Maxbialystock

Wake up, shmuck! They are playing this game in Florida. Oh, my.

Fast ball right down the middle and Gonzalez hits an easy grounder.

Stripling curve ball looking better, but still low.

Looking back, I gotta thank Cora for going with Andriese for the last 3 innings last night. Saved the rest of the bullpen while keeping him off the mount for up to a week. Smart.

Fasten your seat belts, this could be a bumpy night. Unless, of course, the Jays go the ever popular GIDP route.

Simpsons a much better show.

Well, welcome back, Kotter, I mean Kiki.

Whoa, nellie! Great K! Boy, I love to see the other team swing and miss at a high hard one--for a change.

Is the wind affecting the pitches? A whole lot of hard hit balls by both sides this inning.

I think that out at 3b was a great dive by Devers and late signal from the 3d base coach.

Ump sure ain't helping Richards any.

Good grief. Amazing top of the 1st. Now Richards needs to keep it at 5-0.

That’s fair. Great pitchers definitely have greater value for us fans watching.

Hernandez CF Verdugo RF JD Martinez DH Bogaerts SS Devers 3B Vazquez C Gonzalez 2B Dalbec 1B Cordero RF Franchy's back!!!! Could be to give Renfroe a rest (against a righty pitcher).

You have absolutely no peer in laying down stats that tell great stories. Stunning. Wild applause! Clemens was great, but stepped over the line, which to me is unforgivable.

Once more into the breach, but without the bad dates (remember that scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark?). I still like mvp78's thread, "Since they lost last night, I need to tell you what I REALLY feel about the 2021 Sox!" I agree: "they're pretty good actually" and "this season has been downright enjoyable." But now we're 1/4 into the season and the AL East these days is the nastiest dogfight in MLB with 4 teams over .500 and just 1.5 games between the #1 Sox and #4 Yankees. Last night Ryu did a great job, but tonight Richards is going against Stripling, so a real chance to even the series. Both are righties.

I like ERA, old guy that I am, but will not disagree with your valuation of OPS against and WHIP. You do have a point about starters vs. and relievers with respect to ERA. Starters normally see every batter twice and sometimes 3 times. Relievers only see them once. Thus a great reliever can get by with just 2 pitches. But it's going to be hard to convince me that ERod's ERA of 4.70 somehow unfair. This year he lacks both command and at least one (and preferably 2 or 3) pitch that really works.

Yup. But last night wasn't so hot. Still 2 games to get back on track.

I'm with you on Bloom and on building winning teams, and I hate those foolish, gigantic contracts. That said, there have definitely been players with immense fan appeal--like the Babe, like the Splendid Splinter, like Sandy Koufax--and a slew of others. Trout has pretty much delivered every year and appears to be a shoo-in for the HOF. But I'm pretty sure he hasn't affected the Angels attendance all that much. In fact, I just checked: attendance was higher in 2009, 2010, and 2011, before his rookie year of 2012. And since then attendance has not returned to pre-2012 levels.

I agree that $25M should be mega, but the rest of the known universe does not. I prefer Bogie, Devers, JDM and maybe even Verdugo to Mookie, but only because of his insane contract. I'm even getting to like Renfroe in RF (despite that awful throw last night). One slot of 9 in the batting order and one position of 9 in the field cannot justify all that money no matter how much espn loves to hype their anointed superstars. Sadly, an "ace type" still tends to be pricey as well as a gamble.

I think his cutter and fastball are also suspect. Most of all, he finally needs to improve his command. Last night his changeup looked pretty good to me, it had some bite at the end. But even that is hittable near the middle of the strike zone. FIP is a stupid stat that ignores the reality that poor pitching includes serving up fat pitches in the middle of the strike zone which get hit hard. FIP only notices when those hard hit pitches become dingers.

I like ERA and think FIP is just silly. How about WAR? Right now ERod's is .3 for 1/4th of the season, which means that, if he stays on this track, his WAR will be 1.2 for the whole season.

A very good point. I blame the pitching, but in fact the hitting was more to blame. Overall, it just makes it a game to put into the past so you can focus on the future. And the beauty of MLB is that it's just one game out of 162.

As I understand it, FIP excludes balls in play, which I think is dumb. Last night, for example, ERod gave up 11 hits, including 4 doubles, which, according to FIP, are utterly meaningless and inconsequential. On the other hand, he had just 1 BB and 6 K's, so, according to FIP, he pitched a whale of a ball game. That is just crazy. I personally think ERA already favors pitchers too much. For example, if a pitcher makes a really dumb error and that results in 3 runs, they are all unearned because his fielding is irrelevant. If a pitcher simply doesn't cover 1b on a routine grounder to the right, and the batter gets on base, that is counted as a hit. So to me his ERA of 4.70 speaks volumes about where he is this year. I think ERod's pitches this year have all been suspect. Last night, the changeup looked pretty good, but wasn't always in the best spot and probably wasn't used enough. His fastball and cut fastball are both very hittable unless outside the strike zone. The slider might be OK, but it breaks in on righties (the Jays had 8 in the lineup last night) and therefore needs to be low and/or hitting the edges of the strike zone. In his defense, he was pretty darn good in 2019, and last year he had COVID, which affected his heart, which seems to me to be pretty serious. Coming back from something like that can't be easy. Didn't he also report a "dead arm" right before the season started?

Actually, I completely agree with you. Good pitching almost always trumps good hitting, and last night Ryu pitched with authority. He threw 7 shutout innings.