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Maxbialystock

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Everything posted by Maxbialystock

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. Fascinating. All this time I thought the changeup and screwball were the same pitch.
  8. 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.
  9. 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.
  10. Looking forward to this despite this game despite the crappy ballpark. ERod supported by five righty bats and four lefty-- Betts Devers Bogie JDM Vazquez Beni Travis JBJ Hernandez
  11. Agree with the OP. DD picked up Price, Sale, Porcello, and Eovaldi--and others--and for the most part they have not earned their pay.
  12. OK with me even though I like Holt and Hernandez more. Both are better at the double play and have higher OPS's. Chavis leads the Sox in K's with 109 (vs. 79 games played), but he does have those 16 dingers.
  13. In Bull Durham Crash says the difference between hitting .250 and .300 is one hit per week, and that's true if you assume 25 weeks and 500 at bats, which is pretty close to actuality in MLB today.
  14. We know these Sox can hit because they have good numbers, especially runs scored, and they did hit some balls hard yesterday, whichcan happen in a no-hitter and usually does.
  15. Since this is the game thread, I thought I'd chime in with one simple but controversial thought: we got beat by a pitcher who was definitely on, who struck out guys right and left, and who gave up 1 hit, a double by of course Devers. Maybe scoring 16 runs the night before had an effect, I don't know. But this was not a game we should have won, not with that guy on the mound.
  16. Ted Williams was right about the All-Star Game. It should have been a joy to play in because it was the best against the best, especially the central confrontation between pitcher and batter. The home run contest is of course total BS because it's just a step above T ball. But seeing the best players in the country, probably the world, out there on the field together can only be good. This is only helped by the fact that pitchers will in fact want to get hitters out, and hitters will in fact want to get hits, maybe even dingers--against the best.
  17. Are you talking about spring training? If so, Porcello pitched 12 innings vs. 16 in 2018, hardly a huge difference. This year ERod pitched 15 innings in ST vs. 0 last year, and has struggled until lately. Price only pitched 6 this year vs. 15 last year, and his ERA is lower. However, I do not disagree he is scary out there because he relies almost exclusively on the changeup and fast ball (and cut fast ball). Sale, too, only pitched 6 innings, but this was done to avoid what happened the past two seasons when he was terrific April-June/July and so-so July/August-Sep/Oct. Plus he's lost some speed on his favorite pitch, that blazing fastball.
  18. Picking up from last nights commentary, Porcello isn’t getting good support from the outfield. Beni didn’t jump hardly at all to get that dinger, and a good right fielder would have held the double to a single and the triple to a double.
  19. New chapter in the blame book. Tonight the bottom 4 guys in the lineup have 3 hits, including the 2 run dinger. The top 5 guys have 1 hit, and just now our number 1 and 2 hitters both popped up with men on 1st and 2d.
  20. I deserve any and all criticism about comments on Leon. I have raged against him and acclaimed his excellence. I thought he was excellent yesterday and don't think so tonight. I will say that, when your starter has only a fastball and a changeup, he needs to have great command to keep the lid on. I have read a couple of articles recently that say CERA is a complete fiction, that it is unsupported by any rational statistical analysis.
  21. ONe more time. That 4th Orioles run was going to happen and was going to be an earned run regardless of what JBJ or JDM did. It was at worst a clean double, and the next Oriole up singled. I am not defending JBJ or JDM, but am saying there is only one Sox villain tonight, the highest paid guy on the team.
  22. You get full credit for great eyesight. Well stated. But I honestly don't care whether JBJ or JDM screwed up because that faux-dinger was always going to an earned run regardless of how it was played. The Orioles have 6 runs because of one guy and one guy only.
  23. Price would be doing just fine if he got just a little help from the defense--and some hitting of course. Price is the man.
  24. Whoops. A 2 run dinger to LF. Time to blame Travis for not trying harder to catch, but never ever blame good old Price, who gives his all and is barely paid a living wage.
  25. I'm sorry, but I think you jumping on the wrong guy. That Oriole did get a hit even if it wasn't a triple, it was probably a double, and the next Oriole singled. In any case, Price has given up 4 earned runs and is unlikely to go beyond the 5th inning. Any intelligent fan would direct his anger at the real culprit in this game.
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