Following Former Red Sox 2022 Edition

BornToRun

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Jun 4, 2011
17,312
Daniel Bard, Certified Closer, is off to a great start for the Rockies. At 37yo, he's pitches 6ip with 7ks, no walks (!), and 5 hits while averaging 97 mph on his fastball.
I have no right to feel old but Daniel Bard being 37 makes me feel old.
 

YTF

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Old friend Jake Peavy seems to have landed on The MLB Network. I'm not sure what his role there will be, but I saw a bit of him yesterday and this morning and he seems very comfortable on camera. IMO he's easy to watch and listen to, not over the top and bombastic like some of the personalities there.
 

sean1562

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Sep 17, 2011
3,620
Benintendi is having a pretty good start to the year. .365/.422/.459/.881 line, only 1 HR on the year and a .406 BABIP but only striking out 12% of the time. Seems like him and Verdugo are pretty similar players. He is a FA after this season, wonder where he ends up.
 

InsideTheParker

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Jul 15, 2005
40,371
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Boy, do I NOT miss Ottavino:
Braves sixth. Olson flied out to left fielder McNeil. Riley hit an infield single to shortstop. Ozuna singled to right, Riley to second. Albies singled to right, Riley to third, Ozuna to second. Ottavino pitching. d'Arnaud walked, Riley scored, Ozuna to third, Albies to second. Duvall doubled to left, Ozuna scored, Albies scored, d'Arnaud to third. On Ottavino's wild pitch, d'Arnaud scored, Duvall to third. Swanson singled to center, Duvall scored.
Admitted--it's not easy to come into a bases loaded situation, but really.
 

Lose Remerswaal

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tims4wins

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Jul 15, 2005
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View: https://twitter.com/GlobeChadFinn/status/1523652805906821120?s=20&t=TxuAxvJKr_p7p8PgqwVldQ


There was some murmuring around these here parts after Mookie got off to a slow start. Seems like he's once again doing just fine in LA.
It's going to be fascinating to track for the next 10 years.

Mookie career slash with Sox: .301 / .374 / .519 / .893 / 134 OPS+
Mookie career slash with LAD: .270 / .364 / .498 / .863 / 132 OPS+

The numbers are down slightly, but that could be park effects / ball effects. His BABIP is also significantly down but again could be the same reasons. Exit velo in Boston was 90.9 vs. 90.2 in LA, and hard hit % down from 46.9% to 42.3%.

OPS last 3 years:
2020: 927
2021: 854
2022: 761
 

Smiling Joe Hesketh

Throw Momma From the Train
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May 20, 2003
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It's going to be fascinating to track for the next 10 years.

Mookie career slash with Sox: .301 / .374 / .519 / .893 / 134 OPS+
Mookie career slash with LAD: .270 / .364 / .498 / .863 / 132 OPS+

The numbers are down slightly, but that could be park effects / ball effects. His BABIP is also significantly down but again could be the same reasons. Exit velo in Boston was 90.9 vs. 90.2 in LA, and hard hit % down from 46.9% to 42.3%.

OPS last 3 years:
2020: 927
2021: 854
2022: 761
OPS this year is .836. He's fine. He's always been fine. He will always be fine. Sox fans (not you) need to stop pretending the trade was beneficial.
 

Cesar Crespo

79
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Dec 22, 2002
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OPS this year is .836. He's fine. He's always been fine. He will always be fine. Sox fans (not you) need to stop pretending the trade was beneficial.
Wasn't the argument he wanted to be paid for 2018 when the rest of his career suggest he's right around a 130-135 OPS+ hitter and not a 186 one? Or that he's closer to 6-7 wins than 10?

The trade hasn't worked out that well, though.
 

Smiling Joe Hesketh

Throw Momma From the Train
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Wasn't the argument he wanted to be paid for 2018 when the rest of his career suggest he's right around a 130-135 OPS+ hitter and not a 186 one? Or that he's closer to 6-7 wins than 10?

The trade hasn't worked out that well, though.
It doesn't matter what the argument was at this point. I mean that sincerely. It simply doesn't matter. The Sox decided not to pay him and now they are paying the price.

The Sox have received substantially less on-field production in exchange for him. Verdugo isn't even an All-Star level player, never mind an MVP-level like Betts. Plus he has the worst baseball instincts I've seen in any player since Rob Deer. The ancillary pieces haven't come through yet. And whatever financial flexibilty the Sox got in the trade hasn't resulted in on-field success in two out of the three years since the trade. The financial flexibility has also not been used to extend X and Devers. The run to the ALCS last year was cool but the Dodgers have already won a WS since the trade and are once again off to a great start this season.

I've read a lot of snark over the past few months that Mookie was cooked already and that hoo boy the Sox were smart to trade him. Those statements have been proven to be Titanic-level in their stupidity.

EDIT: I'm sorry, I know this has been beaten to death. But I saw the OPS+ today and just had to say something.
 

Cesar Crespo

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Dec 22, 2002
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I don't think what the Sox do with the money makes a difference with whether Mookie was worth his contract but I get the current frustration. I remember P91 trying to justify the Ellsbury signing because the Sox signed Rusney Castillo.

I wouldn't hold your breath on the ancillary pieces either. I guess Downs is hitting for some decent power but he strikes out a lot and struggles to make contact. The trade is looking like a disaster.

Whether signing Betts to that deal was worth it is still anyone's guess.
 

trekfan55

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As I understand it, Betts took a little less than he was aiming for when Covid hit. Not really a justification but he was looking for a lot more from the Sox.

Still a lousy trade though.

The Sox are a big market teamand when they develop an all timer like Mookie Betts they should sign him long term. Easy for me to say because it is not my money but still.
 

Smiling Joe Hesketh

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Mookie's OPS+ is now up to 169, with a .963.

He leads the NL with 12 HRs and has now taken over the team lead in WAR. He's 4th in the NL with 2.4 WAR.

He's fine. He's always been fine. The decline isn't coming. Every day the trade looks worse. If Verdugo were actually playing well (which isn't in Mookie's stratosphere but no one expects that) it wouldn't bother me this much, but Verdugo isn't playing well. And it's galling.

EDIT: all of Mookie's HR's have come after April 21. Remarkable run.
 
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Jason Bae

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Jul 23, 2021
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Martin Perez has a 1.64 ERA. He's also sporting a 2.44 FIP and 3.66 xFIP. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that he won't sustain that 0.0 HR/9 rate.
 

Petagine in a Bottle

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Jan 13, 2021
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In other news, Kyle Schwarber is on pace to set the all time single season strikeout record (of course, so are Eugenio Suarez and Patrick Wisdom). Hitting .196 with 58 k in 178 PA. But, still has a 115 ops+. Weird season. But with his bb rate at career norms and a lower babip, he’s not the same guy he was with the Sox.
 

sean1562

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Sep 17, 2011
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In other news, Kyle Schwarber is on pace to set the all time single season strikeout record (of course, so are Eugenio Suarez and Patrick Wisdom). Hitting .196 with 58 k in 178 PA. But, still has a 115 ops+. Weird season. But with his bb rate at career norms and a lower babip, he’s not the same guy he was with the Sox.
Last season he had an OPS of .720 through June 12. He hit 16 HRs in the month of June. From June 13 through the end of the year, he hit .312/.432/.688/1.120 with 22 HRs in 60 games. The season is still young and a lot of players seem to be heating up right now.
 

Petagine in a Bottle

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Jan 13, 2021
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For sure; but Schwarber is 29 with a career line of 234/341/489. Last year with the Sox he had a babip of .364 a k rate of 23% and a bb rate of 20% vs career norms of .272, 28%, and 13%. Glad the Sox didn’t go long term with him, personally.
 

scottyno

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Dec 7, 2008
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What’s happened with Martin Pérez? Dude looks like a legit ace this year.
He must really like texas bbq.

But really, he's probably just been really lucky so far, or he's benefiting greatly from the changes to the ball/humidor. His fly ball rate is only down a tad from last year, but a lot of his hard contact changed to medium contact. I'd guess that's true for a lot of pitchers, but not sure where to confirm that. He hasn't given up a home run yet this year, if you never give up a home run you're almost guaranteed great results.
 

Smiling Joe Hesketh

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It helps that he's on a stacked team and hitting leadoff much of the time and has a 170 OPS+ so he's always on base. But yeah, it's incredible. Only one player (Bagwell) has had even one season of scoring 150 runs since 1921.
 

Jason Bae

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Jul 23, 2021
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It helps that he's on a stacked team and hitting leadoff much of the time and has a 170 OPS+ so he's always on base. But yeah, it's incredible. Only one player (Bagwell) has had even one season of scoring 150 runs since 1921.
It's too bad Mookie missed 26 games in 2018 or he could have done it then (129 runs in 136 games).
 

Sad Sam Jones

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May 5, 2017
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What’s happened with Martin Pérez? Dude looks like a legit ace this year.
His numbers are a little flashier this year, but hasn't this been his MO for several years now? He dominates the league for a month or so and pitches like a marginal major leaguer the rest of the year.

In his 2019 season with the Twins he had a sensational May. It followed a few terrible starts at the beginning of the season, so his numbers weren't as eye-popping, but he was sporting a sub-3.00 ERA, baseball writers were going on and on about his new repertoire, how he had gone from being a DFA to surpassing all earlier expectations of him as a highly rated prospect and were calling him an early favorite for the Cy Young Award. He finished that season with a 5.12 ERA and was left off Minnesota's playoff roster.
 

Van Everyman

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In the small print here, but Anderson Espinoza finally makes it to the show.... with the Cubs.

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2022/05/cubs-to-select-matt-swarmer.html
FWIW, the whole Theo tree of executives is such a group of prospect humpers. Bard, Rizzo, as well as vets like Koji, Ross, Lester. I'm sure there are about 800 more people I'm forgetting. I get it -- you've spent a lot of time around those guys and you know them and maybe think you can wring something out of them we couldn't. But it seems like every dude who fails leaves the Red Sox ends up with the Cubs at some point. I find it more than mildly annoying.
 

The_Powa_of_Seiji_Ozawa

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FWIW, the whole Theo tree of executives is such a group of prospect humpers. Bard, Rizzo, as well as vets like Koji, Ross, Lester. I'm sure there are about 800 more people I'm forgetting. I get it -- you've spent a lot of time around those guys and you know them and maybe think you can wring something out of them we couldn't. But it seems like every dude who fails leaves the Red Sox ends up with the Cubs at some point. I find it more than mildly annoying.
The Yankees were a destination for many Red Sox outcasts too.