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Maxbialystock

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Everything posted by Maxbialystock

  1. Maxbialystock
    What in the wide. wide world of sports do you mean by "pitchers what have actual pitching talent and that pitch within themselves?" I'm beginning to have second thoughts on the overload shifts because some hitters--including Devers for one-- have learned how to go the other way. If this continues, fine. Otherwise, I agree that the shifts bad for MLB.
  2. Maxbialystock
    Agree on the Tampa series, yesterday's bravura start by Morton, and this weekend. But that won't stop me from watching.
  3. Maxbialystock
    I'm with you. He is actually capable of that when he is on.
  4. Maxbialystock
    TylerD is going for a purple heart or something because tonight's game is fraught with peril. For starters, so far this year our guys have a losing record at Fenway. We have good hitting--hooray! hooray--but can be shut down by good pitching, and Tanaka (ERA 4.00) is pitching tonight--and he is backed up by one of the best bullpens in MLB. The Yankees also have good hitting, and Porcello is going for the Sox--he of the 5.61 ERA. Nevertheless, a game worth watching because these two teams are one of the best rivalries in sports. Fenway is a very photogenic ball park, and ain't nothing guaranteed for either side in a MLB game. Tanaka has a better repertoire and normally better control than Porcello, but he is anything but unbeatable this year. Forget the London game when both were terrible. I just like this Sox lineup. Lefties have a .787 OPS vs. Tanaka, and Cora can put several decent ones (especially Devers and Holt) out there and some good righty bats too.
  5. Maxbialystock
    Much better than my post. Well stated.
  6. Maxbialystock
    I hope you realize that many of us bonafide Sox fans attack our own players or at least state our dissatisfaction. See the JBJ thread, for example. Better still, the bullpen thread. I myself have regularly gone after the rotation because they are getting paid $88M this year and not performing to that standard.
  7. Maxbialystock
    jacksonianmarch is that rare poster who remains loyal (but not uncritically so) to the Yankees but is somehow able to criticize the Sox without being offensive. He likes to talk and argue about baseball players, teams, salaries, you name it--just like many of our talksox posters. He is opinionated, knowledgeable, and insightful, but never obnoxious.
  8. Maxbialystock
    Beni's struggles rubbing off on the rest of the team????? That makes no sense when the Sox lead MLB in runs scored. They lost today because the Rays have great pitching, 2d best in MLB, and finally showed it today.
  9. Maxbialystock
    Without that miraculous opposite field grounder single by Devers, the Sox get shut out. The Rays do have the second lowest ERA in MLB and the best in the AL, so this should not be unexpected.
  10. Maxbialystock
    He started this game with three shut out innings. That's a crappy start?
  11. Maxbialystock
    The problem with Price this inning was way too many fastballs without any changeups. I'd like to blame that on Chavez, but I'm pretty sure Price has no hesitation in shaking off signs.
  12. Maxbialystock
    27 pitches in 2 innings equates to 81 pitches in 6 innings. So, keep it up, David! I frankly did not expect Price to look this good and am at a loss to explain why he has so far been effective (for 2 innings). Morton has a better assortment of pitches and better control.
  13. Maxbialystock
    And that's as it should be be.
  14. Maxbialystock
    Very likely, but acquiring pitchers, starters or relievers, is a tricky business, especially recently and especially with DD: Sale, Price, Pomeranz, Porcello, Eovaldi, Kimbrel, and others have all been problematic. Eovalidi, agreed, worked out great last year, but this year over 1/2 the season on the IL. Sale was pretty great the last two seasons, but not once August rolled around, and this year, after a tough April, decent May and June, we've seen 12 earned runs in 22 innings, ERA 4.84, in July and 4.04, season to date. Price has never been worth $30M/year. Pom and Porc way over-priced and under-performing. Kimbel a great closer until the 2018 postseason, when his apparent mission was to sabotage the bullpen. Cashner to date has gone 11 innings and given up 9 earned runs. So, me, I'm thinking it's OK if DD is a little leery of the pitching marketplace. There may in fact be great bargains or simply great but expense arms to acquire, but, once he acquires them, they seem to slide downhill.
  15. Maxbialystock
    Time to start the next game thread. Game starts in an hour.
  16. Maxbialystock
    Not ready to call them trash. Last night Barnes pitched a clean 7th and Workman a clean 8th, so Cora brought him back (with his 2.17 ERA) to finish. A leadoff single, but then a reasonable double play ball, but Chavis was slow and made a bad throw, so just 1 out. Then a K, so 2 outs with a man on 1b. Then, inexplicably, the walk, followed by another single, followed by another walk. Out goes Workman, in comes Walden, who walks Pham on 4 pitches with the bases loaded to make it 5-4. And just like that two good pitches by Walden, both strikes, that lead to an easy ground out to 1B with of course our catcher playing 1B. Lost in the game narrative of course is the great job Cora did last night--using Leon to get the most out of Sale, saving Vazquez for the perfect moment to pinch hit, then keeping him in at 1B, and making great decisions on keeping Sale in and then managing the bullpen at a crucial juncture.
  17. Maxbialystock
    Ahem. Aren't the Sox paying luxury tax this year and paying the highest average salary? As for your boy Price, this is his 4th year at $30M/$31M, and to date he has yet to finish a season with the highest WAR on the pitching staff. Last year was pretty good, 4.4, 16th best in MLB. But this year his WAR 43d in MLB, as it was in 2016. In 2017 his WAR was 111th. His cumulative salary with the Sox will be $120M by the end of this year vs. a cumulative WAR of 13, which translates to almost $10M per WAR of 1. I'd say DD paid too much, but suspect JH is fine with the cost because it helped get a 4th WS.
  18. Maxbialystock
    Gotta agree with the basic point that the luxury tax is intended to make it harder to buy the best team every year. It also keeps the lousy franchises solvent.
  19. Maxbialystock
    Pretty good OP by Yaz. Beni hitting isn't as big a deal as being sure several are hitting. Fair question about the bullpen. And I do plan to watch. Last night, for the first time in human history, a game played in the Trop was shown on espn, so I got to watch that instead of online. I did get the distinct impressions--without ever turning on the sound--that the announcers were far more interested in the Rays than the Sox. Sale against Chironos (ERA 3.29), who, however, has been less good in July (ERA 4.26). He's a righty, so a good time to get Moreland back into the lineup, but not good that Hernandez is headed back to Pawtucket. Chavis stays largely because he is a righty bat, which Holt and Moreland and Hernandez are not--or so I think. Plus the dingers of course. I'm guessing Leon is behind the plate, but less sure who will DH, Vazquez or JDM. If the former, I guess JDM goes to RF, Betts to CF, and JBJ sits.
  20. Maxbialystock
    I will agree with the view that the bullpen would be helped if DD had paid to keep Kelly and Kimbrel, but do not agree he should have done so, especially Kimbrel. I also think the tough schedule and some pretty weak starts by the rotation created some problems for the bullpen who have had to make up the difference.
  21. Maxbialystock
    Sorry. oldtimer, but all good hitting teams will have good days and bad days and those are usually driven by how good the opposing pitching is. The guy pitching for Baltimore Sunday was throwing very good stuff all game long, plus I think he may have been helped by the hot weather and the length of the two games prior--all three of those games were played in hot weather. Last night our hitters luxuriated in 72 degrees. This year Betts and especially JDM are down, but Bogie and Devers and Vazquez are up to way up. Last year the Sox led MLB in scoring, but we regularly--I'm sure you were one--complained about how bad the bottom three in the order were. In other words, we are rarely fully satisfied with the hitting. Or pitching for that matter. Right now Cora can go with a lineup like--Betts, Devers, Bogie, JDM, Chavez, Beni, Chavis, JBJ, and Hernandez. The three duds in that lineup would be Beni, OPS .776, Chavez, .779, and JBJ, .724. The other six are all in the .800's and .900's.
  22. Maxbialystock
    Not much of a Ben fan, but he did make that one great trade in late 2011 that moved Beckett and others (AGon)--a lot of salary--to the LA Dodgers, which I think made the 2013 success possible. He also signed, however, Hanley Ramirez and Pablo Sandoval. Right now he is the VP for Baseball Operations in Toronto. DD has also made some good moves and gets credit for 2018. But I'm not so happy with the big bucks for the rotation which is not delivering this year and had issues before this year.
  23. Maxbialystock
    Fascinating. All this time I thought the changeup and screwball were the same pitch.
  24. Maxbialystock
    Only Porcello has more pitches--especially that big curve--in his repertoire, but ERod's is probably better. His fastball definitely works well, and so does his changeup, which helps against all those righty bats he faces. His cutter is decent, ditto his slider. Our $31M starter Price no longer throws a slider or curve.
  25. Maxbialystock
    That could have been me, I freely admit. For most of his time in Boston, I have thought of ERod as unprofessional despite his having a pretty good repertoire. Too many walks, too many pitches, and a reluctance to cover 1b on grounders hit to the right. We saw most of that last night, as well as some hard hit balls for outs. Nevertheless, ERod boosters have every reason now to be ERod boasters because he sure looks like the most reliable--and lowest paid--starter on the roster.
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