a700hitter

It is a very close community. These guys usually land on their feet in some capacity at another organization.

I was hoping to see what the 3 kids had the rest of the season and was hoping that one possibly 2 could play significant role in 2016. It looks like we are down to watching only 2. I don't see that the FO has any recourse but to rebuild the staff from outside the organization.

You can't make it to the playoffs with 2 rookies in the rotation at the start of the season. I think people here envisioned all of those rookies in the rotation because the rotation that broke camp was so bad that we had no chance of competing with them. They also had almost no chance of getting through the season as a unit.

If the Queen had balls, she would be the King.

I like to call this the "but if" defense which is really a weak argument, because it is based on projected consequences to hypothetical circumstances. In this case, the argument is "but if Porcello had been good and we hadn't signed him, you guys would be mad." That's a double or triple hypothetical. Hypothetically, if Porcello had been good. We can end the argument right there, because he hasn't been good so we can't get to the other hypothetical that the Red Sox didn't sign him after the good season. Also, I don't know how that is the only conclusion to be drawn if he had a good year. Why wouldn't we sign him? I thought he was the young arm that the FO coveted. Then after getting through two levels of hypotheticals -- one that hasn't happened and one that we don't know the answer to, we are left with the prediction/projection of the emotions of others based on an analogy to our reaction to the Lester situation. Well that is a bad analogy, because Lester is a much better pitcher than Porcello and he had been very successful in Boston. These arguments are silly and weak rationalizations of what was clearly and simply a very bad move by the organization.

And we would be laughing at that team.

There was no good reason to believe that he would become a top of the rotation pitcher. They didn't sign him to an immediate large extension because they thought they were locking up a #4 which is what he is. #4s get contracts like Miley's.

Not in the Bigs

And just like that, we are down a run.

Melancon was ejected in the 9th inning of the Pirates -Reds game for hitting a better in a save situation.

Bench clearing in Toronto - KC game

Shaw keeps hitting --- AAA trash. Lol!

KC -- Toronto game is turning into a beanball war too. No brawl yet.

Bench clearing brawl in Reds - Pirates game as a result of hitting McCutchen

it looks like a fair number of the pitchers listed had their performance go down in after a 1000 innings, which really cuts against your argument about the track record of pitchers improving at Porcello's juncture. I never said that pitchers never improve after 1,000 innings. I said that their performance doesn' t improve dramatically after 1,000 innings. Before you attempt to define "dramatic improvement" with some percentage of WAR let me tell you what I meant by the term. I used the term so I should be the one to define what I meant by it. The pitchers in your list had established the quality of pitchers that they were by 1,000 innings in the major leagues. No one in your list went from being a back of the rotation pitcher to a top of the rotation pitcher after they had pitched more than 1000 innings or 5 full seasons. They had all established themselves as top starters before they got to 1,000 innings or 5 full seasons. None of them made the dramatic improvement from a back end starter to a top starter after that, and neither will Porcello. You might find a rare few that did it-- maybe some knuckleballers, but they would be an anomaly. By the time a starting pitchers has pitched 5 or 6 full seasons, he has pretty well established his quality level.

He's mixed in a fair number of Double Plays when there are less than 2 outs.

Porcello on the DL with tendonitis. I thought that such arm problems were not supposed to be a worry for young pitchers in their 20's. I thought that is why we didn't sign old farts like Scherzer, Lester and Shields. Oh well, it can't be disputed that Porcello is a Poorsigning.

You and MVP and Spud have the only 3 that have those streaks. Let's win this for Spud.

He was on a 3 game winning streak, and with this team that is rare.

A pitcher's development is not just a function of age. It is also a function of experience. What you will find very few pitchers who appreciably improved the level of performance after they have pitched 1,000 big league innings. It is so rare as to be anamolous. The problem is that Ben like you probably looked at age as the developmental factor without looking at his big league experience. By the time a pitcher gets to 1,100 big league innings, he is what he is, and Porcello is a back of the rotation pitcher. With regard to the examples you listed, by the time Glavine had thrown 1,000 innings he had led the league in wins twice and had already won a Cy Young Award By the time Kevin Brown pitched 800 innings, he had a 20 win season and an All Star selection. Randy Johnson? The only question about Johnson was whether he could consistently throw strikes. And even with his developmental issues due to being 6'10". By the time he had as many innings as Porcello, he was a huge star and had 2 All Star game selections. Drabek had most of his best years before he threw 1,000 innings. And Pedro, by the time he hit Porcello's current experience level, he had 2 Cy Young's (should have been 3) and 4 All Star game selections. He was already a megastar.

Porcello was a 4 + ERA for the 5 full seasons prior to 2014. That is who he is. Coming to Fenway was not going to improve that. Edit: pitchers very rarely dramatically improve their performance level after they have logged more than 1,000 innings in the big leagues. It happens so rarely that it would be impossible to project. Projecting the improvement and extending a big long term contract based on a projection that was such a long shot was not a smart move.

I was at that game. We were behind to the Phillies on a drizzly day and we were facing Fat Joe Blanton. When he hit the Grand Slam into the bullpen, I looked at my son and said " I think that was his first major league at bat". I thought, wow! That kid must feel great.

The season is a loss. The FO has thrown in the towel. Napoli is gone at the end of the season and Fatboy needs a day off here and there to prevent dehydration so I wouldn't mind seeing Shaw get some regular playing time. I have seen Shaw in Spring Training the last couple of years and thought he had a live bat. That's what I am basing my opinion on. I have no knowledge what Ben thinks about him.

If a team thinks they can fix Porcello, that kind of trade would happen after the season ends. A contender will not be looking to obtain a guy that needs to be fixed. We will do nothing big probably until at least Thanksgiving. That is my prediction. We have a loooong wait to have something interesting to happen.

Big day for Shaw. He has big power. I hope he gets more playing time. Napoli just doesnt deserve to start any more. The pitching still stinks. Kelly is a bust.