moonslav59

On the surface, this makes sense, and certainly they could have had more chances for RBIs had Kike done better getting on base, but what about Devers? These are the team leaders in PAs with Men on Base and RISP... Men on Base 146 Bogey 28 rbi 131 Verdugo 32 129 JD 23 129 Story 42 120 Devers 35 95 JBJ 21 94 Kike 20 Kike & JBJ both get more rbi per PA w Men on Base than JD & Bogey. RISP 83 Verdugo 25 rbi 82 Bogey 27 77 JD 20 75 Story 37 62 Devers 24 62 Dalbec 12 (hideous!) 61 Kike 20 60 JBJ 21 56 Vaz 20 Again, those last 3 guys do better per PA than most of the others.

I do recall a lot of bitching about Kike leading off, last June, too. Then silence over the remainder of the season, and deafening silence during the playoffs. Maybe history repeats itself. Maybe not.

I've been down on Vaz, a lot, over his career, especially concerning his inability to "whisper to pitchers," but his offense, many times outweighed or evened up that, IMO. He dipped a bit for a couple seasons, but it's nice to see his bat coming alive over the last 4-6 weeks.

Refsnyder must stay on the 26. No question- now.

This is the best Yankee run since when?

Okay! There's the runner moved over to third with less than 2 outs. Let's see if we can score, "the Old Fashioned Way!"

He seems to go through some funks, but he rights the ship, quickly. Those 4 walks were to the first 10 batters, and he hasn't walked anyone, since. 10 Ks out of 21 outs is damn good. With Eovaldi on the shelf and Wacha seemingly hitting a little rough patch, he's pitching like our ace, now. (I hope I didn't jinx him- like 700's reverse jinx.)

Pivetta has really settled down, after walking 4 of the first 10 batters. Of course, all of the 4 hits came after the 3rd inning, but it's good he didn't mix them together. He's at 108 pitches, but he just K'd the side. Does he start the 8th? 7 IP 4 H 1 ER 4 BB 10 K

It's amazing he's made it this long in MLB and put up some decent numbers without being able to hit hard throwers.

The big loss, yesterday, allowed us to save our best RP'ers for today. Pivetta is at 94 pitches, and might not pitch another inning after the 7th, assuming he makes it through the inning.

Not so much since May 8th. 2 May 8 6 & 3 May 10 2 May 11 4 & 2 May 13 4 & 3 May 14 None May 15 3 May 16 2 May 17 2 & 2 May 18 2, 2, 2, 3 & 3 May 19 4 & 3 May 20 4 May 21 5 May 22 (10th inning) 2 May 24th None May 25 3,3,2,5,2 May 26 4 & 2 May 27 3 May 28 None May 28 2, 2, 5 May 29 None May 30 (shut out) None May 31 4 & 3 JUN1 2, 2, 3 JUN3 3 & 4 JUN4 3 JUN5 None JUN6 (1-0 win) 3 JUN7 None JUN8 (1-0 win) None JUN9 2,2,2 JUN 11 2 JUN 12 3 JUN 14 2,2,2,2 JUN 15 2 JUN 16 2 & 3 JUN 17 None JUN 18 4 since June 6th is a lot, and I wish the 2's were a bit more crooked or jagged, but our offense has been more consistent since early May. We did win 2 of those 4 games, too.

Agreed, and I'm not trying to minimize putting the ball in play and advancing runners- the good ole fashion way. But, I often wonder, if high K players hurt the team, in this area, as much as maybe some might think it does, especially when compared to high DP players.

BAL up on TBR 2-1 in the 5th. NYY up on TOR 4-2 in the 5th. CLE plays at LAD, later this afternoon. A win, today might gain us some ground.

He's got more rbis than his numbers project. (JD & Bogey- less.)

Had he put the ball in play, maybe it would have been a DP or FC. Not many balls in play advance runners. Yes, that time might have led to a run. I'm glad we scored him, anyway, which is another factor in determining just how much (or little) putting the ball in play matters over striking out. Has anyone ever done a study on this?.

But maybe our third best hitter eats theirs. BTW, JD's OPS is among the league leaders, and Bogey is not that far behind.

Not living near Boston, anymore, and being out of the talk show loops, may I ask if Story Land is within the confines of Red Sox Nation, in your humble opinion?

I'm not sure the fewest amount of negative WARs is the best metric, either. He pitched in 10 MLB seasons before 2022 (only 2 under 25 IP) and he only had a fWAR above 1.o, once- back in 2014. Since then, we've seen: 0.5, 0.8, 0.0, 0.6, 1.0, 0.5, -0.1. For what he was paid, that's not awful, but before the Story signing, Bloom had only given 2 year deals to Kike and Sawamura. I just don't see what this guy has done to get Bloom to go 2. His bWAR has been very different from fWAR and that 2014 season was a negative using bWAR. Starting in 2012... -0.4 0.6 -0.2 -0.3 0.9 1.1 0.4 0.2 0.3 0.0 1.4 in 2020's 20 IP season 0.4 He's +0.1 in 2022, according to bWAR. Enough to convince me fWAR is better.

bingo!

Play ball! One game at a time, guys!

Even if Kike was healthy?

The Rays have been held up as the shiny example of how to build a dependable pen, year-after-year, with very little financial investment and not always so much from their farm, but rather from shrewd signings, trades and waiver wire pick-ups. The hope was that Bloom could bring that to the Sox. Last year seemed to show some promise, and the additions of Whitlock (rule 5), Schreiber (waivers), Strahm (cheap FA deal) and a few others have shown a step in the right direction, but here's a look at the OPS Against numbers of the top Rays pen arms in order of PAs against: (Remember, they use pen games, often) .649 Wisler (108 PAs Against in relief) .808 Thompson 98 .329 Adam 96 .799 Garza 96 .607 Beeks 93 .536 Poche 83 .536 Raley 79 .638 Kittredge 75 ,264 Feyereisen 74 .844 Fleming 56 .590 Sanders 39 .686 Armstrong 39 .316 Springs 36 1.152 Mazza 35 9 other pitchers used in relief with less than 35 PAs against They've used over double the amoun t of pitchers in relief than we have (29>14). We've used 13 pitchers for more than 35 PAs Against to their 20. Now, the pen games and designated starter practice makes a difference, but who are those guys? Where did they find them? I never heard of most of them.

I wasn't really asking "why." The guy has been great and outstanding, and he's charismatic. I was just saying, personally, I'm sick of it all. I think it's gone overboard, but I understand, fully, why it has.

Afternoon game. 1. Refsnyder RF 2. Devers 3B 3. JD DH 4. Bogey SS 5. Verdugo LF 6. Story 2B 7. Vaz C 8. JBJ CF 9. Dalbec 1B

His one good season since 2016 was the short 2020 season, when he had 20 IP. His 6.5 Hits per 9 IP from 2019-2021 is impressive enough to think he has something good in him. 12.4 K/9 is nice, too. I'm not saying he's been totally ineffective, but yes, that 5.3 BB/9 during that same stretch and 5.1 career was enough to scare me away from wanting anything to do with him. Hell, we had that guy in DHern, already in the system for min wage. DHern, since 2019: 7.0 H/9 (slightly worse) 7.4 BB/9 (much worse) 14.2 K/9 (much better) 1.1 HR/9 to Diekman's 0.9 HR/9 FIP 3.81 Diekman 3.85 DHern