harmony

This offseason the San Diego Padres have gone eight years and the Milwaukee Brewers five years (the Chicago Cubs six years and the Red Sox five years).

I was merely comparing the value of a 200-inning pitcher such as Rick Porcello and any 150-inning pitcher. The difference costs a team in terms of salary and roster slots.

I indeed lost the bet that I said I would make if I were a betting person (which I am not). In the end J.D. Martinez took what he thought was the best offer. I hope the deal works out for all sides.

The 200 innings that Rick Porcello typically tosses are 200 innings that must be covered by a pitcher or pitchers. If Eduardo Rodriguez can pitch 150 of those innings (which the left-hander has not done the last two seasons), that still leaves 50 innings to be pitched by another pitcher or pitchers. The pitcher who makes up the innings difference between Porcello and Rodriguez is a pitcher who otherwise was not good enough to make the 25-man roster. More importantly, that supplemental pitcher takes up another slot on the 25-man roster, limiting the team's options. That's what makes an innings-eater so valuable. No one is suggesting Porcello is a perennial Cy Young candidate but to date the right-hander has (inconsistently) lived up to his four-year, $82.5 million contract.

My error. The Red Sox have won 57.4 percent of Rick Porcello's 94 starts with Boston.

The Red Sox have won 57.4 percent of Rick Porcello's 94 starts with the Sox: https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/p/porceri01-pitch.shtml

You just made a projection whether consciously or subconsciously.

Steamer600, which assumes 200 innings for each starting pitcher, projects 2018 WAR of 2.9 for Rick Porcello, 2.6 for Drew Pomeranz and 2.6 for Eduardo Rodriguez: https://www.fangraphs.com/projections.aspx?pos=all&stats=pit&type=steamer600&team=3&lg=all&players=0&sort=19,d Of course, Porcello is far more likely than Pomeranz or Rodriguez to pitch 200 innings this year. ZiPS ranks Pomeranz, Porcello and Rodriguez in that order in projected 2018 WAR: https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/2018-zips-projections-boston-red-sox/

Rick Porcello has posted 7.1 fWAR, valued at $57.4 million, in the first two seasons of his four-year, $82.5 million contract. The right-hander posted 2.0 fWAR, valued at $16.3 million, last year. FanGraphs Depth Charts project 2018 WAR of 2.5 in 29 starts for Porcello, 1.6 in 26 starts for Lance Lynn and 2.0 in 23 starts for Alex Cobb. Steamer projects 2018 WAR of 2.4 in 29 starts for Porcello, 1.3 in 26 starts for Lynn and 1.7 in 23 starts for Cobb. ZiPS projects 2018 WAR of 2.7 in 30 starts for Porcello, 2.1 in 31 starts for Lynn and 2.5 in 26 starts for Cobb. https://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=2717&position=P https://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=2520&position=P https://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=6562&position=P Porcello is at least a year younger than Lynn and Cobb.

The Red Sox are scheduled to play 10 games in National League parks against the Marlins (2), Nationals (3), Phillies (2) and Braves (3): Boston Red Sox Schedule | Boston Red Sox WWW.MLB.COM The Official Site of Major League Baseball

Betweem 1996 and 2011 Washington State product Mark Hendrickson played parts of four NBA seasons as a power forward and parts of 10 MLB seasons as a towering 6-foot-9 pitcher: https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/h/hendrma01.html https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/h/hendrma01.shtml

Portland Trail Blazer shooting guard Pat Connaughton out of St. John's Preparatory School in Danvers, Massachusetts. The Baltimore Orioles drafted the 6-foot-5, 215-pound Connaughton as a pitcher out of the University of Notre Dame in the fourth round of the June 2014 draft: https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=connau000pat Connaughton has averaged 6.2 points a game off the bench this year for the Trail Blazers: http://www.espn.com/video/clip?id=22205819&ex_cid=espnapi_public I saw Connaughton throw out the first pitch at a Hillsboro Hops game in the short-season Northwest League.

And yet the San Diego Padres, Kansas City Royals, Philadelphia Phillies, Milwaukee Brewers and Minnesota Twins are among the teams that reportedly are in the running to sign free agents projected to land nine-figure contracts (the Padres already signed a $144 million deal).

We can probably agree that many factors may have limited the active market for J.D. Martinez. But the delay in the Martinez signing may highlight a health issue that was better known within the industry than in the general public. Or not. The Red Sox may have been more willing than many clubs to overlook a health issue because of the team's perceived need for a big bat. The 2017 drop in production following the departure of David Ortiz magnified that need. Let's hope J.D. Martinez is healthy and productive.

Huh? I did not bring cap space into the discussion but responded when you did.

The San Diego Padres and Chicago Cubs handed two free agents larger contracts than the one J.D. Martinez landed despite those players' reported nine-figure offers from other teams.

A small fraction of the 30 MLB teams have cap space concerns: http://www.spotrac.com/mlb/payroll/

There may be a reason that teams, armed with more inside information than most fans, shied away from J.D. Martinez. Or not.

Author Larry McMurtry once metaphorically compared Houston, with its muggy weather, to female genitalia (that's not the word he used). I've never been to Houston except in October 2016 when my Southwest flight stopped briefly at William P. Hobby Airport en route, coincidentally, to Boston. I grew up on the Mississippi River in Iowa so I'm no stranger to humidity (not to mention cold, snow and tornadoes). My wife, who is from Southern California, dreads summer trips to my hometown ... almost as much as she dreads the winter trips.

On my 1973 hitchhiking trip I ended up taking a ferry from Bar Harbor, Maine, to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, where it was indeed 10 degrees cooler than Boston had been days before. If I recall, Maine was 10 degrees cooler as well.

Thank you for the correction on the humidity.

LOL ... I would be surprised if the Seattle Mariners would have any interest in Blake Swihart. I was crucified on this forum a year ago when I suggested the Red Sox would be happy if Swihart's age 25 season last year would approach Mike Zunino's age 25 season the previous year. Swihart and Zunino each peaked at No. 17 on Baseball America's Top 100 prospect lists. Like Zunino the year before, Swihart was starting his age 25 season in Triple A after a stint as a starting catcher at the MLB level. In 2016, Zunino posted a wRC+ of 138 games at Triple A before posting 1.2 fWAR in only 55 games at the MLB level. In 2017, Swihart posted a wRC+ of 47 in 53 games at Triple A and an fWAR of 0.0 in six games at the MLB level. Meanwhile, Zunino in 2017 posted an fWAR of 3.6 in 124 MLB games despite being sent down to Triple A for 12 games. Mookie Bett was the only Red Sox hitter to exceed Zunino's fWAR in 2017. We can only hope that Swihart can match Zunino's age 26 season.

The Seattle winters are wet (and this week even snowy) but the Emerald City has far better weather than Boston during the baseball season. Here are the average monthly precipitation totals (in inches) and average high temperatures: March: BOS: 4.33, 45; SEA: 3.70, 54 April: BOS: 3.74, 56; SEA: 2.68, 58 May: BOS: 3.50, 66; SEA: 1.93, 65 June: BOS: 3.66, 76; SEA: 1.54, 70 July: BOS: 3.43, 81; SEA: 0.67, 76 August: BOS: 3.35, 80; SEA: 0.87, 76 September: BOS: 3.43, 72; SEA: 1.42, 71 October: BOS: 3.94, 61; SEA: 3.46, 60 It's the humidity that can make the Boston summers oppressive. As a 17-year-old hitchhiker from Iowa, I made my first trip to Boston during a heat wave that I remember as 100 degree temperatures with 99 percent humidity*. My second trip to Boston came in August 2010 when my friends and I encountered torrential rains in Rhode Island driving up to Fenway Park from New York. The exceedingly polite usher wiped the rain off of our bleacher seats at Fenway. On my final trip to Boston a cold rain drenched me at the Head of the Charles Regatta in October 2016 before the skies cleared and the temperature plummeted the following day. Boston is a fine city but the weather is not my cup of tea. * an internet search revealed that the high temperature in Boston that day in July 1973 was 95 degrees with 71 percent humidity:(

FanGraphs projects 2018 starting pitching WAR of 16.4 for the Yankees and 15.9 for the Red Sox: https://www.fangraphs.com/depthcharts.aspx?position=ALL&teamid=9#SP https://www.fangraphs.com/depthcharts.aspx?position=ALL&teamid=3#SP With Yankees holding a healthy 7.4-to-3.9 edge in relief pitching WAR. The Red Sox and Yankees are projected with a hitting WAR of 28.0 and 27.1, respectively.

Deja vu. http://insider.espn.com/blog/buster-olney/insider/post?id=9159 Just kiddin'