SoxFanForsyth

After his 3 HR game in Colorado - "You guys are going to have to have an endorsement handing out chest protectors to the people in the outfield stands next time I play here" For the record - I saw this thread and immediately went out and bought his Born to Play book.

Any chance you guys can flirt like middle schoolers through PM's or text messages next time?

Ells should. He'll have better opportunities. All we know is that Francona wants Ells and Craw both in the top of the line up, and Pedey isn't going anywhere. Tito likes going LRLRLR down the line up, so for this prediction, I'm assuming a top 4 of Ells - Pedey - Craw - Gonzo. I think running with Pedey at the plate is going to be much more enticing than running with Gonzo at the plate. Gonzo can score you from first base. Pedey doesn't necessarily have that ability as much. Ells will have more opportunities which will translate to more SB.

You want to hear something that will make you sick? The Sox lost 19 games in which the SP gave up 2 ER or less. I would understand the bullpen giving up a few leads, maybe 6 to 8 losses after the SP had thrown a gem, but 19 times last season?!?! That's absolutely atrocious! I just cannot get over that. Starter goes out there and throws his ass off, gives up a bloop and a bomb and shuts them down the rest of the time, and our bullpen comes in and shits the bed. Most of the losses came as ND for the SP, meaning he probably left with the lead, and our bullpen just came in and blew up. Also - the Sox bullpen had 23 losses last year. The Yankees bullpen had 17, and the Rays pen had 16. So the Sox bullpen had 6 more losses than the Yankees, 7 more than the Rays. Final Standings? Sox were 7 back on the Rays, 6 back on the Yankees.

For the record - Lackey had 5 wins when allowing more than 2 ER, Buch had 3 wins, DiceK had 3 wins, and Beckett had 5 wins.

Geez in the outfield alone?!? That's ridiculous! I wonder how many we had in the infield with the likes of Lars Anderson, Yamico Navarro, Patterson, Hall, Lowrie, that dude who took over for youk in Tampa when he went down, Lowell, cash, vic, tek, salty, Wagner, and I'm sure I'm missing a few....that's crazy to think about

Hahaha well most people on other threads just call me SFF, not SFFS because the last S isn't capitalized. Doesn't bother me at all just the first time I have seen people do it and I was curious...Forsyth works just fine, it's my last name so it's what I'm uses to responding to anyway

By the way - Why does everyone capitalize the S in Forsyth when they are talking to me?

I'm not trying to get defensive. I'm just disagreeing with the statement that he has platoon issues, that's all. I saw it in someone's sig, and always meant to address it. As far as him seeing LHP more often than most, I would say that depends a lot on where he hits in the line up (i.e. if Gonzo or Youk is behind him, I would imagine they save the LHP for Gonzo), but for the most part, I'll agree with that. Still, though. If he gets 230 AB's vs LHP and gets on 10 times less over the course of a season, I don't see it as being a big enough issue to regard it as platoon issues purely based on his defensive skills, that's all. I just don't see the population of AB's vs LHP being high enough year to year that a 4-6% decrease in OBP (.040 - .060 to be clear) would have a high enough effect to merit the consideration of platooning him. That's all I'm trying to say. Not trying to rant, not trying to piss anyone off (FTR, I don't think I did), just trying to show a point. I know when I initially looked at the splits, I thought it would have much more of an effect than just getting on base 7-10 more times, so I was just trying to show a point. Plus it's been too long since I've argued with Dipre. :thumbsup:

For the record - using his career numbers and his 2010 PA's vs LHP, we are arguing over a guy getting on base a total of 49 times over the course of 7 years. That just does not seem like a legitimate argument. I could see it it was a guy like Cameron who crushes LHP but struggles vs RHP, because he (if he was an everyday starter) would be facing RHP 70% of the time. But having a 6+ WAR player that gets on base 7 fewer times per year vs LHP than he would vs RHP appears to be nitpicky.

Right. Let's take a look at it. In 2010, he had 223 PA's vs LHP. He's got a career .315 OBP vs LHP, and a career .346 OBP vs RHP. So, from a career perspective, if, in 2011, he has 223 PA's vs LHP, we can assume he will be on base 70 times (.315 * 223). If those PA's came vs RHP, he would be on base 77 times (.346*223). So here's the question I pose. Is getting on base 7 times fewer over the course of 220 AB's significant enough that it is worth considering platooning him vs LHP, even with the speed and defense he provides? I don't think it's even a question. And in all actuality, I think Dipre largely overvalues his platoon split issues, especially with his AB's vs LHP only accounting for 30% of his total AB's. And let's not forget, it was just 2 seasons ago that he put up a .325 OBP vs LHP with a BABIP of .314, 6 ticks below his career BABIP vs LHP of .320.

Article on Fangraphs about Crawford's splits: Now - I will concede that his splits are more severe than I had originally anticipated, and you are right that his splits are pretty drastic, but the value that he adds on the basepaths and in defense more than makes up for those poor splits, and it's been evident the past two years when he had a 6.9 WAR with a .696 OPS vs LHP in 2010, and a 5.7 WAR with a .704 OPS vs LHP. All this to say that Crawford, specifically, provides an overwhelming amount of defense and speed and game changing ability on the basepaths, so much so that his splits do not merit a platoon issue with him.

And yes. I realize that I cherrypicked probably the only thing you typed in there that was not relevant to your overall point.

Crawford is still a career .270 hitter vs LHP and you could make an argument that he's a smart and good enough hitter that he'll be able to stay inside the ball and pepper the monster when he's facing LHP at Fenway. I realize his splits aren't great, but let's see if he can learn to stay inside the ball and drive it the other way and use the wall to his advantage before we say he's got platoon issues.

Obviously this was already known by all, but it's officially being reported now.

As Dipre pointed out, Lester stats before signing his extension: 59 GS, 3.81 ERA, 6.65 K/9, 3.55 BB/9, 3.81 ERA. Clay Bucholz stats up to now: 62 GS, 3.68 ERA, 6.97 K/9, 3.80 BB/9. Those are extremely comparable. And Buchholz has said "I'm not saying I'm as good as Lester" but that the contract is what he is looking for. Even if the Sox went 5/35 or 6/42, that would be a huge, HUGE bargain. I say lock him up immediately. If he wants to stay with Boston (and who wouldn't after this offseason, and having Gonzo, Youk, Pedroia, Craw, Lester, Bard, and Ellsbury tied up or under team control for years), I say go ahead and tack Buchholz's name onto that list. It's deals like Lester's that enables us to go drop $300mm on two other players over 7 years each and stay competitive and around the CBT threshold.

I'm all for locking up Buchholz. Having him and Lester as our 1-2 punch for years to come is music to my ears. If Ranaudo turns out to be a monster as well, that could potentially push Beckett and Lackey to be our 4-5 in the later years of their contracts too. Initially, I had a slight gripe because of the advanced metric stats of Buchholz, but then I compared Buch's and Lester's in their break out years (Lester 2008, Buch 2010). Lester - FIP 3.64, K/9 6.50, BB/9 2.82, BABIP .297, LOB% 76% Buch - FIP 3.61, K/9 6.22, BB/9 3.47, BABIP .261, LOB% 79% Those are much, much more comparable than I thought they were. I say lock him up. I hear a lot of doubters say "Oh his FIP was a full point higher than his ERA". Ok. Well. When your ERA is 2.33, fine, tack another point on for next year, if Buch comes out and posts a 3.2 or 3.3 ERA, he's still a premier pitcher in the AL. Buch has the stuff to become a 8 to 9 K/9 guy, just like Lester did, too.

http://twitpic.com/3zs2v7 Oh.My.God. CC lost 25 pounds and Joba ate a child.

Why would we platoon Kalish? I think he'll get a good shot at playing a full season before we decide whether he needs to be platooned or not. Plus, if you look at our LH hitters, you've got Crawford, with a career .270 average vs LHP, Gonzo who just came off a huge year vs LHP and has a career .262 avg vs LHP, Ells has a career .307 avg vs LHP. So even though we've got a few lefties in the line up, they all hit lefties well enough that it shouldn't be an issue. By the way - sorry to hear about your parents. My dad passed in April of 2009, so I know how hard it is to lose one parent but I can't imagine losing both so close together.

From Buster Olney: These numbers would actually not surprise me at all. I can see him absolutely tearing it up this year. I also see Crawford having a 20HR/100RBI/100Runs/40SB/.300 AVG season this year, especially hitting in front of Gonzo, Youk, and Ortiz, and behind Ells and potentially Pedroia.

If Buchholz is pitching, you can make it say Buch-Off! with the number 11 on it.

Ahhh yeah. The wife and I just celebrated Valentines day. Carl Crawford shirt? check. Dustin Pedroia jersey? check. MLB.TV? Check!

"You know what I love about high school girls? I keep gettin older and they stay the same age. Yes they do, yes they do."