9/3 v Twins

[moonslav59]

Agreed. Keeping Porcello in isn't as bad as some think. One thing I will say about Rick is he usually adjusts after a bad inning or 2.... But last night unfortunately it just went from bad to worse for Rick. This season can't end fast enough for him.

 

It's worse than some think.

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

Porcello's current stats:

ERA=5.63

WHIP=1.44

OPP. BA=281

W/L=12-11

 

I guess this would reflect that Rick is the worst thrower in MLB with a winning record.

[jung]

Agreed. Keeping Porcello in isn't as bad as some think. One thing I will say about Rick is he usually adjusts after a bad inning or 2.... But last night unfortunately it just went from bad to worse for Rick. This season can't end fast enough for him.

 

Adjusts with what? Again, the guy is pitching on guts...add guile to guts if you want to. That is all he has at this point. Once a pitcher reaches that point in his career or his year, you can't any longer expect adjustment in that stint particularly in a game you have to win. Maybe Rick can figure out how to make this work for him in the off season. But it will take some period of time for him to do it if he can do it at all. He is not going to do it from one inning to the next at this point. Even if he does figure out a way to make this work, it will NEVER work as well as it did for that magical period when he could throw rising four seam FB's that ended up out of the zone. I should point out that Rick was only able to do that for about a year and a half of his career. Won a Cy doing it. Probably burned out his arm doing it.

 

He came out to the mound in the first inning throwing four seam FB's at 88....NOTHING and cranked them up to 92 but flat at 92, in other words nothing. Once his pitch count started to rise and his secondary pitches started to flatten out and his FB got even worse, that was it....done. Cora gave him one howitzer shot. Fine as far as I am concerned. But that should have been it. The second shot was a railcar cannon shot and that one was the preverbal second kick from the mule from which no lessons can be learned.

 

Frankly I have more respect and regard for pitchers throwing on guts and guile alone than most people posting in these forums. That is fine too. Everybody is welcome to their opinion about what they respect or don't respect.

Edited September 4, 2019 by jung

[jung]

Aside from discussing Rick's shortcomings, how about Mr. Betts, Bogaerts, and JDM's 0-11, the team's 1-9 with RISP. Devers redeemed his 1-5 with 3 Ks by making the 1 count for 3 runs. Beni's 2 hits accounted for 1 run. Bad day with the bats .

 

I actually think that expecting the bats to show up every game (which is where we are now) even if its the best hitting team in baseball is just an unreasonable expectation. We may be seeing the effects of fatigue and dings and dents. Trout has not been Trout with his damaged foot. Who knows what some of these guys are playing with at this point in the season.

 

Cora's rest strategy for everyday players appears to have spared a good many of them. But none of them are likely to be as fresh as they were in April. Yet the team is completely dependent on bats scoring 7-8 runs at least per game to win.

 

We gave up games in two stretches this year.....the Cora Rotation debacle which likely cost us something like 8-10 wins early and then the trade deadline which sent the team into a 0-7 swoon until they recovered. If you incapable of going on serious win runs yet give up games in 6-9 game stretches, good luck with that.

 

Granted, they likely did not have the right to swoon at the trade deadline. However that is what they did. I would still contend that exec management should not have publicly challenged them at the deadline unless they really knew the personalities at play in that clubhouse and knew they could would either get a positive result doing that or at least get away with it. THEY DIDN"T and THEY DIDN'T.

[TylerD]

Adjusts with what? Again, the guy is pitching on guts...add guile to guts if you want to. That is all he has at this point. Once a pitcher reaches that point in his career or his year, you can't any longer expect adjustment in that stint particularly in a game you have to win. Maybe Rick can figure out how to make this work for him in the off season. But it will take some period of time for him to do it if he can do it at all. He is not going to do it from one inning to the next at this point. Even if he does figure out a way to make this work, it will NEVER work as well as it did for that magical period when he could throw rising four seam FB's that ended up out of the zone. I should point out that Rick was only able to do that for about a year and a half of his career. Won a Cy doing it. Probably burned out his arm doing it.

 

He came out to the mound in the first inning throwing four seam FB's at 88....NOTHING and cranked them up to 92 but flat at 92, in other words nothing. Once his pitch count started to rise and his secondary pitches started to flatten out and his FB got even worse, that was it....done. Cora gave him one howitzer shot. Fine as far as I am concerned. But that should have been it. The second shot was a railcar cannon shot and that one was the preverbal second kick from the mule from which no lessons can be learned.

 

Frankly I have more respect and regard for pitchers throwing on guts and guile alone than most people posting in these forums. That is fine too. Everybody is welcome to their opinion about what they respect or don't respect.

 

How the hell should I know.... I'm not a friggin pitcher so I have no clue. I'm going by what Rick says himself. He usually comes out and sucks ass the first inning or 2 and then adjusts his (mechanics, grip, what he throws i dunno....) And that is why he usually gets better as the game goes..... Last night it didn't happen. Guts or not he has had plenty of games where he has given up a dinger, or 2, or 3 in the first inning or two and then calms down and will go a solid 3-5 innings after. Last night he just looked frustrated and things went from bad to worse. Whether he adjusted or not it just wasn't his night..... Unfortunately most of his starts this year haven't been his night.

[TylerD]

Aside from discussing Rick's shortcomings, how about Mr. Betts, Bogaerts, and JDM's 0-11, the team's 1-9 with RISP. Devers redeemed his 1-5 with 3 Ks by making the 1 count for 3 runs. Beni's 2 hits accounted for 1 run. Bad day with the bats .

 

Ya bats were pretty cold till the end last night...... They did eventually come through but it was too little, too late. Nights like that will happen unfortunately.