2014 Projections

[Behindenemylines]

It should be evident when a pitcher loses his stuff. And, as you say, the red line is about 120 pitches. Too bad Grady Little paid no attention to that when he kept in Pedro in that Yankee stadium game. Cost him his job.

 

I remember when Schilling pitched for Philly, and Tito was manager. Tito kept him in for 140 or so pitches many games--his ERA in the 8th and 9th innings was about 5. Claimed he had a weak bullpen. Next year Schilling had to have a shoulder operation. There's obviously a limit, but 100 pitches taxes the bullpen and leads to unforced losses. The starters are better pitchers than their replacements, except for maybe the closer.

 

It always seems that pitchers who have a start that they go beyond 120 pitches end up struggling in their next few starts. With the way bullpens are specialized most starters are only expected to go 6 or 7 innings and 100 pitches becomes the magic number when managers start watching pitchers effectiveness.

[a700hitter]

It looks like I over-rated the Red Sox. LOL!

 

I need to see more of the teams from the NL and othe AL divisions before making projections, but here is my projection for the ALE.

 

1. Yankees (and it will not be close if Jeter and Tex can put up representative numbers.)

2. Orioles (Tons of offense and although the starting pitching is mediocre, it is deep plus they have some live young guns)

3. Rays (Tons of live arms -- enough to stock the rotation and the pen. If they get any offense, they will catch the O's0

4. Red Sox -- it's very difficult to repeat and even harder to stay away from major injuries 2 years in a row.

5. Blue Jays -- They have done nothing to inject life into their team.

[a700hitter]

You're unbelievable sometimes haha.

 

I don't think any of these teams have remotely as much depth as the Red Sox. They have a solid rotation, solid lineup, great defense, great bullpen, great bench, great minor league depth, and a great farm system. No players are coming off major surgery, besides Pedroia.

 

You can't say that about any of the other teams in the ALE. As long as they stay hungry and healthy, it wouldn't be out of the question to see them make another deep run this year.

 

How would you rate those aspects of the team as the season comes to a close. I am not posting this as a gotcha, because no one disagreed with you at the time. No one could have foreseen this disaster.