jacksonianmarch

Price turns 33 this year and had 4 yrs left on his deal at $31 mil per. Kershaw is 3 years younger than Price with half as many guaranteed years left. If Price dominates this yr, I would foresee an Arrietta type shorter term deal if he opted out. No way he gets 4yrs $124 mil. No prayer.

Kershaw absolutely opts out. He’s got 2 yrs $65 mil left on his deal. But Kershaw has been the best pitcher in baseball when he takes the hill. Should he post a healthy season, he may approach, although likely will fall short of, his current AAV. But for him, it’ll be years. Kershaw plays this year as a 30 yr old. He’ll be 31 by the start of his first FA contract season. I think he can get a 5-6 year contract, and even if it’s “only” $25 mil per, he’ll dwarf the guaranteed money he’s going to get over the next two. Remember, these guaranteed contracts are huge and years are as if not more important than AAV.

Honestly, I thought Andujar would be up after Hicks went down. It’s our best lineup to have Andujar in there. The kid can mash.

No, he wouldn’t. He’d opt in then throw a fit to where he’d have to be traded. These players aren’t dumb. The market re-set a bit and with Darvish getting low $20 mil per year and Price coming off a mediocre 2016 and an elbow injury in 2017, he’s got no shot at getting more than the 4 yrs $124 mil he’s got coming to him. The idea of him opting out is entirely preposterous. Price has that there in the event that he won 3 CY with Boston and then he could get more, but we clearly know how the first two seasons went

McKinney to the DL. Andujar up. We are likely to see Andujar DHing with an OF Stanton, Gardner and Judge. Also, if Andujar is pressed into 3b or 1b duty, both guys theyd replace (Drury and Austin) have COF experience.

That was stupid. Really stupid. Betances isn’t mentally tough. He’s also not the smartest guy out there. You take the clean inning and let him build confidence. Instead, he ran him back out there and lost the game, but more importantly, didn’t build anything with Dellin. If we get Dellin right, he’s one of the best relievers in baseball. But Boone didn’t do him any favors today. You guys tortured Cora in game 1, Boone deserves a lot of criticism for today

First boneheaded move from Boone. You’ve got Betances whose biggest issue is his own confidence who has a clean inning. You don’t run him out there again hoping he’ll get another inning clean. Part of the gig is to reclaim Dellin. A clean inning and a clear mind would have done a lot for him. Instead, Boone tried a second inning and got burned. Betances does look clearly better than the end of last yr, but you sometimes need to remember which guys are fragile on your club

Austin goes yaya again!

McKinney with an AC sprain. He’ll be DL’d for sure. Gonna need to call up a hitter

Austin with a blast. CC survived 5. Estrada owns us. Now Warren is hurt. Either way, should be a battle of the pens. Sucks that Holder gave up the lead.

And we lose McKinney to injury. Wow

Waste two baserunners and now CC can not locate.

Game 3, Estrada vs Sabathia. Estrada has owned us in the past. Let’s see how the good guys from the Bronx can do! First game I get to watch!

Also, the Yanks saw an average of 18 pitches per inning from the Jays starters in their two games, and while we didn't light up either starter, we wore them down, scored some runs and got the pen in the game shortly thereafter. This lineup will grind starters into dust and teams without strong pen depth will get hurt against this lineup. Once Bird and Hicks return, that will be accelerated as both are very patient hitters

What nobody is factoring in is the arb costs for your current players. The "saved money" from Hanley will be eaten by Betts, Bogaerts, ERod, and Bradley. The money coming off the books that isn't currently earmarked for arb raises is what Kimbrel and Pom make and that is basically equivalent to Hanley's AAV. So you have $22 mil or so to sign a closer and a 3rd starter. I am intrigued as to which way DD will go. Maybe he moves Bradley for a cheaper 3rd starter, pushes JD to LF and signs a guy like Morrison on the cheap to DH while allowing the team to keep Kimbrel. I know a lot of people on here think letting Kimbrel go is the way DD will go, but I think that's a mistake. Pom is an effective starter, although he is a pen drain. Kimbrel is as automatic as it got in 2017 and even in a "down" 2016 season, he was still damn good. With pen specialization and more matchups being used, having a relief ace is a good thing.

Oh I know. Nobody can kid around out here?

Did you put this under your pillow and wish upon a star? Cmon man, come back to reality!

6-9 go 5 for 14 with all 4 RBI. When the bottom of the order can carry the offense, we’re gonna have a good night. Tanaka was dynamite. I’m really impressed with the type of pitcher he’s morphed into. He burst onto the scene in 2014 as a power pitcher, toppling out around 96 with the best splitter in baseball. Last year, his 4FB was getting murdered for some reason, so instead of being a 4 seamer/splitter pitcher, he morphed into a 2 seamer/slider pitcher. He throws the slider when he needs a strike. His 2 seamer in pitchers counts. His splitter still a quarter of the time. He’s the most unpredictable pitcher out there. When he changed to this new style, he was very solid to finish out 2017 and was unhittable in the post season. If Tanaka can stay healthy, he will be an absolute bear to deal with for opposing hitters. Our pen, once again, was very good. 6.1IP 3H 2ER 9K 1BB. Betances may have allowed a tater, but he was around the plate with high Velocity. Warren is the only top notch guy who hasn’t seen the field. My guess is Chap is cooked for today. CC takes the mound. It is surprising that really our 5th best starter goes game 3, but I think that’s more a nod to the veteran, but we will see which CC shows up. I didn’t see him in the preseason. CC saw a velocity bump last yr which significantly improved his effectiveness. If he’s 90-92 with his heater, he’ll have another good season. If he’s 87-88, he will not. Either way, great start to the year. 2 down, 160 to go

Thankfully we have depth. I anticipate if Hicks needs to miss a lot of time, we’ll bring up Andujar to DH

Hicks to the DL with an intercostal strain. Here we go again with his core muscles. Who know how long this’ll be. McKinney coming up. My guess is Stanton moves to the OF or McKinney gets regular ABs in LF. Gardy likely moves to CF

I’m sure he’s not a talksox lurker, lol

Joe Kelly is all fastball. His breaking stuff is not good and his location is poor. He reminds me of Kyle Farnsworth without the intimidation factor. You knew 100 was coming. You didn’t know if 100 was coming at your ear hole or over the plate. His erratic command actually helped him a bit as did his size and persona. Farnsworth was a bad dude. Joe Kelly looks like he works IT during the day and if he gets out of work on time, he can come throw the ball around at Fenway.

This thread is genius

You don’t burn a reliever for the following day when up by 4 and you literally need three more outs before automatic kicks in.

I agree with this philosophy and I’m not sure why a veteran manager like Francona employs this and nobody else does. Francona uses his best reliever in the highest leverage situations (Miller). It might be the 7th or 8th, but that’s where the game may be won or lost. Francona does have the benefit of having Cody Allen as well who a top notch level closer. Most people would just stack them 8th-9th, but he’ll use Miller in the 6th or 7th depending on situation. I think we will eventually see a shift towards this. Pens with 2 closer level pitchers, one reserved each game for traditional closer role and the other as a swing guy capable of neutralizing jams before the 9th