oldtimer

Cora has managed to get our pitching staff a lot of rest, so in my mind he has done what has been necessary to bring the staff into the PO's in their best form. Sadly, the performance of 4 of our key guys yesterday was worse than sub par. There is time for them to recover and for us to compete, we need them. Any wanting to give pitchers long term contracts should be reminded of their frailty by what we see in games like these. Some guys continue to pitch well and have long careers, like Lester, who we unwisely let walk, but by and large pitchers are fragile.

What in the world happened to our pitching today and night? Price wasn't himself, or at least who he was in the second half. Sales velocity and command was subpar. Barnes had velocity but poor command. Kimbrel was wild. It seems like something crazy must have happened with the pitching staff. Hope it doesn't carry over into the PO's. We'll get another look against the Yankees.

First Sale doesn't look himself and now Barnes doesn't have command. Not a good night for Sox pitching going into the PO.

He is a core guy on this team. We need to keep him.

Too hard headed. The lawyers want malleable.

Sale doesn't show the velocity or command that made him dominant. More work to do before the PO. Only 9 days or so before that. I hope the program will bring him along to close to his capability.

Since this is the bullpen thread I mention that Thornburg is now shutdown by Cora. He wasn't making the post season anyway, but he also will not be used in the last few games either.

One-o-seven and counting. Today the Sox just killed the weak Baltimore pitching. Only concern is that Price was lost for part of his outing. No one could really explain why he seemed so lost.

Poor Baltimore. They have so far to go to be meaningful, but didn't they just beat the Yankees twice?

Felt sorry for JBJ who didn't get to join the party. Was he sick or just being saved for the second game?

A problem with using the Pythagorean apprach is that it assumes the team has been relatively static in its personnel while earning their record. Certainly the Yankees and Cleveland have made significant changes that may well improve their teams in the PO. We won't be playing the teams that compiled these records. We too have made changes during the year, but I don't think they are as significant.

They seemed to play their A team against us, other than the starters.

I agree right down the line. I think they go with 11 pitchers.

Tell them your an engineer, like me, and you will be excused.

I agree totally with this line of thinking. Kimbrel has been an extremely effective closer for us and should be paid as a top of the line closer. Porcello has been an effective starter for us and an innning eater. You can argue whether he is worth over $20 mil per, but the basic concept of starters being worth more than closers makes sense. I think management should have a strategy that is based on some sort of a pyramid pay scheme which fits under the Luxury tax Limit, where starters are higher up on the pyramid than any relievers, even closers.

Altuve got it last year with numbers that were similar to mookies but he had only about 23 HR's. Good example of what wins.

I don't know where to put this into a string so guess it will go here. Many of these ideas have been batted around regarding the cliff to be faced in the future and how teams shoould be structured to stay meaningful year after year. Clearly teams should stay withing the luxury cap limit on most years. Penalties are enough to make that a reasonable goal and other teams like Oakland are viable far below the limit. The approach I have heard talked about is developing a core of young players or players in their prime. Keep them under contract for a time which anticipates when the decline might start to become noticeable. The core might be limited to 4 or 5 players and those need to be paid well. Try to develop enough young talent to keep a steady stream of players moving forward onto the team while keeping the payroll manageable. This step can be difficult for teams that have been doing well since they don't get high draft choices. Selection and the development process are both very important factors. Be businesslike when considering contracts to with older players who are past their prime. An example would be the contract given to Pedroia. It was a nice thing to reweard Pedroia for his prior contributions, but didn't make business sense to give a long term contract which will probably not prove benficial to the team. Go for short term contracts at fair market value for experienced players who can fill the team and offer a veteran presence at reasonable cost. Avoid long term contracts for any player over 30 as their decline is imminent, especially pitchers who tend to be fragile. Pay the good ones well but keep the contracts short. Thinking of Price currently and Kimbrel going forward. Free agent evaluation needs to be a high priority and metrics and scouting both use to select those players who can help us. If we see the team has weaknesses an effort can be made to rectify it near the all star break provided there are financial resources available. Bad evaluation in the past have saddled us with Panda and Hanley who really returned much less than the resource extended to them. Those types of contracts can really limit flexibility going forward. Be hard headed and get rid of players and contracts that are underperforming. While we are riding high now, it is hard to keep it going and the team needs a strategy that will keep within the salary structure while continuing to be viable.

No, it will be a day night double header tomorrow.

Pundits say all sorts of things, many to just be controversial. So do some on this site. It doesn't make them true or even interesting. DD's decision making over the last year has been good and we have 106 wins with a few games to play. No general manager is going to hit on every move, but Eovaldi, Pearce and Kinsler have worked out well. DD hasn't had a lot of resources to work with, so the job has been all the more difficult. Sure, he can be second guessed for his use of the Minor league to get some people or overpaying for some, but Sale and Kimbrel have been instrumental in this teams success. He has had some bad luck as well with Smith and Thornburg. I have been following the Sox since the mid 1940's and know how difficult it is to be in the spot we have accomplished so far this year. Good job by DD and also for selecting Cora.

That isn't the object of these last 5 games. I just hope the guys all are kept sharp, somewhat rested (they do have 5 days following the season to rest), and free from injury. Other than injury, the team is probably already selected by Cora.

The other thing to realize is that we don't play all of the teams so if we move forward it will be against either the Astros or Cleveland. Both are excellent teams and both present a difficult challenge. I wouldn't have it any other way. To win it all, you have to prove it on the field.

Mookie is among the best right fielders in the game and while Lindor is very good, Mookie is carrying the highest batting average and OPS. It's Mookie as MVP.

My view is that each of the PO teams has strong starting pitching and also strong relief pitching. Each also has very good defense. The point being that I expect games to be low scoring where a couple of hits or conversely errors may be citical in determining the series end results. To me Red Sox pitching ranks behind the Astros and Cleveland, while I haven't seen enough of Oakland to know. To me, the Yankee pitching rates behind the others. As far as defense, I believe our outfield and catcher defense is as good or better than the other teams while our infield tends to lack range and can be slightly error prone. The Yankees infield defense without Gregorious is weaker. They tend to make a lot of errors and if they use Sanchez catching they are bad there too. As far as run scoring we lead BB in that but we can't afford to have many weak spots in the lineup. Players mired in slumps are not suddenly going to come out of them when facing top pitching from PO caliber teams. The only case to me made for going with them is if their defense is enough of a plus to counter the easy out (or double play) they become. I'll be interested to see how Cora handles things, but if it were me calling the shots, I would go with the hot hands. That would be Holt over Kinsler for certain and probably Nunez over Devers. Catcher is that gray area where starting pitching should have their say and the alternative is not that much superior offensively.

I disagree but of course we will see in just a few short days.

I agree and think Cora will select from Workman, Poyner, Velazquez and even Cuevas before those three. What Kelly and Henbree do have is velocity, but what they lack is command. Whether due to nerves or mechanics, they have had problems over and over. The post season games will probably be low scoring and we can't afford relief pitchers who hit batters and give up walks.