devildavid

I think stats are very useful, as long as you understand how to use them. Stats are necessarily based on past performance. This means that stats have limited predictive ability. For example, people often say a player will regress to the mean. That may be true of certain types of statistics, but it is incorrectly applied to player performance. An injury affects performance which affects statistics. This mean the statistics should reflect the physical condition of the player. It is the physical performance driving the statistics, and that always needs to be taken into account when looking at the numbers. Players don't regress just because regression is a statistical concept. Some stats, like OPS are just bad stats. You shouldn't add together averages that have nothing to do with each other and that are calculated differently. And one of those averages, SLG, is a very flawed stat by itself. It assigns a value to each hit based only on the number of bases touched on the hit. Is that really the true measure of power hitting? Batting average is scoffed at, but that isn't because it assigns value to hits. It has the simple job of calculating the average of how many at bats produce a hit. And if that is all it is used for, it does a pretty good job of that one aspect of the game. It is really all the statistical shortcuts that are the weakness of stats. Sabermetrics came along to improve that. But on this forum I would say that sabermetrics aren't really used, and I include myself.

More bad comps.

So he's not a good comp.

Good for him. I hope he has a chance to shine. The Sox team did not have a role for him. They are now winning so the decision to trade him did not hurt the team or Swihart.

JBJ is a much better fielder than Damon Buford ever was.

Because he helps the team win.

Have patience with Jackie.

Ted did not strike out much because he refused to swing at anything outside of his personal zone of pitches he could hit.

I'm not sure if today's upper-cut is too extreme, but Ted Williams did recommend that a hitter should swing with a slight upper-cut. His friend Bobby Doerr disagreed.

The bottom line is that the Sox are better off with two above average MLB defensive catchers. It makes them better defensively and it makes things easier for their pitching staff. Swihart, for various reasons and circumstances, did not make it to the same level defensively as either Vazquez or Leon. The Sox are starting to roll now, so there really is nothing to complain about as to how the Swihart saga ended. Whether he ultimately fails or succeeds, the move to trade him and bring up Leon is the right one.

Maybe if they raised the salary of all the bullpen pitchers they would pitch better. Problem solved.

And what about the competition?

You said Devers was basically easy to replace. You brought up Dalbec as a minor leaguer who could easily replace him. You consider Devers' defense a detriment to the team. Sounds like you want Devers replaced, one way or another.

Notin is still here.

But that isn't what you said. Your examples were only about the time something takes place in a game. The highest stress depends on multiple factors. And I am not arguing against the highest stress occurring when all those factors come together at the very end of the game. I was simply arguing that the highest stress situations in any given game can occur at any point in that game.

That is assuming all those other teams current records don't reflect on how good they are and that the Sox current record doesn't reflect how bad they are.

Which is all based on the current season. This bad start has greatly reduced my expectations for a successful season. There are a lot of teams to climb over.

The ninth inning is just the last inning. The stress and pressure is due to the game situation. When the home team is up 10-0 in the ninth I don't think they are too stressed.

These numbers are meaningless. The most important are what their divisional opponents records are today and what the odds are of taking the division. Also the records of all other AL teams and the odds of securing a wild card spot. This season is discrete and has no statistical connection to past Red Sox records at this point in the season.

There is no inning that carries more or less pressure. It all depends on the game situation. In a close game the ninth inning is more likely to have more pressure. Not so in a blowout. And there are different levels for anything in between. There is no universal truth of the ninth inning carrying the most pressure. That is an emotional take not based on reality.

I am totally on board with Cora's approach toward giving all his players time off. If a player has an iron man approach he might butt heads with Cora.

30 is old for a pitcher. I hate to point it out, but look at Sale. He turns 30 and has his worst start to a season. And I was never a big Porcello supporter. He has always been an eminently hittable pitcher. However, I think he has done a good job for the Sox. So I agree with you about no deal more than three years.

Well, I think you know why I posted that. Results from one game are not statistically significant. And statistics support that Leon is at the very least, an above average defensive catcher.

This does seem to be trending as the bullpen approach. There is a sound logic to it.

No question that Sale is a great pitcher. The only weakness ever observed with him are his late season swoons. That still remains an open question. Can he be counted on come playoff time?