Kimmi

Yup, that has always been his Achilles' heel. Which might explain why he overpaid for Kimbrel.

Yes and yes! I have mentioned before the amount of pressure there must be in the minors, playing before dozens of scouts, knowing that your career is on the line.

Well said David. I think a case could be made that Price pitched well in the playoffs out of the pen because he was well rested. Or on the other side of that, he has not pitched well in the playoffs as a starter due to fatigue.

But Price has actually pitched very well in starts this season, except for the Yankees games, especially after getting the carpal tunnel diagnosis. I get that there is no bigger regular season stage than pitching against the Yankees, but Price pitched well in other "big" games. He pitched well against the Angels in LA, at a time when the Angels were playing very well, he pitched well against the Astros who have a very good lineup, and he pitched well against Seattle, who is a wildcard contender.

Haha. It seems to me that Price let the negative media attention and negative social media comments from his first season in Boston get to him. He seems overly sensitive to that criticism, which could be lack of confidence. I don't know.

As far as Price not having time to think about it as a reliever, I'm not buying that. I get that a reliever doesn't have 5 days to think about a game like a starter does. But usually, relievers have a pretty good idea when they're going to get into a game. Then, the reliever has several innings to sit in the bullpen thinking about about 'not blowing it' when he gets into the game.

If a catcher has the yips and goes through a period where he has trouble getting the ball back to the mound, I think that's due to something mentally, but I wouldn't say the catcher is choking. If a player has a critically ill child and performs poorly because of it, I think that's due to something mentally/emotionally, but I wouldn't call that choking. If a batter goes into a slump, then that slump starts playing on his mind, causing the slump to become prolonged, there is something going on mentally, but I wouldn't call that choking. There are players who just can't handle the scrutiny of playing in Boston. They play well with other teams, but poorly with Boston. We have seen many of those. I wouldn't call them chokers. There are many instances where a player's performance is negatively affected by his mental state. It doesn't mean that a player choked. All that said, I will grant you that there is a fine line here. As I stated previously, I do believe that some players are chokers. I don't believe that Price is a choker.

Red Sox winning % when Vaz plays: .655 Red Sox winning % when Leon plays: .605 We have a very good catching tandem. IMO, we're good to go regardless of who starts.

I am sure Cora has his reasons, and I'm sure they are valid reasons. I disagree with him resting 3 starters on the same day, but I can't argue with the success that the team has had. Fedde has an ERA of 6, so hopefully the offense will have no problems scoring runs.

WAR allows you to rank players against each other, across leagues, across positions, and across different time eras.

I disagree that OPS is not an improvement over something like BA. Believe me, I understand the flaws of OPS. But for a 'single' stat that is readily accessible and easily understandable, it does a pretty good job. It correlates with runs scored much better than BA and even better than OBP by itself. And I agree with you that OBP is king in terms of scoring runs. There are now stats that do a better job than OPS, wOBA being one of them, but again, for its simplicity and accessibility, OPS is pretty good.

You are correct that just looking at WAR does not tell you about the specific abilities of that player, but that's not WAR's purpose. It does a pretty darn good job of telling you how much a player's performance, both offensively and defensively, was worth, which is what it's supposed to do.

Absolutely oldtimer. The need for advanced metrics does not diminish the need for scouts.

Stanton's production will not warrant the contract he is receiving over 10 years, which is the issue. It's not the AAV. It's the 10 years.

That's a good question. With the way the free agent market went last year, I'm not really sure what type of contract JD can command. My guess at this point is that if JD keeps performing like he is now, he will price himself into a contract range that the Sox should walk away from.

A smart move made even better by the extremely reasonable terms of his contract.

That is definitely a real thing. But as I said about Mookie batting 3rd instead of 1st, there are other factors that offset the extra ABs.

I really think that regardless of what Thornburg does, Dombrowski needs to add another reliever, even though I happen to think our pen is pretty good as is.

It still doesn't sit right with me.

Wow, that's quite the road trip! Have an awesome time!

Sounds a lot like Jacko. LOL Yankees fans...

Yikes. What a tragic thing to happen. It sure does put things into perspective and reminds us not to take anything, including our freedom, for granted. Happy 4th to everyone!

1. Mookie Betts ® RF 2. Brock Holt (L) SS 3. J.D. Martinez ® LF 4. Steve Pearce ® 1B 5. Rafael Devers (L) 3B 6. Eduardo Nunez ® 2B 7. Jackie Bradley Jr. (L) CF 8. Christian Vazquez ® C 9. Eduardo Rodriguez (L) P Beni, Bogaerts, and Moreland all with the day off. Moreland is dealing with back spasms, but this was a scheduled day off for him to begin with. I understand the idea of resting players regularly. I don't understand why Cora would rest 3 starters in the same game. I'm guessing the early start time has something to do with it, but Cora has done this before.

And this is why Cora is the manager, and the rest of us are sitting in our armchairs.

I find this very interesting. My first reaction was surprise that it has happened 5 times in the last 20 years, but I guess if you have a pitcher getting a lot of Ks, it would be more likely to happen. Good stuff.