Red Sox in season discussion

Red(s)HawksFan

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wondering how much money these guys are making subconsciously plays into our anger. If say Plawecki wasnt vaccinated, how much would we really care, vs, if it was Sale, or say, Bogey, JD, or someone in a different stratosphere. I am sure the answer could be that we are all pissed at Houck and he isnt making huge money relatively yet, but I guess my question is how hard would we go on a fringe roster guy, Shaw/Plawecki as we would for a starting pitcher or a 20 mill DH.
I can't speak for anyone else, but salary nor place in the roster hierarchy has nothing to do with how I feel. I think any player that chooses to miss games they'd otherwise be available and eligible to play, just to avoid getting a shot, is a selfish asshole.
 

BornToRun

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wondering how much money these guys are making subconsciously plays into our anger. If say Plawecki wasnt vaccinated, how much would we really care, vs, if it was Sale, or say, Bogey, JD, or someone in a different stratosphere. I am sure the answer could be that we are all pissed at Houck and he isnt making huge money relatively yet, but I guess my question is how hard would we go on a fringe roster guy, Shaw/Plawecki as we would for a starting pitcher or a 20 mill DH.
For me, I am a little bit extra pissed at Sale especially. His whole thing has been this hyper competitive psychopath who will do anything to win and that’s one of the things I loved. Cutting up the jerseys in Chicago, screaming at his teammates in the World Series, and getting mad at himself for needing TJS displayed the kind of attitude you want from a high paid star and team leader. Granted, it’s not fair to get mad at yourself for an injury but you have to appreciate that desire to compete. And now, he’s hurting the team because he doesn’t want to get a couple of shots? He’s choosing to make himself unavailable for some of the most important games we’ll play when he’s supposed to be the big dog at the front of our pitching staff. I haven’t been able to really care about how his recovery is going right now because I’ve adopted a mindset of “I’ll give a damn about Chris Sale when he starts to give a damn about the team.” Until then, I’m not really concerned with where things stand in regards to his rib injury.
 

RobertS975

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Well, this thread is leaving me speechless! Last September, I was banished for a month from SOSH for delivering some non-political medically correct observations about breakthrough cases in vaccinated players. I happen to be a licensed physician. There was no talking about any of this at that time. It got you off the active roster for a month.
 

E5 Yaz

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Well, this thread is leaving me speechless! Last September, I was banished for a month from SOSH for delivering some non-political medically correct observations about breakthrough cases in vaccinated players. I happen to be a licensed physician. There was no talking about any of this at that time. It got you off the active roster for a month.
You're right ... it's all about you
 

DennyDoyle'sBoil

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We’ll see soon enough, it’s easy to assume that anyone who doesn’t just say ‘yes I’ve been vaccinated’ hasn’t been.
This is my assumption too, though I suppose we may just live in a world where players are concerned they will be judged harshly for getting vaccinated, at least in some circles. That was actually sort of how I read Rizzo's statement -- that he didn't want to admit to being vaccinated.

Maybe I'm reading too much into it -- but it sure would be nice if the players who are vaccinated would be more loud and proud about it so that we could reduce the number of players who will miss games, either in Toronto or because they are not adequately protected.
 

Bertha

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In addition to short-term replacement of those who cannot legally enter Canada, does anyone have knowledge on whether those short-term replacements being optioned back to Worcester or Portland counts toward the new limited number of options? I believe it is 5 annual options per player per the new agreement.
 

jon abbey

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In addition to short-term replacement of those who cannot legally enter Canada, does anyone have knowledge on whether those short-term replacements being optioned back to Worcester or Portland counts toward the new limited number of options? I believe it is 5 annual options per player per the new agreement.
I do know that options this April don’t count against the 5 with the expanded rosters, not sure about later in the year but 5 options in 5 months is a lot.
 

Petagine in a Bottle

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I don’t believe the players called up as replacement players for those ineligible due to covid restrictions count as options- they don’t even have to be on the 40 man iirc.
 

RoDaddy

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Looks Ike the Sox are calling up Ronaldo Hernández
View: https://twitter.com/ChrisCotillo/status/1516186248913866762

More moves coming for Red Sox. Sounds like catcher Ronaldo Hernández is coming up from Worcester.
I'm pretty intrigued by Hernandez. Had a huge last few months last year if I recall and has big time power and arm. His power is perfect for Fenway. Of course he can't catch so he might just end up being the next Ryan Lavarnway but whatev, I'm glad they're giving him a shot
 

1974pawsox

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He’s choosing to make himself unavailable for some of the most important games we’ll play when he’s supposed to be the big dog at the front of our pitching staff. I haven’t been able to really care about how his recovery is going right now because I’ve adopted a mindset of “I’ll give a damn about Chris Sale when he starts to give a damn about the team.”
Substitute "Sandy Koufax" for "Chris Sale" and see whether one's opinion is any different. Like many of us, I'm old enough to remember October 1965. I'm sure that the vast majority of Dodger fans didn't share any of the inner imperatives that led Koufax to make the choices that he did then; yet he was still respected by many, many fans for his courage and his sense of conviction and his willingness to make a hard choice and to sacrifice something of importance to himself -- given the benefit of the doubt, I would say -- even though his baseball team surely suffered from the choices he made.

But we're living in a different age now, and politics and tribalism and the need to feel certainty do cloud much more of how we think, about sports stars or anything else.
 

BornToRun

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Substitute "Sandy Koufax" for "Chris Sale" and see whether one's opinion is any different. Like many of us, I'm old enough to remember October 1965. I'm sure that the vast majority of Dodger fans didn't share any of the inner imperatives that led Koufax to make the choices that he did then; yet he was still respected by many, many fans for his courage and his sense of conviction and his willingness to make a hard choice and to sacrifice something of importance to himself -- given the benefit of the doubt, I would say -- even though his baseball team surely suffered from the choices he made.

But we're living in a different age now, and politics and tribalism and the need to feel certainty do cloud much more of how we think, about sports stars or anything else.
EDIT: Koufax making a choice for religious reasons is whatever. That’s a reasoning I can understand even if I don’t share in his religious beliefs. I promise you that whatever Sale believes, he believes it for a really dumb reason because that’s the only reason there is to oppose vaccination. No excuse not to get the shot. I seriously doubt he falls into the small subset of people who legitimately shouldn’t. I’m not cutting him any slack and neither should you or anyone else. He needs to own his idiocy and own how it hurts the team.
 

lurker42

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Jul 15, 2005
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Substitute "Sandy Koufax" for "Chris Sale" and see whether one's opinion is any different. Like many of us, I'm old enough to remember October 1965. I'm sure that the vast majority of Dodger fans didn't share any of the inner imperatives that led Koufax to make the choices that he did then; yet he was still respected by many, many fans for his courage and his sense of conviction and his willingness to make a hard choice and to sacrifice something of importance to himself -- given the benefit of the doubt, I would say -- even though his baseball team surely suffered from the choices he made.

But we're living in a different age now, and politics and tribalism and the need to feel certainty do cloud much more of how we think, about sports stars or anything else.
Ok...no. This is not *remotely* equivalent. Observing Jewish holidays doesn't increase the health risks of everyone around you.

Also, Chris Sale went to public school in Florida, so he has had a minimum of 16 vaccination shots already in his life. So again, very different from being a lifelong, devout, observant Jew.

I'm a biomedical engineering professor, so I tried to be understanding of people who were vaccine-hesitant back when they were on emergency approval. But at this point anyone refusing is either a victim of misinformation/disinformation (and I use the word victim deliberately - these people have been lied to), or it's pure "you can't tell *me* what to do" oppositional behavior.
 

CaptainLaddie

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Substitute "Sandy Koufax" for "Chris Sale" and see whether one's opinion is any different. Like many of us, I'm old enough to remember October 1965. I'm sure that the vast majority of Dodger fans didn't share any of the inner imperatives that led Koufax to make the choices that he did then; yet he was still respected by many, many fans for his courage and his sense of conviction and his willingness to make a hard choice and to sacrifice something of importance to himself -- given the benefit of the doubt, I would say -- even though his baseball team surely suffered from the choices he made.

But we're living in a different age now, and politics and tribalism and the need to feel certainty do cloud much more of how we think, about sports stars or anything else.
This might be one of the dumbest takes I've ever seen.

Sitting out on the Sabbath or high holy days isn't the same as getting a (mostly entirely) harmless shot that greatly reduces the chance you get your teammates sick while also makes sure you can play games still.

No. No. No. This is best-case dumb and at worst borderline antisemitic for conflating getting vaccinated with religion. Give me a god damn break (words chosen carefully).
 

Ale Xander

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Substitute "Sandy Koufax" for "Chris Sale" and see whether one's opinion is any different. Like many of us, I'm old enough to remember October 1965. I'm sure that the vast majority of Dodger fans didn't share any of the inner imperatives that led Koufax to make the choices that he did then; yet he was still respected by many, many fans for his courage and his sense of conviction and his willingness to make a hard choice and to sacrifice something of importance to himself -- given the benefit of the doubt, I would say -- even though his baseball team surely suffered from the choices he made.

But we're living in a different age now, and politics and tribalism and the need to feel certainty do cloud much more of how we think, about sports stars or anything else.
this post is offensive and the worst kind of a false equivalency
 

CaptainLaddie

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where the darn libs live
Ok...no. This is not *remotely* equivalent. Observing Jewish holidays doesn't increase the health risks of everyone around you.

Also, Chris Sale went to public school in Florida, so he has had a minimum of 16 vaccination shots already in his life. So again, very different from being a lifelong, devout, observant Jew.

I'm a biomedical engineering professor, so I tried to be understanding of people who were vaccine-hesitant back when they were on emergency approval. But at this point anyone refusing is either a victim of misinformation/disinformation (and I use the word victim deliberately - these people have been lied to), or it's pure "you can't tell *me* what to do" oppositional behavior.
You said this far more eloquently than I. Thank you.
 

nighthob

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The exact opposite of this is also true. People want to force a vaccine on people but are quick to spout personal choice on other things. The fact that many people are having heart issues is a good reason to question the vacccine. I they work so well, If you are vaccinated why care if others aren't.
That's the reason I was advised against getting vaccinated at the present moment. I suffered a-fib as a side effect to a medication, and given that I already had both delta and omicron my doctor told me to hold off until sometime after I'd recovered from the catheter ablation. So in my case I probably won't have it until sometime next year.
 

lurker42

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That's the reason I was advised against getting vaccinated at the present moment. I suffered a-fib as a side effect to a medication, and given that I already had both delta and omicron my doctor told me to hold off until sometime after I'd recovered from the catheter ablation. So in my case I probably won't have it until sometime next year.
Ok, I don't care if this gets me banned...I'm going to do my job:

Al Becker: The incidence of heart issues is *far* more prevalent among those that catch Covid while unvaccinated than among those who are vaccinated. Vaccine side effects, in even the worst cases, are short-term and treatable. And mRNA vaccines are the best course for preventing Covid symptoms - 5x more effective than a previous infection - including myocarditis and other cardiac afflictions. [Seriously...how do Red Sox fans who watched Eduardo Rodriguez in '20-'21 not get this???] And why we care so much is because vaccines are an immune system training camp, not a magical force field. So unvaccinated people carry a higher viral load, and are contagious for a longer period of time, both of which mean that when an unvaccinated person coughs on a vaccinated person we're more likely to experience a breakthrough infection. So take care of the people around you and go get your shots, yeah?

Nighthob: I am a Ph.D., not an M.D., but based on my knowledge and the short blurb you posted, you are getting bad advice. As a scientist I have to use what we call "weasel words", based on statistical probability: unless you had a full genome breakdown, when you say you had both Delta and Omicron the reality is that if you tested positive for Covid in Spring/Summer '21 it is statistically likely that you caught Delta, and if you tested positive in Winter '21/'22 it is statistically likely that you caught Omicron. But neither of these are certainties, and even if you did actually catch both, the protection is only about 20% as strong as an mRNA vaccine, and only lasts about 90 days. The only real medical reason to decline the vaccine is an allergy to one of the ingredients, but given the variety of vaccines available you should be able to find one that works for you based on your allergy history (my old college roommate is allergic to *everything*, and reacted to his first Pfizer shot with an elevated heart rate. So he got Moderna for his second shot and booster...smooth sailing).

I really mean it when I say most people who are refusing vaccinations are victims: these people have been lied to. Lied to by their government, by their news anchor, or by whatever information source is feeding them misinformation/disinformation. But it doesn't change the fact that these peoples' poor decisions mean Covid is still killing hundreds more people per day than it would otherwise.
 
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nighthob

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My doctor merely advised against it until I’m fully recovered from the ablation. I literally haven’t had the opportunity because my delta and omicron cases happened in the last year (first was winter of 20-21 and the second the fall of ‘21). By the time I was over them a-fib set in and treating that became the primary focus. I have an exceptionally cautious doctor and he didn’t want to run any unnecessary risks. It’s not like I leave the house (pretty much only for medical appointments and always masked) and put other people at risk. I work from home, shop online, and have pretty much only seen medical personnel, delivery people, and my brother in the last year.
 

Mr. Stinky Esq.

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Once Story settles in we'll start seeing some SBs out of him. He's only been on base 9 times so far. I doubt he'll steal 20 like he did last year since the Sox seem conservative on the basepaths but he'll get some.
 

Petagine in a Bottle

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Given that Christian Vasquez led the team last year with 8 and they only had 40 as a team is this really surprising?
Not really, more than anything I think it shows that many teams just don’t even bother attempting SB’s anymore, a reflection of how quickly the game has changed. Hell, the 18 team stole 125 bases.
 

ookami7m

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Not really, more than anything I think it shows that many teams just don’t even bother attempting SB’s anymore, a reflection of how quickly the game has changed. Hell, the 18 team stole 125 bases.
I'd be willing to bet that Benintendi (21 steals in 18) and Betts(30) are a good bit faster than anyone on the team this year.
 

YTF

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Once Story settles in we'll start seeing some SBs out of him. He's only been on base 9 times so far. I doubt he'll steal 20 like he did last year since the Sox seem conservative on the basepaths but he'll get some.
Hopefully we don't revisit that trend this season, but if guys start running into avoidable outs on the bases AC will tell us how they want to be aggressive on the base paths.
 

Minneapolis Millers

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I’m in the middle ground here. If we steal, I want it at about an 80% success rate. But I don’t think we steal enough. Putting pressure on the pitcher and defense has value.
 

YTF

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I’m in the middle ground here. If we steal, I want it at about an 80% success rate. But I don’t think we steal enough. Putting pressure on the pitcher and defense has value.
I'm with you, but I think you can do that at times with the actual steal. The key is to make this a part of your daily game prep and utilize the players best suited for it. Almost like a simulated game with coaches calling out different situations with runners on base. They probably do that already, but I know these past few seasons (to my eye at least) the team seemed to run into a lot of unnecessary outs. Perhaps former 1st base coach/running coach Tom Godwin's departure will bring some improvement.
 

Eddie Bressoud

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Tom Goodwin had 369 stolen bases in his career. Why would his departure from the staff bring improvement to the Sox stolen base numbers?
 

gruberj

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Hello all - long time lurker, first time poster!

I was wondering why there isn't more discussion of our offensive woes. Everyone was worried about pitching coming in but figured the offense would be no problem - there was indeed genuine excitement about our having one of the majors top offenses. After last night our OPS is 18th in the league. SSS and all, I understand, but is there anything real here to discuss?
 

Red(s)HawksFan

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Hello all - long time lurker, first time poster!

I was wondering why there isn't more discussion of our offensive woes. Everyone was worried about pitching coming in but figured the offense would be no problem - there was indeed genuine excitement about our having one of the majors top offenses. After last night our OPS is 18th in the league. SSS and all, I understand, but is there anything real here to discuss?
Not really. Unless we believe that Dalbec, Vazquez, Kike, and Story are all permanently .600 OPS (or less) guys, the offense is going to come around eventually. SSS, varying game times, all cold(ish) games so far. Tough to get into any kind of a groove. Weird as it sounds, they might benefit from a week of playing indoors at St. Pete and Toronto.
 

Lose Remerswaal

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Not really. Unless we believe that Dalbec, Vazquez, Kike, and Story are all permanently .600 OPS (or less) guys, the offense is going to come around eventually. SSS, varying game times, all cold(ish) games so far. Tough to get into any kind of a groove. Weird as it sounds, they might benefit from a week of playing indoors at St. Pete and Toronto.
I agree with this. When the weather heats up we will have plenty of 9-7 games with threads complaining about the pitching and how anyone ever thought a group of no name relievers could form a successful bullpen
 

Rovin Romine

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Not really. Unless we believe that Dalbec, Vazquez, Kike, and Story are all permanently .600 OPS (or less) guys, the offense is going to come around eventually. SSS, varying game times, all cold(ish) games so far. Tough to get into any kind of a groove. Weird as it sounds, they might benefit from a week of playing indoors at St. Pete and Toronto.
There was also the strike and shortened spring training. I tend to think that all the clubs will be "up to speed" during the peak of the season - and so two places to pick up an extra win or two are early on against an unready opponent, or later in the season against a team that's already folded. While both are dependent on the luck of the schedule, the extent to which the Sox could (or couldn't) get key players optimally ready during spring training was truncated this year.
 

Sandy Leon Trotsky

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I think there could be a reasonable concern that JD, Kiké all overperformed last season, X could be trending downwards, etc….
But generally I’m not too worried
 

Lose Remerswaal

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I think there could be a reasonable concern that JD, Kiké all overperformed last season, X could be trending downwards, etc….
But generally I’m not too worried
Kiké , maybe. JD had an average JD season, other than the doubles, maybe a shade below his average, so not sure how you can say he overperformed. Xander has an injury this year. And it's 12 games in.
 

EricFeczko

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Hello all - long time lurker, first time poster!

I was wondering why there isn't more discussion of our offensive woes. Everyone was worried about pitching coming in but figured the offense would be no problem - there was indeed genuine excitement about our having one of the majors top offenses. After last night our OPS is 18th in the league. SSS and all, I understand, but is there anything real here to discuss?
If one is focused on SSS, then the starting pitching is absolutely the place to start and end:

Sale or no Sale, the red sox collectively (per Fangraphs) have performed as one of the worst assembled groups of starters in MLB -- the best metrics would have them tied for 16th in innings pitched and strikeout rate:
12 games
11 HRs (29th)
1.84 HR/9 (29th)
53.2 IP (16th)
21.6% K (16th)
11% BB (25th)
10.6% K-BB (22nd)
5.04 ERA (23rd)
5.40 FIP (30th)
4.28 xFIP (23rd)
-0.2 fWAR (29th)
-0.3 bWAR (18th)
The best ptichers have been Wacha (0.5 bWAR, 0.2 fWAR) and Houck (0.1 fWAR, 0.2 bWAR) -- Eovaldi has been ok (-0.1 fWAR, 0.2 bWAR), while Hill and Pivetta have been disasters.
Paxton and Sale might help by knocking out Pivetta and Hill, but that depends on both regaining effectiveness (and therefore some luck).

The problems with the offense primarily lie with vazquez, Story, and Dalbec. Story is likely to rebound, while Casas is a perfect replacement for Dalbec and looks to be ready this year -- assuming we can deal Dalbec for something and the red sox don't mind starting Triston's clock when he's 22. As for Vazquez, we'll have to see if Wong or Hernandez may be ready -- though I'm not sure either will be ready this year.

OTOH
Much more concerned about Pivetta.
Sale and Paxton being healthy to start the season would not have resolved the problems with Pivetta, nor rescued 3 of the 6 losses incurred. Furthermore, the starters haven't been asked to do very much and are barely making it to 5 innings a game. I don't think this team can compete with Pivetta starting and pitching like this.
 
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nvalvo

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I'd be willing to bet that Benintendi (21 steals in 18) and Betts(30) are a good bit faster than anyone on the team this year.
Trevor Story's statcast sprint speed clocks in at 29.4 ft/sec, which puts him around 50th in baseball; Betts clocks in at 27.9, Benintendi at 27.8. The fastest guys (Buxton, Locastro, etc.) clock in just shy of 31 ft/second.

Obviously those top speeds don't tell the whole story. Betts' is a small dude by baseball standards, so his top speed is capped by his stride length, but acceleration is probably more important for what we care about — outfield jumps, baserunning, etc. Statcast has Dalbec a tic faster than Betts at 28.0, but no one really thinks Dalbec has more usable baseball speed than Betts: he just has long legs and thus a high top speed. (Wringing the maximum on-field performance out of limited physical tools is basically Mookie Betts' whole deal.)

So while top speed clearly doesn't tell the whole story, I still think Story might have the kind of athleticism and fast-twitch explosiveness that converts his high-end sprint speed into useful baseball speed. Let's let him get past his food poisoning and new paternity and see where things settle in.
 

gruberj

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thanks all for the kind of thoughtful responses that make this board one my favorite stops (many times) every day!
 

Heating up in the bullpen

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Quiz time. Try to match the StatCast batting lines with the Standard/Advanced Batting lines. Bonus points if you can name the players.

. . . . Exit Velocity (MPH) . . . Distance (ft) . Hard Hit . . Barrels . .
Player Batted Ball Events (BBE) Launch Angle (°) Sweet Spot % Max Avg On Fly Balls/ Line Drives On Ground Balls Max Avg 95 MPH+ % % of Swings # Brls/ BBE Brls/ PA%
A 32 21.5 21.9 108.3 89.2 92.2 86.8 391 177 15 46.9 16.0 4 12.5 8.3
B 31 11.4 35.5 110.2 86.7 93.5 79.0 413 164 8 25.8 7.4 4 12.9 8.3
C 51 6.9 27.5 109.4 89.5 95.0 87.6 382 143 26 51.0 22.2 6 11.8 9.8
Player AB BABIP H 2B 3B HR BB K BA OBP SLG OPS LD% GB% FB%
D 41 0.333 11 5 0 1 5 11 0.268 0.354 0.463 0.818 16.1 45.2 35.5
E 55 0.298 16 4 0 2 2 6 0.291 0.316 0.473 0.789 18.4 49.0 24.5
F 40 0.222 7 1 0 1 3 12 0.175 0.250 0.275 0.525 14.3 32.1 39.3




. . . . Exit Velocity (MPH) . . . Distance (ft) . Hard Hit . . Barrels . .
Player Batted Ball Events (BBE) Launch Angle (°) Sweet Spot % Max Avg On Fly Balls/ Line Drives On Ground Balls Max Avg 95 MPH+ % % of Swings # Brls/ BBE Brls/ PA%
Dalbec 32 21.5 21.9 108.3 89.2 92.2 86.8 391 177 15 46.9 16.0 4 12.5 8.3
JDM 31 11.4 35.5 110.2 86.7 93.5 79.0 413 164 8 25.8 7.4 4 12.9 8.3
Devers 51 6.9 27.5 109.4 89.5 95.0 87.6 382 143 26 51.0 22.2 6 11.8 9.8
Player AB BABIP H 2B 3B HR BB K BA OBP SLG OPS LD% GB% FB%
JDM 41 0.333 11 5 0 1 5 11 0.268 0.354 0.463 0.818 16.1 45.2 35.5
Devers 55 0.298 16 4 0 2 2 6 0.291 0.316 0.473 0.789 18.4 49.0 24.5
Dalbec 40 0.222 7 1 0 1 3 12 0.175 0.250 0.275 0.525 14.3 32.1 39.3

The point of the exercise is to think about what's wrong with Bobby D.
His exit velocity is right there with JD and Devers, and his hard hit percentage isn't far behind Devers and is almost double JD's. He's getting barrels at similar rates. His groundball rate is lower and his flyball rate higher than both of them, though his line drive rate is slightly lower than both. His launch angle is higher and his Sweet Spot (balls hit with a launch angle between 8 and 32 degrees) percentage is lower. In fact, among hitters with a minimum of 25 BBEs for the season, his Sweet Spot % is the 18th lowest (out of 217).

Certainly small sample sizes are at play here. And we know that Bobby D can look really bad at the plate for long stretches. I'm just curious if there's anything in these numbers that tell a story. Too many fly balls, combined with cold weather and more loosely stitched (and humidor treated) baseballs?

(Edited for table formatting)
 
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Sandy Leon Trotsky

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Quiz time. Try to match the StatCast batting lines with the Standard/Advanced Batting lines. Bonus points if you can name the players.

. . . . Exit Velocity (MPH) . . . Distance (ft) . Hard Hit . . Barrels . .
Player Batted Ball Events (BBE) Launch Angle (°) Sweet Spot % Max Avg On Fly Balls/ Line Drives On Ground Balls Max Avg 95 MPH+ % % of Swings # Brls/ BBE Brls/ PA%
A 32 21.5 21.9 108.3 89.2 92.2 86.8 391 177 15 46.9 16.0 4 12.5 8.3
B 31 11.4 35.5 110.2 86.7 93.5 79.0 413 164 8 25.8 7.4 4 12.9 8.3
C 51 6.9 27.5 109.4 89.5 95.0 87.6 382 143 26 51.0 22.2 6 11.8 9.8
Player AB BABIP H 2B 3B HR BB K BA OBP SLG OPS LD% GB% FB%
D 41 0.333 11 5 0 1 5 11 0.268 0.354 0.463 0.818 16.1 45.2 35.5
E 55 0.298 16 4 0 2 2 6 0.291 0.316 0.473 0.789 18.4 49.0 24.5
F 40 0.222 7 1 0 1 3 12 0.175 0.250 0.275 0.525 14.3 32.1 39.3




. . . . Exit Velocity (MPH) . . . Distance (ft) . Hard Hit . . Barrels . .
Player Batted Ball Events (BBE) Launch Angle (°) Sweet Spot % Max Avg On Fly Balls/ Line Drives On Ground Balls Max Avg 95 MPH+ % % of Swings # Brls/ BBE Brls/ PA%
Dalbec 32 21.5 21.9 108.3 89.2 92.2 86.8 391 177 15 46.9 16.0 4 12.5 8.3
JDM 31 11.4 35.5 110.2 86.7 93.5 79.0 413 164 8 25.8 7.4 4 12.9 8.3
Devers 51 6.9 27.5 109.4 89.5 95.0 87.6 382 143 26 51.0 22.2 6 11.8 9.8
Player AB BABIP H 2B 3B HR BB K BA OBP SLG OPS LD% GB% FB%
JDM 41 0.333 11 5 0 1 5 11 0.268 0.354 0.463 0.818 16.1 45.2 35.5
Devers 55 0.298 16 4 0 2 2 6 0.291 0.316 0.473 0.789 18.4 49.0 24.5
Dalbec 40 0.222 7 1 0 1 3 12 0.175 0.250 0.275 0.525 14.3 32.1 39.3

The point of the exercise is to think about what's wrong with Bobby D.
His exit velocity is right there with JD and Devers, and his hard hit percentage isn't far behind Devers and is almost double JD's. He's getting barrels at similar rates. His groundball rate is lower and his flyball rate higher than both of them, though his line drive rate is slightly lower than both. His launch angle is higher and his Sweet Spot (balls hit with a launch angle between 8 and 32 degrees) percentage is lower. In fact, among hitters with a minimum of 25 BBEs for the season, his Sweet Spot % is the 18th lowest (out of 217).

Certainly small sample sizes are at play here. And we know that Bobby D can look really bad at the plate for long stretches. I'm just curious if there's anything in these numbers that tell a story. Too many fly balls, combined with cold weather and more loosely stitched (and humidor treated) baseballs?

(Edited for table formatting)
didn’t he have an insane low BABiP up until late July last season also?
 

GB5

New Member
Aug 26, 2013
675
The frustrating thing for us Bobby D devotees is that he has done a much better job with the strikeouts. Obviously it’s only a two week sample but if you told me he was going to keep the K rate at 25% and Improving with how well he generally impacts the ball when he hits it, I would have been convinced that we would have seen dramatic improvement from him.
 

uk_sox_fan

Member
SoSH Member
Nov 11, 2006
1,273
London, England
The exact opposite of this is also true. People want to force a vaccine on people but are quick to spout personal choice on other things. The fact that many people are having heart issues is a good reason to question the vacccine. I they work so well, If you are vaccinated why care if others aren't.
It’s amazing to me how many people don’t understand this. A vaccine boosts your immunity - it makes it less likely for you to catch a disease if you’re exposed to it. But it’s not 100% effective for any individual- that’s true for all vaccines. But if a critical percentage of the population gets the vaccine the odds that you’re exposed to the disease plummets so the combination of being more resistant and less likely to be exposed effectively eliminates the threat.

So the question of “if you are vaccinated why care if others aren't?” is silly. You care because you don’t want to get sick. You care because many people in society (maybe yourself) are vulnerable and can’t afford to take the chance that younger, less vulnerable people who don’t give a fuck about anyone but themselves are putting your life and/or long term health in jeopardy. You care because when celebrities use their platform to question public policy designed to protect the vulnerable it encourages other self-centered fucks to do the same and everyone loses.

Is it really that difficult a concept to grasp?