illinoisredsox

W-L is not a good barometer but since you seemed solely on whether or not an ace wins or loses a game and you say Price has to match Lester: Price with the Red Sox is 9-7 (.562 win percentage) Lester since leaving the Red Sox is 26-20 (.565) Seems like a close match to me. Like I said, I don't like W-L over such a small sample but you seem to be focused on it ...

And since June 1 they've scored 22 runs for him in 9 starts (2.44 runs per start). 8 of those were in 1 game meaning in the other 8 starts it's 1.75 runs per game). Basically there's been no in between with him on the mound; they've either scored a ton (as in his first 11 starts when they averaged almost 7 rpg) or very little as in the last 9.

The idea that "aces" win consistently with little run support is stupid. As I noted above Kershaw is 22-43 with run support of 2 or less runs. Baumgarner is 10-48. I think we would agree that both of them would be considered aces under any definition of the word.

Becoming an all too familiar theme with Price on the mound. Since June 1, the Sox have scored 2, 1, 2, 2, 8 (the game at Texas that Price was absolutely brutal in), 0, 2 and 4 (with 1 tonight). Even Kershaw would have trouble winning a lot of games with support like that. Edit- career wise Kershaw is 22-43 when the Dodgers have provided him 0-2 runs. Baumgarner is 10-48 for the Giants.

Agreed. Most of the runs this series have been on homers, almost no stringing hits together.

So his last start before the ASB wasn't good enough?

Sox pitchers could take a lesson on how Tanaka is pitching tonight. In-out, up,-down. He is epitomizing what Warren Spahn said: hitting is timing, pitching is upsetting timing.

IMO Price needs to pitch inside more (not just tonight). Teams are sitting on everything being away.

He did early on but the last month or so that is certainly true. Tanaka is good so it's not like you could expect a lot of offense tonight.

Unfortunately it looks like good Pineda showed up tonight.

Round is a shape.

Luck. Pitcher A gives up 3 infield choppers and reasonably deep fly ball will likely allow 1 earned run. 3 seeing eye singles or bloops and said fly will may yield 2 earned runs. No decent contact has been made but the pitcher has allowed 1-2 runs. Next/bottom half of the inning, Pitcher B has 3 fly balls hit to the triangle in center that go 419 feet but are caught on the run by the CF. No runs allowed, but who really had the better inning? Team dependent: obviously a team with a great defense, especially infield, will probably allow fewer earned runs. The late 60s/early 70s Orioles had vacuum cleaners in Brooks Robinson and Mark Belanger on the left side of the infield. It took a howitzer shot to get the ball past them. The Sox of the same era had Rico Petrocelli at short and Guys like George Scott and Joe Foy at 3rd. Decent players but not exactly guys with a ton of range over there. And I guess the deal with the pitchers' errors merely reflects that once a pitch is thrown, the pitcher is considered the same as any other fielder. I know the rules are different for number of bases awarded if a pitcher throws a ball into the stands as a pitcher (say trying to pick a guy off first) vs. any fielder throwing it there on a ball in play. I can see points on both sides of that discussion. Like everything else in baseball, aa these things tend to even out over time and players rise or sink to the level they are supposed to.

Which version of game score are you using?

I thought Eckersley made a very good point about Price morphing into a different type of pitcher. He's no longer the flame thrower he was as a kid so he's adjusting his game accordingly. Luckily, Price has always been a pitcher as opposed to being a thrower and has decent secondary pitches, so the transition should go fine for him.

I'm also quite certain that the same conversation was held in Yankee Stadium and Busch Stadium and Comerica Field and Turner Field and ...

What need? The offense has overall been fine. How is bringing up Benintendi going to help fix the pitching staff, which is the real issue? Are you prepared to live with the kid struggling after he comes up? In the midst of a pennant race? In Boston? Because odds are that's what's going to happen. Bogaerts did okay for the 20 or so games he played in 2013, but struggled mightily in 2014. He started figuring it out near the end of that season. JBJ (who's career path was very similar to Benintendi's to date) issues are well documented. Betts did fine, but he also came up to a last place club; no pressure. Benintendi projects to be a good player, but he is not Trout or Harper. Frankly, I think the professionals who see the kid every day are in the best position re. deciding when he is ready.

True, but it doesn't matter since they don't play until Friday, at which time they will recall ERod since he is the scheduled starter on that day.

He's been pitching like #2 all season.

No. Nein. Nyet. Non. Ingen. Nee. 'a'ole. Nie. There would be no way to wash 7 years of Yankee stench off of him.

Hernandez hits lefty; they needed and wanted someone from the right side.

^This It's not the 1950s. The Sox aren't the Yankees and the Kansas City Athletics aren't there to supply any major league ready parts needed in exchange for junk or kids who need to be seasoned and reacquired later.

Is the .620 an aberration? Last year's OPS of .975 vs. LHP was based an equally small sample size of 85 PAs. I don't know what his splits were in the minors, although I sort of recall reading that the .620 is a lot closer to his minor league LHP split than the .975.

True, but LaRussa didn't use him until the 6th inning of an 8-0 game and had a plan on "easing" the transition. Rather than having Posey try and catch him cold, he had Ruiz enter the game at the same time after catching Dickey in the bullpen so that the catcher had at least seen whatever number of warm up pitches Dickey normally uses.

Not to mention the contractual side of things re. free agency. Bring him up now and you lose a year of control (which I believe would be his age 27-28 seasons). If he's at all what many seem to think he is, I'd rather he be around at that age. They can find a D'Aza type guy out there if they feel the need to get a short term fix.

They already sent him back to the pen. With today's off day, the all-star break and another off day on the 18th, they won't need a 5th starter until July 24th. I expect they will have brought someone in via trade by then, or they will tap another minor leaguer. If Buchholz remains on the roster for the rest of this season, I think the only way he starts again is in an emergency (like somebody gets sick on the way to the park) or maybe one game of a doubleheader during a very full week of games. Otherwise, he's strictly a long reliever and will pitch only in games that get away early or extra innings when they've used everyone else.