Maxbialystock

Perhaps his contract was OK. Eating innings every 5th day is the best thing I've read on this thread about Porcello, and I agree that has value. And in fact he ate the most innings among the Sox rotation in 2018, probably the best season in Sox history. He was also decent--3 starts, 1 win, 15.1 innings, ERA 3.52--in the 2018 postseason. Meanwhile, Price went 26 innings, ERA 3.45, Eovaldi 22.1 innings ERA 1.61, and Sale 15.1 innings, ERA 4.11).

The more I look at his stats and read about him, the more I am convinced he was just different from the other guys. He was intelligent and a student of the game and virtually his entire focus was on hitting. He had great eyesight and reflexes. He came to MLB when day games, in which hitters prosper more than pitchers, were normal and later decried the emphasis on night baseball. I think David Ortiz was somewhat like Williams--a lefty hitter who definitely preferred to pull the ball, even at Fenway with the deep right field. His career OPS was a terrific .931, and, outdoing Williams in just one respect, his final season, 2016, age 40 (his 41st birthday was in November), his OPS was an unbelievable 1.021. He think he was helped by his willingness to learn how to hit to the opposite field. Reportedly, Adrian Gonzalez worked with him.

Ted Williams notwithstanding, I agree with you.

Welcome back! Verdugo has gone so often to the left that they don't shift much for him. Those who don't go opposite field follow the trail set by the one and only Ted Williams who believed that hard contact--not necessarily for a dinger--was the way to beat the shift. His 39th birthday was August 30, 1957, the season he hit .388, one of the highest averages anyone has had since he hit .406 in 1941. That said, Williams was a dead pull hitter and no doubt believed "don't mess with success." I do disagree with you about Barnes for two reasons. First, I think he is excellent this year and certainly good enough to close in the postseason. Second, you have clearly forgotten 2018 when Kimbrel was a horrible closer (ERA 5.91) in the postseason--but the Sox still took 3 of 4 from the Yankees, 4 of 5 from the Astros, and 4 of 5 from the Dodgers. I do not believe the Sox have ever had a better manager of the bullpen than the guy they have now. Kimbrel was a disaster in the 2018 postseason, but Cora found a way to work with and around him, including sometimes leaving him in while us guys on Talksox were screaming to kill him.

Eovaldi pitched like an ace today, but the Sox only scored 1 earned run. All 4 of the Yankee runs were earned. Ottavino has so far pitched 7.1 innings in July and given up 5 earned runs for an ERA of 6.1. He has, if anything, been worse than that because he gave up 2 runs in Thursday's game, which the Sox won in the 10th. And today he came into the 8th with 1 man on and 2 outs, and allowed the Yankees to score 3 runs to go ahead. He is a much better reliever than Andriese, but in his last two games he has been worse than Andriese.

Need a new guy to set up for Barnes. Ottavino needs a break.

FWIW, a good throw by Odor gets Hernandez at 3b. So the gamble worked.

That's 14 pitches per inning.

Great call by Plawecki (or Eovaldi) on that final strike for the swinging K. Solid 1st for Eovaldi. Credit to Gardner for just making contact to get that single.

Recently the bottom third of the order has done well, but not Plawecki or Cordero.

Based on what I said, it's a fair criticism that I don't appreciate how hard MLB pitching is. But in fact I do and have expatiated on the topic in the past. A MLB starter has to have the accuracy of a professional knife thrower--but at four times the distance--and the strength to throw it really hard, the skill to throw different kinds of breaking balls, and the endurance to do it 80-120 times per start. And you're right: Porcello did all those things. But in my view he never had even one good pitch that was really hard to hit, so he had to rely on mixing his pitches, which kind of worked, but he lacked the kind of command that got guys out. Thus his career OPS Against was .750, and in his five years (2015-2019) with the Sox his OPS's against were .787, .635 (his Cy Young year), .826, .698, and .809.

I don't like Vazquez one darn bit. He's stopped hitting, he needs to stop taking chances on the basepaths, he leads MLB in passed balls with 9 (next worst only has 5), and he's overweight. However, I think one reason why the pitching staff--and last night is a perfect example--has exceeded expectations has to be that Vazquez knows what he is doing behind the plate. So, yeah, I'm fine with more Plawecki or even Wong (who looks great behind the plate--no passed balls and very few if any wild pitches). But I think Cora likes Vazquez out there and maybe for good reason.

Devers currently has the 11th best WAR, 3.8, in the AL and the 8th best OPS, .939. He's also tied with Guerrero for most rbi's, 79. His DWAR is +.2.

My guess is you are right: COVID related.

I've watched the replay on the mlb.com app, but it only has a couple of camera angles. Yes, Verdugo is running hard, but I don't know if he ran hard from the outset. The camera from last night, which I no longer can see, showed the ball hitting his glove, which normally allows the official scorer to call an error if he thinks one is merited.

I don't think that can be done for less than $300M. Devers might be willing to settle for less, but his agent will insist on more.

If you mean the one in the 9th inning, I thought he was just running so hard he couldn't hold his glove steady. It did hit his glove, but he was not charged with an error. I did not see anything lah-dee-dah about that play.

Same thing happened in the 3d inning when Cole walked Duran because he stopped throwing heat and wanted to get fancy.

Good grief. Yes, I too loved the 6 runs, the two dingers by Devers, etc, but the miracle of this game was losing ERod after 3 outs and holding the Yankees to 1 run over the last 8 innings. The bullpen, no doubt aided by the Yankees anemic lineup, was/were amazing.

Betts went to LA for one reason and one reason only: the Sox decided his first free agent contract would be unaffordable, which in fact proved to be the case. Getting Verdugo only softened the blow slightly. However, since you insist on comparing the two, I offer the following. The Dodgers are paying Mookie $365M for 12 season, which means this year he is earning $30M and has a WAR of 3.5. Verdugo is getting paid $560K and has a WAR of 1.3. So it seems to me Verdugo is a much better value even though I would agree Mookie Betts is a rarity, a bonafide five tool player (hit, hit with power, run, field, and throw).

Porcello only pitched 5 seasons for the Sox, after which they were eager to let him go on his way. I just like Houck more than Porcello because Porcello drove me nuts because he didn't have one single really good pitch nor all that much command. I entirely agree we have no idea what Houck will amount to.

Neither did I.

He's the only Yankees fan I can remember reading on talksox. Did you not mean a Yankees fan?

An exaggeration, but not by too much.