Whitlock has always been an injury risk with or without Bailey.
Giolito was injured almost on day 1, which leads me to believe it's not a Bailey issue.
Bello's injury was lat tightness which was either precautionary or not that serious. It's also not a typical injury that we've seen with this max effort push.
Pivetta was the worrisome one. However, he had already adjusted his pitch mix last year when he added the sweeper. Did the damage start then?
On Rafaela, it's not even him knowing the strike zone. He has a pretty bad whiff rate in and out of the zone. He's never been a guy to take a pitch, just a guy who has punished pitches that he can handle. He'll always be up there hacking. If he can reduce the in zone whiffs, he'd be better off.
The chase rate is impacting his overall exit velo and barrel rate, but I don't think that's going to get better. Just don't let pitchers beat you middle/middle!
@SportingGreenSF
The San Francisco Giants have yet to name a starter for Wednesday’s middle game of the three-game series in Boston, but Daulton Jefferies is among the options for manager Bob Melvin.
I mean, the Sox have done a TERRIBLE job drafting and developing pitchers for a long time. Aside from ERod (who spent much more time being developed by the Orioles TBF), the last successful starter that came up was Clay Buchholz was 2008. The Sox have finally found someone (Bailey) that can maximize the tweeners that they have drafted and traded for. I think there has been solid short term improvement, but we need to see this success over longer than one month and maybe less time spent on the IL too.
The pitching looked pretty good in Mid March, so I don't think my opinion has changed since then. I think we believed there'd be some sort of Bailey bump. I was expecting more out of Bello TBH.
Dalton Rogers has not been a very good draft pick so far. He was really a reliever in college, so I'm unsure why they keep trying to have him start when he's been really bad at it.
@BOSSportsGordo
Garrett Cooper is starting for the Red Sox tonight.
Vaughn Grissom is not, because he has the flu. No word yet as to when he could see the field.
I've heard this draft is very top heavy with talent (first 18 picks or so) and then falls off. They should take best available and then just grab a couple high octane HS arms. Sox have a good track record of taking HS arms: Groome, Ball, Owens, Scherff, Kopech, Buttrey.