FredLynn

This is a red flag. You may well be right: "TORONTO (AP) — Red Sox manager John Farrell says pitcher David Price has been dealing with “soreness” in his recovery from an injured left elbow. Price threw on flat ground for the second straight day before Thursday afternoon’s game against Toronto. He is to throw a bullpen session in Baltimore on Friday. Price was the 2012 AL Cy Young Award winner with Tampa Bay. He was 17-9 with a 3.99 ERA last year, his first with Boston. He felt discomfort in his elbow after a two-inning simulated game in February. Price threw three bullpen sessions over six days last week, the last on Saturday. He was to have thrown to hitters while the team was in Toronto but those plans were shelved. He took three days off before playing catch Wednesday. Price is in the second season of a $217 million, seven-year contract."

Thats possible. But if Price cannot make it back and pitch effectively I think our SPing will be the weakest link.

The pen is doing fine. The currently rank 4th in ERA in the AL at just under 2.50. I am not worried about the pen. I am still worried about Price; and about Wright.

True. I have one on my weedeater.

Seems like what people are referring to as "command" is just great control.

But why would the dart player who can hit the bullseye more often choose to hit the outer bull? There are more points awarded by hitting the bullseye. I would say that the guy who has the ability to hit the bullseye more often has better control AND command of his darts.

There is a key difference.........................................................................................they are spelled differently

Not much difference at all as the end result is not enough strikes and too many balls resulting in too many walks. Both have trouble at times finding the plate, though Kelly found it for a long stretch last year. Kimbrel has never been able to throw strikes consistently with both pitches he uses, not in Boston at least.

Are we watching the same game? Last year Kimbrel issued 30 walks in 53 innings.This is NOT what you want in a RPer, let alone your closer. Command has been an issue with him since his arrival in Boston. Kelly has had issues with command, but for the most part he did fine with it after July 25. I am certainly not going to judge where his command is after one outing.

Besides Koji, I can't recall a single RPer whose command doesn't "come and go". Kimbrel has no command at all; should he be sent down too? And didn't Hembree walk two guys yesterday before Kelly walked in the winning run? Kelly isn't going anywhere, at least until Smith and Thornburg are back.

Kelly surrendered a single ER in his last 15 innings last year. From July 25 to Oct his ERA was 1.02 and for the year his WHIP was .500. Joe Kelly is not going anywhere any time soon. As a RP he is fine; as a SP, not so much.

Because he sucked as a starter

Great news....it will be even better when he gets into a game and can pitch effectively.

Seems more than a little strange that the Sox signed a guy, Kendrick, who cannot realistically be brought up to the majors to pitch except under the most dire of circumstances. That doesn't leave us with much for a spot start here and there. I certainly never want to see Owens in a Sox uniform again; Johnson and Elias are not much better, and as I recall, Elias was injured (he may be OK by now). What's Fister up to?

Interesting discussion, this is. Let me know what you find out. Another factor to consider: I would imagine that injury rates are correlated with the number of innings pitched. So SPs may turn out to have a much higher incidence of injuries than RPs. Of course, sometimes what seems intuitive is not actually true. Thats why the facts and data are needed.

See my post above: I measured it: pitchers get injured about 34% more than position players. Do you have statistics to prove your point-that pitchers have the highest incidence of injury of any sport? I was not able to find a list of sports that compared injury rates of pitchers to, for example, running backs or hockey players. Its a fact if you can support your opinion with sufficient data; until then its your opinion. Once its fact I can buy it. By way of comparison (assuming you can produce statistic of this sort for ML pitchers), NFL running backs have a 5.2% risk of injury in every game they play, and they miss, on average, 3.9 games due to that injury according to one study (http://www.profootballlogic.com/articles/nfl-injury-rate-analysis/). Of course, this data isn't comparing ML pitchers to RB because, as far as I know, there is no similar data.

My original response to Georom (I think it was him) regarded baseball players in general not being on the field with what seem to be minor injuries. Here is what I wrote: "And football and hockey are not a recipe for disaster? I agree with Geo: players seem to get DL'd because of ingrown nails nowadays." In no way am I dismissing the fact that baseball pitchers get injured a lot. They get injured about 34% more than those players who play in the field. I understand that the repetitive nature of the motion that they use predisposes them to injury. That said, I could not find a single bit of data that tells me the incidence of injuries per year for all pitchers. I found that football players get injured about 15.3% of the time, and its clear that there is a much higher percentage of severe injury in contact sports than in baseball. When I see guys like Bergeron out there playing, or trying to play, with broken ribs and a punctured lung, and when I see football players giving it their all, playing with gruesome injuries-and then look at some of these baseball players who are out for weeks with minor injuries-thats what I am talking about. Seems they never want to play unless they are in nearly perfect health.

I am not saying that baseball players, especially pitchers, are not at risk for significant injuries. They definitely are. But they are not NEARLY at as high a risk as in a few other sports. Throwing a baseball is stressful on the arm; getting tackled by a 250 pound linebacker running at full speed or getting hit blindside by a cornerback after you make a catch are far more dangerous.

Sorry. Not buying it. Contact sports, by their very nature, are FAR more dangerous than baseball. Pitchers certainly have their risks, but hockey players in particular get back on the ice with absurd kinds of injuries. Patrice Bergeron, a couple of seasons ago, was back on the ice with broken ribs. Other players play with other kinds of fractures. When was the last time a baseball player got back on the field with broken ribs? How many concussions do baseball players suffer compared to hockey players or football players. Go and take your pet peeve and put it back in the land of fantasy where it belongs. Baseball players are weenies compared to hockey or football players.

And football and hockey are not a recipe for disaster? I agree with Geo: players seem to get DL'd because of ingrown nails nowadays.

I think he was only touching 91 with his fastball. This is great if he can locate it, but unless he develops more velocity, which is entirely possible at his age, he is going to have to pitch like Buehrle or Maddox to be effective. Lots of time to develop.....

I think we will need another SP even with Kendrick. I am not going to depend on the likes of Owens and Johnson to supply even a single quality start.

We are going to need one more potentially decent SP. What's Fister up to nowadays?

There is no way Bogaerts should move to 3B. Last season he made huge strides defensively at SS. There is no need to mess with that.

The "drop" in his velocity is less than 1.5mph on his fastball, which was never fast anyway. Furthermore, there is a simple explanation: many pitchers do not regain full velocity until several months into the season. I remember this discussion about Price last year. Yes, he started off slowly, but he regained his form, and his velocity, as the season progressed. If Pomeranz had a significant injury from which he has not yet recovered he would not be out there pitching at all. If its July and he has lost velocity, I worry. Not now, not in spring training.