Following Former Red Sox: 2015

Smiling Joe Hesketh

Throw Momma From the Train
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May 20, 2003
35,726
Deep inside Muppet Labs
Plympton91 said:
 
I'm not really criticizing it; just offering the general willingness of teams to work relievers in ways they'd never work starters as one of the things that contributes to the perceived inconsistency of relief pitching relative to starting pitching.  It would be something a team with a long-term investment in a reliever could control in order to limit the injury risk on the back end of the contract.  Unless I'm missing some, almost all of the small number of recent four-year contracts to relievers actually have worked out fairly well (Downs, Affelt, Benoit, Papelbon), which suggests that there might be something to that.
 
 
We remember the ones that work out, but do we remember guys like BJ Ryan?
 
Either teams have figured something out or it's random sampling. Look at this fangraphs article from a few years ago:
 
http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/relievers-are-not-worth-multi-year-deals/
 
More recently, Heath Bell got 3/27 and was a complete bust. Brandon League got 3/22.5. Jason Motte got 2/15. Joe Nathan got 2/20. Grant Balfour got 2/12. Etc.
 
Relief pitchers are volatile.
 

Toe Nash

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Jul 28, 2005
5,595
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Rubby De La Rosa has two nice starts in a row, again...15 IP, 2 R, 1 ER, 5 BB, 12 K over the two. Multiple disaster starts over the year as well, but overall he has a nice 83 K and just 24 BB in 89 IP. 14 HR is his major issue from a peripherals standpoint. 4.96 ERA but a 3.43 SIERA and a 3.34 xFIP.
 

DJnVa

Dorito Dawg
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Dec 16, 2010
53,840
Smiling Joe Hesketh said:
The ump went after Jon Lester yesterday. What the hell?
 
Lester is 4-6 with an ERA+ of 95 and his K/BB rate has crashed. I never expected that to happen when he moved to the NL. Wonder what's going on with him.
 
 
The ump should be suspended. Either toss Lester because he said the magic word, or stay behind the plate.
 

tims4wins

PN23's replacement
SoSH Member
Jul 15, 2005
37,057
Hingham, MA
Hard to judge based on that video. Who knows how Lester was acting all game up till that point. We all know from time to time he has, how can I say this, not the best mound presence.
 

Lose Remerswaal

Experiencing Furry Panic
Lifetime Member
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Tito likes popsicles
 
 
Indians manager Terry Francona revealed Wednesday that he has quite the affinity for the low-calorie fruit Popsicles available around the team clubhouse and on the plane when traveling.
It might be a borderline addiction. As it turns out, the Popsicles in question are Outshine Fruit Bars, in grape, made by Nestle.
Francona was asked how many he had the other night. Here’s his full answer, and the full tale of their love story.

“I had 17 the other night. No, that’s not a lie. They’re healthy, so if one’s good, 17’s gotta be real good. I woke up in the middle of the night and I was like borderline, like it was coming up.
 

DanoooME

above replacement level
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Mar 16, 2008
19,831
Henderson, NV
WMB just rolled his ankle chasing after a foul ball into the on deck circle where he stepped on one of the bats left there to warm up with.  He limped off the field under his own power.
 

rembrat

Member
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May 26, 2006
36,345
I had no idea Doobie was back in the AL East. He gave the Blue Jays 6.2IP 6H 1ER 1BB 6SO tonight.
 

barbed wire Bob

crippled by fear
SoSH Member
rembrat said:
I had no idea Doobie was back in the AL East. He gave the Blue Jays 6.2IP 6H 1ER 1BB 6SO tonight.
He was released by the Cubs prior to the start of the season. The Jays signed him to a minor league deal and he was just promoted to the majors on July 3rd. His ERA in AAA was something like 2.83 so he wasn't doing half bad.

Edit: his ERA was 2.44 with 36 hits allowed in 48 innings at Buffalo.
 

threecy

Cosbologist
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Sep 1, 2006
1,587
Tamworth, NH
barbed wire Bob said:
He signed a minor league deal with the Cubs back in January but his name doesn't appear on any of the rosters. I don't know what happened.
It appears he's at extended spring training.
"Mesa Cubs LF Jose Paniagua left the game after being hit on the helmet by a Daniel Bard fastball in the top of the 4th. (Bard was pulled out of the game after throwing only eight pitches)." - June 13th post
 
"Veteran MLB RHRP Daniel Bard had a very odd/unusual day. Working one inning in the game on Whirlwind Field, Bard issued three walks, struck out two (both swinging), and uncorked six wild pitches. That's six wild pitches In one inning!" - May 22nd post
 
http://www.thecubreporter.com/daniel-bard/0
 

DanoooME

above replacement level
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Mar 16, 2008
19,831
Henderson, NV
Daniel Bard faced 18 hitters in the Sally League last year.  He got 2 outs, 1 by K.  He hit 7 batters and walked 9.  13 of those runners scored for an ERA of 175.50.  His BB/9 was 121.5.
 
I think I could do better.
 

NDame616

will bailey
SoSH Member
Jul 31, 2006
2,313
With numbers like that he really needs a heavy dose of extended spring training and facing batters like Rick Vaughn before they have him face live batters.

He is a liability out there The manager of his team and all his staff should take live BP against him before he returns to the mound
 

JohntheBaptist

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Jul 13, 2005
11,399
Yoknapatawpha County
NDame616 said:
With numbers like that he really needs a heavy dose of extended spring training and facing batters like Rick Vaughn before they have him face live batters.

He is a liability out there The manager of his team and all his staff should take live BP against him before he returns to the mound
 
I don't know, with numbers like that it may be time to start looking into another profession.
 
That said, you're right--I'm surprised he hasn't really hurt anyone yet (maybe he has?).
 

barbed wire Bob

crippled by fear
SoSH Member
threecy said:
It appears he's at extended spring training.
"Mesa Cubs LF Jose Paniagua left the game after being hit on the helmet by a Daniel Bard fastball in the top of the 4th. (Bard was pulled out of the game after throwing only eight pitches)." - June 13th post
 
"Veteran MLB RHRP Daniel Bard had a very odd/unusual day. Working one inning in the game on Whirlwind Field, Bard issued three walks, struck out two (both swinging), and uncorked six wild pitches. That's six wild pitches In one inning!" - May 22nd post
 
http://www.thecubreporter.com/daniel-bard/0
Yeah, apparently he's on the 60 day DL. If you look at the roster for the Cubs AAA affiliate, he's listed as "Daniel Bard (INACTIVE - 60-day DL - post-2013 thoracic outlet surgery)". BTW thanks for the Cub Reporter link. It's a hell of a long time to be on the DL.
 

GBrushTWood

New Member
Jul 12, 2005
372
Brookline
BestGameEvah said:
Will Middlebrooks!
 
http://m.rangers.mlb.com/tex/video/topic/8879212/v247984483/sdtex-deshields-scores-on-fielders-popup-to-short
 
And, of course he owns the blunder:  "It happens all over baseball," he said. "It happens to the Cardinals, too, I'm sure."
 
Embarrassing mental lapse there by Middlebrooks. For someone whose performance the last few years screams AAAA player, one would think he could focus on the game supporting his salary. His .617 OPS in 2015 really doesn't justify forgetting how many outs there are. 3.9% BB% in 2015. Eugh.
Even though we entered into an ugly contract with Sandoval, I am very glad to see him manning 3B for the Red Sox this year instead of Middlebrooks. Then again, I would have been grateful to see any replacement level player.
 
As an aside, is it me or are we seeing way more players forget # of outs and counts than usual? There must have been 5+ occasions in the last 2-3 weeks alone.
 

BestGameEvah

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Oct 21, 2012
1,089
Middlebrooks optioned to AAA - El Paso.
Murphy's comment about it: Middlebrooks needs to "find himself." "Might take a week, might take two weeks, might take a month, might take two months." 
 

Soxfan in Fla

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Jul 30, 2001
7,187
BestGameEvah said:
Middlebrooks optioned to AAA - El Paso.
Murphy's comment about it: Middlebrooks needs to "find himself." "Might take a week, might take two weeks, might take a month, might take two months." 
Personally, I think he's found himself. He's just not good.