iortiz

He sounds like Theo, just before he left Boston. He is not dodging his responsibility. We have to give him that.

Mmm it has worked pretty good to me. Probably your Internet connection is little bit slow. How fast is your speed ? 10 MB?

LOL! Hopefully it helps to win this VA. Go Sox!

Nope, he actually has. But you are not making the right approach. Thing is that Papelbon has been consistent and durable throughout all these years. Aside Mo, who else has this track record as closer? Who else? Again...10 Y of consistency and durability. You do not get that in trees. When Papelbon signed with PHI, he had posted a 13.9 WAR after 6 years of service as closer. Again, How many CLOSERS at the time had that track record aside Mo who was making in year basis aprox. what Pap has been making in the last 4 years (And do not even let me talk about inflation)? This is why they paid what they paid. On the other hand while I like WAR, you have to take it with a grain of salt. Look, in the end you are paying a closer to post one thing and only one: Save a game. Nothing more, nothing less. It doesn't matter if he throws hard (FB). It does't matter if he is lucky (BABIP, LOB%). It really doesn't matter as long as he saves you in the last inning. Look at 2011 Valverde. He posted a 100% SV% and he only got 0.8 WAR. Why? because he posted a 8.3 K/9 which is not bad but not great. But once again he wasn't consistent. Koji is a one-hit wonder. Without 2013, he is basically a nobody in terms of WAR. Thing with WAR is that it considers FIP, and FIP considers Ks. Pap's K/9 has diminished since he left BOS, yes (although this year has improved significantly once again, it is at 10.5 K/9) but his SV% and ERA has been outstanding, even in that down year in 2013 when posted an ERA below 3 (when he was adjusting his repertory, as Pap said). BL, He was paid to save games and he has been doing so, very good.

Alex Wood collects 59% of the points that I give to each pitcher for every game, in my baseball model in order to predict a WiN. Kelly? 34%. On there other hand, putting aside the starting pitching, these two teams are the worst in all baseball according to my team power ranking. Both only have 12% of the points. Awful. W% in the last 30 day, ATL 17th, BOS 28th. UZR/150, BOS 24th, ATL 17th. wRC+, BOS 16th, ATL 22th. SRS, BOS 24th, ATL 26th. BP's ERA, BOS 23th, ATL 30th. SV%, BOS 21th, ATL 23th. The odds do not favor us, but this is baseball, right? Anything can happen, so let's try to win this. One game at a time.

I do not buy that. I do not think that Farrell and his coaching staff are that stupid in this regard. They gave Porcello 80 M because they liked his approach/profile, right? Listen, PROBABLY (still speculation to me) they tried to make some adjustments to his approach because THAT approach was not working. In fact, after his first 4 starts he allowed 18 runs in 25 IP. Discouraging, if you ask me. Then, in his next 4 starts he earned only 6 Rs in 25.2 IP. Encouraging; seems to me like he made some adjustment and worked out, thus far. Then.. once again, he shitted the bed and he allowed 22 f***ing runs in 4 games. No one can help him. Let's face it, He is a mediocre pitcher. He simply does't have good stuff. The BABIP death is going to tax him time to time making him always inconsistent as always he's been, unless he increases his K/9 or induce weaker contact, but once again, you already paid him... for what they already saw in him (whatever that means) and it is not working. As I said since day 1, He is a No 4, at best No. 3, and these days a No 5-6 and you just gave him 80 M. Whatever the case (changing his approach or not), they SHOULD HAVE WAITED before giving him that extension and see his permanence after a dozen starts or so. Again, this is on Ben, another horrible contract that we have to deal with. Also, I have not read or heard that they changed his approach, it's pure speculation, I think. If there is a link, please share it.

Let's face it, they can not build a pitching staff. They built a very unbalanced team again, and while the offense is not what I expected, it is not that bad, they are 16th in all baseball in wRC+. As I said, Ben and Farrell have to go.

Hopefully 9 Rs are enough this time.

How much did he cost? 70 M? Another brilliant contract.

I think that it is the best way to see it. Hopefully they call up more. They could start giving to JBJ a decent sample of ABs and figure out what could be the plan for him going forward for once and for all.

Probably most of the posters are at stage 4 already, Spud. They do not give a f*** about the team anymore.

Agree. They need to clean up the house from top to the button and that is going to take time, unfortunately.

Molina has a cannon in that arm. Way to get out Buxton.

Wonder if a guy like Juan Uribe could have been a better idea.

Pal was making a point, which is oks.

Sign in bet365.com and the broadcasting for every game is free and no blackouts as I recall.

Well since there is no a game thread, there we go. WIN.

It doesn't matter whether you like him or not. He is a stud at closing, and it is not even debatable. This season, he is posting his best numbers thus far. A ridiculous 1 ERA. and 100 SV%. Let me put this in context. Mo has a 21.9 WAR from 1997 to 2006 (10 Y) when he began to SV a lot of games (43). Pap? 19.1 WAR in the last 10 and still a half of a season remaining. As I said, He is in Mariano's highway and earning every penny.

Just check Papelbon's numbers, and he seems like an old wine to me. He has earned his paycheck thus far as I predicted . Phillies' problems are far beyond Papelbon. It's a shame that he played for that team; in a contender one, he would have shinned much more.

Wonder if some team is willing to eat Pandas', Miley's and Porcello's contracts...

No. Too many flaws. IMO they have to forget about 2015. John Henry's top priority must be to find a new FO/advisors. Then in petit committee select the new coaching staff in order to prepare the plan and the strategy moving forward.

All those extensions look pretty bad these days including Farrell's. Hopefully somehow they get rid of them when we become sellers; it doesn't matter whatever it takes in order to clean the house for once and for all.

Porcello is having a bad day, again.

I think that you have to read what Spud just have wrote, specially the last paragraph. This is how managers are evaluated regardless the industry.

Braves' offense doesn't scare anybody, they are 20th in wRC+. This should be a calm day for Porcello. Win!