10 replies to this topic

[Carl Everetts Therapist]

I'm hoping that last night was Cook's swan song as a member of this team. He has proven that he's healthy, that he can still get groundball outs and that he should be doing it for a NL team. Put Cook on waivers and see if anyone wants to give you a Minor League filler prospect for him. There should be enough demand for a starter out there. Assuming that Beckett is healthy, Morales should take Cook's spot in the rotation immediately.

[glennhoffmania]

Cook now has 4 Ks in 44 innings. He has 2 Ks in his last 5 starts covering 28 innings. He has/had no business being in the rotation. He's also given up 6 homers in his last 3 starts, which is pretty impressive for a sinkerballer.

[koufax32]

I'm hoping that last night was Cook's swan song as a member of this team. He has proven that he's healthy, that he can still get groundball outs and that he should be doing it for a NL team. Put Cook on waivers and see if anyone wants to give you a Minor League filler prospect for him. There should be enough demand for a starter out there. Assuming that Beckett is healthy, Morales should take Cook's spot in the rotation immediately.

I get the sense that Cook's value here is to buy time for Morales so his (m) innings don't get too high once they plug him back in. That day of reckoning has to happen soon as Morales would be on track for about 60 more regular season innings at this point.

For game attenders, has anyone noticed his bullpen activity? Has he had any extended bullpen sessions in the last week or so?

[Plympton91]

Is it Morales or Matsuzaka that would replace Cook? Dice-K threw 47 pitches the other night, they could move him up to 65-70 then 85-90 in two starts and he'd be ready to make a major league start roughly 2 weeks from now. I agree Cook cannot be allowed to throw another pitch for the Red Sox. Maybe you give Morales the next 2 starts to keep him stretched out, then bring up Matsuzaka a chance to see if he can be the 2008 version post-TJ surgery.

[Rudy Pemberton]

I don't really see the point in giving innings to Matsuzaka over Morales. Matsuzaka's xFIP in Boston: 4.17, 4.64, 4.75, 4.54, 5.75, 4.32. He is what he is; and he has no future here. Same goes with Cook. Now's the time to see what we've got in guys like Morales, it will help the team more now and in the future.

[Eric Van]

Assuming that Beckett is healthy, Morales should take Cook's spot in the rotation immediately.

For game attenders, has anyone noticed his bullpen activity? Has he had any extended bullpen sessions in the last week or so?

He in fact is being held back in case he has to start for Beckett ... but of course, if he doesn't, he can start the next night for Cook. Which, given the acquisition of Breslow, is clearly already on the radar.

I'd like to see Dice-K get at least a couple of MLB starts, maybe skipping Doubront to limit his innings. Then decide who your rotation is the rest of the way.

[Carl Everetts Therapist]

Re: allowing Cook to eat some innings to keep Morales's season total down.

If this is the case then they need to find a better solution. Cook being a stinkerballer is a one trick pony, it's like Wakefield in that some days the pitch works other days it doesn't only at least Wake could get a K or induce a pop-up etc. If Cook's stinker isn't working he has nothing else. Call up Stewart for a start or two or even let Cook go 2 or 3 innings and let Morales piggy-back him, this idea of letting Cook face the line-up for a third turn is crap.

[Dogman2]

He in fact is being held back in case he has to start for Beckett ... but of course, if he doesn't, he can start the next night for Cook. Which, given the acquisition of Breslow, is clearly already on the radar.

I'd like to see Dice-K get at least a couple of MLB starts, maybe skipping Doubront to limit his innings. Then decide who your rotation is the rest of the way.

This is a fair take. It's sad to think that Dice-K has so little value given his injuries that moving him during the waiver period or the offseason will have such a minimal yield.

Edited by Dogman2, 02 August 2012 - 02:14 PM.

[sackamano]

Difficult to be toast when he was never even bread.

[The Gray Eagle]

Well Cook's done pretty much what could reasonably expected from a #7 or so starter.

Actually even a bit better. He's made 8 starts and was terrible in 3 of them, giving up 6 runs in each. (Though the first of those is when he was pitching after he injured himself, and last night he should have been yanked before the last run was allowed.) In his other 5 starts, he allowed 3 runs or less each time, including a 2-hit complete game shutout.

His problem is that he's give up 6 HRs in his last 3 starts, and has only struck out 4 guys all year. He's also only walked 4 guys though. If he can't keep his sinker down in the zone he will get demolished, but in most of his starts he has kept it down and has had some good results, especially against the bad-hitting teams. If the team thinks he will probably be able to keep the sinker down going forward, they should keep him around. If they don't think he can, then they should cut him.

Even so, his ERA is still lower than Lester's as of right now, and before last night's game it was better than Lester, Beckett and Buchholz.

If he had left the game with a back spasm with two outs in the third inning last night, he'd have ended the night with the best ERA of any starter in the rotation.

[maufman]

There's not much precedent for a major-league pitcher posting a K/9 below 1.0 over a sample as large as 44 innings. Therefore, the usual presumption that a pitcher will regress over time to his peripherals (in Cook's case, 4.66 xFIP and 4.63 SIERA) is much weaker in this case. You have to think there's a good chance Cook won't even be replacement level going forward. It's time to let him go.

Between Beckett's possible injury and concern about Doubront's cumulative workload, on top of the usual uncertainty that always surrounds starting pitching, it's highly likely the Sox will need both Morales and Dice-K to make several starts over the balance of the season. Move Morales to the rotation as soon as possible; it's likely another spot will open by the time Dice-K is ready.

At this point, I would throw a fungible arm from Pawtucket or Portland out there before giving Cook the ball again, but that may be an emotional reaction on my part.