jacksonianmarch

Tonight is the draft. Sox have the 7th overall choice

Here it is...

That was a bit more excitement than I hoped for out of the ninth, but a win is a win. Rogers is probably on his way to a DFA. We have 5 lefties in our pen, but we also have a lot of righties in AAA who are big league ready with top notch stuff. Time to stop the garbage with Rogers. Cap can be the long man, bring up Burawa

Oakland doesn't have a choice. They gut their FO and they'll never win. Beane has always seemed to find a way to be relevant 5 out of 10 years. That is hard to do when you cannot re-sign any of your talent

Eovaldi is so maddening. He completely dominates a good lineup then walks 3 of 4 in the 6th. The kid has insane stuff and is developing a splitter. Hoping he can harness his s*** as the year goes on.

5 infield hits in 2 innings must be a record

Girardi actually did his job last night and pulled CC before he could lose the game entirely, and look at that, we won! CC is still relevant two times through the order. He gets absolutely murdered the third time through. No point in pushing it. He's a shell of himself. Consider him the #5 and have him throw 5IP a start.

How can the pitching be "kind of ok" when it's the worst in baseball?

I get that your offense has sucked balls of late, but your team ERA is 28th out of 30 teams. Your starters ERA is the WORST in baseball at 5.05. Your relievers have been MLB average at 16th. You will not win with those numbers. The hitters will eventually hit. The pitching may not eventually pitch

5+ runs allowed in 60% of your games is a good way to have a 40% winning percentage

Good therapy is not throwing kids out there, but it might be what you need to do. It's gonna be frustrating watching the kids, but I doubt they'd be worse than Masterson

He's 2 for his last 10

Looking at the individual players on this team... Hanley Ramirez has a .795OPS, just a tick below his OPS from last yr. He's hit 1 less HR than he did all of last season. He's probably gonna hit a bunch more. He'll likely end up in the 25HR range this yr and should have an OPS over the .800 mark. Fangraphs has him as a slight minus when combining offense and baserunning for his position. But his defense has been abhorrent. He has a UZR/150 of -44. That's not a typo. He's a good offensive player, he's right around where fangraphs expects him to be offensively for his position, but he's a dumpster fire on a sinking ship defensively. He likely has a short rope in LF before you find a new spot for him, where I don't know Pedroia has been chugging along mostly off the radar right at his career norms offensively. Almost exactly at his career average in terms of BA, OBP and SLG. On defense, he's grading out about average this yr (UZR/150 of -0.4) which is not really like Dustin. Either way, his demise was predicted far too soon. I like Brock Holt. The kid makes good ABs and actually plays good D all around the diamond. He's been an excellent utility guy to this point, but because he started hot, he is starting to get over exposed. He is an option defensive in LF as Hanley sucks ass out there I don't know what you can do with Napoli. The luck numbers point heavily in him turning it around. But just as soon as he gets hot, he cools off. If he starts to go into a downturn again, you might consider Hanley at 1b or Hanley at 3b with Panda moving to 1b and moving Holt to LF. Napoli isn't horrendous defensively, but he's not magnificent either. Also, Nap is smoking lefties this yr. .920OPS and a .364OBP. David Ortiz has been a mystery to some as well. But looking deeper at the numbers, you see a bit of a trend here. Ortiz is absolutely getting abused vs lefties this yr. .121/.119/.172 is his slash line in 58ABs. That is not a typo. No walks, no HBP's, no HR and just 3RBI. Look at the slash vs righties. .278/.392/.500 for a .892OPS. That's more Ortiz like right there. If things continue, having Nap and Papi platoon might give you your best lineup. The rest of the guys you have to deal with. Panda has ditched batting righty and has to stay in your lineup. Bogaerts is your only SS option and you kinda need to see if he puts it together. For now you have to live with Mookie and Rusney out there. And at C, you have to live with Swihart and Leon because of injury. But if you moved Hanley off LF and put him at 1b or 3b (which would move Panda to 1b) and pushed Napoli to a DH platoon with Papi and moved Holt to LF (temporarily until you find a better LFer, which isn't too difficult on the market) you improve D while removing some liability offensively

In a typical season, you guys would already be buried. But in the disastrous suck of the AL East, you're a mere 4 games out.

If that's the case, there no reason to waste starts with Wright. Have Owens and Rodriguez fill the 4-5 holes with Buch, Miley and Porcello occupying the top 3. You won't win a lot, but you'll develop two high end arms for the future

Also, he had everything last night, from what I have read/ Slider sweeping out of the zone (didn't seem to try and keep it in the zone), changeup darting down and command of the FB to all 4 quadrants. Mike Mussina used to say that if you make 32 starts on a season, you'll have 8 starts where everything is working, 8 starts where nothing is working and 16 starts where something is working. When everything is working, it doesn't matter how you pitch, you're gonna be fine. When nothing is working, you have to really pitch incredibly in terms of smarts and location to avoid getting shelled. It is what you do with the 16 shifts where not everything is working, but some things are that you make your hay. ERod had a start from his front 8 last night.

I thought his changeup was far more advanced than his slider. His FB was impressive, low to mid 90s, hitting all corners. His slider was basically used as an out pitch, but he couldn't seem to locate it in the zone (on second thought, he likely didn't NEED to locate it in the zone). His capability to throw the change on the outside to righties was solid. That changeup is DIRTY. He's got the stuff to be a Lester type pitcher. It will likely take a couple years to gain the consistency to reach his potential, but that potential is real

Girardi still thinks CC is pitching like its 2009. Wtf? Dude is walking a tightrope every time he's out there. After 5, have the pen ready. Guy dominates through 5. Gives up a game tying HR in the 6th. At that point, you just count your blessings and move on. But no, he leaves him in to put two batters on in the seventh which eventually score as winning runs. f***ing A

My guess is this kid gets another start...

Hamels is 31 and will be for the entire season. Not exactly ancient. He's in his prime.

Here's the thing, Buchholz and Lester threw no no's early in their careers (ie showed insane stuff) and still had their early career struggles (more Buch than Lester). This kid is going to be hit or miss for 2015 and probably for 2016. That being said, he's got real big league stuff and real big league poise. He's a guy to keep and develop. By 2017, should he stay healthy and progress in terms of MLB level consistency, he's gonna be good...really really good.

I can see myself hating this kid for a long time. I think you're looking at the new top piece requested for Cole Hamels.

Severino to AAA. He and Mitchell in the same rotation, should be fun. They are really limiting Severino right now, which might mean a possible big league callup should some of our starters suck nuts

This kid looks like he's been there for a decade. Has lightning stuff but willing to pitch to contact. I am sure he's gonna have his ups and downs, but this kid can play

Was Nava DL'd with a bat strain?