drewski6

For sure. I think the reason I put Maddux 2-seam above Mos cutter is because Ive seen Red Sox batters get the better of Mo ina few key spots and because those are like epic Sox victories (e.g. 2004) they stick out in my mind creating potentially a misconception that Mo wasnt 100% unhittable. Also, I generally give the benfit of the doubt to sp over rp, but maddux did have other pitches unlike Mo which is big points for his cutter. Because you knew you were getting it and still get fooled over and over.

The Maddux is a complete game shut-out, with 90 or less pitches thrown and 14 broken bats.

Maddux 2-seam/sinker (depending on what the scorekeeper felt like calling it) was probably the best pitch Ive seen in my life with an honorable mention to Johan Santana's changeup.

OPS and K% are different. Most OPS will be lower in April /May/September/October vs June, July, August due to weather/wind/humidity. Ball flies significantly more when its hot and dry. Some guys start hot, and thats often because fresh/healthy but when that happens its despite the fact that the weather conditions are better for batters in the summer months. So these OPS trends are nothing more than things Id expect to see, and I feel the K% is a better metric here to determine the degree of any slumps beyond what can be attributed to weather/uncontrollable variables.

I agree. I assure you that the catcher didnt set up for a high change-up, a high sinker, and then a second high changeup. That pitcher was making mistakes in the zone, which is worse than making mistakes out of the zone even though the walk junkies will prob disagree with that. Burying a pitch to a righty from a lefty would have to be either a curve or change. If they are throwing sweepers/sliders/cutters to a righty from a lefty, usually they are trying to back-door those. A curveball can start away and in the zone but wind up buried, ditto changeup....But sliders/sweepers/cutters, when they are low and away to righties from a lefty, thats an easy pitch to lay off. Coming in on a righty with a sweeper is so dangerous. I wouldnt do it ahead in the count cuz its so easy to overspin the sweeper and if you are coming in on a righty from a lefty, in an 0-2 count or a 1-2 count , you are asking to plunk the batter, on an 80 mph pitch, so thats a bail out. If the count is 3-1 a sweep across the zone, back foot sweeper is a better pitch (vs in a 1-2 count). But those high changeups are no doubt meatballs. The high sinker , maybe not as much, because usually a high sinker just becomes more of a 2 seam when its left up. Kind of like the Mitch Hepburn "an escalator can never be broken, it can only become stairs" joke. I honestly dont always know the difference between a 2 seamer and a sinker, unless its like Brandon Webbs obvious sinker. They have the same grip and arm action. But like Bello's...you could call that pitch either a 2 seamer or a sinker depending on what mood you are in. But a high chnage is different. THere is a yo-yo string pull effect to a good change, and that doesnt happen when its left up. Same thing with sliders. When too high the break is heavily reduced. There are very few pitches you want to leave up like that, and none of them are soft. 2-seamers, 4-seamers, and cutters really.

Anybody ever play base wars on regular Nintendo in the early nineties?

If Abreu and Contreras keep mashing, then it takes so much pressure off a guy like Durbin. And guys like Durbin, I feel they are better when they arent trying too much at the plate.

Am I allowed to pretend Eddie Romero is one of my faves, the late great, Eddie Guerrero?

Im on the other end of it. I was surprised that all the grade the offseason threads were all B+ to A+ and anything critical was like "needed one more BP piece" or "left too many outfielders" (so not enough subtraction). I graded the offseason a D. It felt chaotic, and that they failed to execute their plan which I thought revolved around Bregman (and still do). I was also critical of that plan, because I wanted a masher alongside Bregman, but that desire dissipated a bit when they brought in Contreras. Later preseason, started thinking I was too harsh because the end result is more important than the "how they got there", so even if it wasnt a linear route - it did start feeling like they took a playoff team and made it better. Especially when like everyone was mashing in spring/WBC. I dont feel like I can give any I told you sos or deserve a victory lap because what I thought was our flaw - inability to fix the offense, so go all in on pitching and D...To the point where I felt we went too all in on pitching and D. I even went out and said "you can have too much pitching and we do" But it doesnt feel like this team is where it is solely because of de-emphasizing the bats. It feels like pitching and D are , at least, as much of a problem. So even though I was surprised at all the rah-rah and optimism....And even though I eventually joined that rah-rah and optimism - it doesnt feel like when I was nervous about the team (before everyone started thumping in ST and WBC) .... even when I was skeptical, it doesnt feel like I was skeptical for the right reasons. Even when I was at my least optimistic. If you told me 2-8 start, I would have guessed we'd have 19 runs combined in those 10 games and a lot of 2-1 losses. But again, that doesnt seem to be the case. It doesnt feel like me being like "too much focus on pitching and d and not enough focus on batting" is a correct synopsis of why we are 2-8, and thats what I would have told you if you told me before spring they would be 2-8 after first 10 games.

I love me a "coming in hot" opening post.

Sounds like he needs to swing the bat more.

The John Wall injury set DMV area NBA basketball back 15 years. Just brutal. I was born in 84, so I suspect you have some years on me. But I remember growing up in the 90s and even into the 2000s Terrapins basketball was a very good program. Hope they get back. Hard in the NIL days to compete with the big fish in the Big 10. Teams like Michigan, State, Purdue have millions to throw around in NIL money. As a Rhode Islander, I was a little upset when my boy Fatts Russel transferred from URI to Maryland, but Im a Providence College season ticket holder so only a fan of URI when they have more of a chance to make noise than PC, which is rare. The last time that happened though, was Fatts Russell freshman year and he was really good. I think hes doing well playing somewhere overseas. Honorable mention: Len Bias.

Thats not true. I think hes done everything they asked him to do. Im increasingly concerned that IKF is going to supplant him because of Cora, not because I want it to happen. I literally just said "The trade was PW, Bello, Harrison, and a prospect thats not the 6'7 CF for Marte or even Seager." Notice the absence of Abreu, Duran, Mayer, Tolle, Early. To me this was my "guys I prefer not to trade list" The guy I dont like is Cedanne. Becuase I think Duran is a better overall CF'er (offense and defense into account). And I think it opens up the DH spot for Schwarber, Rooker, Alvarez, David Ortiz, a guy like that. A real stud with a bat. I also dont like IKF, especially as a backup first baseman. I like 6'3 guys , who work out, do what they are told, and are fluid in the field and Mayer checks those boxes. I think Cora will bench Mayer too much, and for reasons that you are convincing me on - Im starting to get frustrated with Cora. Youve been convincing me (slowly) for almost a year that IVe overrated Cora (although , I still wonder if he would be good upstairs , like Brad Stevens)...And the reason why I am scared right now of Mayer losing playing time to IKF is because I heard it on NESN last night and also because you are starting to convince me that Ive overrated Cora. Id tell you if I didnt like Mayer. But I like big bodied players who work out and maintain their athleticism and fluidity even after adding muscle. ANd Mayer checks these boxes. Heres a cheat code of whether or not I like a player? Are they 6'2 or above?

I was more glad to have Yoshida before Cora started benching Duran (vs a righty) and Anthony to get him in games.

I was thinking Guardians in 2025, Tigers in 2024. And I think in one of those years KC did more selling than buying and ended up staying in the race for a while (eventually falling out of it).

The excuse Ive heard is WBC. Personally, not buying it.

I saw something from Contreras that impressed me recently. Did he leg out an infield hit? If hes still that athletic, then it leads me to believe that hes aging well and will be fine.

Maybe I could cherry pick 1 or 2 of these to partially rebut, but on the whole- this post feels hard to argue against.

I was a huge fan and even went so far as to say Breslow's bad personality would eventually cost us Cora. ANd I was worried about that. Now I find myself not as pro-Cora. I do disagree that last year was a bad year for him, as we had a thin pitching staff and had to manage through a decent amount of positional player injuries....But this year, I think Cora has been a real problem. Like you dont have to play Masa this much. And I think hes going to keep forcing IKF, Monasterio, and Masa into too many games. If you want this much run out of your bench you should have gotten platoon options.

Cora isnt the reason Story is the leader of the offensive group. The 13 position players on the team are.

I dont think Cora likes Mayer

IKF is more likely to replace Mayer than Mayer is to replace Story.

Agreed 100%. They went with Contreras because he was cheap enough to be "the second bat" as Alonso or Schwarber would have made it tight/challenging to bring back Bregman alongside. That fell apart and NOT because Bregman priced himself out or because ownership is cheap but because Breslow's personality hang-ups which I told a lot of you would be a problem (to a good amount of surprise here). We've been scrambling since. People here tried to frame it as a choice to move on from Bregman , which it never was. The whole offseason centered around Bregman, and thats why our moves prior to Bregman were complimentary moves (Contreras, Gray, Oviedo) and thats why you saw an immediate Suarez contract after. It was a reactive, save face PR move. It may ultimately work out if this is the reality for Bello, Oviedo, Gray, Tolle (shelled in AAA). I didnt expect to have this much struggling through the rotation so maybe we'll ultimately need Ranger. I have more confidence in him than Bello, Oviedo.

Well this is your own fault for missing out on Celtics greatness.

1. See that MVP, I told you he wasnt talking about Masa. 2. Again, the big mistake is we should have further prioritized defensive alignment over offense?' Duran and Abreu are both too good of hitters on a team with not enough good hitters to be going in a trade to improve the offense. These deals that move either of them feel more like optimizing the roster positionally, which I dont think is the same thing as improving the offense. Marte/Neto would have helped over Durbin, but I dont think either Duran or Abreu should have went in those trades. We had plenty of other chips especially if we didnt cut into our trade-chip resources to bring in Contraras, Durbin, Oviedo. We didnt get any of the big fish on offense. Like Seager, Schwarber, Marte. I did find myself defending Contreras to a couple friends last night who are already asking for his head (but not Durbin's). I also dont love the bench makeup. Im sorry but this team doesnt have enough bats to plug in IKF, but hes our next man up on infield (including first base)? And IKF is the Cora crush. Hes going to get a lot of at-bats, and thats going to put even more pressure on the top of the order. Pitching and DEEEEEEEFENSE junkies got the team they wanted. And now we're looking at a grind of a season but its way too early with 0 Fenway games played to think that the offense is toast. And it isnt toast. But it isnt toast because of guys you keep coming back to as guys we should trade. And I find myself disagreeing with that even though I understand youre coming from from a belief that Neto/Paredes/Marte > Durbin at infield is a bigger offensive upgrade than Duran > Masa at DH....But 1) not true for Paredes and 2) I dont think Neto was ever actually available and like Marte, if available - there were ways to get him while leaving the strength of our offense (3 corner outfielders) intact. The trade was PW, Bello, Harrison, and a prospect thats not the 6'7 CF for Marte or even Seager. We didnt need Oviedo, Gray and from this group could have done better than Durbin.