A Realistic View at 2016

[S5Dewey]

The rotation should be alright if Price ever returns to form. Porcello and Wright are playing over their head to hold the rotation in place for right now. It's kind of a footrace to see who regresses to the mean first, personally I still would bet on Price returning to form first, he's too talented to be this all season.

Completely true. If he weren't "David Price with a huge contract" we'd be talking about DFA'ing him by now. But because he IS David Price his track record earns him the right to prove that he's not this bad - which I believe he will do.

[User Name]

Price's loss of velocity is concerning.

[Kingface]

Price's loss of velocity is concerning.

 

Agree. I hate to keep using this excuse......but I'm going to pin it on the cold......for now. The 3 games he sucked at were in Boston.....not exactly steamy weather. If this continues once the warm weather comes along.....then I'll be more concerned.

 

One GREAT thing about Price is that he is known around the game as pretty much one of the hardest working pitchers out there. As much as it is concerning us.....it's probably driving him NUTS.

[mvp 78]

Price's loss of velocity is concerning.

 

For sure. Last night he didn't hit 94 for the first time in a year and a half. I'm hoping it's just due to cold weather.

[User Name]

The highest AFV he has registered this year was his start against Tampa (93.9 MPH), his lowest was last night (93.01). I'll admit that while I'm not a reactionary guy, I'm wringing my hands a bit over here.

[Dojji]

*sigh*

 

Is it really that much to ask that just once, the high price free agent DOES HIS FREAKING JOB in the FIRST YEAR AFTER HE SIGNS?

[User Name]

Mike Napoli, Shane Victorino, Koji Uehara?

[sk7326]

A reduction in fastball speed is not a red flag in itself if he can pitch without it - was something that was bound to happen. That said, yeah the hard contact is striking - and leads to a career worst BABIP by a mile - .362 - so high that you expect some regression. The homerun rate is crazy high as well right now.

 

I am optimistic this will settle down a little, simply because he has still been outstanding in spots. The shaky home starts to me can be explained by weather - but definitely watching.

[mvp 78]

Mike Napoli, Shane Victorino, Koji Uehara?

 

Manny Ramirez?

[mvp 78]

Johnny Damon?

[Bellhorn04]

Also, Price pitched 500 innings over the past 2 seasons including playoffs.

[mvp 78]

Also, Price pitched 500 innings over the past 2 seasons including playoffs.

 

What Buchholz has pitched since July 2012.

[devildavid]

I'm not overly concerned about Price yet. He has a long track record of starting out slow for the first month. He normally warms up as the weather does.

[Kingface]

David Ortiz, Manny Ramirez.......

[jacksonianmarch]

2mph drop across the board. Will need to see if that sticks or rises as the weather warms.

[User Name]

Adrian Beltre. Can't forget Beltre. Also, Daisuke Matsuzaka's first season was pretty damn good.

 

Lump Okajima in there too.

[Spudboy]

Price's loss of velocity is concerning.

 

Sure is.

 

I just wonder about the root cause for loss of velocity.

 

If he is healthy, and his velo does not return, I think that he is good enough to be very productive because of his smartz. Sort of like Pedro.

 

But I am concerned about him losing 4-5 MPH.

[Jasonbay44]

Adrian Beltre. Can't forget Beltre. Also, Daisuke Matsuzaka's first season was pretty damn good.

 

Lump Okajima in there too.

 

JD Drew also, had a solid regular season and of course the grand slam in the playoffs.

[User Name]

JD Drew also, had a solid regular season and of course the grand slam in the playoffs.

 

Drew had a pretty bad regular season by his standards in '07 with the back injury and the sick child (796 OPS) but boy did that Grand Slam felt like deliverance for people who liked him and felt compelled to defend him. Never has there been a more polarizing player IMO, but I loved the guy.

[Dojji]

I was on the Drew camp as well, partially because I'm a fan of OBP, and partly because I have always been something of a contrarian who prefers to go against the prevailing train of thought. (I even briefly tried to defend Pablo before I realized that pig wouldn't fly).

[sk7326]

Drew had a pretty bad regular season by his standards in '07 with the back injury and the sick child (796 OPS) but boy did that Grand Slam felt like deliverance for people who liked him and felt compelled to defend him. Never has there been a more polarizing player IMO, but I loved the guy.

 

Drew was largely solid and productive. In a way he was hampered by his brush with MVP-ness when he was in Atlanta (and probably should have won it). That he never touched it hurt his narrative though he was productive.

 

Also - and this is just me spitballing - he always gave me the sense of a guy who played baseball because it was a family business. The game was so easy for him, but somewhere in his heart, he might have wished he was a painter or something.

[Dojji]

He was a professional. He was calm at the plate and in the field, did his job with a minimum of fuss and didn't need to go to an exaggerated effort to do it. Not a good fit for a town that preferred the dirt dogs, max effort full hustle dirty uniform types even if he was better at the game than most of them.

 

Ironically, Drew would have been an excellent fit for pinstripes. He fit their ethos a lot more than he fit ours.

[Maxbialystock]

I think it is fair to say that JD Drew was a five tool outfielder. He could hit, hit with power, field, throw, and run the bases. I thought he was a terrific rightfielder at Fenway--good range, good arm. The Sox paid him $14M/year which back then, almost 10 years ago, was a goodly sum, especially for a 31 year old outfielder signing for 5 years ($70M). In 2006 he knocked in 100 runs for the Dodgers. In 5 years with the Sox he never drove in more than 68, but did score 84 twice. He never played in more than 140 games in a season for the Sox. Looking back, I thought the Sox did OK with him even though, like most others, I thought he missed too many games when he was here. He kind of reminds me of Ellsbury because both have had a tendency to get hurt or otherwise miss games. And both, apparently, got worse after they signed final contracts--although Ellsbury's is for 7 years and I think $154 million.

[Maxbialystock]

For sure. Last night he didn't hit 94 for the first time in a year and a half. I'm hoping it's just due to cold weather.

 

Me, I don't care that much about the velocity of the fastball because those with good ones tend to use them too much. What concerned me last night is that Price faced a lot of righties and didn't use his changeup very much. Kimbrel lives on his fastball, but last night he also got in some good breaking stuff.

[Palodios]

He was a professional. He was calm at the plate and in the field, did his job with a minimum of fuss and didn't need to go to an exaggerated effort to do it. Not a good fit for a town that preferred the dirt dogs, max effort full hustle dirty uniform types even if he was better at the game than most of them.

 

Ironically, Drew would have been an excellent fit for pinstripes. He fit their ethos a lot more than he fit ours.

 

It seems nowadays the bar is much lower. Don't be fat. Don't be an *******. Produce good numbers. I wasn't a Drew fan, but if he was in left field right now, I'd probably be thrilled.

[Yaz Fan Since 67]

. In 5 years with the Sox he never drove in more than 68, but did score 84 twice. He never played in more than 140 games in a season for the Sox.

 

His Red Sox career has me wondering how any Sox fan could see him as anything but a disappointment and a bad signing. We chased returns, paying him for what he did for someone else.

[User Name]

Obviously he lacked the necessary "grit" and "dirtdogness". He should have worn a sweaty hat and dirty batting helmet. That would have made him a good signing.

[devildavid]

JD Drew was the Sox equivalent of the Yankees Roy White in the 1970' s but without White's durability. A good solid player. I will admit it, I always liked Roy White.

 

Drew's main weakness was his inability to stay on the field.

[User Name]

That's a good way to describe Drew. He could do everything well, the problem is he wasn't always on the field to do it.

[sk7326]

I think it is fair to say that JD Drew was a five tool outfielder. He could hit, hit with power, field, throw, and run the bases. I thought he was a terrific rightfielder at Fenway--good range, good arm. The Sox paid him $14M/year which back then, almost 10 years ago, was a goodly sum, especially for a 31 year old outfielder signing for 5 years ($70M). In 2006 he knocked in 100 runs for the Dodgers. In 5 years with the Sox he never drove in more than 68, but did score 84 twice. He never played in more than 140 games in a season for the Sox. Looking back, I thought the Sox did OK with him even though, like most others, I thought he missed too many games when he was here. He kind of reminds me of Ellsbury because both have had a tendency to get hurt or otherwise miss games. And both, apparently, got worse after they signed final contracts--although Ellsbury's is for 7 years and I think $154 million.

 

His main issue was durability - and fans could get upset at him because of his demeanor (as noted above, I'm not sure he actually would play baseball if he wasn't so good at it). But he was largely very much worth his salary - friends don't let friends use RBIs to determine anything one way or the other.

 

In general you sign a 30+ year old, it's going to be a loser at the end - it's the lot you live with in UFA. It's also why Mike Trout was able to get the sun, moon and stars in a pre-FA extension, and why Bryce Harper will be the most coveted and lavishly compensated UFA in history.