Maxbialystock

I think both work in the right places.

Sinker is a fast ball that goes down a little, even if its infinitesimal. Rather than sinker, I think Fat Boy might have been a better term.

Houck threw all low stuff, well places, and mixed fastball, sinker, and slider to K Judge. Well done. Two splitters to Gallo, and a 3 batter, 11 pitch 3d for Houck! What a turnaround from the 2d inning and against the 2d, 3d, and 4th Yankee batters.

If Houck can command his slider, fastball, sinker, and splitter, he might be all right.

Yes and no. The problem is that at some point that pitch is in fact headed for the strike zone. This is especially true of the curve which has a lot of break to it.

Am I the only one keeping track of what the pitchers are doing? Did no one else notice that that sinker to Bogey was incredibly stupid?

Bonehead move by Monty and his stupid catcher!!!!! Curve was working great, so they decided to give Bogey a fastball right down the middle. 2-2 !!!!!!!!

On the other hand, it is destroying Bogie as it did JDM.

The one downside to Montgomery's great curve is that with men on base a WP can be costly.

Terrible swing by Renfroe on a changeup way outside. This is why Houck needs a changeup.

Changeup right down the middle, and Kike barely fouled it off.

The difference between Montgomery today and Houck today is that Montgomery has pretty good stuff, especially the wicked curve and nasty changeup. Everything Houck has throw has been hittable.

I am pretty sure all Montgomery needs against our lineup is that big curve, that pretty good cut fastball (91 mph), and the changeup. Dalbec loyalists need to take a bow.

Well, he certainly could use a good curve ball and/or a good changeup, but today his command is also a problem.

I hope I'm wrong, but I think this game and Houck are an example of why we should be glad for 7 innings games on double-header days.

Fastball and slider both hittable on the first time through the Yankees lineup. LeMahieu the Merciful.

Another lucky break, a single hit hard to JDM, who actually has a good arm, so Voit was right to stay at 3d. Bases now loaded, and the Yankees look like piranha gobbling up Houck's offerings.

2 line drive outs in this inning. Scary with 2 men on. His slider got hammered.

Not a good time to develop command issues.

It took an excellent throw across the diamond to a moving target, who also made a good play running, catching the throw, and tagging out Renfroe. Odds were in Renfroe's favor, and a guy on 3b with Montgomery throwing all those big curves in the dirt is worth gambling for. Earlier in the season Vazquez's gambles kind of paid off, but over time they just got dumber and dumber.

What's the name of the Clint Eastwood movie--Trouble With the Curve? Only that kid was an 18 year old rookie, and JDM is a seasoned veteran who absolutely should know better.

Ahem. We just played the Orioles 3 at Fenway. All semi-forfeits.

The absolute best value in players are those who are really talented and acquired when the team has several years of control, usually thru the farm system, but sometimes by trade. If you go back to that crucial scene in the movie Moneyball, the one in which all those old scouts are shot down by Billy Beane and his new assistant, you are looking at a quick fix solution and not one teams should follow routinely. Yes, absolutely, get value and even use sabermetrics to help you in making trades, but young talent and especially evaluating young talent and bringing it along are crucial to any MLB team. Billy Beane, at least in the movie, says that all scouts are worthless, and he is wrong. Relatedly, it's a truism in MLB that the big money comes from long-term contracts in which the biggest part of the salary comes at age 30 and after, which is when players wear down, lose their timing, get injured, whatever. Consider the following data on the 2021 Sox players--by name, age, salary, and WAR-- Sale, 32, $30M, WAR .1 Bogaerts, 28, $20M, WAR 3.9 JDM, 33, $19M, WAR 3.1 Eovaldi, 31, $17M, WAR 3.0 Price, 35, $16M, WAR 0.0 Pedroia, 37, $12M, WAR 0.0 Richards, 33, $8.5M, WAR .3 E. Rodriguez, 28, $8.3M, WAR .9 Ottavino, 35, $7.1M, WAR .8 Vazquez, 30, $6.2M, WAR .7 Devers, 24, $4.8M, WAR 4.0 Rike Hernandez, 29, $6M, WAR 3.8 Barnes, 31, $4.5M, WAR 1.2 Perez, 30, $4.5M, WAR .7 Renfroe, 29, $3.1M, WAR 1.8 Plawecki, 30, $1.6, WAR .1 Sawamura, 33, $1.2M, WAR .8 Verdugo, 25, $650K, WAR 1.9 Pivetta, 28, $610K, WAR 2.4 Dalbec, 26, $575K, WAR -.6 Whitlock, 25, $570K, WAR 2.3 Duran, 24, $570K, WAR -.4 If you further divide a player's salary by his WAR, you can see that the best Sox player values this year are under 30 years old--except for Sawamura. Price is I think a great example of the folly of giving a long term contract circa age 30. And maybe Sale is too even though I like him a lot. JDM has actually produced and I think was the key bat added after 2017 who made a big difference in 2018. And Eovaldi and Barnes, both 31, are also pretty good value this year. I think the Bogaerts contract was/is a good value, but shudder at what Devers will want when he becomes a free agent. Think Mookie Betts. About Pedroia's $12M. It looks bad, but 2007 (his rookie year) thru 2021 (including 4 years of basically not playing), 15 years, his total WAR was 52 and his total salary was $138M, so the Sox were basically paying him $2.65M/WAR, which is actually not bad. Jacoby Ellsbury also came up in 2007 and his final year was 2020. His cumulative WAR was 31 and total salary was $168M.

In the games I have watched him catch, I thought Wong looked pretty darn good. I can't comment on his arm (throwing baserunners out) or framing pitches or how he calls a game, but I like how he handles himself defensively. His game log says caught 3 games (Yankees, Royals, and Angels), in which the Sox won 2 of 3 and Eovaldi was the starter in all 3 games and pitched well in all 3 games.

To a degree. However, his main point is the same as mvp 78's: the Sox defense is hurting the Sox pitching and not just a little.