Thanks, I guess we have a different definition. They made a trade for Mondesi--I see that as something that could actually provide a lot of value to the Sox. If for whatever reason you already deem it a failure, then sure, I guess that's throwing TWO MILLION dollars away. Which isn't even very much money.
That was more of a joke, but we're flirting with the tax limit already - throwing away his salary means we have to pay that AND pay for another player to be on the team/40-man.
"When he's pitching well". I mean, that's a hell of a qualifier, right? In his best ever season (2018), his era was 3.65 and his whip was 1.27. But his career era is 4.07 and his career whip is 1.34.
I was simply asking about your comment that they throw away a lot of money. No biggie, carry on.
Not Chaim related really - but the Sox have had a lot of dead money on their roster for years. Panda, Hanley, Peoria (fuck Machado), Price, etc. Seems like we're always paying people NOT to play.
Timing of this combined with the Mondesi trade (and not trading for Kim) makes me think Houck isn’t going anywhere.
Isn't that the curse of big contracts? At some point you either cut bait and pay someone not to play or you keep playing a shitty, old player because they're still under contract.
That one guy is pretty awesome, though, to be fair. I would’ve liked to have had Evo back but it is what it is.
Yeah I'm sure, we're not the only team (Ellsbury springs to mind, Damion Easley forever ago)... I'm sure Barnes is of SOME use. Who knows. the news from the Sox is always out of left field.
Honestly, not sure. Recency bias says Barnes, but in all honesty, he really isn't better than Brasier. He strikes out more guys, so if that's what you need, I'd go with Barnes, but he puts more guys on base. It's really a tossup.
Brasier against RH, Barnes against LH.
Not Brasier, he's been terrible in hi-lev situations. But not Barnes either anymore. We have like 5 guys I'd put ahead of either.
I was going to vote pray for a hang fire…
That's been my argument. I was against the contract from the outset and was aggressively disagreed with on these boards.
I haven't had confidence in Matt Barnes on the mound since the All Star Break after he signed his extension. Do you guys watch the games?
I mean, his xFIP looks pretty similar in low and high leverages there no? And his BABIP there looks ridiculous, so I'm not sure if there's any difference or it's noise in the numbers.
Yeah - though to be fair, he was a super rare case of being forced to live in AAA so he didn't affect the budget.
I don’t know. I’m not passionate about this situation but to me “fortitude” is cutting Lawyer Malloy the week the regular season starts. This is just… weird.
He could have declined the $6.5m option because he hates playing for the Tigers or wants a multi year commitment. Or have misjudged the market.
If im reading this correctly, you think that there’s a decent chance that Bloom gave Barnes a contract offer and added on money because of past overuse?
Yeah it’s probably wrong. I remember some discussion at the time of the extension that it may partly have been about giving him a kind of security for future overuse later that season, or to pacify him in case we acquired a closer that bumped him to setup (which might annoy him before he hit FA).
https://sonsofsamhorn.net/index.php?threads/sox-extend-barnes-2-years-18-75-m.34019/
Down the stretch last year I watched a lot of games, (for... reasons). I thought Barnes looked pretty good. Meanwhile, Brasier was a laser show.
I should clarify, I'm not a fan of Tilt either and agree that Brasier should have been DFA'd before Barnes, but despite the numbers Barnes didn't look like he turned a corner to me last year. Cora was absolutely picking his spots with him in an attempt to rebuild confidence.
Agree. I’m starting to get interested in this team. The real test will be what happens at the deadline if they are in the mix but moves would put them over the threshold again.
There's a lot of volatility here in key individual player performances, mostly hinging on health. But that's baseball. 2013 v. 2014. 2018 v. 2019. 2021 v 2022.
Robles did, then Familia and Ort, in descending order, over their small sample sizes. Batters had higher average exit velocity against Barnes and Pivetta than Brasier.
Man those numbers surprise me. It's not how remember seeing things over August and September.
To some extent it's because they ignore the actual results, which were awful for Brasier, but the underlying stuff was better than the results.
