Crawford is scheduled to start tomorrow against the Rays. If my math is correct, his last turn should have been last Thursday. The game that day was in Clearwater against the Phillies, which is one of the longer road trips from Ft Myers. My guess is he made his start in a minor league game (or a simulated game) that day in Ft Myers rather than travel.
The optimistic part is assuming consistency, along with/related to good health. But a bunch of young guys might at least keep their legs under them, assuming nobody takes a liner to the face again.
Thanks for bridging it here.
That sucks. I had high hopes for him this year, either in the pen or as developing starting depth in AAA.
No offense intended, but this seems like a major overreaction to this tweet? Jansen was competent last year in his role but not exceptional, and he's still slated to be ready to go opening day.
Also on the injured list... but I'd like to see Mata start throwing exclusively out of the closer's role in AAA as soon as he's healthy
Mata is on the 40 man and out of options. Does anyone know what rules apply this year in terms of him going on the IL and rehabbing before coming up?
Pitchers get a maximum of 30 days to rehab when coming back from an injury before they either have to be activated to the 26-man roster or returned to the inactive list. In the latter instance, the player could still be activated to the 26-man at any time but can also restart a new 30 day clock with at least 10 days of inactivity.
Seems like it'd be enough to get him (Mata) into some one inning stints at AAA rehab assignment. The guy clearly isn't going to make it on the 26 man as a starter and he'll get claimed I'm sure, by another team. Too much potential/live arm.
View: https://twitter.com/ChrisCotillo/status/1770129970179834195
I am not sure he would get claimed if released at the end of Spring Training as teams will have their own roster crunches. He can be outrighted this year for additional depth if he gets through waivers.
That's a tough one I think. March 28, 29, 30, and 31 all have games at Seattle, then April 1, 2, 3 at Oakland, with a day off on the 4th (the 8th day of the season.) Then 5, 6, 7 at LAA. Then 8 as a travel day, and 9-11 at home v. BAL.
Your post made me feel better, as did Crawford throwing 5.2 innings today with 6 Ks. He's had a good spring.
Crawford is going to have a good year, I think. He's a guy who, if he pitched for another team, we'd want the Sox to sign. 27 years old, 4.04 era, 3.83 fip, 1.11 whip, 9.4 k/9 last year. Apparently has picked up a couple MPH on his fastball from last year as well. Not exactly prime Pedro, but a really solid, useful MLB-caliber starter, which the Sox desperately need.
I'm not sure that there is a good time for something like this to happen, but if there is this might be it. As teams are paring down their rosters, there might be a better opportunity to find a guy who can fill Murphy's role than there might be later in the season.
Isn't Walter basically a real similar pitcher? Murphy seems like a standard replacement level guy. He had a good first stretch but pitched probably closer to his actual ceiling shortly after. Maybe it was the injury starting to affect his pitching, but nothing in his mL career showed he was a guy that you'd really project as anything closer to replacement level.
Walter could well be that guy, but given the fact that Murphy could be done for the season it might not be a bad idea to take a look see to try to identify another LH that might be worth picking up. ATM Jacques is the only other lefty not named Bernandino on the 40 man.
I'm guessing the phrasing was confusing there. It could be ready as you saying, "beside Bernardino, Jacques is the only...." rather than, "beside Walter...." maybe. I had to double check to make sure Walter is a lefty. They (Murphy and Walter) were pretty identical in their mL numbers and out of the two I thought Walter had a better arsenal- which doesn't matter as much for a one-inning reliever I guess.
With Walter now part of the conversation it seemed understood. For clarity's sake... With Murphy likely to be on the shelf for the duration of the season might it be reasonable for Breslow to look at additional LH options for the pen? Bernardino's a lock and Murphy was likely the next choice. Walter could fill the Murphy role leaving Jacques as the only other LH options on the 40 man.
If only there was a readily available, above average lefty starter who would cost only money #musing emoji.
@Rovin Romine apologies for veering away from the original intent of this thread. I'm just now realizing what thread I posted this in and will urge everyone to get back to the spirit of the thread and reference the current roster only.
Wut?
Yeah agreed. My fear with Whitlock isn’t that he can’t get good results again when healthy, it’s that he can’t stay healthy. If he can somehow stay healthy this year, that would go a long way in fixing some of the alarming depth issues this pitching staff has.
So the starters for now are Bello, Crawford, Pivetta, Houck, Whitlock.
I don't see how you can't have Wink as a multi inning reliever in the majors to start the season, especially with the way the rotation looks with so much inexperience. Being so early in the season, Cora has stated that he wants 25 innings from his 5 starters the first time thru, so at an average of 5 IP per start, that leaves a lot of innings to fill to get to a Martin/Jansen, who are both barely going to be ready barring any setbacks. Wink was quite good in this role last year.
Five innings the first time through would be great, but the flip side of that is how many pitches will they be allowed to throw? I'm fairly certain that the plan isn't a pitch count anywhere near 100 which means that one or two rocky innings might see you into the pen in the third or fourth inning. Like you, I think having Winckowski available to go multi innings is the way to go. I can see an argument for stretching him out, but limited pitch counts in the early going almost dictates the need for a long guy who's shown the ability to do the job.
Yup, seems like we're on the same page. I'm also bullish on the pitchers being able to go a little deeper based on the defense we will send out there. Story at shortstop alone is a huge upgarde to the junk we sent out there the first 4 months last year. Add that to Rafaela in CF, and Duran( improvements last year, speed), Abreu (great arm, not sure about range) and O'Neill (two time GG, I hope he's healthy) in the OF and the pitching should greatly benefit with more clean innings.
He's got options, but he's also been excellent this spring. Campbell is actually a lefty killer so we aren't as thin there as it appears.
