Following Former Red Sox 2024...
- Thread starter YTF
- Start date
He was already in decline before that, I think. His OPS by team is revealing:
BOS: .789 (2104 PAs)
KC: .774 (928 PAs)
NYY: .734 (131 PAs)
CHW: .648 (778 PAs)
And this year (included in CHW data) he is at .516, yoiks.
What was striking to me in his very brief stint in NY is how much his power had already disappeared, I remember him blasting some balls against NY in Yankee Stadium when he first came up, but by the time he got to NY, you could play the outfield in against him if you wanted. The only better than average skill he had for NY was diving (literally), but he was spectacular at that, both in the field and on the bases, so good at getting full horizontal really quickly. I remember reading at one point that his 2022 hamate injury was actually his second, which would make more sense, but I couldn't find confirmation of that just now.
Benintendi's defense has declined rapidly also, negative DRS numbers in LF in both years in Chicago so far. He and Yoshida signed the same winter, both allegedly LFers, Yoshida for 5/90 and Benintendi for 5/75. I said after the Yoshida signing that I did not like it (but I thought it was an interesting roll of the dice by Bloom given the small Fenway LF), but I definitely liked it better than the slightly smaller Benintendi deal, and all of that I still think. Both looking pretty awful currently, but sometimes the longer term deals can boomerang back to assets. Rodon is mostly back to himself so far this year after a Manoah-like 2023, for instance.
Benintendi's defense has declined rapidly also, negative DRS numbers in LF in both years in Chicago so far. He and Yoshida signed the same winter, both allegedly LFers, Yoshida for 5/90 and Benintendi for 5/75. I said after the Yoshida signing that I did not like it (but I thought it was an interesting roll of the dice by Bloom given the small Fenway LF), but I definitely liked it better than the slightly smaller Benintendi deal, and all of that I still think. Both looking pretty awful currently, but sometimes the longer term deals can boomerang back to assets. Rodon is mostly back to himself so far this year after a Manoah-like 2023, for instance.
Yeah, it’s kind of crazy in that Benintendi looked like a really good player from the get go- not great at anything, but pretty solid all around. Now he’s not even 30, but is kinda terrible. Dude was a 5 win player at 23. I guess it happens, even if his career were to end this second he would have had a 15 bWAR career which is certainly respectable. And he’s made $50M.
He was pretty good in KC in 2002 as well, put up a 2.5 WAR in 93 games for them before the trade to NYY. It's incredible how badly he's fallen since then.
Matt Strahm has some insane numbers this season:
18 IP, 12 H, 2 R, 1 BB, 29K, and an FIP of 0.06.
18 IP, 12 H, 2 R, 1 BB, 29K, and an FIP of 0.06.
I looked at that last night actually, he has a surprisingly big contract. This is his second year at $7.5M per year of three, and it can vest into a 4/30 deal in total if he pitches 60 innings next year.
FWIW, he had two cortisone shots in his left wrist last year. One in March and one in July. He had a very hot April, scuffed through the year, and had a hot September. All in all it wasn't a bad year, but it was his worst since 2017.
It's like he peaked at age 27 - all his batting stats are a bell curve up and back down in the past 2 years: Barrel %, exit velocity, K rate, BB rate. . .https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/savant-player/xander-bogaerts-593428?stats=statcast-r-hitting-mlb
Maybe some surgery and a year off can jump-start him or something.
It's like he peaked at age 27 - all his batting stats are a bell curve up and back down in the past 2 years: Barrel %, exit velocity, K rate, BB rate. . .https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/savant-player/xander-bogaerts-593428?stats=statcast-r-hitting-mlb
Maybe some surgery and a year off can jump-start him or something.
Austin Maddox (cup of coffee in 2017) caught in predator sting.
https://www.boston25news.com/news/local/ex-red-sox-player-arrested-undercover-sting-after-arranging-meet-girl-sex-sheriff-says/PEJPTMMX6VCBFD36XMUPDTCNWY/?taid=664b8fa9d9bd1000017621d1&utm_campaign=trueanthem&utm_medium=trueanthem&utm_source=twitter
https://www.boston25news.com/news/local/ex-red-sox-player-arrested-undercover-sting-after-arranging-meet-girl-sex-sheriff-says/PEJPTMMX6VCBFD36XMUPDTCNWY/?taid=664b8fa9d9bd1000017621d1&utm_campaign=trueanthem&utm_medium=trueanthem&utm_source=twitter
I just looked up and realized that, despite a 2.84 era, James Paxton's secondary pitching stats are absolutely falling off a cliff. The average velo on his 4-seam has dropped from 95.2 to 93.5, his k% has dropped almost in half (24.6% to 13.0%), his bb% has nearly doubled (8% to 13.0%), and predictably his xERA has climbed from 3.77 to 5.57. I don't know if he's injured or just going down the steep slope of age-related decline but not a great trend.
Just saw this….yikes. He made the playoff roster in 2017, 0.52 era in 17 big league innings. Never pitched in the bigs again, only 8 minor league innings after that. Always hurt.
Sale being great again was predictable. His most recent injuries were random.
However, I wouldn't bet on him staying healthy for more than 2 years.
He also might be a jerk that players don't want to be around.
LOL what. Here's an article about Sale's mentoring of Houck.
https://www.bostonherald.com/2024/05/08/red-sox-chris-sale-tanner-houck-braves-exclusive/
I don't think he's a jerk. But his moping and poor attitude when he's hurt or things aren't going well for him can't be fun to be around. He's probably a lot of fun right now.
LOL Sale is now at 2.22 era, 0.86 whip, and 11.1 k/9 while averaging 6.1 innings per start.
#11 among qualified pitchers in ERA
#3 among qualified pitchers in WHIP
#8 among qualified pitchers in K/9
#19 in innings pitched
#22 in quality starts
#9 in bWAR
By the way, here's Houck's rankings in these categories:
#7 among qualified pitchers in ERA
#8 among qualified pitchers in WHIP
#42 among qualified pitchers in K/9
t#2 in innings pitched
t#1 in quality starts
#8 in bWAR
#11 among qualified pitchers in ERA
#3 among qualified pitchers in WHIP
#8 among qualified pitchers in K/9
#19 in innings pitched
#22 in quality starts
#9 in bWAR
By the way, here's Houck's rankings in these categories:
#7 among qualified pitchers in ERA
#8 among qualified pitchers in WHIP
#42 among qualified pitchers in K/9
t#2 in innings pitched
t#1 in quality starts
#8 in bWAR
https://sports.yahoo.com/ex-red-sox-player-arrested-183425524.html
He did some nice work out of the pen in 2017 but then sucked in the minors in 2018 and was released. Never made it to another team's roster after that. Was our third round pick back in 2012 and was in BA's top 100 prospects when drafted, so he had a decent pedigree too.
Yeah cool story. Especially the parts about him flipping out and screaming in the dugout. Houck finds it cool. Maybe others don't?
Weren't Sale and Houck also both dudes who wouldn't get the COVID vaccine?
I'm not dissing Sale BTW -- I'm sure he's a great teammate in a lot of ways. But that may not have been the best way ...
I'm not dissing Sale BTW -- I'm sure he's a great teammate in a lot of ways. But that may not have been the best way ...
Except his former teammates in Boston have literally been gushing about him, how he mentored the kids (and still does with Houck, Crawford) and just in general how great a teammate he was? His last few years were not kind to him, so I think we can conclude he was still a good dude when things weren’t going well for him personally.
Have there been many players who haven't flipped out in the dugout? I mean, you need to look no further than the angry David Ortiz smashing the bullpen phone. I think they all do it one time or another. Now if it is constantly happening with a specific player, then I can see your point.
I was trying to remember- I know he had some kind of arm issues, which was disappointing, as he appeared to be pretty damned good. Look no further than Wikipedia:
Here's the youtube clip of him "resisting arrest" - he gets bum rushed and tackled.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ho5fRoEpiX8
And yet, who really cares. Dude was soliciting sex with an underage minor. That may be the nicest he's treated until he gets to jail
Because it's inherently fascist to have cops "punish" people during an arrest - no matter what they're accused of.
Pedroia didn’t find it so awesome. I guess I wouldn’t either, if I unexpectedly had shrapnel sent in my direction. I don’t recall Sale ever putting a teammate in actual danger like Ortiz did there.Yeah but that was awesome
Yeah I know. I was joking.
But Ortiz was always a team leader. I feel like Sale was just weird.
Yet I wish he was still on the team.
That’s some wild shit. Maddox fell off the deep end of life. He’s so done. F him.
Does lamenting the loss of Mookie put you in the FOM?
If so I guess it would apply to Sox fans who lamented the loss of Ruth, too.
"Lamenting" is fine. But as with all losses in life, if that's all the lamenter talks about.......
I haven't mentioned Mookie in like two weeks!
That being said, right now he leads all of baseball in WAR. Interestingly his OPS is down slightly from last year but his OPS+ is up due to the lower overall offensive environment.
He's at 68.2 WAR at age 31. Unreal pace he's been setting.
Man I've been trying so hard not to bring him up, but Joe "Fight Club" Kelly hasn't allowed a run in his last 6 appearances.
Dodgers are gonna win for real this year.
Dodgers are gonna win for real this year.
Benintendi might surpass -2.0 WAR tonight. He is at -1.9.
His Baseball Savant page is a war crime:
His Baseball Savant page is a war crime:
Geeze it's honestly kind of sad. Loved watching him play here. What's crazy about baseball is he was drafted 7th overall, and still ranks 5th in BBRef WAR of the top 75 players drafted. But it still feels like a disappointing career.
