moonslav59

We have problems scoring against good pitching... We've beaten some big named pitchers. We seem to lose to unknowns and middle of the roaders.

We're 16-20 in one run losses, and my bet is most are in games with us scoring 3 or less runs. We've lost 4 by 1 run in our last 10 games, so before that we were at .500. 2-3 1-2 0-1 3-4 Our last 1 run win was August 23rd 2-1. My point was that we seem to lose by one run in low scoring games immediately after winning in a blow out. Listed in reverse order... Win 13-3 then - Lose 3-2 Win 16-2 & 11-2 then Lose 1-0 & 2-1 Win 9-4 then lose 4-3 Those were our last 4. Here's more over the season: Win 8-1 then lose 4-3 Win 16-2 then lose 3-2 Win 11-7 & 13-2 then lose 2-1 (July 20th). That's 7 times since July 20th. The last time before that was May 12th: win 11-1 then lose 7-6. Win 7-3 then lose 3-2. Opening: win 6-2 then lose 7-6. It wasn't a pattern for us until late July. I'm not sure how other contenders have one in 1-run games..

FAs to be: Ortiz Uehara Tazawa Ziegler Hill Options: Buchholz ($13.5M or $500K buyout) Hanigan ($3.75M or $800K) Let's just assume Buchholz and Hanigan are not back next year. Here is what we would be looking at for the 25 and 40 man roster: SP: Price, Porcello, Pomeranz, Wright, ERod, Kelly RP: Kimbrel, _____, Smith, ____, Ross, Barnes, Abad C: Leon, Vazquez DH/1B: Ramirez 1B/3B: Shaw 2B: Pedroia 3B: Moncada SS: Bogaerts LF: Benintendi LF/DH: Young LF/C/1B?: Swihart CF: Bradley RF: Betts Utility: Holt Wild card: Sandoval (Holt or Swihart could be traded, or Swihart could start in AAA) That's 26 players. The other 14: SP: Johnson, Owens, Elias RP: Hembree, Scott, Workman, N Ramirez, W Jerez C: Romanski, Holaday (no options) 1B: J Witte (rule 5) SS/3B/2B: Hernandez SS/2B/3B: Marrero 3B/2B: Rutledge OF: Brentz (Dubon, Basabe not rule 5) I think we keep Rutledge. He has 2 options remaining. I think Brentz might be gone, but we are short on OF depth.

Ok, fess up, where are the guys who wanted Jordan Zimmerman? (I confess I wanted Anibal Sanchez a couple years or so back.)

We do pretty well when we face very good pitchers. I think we'll score 5+ tomorrow. Let's hope Buch & Co. can keep them under 5.

Sorry, I meant it as a joke.

Meet next year's DH.

...his lack of durability is offset by his huge upside. I agree, but let it be for another team. I want durability.

Another low-scoring one run loss after a blow-out. I hate this pattern we've seemed to latched onto. It's never a 10-9 loss after a 12-0 win.

Well, people here are willing to "shell out" $13M for Buch as our 5/6 starter. I can see having doubts about Wright and ERod, and maybe even Pomeranz, but it's still a solid 5 man rotation. I'm certainly concerned about our 6th starter being Kelly/Johnson/Elias/Owens/O'Sullivan, but it's not worth $13M to me to make that concern go away. I could see trading Buch and Swihart or Buch and Holt or Buch and Devers for a solid and more reliable starter, but then what? We put Wright or ERod in the pen? I guess that's doable. My philosophy is to rebuild the rotation from the top not the middle or bottom. I'm not sure Buch and Swihart would get us an ace type or solid #2 pitcher. Mayeb we go all out and get Sale or Quintana, and the Buch question is solved. We take his option and trade him for the best we can get, then we go with Wright or ERod as out long man/spot starter. That's something that makes more sense to me. Would you trade ERod for Buch and Devers? Would you trade Wright for Buch and Devers? If no, then how are we going to get someone who beats out ERod and Wright for those two? It seems silly to trade Buch and Devers to upgrade our 6th starter. If you would make one or both of the deals above, how much of an upgrade would you expect from the guy we get back? Give a name of the type of pitcher you think we could get for Buch and Devers. I can't think of many rebuilding teams that would want Buch and his $13M contract. I can't think of any contenders that would give us a better starter than Buch, if they want to win now- Devers would not help them now. It's like a catch -22. Maybe, we could get a pitcher in return who is paid more than Buch, so that would add motivation to the other team. I'm looking at a winter spending budget of about $30-35M. Someone else thinks it might be closer to $40M. This is not counting Buch's option of $13.5M or a $500K buyout. We may want to try and find a short term big bat solution at DH, 1B, 3B or LF. We tried to trade for Beltran, so I'm thinking maybe we go after him. He may want a 2-3 year deal, and we may want 1-2. Some here want Encarnacion, but I think he'll ask for and get 5-6 years somewhere. With Moncada, Beni and Devers on the team, I'm not sure a long term deal for a DH type is the right move. Reagardless, we may spend on something offensively. Then there is the pen. I see this for next year: RP1 Kimbrel RP2 _______ RP3 Smith RP4 _______ RP5 Ross RP6 Kelly RP7 Barnes/Hembree/Abad/Elias Now, I realize 2 solid RPer's or 1 solid RP'er and 2 decent ones will not cost $30M. but with Buch's $13M added in, we may not be able to do everything we want and still stay below the now 50% luxury tax.

Some more amazing 2nd half numbers: OPS against from our pen: .143 Uehara (14 PAs) .486 Kimbrel (49) .500 Scott (4) .513 Ross (85) .654 Ziegler (86) .656 Kelly (27) .666 Abad (53) (.616 Buch in relief and as a starter)

Yeah, Erod has 8 BB in his last 17.1 IP, but the huge upside is that he's only allowed 5 Hits in that same time frame for an 0.750 WHIP! I'll take it! Let's hope this staff stays in top form from here on out. I mean look at these starter numbers! I'm not sure, if we've ever had a 4 week stretch like this: 5-0 1.85 Price (.504 OPS against) 5-0 2.53 Porcello (.518) 2-1 2.05 Buchholz (.669) includes some relief 0-1 2.60 Rodriguez (.367) WOW! 2-2 2.90 Pomeranz (.682) All 5 starters below 2.90! ALL FIVE HAVE BEEN DOMINANT!!! The longer sanple size (2nd half) keeps improving: 9-1 2.57 Porcello (.540) 6-2 3.07 Price (.688) 1-3 2.73 ERod (.582) 3-1 2.95 Buch (.616) includes some relief 2-4 3.97 Pom (.762) Simply amazing!

We did pay Dempster $13M to be our 4/5 starter, but would we have paid him that much to be our 6th starter?

Well, we could replace Buch with another $7-14M type vet who may not have the upside but is more durable and reliable. The lure of a possible draft pick in 2018 after a QO offer, if Buch has a great 2017, is probably the best argument to keep him here.

Let's keep Toronto down. Beat the hell out of 'em again and again!

Updated Standings BOS +2 on TOR (+3 on BAL/DET for last WC slot) WC race TOR +1 Bal - Det - NYY -1.0 Hou -2.5 Sea -3.5 KCR -4.0

Don't let up. Hit 'em early and often!

But where did you come up with 130? Maybe the desire to bash JF is causing hallucinations.

Could end up being Tigers-Yanks in the WC game.

I thought it was 114 pitches.

Past 28 days: ERA/WHIP/OPS against Price 1.85/ 0.824/ .504 Porc 2.52/ 0.785/ .518 ERod 2.60/ 0.750/ .367 Buch 2.73/ 1.215/ .655 Pom 2.90/ 1.097/ .682 2nd half... Porc 2.57/ 0.801/ .542 ERod 2.73/ 1.063/ .582 Buch 2.95/ 1.091/ .616 Price 3.07/ 1.227/ .688 Pom 3.97/ 1.324/ .688 I'm not sure how the stats with focus on recent are showing Pomeranz is #3.

These guys are all doing so well, so it's not easy to choose right now, but you're right; after 4 more starts, someone will probably have slipped out of favor.

I was never sure about his issues being in his head. I hurt my back once and was looked upon by management as it being in my head or that I was a faker, because nothing showed up on the X-Ray or MRI. I have always been an exceptionally hard worker with an obsession to be the best at everything I did. I hated that people doubted my word. I tend to not call others out without knowing all the facts, and even then, like in my case, the wrong conclusions can be perceived or reached. Buch has had real injuries. His recovery time is often long. He may be just fragile. He may have a low pain threshold. His injuries may affect his mental approach, as it may distract him by either worry about re-injury or thinking about discomfort as a sign of an impending injury. Most pitchers feel pain all year long. It's not easy to always know the difference between a problem or just normal post-game soreness. I've always given Buch the benefit of the doubt. I still do. I just think he's too injury prone. His recovery time is too long and often involves what seems like rehab while in MLB (maybe not his fault). Sometimes, he says he feels fine, but can't pitch for s***. Usually that is after having an extended time away from baseball or just before an injury. I think I'd just rather have someone with less upside, but much more dependability and durability. Nothing against Buch or his character. Nothing against his enormous talent. I'm jst tired of the uncertainty.

Sorry, for quoting you, but there were just about 1-2 Buch supporters a few months back. Many wanted to DFA him (I was against that). Now, it's like his past never happened.

There's no doubt, when Buch is "on", he's an elite pitcher. I'm not disagreeing with the Buch choice of starting. I'm just down on his inconsistency. I'm riding the hot arm for as long as he takes me.