Happy BDay to Sox legends: Dustin Pedroia, Rudy York, Deigo Segui, Ed Durham, Johnny Watwood, Alex Cole, Butch Hobson, Vince Molyneaux, Clem Hausmann and Bill Pertica.
Backsliding into the playoffs because of the pitching staff doesn't seem like a recipe for success either. They spent a lot of capital to win this year! If it ends up just being a half measure overall, what's the point?
Early is probably going to pitch 0 MLB innings the rest of the season no matter what. They just needed another innings eater. The guys they have in AAA are either not ready due to experience or just not very good.
If it's working, just let it roll for the rest of the year. It's not like they are going to have him pitch 8-9 innings or anything. It's just moving a reliever to earlier in the game.
The problem is that they may have to go through the Yankees who have been strong vs LH starters (766 OPS overall with Judge/Grisham/Goldie/Bellinger/Rice/McMahon all over 800). Rays have also been decent vs LH starters (754 OPS overall with Vilade, Diaz, Camiero and DeLuca over 800).
The overall track record on DSL pitchers isn't great. I think there's only 3 guys in the top 30 of fWAR this year that were DSL. There was a report recently about how few high end DSL pitchers there have been in MLB.
They also said that 18 year old DSL guys like Delzine don't have great track records either. Keep that in your back pocket.
The system is ranked 21st on BA and would be bottom 5 if Arias graduated. Pitching depth is gone. Need the drafted bats to really make waves.
On Brannon, they said that his whiff rate is giving them a lot of pause. That guys like him just rarely work out (see: Bobby Dalbec).
1. What's your preference between the hard hit calculations of Statcast and Fangraphs (Baseball Info Solutions based)? I know that Fangraphs lists both, which can be a little confusing when you look at a player's history like Jarren Duran.
2. I know they are in a playoff race, but should they have Roman, Story and IKF have lengthy rehab stints to come back at 100% or get back earlier to replace underperforming or injured players?
3. Has there been a Johan Oviedo update since mid July? I'm guessing no news is bad news (a la Kutter Crawford)?
4. Baseball writers universally love Bruce Springsteen. If you could pick one artist to embody the next generation of baseball writers/podcasters, who would it be?
SP mentioned him on their latest podcast. They consider him a low end talent as his velo just isn't there. His fastball is only 88 mph. His pitch mix is playable at lower levels, but he'll eventually get beat up as he progresses.
They are NOT moving Duran anywhere. I think that's obvious enough. He's going to play out the remainder of his ARB eligible years in BOS as fans pull out more and more of their hair.
They kind of are by going with the "bullpen" game and having Bello use an opener. It's basically using a six man rotation. Good for Tolle considering his metrics with extra rest.