Kimmi

You always take projections with a grain of salt. The point of looking at them, though, is to guage how the team looks on paper. That's the job of the GM - to build a team that looks good on paper. Ben did that. I've said many times that he cannot control what happens on the field.

Another lopsided pitching matchup that is not in our favor. We got this!!!

^^This.

Oh, I'm not aguing whether the construction turned out to be a failure or not. It was an absolute failure. There's no arguing that. The only way to judge whether the season was a success or not is by the actual results. I just don't put the blame on Ben because I believe that his plan was solid, even though I didn't necessarily agree with it. Good plans don't always work out. I agree with what Dojii said. The thing now is to figure out where the disconnect is between what should have happened on paper and what actually did happen on the field.

I wouldn't look at BA or "clutch", but you have a point about OBP. The most important job of the lead off hitter is to get on base. Unfortunately, managers still have the false notion in their minds of what a typical lead off hitter should be.

I can somewhat agree with you on this. However, there is a fine line between pulling the plug on a player and letting him flounder away to work through his struggles. Most fans are far too impatient and want players DFA'd at the first sign of a struggle. However, there are countless examples of players who appeared to be finished or young players who appeared to not have what it takes only to turn it around in big ways when shown the patience. In some cases, it's a matter of not having a viable Plan B, which I believe was the case last year. I do fault Ben for relying on 3 young players in key positions last season and not having good back up plans for them.

This is just wrong. If the staff, along with the position players, had performed up to expectation, we would likely be in first place, where most people felt we would be. I am leaving out the word "career" because career stats are not the best way to judge how a player is going to perform.

Correct. He has been successful as a sinker ball pitcher, not a power pitcher. He does not have to be a high strike out guy in order to be a very good pitcher.

WAR is not a perfect stat, but it still does a very good job of assessing a player's value. IMO, FIP is a better way to assess a pitcher's performance than ERA is, especially when a pitcher has a terrible defense behind him like Porcello did in Detroit. That difference between his FIP and ERA is an indication of just how bad Detroit's defense was. FIP and xFIP are better predictors of future ERA than ERA itself is. If you don't like fWAR, we can go with bWAR, which uses runs allowed rather than FIP, then adjusts for defense. Porcello's WAR values the past 3 seasons are 1.5, 2.4, and 4.0. The 1.5 is not great, but his value was certainly trending in the right direction. FTR, Fangraphs also has a WAR stat, called RA9-WAR, based on runs allowed, but I don't believe this stat is adjusted for defense. Porcello's values for the last 3 seasons are 1.0, 2.1, and 3.0. These values are not as good (I believe Porcello is being penalized for Detroit's poor defense), but again his value was trending in the right direction. One other note about WAR is that is give value for innings pitched, and rightly so. Any way you look at it, there was no reason to believe that Porcello wouldn't at minimum continue to close to a 3 WAR player.

We can only hope that the dude continues this run into next season and beyond. His stuff has never been questioned. Has he finally learned how to pitch? We shall see, but his last several starts sure are encouraging.

Well said. I concur.

You can't rely on him to give you a full season. This is why you keep Owens in the pen. Also, Buchholz should not be counted on to be the ace of the staff. Dombrowski has to sign or trade for another pitcher to be the staff ace.

He could still trade Buchholz, but seeing as how Buchholz won't pitch again this season, I think that will be difficult to do unless he sells really low on him. I don't see the point of doing that.

I agree. Kids don't even like to talk on the phone anymore. They'd much rather text. The sad thing is, this isn't just going on in public places, it's happening in probably most homes too.

Looks like another game where the Sox are going to have to hope they can get the starter out of the game and get to the Mets' pen. DeGrom looks tough. Kelly has been able to work around lead off hits in the first two innings. As I'm typing, he gives up another lead off hit.....

Dombrowski has stated that if Buchholz is healthy, picking up his option is an easy decision. Score 1 point for him.

Jacko, because you are a Yankees fan and simply don't know any better, I am going to excuse this entire post. And I say that with the utmost affection. Despite your annoyance, I like you.

I know that Porcello isn't Kershaw, but that doesn't change the point. You have reasonable expectations on how a pitcher should pitch, and if the pitcher falls well short of those expectations, it really isn't the fault of the GM. Porcello was close to a 3 WAR pitcher in his previous 3 seasons (2.8, 2.9, 2.8). If he maintained that level, he would be pitching near his contract level. For reasons already stated, there was very good reason to believe that he would improve.

I can agree with that.

Ownership ultimately gets to make the decisions, but I am concerned that Dombrowski will have a lot of influence on their opinions. As you said, Dombrowski gets the benefit of the doubt for now. He may do a very good job.

I love the idea of a Betts/JBJ/Castillo outfield. The idea of Hanley at first, not so much. I am sure he can handle the position physically. It's mentally that I'm concerned with. He just doesn't seem to have the focus to be in the game 100% of the time. That said, if they are going to try it, now is the time to do. If it works out, it would solve both our OF and our 1B questions for next year.

Two bonehead plays by Bogaerts and Castillo led directly to Mets' runs. Bogaerts can be excused this one time because he has worked hard to improve his defense. Castillo seems to have gotten his mechanics and timing back, but he needs to work hard this offseason on those baseball basics.

Oh, the irony.

It was clearly an actual HR, but that doesn't matter. It was fun and exciting to watch.

I'm a little wary of Dombrowski as well. We'll have to wait to see what he actually does this offseason, but I will not be happy if he dismantles the farm.