FredLynn

I kinda know a bit about this Hugh. People grow in height by extending the bony length towards the ends of their long bones' cartilaginous areas-the "growth plate". Bone itself cannot grow in length; only the cartilage can ossify, ie turn into bone, thereby increasing height. Fact is, by age 18 the vast majority of growth plates have disappeared and are all bone. There is no more growth in height after that. Thats just the way it works in humans. You may have been an exception; there are always exceptions. Again, I am less concerned about his height as his heart, talent, and work ethic. Now, in fact, am not concerned about him at all.

Read the article. Its not made up. He has put on "some size" where? Shoulders? Muscle? Fat? As the article says (and there are other articles that substantiate it) the body of a guy has generally grown to its fullest by age 18 with a FEW CASES where men continue to grow until 21. Its possible; its very unlikely that he will be one of those few cases. Espinoza is likely as big as he is ever going to be. That said, I don't think size is a huge factor; its heart and talent. Time will tell.

"When Do Men Stop Growing? Men grow the most from 12 to 16 with the increase in height being as high as 12 inches in normal cases. Boys actually gain the most weight during this period, too. The growth during this time period is mostly in the extremities with the legs, feet, arms and hands growing the fastest. It is for this reason that most teenage boys look very clumsy as they start getting accustomed to the changes in their body. Hair starts to appear all over the body during this period while change in the vocal cords occurs. The skin starts to get very oily during this period too and usually leads to acne. However, by 18, the body grows to its fullest with the shoulders getting broad and the body becoming more muscular. So, the most appropriate answer to questions like ‘what age do boys stop growing’ or ‘when do guys stop growing’ would be 18. However, there are a few cases where men continue to grow till 21 as well while there can be the odd exceptional case where a man might continue to grow till 25." http://www.newhealthguide.org/When-Do-Men-Stop-Growing.html Espinoza is as tall as he is ever going to be. Maybe he could put on some fat or muscle, but his frame now is likely as big as its ever going to be.

I believe Hugh's comment was cynical...at least I hope so. Ben is out of baseball for a reason: he is incompetent. We will not be seeing him as GM again, but if we do, I hope he becomes Cashman's replacement.

That would have worked too. Fact is, DD obtained an all star pitcher with good numbers for 2 1/2 years for an A player with *potential*. We weren't getting him for Clay Buchholz, Trey Ball, Joe Kelly etc etc. You have to give to receive. Its likely that DD explored getting a better pitcher and was not successful. I like the deal. Its a win today attitude.

Right. Espinoza, age 18 with a very mediocre record in A ball is the next coming of Pedro Martinez. Such comparisons are as absurd as they sound. I realize I might be eating my words in 3-4 years-as much as I realize that those who are ready to jump off a bridge right now might be eating theirs. This team needed more pitching THIS YEAR, right now, if they want to make the playoffs. Guess thats not important to some.

Drew Pomeranz ERA+ the past 2 1/2 years: 159/108/161. Half a season? Which half of those two and a half years were you referring to?

Ummm...he is an 18 year old untested SP with an ERA in the mid 4s this year. Maybe he will be good, maybe he won't. Pomeranz is an all star with very good ERA+ numbers for the past three years. We weren't going to get anyone decent for a Trey Ball or a Henry Owens. You want to make the playoffs this year, you gotta give to get.

Think what you like Slasher. Last year we were a terrible team destined to finish last for the second year in a row. This year's version of Clay Buchholz would fit right in with that team. However.....if we are going to compete for a playoff spot this year and next we cannot have a guy with his horrendous statistics starting for us-hoping that somehow he will improve. Maybe he will; likely he will not. If I am DD I am not waiting around to find out.

I meant that if Ziegler is not available lets use Barnes, not Koji. I don't think he has it any more. Just the location of his pitches...not sharp.

Thats the problem. There is no one else. Owens has neither command nor velocity, a bad combination. No to Owens. Even worse, Farrell has said that Buchholz is coming back into the rotation. We really need help.

Who would you rather have as our fourth SP then-from among the currently available options? I agree: ERod needs a slider or a curve, and that's what he should be working on all next winter. He isn't going to suddenly come up with one in a few weeks.

Lets keep this real. Last year ERod, in 121 IP, had an ERA of 3.85, and an ERA+ of 110. At the beginning of this year he got hurt. So far he has pitched just 29 innings in just 6 games. Are you really ready to give up on him already? We gave Buchholz 10+ starts before declaring him a disaster. Aside from the fact that right now there is no better option than ERod-who last year was very good-its simply too early to give up on him. Six starts? Really?

Barnes has been very good, with a few notable exceptions. He is a good strikeout pitcher, and I would personally prefer that he be given a shot at closing games over Uehara. Ziegler could be the primary closer, then Barnes.

Phantom injury I suspect. O'Sullivan's value is pretty low. And someone had to be put on the DL or demoted to make room for Ziegler. I doubt this is a serious injury or even a real one. And apparently ERod is being reactivated: "Michael Silverman ✔ @mikesilvermanbb Eduardo Rodriguez will be activated to start 2nd-half opener in NY @yankees this Friday. Followed by Wright and Price." As for the 19th, we do not need another starter then. Not until the 23rd. And here is what Farrell had to say about it: "Michael Silverman ✔ @mikesilvermanbb Farrell said plan is to have Buchholz in rotation in second half. First start unknown right now, no rush for 5th starter until July 23." Oh goody. Clay Buchholz back in the rotation. Its the sort of thing nightmares are made of.

ERod's major problem, aside from command, is that he has only two pitches he can throw reliably. As a RP you can get away with that, but not as a starter. He needs to develop a slider or curve that he can command.

I can understand why DD did this: our bench really stinks and Hill is an improvement that is sorely needed. Still......our bench is not the major issue with this team, and we just gave up a SP with an ERA under 2.5 at AAA ball without even giving him a shot at it in Boston. I think this was a mistake. Yes, Wilkerson could have flopped, but given how bad our #4-5 SPs are he was worth a shot....unless DD has more up his sleeve in terms of addressing the pitching issue.

There is THAT too. Wilkerson may not have had what it takes to make it in the majors, but his ERA at Pawtucket indicated that he was deserving of a chance before he got shipped away. I hope we don't read the box scores and see that Wilkerson is tossing goose eggs for some other team in the near future.

Lets say Shaw had just been promoted to the majors. He has had 75 PAs so far and has an overall OPS of .620. Is it then safe to conclude that he is not a good hitter? While its certainly possible that he will need some platoon help v LHP, its far too early to make that conclusion IMO. He will need to approach 200-250 PAs v LHP to make that judgement. Its entirely possible that management will never let him get that many, of course.

I don't know what his splits were in the minors either. I know that he didn't hit anyone well at Pawtucket: career OPS in AAA ball: .715. He made his jump when he got to the majors. You are right: 85 ABs aren't much larger a sample size than 75 is. The true OPS split is probably somewhere in between the two, but no conclusion can be drawn from either one: I cannot say that Shaw is terrible v LHP....not yet.

For his career Travis Shaw has an OPS v RHP of .804. Vs LHP his career OPS is .810. What has happened this year IMO is an aberration so far (v LHP OPS of .620) and is based on a small sample size of 75 PAs. Furthermore, Hill is hitting worse v LHP than RHP this year; OPS .725 and v RHP .803. Even for his career the difference is small : .762 v LHP, .741 v RHP. Something else is going down methinks.

He isn't the whole problem; he isn't even most of the problem. But he IS part of the problem.

Good post Southpaw. Its pretty clear that while Epstein developed some excellent positional players his record with drafting and developing pitchers was pretty horrible. Same with Cherington. Its going to take Dombrowski more than a year to fix the mess he was left with in terms of SPing.

lmao!!

Aaron Wilkerson is an option too. He is pitching well at Pawtucket.