sk7326

You'd love to have your first alignment in October ... but you'd rather have four #2s over a 6 month season. That is what makes baseball a fun game - it is a true test of a team's all around ability, since the skills to make it through the marathon are almost opposite the skills needed to win short series.

Well that proves the point about the stopper - the Red Sox have generally thrown together competitive solid outings all season. I can wish they had someone in the Scherzer-King Felix-Yu level of hombre, but you can count those on one hand - the totality of our rotation has been plenty good and will not be the reason the team loses in October.

Rest vs rust has always been a fun debate, but all the arguments are made post hoc (monday morning QBing). The 07 Sox were the best team in baseball - and while the best team in baseball winning the WS is not that frequent an event, worked out then. Colorado being iced for 9 days is one thing, but you don't want them to not win games either. Nature of these things (and the 2 best teams in the league were playing in the other semifinal anyway). It was 5-innings, but also 5-innings for your #5 starter in a NL park. Basically Tito lifted him after a 2-out walk to get to Delcarmen. At that point, 92 pitches, left with a good outing and backed up by an excellent bullpen. The winning too early thing has some good recent examples behind it - but it is very hard to see it as a real hard factor. After all, in 2007 the Rockies had to wait, but in 2008 the Phillies had to wait for the Rays to survive Boston - and it did not seem to impact things too much. Looking at the examples in the last 15 years or so - it seems like when a team sweeps and a team goes the distance, there might be a rust factor - maybe. But otherwise it's pretty much a non-factor. Baseball is just a funny game too - after all, a 7 game series is barely a ripply in a regular season. In the context of baseball, it might as well be single elimination.

Walks were way down - and a .220 BABIP which was wildly out of line with the rest of his career. But yeah this year he is the guy he always was without that batted ball fortune.

Maddon and Friedman are generally pretty creative here - the tough thing they have with Rodney is that if he is not pitching the 9th, he really can't pitch at all.

2007 the slash line is even better, .332/.445/.621, a 1.067 ops in 2007, which was a 171 OPS+. So the baseline OPS+ has fluctuated quite a bit, even those two seasons.

I still am not sure why they used Mike Gonzalez to get ONE OUT in the 4th when the game had spiraled out of control. Burned an extra pitcher for no reason. For that matter, same with Scott Thornton, but at least he is coming off the DL.

Sox have 8 hitters with above league average OBPs in today's starting lineup ... and Middlebrooks has his numbers dragged down from the early season obviously. THAT is how you generate a lot of runs.

it's fun to show up with guys on base

Truth here - but at the same time, you see starters get knocked out earlier - not because they pitch worse, but that (and there have been a lot of scouting and coaching sorts who talk about this) higher leverage pitches tire pitchers faster. The outings are just more stressful. Also, hooks are a LOT quicker in October (as well they should be).

Gomes looks like he thought he got it all ... I could see X possibly taking out Papi soon.

Chen's a good pitcher - but yeah having a bad day. Just no feel at all. Predictable or not, seriously missing spots. Pitch to Napoli was a meatball, pitch he struck out Middlebrooks on was a meatball (imagine such a fat pitch that Middlebrooks was totally crossed up by it). The pitch to Pedey was probably one of his better ones and look what happened.

Funny - imagine this inning if Middlebrooks wasn't caught guessing wrong on a BP fastball.

Interesting small move - Berry is just a guy, but another outfielder is useful. If we get to a wildcard round, where we get a free roster reset, could easily see adding him (you don't expect to need 11 pitchers, or even 7 - for a one game playoff)

It is an odd quirk. That said 8 HR in 59 IP is not the sort of thing you like out of relievers - but the walks and strikeouts are excellent, enough to work with. He doesn't throw his split enough and gets the ball up in the zone more than you'd like. But the results the last 2 years are there - he is a fine reliever. I think he would have done a solid job closing if they rode him out - but obviously things have gone well this way too . Breslow's K rate this year is below what you'd like too - but the results are hard to argue with. He has been good, better than strictly a matchup lefty. I'm not worried about that part of the team. The interesting choice is who becomes the swing guy. Dempster is the likely, and obvious choice (and I support it definitely). But - I could see an argument for Doubront, not because he has not done a solid job starting, but because his stuff could be very nasty in a "Lincecum 2012" role.

It's not actually bad at all .. Breslow/Tazawa/Uehara is as good a bridge to the end of the game as any team puts out there. Thornton, Britton are decent. Dempster being converted into a swing man I am confident in (he has bullpen experience, swing and miss stuff and the fastball could be more 92-94 than 90-91 in relief).

Lopez was a solid lottery ticket sort of trade - Red Sox gave virtually nothing, and Lopez at least "HAD" been an excellent hitting catcher. Bat speed was gone, but dem's the breaks.

Very much agreed here. If you look at the AL contenders, only Darvish and Verlander are any sort of solid candidates to pitch on 3-days rest. The Sox are in good shape in almost every #3/#4 vs #3/#4 matchup. The top 2 is a little trickier, but a team with Boston's approach at the plate could easily scuffle against a Price but still chase him before the 7th on just pitch counts.

Yeah they were mucking along until the Buchholz no-hitter, which is an arbitrary endpoint granted - but felt like a lot of weight came off of their shoulders

Oh whatever. I have memories before that. When Aaron Boone hit the home run - it was the first time I thought I will never see the Red Sox win it. Obviously made 2004 taste so much better - has been hard to really get mad after 2 titles in 5 years. I saw a much drier well.

the sport would benefit by more balanced schedules. For instance, 13 vs division, 8 against everyone else = 52 + 80 = 132 + 30 against other league. Could end up making it series' vs 10 teams instead of just 5. Basically means everybody in the AL will have 142 of the 162 games be the same - which is a large improvement over the current situatons.

It is hard to be great every month - it's baseball, even the best records would (if you scaled their record for the number of games) barely qualify for the NFL playoffs or get a top 4 seed in the NBA playoffs. Unless you are the 1998 Yankees (114-48) or 2001 Mariners (116-46), there is going to be some stretches of slogging along. That they have avoided any really bad stretches has been their hallmark all season.

Foulke was not a 1-inning closer and Francona deployed him in the 7th inning when the outs got very important in the ALCS. The Pirates of the early 90s worked quite successfully with a lot of reliever with a lot of saves. That closers matter is fair - that your best reliever be charged with a relatively adversity free situation is not. The relief ace is not an argument against the closer - but an argument against keeping him in a glass case while letting inferior pitchers get bigger outs in earlier spots in the game. The 2003 Red Sox did not identify a relief ace - Grady drew names out of a hat. Francona identified a relief ace - Foulke and treated him like one. Old timey baseball like Rich Gossage, Dick Radatz, Mike Marshall seemed to figure it out reasonably well - this is not new so much as a refutation of an idea which makes pitching staffs much too large and saddle (especially) NL benches who need all the viable hitters they can get.

Tie considerations: A division winner or a tie for WC #2, only cases where we get a tiebreaker game ... Tiebreakers: 2-way 1. Head to Head 2. Division Record 3. Record in last 81 non-interleague games 4. Record in last 81+X non-interleague games (X = as many games not involving the two tied teams as needed to break the tie) Three way tie: Teams A, B and C ... game 1: A hosts B, game 2: winner of game 1 hosts C. Team that wins tiebreaker chooses which team they want to be. (host 2 games, or win one road game). Order of draw determined by a process similar to 2 team and not worth getting into

It is in terms of how runs are scored ... but situational hitting is not a specific skill - the OPS there is not something particularly controllable.