SoxFanForsyth

Looked to me like he was really amped up to start out. He doesn't have a whole lot of control to begin with, them you get him pumped up and he's going to miss badly. When he harnesses his control, he's got retarded good stuff, though.

That's one thing about the Yankees. They don't have the guns to be able to get buried early and make a comeback. If they get buried early, they're a .500 team. And by buried early, I mean dropping to 6-8, maybe 10 games below .500 early.

He's probably in the same boat as Ruby De La Rosa right now in that he's going to need a few months to build up his pitch counts/innings so he's not a 4-5 IP pitcher when he comes back up.

For those wondering, Lesters cutter last year had horizontal movement of +2.41 inches. Today, it was back down to -0.05. That's nearly a 2.5 inch increase in downward movement. Very sharp today.

If it makes you feel better, Verlander only went 5 today too. Both had 7 Ks, which drives up the pitch count. Lester's stuff played really well today. Those Ks, the movement on his cutter, and he was touching 94-95 today, all encouraging signs. Certainly needs to go deeper, but he was only at 96 pitches through 5. Extremely high, but he could have gotten 6 in. It looked like he was battling himself out there a bit today at times. Good building block to limit the damage to 2 runs out there in the 4th.

Tweet of the day: Bradley has as many walks today (3) as Crawford had all last year. Yes, please.

Actually Curt Schilling took the Sox to win the division. He is the same guy who said that last year was going to be very bad under Valentine on March 29th, and he said the Sox were going to blow the lead in September of 2011.

Yup. Although with Pedroia Nap Middlebrooks and Gomes, that would have been 4 straight RHH. Not sure that matters much, though, because they all hit RHP well. I guess Farrell wanted to split it up though. Salty does have pop vs RHP, but I have a feeling he's going to strike out multiple times today, at least once with less than 2 outs and a RISP.

Sox win, 5-2 tomorrow. Lets. Go. #fyeahbaseball

I'm glad that some people actually realize that starting Bradley with Boston does not automatically mean cutting 1 year back. They're going to send him back down the day that Ortiz gets back. It's that simple. You think someone's going to take Gomes for $5mm a year for 2 years? Or Victorino for 3/39? We're not trading Ellsbury, not in a couple weeks at least. Unless the Sox are off to a crazy hot start, where they're 14-6 or 15-5 in their first 20, when Ortiz returns, and Bradley is hitting .330/.410/.510, then they're sending Bradley right back down to AAA. I've also heard that he doesn't have to be there for consecutive days, just 20 days overall during this year. So it's not like, if we send him down, we're screwed for using him as a replacement for Gomes/Vic/Ells.

They'll almost certainly take Bradley north. Along with, I suspect, Carp. Bummed that Bard wasn't good enough to break camp, but hopefully he'll be back up in mid season. Both Morales and Breslow both set to throw off a mound on Saturday and Monday, respectively. Big step. Mortenson obviously the first to get demoted. Wonder if they'll carry 3 lefties when both are ready? Not a bad option, especially when Breslow has success against RHH (.683 OPS against vs RHH last year, .654 for his career).

Hey Jung - I know you think Bradley is not a very good defender, so I thought you should read this. This is a scouting report from when he was a junior at South Carolina, from Buster Olney's blog today:

In terms of range, yea, Bradley will be limited. In terms of arm strength, turning wall ball doubles into singles bc he has the arm to throw guys out, allowing Ellsbury to shade RF, where it's massive and they can cut down those gaps? Yes it makes a big difference. If you want to look at it in a vacuum, fine, it's not a huge difference, but when you take into consideration all of the effects it had, it becomes a bigger positive. Plus, they still play half their games away, where Bradley's range is a factor.

Defensively, having Bradley in LF rather than Gomes will help the pitching. I agree, they have to pitch, but don't discount the value of good defense behind the pitching, or the value of grinding out at bats and showing good plate discipline.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not projecting him to be a .330 hitter this year. All I'm saying is that I've seen him make solid adjustments. And the fact that he's had success the past few games against some very good pitchers (Lee, Strop) who are at the end of ST and no longer working on certain pitches, but are getting into game situations where they're trying to get out, it's encouraging. At the very least, he should provide elite defense in LF and help to keep us above water until Ortiz returns. Who knows when that will be, but Bradley will almost certainly return to Pawtucket when he gets back.

I think he's been working hard on keeping his hands inside the baseball on inside pitches. Against Cliff Lee in his 2nd AB, Lee tried to pound him in on a fastball (first or second pitch, I believe), and he got inside of it and drove a line drive to dead center for a sac fly. Then Pedro Strop, yesterday, had 2 strikes on Bradley, buried a couple off speed pitches that Bradley was able to lay off, and then tried to get in on him. Bradley shortened his swing, stayed in side, and hit a hard ground ball up the middle for a 2 RBI single. The thing about this kid that makes him so special is that he is able to adapt extremely quickly. He's still going to be vulnerable to the slider away from LHP, which is a filthy pitch to any LHH, but you're going to see him K on those. But overall, he's a very selective hitter who learns quickly and has elite plate discipline. That's my read on him, anyway.

I really think, against RHP, the Sox should hit Bradley 2nd. He grinds out AB's, can hit the ball behind the runner, and hits well deep into the count, including w two strikes. Not to mention he takes heaps of walks makes excellent contact, which equates to few strike outs. He also hits left handed pitchers well, too, so he won't be an issue going L L at the top with him and Ells. Ellsbury Bradley Pedroia Napoli Middlebrooks Salty Gomes Victorino Iglesias That lineup will score quite a few runs. Not 2004 Red Sox runs, but quite a few regardless. Ells Bradley and Pedroia can really set the table for Nap and Middlebrooks, who should have the opportunity to drive in a good number of runs. And as a side note, the defense this team is going to be rolling out on Opening Day is going to be outrageous.

Smacked the hell out of a 2 strike breaking ball from a LHP yesterday for triple off the RF wall.

Pete Abe made a really good point earlier - Ben Cherrington and John Farrell can't afford to be looking to 2019 right now because there's a good chance that they won't even be around then if things don't go well over the next year or two. The Red Sox can't afford to stumble out of the gate, either, or the Sox will be losing a lot more revenue this year than they'd be gaining by keeping Bradley around in 2019. My stance remains to start him in Boston and demote him once Ortiz gets back. If he's hitting something crazy like .420 when Ortiz gets back, deal with it then, because if that's the case, then there's a good chance that the Red Sox are also winning a lot of ball games. And if a full year of Bradley is the difference between making a deep playoff run or golfing in October, you give up that 1 year in an instant. There are absolutely psychological effects to getting out to a hot start, the team starts believing in itself, confidence grows, etc. There are a lot of factors, and the Sox should certainly not be swayed away from trying to win baseball games in 2013 just because of a little extra money in 2019.

I'm hearing $13mm, not 8mm. Either way. Woof.

Exactly what I think it'll be.

It's getting overlooked bc of Bradley, who has driven in 4 of the Sox 6 runs against a guy in Lee who allowed a .626 ops against vs LHH last year, but Brandon Workman has looked pretty good today. Good FB, sharp curve, and a change he can show. At worst, he's at least a guy that could fill in fairly adequately as a deep depth option this season.

Jon Heyman said the Yankees now can trade Nova or Hughes for another bat. Um. Wut. That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. If they're going to do anything this year, it's going to be on the back of their SP. They absolutely cannot afford to downgrade that. Not to mention that Nova is one of the few pitchers they have under contract after this year.

Two for me, of course. Though I should change my username to Optimist Prime.

I'll tell you one thing right now - with a defense of Ross behind the dish (on occasion), WMB, Iggy, and Pedroia in the infield, and Bradley - Ells - Vic in the outfield, this team will steal a lot of runs from opponents.