A Realistic View at 2016

[Spudboy]

ERod's major problem, aside from command, is that he has only two pitches he can throw reliably. As a RP you can get away with that, but not as a starter. He needs to develop a slider or curve that he can command.

 

Yup. This deficiency has been largely overlooked because of his problems tipping and of course the injury to his knee.

 

If he is healthy and can only offer two quality pitches they had better be special ones. Neither is special at this time.

 

E-Rod, regardless of his seeming success last year, remains a work in process.

[moonslav59]

This from MLBTR:

 

Red Sox president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski says that he still has hope that Eduardo Rodriguez can contribute to the team this year, as Alex Speier of the Boston Globe reports. That assessment could well have an impact on the team’s approach to the trade deadline. “If people would be looking to say we’re going to be getting someone more talented than Eduardo Rodriguez, it’s not going to happen,” said Dombrowski. “They’re just not out there. They’re not out there and available. Sometimes you’ve got to fix some things internally. We’ll see what happens.”

 

Regardless of the Red Sox’ views on Rodriguez, the team figures to be in the hunt for at least one rotation arm. As Evan Drellich of the Boston Herald reports, Boston has been in touch with the Padres, who could market Drew Pomeranz and/or Andrew Cashner (though the latter had a really rough outing tonight). Also, senior VP of baseball ops Frank Wren is said to have watched both Rich Hill of the Athletics and Julio Teheran of the Braves recently.

[moonslav59]

They say Kimbrel will miss 3-6 weeks. My guess is more than 6 and maybe the whole year. This sucks!

 

Here's the 25 man roster as of now:

(13 pitchers)

 

Betts

Pedroia

Bogaerts

Ortiz

Ramirez

Bradley

Holt

Shaw

Leon

Hanigan

A Hill

M Martinez

Brentz

 

Price

Wright

Porcello

O'Sullivan

Buchholz

Uehara

Ziegler

Tazawa

Hembree

Barnes

Ross

Layne

N Ramirez

 

DL: Kimbrel, C Smith, Workman

Swihart, Sandoval, Young, Rutledge

[Nick]

Moon, I count 26:cool:

[moonslav59]

Moon, I count 26:cool:

 

Ooops. This is what MLBTR's had. I suppose we'll be sending Noe Ramirez down.

[moonslav59]

How about some love for Porcello?

 

The guy is having his best career year.

 

Best ERA-

 

Best xFIP-

 

Best winning percent.

 

So many posters were so down on this guy.

 

Kinda reminded me of Lackey.

[a700hitter]

How about some love for Porcello?

 

The guy is having his best career year.

 

Best ERA-

 

Best xFIP-

 

Best winning percent.

 

So many posters were so down on this guy.

 

Kinda reminded me of Lackey.

I am loving Porcello. He is getting it done.

[moonslav59]

According to fangraph's value page, Porcello has already earned over $15M this season. That places him at #32 behind Price at #19 ($17.9M) and Wright at #26 ($$16.3M).

 

I'll check later, but I'm not sure many other teams have 3 SP'ers in the top 32.

 

How about ERA-?

3) Wright 59

30) Porcello 81

58) Price 103

 

WHIP:

27) Porcello 1.17

36) Wright 1.21

41) Price 1.23

 

xFIP-

6) Price 75

34) Porcello 94

66) Wright 103

 

Out of 99 qualifying pitchers.

[Emp9]

Like you mentioned last season Moon, his extension didn't kick-in until this year. Last season wasn't pretty that's for sure, but they were an extremely flawed team in most aspects and weren't going anywhere, regardless how well or poorly Porcello did. I'm ecstatic that he's made the adjustments needed and let's not forget he's still in his prime. The extension doesn't look so bad now and it's one that I was on the fence about. I liked it in theory. Hope the results keep coming.

[Nick]

Been critical of Ben C but Porcello extension is working out. The kid doesn't walk anyone and works at a good pace. Clay B, take note. That's how professionals do it.

[a700hitter]

Like you mentioned last season Moon, his extension didn't kick-in until this year. Last season wasn't pretty that's for sure, but they were an extremely flawed team in most aspects and weren't going anywhere, regardless how well or poorly Porcello did. I'm ecstatic that he's made the adjustments needed and let's not forget he's still in his prime. The extension doesn't look so bad now and it's one that I was on the fence about. I liked it in theory. Hope the results keep coming.

But if they had waited to sign him, they probably save at least $20 million on that contract.

[southpaw777]

They say Kimbrel will miss 3-6 weeks. My guess is more than 6 and maybe the whole year. This sucks!

 

Here's the 25 man roster as of now:

(13 pitchers)

 

Betts

Pedroia

Bogaerts

Ortiz

Ramirez

Bradley

Holt

Shaw

Leon

Hanigan

A Hill

M Martinez

Brentz

 

Price

Wright

Porcello

O'Sullivan

Buchholz

Uehara

Ziegler

Tazawa

Hembree

Barnes

Ross

Layne

N Ramirez

 

DL: Kimbrel, C Smith, Workman

Swihart, Sandoval, Young, Rutledge

 

Its a scope on his knee...he will be back before September

Ive had the surgery hes having. Its not a big deal.

Edited July 10, 2016 by southpaw777

[Bellhorn04]

But if they had waited to sign him, they probably save at least $20 million on that contract.

 

And if Porcello pitched like this last year his price would have jumped by more than 20 million.

 

It was a roll of the dice.

[a700hitter]

And if Porcello pitched like this last year his price would have jumped by more than 20 million.

 

It was a roll of the dice.

But he didn't. They didn't have to wait long to see that he was dogshit last year. April proved that. If he had this year's April last year, his value was not going to skyrocket $20 million. Ben never knew how to negotiate. He and Theo way overpaid whenever they made acquisitions.

[Bellhorn04]

But he didn't. They didn't have to wait long to see that he was dogshit last year. April proved that. If he had this year's April last year, his value was not going to skyrocket $20 million. Ben never knew how to negotiate. He and Theo way overpaid whenever they made acquisitions.

 

If if if. That's the point. It was ifs either way.

[a700hitter]

If if if. That's the point. It was ifs either way.

I said on day one looking forward that there was no need to rush into that deal until we saw how his stuff played at Fenway. I was right about that.

[Bellhorn04]

I said on day one looking forward that there was no need to rush into that deal until we saw how his stuff played at Fenway. I was right about that.

 

Yes, you guessed right.

[a700hitter]

Yes, you guessed right.

It wasn't about guessing. It was about seeing the product before you commit big bucks -- just sound business.

 

Ben and Theo are not good businessmen imo. Neither could run a candy store in Brooklyn. They would be out of business in 6 months.

[Bellhorn04]

It wasn't about guessing. It was about seeing the product before you commit big bucks -- just sound business.

 

This is such a dead horse.

 

I think Porcello and his agent told the Sox they'd sign an extension on the right terms before the season but there would be no negotiations once the season started. That's a fairly common ploy. Then if the player has a big year the team has lost its chance to get a lower price.

 

But you're right, as things played out they could have saved money.

[a700hitter]

This is such a dead horse.

 

I think Porcello and his agent told the Sox they'd sign an extension on the right terms before the season but there would be no negotiations once the season started. That's a fairly common ploy. Then if the player has a big year the team has lost its chance to get a lower price.

 

But you're right, as things played out they could have saved money.

 

 

And despite my criticism of the contract, I wish we had a couple of more guys pitching as well as Porcello.

[Kimmi]

Regardless of how Porcello pitches for the remainder of this season and for the remainder of his contract, IMO, it made very good sense to lock him up when they did. Keep in mind that while the $20 mil may have seemed steep, the Sox went with a slightly higher AAV for fewer years. Good deal.

[Emp9]

There's also a very good chance he'd be pitching for some other team right now w/out that extension and we'd be needing 3 SPs not 2.

[a700hitter]

There's also a very good chance he'd be pitching for some other team right now w/out that extension and we'd be needing 3 SPs not 2.

Or we would have signed someone else. If you want to go down the where we would be without Porcello, we could go down the road of how much better off they would be if they had saved money on Castillo, Sandoval and Craig and used it to keep Lester and Lackey.

[Emp9]

Or we would have signed someone else. If you want to go down the where we would be without Porcello, we could go down the road of how much better off they would be if they had saved money on Castillo, Sandoval and Craig and used it to keep Lester and Lackey.

 

Yeah, sure... we can change the subject completely if that's what you want.

[moonslav59]

Like you mentioned last season Moon, his extension didn't kick-in until this year. Last season wasn't pretty that's for sure, but they were an extremely flawed team in most aspects and weren't going anywhere, regardless how well or poorly Porcello did. I'm ecstatic that he's made the adjustments needed and let's not forget he's still in his prime. The extension doesn't look so bad now and it's one that I was on the fence about. I liked it in theory. Hope the results keep coming.

 

And, the theory was to lock up a good pitcher for only years within his prime, and that's what the Porcello extension was all about.

 

Had we not extended him, he might be somewhere else right now, and maybe we'd have signed another big pitcher that's on the DL right now. (Maybe we'd have signed Cueto or Zimm.)

[Nick]

Porcello at least throws strikes......I hate Dice K approach....which Clay B has copied....

[moonslav59]

Porcello at least throws strikes......I hate Dice K approach....which Clay B has copied....

 

True enough, and while I'm not as big on Ks as others, it's nice to see Porcello's BB/9 continue going down. Here's his career track by season:

2.74

2.10

2.27

2.25

2.14

1.80

1.99

1.67

 

His K/9 rate with Boston has been about 2 more than his career up to 2015 (7.80 & 7.73)

 

K/BB shows the dramatic improvement:

1.71

2.21

2.26

2.43

3.38

3.15

3.92

4.62

 

[Bellhorn04]

Maybe we can follow up our June Swoon with a July High.

[Emp9]

Maybe we can follow up our June Swoon with a July High.

 

If we can forgive that 2-21 shellacking to LAA, which thankfully & mercifully only counts as one loss, we 7-2 on the month.

 

It's been a while since I've been this excited about watching the All-Star Game. Hope everyone enjoys it. Cheers!

[S5Dewey]

If we can forgive that 2-21 shellacking to LAA, which thankfully & mercifully only counts as one loss, we 7-2 on the month.

 

It's been a while since I've been this excited about watching the All-Star Game. Hope everyone enjoys it. Cheers!

 

My feeling exactly. I'm usually ho-hum about the AS Game. I watch it if there's nothing else on that I want to watch. This year I'm looking forward to seeing it. Red Sox vs. Cubbies.