It was Aug 11 to Aug 14 per the MLB site. He played in games on the 10th and on the 14th.
Barnes is out pitching his career averages in basically every meaningful rate stat except HR/9 this year. I'm not sure how much better we can ask him to be. It's possible he just isn't good enough for the 9th inning.
I just mean better than the 16 ERA guy he has been in August or whatever. Average career Barnes if you will. Not dominant stud closer.
He's been consistently mediocre all year. His OPS high for a month was .679, his low was .595.
If Vaz was defensively even close to as good as his reputation the team could live with that
I agree with all of this. It's not as though Cora decided that Richards was better suited for a bullpen role. He was the worst starter and the obvious demotion when Sale was ready. That Richards is blossoming in the role is a happy accident more than according to plan.I wouldn't go that far.
Seriously though, there are only 5 starters, and while they didn't have to call up Sale/Houck, it's the blindingly obvious thing to do. Also, they didn't have to DFA Richards when they could DFA/option the most marginal bullpen guys. You pretty much have to see if he works out in the pen before you cut him (and his affordably priced starter's option for next year.) So - no brainers.
I will, however, give Cora full credit and kudos for using only Richards for 3 innings last night.
Richards was brought in with men on base, so he had already warmed up and logged an inning's worth of pitches. So even though they were up by 4 runs, there's no clear call to put in a scrubish guy, then maybe have to go to a third relief pitcher (Whitlock?) to clean up a mess and eek out a win. (If they were up 5 or 6, maybe you do it and so take Richards out after 10ish pitches.)
But, leaving Ricards in gave a day off for the rest of the pen, and secured a victory against a division rival. The trade-off is not having a good bullpen piece available for a couple of days. But that's worth it. There's also the psychological impact - Richards really delivered here, and I have to think that might be a good motivator for him in his new role. (Eck speculated on that a bit.)
While this isn't an example of creative brilliance, it's solid bullpen management, and that's not to be dismissed.
It wasn't the hitting that was a problem. That's mostly quick reaction anyway. It was the dumb/lazy mistakes in the game that might make you think he was distracted. Forgetting the number of outs, running into outs, and the effortless tag all made it seem like his head wasn't at all in the game.
Totally, Richards performance in the pen is a happy accident; though long baseball seasons are full of them, and I'm glad Cora is taking advantage of the serendipity (or, perhaps, he's being forced given the decimated roster). Great. This is part of sports ... performances waxing and waning in unexpected ways, and adjusting player usage accordingly ... I always find Cora slow to react to these vicissitudes, but eventually he comes around. The present crisis is maybe forcing him to act faster than he normally does.
I don't see the first half of your sentence and the second half of your sentence having anything to do with each other.
A month ago either sending him to the pen or releasing him seemed like viable options. Cora (and or Bloom) decided it was worth keeping him around and using him rather than cut him loose.
Sure, but just because people here were clamoring for his release, it doesn't mean that the organization ever seriously considered it before seeing what he could do in the bullpen. Same as Perez. Perez just hasn't been a lucky accident thus far.
The Motter hitting lead off didn't really bother me. Motter has hit lefties well this season (albeit in AAA), and he did go 2 for 5 with a RBI and 2 runs scored. The only other spot he'd have likely hit was ninth, so it really only affected the first inning.
Which is why Dave Stapleton should have been in as a defensive replaecement.
Bleh ... if McNamara had given Gedman a blow at any time during the postseason, maybe he reacts better to Stanley's pitch, Knight stays at first and Mookie's grounder is easily gobbled up by Buckner, who would be holding him on
We scored 10 runs. I don't think lineup composition was a real issue. I'm frustrated as hell with the performance art tribute to my little league team's defensive pantshitting, but he can't bench guys and field a winning team the way this roster is constructed right now. We're all shitting on Verdudo because he lost a ball in the sun in CF today. HE'S NOT A CENTER FIELDER!!!
I also suspect that the FO works with Cora on the lineups, so I tend not to blame Cora for those.
This.
I'm not disagreeing with you necessarily. But suppose Cora "takes action" by sitting Renfroe - one of the team's best hitters and overall players - today. How will people react? Will it be:
Renfroe might be a bad example for this but Vazquez is not. He has been repeatedly making unforced mental and physical errors. Never mind the bunt yesterday, he's been poor on the basepaths and has been dropping throws home. He is the very first player I would bench and I would make it semi-permanent.
Right - so you bench Vazquez because he's been stinking up the joint, but you don't bench Renfroe for his errors because he's been one of the team's best players.
No, you bench Vazquez because he's been screwing up for 3 solid months now while Renfroe only had a bad game.
Renfroe has made plenty of mistakes. He's got 9 errors, which is a lot for an outfielder. He's made base running blunders. He's been one of their best players, but he's made his share of boneheaded plays.
I suppose the question is have the mistakes been mental or physical. For example, Vazquez costing the Sox a run (and the game) the other week because he forgot how many outs there were and didn't run while on the bases is a stupid mental error. His numerous lapses in concentration have been ongoing and reflect that his head is, quite frankly, up his ass most of the time. Renfroe's errors are annoying as it his propensity to show off his arm at any opportunity, but they are not reflective of a player who is not paying attention to the game.
I hold Vazquez accountable for Austin Meadow's inside-the-park home run yesterday. Could a better CF caught that fly ball? Probably. But it was very solidly hit. It seemed as if Meadows was expecting a FB and sitting on it, didn't it? Not surprising considering that Vazquez called for 8 straight FBs in that at bat, all thrown between 96.5 and 99.4 mph. Any MLB hitter at present can hit a FB, even quality ones like Whitlock's when they know what is coming. Hence the solidly hit ball off the wall in CF.
I don't think any centerfielder not named Jackie Bradley Jr had much chance of catching Meadow's ball. I do think a better centerfielder might have recognized that they weren't catching it, backed off and played it off the wall for a double instead. That was a triple as soon as Verdugo tried to make the catch. It became a HR when Iglesias bobbled then airmailed the throw. Renfroe I'm not going to come down too hard on if he truly didn't see the ball and where it went because of the sun. It's not like he never arrived, he just got a late jump and Iglesias beat him there. Renfroe does make some poor throwing decisions and misses cut-off men a bunch. He should be held accountable for that, but not necessarily that inside the parker.
That sounds more like stuff they should be giving more attention to in spring training next year.
The MFYs sat Sanchez (who can actually hit the ball hard once in a while) for a couple of weeks in favor of their shitty backup. The Sox could do the same with Vazquez who rarely makes hard contact.
Well, as of today, Alex marathon-not-a-sprint Cora, has managed his way to this:
Well it’s hardly like Tom Kelly ever won anything….wait a minute.
Do we know this isn't also part of the Sox regular preparation for games? Because that would be different than the sort of "Sgt. Hartman: I'm gonna PT all your asses" extra drills you guys seem to be calling for.
