Yes.
The O's have a 6.93 K/9 (5th lowest in MLB). They have a .263 BABIP (5th lowest in the MLB). They are stranding 78.3% of all runners (2nd highest in MLB).
They have a 3.98 FIP, which is 1.04 runs higher than their ERA, indicating that they are getting extremely favorable outcomes.
These things normalize, and they'll be a bad team. Again.
Leaving the game in the 6th. This was the absolute biggest piece of s*** performance I've ever witnessed. Zero effort and less execution of the most fundamental processes.
An absolute joke of an effort tonight. Absolutely ridiculous. Pathetic.
I don't know - you really need a very talented infield with a lot of range for Cook to be effective. You may be right though. I think Iggy is the most important aspect of it. I am also not sure how much the organization is going to want to move Aviles back and forth, even for a day
Youk officially to DL. That gives WMB about 10 or 11 games to prove he belongs.
If he can OPS around .800-.850, you keep him up because his defense is that much better. And this team needs some young players.
It'll be interesting to see if, on Saturday when Aaron Cook is on the bump, if they give Aviles a day off and let Middlebrooks and Iglesias vacuum up the left side of the infield. I bet they do.
By the way, that whole "5 runs or less" is very deceiving. The Sox have scored 3 runs or less in 11 games, going 1-10.
Most teams are going to have an extremely bad record in games where they score 3 or fewer runs.
-That KC Reject is on pace for 36 HR and over 100 RBI.
-D-Mac is an AAAA player who crushes guys like David Price and helps this team win games vs LHP.
-Sweeney has always been a high average, high OBP guy. He's not a power hitter. He's slid into the 2 slot very nicely. And he's got a .943 OPS right now
-Punto shouldn't be playing at all. But we also have Will Middlebrooks just waiting for the call when Youk goes down.
-Salty is a HR or nothing C, but again, we have reserves in AAA (Lavarnway) who can come up at any time. Either way, Salty's .801 OPS right now would rank 9th in the MLB among qualified catchers. Offensively, he's a league average catcher.
- Cody Ross has a .876 OPS right now. You can't complain about this guy.
There have been quite a few players step up right now. I don't know why you're so worried about this offense. They have scored the most runs in the MLB going into tonight's game, and that's with Gonzo OPS'ing .737.
Coming into tonight's game, this team was 1st in Runs and 3rd in OPS.
They're also 29th in ERA.
So if you are going to make a move, you dish a guy like Lars + a mid-level arm to Oakland for Balfour. Or you dish a couple guys to the White Sox for Thornton. This teams offense is fine.
That's like 1.5 months. There's no need to go get bandaid after bandaid after bandaid.
The Sox are playing very good baseball right now. If they need anything, it's a bullpen arm. They don't need another OF.
So you're going to go up against guys like Sabathia, Price, Moore, Romero, etc with Ross and Byrd??
I just think we have enough LHH OF, especially since Kalish is going to be coming back. That's 4 options between Sweeney, Ells, Craw, and Kalish.