moonslav59

I hardly ever buy that line about "handling the pressure" under a tough media and fanbase, but I'm pretty sure it's true with some players.

My projected Sox rotations: 2024: 1. Sonny Gray 2. Chris Sale 3. Bryan Bello 4. Garrett Whitlock 5. Houck 6. Nick Pivetta/Kutter Crawford/Shane Drohan 20/25: 1. Sonny Gray 2. Bryan Bello 3. Garrett Whitlock 4. Houck 5. Kutter Crawford/Shane Drohan 6. Bryan Mata, Brandon Walter 2026 Maybe Perales or Wikelman break in. 2027 Maybe E R-C, Noah Dean or Dalton Rogers

It's like the pitchers adjusted to him, and he could never counter-adjust. First 2 seasons (545 PAs) .244 33 94 with 62 XBHs (.819 OPS) Adjusted to 650, that's like 40 HRs and 113 RBI and 74 XBHs. Last 2 years: .649 OPS projected to 650: .214 23 75 w 44 XBHs

Career OPS: .752 Career OPS as PH: .750

Yoshida and advanced metrics... Keys to Masataka Yoshida's turnaround, as measured by Statcast WWW.MLB.COM After the Red Sox signed Masataka Yoshida to a five-year, $90 million contract this offseason -- representing the largest contract ever awarded to a position player coming from Japan to MLB -- opinion about the transaction outside of Boston was mixed at best. After all, Yoshida was small (5-foot-8, 176 Paxton to pitch Friday... Red Sox injuries and roster moves WWW.MLB.COM LATEST NEWS Devers joins select Sox crowd as fastest to 150 HRs... Rafael Devers reaches 150 career home runs WWW.MLB.COM This story was excerpted from Ian Browne’s Red Sox Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

How about the Mets rotation? They've started 9 pitchers, including Denyi Reyes. 8.56 Carrasco (on IL) 7.34 Peterson (6 GS) 5.56 Scherzer (5 GS, has neck spasms, now: I wonder why) 4.43 Lucchesi (4 GS) Verlander has 1 GS Megill 4.33 in 7 GS Senga 3.38 in 6 GS

I only know about him from the Beni trade and watching if anything would come of the 5 guys we got for him. Cordero flopped. Wink looked like one, but now... Gambrell is with de la Rosa in Salem. Freddy Valdez is still in FCL.

You beat me to it.

I always hoped the St. Louis Cardinals would move to LA instead of AZ, so we'd have the ST. Rams and the LA Cardinals. The Memphis Grizzlies is a weird one, too. The Angels taking 4 shots at naming where they play was odd. I wonder, if they are done.

If I was going to complain about yanking starters to early or leaving them in too long, and I wouldn't on either- I'd choose leaving some of the starters in too long, but only if I was forced to choose one.

I doubt they want Houck to pitch 210 innings, this year, even if he finds and stays in a groove, anyway. With Whitlock looking more and more like a pen arm, to me, I'm thinking we might need to baby Houck a little bit, especially since he will be getting even more innings in the playoffs.

Too funny! I still think the Utah Jazz takes the cake, although all those lakes in LA are funny, too.

There certainly are others worth mentioning over DLR.

But, didn't it go on for like decades?

I think we pretty much have to stick with Kluber, due to him doing better than almost everyone else but Sale, lately. I think Bello deserves a long look. That makes 3. The rest all have issues or concerns: Paxton will get a look, and soon. Pivetta is as steady as they come, even if not brilliant. Houck has been going longer and longer into games and may win a slot more by default than proving he is more valuable as a SP'er than RP'er. Crawford might be the wild card i this whole shuffle and sort. 4 guys for the last 2 slots, in my eyes. Wink stays right where he is. Drohan may double-jump up, late in the year. Whitlock's health is always a concern, and maybe the pen is best for him.

Houck and the 3rd time through, this year: Game 1: HR, K removed after 5 complete. Game 2: Ground out. Removed after 5 complete. Game 3: K. Removed after 4 complete. Game 4: 2B, 2B (run), Ground out in 5th. 1-2-3 6th, and then 1B, lineout, ground out, HR, line out. Removed after 7. Game 5: 1B (drove in runner from 2nd time batter), Sac Fly (another run from 2nd time batter), line out to end 5th. 6th inning L groundout, BB, K, pop fly out. Yanked after 6. Game 7: pop out (end 5th), K, line drive 1B, ground out- yanked with 2 outs in 6th. Pitches: 70 74 90 96 86 96 74

It is an interesting topic. It seems like pitchers are dropping like flies, these days. Maybe pitching 2-3 innings every 3-4 days is better than 5-6 every 5 days or 1 IP 3 out of 5 days. I guess we'll find out, because it seems to be a trend. With a 13 man staff, one can envision: 5 starters 4 long men 4 short men

I think there was a time he was mentioned as a far-away guy with a chance. He was part of the Beni trade. He is certainly a long shot. I think he was top 60, at one point.

There are teams from different sports with the same names- like the NY and SF Giants. Didn't the Canadian Football League have two Roughriders?

Thanks for your reply. de la Rosa is only 20, and I think he might surprise.

Spending 15-20% of your budget on one pitcher may have the same affect and for a long time, too. I think the Price signing soured me, although I thought it was needed, at the time. He was about as solid a gamble as there could possibly be, and he did not come through for us, much at all. Maybe we still have Betts had we not signed him.

We are currently 7th in MLB winning %, having just passed PIT. The concern is that two teams that look better than us on paper are behind us (NYY -2.5 and HOU -3.0 GB.) I think we can catch TOR and BAL and maybe MIN and TEX, but they are not WC teams, right now.

It's a good point, but I think some context is needed: 1. 13 man staffs have changed that dynamic, a lot. 2. Our starters have not really been yanked early that often. We are 20th in SP IP at 180.1 IP, but #15 is at 184.1 IP, so we are just 3 IP from the midpoint. #10 is 189 IP. 3. We have a number of pitchers who are used to going 2-3 IP, and when add paxton and get Crawford & Whitlock back, we may have multiple long guys of high quality. 4. Our starters are improving, already, and have been going deeper, of late. 5. Our key RP'ers have not been overworked, except maybe Schreiber, a bit: 10.2 IP Jansen (11 gms) 10.0 IP Martin (10) 16.2 Schreiber (17) (Wink has 23 IP in 13 games, but that is about what many starters have with 5-6 GS.)

Ho about "The Bluffers?"

FA signings are swings and misses, to often, of they end up being big drains later in the deal. I know we've had great fortune with trades for aces, so maybe I'm biased, but I think that is the best chance at success. I'd hate to lose Mayer and more. I doubt we get an ace for Casas, Rafaela and Mata. (Remember when people bashed me for even suggesting we trade Casas?)