Carson Smith went under the knife, Noe Ramirez failed miserably, so Dombrowski kept at it and finally found a durable, reasonably priced ROOGY. Now maybe Farrell can make more optimal use of Ichabod Layne, who should still be a useful reliever in short doses.
Red Sox Get Brad Ziegler from Arizona
- Thread starter nattysez
- Start date
We might want to start thinking about Hembree as a ROOGY, honestly.
Vs RHB: 1.40 ERA, .160 avg, .78 WHIP
Vs LHB: 3.48 ERA, .412 avg, 2.52 WHIP
He doesn't see a whole lot of lefties in the division now, but when rosters expand and they can start throwing them at him off the bench, that ERA should skyrocket.
I like the deal. The guy's sort of a slightly lesser Darren O'Day type. I wondered about his splits but last year he held lefties down really well. This year, so far, not quite as well but still without allowing much of any power to them. If he and Koji share the role for a few weeks I could see using Koji for the inning be it the 8th or 9th when the crucial hitters are lefties and Ziegler when they're righties.
I wonder if the fly ball shagging story was a bit of misdirection by the Sox, trying to keep the Kimbrel situation under wraps as long as possible so that Arizona's price didn't go up?
There may be reasons to seriously question Farrell, but this isn't one of them. A closer's work is more predictable and easier to regulate, and that's what you want for Koji at this point. Ziegler is a more situational guy, and also probably more amenable to an irregular workload.
I really like his potential as a guy you bring in to get a ground ball with men on base in a big spot.
Scott Lauber ESPN Staff Writer
John Farrell: "Koji's our closer. On days when (Uehara) isn't available, we've got Brad (Ziegler) to turn to." Earlier Saturday, Farrell had indicated Uehara and Ziegler would split Red Sox's closing duties in absence of injured Craig Kimbrel.
John Farrell: "Koji's our closer. On days when (Uehara) isn't available, we've got Brad (Ziegler) to turn to." Earlier Saturday, Farrell had indicated Uehara and Ziegler would split Red Sox's closing duties in absence of injured Craig Kimbrel.
I am wondering how Kimbrel got injured. This quote of John Farrell I took from an article by Rob Bradford:
The manager added, “Everything that we did early, he was fine. But then felt something while the running was taking place unfortunately during BP while he was shagging. Definitely unavailable tonight and we won’t know more until [Saturday].”
Seems wierd to have the closer shagging flies during BP, especially when one recalls how Rodriguez' knee injury came about. Usually with a pop fly to the infield the pitcher's job is to get safely out of the way so that one of the fielders can take charge and make the play. Is shagging flies a practice priority for a relief pitcher?
The manager added, “Everything that we did early, he was fine. But then felt something while the running was taking place unfortunately during BP while he was shagging. Definitely unavailable tonight and we won’t know more until [Saturday].”
Seems wierd to have the closer shagging flies during BP, especially when one recalls how Rodriguez' knee injury came about. Usually with a pop fly to the infield the pitcher's job is to get safely out of the way so that one of the fielders can take charge and make the play. Is shagging flies a practice priority for a relief pitcher?
I watched Price actually set up in the middle infield during BP a couple of weeks ago from the monster, and he took grounders and liners -- SS for righties and 2B for lefties. Every batter tried to hit it right at him on the first pitch they got. It was kind of scary. But they get bored I guess. He was pretty athletic.
I don't understand how it is possible for someone to be this willfully ignorant.
You've been willfully ignorant on the subject the entire season, so you shouldn't be surprised if I refer to pot's calling kettle's black.
Obviously many have never been to batting practice before any game. A lot,of pitchers are out in the field shagging. I remember watching John Smoltz literally play like a center fielder chasing down balls. He was competitive as most pro athletes. It was a freak accident it happens. Move on.
Smoltz was well known for that. I don't like that Kimbrell was injured but don't think anything was done wrong either.
Don't athletes need to stay relatively active between and before games to stay loose and maintain their--you know--athleticism? Seems like pitchers shagging flies which, as mentioned, has been done since caveman times, is the perfect, relatively physically stress-free activity to accomplish this. It's more than just "something to do" to relieve boredom.
And isn't it more than likely that whatever structural condition that led to Kimbrel's injury was bound to happen eventually, regardless? I mean, what are they supposed to do between outings, live in a bubble?
Agreed. Hopefully Farrell won't just say "you're my pitcher for inning 8," dust his hands, and walk away.
The manager needs 3-4 relievers whom he trusts to get outs in close-and-late situations. It doesn't matter much which of those guys is the "closer." Other posters have made good points about Ziegler being better suited to come in with runners on base, but even if Farrell's decision was based solely on Uehara's tenure with the team and history as our closer, I'm fine with it.
He didn't throw resources at pitching during the offseason? Do you even consider what you post, or is it some joy of yours to throw shit at a wall and see how much sticks?
Last I checked, DD threw $217 million at David Price, and then traded for Craig Kimbrel and Carson Smith.
That's quite an investment to improve the pitching staff.
Did I say he didn't throw any resources at pitching? Ummm, let's see. No, I didn't. I said he chose to go into the season with the staff he had. Which included the craptastic shitshow that is Buchholz and Kelly. Both of which offered nothing to be confident in. That we are even where we are at - which isn't a great place - is because Stephen Wright came out of nowhere. The bullpen is fine and he can't be blamed for Smith or Kimbrel getting hurt. Not that I was commenting to that, but you know that.
But that wasn't really point anyway. If you bother to read the post I responded to, the point was that you can't blame this staff on BC. You can blame Pablo on him or Castillo or Craig or a bunch of other shit, but I find it difficult to dispute the concept that DD was told "fix this shit and don't worry about payroll". And then chose to rely on Clay and Kelly when, even without relying on 20/20 hindsight, he probably shouldn't have.
But yeah, I just throw shut at the wall dude. Good observation. Let's just lay this at the feet of BC on top of all the other crap we want to blame him for.
Clay had a 130 ERA+ and a 2.68 FIP last year. Were you expecting those to drop to 77 and 6.05 this year? Were you expecting Kelly's total collapse after he pulled it together at the end of the year? Did you anticipate Edro's injury and disastrous return? Congratulations, you're psychic! Can I pick your brain about some horse races?
You said "he chose not to throw money at the problem."
With the staff he had when, exactly?
I mean, if your point is that he shouldn't have stopped at spending over $200M on an ace and non-trivial talent costs for two top relievers, OK, but implying that he decided to stand pat on pitching last winter is alternate-universe stuff.
You're right, I should have said "more" money. If you think I'm trying to say he "stood pat" on the pitching staff, when obviously he spent on Price and traded for Kimbrel and Smith, then you're not reading my words or I'm not typing them effectively. And I think I clearly have stated I'm talking about the rotation.
To be clear - the post I responded to was blaming BC for the pitching staff. DD has been the GM for close to a calendar year now. He made the choice to go into the season relying on Clay and Kelly (and the AAA fodder behind them). You can't blame him for ERod getting hurt, but you also can't give him credit for Wright, so those wash out in my opinion. Ymmv.
Clay is what he is. He's hurt and good, or healthy and sucks. Not a new development.
Kelly looked good his final handful of starts last year and was a decent gamble. It crapped out.
Either way - right, wrong or indifferent - the pitching staff is the direct result of DD's decisions in the offseason. It is not the result of anything BC did, which is what I was replying to. If you want to cherry pick and ignore the rather obvious and stated point - and make it seem like I am suggesting he fiddled while Rome burned - knock yourself out.
But yes, he could have signed another starter with more reliability or made another trade. There's a perfectly reasonable argument to be made that he should or should not have. That's not my point. My point is and was that the current state of pitching is not to be laid on the shoulders of Ben Cherington. It is Dave Dombrowski that is responsible, as he was the one running the show and could do what he wanted. He chose this staff and its results are his to own. There were avenues to address it and he didn't. That was a choice he made - a reasonable one - but not something he was forced into by his predecessor.
You keep saying Dave Dombromski is responsible. He is not the GM. Mike Hazen is the GM so technically HE is the one responsible. How come he always gets left out of the picture? I mean DD is consistently quoted in the media. If you had to make assess responsibility for the Red Sox current situation how much credit/blame goes to Ben Cherrington Dave Dombromski and Mike Hazen? Does Hazen have the authority to do trades on his own or is he just a puppet and scrapecoat for DD if things go wrong?
Hazen isn't going to do anything that doesn't have Dombrowski's approval. It's the new world order in baseball.
I always got the impression that it was title creep and DD is filling the role that would be called GM 10 years ago and Hazen is filling the role Assistant GM would have been.
Once all the deals were done, the rotation candidates were Price, Porcello, Rodriguez, Wright, Kelly, Owens, Johnson, Elias, Buchholz.
That's nine guys.
One of them has performed at expectations. One of them has performed above expectations. Six of them have performed below. One of them has barely performed at all.
The fact that this rotation hasn't performed well isn't on Cherington or Dombrowski. It's on the shit ton of crap that has happened. What does this team look like if Rodriguez just doesn't get hurt? Surely he's at least a solid four man. What if Johnson doesn't get carjacked?
With Clay, there is something that is undefinable (like, analytically) about how he performs which I think was probably not fully apparent to DD as he took the reigns of the team. Kelly continues to be a not quite a starting pitcher I am not sure why the Red Sox continue to hammer the square peg into the round hole. Across 2 pitching coaches now.
I agree that it is an organizational failure to not have done something about either of them before the season, but that's on LL/BC. I give DD a pass on both but not if something's not done before spring training 2017.
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What a brilliant and timely move this was.
Just hoping they don't overwork him the next few days until Taz gets back (who knows a little bit about that)
Just hoping they don't overwork him the next few days until Taz gets back (who knows a little bit about that)