The Official 2010 Hot Stove Thread.

[Palodios]

Pal' date=' what Offensive flaws from Beltre? The park is catered to someone like him. And to think he would improve after leaving the Hitters paradise(sarcasm) that is Safeco park was not a big stretch. [/quote']

 

I was referring to his career year phenomenon. He's a good player, but somehow baseball in general considers him in an elite class that I'm not sure is appropriate for his offense.

[Palodios]

I am realistic in my analysis of players' date=' Palodios, because i'm not a homer. And by the way, don't start asking me stupid s*** like this if you're going to pull your little victim act later. I'm just saying.[/quote']

 

358 words. Wow.

[RedSoxfanforlife305]

By the way - Why does everyone capitalize the S in Forsyth when they are talking to me?

 

Idk it became a habit. Does it bother you or were you just curious? We could give you an alternate nickname like SFFS or something like that.

 

 

 

Btw everyone shut up. Spring training is almost here. Just a couple more days we'll survive.

[Dipre]

358 words. Wow.

 

Put me on ignore before i make you cry brah. I'm not dealing with any shrink bills.

[Palodios]

You are on ignore. Unfortunately, that function is incredibly worthless.

[SoxFanForsyth]

Hahaha well most people on other threads just call me SFF, not SFFS because the last S isn't capitalized. Doesn't bother me at all just the first time I have seen people do it and I was curious...Forsyth works just fine, it's my last name so it's what I'm uses to responding to anyway

[boy racer]

This thread is ridiculous now.

[SoxSport]

I wouldn't trust Orza and the MLB players union as far as I could throw Selig.

[Palodios]

Scutaro is reportedly fully healthy. More good signs.

 

Fun fact: The Red Sox used 44 different combinations in the outfield in 2010.

[SoxFanForsyth]

Geez in the outfield alone?!? That's ridiculous! I wonder how many we had in the infield with the likes of Lars Anderson, Yamico Navarro, Patterson, Hall, Lowrie, that dude who took over for youk in Tampa when he went down, Lowell, cash, vic, tek, salty, Wagner, and I'm sure I'm missing a few....that's crazy to think about

[BSN07]

I was referring to his career year phenomenon. He's a good player' date=' but somehow baseball in general considers him in an elite class that I'm not sure is appropriate for his offense.[/quote']

 

Oh ok, I see.

[Palodios]

Got to love waking up a beautiful Saturday in Boston to read stories about Red Sox Spring Training. Some excerpts I've read from this morning:

 

Okajima reportedly injured last year, blames performance on that.

 

Lester focusing on a better April this year

 

Aceves looking impressive

 

Dice-k much much healthier than the last two seasons. Four years in Boston, still needs an interpreter.

 

Drew's hamstring better, but still nursing it. He's still undecided about retirement.

[boy racer]

Got to love waking up a beautiful Saturday in Boston to read stories about Red Sox Spring Training. Some excerpts I've read from this morning:

 

Okajima reportedly injured last year, blames performance on that.

 

Lester focusing on a better April this year

 

Aceves looking impressive

 

Dice-k much much healthier than the last two seasons. Four years in Boston, still needs an interpreter.

 

Drew's hamstring better, but still nursing it. He's still undecided about retirement.

 

 

These are the two I'm looking forward to most. I want to see Lester breakout. I can't wait to see what Aceves can do either.

[rateyourseats]

These are the two I'm looking forward to most. I want to see Lester breakout. I can't wait to see what Aceves can do either.

 

If Lester "breaks out", he could become a monster. You don't usually pin a lot of hope on a 19-game winner improving much. But if he can control his walks a little better than last year, he does have some more room to grow.

[SoxFanForsyth]

If Lester "breaks out"' date=' he could become a monster. You don't usually pin a lot of hope on a 19-game winner improving much. But if he can control his walks a little better than last year, he does have some more room to grow.[/quote']

 

Something interesting I noticed today when I was looking at Lesters game log for 2010. He only had ONE win when he gave up more than 2 ER. 3 ER and up, he had 1 win, thats it. There were 11 games when he gave up more than 2 ER. If he get's a little lucky with some run support, there's a chance he can turn a couple more of those No Decisions and Losses into Wins.

 

Additionally, when giving up 2 ER or less, he took 2 Losses and 1 ND. It's pretty ridiculous to give up 2 ER to Cleveland and Colorado and get hit with a loss. His ND was a game vs BAL in which he gave up zero ER in 5.2 IP.

 

If he cools off on his walks a little bit and can get a little luck to go his way, he could be a 20-22 game winner next season.

 

Also - I saw it on here earlier, but he had a 2.96 ERA with 19 wins going into his final start where he got raked. Tough way to end the season.

[SoxFanForsyth]

For the record - Lackey had 5 wins when allowing more than 2 ER, Buch had 3 wins, DiceK had 3 wins, and Beckett had 5 wins.

[boy racer]

If Lester "breaks out"' date=' he could become a monster. You don't usually pin a lot of hope on a 19-game winner improving much. But if he can control his walks a little better than last year, he does have some more room to grow.[/quote']

 

Easily. He needs to watch the walks, pushing 85 of them was disappointing. If he performs like he did last season with a keener eye on he strike zone he'll easily snag 20 wins.

[Palodios]

For the record - Lackey had 5 wins when allowing more than 2 ER' date=' Buch had 3 wins, DiceK had 3 wins, and Beckett had 5 wins.[/quote']

 

This is an interesting tidbit. I wanted to point out that headline because Lester is arguably the best pitcher in baseball from May on, and I'm very interested to see whether Young's training will better prepare him to start the season.

 

I was curious, so I looked up Beckett/Lackey's 10 starts that ended up as wins:

 

Lackey's --5ER/7 IP, 4ER/6 IP, and 6ER/6IP, and 2 QS

 

Beckett's--5ER/6.2 IP and 4 QS. Apparently Beckett earned the few wins he had.

 

When I was looking at this, I found an interesting trend. Beckett/Lester/Lackey had a combined 0 wins when they pitched fewer than 6 innings. There are a few between the other starters, but that says a lot about the sheer garbage this team had at middle relief last year.

[SoxFanForsyth]

You want to hear something that will make you sick?

 

The Sox lost 19 games in which the SP gave up 2 ER or less. I would understand the bullpen giving up a few leads, maybe 6 to 8 losses after the SP had thrown a gem, but 19 times last season?!?! That's absolutely atrocious! I just cannot get over that. Starter goes out there and throws his ass off, gives up a bloop and a bomb and shuts them down the rest of the time, and our bullpen comes in and shits the bed. Most of the losses came as ND for the SP, meaning he probably left with the lead, and our bullpen just came in and blew up.

 

Also - the Sox bullpen had 23 losses last year. The Yankees bullpen had 17, and the Rays pen had 16. So the Sox bullpen had 6 more losses than the Yankees, 7 more than the Rays.

 

Final Standings? Sox were 7 back on the Rays, 6 back on the Yankees.

[Spudboy]

A pitcher throws less than six innings and does not win.

 

Startling.

 

Must be the bull pen's fault.

 

Sound logic.

[Palodios]

If a guy pitches only half the game, he's not going to get a win most of the time. But never? There is usually an element of luck on whether the pitcher wins the game. The bullpen took that element out and replaced it with certainty.

[boy racer]

You want to hear something that will make you sick?

 

The Sox lost 19 games in which the SP gave up 2 ER or less. I would understand the bullpen giving up a few leads, maybe 6 to 8 losses after the SP had thrown a gem, but 19 times last season?!?! That's absolutely atrocious! I just cannot get over that. Starter goes out there and throws his ass off, gives up a bloop and a bomb and shuts them down the rest of the time, and our bullpen comes in and shits the bed. Most of the losses came as ND for the SP, meaning he probably left with the lead, and our bullpen just came in and blew up.

 

Also - the Sox bullpen had 23 losses last year. The Yankees bullpen had 17, and the Rays pen had 16. So the Sox bullpen had 6 more losses than the Yankees, 7 more than the Rays.

 

Final Standings? Sox were 7 back on the Rays, 6 back on the Yankees.

 

End of the season in a nutshell.

[SoxSport]

The conclusion is to use the bullpen less.

[boy racer]

The conclusion is to use the bullpen less.

 

That's every team's goal. What OUR team needs to do is to actualize their potential. Yeah, it's a broad statement, but carelessness has no place on the mound, especially with a rotation like ours.

[SCM33]

The conclusion is to use the bullpen less.

 

Nope. Thats a losers mentality.

 

The conclusion is that the Beckett and Lackey need to be better, which will leave them in games longer giving the team a better chance at winning.

 

This isnt on the bullpen. It falls squarely on the shoulders of Beckett and Lackey. You could argue that the reason the bullpen didnt perform the way they should have was because they were being overused and depended on to bail them (Beckett and Lackey) out of too many s***** situations.

[Palodios]

Lackey pitched 215 innings last year....

[BSN07]

I think people tend to forget he pitched that many innings because they were so mediocre, and not what everyone was expecting from him. Well most everyone.

[italstallianion]

Nope. Thats a losers mentality.

 

The conclusion is that the Beckett and Lackey need to be better, which will leave them in games longer giving the team a better chance at winning.

 

This isnt on the bullpen. It falls squarely on the shoulders of Beckett and Lackey. You could argue that the reason the bullpen didnt perform the way they should have was because they were being overused and depended on to bail them (Beckett and Lackey) out of too many s***** situations.

 

 

I understand your point in principle, and I generally agree with you, but I don't believe that it falls "squarely" on the shoulders of Beckett and Lackey. I mean alot of our bullpen sucked on its own, regardless of who the starter was. I mean when a reliever serves up a 400 foot bomb, that really isn't on the starting pitcher. It's not like the relievers ability to get batters out is different.

 

Sure, our bullpen was overused, and our bullpen sucked, and Beckett and Lackey weren't very good either, but that doesn't mean that all 3 are directly correlated and direct causes of one another. I mean sure, I agree with you that Beckett and Lackey are somewhat to blame for bullpen struggles (as would Dice-K in all of his 5+ inning starts) but at the same time, you have to blame the bullpens themselves (as well as management) for sucking so bad. I doubt that last years bullpen could perform with a good starter, let alone a bad one.

 

If having a few bad (or underperforming) starters is enough to derail our bullpen, then we should stop using such inconsistent relievers and get ones that perform well even with bad starters.

[Palodios]

Lackey had a season where he went out and pitched good, strong, consistent innings every single time he was out there. I'd prefer that over some of the elite pitchers out there who will throw a gem, and then follow it by a stinker, especially with an offense like this. Getting 21 QS from the guy who in all reality should be your #4 pitcher is insane.

[italstallianion]

Perhaps, but you could have a 4.50 ERA and throw a QS every single time. Lackey threw some of the worst Quality Starts I've ever seen, that's for sure.