jacksonianmarch

Or is he falling behind more and needing to try and locate?

We have two MVP type players who are hitting poorly. We are missing our first baseman and the guy who’s filled in well (Austin) is hurt. Our leadoff hitter is hitting under .200 with a sub.600 OPS. Hicks isn’t hitting. Walker’s OPS has been under .500. The only guy who’s hitting above expectations is Didi. In terms of he kids, we don’t have a track record, so there are no expectations

Your current top 6 is better than ours..... though May 4th. By the end of the year, the advantage will be significantly in our corner, I promise you that. Gardner has a sub .200 BA with Stanton and Sanchez having sub .800 OPS’s. That’ll change.

That’s certainly a possibility. Is there a velo difference from before and after that start?

Looks like the matchups for our series is as follows Tue: Pomeranz vs Severino Wed: Price vs Tanaka Thurs: Porcello vs Sabathia

The kids got baptized today. Torres with two hits and a 3 run bomb. Andujar sith 2 hits and a walk off single. What a game

Beeks has a very low margin for error when he comes to Boston. I think he is dangled rather than promoted

Thing is, you move JBJ to a reserve Of role and he cannot recover. You permanently damage his value. You have to ride him through the end of June. If he continues to suck, then you make a move before the deadline. If he creeps back to like and has one of his 1.1 OPS months like he seems to do when the weather gets hot, then you ride with him.

Aroldis got a 5 year deal 2 years younger than Kimbrel will be this offseason. I'd be wary to hand a 5 yr deal to a power pitcher who will turn 31 in his first season of the deal

Swihart needs to be freed. He’s not helping the sox and the sox aren’t helping him

Devers is a different body type. Bogaerts has always had an athletic build. Devers lower half is built like a defensive lineman. He’s going to age out of the position quickly

You roll the dice paying big bucks to power pitchers after they are 30. The crafty pitchers early in their careers typically age well. Once the power goes away, the player becomes replacement level real fast

Wash, rinse, repeat, right? JBJ when he struggles is terrible, and when he is hot, can carry a team. If you are going to deal him, you do it when you wouldn't want to deal him

Exactly. A professional athlete needs to know their body almost like a violinist knows his instrument or a driver knows his car. Price dominated with a big fastball coming off a big frame. His 97 looked like 100 since he was throwing it closer to the plate than most at his incredible height. He needs to adjust. He likes to go up to get strikes, either foul balls or swinging. He needs to stop doing that in the zone. He likes to drop a cutter down in the zone to try and get ground balls. Well, without the same velocity, those balls are being hit harder and not necessarily on the ground. He needs to bring those balls down further in the zone to get more of the same effect. As your velocity wanes, your effective strike zone shrinks incredibly. He needs to chop a few mph off his breaking stuff. His cutter is only 4mph off from his fastball now. In his hay day, it was 6 or 7mph. His changeup differential used to be 9-11mph difference, now it is 7mph difference. He needs to slow down his change and his cutter to maximize his deception. A hitter only needs to adjust location and not timing with a 4mph difference on cut vs 4 seamer. If it is 6 or 7mph, he will be early and will have to adjust location as it moves.

Nunez is a better defensive 3b than Devers.

I want you to look at CC for instance. When he was an ace, CC didn't have to locate to a dime. He had good enough command of 3 plus plus pitches, but he got by with a 95+ mph fastball up and 88mph sliders down. Once the FB velo dropped, he was giving up bombs on the fastball up and the velo difference between his offspeed stuff and his fastball wasn't big enough to throw off hitters, so they were able to connect with the breaking stuff. It took CC years to remaster himself. Now, he owns the down and away part of the plate with all his pitches. If he comes up in the zone it is either too high to make contact or too far in or out to drive. Instead of 3 plus plus pitches, he now has 5 pitches that are all very good in terms of movement. He has successfully reinvented himself from dominating power arm to crafty lefty who allows the lowest exit velo in baseball. This is what Price will need to do (all pitchers actually). But Price is too stubborn for now to admit that father time is stealing his fastball. It took a few years of CC sucking hard to realize he needed to do something. Price needs to adjust soon or be a poor mans back end starter

That is true, but as a pitcher, you get used to your stuff being at a certain level. When that level drops, your effectiveness will drop as well unless you adjust. Price could get away with being up in the zone when he was 95, not so much now at 92. He is going to have to adjust to his stuff or he will become a major liability.

When his velo is under 93, he is a #3. When his velo stays above that mark, he can be an ace.

There is a theme with bullpens. Starve them and they succeed, feed them and they struggle. Bullpen performance is usually inversely proportional to how often you use them.

And this isn’t because I don’t think his mechanics cannot improve. I’m sure they can, but he will rapidly lose agility as he fills out. He’ll become a statue about the time his mechanics are improved. This contrasts to the Yankee counterpart. Andujar has similar mechanical issues, but he’s got an athletic body type and is faster than Devers. He will age better at the position.

He’s only 21 and is a viable middle of the order hitter on a playoff team. He’s gonna be a hell of a hitter. He will not be a good 3b

Devers has the body type of someone who will get bigger quickly. He’s got a real thick lower half which typically entails he’ll get slower faster than most. He already isn’t a good defender and as his speed drops, you think he’ll improve? He’ll be a .300/30HR/.850+OPS hitter long term but he’ll follow he Cabrera career path and move to 1b

He’s got to change something or he will be doomed to continue his middling performances

It’s beyond that now. The only season with a normal velocity for him in the past three was an injury plagued year where he saw pen time. I don’t think he can run it in there like he used to. He needs to adjust to his diminished stuff. It takes time, but it can be done. He’s got nearly 1800 MLB innings in that arm. Some wear at this point is expected

He is not a great athlete. He’s a big ox capable of hammering baseballs and butchering defense. He’s going to be a great hitter. He just won’t be a 3b for much longer. He’s awful over there