moonslav59

Not all seasons with the Sox, but check out these stretches: ERA/WHIP Koji '11-'13 1.69/0.639 '10-'16 2.26/0.795 Pedro '99-'02 (all with BOS) 2.07/0.871 (It's almost unheard of for a SP'er to have a WHIP under 0.900. Pedro averaged under that in a 4 season stretch!) '97-'05 2.45/0.969 (Led MLB in /k/BB 4 times ,WHIP 6 of these 9 seasons and ERA in 5 of 9.) Clemens "The Creep" '86-'92 (All with BOS) 2.66/1.089 His last 4 in BOS (perhaps pre-steroid) 3.77/1.289 first 10 years after BOS (steroid boost) 3.17/1.185

Makes you wonder why a guy with his great seasons before 2013 hadn't become a closer by then. Reminds me of my freshman year at ND, when Joe Montana was the third string QB on opening day. An injury and a poor half by the 1 & 2 thrust Joe into the limelight, and he never looked back. (We beat Earl Campbell's #1 Texas team in the Cotton Bowl, that year '77-'78).

Yup, my bad. Forgot to look at his years.

Some think 2013 was some kind of freaky season, and it was startling in some ways, but Koji had several season in a row with some fantastic number with the bell curve peaking in 2012. Yes, the second half of 2013. (The playoffs were awesome, too.) 1st half/2nd half OPS Against: .514/.231 WHIP 0.756/0.313 K/BB ratio: 7.50/41.00 1 BB, 0 HR and just 1 ER in the last 32 innings of 2013. He had an 11 IP stretch of no hit ball and finished the regular season with 18.2 IP of 1 hit ball, 0 BB and just 1 ER (0.48 ERA). He had another stretch in June with 8.2 IP, 1 H, 1BB, 0 ER. Back to the career numbers surrounding 2013: WHIP: 0.955 '10 0.723 '11 0.639 '12 0.565 '13 (almost a perfect trend line) 0.917 '14 (a bit of a spike on a bell curve) 0.917 '15 0.957 '16 Career Leaders since 1972 (400+ IP) 0.83 Koji 0.92 Jansen 0.95 Kimbrel 0.97 Mo 0.99 Doolittle 1.00 Wagner & Eck 1.01 Chapman 1.02 O'Day 1.03 Papelbon 14. Foulke at 1.04 19. Miller at 1.08 Again, Sox fans have seen some of the best!

Taking into account the era a pitcher played in, here are the all time MLB leaders in Adjusted ERA+ seasons since 1972: 291 Pedro '00 271 Maddux '94 260 Maddux '95 243 Pedro '99 229 Gooden '85 226 Clemens '05 222 Clemens '97 222 Greinke '15 219 Pedro '97 218 deGrom '18 217 Snell '18 215 Arrieta '15 & K Brown '96 211 Clemens '90 & Pedro '03 208 Guidry '78 205 Greinke '09 202 Pedro '02 & Kluber '17 Pedro has 5 of the top 18 seasons and Clemens 3. Although one of Pedro's seasons was with Montreal, Sox fans have been gifted the chance to see 7 of the top 18 SP'er seasons in the past 3 decades. :

Best Starter WHIP since 1972 (200+ IP) 0.97 Sale 0.98 Pedro 1.16 Clemens 1.18 Jenkins 1.19 Tiant 1.20 Saberhagen 1.21 Schilling 1.21 Price 1.22 Beckett 1.24 Darwin 1.25 Eck 1.26 Porcello & Arroyo 1.28 Pattin & Wise 1.29 Lester 1.30 Boyd & Wright 1.31 Eovaldi, Buch, ERod & Boddicker ERA- 53 Pedro 66 Sale 69 Clemens 78 Viola 82 Saberhagen 83 Tiant & Schilling 84 Lester 85 Jenkins & Boddicker 86 Price 88 Moret 89 Lowe 90 Lee & Darwin 91 Steven Wright The worst? 1.66 Avery 1.59 Mike Brown 1.58 T Bolton & J Suppan 1.56 J Sellers 1.52 Dick Pole & C Rainey 1.50 Mike Torrez 1.49 A Sele ERA- 129 Suppan 127 Smithson

Best WHIP from 1972-2021 (150+ IP) with the Sox: 0.81 Koji 0.91 Kimbrel 1.00 Papelbon 1.11 Bard 1.17 Aceves 1.17 Foulke 1.19 Embree 1.21 Tazawa & Lowe 1.22 Workman 1.23 Burgmeier & Jeff Rear-end 1.25 Way back Wasdin, Wake & Okajima The worst? 1.63 Mark Clear 1.57 Rob Murphy 1.53 Steve Crawford 1.52 Diego Segui 1.47 Wes Gardner 1.45 Craig Breslow

Here are some numbers on Sox RP'ers since I started following them in 1972: Best Season By fWAR 3.2 Kimbrel '17 3.1 Papelbon '06 3.1 Koji '13 3.0 Papelbon '11 3.0 Burgmeier '80 (99 IP helped) 2.8 Papelbon '08 2.7 Gordon '98 2.4 Drago '79 & Lowe '00 2.3 Stanley '83 (145 IP) 2.1 Workman '19, Papelbon '07 & Lowe '98 2.0 Stanley '82 (168 IP) WHIP 0.57 Koji '13 0.68 Kimbrel '17 0.77 Papelbon '07 0.78 Papelbon '06 0.79 Jeff Gray '91 0.90 Andrew Miller '14 0.92 Koji '14 0.93 Koji '15 & Papelbon '11 0.94 Keith Foulke '07 Other notables: Tazawa 0.95 in '12, Bard 0.96 in '11 & Okajima 0.97 in '07

That was an amazing season. 46 for 46 saves and save opportunities, until the playoffs, of course. 79 innings. 1.008 WHIP, although Koji's was about half that! Only Barnes has approached what Koji did, and it's only 60 games.

Maybe people aren't realizing how bad replacement value is, this year. The whole league is hitting worse than any year since 1968. (Correct me, if I'm wrong, but it seems that way.) It's all about context and how much better you are that the other teams, especially the other top contenders. Every team has multiple black holes, but much of what we hear is, "We can't win with 3 black holes!"

I picked only WS winning teams, because I think having a healthy solid 5 starters from wire to wire is a significant factor in going far in the playoffs. Other Sox "winning teams" did not have this trend, fo the most part. Trust me. I looked.

Kike may still prove to be an okay signing, especially in light of how badly many other top 2B options are doing, so far this year.

We're on pace for 100 wins. 5 games ago, we were on pace for 94.

Adjust ERA: ERA+ 116 BOS 110 HOU

More, if you go back to the deadline in 2020 or to the Verdugo trade.

Plus, the 4 for 7 doesn't take into account the Pivetta and Ottavino trades, the Arroyo waiver pick-up and the Plawecki signing, which some were pre 2020 winter deals. Richards Perez Whitlock Renfroe Arroyo Ottavino Plawecki Valdez Sawamura Kike Marwin Andriese Santana Cordero & Co. A mess of prospects Then, there is Verdugo & Co. All-in-all, even not taking budget constraints into context, he's done one hell of a job!

He's never really increased his workload in even one game, since the statement was made and the one May 13th game where he went 3 IP and threw 52 pitches. That was a long time ago, and that wasn't even the most pitches he's thrown in a game. He did that in his first game (3.1 IP/ 59 pitches). Days rest/IP/ Pitches 4- 2.0-20 6- 1.0-10 5- 2.2-29 5-2.1-41 5-2.0-31 4-1.0-15 3-1.0-23 2-2.0-27 6-3.0-52 (May 13) 6-0.1-15 2-1.2-35 4-2.0-36 7-1.2-35 4-1.2-20 2-0.1-2 This shows no signs of "stretching him out." I'm fine with what they are doing, but it's not stretching him out. He was used in 2 or more innings 5 out of 6 times in April (all over 29 pitches). He was used 3 times in his next 10 games 2 or more innings and only went over 30 pitches 4 times. If anything, they are shortening him out.

They lost the mojo. Key injuries.

...and it's still early. Plus Andriese is not making much more than 2X min.

Well, the argument I always heard, and we hear it here in Boston, too, is that some pitchers "can't handle the spotlight." I never believed that, fully.

I guess they don't feel the need to explain every change in plans they make. It may help to keep the opps guessing, too I guess I mention it a lot, because I wanted to see him pitch 3-4 innings, at times. That really takes the heat off the pen and gives them extra rest every so often. I also think we have been pushing our luck, regarding starters not missing games due to injury. The only starts a non rotation pitcher started was due to double headers or wanting to give ERod some extra time at the start of the season. I don't want to jinx anybody or anything, but have a look-see: Notice a trend? GS'd 2004 33 Pedro & Lowe 32 Schilling 30 Wake 29 Arroyo 5 Others 2007 32 Dice K 31 Wake 30 Beckett 24 Schilling 23 Tavarez 11Lester 11 Others (7 Gabbard, 3 Buch) 2013 33 Lester 29 Lackey 29 Dempster 27 Doubront 16 Buch 10 Peavy 18 Others (7 Webster, 6 Aceves, 3 Workman) 2018 33 Porcello 30 Price 27 Sale 23 ERod 13 Johnson 11 Eovaldi & PomPom 14 Others (8 Velazquez, 4 Wright) Every winning season saw 4 starters get 23 of more starts. Hell, last year, in a 60 game season, we started 16 different pitchers as starters and 30 in total! This year, after 60 games, we have used 18 pitchers, including 3 with 3 or less IP. We've used 6 starters (one barely): 12 Eovaldi 12 Richards 12 Pivetta 11 Perez 11 ERod 2 Houck 4 of those starters have an ERA under 3.88, and the one that doesn't, ERod, was supposed to be our #1!

I don't disagree, but we beat then 4-1 and could easily have won the game we lost. I know momentum can change on a dime, but that 2018 team did face a few times, where doubt could have crept in, like when Sale went down with an injury, and they always slapped it away with a mighty show of force and dominance. I've never seen a team like that, at least a Sox team. There are times, like 2013, where even though the team was not all that great on paper, you just know nothing will stop them.

The thing about that deal that really exposed just how weak the Yankee depth is, is the fact that he has been placed in the following batting slots in 124 PAs, this year: PAs by slot 38 in 6th slot 26 in 9th 16 in 4th 12 in 2nd, 5th and 7th 5 in 3rd 3 n 8th That's 83 of 124 in the 2 through 6 slots! And, no way should he have been needed for 124 PAs since the addition.

Must be because I'm biased and he is not. LOL.

I also find it hard to think someone can be a "fan" and have so much hatred against over half the players on the team. I understand the frustration and the bandwagon knee scraping many fans show on these forums, but this guy just plain hates on players that are part of the team he says he loves. Then, after one big hit, he's back to loving them until their next AB. It's maddening, to me at nearly any level, but he takes it to an extreme.