4/25 vs Destroyers of slumps

[mvp 78]

I could only imagine what this bullpen would look like if we also had vintage Bard from a few years ago.

 

I'm sure they'll have a few rough patches, but they're very solid. Vintage Bard and Tazawa would pile up K's. Uehara would come in for any jams. Bailey would close. Hanrahan would be gone? Probably get more for Bailey.

 

Need a LHP and long man. Run out of room somewhere.

[Thunder]

I guess Clay's ERA went up a bit tonight. Went from 0.90 to 1.19. Still the early favorite for Cy Young in my mind.

[italstallianion]

I'M JUST........SAYIN'!

 

 

See what happens when you finally stopped guessing 5-3? haha

[italstallianion]

I'm sure they'll have a few rough patches, but they're very solid. Vintage Bard and Tazawa would pile up K's. Uehara would come in for any jams. Bailey would close. Hanrahan would be gone? Probably get more for Bailey.

 

Need a LHP and long man. Run out of room somewhere.

 

 

I feel like Breslow and Morales coming back would take care of both of those, provided we make Miller disappear.

[mvp 78]

Miller is the next one gone. He's useless once Breslow comes back. I'd keep Bard and Wilson over him.

[mvp 78]

And yes, I'm a big Morales fan too.

[SoxSport]

Middlebrooks made more solid contact in that last AB then he has in the past week combined.

 

Farrell was quoted as saying the kid has expanded his strike zone, and is swinging at bad pitches. What most people have figured out by now.

[TylerD]

And yes, I'm a big Morales fan too.

 

Dido. Always been of fan of his.

 

I love Jesus Miller. I would hate to see him go :harhar:

[seabeachfred]

I'M JUST........SAYIN'!

 

Well we cannot ignore the bald facts.....Tonight you da man!!!!! May I suggest that you start the game thread tomorrow. We need to win this series and the hat trick would be even better. You have a hot hand. We need all the hot hands we can get, even on this board. Go to it!!!!!

[seabeachfred]

Ahh, the Red Sox glory days of the early 1900s. Tell me, Fred, what was that like?!

 

s*** Youk, I'm not that freakin' old. Fooled you though, didn't I? You probably thought I new nothing of the Red Sox past until 2000. You know, during the latter part of the 1940's the Sox came close to making the so-called curse of the Bambino and all the bad karma a non-entity. Won the pennant in '46 by 12 games (104-50), and should have won the WS. Off year in '47, but lost a one game playoff for the AL Title in '48, blew a one game lead in '49, and missed by about three or four games in '50 when they hit 302 as a team.

 

I'm convinced with a little better luck the Red Sox would have been known as a powerhouse by the end of that decade instead of heading into the wilderness for over a decade and a half. Now that's your history lesson for tonight.

:D:D:D:D:D:D

[seabeachfred]

Houston is a joke.

 

Easy my friend. Let sleeping dogs sleep.

[italstallianion]

Easy my friend. Let sleeping dogs sleep.

 

 

And then joke about them when we're done playing them?

[seabeachfred]

And then joke about them when we're done playing them?

 

Hey, why not Stallion. Maybe they'd be so ticked off they would go into Yankee Stadium and actually beat the Yankees a game or two. Wouldn't that be a hoot? Until then my advice is mums the word.

[jung]

No reason to think Morales will have slipped any nor Bres. I am not sure either Miller or Bard will survive their return. Bard just looks like Miller from the other side of the plate. Uncanny how they appear to be bookends at this point. Is MIller on the way to a Bard meltdown? Is Bard ever far away from a Bard meltdown?

[RedSoxfanforlife305]

No? Kinda hard to tell from Gameday. Scoreless appearance anyway, I guess. Could've been worse.

 

Wait, you watch every game on gameday?

[RedSoxfanforlife305]

Nice all around effort tonight. I thought someone was calling my phone at work, but it was just the notifications of Humber getting beat down in the 1st Going to watch a few highlights of the game now.

[Thunder]

See what happens when you finally stopped guessing 5-3? haha

 

It will probably be 5-3 tonight with Dempster going.

[Bellhorn04]

I'M JUST........SAYIN'!

 

UN, you the man...on April 25, 2013 anyway.

[Bellhorn04]

Wait, you watch every game on gameday?

 

BTR watches the games on PovertyVision?

[Bellhorn04]

He pitched ok, but most of his pitches weren't strikes. The 2nd batter k'd on ball 4. He's not anywhere close to what he was.

 

Absolutely. But he hasn't killed himself or quit baseball and he is throwing harder. Some glimmers of hope anyway.

[a700hitter]

I missed Bard. What was his velocity?

[Palodios]

I missed Bard. What was his velocity?

 

I saw 96 not sure if he hit higher than that.

[VA Sox Fan]

I saw 96 not sure if he hit higher than that.

 

• Daniel Bard pitched an uneventful ninth inning, allowing a two-out single before getting a grounder back to the mound in his season debut. He threw 18 pitches, 10 for strikes, and hit 96 m.p.h. with his fastball. “Aggressive,” Farrell said. “Attacked the strike zone. [umpire] Tim McClelland notoriously has a pretty tight strike zone but he looked free and easy, looked confident. That was a good inning of work and a very encouraging one.”

[a700hitter]

They have a nice set up with the pathetic Stros for 3 more games before we go on the road. This fast start is more than I hoped for. I just didn't want the team to bury itself in April like they have for the last 3 years. A little over .500 would have made me happy. Jumping out to a start like this gives them some cushion to withstand some injuries to the pitching and still be competitive. If the pitching stays healthy, it could be a very very enjoyable year, but I don't want to get ahead of myself.

[a700hitter]

I saw 96 not sure if he hit higher than that.

I have seen 95 a very few times from him since he imploded, but I don't think that I have seen 96 from him. That's a good sign. What was he averaging?

[Station 13]

I missed Bard. What was his velocity?

 

Look real s***** to me even throwing 94-96. Could not locate anything worth a damn. Fastball were all over the place, and two sliders went back into the backstop. He can be wild effectively if he gets ahead and able to spin a slider of old.

[mvp 78]

Look real s***** to me even throwing 94-96. Could not locate anything worth a damn. Fastball were all over the place, and two sliders went back into the backstop. He can be wild effectively if he gets ahead and able to spin a slider of old.

 

He wasn't THAT bad. Give him a little break.

 

Bard was throwing 94-96 consistently. His FB was running in on RH's and got some swing and misses on balls out of the strike zone.

 

He definitely struggled with his slider.

 

It was a promising appearance and something to build upon.

[jung]

Yea, I know....a couple cut right through the opposing batter's box. He still seems to get that far off the plate with the ones that get away from him. His motion looks so much like Miller's when the ball is going all over as in somewhat disjointed. Which is why I commented that I really did not know whether either would survive the returns of Frankie and Bres. However, Bard lifted himself a notch anyway and maybe has something to build on.

 

Would I hand him the ball in a tight game??? Not at this point. It would likely be much better for Bard to gain some success at AAA before being put into any high pressure situations up here. In truth the Sox have been so far ahead in many of the games they have won that even Bailey has not been under that much pressure. Ninth inning Sox pitchers have often had the good fortune to be handed three run leads....short enough to get a save but long enough to allow for a few mistakes.

[SoxFanForsyth]

I have seen 95 a very few times from him since he imploded, but I don't think that I have seen 96 from him. That's a good sign. What was he averaging?

 

Averaged 94.21 mph with his FB. Maxed at 96.11. Also had over 7 inches of run to it, which is ridiculous.

 

Here is his velocity tracker. You can see pitches 2-4 were all at 96.

http://www.brooksbaseball.net/pfxVB/cache/speed.php-pitchSel=453268&game=gid_2013_04_25_houmlb_bosmlb_1&batterX=&innings=yyyyyyyyy&sp_type=1&s_type=.gif

 

I thought it was a solid outing. I don't remember his fastball running as much as it did last night, but I looked it up and that's pretty consistent with how much it's always run.

[SoxFanForsyth]

Yea, I know....a couple cut right through the opposing batter's box. He still seems to get that far off the plate with the ones that get away from him. His motion looks so much like Miller's when the ball is going all over as in somewhat disjointed. Which is why I commented that I really did not know whether either would survive the returns of Frankie and Bres. However, Bard lifted himself a notch anyway and maybe has something to build on.

 

Would I hand him the ball in a tight game??? Not at this point. It would likely be much better for Bard to gain some success at AAA before being put into any high pressure situations up here. In truth the Sox have been so far ahead in many of the games they have won that even Bailey has not been under that much pressure. Ninth inning Sox pitchers have often had the good fortune to be handed three run leads....short enough to get a save but long enough to allow for a few mistakes.

 

Agree - I wouldn't give the ball to him in a tight game. But if it's a 3 run game in the 7th and Uehara threw the day before, I wouldn't have any qualms giving the ball to Bard for the 7th, then Taz and Bailey in the 8th and 9th.

 

If Bard can just be effective, not dominant, just an effective reliever, that helps out a ton. With Hanrahan, Breslow, and Morales all on the shelf right now, our bullpen got really thin really fast. Taz, Uehara, and Bailey have been used a lot (which is nice because that means we're generally winning a lot of games, but you cannot wear them down). Having Bard as an extra effective arm in there could be extremely helpful.