jacksonianmarch

Downs has zero chance of coming up this year and my bet is, even if he is tearing the cover off the ball, you wont see him til May. They're playing the service time with a tweener MLB player in Pivetta, they will absolutely do the same for their top prospect

That's the only skepticism I have here. Clearly, I hope he can play. But they have said nothing about his heart function. Did they just see uptake on the MRI or did they see diminished function. And what was the underlying reason for suspecting myocarditis? Did he have chest pain and shortness of breath, a troponin leak, an EKG abnormality, a dysrhythmia? Lots of possibilities and to this point, the sox were mum. My bet is we won't find out about how bad it was until he is cleared, then they'll over state how bad it was to add to the story.

Sunday’s game is the gem of the series and I’ll be working.

I thought the Yanks would demolish Perez, but he looked good while also getting an unreal amount of real estate on the inside corner. He took advantage of it in spades and was solid. Really impressive and he showed velo I didn’t even know he had. The Yanks hit machine actually got rolling vs the righties. I know Hernandez got tagged with the runs, but the big hits were all vs righties. Oh well, 9 in a row. We have now jumped past Minnesota for the 4 seed meaning they’ll have the 3 game set at home if it holds. Don’t care about catching the Rays at this point. I want us to stay in line to be home vs the Twins

Pillar has sucked in Colorado and is due to hit the market. So the fact the Sox got anyone, especially a guy with big league stuff, for Pillar is a good get

It’s less a relief pitching prospect and more the value added. If Downs is viewed as a potential top of the order regular, he will have a greater worth than a reliever ever will. Whether he reaches that talent is irrelevant, especially with the strong likelihood, imo, of him being dealt as part of a deal for controllable young pitching

If he’s got a lowered EF, he may never be cleared to play. This isn’t the time to throw money at a guy who may never be allowed to play again. They’ve been tight lipped on his heart function

All RH or switch hitting lineup. Fully loaded. We should beat the bag out of Perez

Well, the acquisition of Eovaldi was a win. Beeks has been good enough in TB, but is now down with TJS

The shorter the series, the more lopsided the result in favor of teams with aces

Morton is from Delaware and wants to be on the east coast. Granted, he did say he was going to retire after this contract

I agree. I'd have extended that to the 1 and 2 seeds in each division. The only problem with that is, with baseball, rhythm is incredibly important. And to essentially guarantee the best two teams take 4 days off before they throw a single pitch in the POs doesn't make much sense My ideal would have been to have the regular season end on day 0. I would then have the first round start with a DHer on day 1 and a tiebreaker on Day 2 if they split. Day 3 is the first game of the next round. Thus, the best teams get only 2 days of rest and the lower seeds really have to work to get an advantage

Lester's K rate plummeted this year and his HR allowed rate is a career high. This is also the first year where his average FB velocity didnt hit 90. Lester is trending towards done

I would not be surprised if Bloom really bucked a trend here and dealt Verdugo for pitching. Hear me out. The rumors last year were that Beni was heading to Cleveland, but his horror show of a season has wrecked that idea. So now you have Verdugo, the unquestioned long term offensive piece that Bloom will want to hold on tightly to. But, the sox have zero pitching. Sale will return at some point in the first half, but nobody knows who he will be going forward since his shoulder was an issue before the elbow was. Nobody has any clue if or when ERod would come back. The rest of the rotation is a bucket of gasoline. It would behoove Bloom (and be pretty typical) to prioritize pitching over offense. I do wonder if the sox do a 1 for 1 with Verdugo and Plesac. Last year, the kid was really good as a 24 yr old rookie. This year, albeit in 6 starts, he has been lights out. His indiscretion aside, he is trending upwards, especially with his K rate rising. He also has 5 years of control left.

The top 8 in the AL are pretty much secure with just the order in question. The Guardians have a 4 game lead on the Mariners for the 8th spot with 11 games to go. Needless to say, it is probably over. The alignment and the first round really make this thing bonkers. Any team with a lights out top 2 in their rotation can upset a higher seed. And it is setting up to have a massive impact in the 1-8 matchup. The Guardians are scuffling, but their rotation is not the reason. Shane Bieber has been the Cy Young award winner. Plesac is back after being a dickwaffle and breaking quarantine. He has been right there with Bieber as a lights out starter. The 3 and 4 is Carrasco and Civale, all who would be a 1 on many teams. Cleveland is not the team to play in a best of 3. I kinda hope they find a way into a first round matchup with TB, to be honest. They're the Yanks cryptonite. As it stands right now in the AL, the Yanks are a game and a half back from the Twins. That's a pretty important thing here, as the Yanks have been almost unbeatable at home and well, the Red Sox away from home (.363 win % on the road for NYY, sox win % .360 on the year). If the Yanks could sneak ahead of them into the 4 slot, that would be best. The first round is played solely in the higher seed's ballpark before the winners move onto the bubbles and render seeding and home field entirely useless. The NL is where it is totally bonkers. The Dodgers were the first team to clinch. No surprise there and they seem to have a stranglehold on that 1 spot. StL, Milwaukee, and Colorado are all within 2 games in the L column of the 8 seed. The 6 seed is under .500. The Marlins are the 5 seed somehow. Beyond a clear top 4, it is an absolute mess. This might actually be a fun playoff season.

If you deal Vaz, you’re getting pitching. I think you could see a Vaz to the Rays for a package of pitchers including Baz and or McLanahan

Another name Bloom could target is James Paxton.

Touche. Although Deivi is nearly 2 and a half years younger, has better all around stuff, and has done it at a higher level. Deivi's BB rate at a similar level (A+) was 3.1BB/9IP. And he did that when he was 19.

Ratings are sometimes not worth the paper they’re printed on. Soxprospects has Houck behind Mata, Ward, Song, and Groome. Ward is nowhere near the stuff guy Houck is and he walks the park. Song is on a battleship. Groome can’t seem to find his way outside of a doctor’s office. Mata is the only real pitching prospect above Houck. The others are either rated incorrectly or have such significant caveats to not be useful. Houck is a legit pitching prospect. Thing is, he’s not really a starting pitcher (yet or maybe ever) and he’s not really a reliever. He’s a tweener with limited command and a need to develop a new pitch to get lefties out

He’s a stuff guy. Stuff guys are tantalizing and if he becomes a stuff and control guy, watch out. I still think his arsenal best plays as a bulk reliever. I’m not entirely sure he will be able to face lineups multiple times through, and I seriously doubt he’d do well against a lefty loaded lineup. But he’s got better endurance than your typical reliever. In Bloom’s system, he’s going to be a bulk guy, I can almost guarantee it. If he hones his command and develops a split, then he will become more than that

A $5 mil guarantee isn’t a lot for a starting pitcher with multiple cy youngs.

Never been a question of stuff for Houck. He’s got a video game slider, wow. I like his fastball. I saw one K where he had a good 2 seamer. Here’s the thing with Houck. He’s going to be death on righties. His side slinging delivery and lack of a controllable change will leave him vulnerable to lefties. My guess is he’s in the bigs for good, but the Sox should be protecting him a bit.

No chance you get him with a minor league deal. But he’s the kind of guy you throw a $5 mil guarantee at with vesting escalators tied to IP. I’d also throw in a vesting option at $15-$20 mil for 2022. If he pitches and is good, then you let him reach his escalators and you’ve got a great pitcher for 2 years. If he dies out, then you spent $5 mil, akin to couch cushion cash from Henry

That’s what I was insinuating, yes

If things stay as is, our first round opponent will be the Twins, lol