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5GoldGlovesOF,75

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Everything posted by 5GoldGlovesOF,75

  1. 5GoldGlovesOF,75
    That does it, I'm changing my name to 5Goldbergs, where those boys are always Beastie.
  2. 5GoldGlovesOF,75
    KC's MVP was their bullpen; many have tried to duplicate their success, few haven't failed (thankfully). At least the 1990 Beastie Boys had Jose Blame-it-on Rijo...
  3. 5GoldGlovesOF,75
    ... and that's why Orlando Cabrera traded her.
  4. 5GoldGlovesOF,75
    He swung a 40-ounce bat and once used it to hit two inside-the-park homers in one game. Those facts are hard to fathom for few ballplayers, much less human beings (and even ballplayers who are much less than human beings).
  5. 5GoldGlovesOF,75
    I mostly agree, but the old school thinking that pitching is 75% of the game hasn't really changed (though the way MLB teams now use pitchers, and how they pitch, is why the games are 75% longer). When Ryan threw no-hitters for last place clubs, it didn't matter how bad the team was around him. There are also guys who could win both 1-0 shutouts and then pitch to contact to win slugfests (when they intentionally rely on their defense to defend, rather than strain their own arms). Do contenders need "winning" pitchers to contend and win? It's unlikely that a 90-win team could parlay, say, a staff of 30 different 3-game winners. But here are my favorite W-L stats in history... presenting the 2001 World Champion Arizona Diamondbacks (regular season and postseason records combined): Schilling and Johnson combined: 52-13 All others on the club combined: 51-63
  6. 5GoldGlovesOF,75
    That's why I conceded stats can be misleading. I'd also argue the reverse; that winning teams are often the reflection of their best starting pitchers. I've said in the past, anyone who plays long enough knows a pitcher or two with a seeming knack for being able to "nail down a win" in ways better than others with similar talent. Now, whether that's just a matter of harnessing stuff, finding the zone or painting the black, I'm sure there are graphs and charts in some analytics department to rank such virtues. Some clubs nowadays won't let a starter go the required five to even get a W... though that qualification is in serious need of revamping in this day of openers and bulky roles. But I do remember a few times Francona yanking a distracted Buchholz with a big lead in the 5th; I assumed Tito was punishing Buch for punishing the team with his lack of focus.
  7. 5GoldGlovesOF,75
    Heroes get remembered, but legends never die.
  8. 5GoldGlovesOF,75
    The pen's at least a four-way street. Don't let it bring you down; it's only castles burning...
  9. 5GoldGlovesOF,75
    A lot of people valued Eovaldi; I don't think the argument was whether he was that good, just whether his contract was. But a year later Wheeler's deal at $20M per instantly transformed Eovaldi's $17M per from risky overpay to fair-market going-rate for a good MLB starting pitcher. The real prize free agent pitcher from two years ago turned out to be Charlie Morton, who Nate outpitched in the '18 ALCS. The Gausman QO -- in an extremely depressed market -- is the head-scratcher. Stats can be misleading, but it's at least notable that in Gausman's eight-year career on four different teams that he has never once had a winning season.
  10. 5GoldGlovesOF,75
    I think we'll find in the next year or so that a lot of MLB players whose stats nosedived in 2020 will bounce back once some kind of normalcy returns to the universe. Some won't, of course, and it will be fascinating to see exactly which prescient GMs/Chief Baseball Officers discern the aberrations and anomalies in order to recruit the right players to revive teams.
  11. 5GoldGlovesOF,75
    Arizona grass, the kind in the outfields, is crunchy. The hot sun bakes it to a texture that gives a diving defender rug burns similar to Astroturf. Of course, these are my subjective realities, from playing tournaments in Cactus League parks there last century (though temps back then were in the high-nineties, not the hundred-and-teens).
  12. 5GoldGlovesOF,75
    I'm ok with it, as long as they sign relievers to use for the middle to end of games...
  13. 5GoldGlovesOF,75
    JoJo left his home in Tucson, Arizona, Bought some California grass (Paul wrote it before legalization in AZ?)
  14. 5GoldGlovesOF,75
    If the Sox sign Springer, that means Cora has forgiven him (and maybe even some of his teammates) for making AC the scapegoat in exchange for immunity. If the manager has gotten past it and welcomes George, then fans will, too. It will be the same if Boston signs Marisnick or someday a guy like Correa.
  15. 5GoldGlovesOF,75
    Now I can't get that lyric out of my head: Excuse me, while I eat these fries...
  16. 5GoldGlovesOF,75
    Fair point. The market has changed, even since then. It makes me doubt guys with opt outs like JD and X will ever use them -- who will pay them more than $20 million per year? All those great shortstops becoming free agents next year all at once will drive their own markets down. I'll bet one or two who get traded will sign extensions with their new clubs, like Mookie did (but not for Mookie money). When the Reserve Clause was overturned in the 70s, genius player rep Marvin Miller insisted that clubs still retain five or six years of control, so free agents would emerge each year and not flood the market all at once... supply and demand.
  17. 5GoldGlovesOF,75
    Agreed, if they start 157 games like the '04 rotation: Schilling Martinez Wakefield Lowe Arroyo
  18. 5GoldGlovesOF,75
    No one available is -- in this market -- besides Bauer. I can't even imagine too many teams that would pay Stroman or Gausman (especially) $18 million a year, which is the qualifying offers they accepted, at least not for multi-year contracts. Small market teams and big market teams are in the same blinking contest.
  19. 5GoldGlovesOF,75
    For the Red Sox to contend in '21, this rotation needs a complete overhaul. Any contributions the Sox get from their top three of ERod, Eovaldi and Sale -- all question marks -- just cannot be anticipated. Anything from the bottom three of Pivetta, Mazza and Houk -- all projects -- will be a welcome bonus. Boston could sign the top two free agent starters, Bauer and Odorizzi, and still not be a playoff team next season. Realistically, even if Bloom splurged on both those guys, the club would probably have a better shot at making the postseason in '22, when hopefully one of either ERod and Sale were fully recovered and all the way back as frontline pitchers. The only thing guaranteed by adding three or four mediocre pitchers to a brutal staff is that the new staff will just become mediocre.
  20. 5GoldGlovesOF,75
    Wheeler? Is he the guy Bloom wants to invest $100 million in to lead this staff to sustained contention? I'm not saying he's not good, but last year was maybe his best year, albeit in a PSS (pandemic sample size): 11 games, 4-2, 2.92 ERA, 3.22 FIP, 1.169 WHIP... led the league in HR9 with 0.4, and HBP with 7 (he may not be a bat-finder, but he's a batter-finder). In comparison, here's Eovaldi's 2020: 9 games, 4-2, 3.72 ERA, 3.87 FIP, 1.200 WHIP. Wheeler's three months younger than Nate, who Boston only owes $34 million.
  21. 5GoldGlovesOF,75
    My first thought, too. My second, for the bashers -- what did Dombro always spend the most on? Pitching: Price, Kimbrel/Thornburg/Smith/Pomeranz/Reed/Sale/Eovaldi through trades (the cost was a lot of prospects)... and then resigning Sale and Eovaldi. Some worked out, many didn't, but that's one common method of team-building in baseball. Dombro has been successful in building winning teams, if not always world champs. And if you get past what Bloom was given to start his tenure here, his job is very similar to that of most GMs or Chief Officers: building a team with pitching. The post-'18 WS contracts to Sale and Eovaldi were risky, but can anyone argue that Dave didn't have Boston's best interests -- as a sustained contender -- in mind... ?
  22. 5GoldGlovesOF,75
    Sure it can -- for every Cabrera, Drew and Bogaerts, there's probably a Lugo lurking somewhere in somebody's past glory. But Epstein didn't think they could win with Nomar in '04, so he replaced him. Nobody who watches or plays baseball can deny the importance of having a good shortstop -- if you want to be a contender. Earl Weaver: "I think of Mark Belanger over and over again racing into the hole, making another great stop, digging in and gunning the ball to first to get the runner... without that kind of shortstop you can't win pennants." Of course, Belanger is an extreme case since the data shows this career .228 hitter as arguably the greatest shortstop in the history of the world. In DWAR he is second all-time -- at any position -- to Ozzie Smith, 44.2 to 39.5. But Belanger has the edge in Total Zone Runs, 241 to Smith's 239. TZR, it should be noted, is only accurate for around the past 70 years, so we don't have all the stats on legends like Joe Tinker or Rabbit Maranville... but those guys played on some good teams, too.
  23. 5GoldGlovesOF,75
    But as a fan -- and not a teammate -- here's what I noticed about OC's teams: '04 Boston, World Champs; '05 Angels, first place; '07 Angels, first place; '08 White Sox, first place; '09 Twins, first place; '10 Reds, first place. His clubs after the Red Sox didn't win in the postseasons, but that's a pretty good run.
  24. 5GoldGlovesOF,75
    My best case is that Sale rebounds to become a 30-game winner (in '21 and '22 combined), but the title asked for "realistic".
  25. 5GoldGlovesOF,75
    My realistic expectations are that even if Sale is full-steam ahead, they won't let him throw more than around 50 innings when he comes back in August and September. Best-case scenario gives him 5 starts of 5 IP for each month. But if Boston is about to win the World Series, Cora will let him fan Machado again to end it.
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