moonslav59

I'm pretty sure some of the poorer teams see that even when they win, the money does not go up enough to pay more for better players needed to win. I remember when the Celtics did not even sell out in some big games. The Pirates did not sell out their WS games.

In August... Our staff ERA jumps to 4.18 after being under 3.36 in 3 of the previous 4 months. It is 3.61 on the season, which includes August. Our staff WHIP jumps to 1.305 (season: 1.229). Our staff OPS against jumps to .753 (season: .689). Yet, we still go 18-9- pretty close to our yearly winning percentage. Our bats came alive, mostly in short bursts as we are finding ways to do what we need to do to wrap up the division title and secure home field advantage. Home vs Away RPG 5.8 H 5.0 A OPS .836 H .758 A RPG Against 3.8 H 3.9 A OPS Against .689 H .690A Both our offense and our pitching/defense do better at home in all 4 major categories. Winning % .727 H .643 A

Your point highlights the way CERA should be used. One can not just blindly look at each catcher's CERA on a team, you have to look at the pitcher by pitcher comps. Of course some comps will have wildly different sample size innings pitched that make some comps unreliable. Here's a look at 2018 OPS against by pitcher: (Only pitchers with 80+ PAs against listed) Porcello .700 w Leon (714 PAs) N/A w Vazquez N/A w Swihart No Comp: Porcello has only been caught by Leon. Price .562 w Leon (232) .780 w Vaz (394) N/A w Swihart Leon is the clear better choice w Price. Sale .497 w Leon (406) .572 w Vaz (160) N/A w Swihart Leon is the better choice with Sale. Rodriguez .408 w Leon (43) .687 w Vaz (401) N/A w Swihart Leon is the better choice, but the sample size differential is large. Johnson .683 w Leon (105) .843 w Vaz (128) .731 w Swihart (144) Leon is slightly better than Swihart. Sample sizes all close to even. Velazquez .761 w Leon (83) .738 w Vaz (134) .818 w Swihart (83) Vaz is slightly better than Leon. Sample sizes pretty close. Pomeranz .961 w Leon (93) .948 w Vaz (127) .723 w Swihart (72) Swihart clearly does better with Pom. Barnes .591 w Leon (96) .493 w Vaz (113) 1.049 w Swihart (33) Vaz does better with Barnes. Kelly .886 w Leon (91) .429 w Vaz (108) .531 w Swihart (36) Vaz does way better with Kelly than Leon. Swihart does well, too. Hembree .635 w Leon (84) .748 w Vaz (107) .657 w Swihart (34) Leon does better than Vaz. Swihart does well. Kimbrel .587 w Leon (107) .610 w Vaz (98) (Just 6 PAs with Swihart .750) Leon does slightly better than Vaz. Wright .396 w Leon (16) .645 w Vaz (145) (Just 4 PAs with Swihart 1.167) Leon does better, but with way less PAs against. Eovaldi .703 w Leon (131) N/A w Vaz N/A w Swihart No Comp Workman .856 w Leon (64) .454 w Vaz (35) .465 w Swihart (22) Vaz does better. Swihart does well. Thornburg .744 w Leon (72) N/A w Vaz 1.230 w Swihart (18) Leon does better, but sample sizes are small. Brasier .480 w Leon (55) N/A w Vaz .358 w Swihart (23) Swihart does better, but the sample sizes are small. Overall, it looks like Leon does way better with our top 4 starters by PAs against with Porcello only using Leon as well. 8 pitchers do better with Leon 4 do better with Vaz 2 do better with Swihart 2 only are caught by Leon For what it's worth, here are the overall CERA numbers: 3.27 w Leon 3.76 w Vaz 4.42 w Swihart 5.40 w Butler

It seems like everyone's pens are imploding recently.

It depends on the trade value. Also, these 3B/1B prospects are not ranked very highly nationally. The chances that just one out of Dalbec, Chavis and Ockimey give us plus value at 3B or 1B is not all that great. We may want to keep all 3 to increase the chances that one succeeds. They all could turn out to be like Sam Travis or Wil Middlebrooks. I doubt we make any major changes involving 3B or 1B this winter. We have Moreland for one more year and Devers with enormous potential to be a big plus at 3B or 1B (or DH). I think our depth at the corner IF positions is not all that great. It certainly is better than our OF prospect depth and maybe middle IF and catcher depth, but that doesn't mean we're so overloaded we can afford to trade one. 1B is a huge offensive position in MLB. We've come up a bit short at 1B for a few too many years of late, so I'm for holding onto all or them, unless someone gives us something better (maybe in a two-for-one type deal), but our farm is not our strength right now. In general, I'd like to hold onto the few with promise.

I'm not sure there's a place to find it. Someone would have to do it by hand. The team ERA was 4.18 in August. Leon caught most of that. Pitcher by Pitcher August ERA listed in order of most IP for the month: 5.11 Porcello 2.10 Price 5.27 Johnson 5.67 Eovaldi 3.15 Pomeranz 5.28 Velazquez 1.88 Workman 1.42 Kelly 1.50 Brasier 5.40 Thornburg 9.64 Barnes 6.48 Hembree 4.50 Kimbrel 0.00 Sale

Nah, let's save it for another late inning large crooked number.

It was a joke. Here's a better one: Vaz, Pedey & Hembree and enough money to keep you under the tax limit.

Nope Their pen is still on the clock.

The fix is in.

I was hoping the Yanks got him.

We'll trade you Leon, Hembree & Nunez for Torres.

Fighting for his job.

Just as I predicted, when I said I was glad the Yankees got him.

The yankee pen is worse than ours right now

Better said than I. Of course, if Vaz sucks in September, then my mind can easily be changed.

They just started getting paid big money, so the jury is still out. Not off to a great start, though.

If he keeps struggling, his level going forward may not be "reality". The point is, if we need to pay him $19M x 5 years to keep him, he may not return that value. We could use the $95M to sign a younger closer or a couple top set-up men. I'm not saying I'd prefer that, but it is all speculation, at this point. I'd love to have Kimbrel back, but paying any closer 1/11th or 1/12th of your payroll budget is not something I would like doing.

The big question is, will we go into the 7th or 8th with just a handful of hits and no runs again, then explode, or will we explode early and often?

LOL! He'll be nearing .800 by October!

This stretch of decent hitting has been one of his longest and steadiest in his MLB career, but your point is well-taken.

Or, ahhemmmmmm, he likes our prospects.

I'm adding Vaz and Devers to what we have currently to make 14 everyday players.

To PH for whom? Only our catchers need PH'ing for, unless you do a 1B swap with Moreland-Pearce when they switch handed pitchers.

I don't see Swihart starting a playoff game. We can PH Moreland or Peacr for Leon/Vaz and then PH Swihart later in the game and leave him as the catcher, if needed. If they plan on starting Swihart, then carrying 3 catchers makes little sense. As for the 12th pitcher, since we will be coming off 5 off days, I think we don't have to worry about using RP'ers two days in a row, especially since there's another day off after game 2. I suppose we could use 7 RP'ers in game 1 or 3, but there's a better chance we'll need to PH for Leon or Vaz.