mvp 78

Cardinals are still 2-3 since they have had to cancel so many games. Bringing back fans is a very Ohio thing to do. If I was an opposing team, I'd forfeit.

Beni from 9/4/19 - end of last season: 367 OPS

https://www.overthemonster.com/2020/8/10/21361025/boston-red-sox-andrew-benintendi-slump-plate-discipline-strikeouts-walks It hasn’t been a great start to the shortened 2020 season for the Red Sox, and specifically Andrew Benintendi has been at the center of these struggles. Currently, as I write this, Benintendi is slashing .056/.261/.083 with no homers only one run batted in to go with a dismal 18 wRC+. There’s not much that could get worse for the young left fielder, but I don’t think it’s time to panic just yet. Digging a little deeper into his tendencies, there are some encouraging and curious things. First, his O-Swing rate is actually down five percentage points from last season and back in line with his 2018 numbers when he was a four-win player. In more basic terms, he’s not swinging at pitches outside the zone nearly as much as he did a season ago, which is obviously encouraging to see. Curiously though, his Z-Swing rate is down nine percentage points from a season ago. This means he’s not swinging at pitches inside the zone as much as he used to. This is not quite as encouraging to see in the sense that an easy way to break out of a slump is to swing at strikes. There are certainly bigger red flags to overcome when in a slump, though. Another encouraging stat, which coincides with his improved O-Swing rate, is the rate at which he’s drawing walks. Benintendi is currently drawing walks at a 23 percent clip, which is absurdly high and in the top two percent of the league. This shows the outfielder still has his grip on the zone, and even if he’s not getting hits he’s still getting on base and in position to score runs. Benintendi’s Z-Contact rate (rate at which he is making contact on swings in the zone) is actually at the highest mark of his career at 90 percent. A major issue here simply seems to be that he’s not pulling the trigger enough on pitches in the zone. As for pitches out of the zone, Benintendi’s contact rate is currently the lowest it has ever been and nearly 30 percentage points lower than his career rate. This means that even though he isn’t swinging at nearly as many pitches outside the zone as he used to when he does swing, he’s not making contact. Perhaps unsurprisingly given that last stat, Benintendi’s strikeout rate right now is the highest of his career by a large margin. Currently at 34 percent, he’s currently sitting over 10 percentage points higher than last season, which was already a stark increase from the two seasons before that. A lot of this can probably be explained by the fact that he’s not swinging at pitches in the zone like he used to, and missing much more often outside the zone. With all of that going on, of course he’s going to strike out more. The good news is that both of these tendencies should self-correct as Benintendi starts to break out of this slump. Hopefully sooner rather than later. Everything is magnified currently in a short season and the longer a slump goes on the more pressure there is on the hitter, which doesn’t help the chances of breaking out. We’ve seen enough from Benintendi as a hitter to know that, in the most basic sense of the word, he can hit. He’s always had a handle on the strike zone and that seems even more true this season. So, if his tendencies show he needs to swing at more pitches in the zone, I feel confident he can and will overcome this slump shortly. I disagree. The contact he's actually making right now is piss poor. Until he can make more solid contact, being more aggressive in the zone is just going to induce more groundouts. I don't know if it's mental or mechanical, but I don't see him turning this around quickly.

@Brett_McMurphy Dan Patrick reports Big Ten had internal vote & by 12-2 margin, league members opted on not having a fall football season. Nebraska & Iowa were only schools that voted to play this fall, @dpshow said. Patrick said Big Ten & Pac-12 would cancel fall seasons Tuesday

Chavis has enough options where you can just send him to AAA for the next few years and stick around in case of injury.

I don't think either has a ton of trade value TBH. Dealing Dalbec for a middle reliever when he could turn out to be Joey Gallo doesn't seem ideal. Dalbec is also more athletic and could move back to 3b if they wanted him to. s***, maybe they hand him an OF glove this offseason to back up LF.

Yes, Chavis is redundant.

That's why I was confused why they didn't just have Johnson on the roster and at least have 4 "starters" going into the season. If Weber is out of the picture, it's Eovaldi/Perez/Godley/TBD/TBD. I understand having a bullpen game for the 5th starter, but you need to have Johnson or Hart or whoever as the 4th starter.

Well, they called up Covey, so maybe he's the opener for a bullpen game? Weber would have pitched on Wednesday so maybe they'll have Hart/Johnson/Houck start then? The Red Sox have yet to announce who will open Monday. The decision will be based on who pitches out of the bullpen Saturday and Sunday. “That can certainly change on what happens with those games,” Roenicke said. “We know who we want to start Monday. We just may need to use that guy before.” Brewer and Covey were the only guys not to pitch this weekend.

TBD vs Yarbrough Haven't seen who the Sox plan on starting tonight. They optioned Weber and I guess the guy they call up from the player pool will start. Johnson? Hart? IDK.

Moreland will be the LHH platoon at 1b next year. He's a cheap, solid veteran. Chavis hasn't played any 2b so far this year. I wonder if they just don't see him there long term. I'm not sure Chavis has shown me enough to even qualify him as an adequate platoon guy.

Brice is a two pitch pitcher and his offspeed stuff looked mediocre last time out. He has only pitched over 3 innings once in the past 5 years. I think he's a guy you could put out there for 1-2 innings, anything more than that isn't a safe bet.

Zach Plesac was sent home by the Guardians and will be quarantined for 72 hours going out with friends in Chicago on Saturday night. Plesac tossed six scoreless innings against the White Sox on Saturday afternoon and apparently wanted to celebrate the impressive outing, but he did so in violation of team rules and MLB's COVID-19 health and safety protocols. Plesac's actions have "upset teammates and club officials," per Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, and it's unclear whether he'll be given the go-ahead to make his scheduled start next weekend in Detroit.

But if he still can’t crack this rotation???

Mitch forever and ever

JD is not good right now

Definitely developmental baseball

Umps have been worse since replay

Nice rip for JBJ

I like Bo Bichette more than Vlad Jr or Cavan.

Biggio eats up a horrible pitch. Tie game.

Beni 2/35, 1 bunt hit

Mitch forever

Offense doesn’t

EO looks good so far