Bellhorn04
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Everything posted by Bellhorn04
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Nobody wants the cliff. (LOL) But we did somehow survive a few basement finishes recently.
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Nothing makes a manager nuttier than the bullpen blowing games. It'll make teams do things like trade Varitek and Lowe for Slocumb.
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Is it superstition to believe that the 9th inning really is different, that the 9th inning is the hardest one to pitch no matter what the stats say? I don't really know the answer. But there seem to be cases of pitchers who are great in the 7th and 8th but really struggle in the 9th. The old mysterious X factors.
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If the guy that comes in in the 9th blows the game, you could argue that the closer was wasted because it's still a loss, and the closer threw a bunch of pitches, possibly making him unavailable for the next game. It's this worst case scenario that scares some managers, I think.
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I think there may be something like an element of superstition to why many managers are reluctant to use their closer earlier than the 9th. They're afraid of what happens after the closer preserves the lead in the 8th. They're afraid that the reliever they bring in for the 9th will blow the game - which will not only result in a loss but will mean the real closer was wasted. When you look back on baseball history the most gut-wrenching losses and nightmarish memories generally come from games where your team blew it in the last hand and the other team 'walked it off', as the announcers like to say now. The 8th inning in 2003 being a notable exception, of course.
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Well, that's part of the history but it's not really typical of it. Also, Koji was always a really good reliever. He didn't come out of nowhere. It was a great signing by Ben. With that signing he made up for the failures of Bailey, Hanrahan and Melancon.
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No, they're not, I agree. That's part of what made Ben's job a tricky one, and part of why Dombrowski has little option but to try to win now.
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You don't have to. But the other approach is very hit and miss. It certainly has been for the Red Sox. We have quite a history of guys failing as closers.
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Possible, sure. But I'm not convinced the core was really that strong. As I've already noted, 3 of the highest WAR guys on the 2017 team were Sale, Kimbrel and Pomeranz. Strip them away and what do you have? Mookie Betts is the only real star of the rest.
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Ha. Worked pretty good for the Cubs and the Astros!
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He wasn't as good. That doesn't change the point about his value to the 2017 team.
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lol
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Gotta like a man with a sense of humor.
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Well, if you pitch like a 10 WAR starter for 1/3 as many innings, it stands to reason you're worth 3.3 wins, doesn't it?
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Everything is small next to the Big Apple!
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You need both, plain and simple. It's also worth noting that Kimbrel had the 3rd highest fWAR on the team in 2017, higher than Pomeranz, higher than JBJ or Benintendi. That shows how much value can be provided in even 65-70 innings.
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It's not an either or, of course. All the innings are important. Good starts won't get you anywhere if you have a bad bullpen.
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Yes, they were not clutch.
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Sure, we could have replaced Sale and Kimbrel with another starter and reliever for lesser cost. We could also have replaced David Ortiz at DH for many years with someone cheaper. It's no trouble at all to assemble a cheap team that isn't very good.
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There are worse things.
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Me too. I think I like this kid!
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This is just dumb. Benintendi and Devers were fine, and the team that was not 'built properly' won the division for the second year in a row,
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If we subtract Sale and Kimbrel from the 2017 team, that's 11 fWAR gone.
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I think Stanton is headed to the Giants.
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I'm just waiting for Boras to make some big grandstanding speech claiming nefarious activity by the owners because of the lack of action on the free agency front.
