they are coming off TJ surgery. It would be awesome if they get back on their path to the majors but that path doesn't look like it will be 2023. Groome on the other hand I think could surprise and be a factor sooner rather than later. Both Mata and Ward coming back this year at some point. Probably AA in 2022. Then AFL most likely. Half seasons in AAA and they could be up in 2023, pretty reasonable outcome. Of course this is all depending on performance and how they bounce back from injuries. The talent is there, however. Mata had his surgery on April 3, 2021. Sale, Syndergaard and Severino all had TJ in late March of 2020, and Sale's abbreviated, rusty comeback was the best of the 3. Ward had his operation on June 3, 2021. He's most likely not throwing a pitch anywhere until 2023.
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Post by juanpena on Nov 15, 2021 18:16:56 GMT -5
Also. Eduardo for all his reliability, had a hard time coming through in the post season. I couldn't get over that in his time here. One good postseason start and really nothing else. I think that could have been a factor also. Looking for a guy with a higher ceiling in the post-season. He made four postseason starts. Three of them, I think, were really good. His first one against the Rays this year was bad, his second against the Rays, and the one against the Astros was good, with the three runs coming on one bad pitch when he was ahead 9-0. The start against the Dodgers in the 2018 World Series was MUCH better than the numbers indicate. If Vazquez makes a good throw to first, they get a double play and he pitches six scoreless innings. Instead, Vazquez's bad throw let the Dodgers take the lead, and Cora -- IMO, foolishly -- left him in to face Puig with a righty ready, and he gave up the three-run homer.
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Post by juanpena on Nov 15, 2021 17:27:24 GMT -5
And seriously, how many of us here will look at a top 3 of Sale Scherzer/Verlander/Kershaw Eovaldi ... and scream "I wish it was Sale-Eovaldi-ERod!" Maybe passing on E-Rod was just Chaim biding his time on landing a much bigger fish... there are certainly more out there than in a typical winter. How will people feel if the top three is: Sale Eovaldi 2022 equivalent of a Garrett Richards cheap flyer Because that could happen too.
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Post by juanpena on Nov 15, 2021 10:28:30 GMT -5
What are the Tigers actually hoping for here? That their 68-61 record after their awful start is an indication that they have a great chance to compete in the Central next year, with E-Rod giving them a boost, along with possibly signing one of the shortstops. This is not a hopeless Tigers team trying to make a splash and sell tickets. Mize and/or Skubal could take a step forward next year, and the Tigers are showing they aren't going to concede the division to the White Sox.
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Post by juanpena on Sept 27, 2021 9:15:02 GMT -5
The "soul of the team" folks are really out in full force after this one - the team just didn't have What It Takes to Win.
I think they played poorly enough to lose two of these games, mainly because of Eovaldi's start and the 8th inning bullpen performances. But it took bad luck on hard hit balls and Joe F'in West to make it a sweep.
Sure, but the team isn't very smart or fundamentally sound. Clay Holmes struck out the side on pitches that were balls from the second they left his hand. The Yankees don't do pitchers favors. The Red Sox go up hacking and give up a ton of easy outs. Verdugo doesn't tag up on a fly ball. He almost costs the team a run by not running on Schwarber's ball that Gallo dropped, because Schwarber, who was halfheartedly jogging out of the box, then decides to run and is thrown out easily at second, killing the inning. And when Dalbec is going over for the popup, no one in the dugout is giving him any help, telling him he had plenty of room. None of that is on Joe West or bad luck. The team played like crap all weekend, and if they play like that this week, they're coming to Fenway Monday to clean out their lockers.
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Post by juanpena on Sept 26, 2021 10:55:06 GMT -5
I'm an old fogey of 56, and 2004 pretty much wiped out my fear of the Yankees. I have a friend since high school who can't get over it. In 2013, the Red Sox were in a bit of a bleh stretch at one point and the Yankees were playing well and he was all, "Here come the Yankees. They're gonna be in first place soon." And my response was "Rivera's the best of all-time, Cano is terrific, but who else on that team is really good?" The answer pretty much was nobody, but he still was deathly afraid of them. I judge the Yankees by the quality of their team. They were good in 2018, but I wanted the Sox to face them in the playoffs, because I was all-in on the 2018 team and knew they would crush "Red Sox killer" J.A. Happ in the opener. What makes the Yankees games different, especially for me and I think others who live in or new New York is Yankees fans and Yankees announcers. I'm blacked out of NESN when the play the Yankees and am stuck with YES, where they STILL continue to show the Bucky Dent homer, even yesterday. But in terms of Yankees "mystique," I think the only people who still believe in it are people like my friend and, obviously, the Minnesota Twins. As for THIS year, if I had a pick of who I'd rather see the Sox face in a one-game, winner take all, it would be the Blue Jays. Robbie Ray has had a tremendous year, but I think Garrett Cole is a better pitcher. I'd also rather face the Jays because the Sox have a lot of relievers who have trouble throwing strikes and the Yankees don't chase, while a lot of the Jays -- Bichette, Gurriel, Grichuck and Hernandez -- are free swingers.
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Post by juanpena on Sept 26, 2021 6:32:28 GMT -5
You can tell how old a Red Sox fan is by whether they have a pathological fear of the Yankees. To those of us younger than 35 or so, they’re just another team. I think this same thing often when reading this forum. I realized after the amazing 2018 season it’d never change, because multiple times during that dominant run they’d start panicking at the slightest moment of adversity. Dropping game one in the ALDS instantly negated the best Red Sox regular season ever, and we can pull the receipts. The receipts will show the Red Sox won that game.
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Post by juanpena on Sept 21, 2021 20:07:46 GMT -5
Only two runs, thanks to Brasier, but boy did Rodriguez come up small tonight. Nibbling on 3-ball counts, throwing an 0-2 pitch right down to the middle to the ultimate free swinger in Baez.
Watching the Mets announcers -- who are excellent -- and Ron Darling and Keith Hernandez nailed it: He was throwing a lot of non-competitive pitches tonight.
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Post by juanpena on Aug 26, 2021 13:51:44 GMT -5
Vazquez is really hurting his case with me. On his bunt on Monday -- a very good bunt, I give him credit for that -- he was jogging so slowly to first, where if the second baseman had been able to pick up the throw after dropping it, he would have been out. And not know how many outs there were last night is inexcusable especially just after a players meeting where the message was to play smarter.
He also looks heavier and less athletic to me this year.
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Post by juanpena on Aug 20, 2021 16:47:58 GMT -5
I like Verdugo and wouldn't mind seeing him on the team long term, but I wouldn't rush to do an extension with him for two reasons.
1. Devers and Bogaerts have to get deals before him, and maybe you don't want another long deal that would limit your flexibility.
2. Back injuries really scare me, especially when they start young. Remember, that cost Verdugo the last two months plus postseason of 2019, and he wouldn't have been ready if the 2020 season had started on time. I don't think I was alone in 1986 thinking Don Mattingly was on a Cooperstown track, but the bad back took most of his power.
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Post by juanpena on Aug 19, 2021 16:04:22 GMT -5
I don't think we can judge Bloom's "plan" until we find out if Devers and Bogaerts are part of it. We should know a lot more this offseason, because if he doesn't plan to sign Devers to a big deal, I have to think he'd be tempted to move him for the return two years of Devers would bring instead of one.
I would hate a Devers trade, and would really like to see them redo X's contract to get rid of the opt-out.
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Post by juanpena on Aug 18, 2021 22:11:41 GMT -5
Plawecki had a VERY nice AB and it's not a rip on him. But it's Yankee Stadium, and lazy fly balls to right are home runs.
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Post by juanpena on Aug 18, 2021 21:58:21 GMT -5
It’s the repetitiveness of the trade deadline discussion that really gets my goat. Is it OK to ask if they got the "best bat" why wasn't he pinch-hitting as they tying run in the ninth at a place with an extremely short porch in right?
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Post by juanpena on Aug 10, 2021 15:10:45 GMT -5
Overall the Red Sox are 10-13 since the all-star break, with all but the Tigers series against the Rays, Jankees, and Blue Jays. 8 games at home and 15 on the road. The back of the envelope says that fangraphs game odds predicted they'd go 11.2-11.8 in this stretch. So they basically underperformed by one game. ('Jankees' was a typo, but I'm keeping it.)
The 10-13 does include 2 gifts from the Yankees series.... Could easily be 8-15 without four wild pitches in one inning. In the game with the wild pitches, they were down a run with the ghost runner at second and their best hitters due up. They had a great chance to at least tie with no help. And every team gets some gift wins in a season. NESN has replayed that 2007 Mother's Day Miracle game roughly a million times.
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Post by juanpena on Aug 10, 2021 0:35:26 GMT -5
ONCE AGAIN the team was 19-9 from 6/24 to 7/28....... you call that a slump? I call that the ups and downs of a 162 games season. Stop with the false narrative! And if you want to point at the performance of the pitching then YES if you don't do anything to fix it at the deadline your position players are going to sit back and say thank you very much. Here we are busting our butts and everyone can see our staff is in trouble and you don't do anything to fix the holes. Yes I can imagine a clubhouse being a bit down if that is what the facts are, as you put them. Yeah, they went 19-9 from 6/25 (actually) to 7/28, in large part because of the 8-game win streak at the beginning of that period you've included. From July 6 to July 29 (they played the night of the 30th after the deadline), they went 9-9. In other words, I would argue, inconclusive. There's a 2-6 stretch coming out of a 10-1 stretch, then they go 7-2, then they start this horrid 2-9 stretch. In other words, they've been streaky for a bit now. Maybe they're just streaky right now. Maybe it's they're pouty because of the trade deadline. Pouty? No. But they needed reinforcements because they needed better players. Part of it is that there are too many easy outs in the lineup, and there is ALWAYS an easy out playing first. Acquiring Schwarber when you knew in a best-case scenario he was going to miss the 10 critical games upcoming with the Rays and Blue Jays was not ideal. Had they gotten a healthy, ready-to-play bat, maybe it takes a little pressure off Bogaerts, Devers, Martinez, Hernandez and Verdugo and everyone hits a little better. And the pitching staff needed a boost. I'm not all that bright, but I called a couple of weeks before the deadline that Eovaldi, who had already passed his combined innings total from the last two years, was about to hit a wall. And with Whitlock's workload needed to be managed carefully and the starters providing no length, Cora has been leaning too heavily on Taylor, Sawamura, Ottavino and Barnes. I don't think the Sox should have broken the prospect bank for Kimbrel, but I think Bloom should have been able to acquire someone Cora could trust to start the sixth with a four-run lead on Sunday other than a gassed Taylor -- to be followed by three other guys who are also gassed.
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