moonslav59

I don't think the pen is a good idea, since it lends itself to the desire to over pitch (throw too hard) to get that "big out". I do think holding him out of a few starts might end up being part of the plan, or just limiting his innings until he shows he's strong enough to go more and more.

MLBTR... By Connor Byrne | March 4, 2017 at 6:10pm CDT There was fear this week that Red Sox left-hander David Price would need elbow surgery, but those worries were put to rest Friday. It turns out that elbow experts Dr. James Andrews and Dr. Neal ElAttrache diagnosed Price with a mild flexor strain and some bone spurs, industry sources told Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe. That Price dodged a more serious injury surprised the doctors, the ace revealed. “They said it multiple times; we expected this to be a lot worse than what it really is,” said Price, who added that Andrews and ElAttrache informed him he has an “extremely unique” elbow. “It’s found a way to kind of heal itself,” he continued. “It’s pretty neat, bionic elbow.” Although Price avoided a season-ending issue, he’s still likely to begin the campaign on the disabled list and miss a to-be-determined amount of starts, according to Abraham. How much time Price misses will largely be up to him, though, as the doctors want the 31-year-old to map out his own recovery program. “I’ll know when I feel good enough to go out there and throw a baseball,” declared Price.

He must think Papi was worth 10+ wins.

I am not for trading away our remaining prospects plus ERod, Pom or Wright. I just said, that's what it would take to even start a conversation. Trading one of ERod, Wright or Pom would improve the rotation but not the depth.

Agreed. I have a sneaky feeling this issue will come back at some point in the next year or two, if not in a few weeks.

Yes, Price was the "safer" gamble but at a larger cost.. In theory, I hate these type of signings, but I was okay with this one due to our enormous need for an ace and Price's long record of success and health. Plus, it looked like we'd get about 3-4 years of prime out of the 7, and he wasn't going to be 40 his last year.

They could take Wright or Pom and flip them to another team for decent prospects.

I agree. I did not like paying that much money for that many years for any pitcher, but if you are ever going to take a big gamble, a guy like Price was the one to do it with. Once we lost Lester, we needed an ace. I big gamble was called for. I had hoped for a lesser cost gamble like Cueto, but Price rated to be better (and healthier) going forward.

We'd probably have to give up ERod or Wright plus 2 or 3 of out top 4-5 prospects.

MLBTR reports.... By Jeff Todd | March 3, 2017 at 3:26pm CDT The Red Sox announced some very welcome news on lefty David Price, who was being evaluated for a worrying elbow injury. As Rob Bradford of WEEI.com was among those to report on Twitter, manager John Farrell says that Price is not expected to require surgery or other invasive treatments. Instead, he will be shut down for seven to ten days of treatment before being reevaluated. It’s not immediately clear how soon Price can be expected back on the mound. The injury has been diagnosed as a strain, per Jason Mastrodonato of the Boston Herald (via Twitter), which presumably could have a wide variance in recovery process and timing. Clearly, though, the news comes as a relief to a Boston organization that has much at stake in Price’s left arm — this season and beyond. Alarm bells rang yesterday when the Sox told reporters they were sending Price to be examined by elbow experts Dr. James Andrews and Dr. Neal ElAttrache. That decision showed that the team had real concern, and raised the specter of a season-ending surgery. Those two physicians, after all, are among the foremost practitioners of the Tommy John procedure. While a visit to their offices often precedes a TJ procedure, though, that’s not always the case. In Price’s situation, it seems, other treatment outcomes were also seen as being on the table. Ferrell noted that the veteran southpaw won’t need an injection, which perhaps would have represented an alternative. As it turns out, the news represents a best-case scenario. Unfortunately, even with that good news, it seems as if Price may fall behind a bit. Unless, perhaps, he’s cleared for a full resumption of this throwing program at the earliest opportunity, Price may need to spend at least a bit of time on the DL to start the season. That wouldn’t be particularly problematic were it not for the fact that Boston is facing similar timing questions already with pitchers such as Steven Wright and Drew Pomeranz, though perhaps a fill-in or even an outside addition could help bridge the gap if the need arises.

MLBTR... y Jeff Todd | March 3, 2017 at 3:26pm CDT The Red Sox announced some very welcome news on lefty David Price, who was being evaluated for a worrying elbow injury. As Rob Bradford of WEEI.com was among those to report on Twitter, manager John Farrell says that Price is not expected to require surgery or other invasive treatments. Instead, he will be shut down for seven to ten days of treatment before being reevaluated. It’s not immediately clear how soon Price can be expected back on the mound. The injury has been diagnosed as a strain, per Jason Mastrodonato of the Boston Herald (via Twitter), which presumably could have a wide variance in recovery process and timing. Clearly, though, the news comes as a relief to a Boston organization that has much at stake in Price’s left arm — this season and beyond. Alarm bells rang yesterday when the Sox told reporters they were sending Price to be examined by elbow experts Dr. James Andrews and Dr. Neal ElAttrache. That decision showed that the team had real concern, and raised the specter of a season-ending surgery. Those two physicians, after all, are among the foremost practitioners of the Tommy John procedure. While a visit to their offices often precedes a TJ procedure, though, that’s not always the case. In Price’s situation, it seems, other treatment outcomes were also seen as being on the table. Ferrell noted that the veteran southpaw won’t need an injection, which perhaps would have represented an alternative. As it turns out, the news represents a best-case scenario. Unfortunately, even with that good news, it seems as if Price may fall behind a bit. Unless, perhaps, he’s cleared for a full resumption of this throwing program at the earliest opportunity, Price may need to spend at least a bit of time on the DL to start the season. That wouldn’t be particularly problematic were it not for the fact that Boston is facing similar timing questions already with pitchers such as Steven Wright and Drew Pomeranz, though perhaps a fill-in or even an outside addition could help bridge the gap if the need arises.

Yes, teams with more blowout wins have more opportunities to lose or tie a series after outscoring their opponents, but this is what sometimes gives fans the illusion of inconsistency or lack of being "clutch". As long as you win your fair share of close games, winning some games by blowout should not change any perceptions. Sample sizes are small: We won 3 games with walk-off hits and lost 6. We were 20-24 in 1 run games. That's 2 games from being 22-22. We won 30 games by blow out and lost 11 by blow out. We were 7-4 in extra inning games. Nothing here jumps out to say we have some sort of abnormality.

Apparently, he says he's going to be okay.

Depending on Johnson's emotional health, I'd put him ahead of Owens.

Although I'd have rather had Quintana and his extra year of team control over Sale, I agree. Trading for Q now would be insane.

I knew it was going to be bad. I'm sure glad we let him bolt.

We could try Workman as a starter again, or possibly move Kelly back to that role, despite his tiny sample size of success as a RP'er last fall. I doubt we move Barnes to starter, but he might do well there. He's looked good in the pen, so I'd hate to mess him up. My guess is that Elias or Johnson will be our first look candidates with Kendrick and Owens in the next tier. If all 4 fail, and we don't want to try Workman, Kelly or Barnes, we can look for a mid season pick-up.

By Steve Adams | March 3, 2017 at 11:08am CDT As the Red Sox await news on the fate of left-hander David Price, ESPN’s Buster Olney runs down the list of options for Boston in the event that Price is forced to sit out part of or all of the 2017 season (ESPN Insider subscription required and recommended). The Sox do still have five big league starters in the form of Chris Sale, Rick Porcello, Eduardo Rodriguez, Drew Pomeranz and Steven Wright, though each has come with recent injury troubles. Beyond that, the team is lacking in quality depth options, though Henry Owens, Brian Johnson, Roenis Elias and others are present in Pawtucket. Free agents such as Doug Fister, Colby Lewis and Jake Peavy are still on the market, and Jose Quintana, of course, looms on the trade market. Olney notes that the Red Sox would likely have to utilize top prospect Rafael Devers as the headliner in a theoretical Quintana deal, however. I'm not even sure Devers and Groome would net us Quintana. It would probably take Devers, Groome & Travis to just get the conversation started. That would essentially wipe out our entire upper ranked prospects.

March 3: Farrell said the Red Sox won’t get further word on Price’s elbow until at least the late afternoon today, tweets Jen McCaffrey of MassLive.com. March 2, 3:43pm: Price will receive opinions from both Andrews and ElAttrache in Indianapolis tomorrow, tweets Britton. (The renowned surgeons are both there for this week’s NFL combine.) Jason Mastrodonato of the Boston Herald tweets that Farrell said the initial MRI revealed some swelling and fluid buildup but offered “inconclusive” results overall. Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe tweets that Price himself is optimistic that the injury isn’t serious.

I just think we need about 360-400 IP from ERod, Wright and Pom combined. I think that is very doable. Last year, those three pitched over 430 IP. If Price misses a lot of time, we'll probably need over 500.

The main point is that we lost or tied 25% of our series last year despite outscoring our opponents. Does anybody know of another team that did worse in this area?

Thanks for the correction. I think I counted the runs as 10-10 and put that in the above category. My bad. Updated: When we scored more: W 24 T 4 L 4 When we tied in runs scored: W 0 T 0 L 1 When we were outscored: W 2 T 1 L 14

Here's our record last year by series wins-losses-ties When we scored more: W 24 T 4 L 4 When we tied in runs scored: W 0 T 1 L 1 When we were outscored: W 2 T 0 L 14

I'm not up for doing the research, but I'd like to know how many other teams outscored their opponents in a series and lost or tied as many as we did. With a high scoring team, I guess you'd expect more, but I think we might be surprised by how much more.

...looks like our title hopes might be Shot Down In Flames.... Why? From what I understand, Price sucks in the clutch, so maybe we'll be better off. ...just kidding!