Red Sox (Houck) vs Blue Jays (Berrios): 05/01/25, 7:07pm

[mvp 78]

21 minutes ago, illinoisredsox said:

Whitlock was the problem Wednesday.  I don’t put losing a ghost runner game on any pitcher unless he gives up a multiple runs in one of the extras.

He didn't look good and gave up loud contact in extras. Needs swing and miss with a runner on. It's not an ideal spot for him, but he still needs to produce and didn't look good to me. 

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

16 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

The pen worries seem to be well-founded.

Maybe our concerns just reflect that state of modern baseball. The two worst things to watch: bullpens losing leads and games, and batters constantly striking out trying to get the runs back. 

Happens to every team, and so do the game-losing home runs that always seem to characterize late-inning blown saves. Put it this way: how many bullpen debacles do we remember that serve up a singles fest?

It's usually a bomb, preceded by a walk, with maybe a dumb error thrown in (and away). Es suck to watch, too, but unless they're epidemic, seem easier to excuse as players being human beings... though mistakes like batters swinging and missing the same pitches over and over, or pitchers missing the strike zone over and over seem less tolerable.

[mvp 78]

Bright side: 11 whiffs from Houck last night, 12.8 swinging strike %. Much better than I've seen recently from him. 

[jdc69]

3 hours ago, Bellhorn04 said:

It's the modern game.  In the old days Houck would absolutely have been sent out for the 8th.  Of course if Houck was sent out last night and got beat, Cora would be crucified for that too.

I guess the whole league is this way now. Not to sound like a broken record but I don't like it. It's taking the thinking and responsibility and spirit away from the player, making them wimpier and dumber and more susceptible to injury. It's like baseball socialism. Also, if everybody does it, who is there to compare to to prove its better? 

[FredLynn]

3 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

He has until Memorial Day for me. He has to be closer to 700 by then though...

Fair enough. But Rafaela? He is a lost cause. His plate discipline has not improved a bit. Sure, he occasionally has the ball hit his bat but only by accident. I think he should be off the roster ASAP, preferably traded while some other team may be fooled into believing he has value.

[mvp 78]

1 minute ago, FredLynn said:

Fair enough. But Rafaela? He is a lost cause. His plate discipline has not improved a bit. Sure, he occasionally has the ball hit his bat but only by accident. I think he should be off the roster ASAP, preferably traded while some other team may be fooled into believing he has value.

His whiff rate is still bad, but it's better than what it was in '24 (down 6%) and his k rate is only 17% at the moment. All his metrics right now are solid. He just continues to chase a lot of pitches outside the zone WHICH HE HAS ALWAYS DONE AND WILL ALWAYS DO. I think he's been a little unlucky so far, but his approach is better this year than it was last year for the most part. He's walking more, hitting the ball harder, barrelling the ball more often, but there's only one issue that I've noticed. Once he gets to pulling that ball in the air again, he'll put up numbers again.

[mvp 78]

11 minutes ago, jdc69 said:

I guess the whole league is this way now. Not to sound like a broken record but I don't like it. It's taking the thinking and responsibility and spirit away from the player, making them wimpier and dumber and more susceptible to injury. It's like baseball socialism. Also, if everybody does it, who is there to compare to to prove its better? 

It was the bottom of the order too when Slaten came on in the 8th. 😎

[d-money]

Getting close to 40 games already  and this team looks exactly like last year.  Blowing games they should win. So frustrating watching this s***. 

[FredLynn]

17 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

His whiff rate is still bad, but it's better than what it was in '24 (down 6%) and his k rate is only 17% at the moment. All his metrics right now are solid. He just continues to chase a lot of pitches outside the zone WHICH HE HAS ALWAYS DONE AND WILL ALWAYS DO. I think he's been a little unlucky so far, but his approach is better this year than it was last year for the most part. He's walking more, hitting the ball harder, barrelling the ball more often, but there's only one issue that I've noticed. Once he gets to pulling that ball in the air again, he'll put up numbers again.

Here are his OPS+ numbers for the last three years: 

78 (23)

83

69

I don't see any improvement at all. If anything he is regressing. In addition, his swing doesn't pass the eye test. Walking more, yes: 2.6% v 6.7%.  My opinion is based not only on the eye test but on his OPS+, which is awful. We can do better. We have to do better if we want to play ball in October.

 

[mvp 78]

4 minutes ago, FredLynn said:

Here are his OPS+ numbers for the last three years: 

78 (23)

83

69

I don't see any improvement at all. If anything he is regressing. In addition, his swing doesn't pass the eye test. Walking more, yes: 2.6% v 6.7%.  My opinion is based not only on the eye test but on his OPS+, which is awful. We can do better. We have to do better if we want to play ball in October.

 

His BABIP is 240, which is really low. Once that normalizes over a longer sample, his OPS will go up IMO. 

[FredLynn]

31 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

His BABIP is 240, which is really low. Once that normalizes over a longer sample, his OPS will go up IMO. 

His best OPS+ isn’t even 85. He’s only marginally better than JBJ when we dumped him (OPS + of 60). 
I’d still get rid of him while we might be able to get something for him. He can’t hit.

[Maxbialystock]

12 hours ago, illinoisredsox said:

Mayer’s not coming up to sit on the bench (which is what Hamilton does most of the time, tonight was his 10th start of the year, most of which have been for Rafaela, not Campbell) .  If he’s brought up, it’s because Story or Campbell is hurt.

Grissom for Gonzalez, meh.  I could take it or leave it. Grissom’s never done much at the major league level  and we really don’t know if he can play first, though I understand he’s playing some games there in Worcester, so it could be in the cards.  Gonzalez hasn’t really done anything to merit demotion, but he’s a fungible player.

The backup infielders are hardly the Sox main problem.

 

 

 

All that makes sense.  However, I think Mayer, Anthony, and/or Grissom comes up as a bat--with the glove secondary.  Anthony goes to the outfield to replace Rafaela if his hitting continues to stink.  Mayer or Grissom goes to 1b to replace Casas if his hitting doesn't improve.  

 

[mvp 78]

9 minutes ago, FredLynn said:

His best OPS+ isn’t even 85. He’s only marginally better than JBJ when we dumped him (OPS + of 60). 
I’d still get rid of him while we might be able to get something for him. He can’t hit.

He's 24. When JBJ was 24, he had an OPS+ of 49 for 127 games. I think we can give him time.

He had an OPS+ of 83 last season as a 23 year old. We were fine with JBJ having a 90 OPS+ from 17-19. 

Since he has show signs of improvement in some phases of his hitting, you need to give him time for the numbers to catch up IMO. 

[mvp 78]

11 minutes ago, Maxbialystock said:

All that makes sense.  However, I think Mayer, Anthony, and/or Grissom comes up as a bat--with the glove secondary.  Anthony goes to the outfield to replace Rafaela if his hitting continues to stink.  Mayer or Grissom goes to 1b to replace Casas if his hitting doesn't improve.  

 

No way are they putting Mayer at 1b. 

[Maxbialystock]

4 hours ago, Hugh2 said:

What's frustrating is this team was looking poised to go on a run, and then two pitchers who otherwise have been great for you this year are the two who really blew it this series. Whitlock and Slaten. 

 

Both those games Giolito and Houck gave you something to be optimistic on and then two guys who haven't been the problem this year blow it.  

Everyone has bad games, even the best of them, but their timing certainly sucks. 

Very good comments and exactly the way I see Slaten, Whitlock, Giolito, and Houck.  Houck's ERA stinks because he gave up 11 runs in 2.1 innings.  For all other games, his ERA is 3.96

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

4 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

The pen worries seem to be well-founded.

Lost-and-founded.

[moonslav59]

1 hour ago, 5GoldGlovesOF,75 said:

Lost-and-founded.

Founded and Losted