Steven Wright- ace up the sleeve... Amiright?!?!?

czar

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Wright's ERA since his last start of June stands at 5.59, and that's slightly misleading since all but two of his 7 UER appear to be due to passed balls (which should at least be like "half-earned runs" since they are specific to the knuckleball). He's 5-2 over that time period but with a massively negative WPA. His issues allowing runs have been masked by run support of ~7 runs per game, but his stretch right now is only slightly less terrible than Buchholz's was at the beginning of the year. I think we're getting past the point of "it's hot and/or raining when he sucks" and closer to "maybe outperforming his peripherals by THAT much in April/May wasn't a skill."

Is it in the team's best interest to try and see if Buchholz can go on a Cy Buchholz run from here until the end of the season? Outside of the 1st half of this year, Wright's career indicates he's Wakefield lite -- plenty valuable as an inning-eating back-of-the-rotation type, but also someone who won't be tremendously useful in the playoffs barring injuries to any of the other SP (which would probably torpedo the season anyways).

I know it's blasphemy to suggest yanking an "all-star SP" but this season is pretty much mirroring Wakefield's 2009 at this point.
 

Sampo Gida

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With cooler weather looming, I would not give up on Wright yet. The worry is that his shoulder is not 100% , but only the team and player know if it is not. So assuming health, I'd keep running Wright out there, albeit with a shorter leash. With call ups on Friday, that should not be a problem.
 

E5 Yaz

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Two starts since coming back from his shoulder injury, Steven Wright said there are "still some lingering effects definitely going on." Like what? "It's just been off," Wright said. "It was hard for me to throw a pitch with conviction. A little bit is trusting the arm to make sure that it's good. It feels OK."
 

joe dokes

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Is it in the team's best interest to try and see if Buchholz can go on a Cy Buchholz run from here until the end of the season? Outside of the 1st half of this year, Wright's career indicates he's Wakefield lite -- plenty valuable as an inning-eating back-of-the-rotation type, but also someone who won't be tremendously useful in the playoffs barring injuries to any of the other SP (which would probably torpedo the season anyways).

I know it's blasphemy to suggest yanking an "all-star SP" but this season is pretty much mirroring Wakefield's 2009 at this point.
It's not that far-fetched. I'd like to think they're discussing it, because it would have be a move made soon, while Buchholz can still be counted on to throw a starter's worth of pitches.
 

Zososoxfan

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Scott Lauber ESPN Staff Writer
Two starts since coming back from his shoulder injury, Steven Wright said there are "still some lingering effects definitely going on." Like what? "It's just been off," Wright said. "It was hard for me to throw a pitch with conviction. A little bit is trusting the arm to make sure that it's good. It feels OK."
It's not that far-fetched. I'd like to think they're discussing it, because it would have be a move made soon, while Buchholz can still be counted on to throw a starter's worth of pitches.
Exactly, why the team would allow him to rush back as Buch was [starting] pitching well is baffling.
 

Al Zarilla

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Scott Lauber ESPN Staff Writer
Two starts since coming back from his shoulder injury, Steven Wright said there are "still some lingering effects definitely going on." Like what? "It's just been off," Wright said. "It was hard for me to throw a pitch with conviction. A little bit is trusting the arm to make sure that it's good. It feels OK."
I heard him say that on post game. It may be just me but he sounded like he wasn't sure he should say anything because "it's making excuses". Or, maybe he's afraid to indict his manager for the pinch base running fiasco.
 

YTF

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It's not that far-fetched. I'd like to think they're discussing it, because it would have be a move made soon, while Buchholz can still be counted on to throw a starter's worth of pitches.
Exactly, why the team would allow him to rush back as Buch was [starting] pitching well is baffling.
I heard him say that on post game. It may be just me but he sounded like he wasn't sure he should say anything because "it's making excuses". Or, maybe he's afraid to indict his manager for the pinch base running fiasco.
With all of this and the dumpster fire that is the Sox bullpen, the managing of said dumpster fire and questions as to whether or not JF goes too long with starters, I'm wondering if Farrell should start sitting during The National Anthem if only to divert the attention and conversation from the pitching staff.
 
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SouthernBoSox

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Two starts since coming back from his shoulder injury, Steven Wright said there are "still some lingering effects definitely going on." Like what? "It's just been off," Wright said. "It was hard for me to throw a pitch with conviction. A little bit is trusting the arm to make sure that it's good. It feels OK."
I have made this observation in the game threads in both his starts. The knuckle ball just isn't being thrown with conviction. He's "guiding" the ball trying to manipulate movement rather than throwing the ball with strong arm speed and purpose. It's impossible to be successful like that throwing a knuckle ball.

He doesn't have his fastball at all either. Which was actually big part of his success. I'd be interested in seeing his velocity charts.... because I bet he's lost 5-6 MPH.

If he were a normal pitcher we'd be saying how this just isn't right.

I think they are doing him a disservice.
 

Byrdbrain

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I heard him say that on post game. It may be just me but he sounded like he wasn't sure he should say anything because "it's making excuses". Or, maybe he's afraid to indict his manager for the pinch base running fiasco.
Or maybe he was making excuses.
As has been pointed out he hasn't been very good for a couple of months now, long before he was asked to do a very simple baseball task.
 

czar

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With cooler weather looming, I would not give up on Wright yet. The worry is that his shoulder is not 100% , but only the team and player know if it is not. So assuming health, I'd keep running Wright out there, albeit with a shorter leash. With call ups on Friday, that should not be a problem.
But do we have any evidence that Wright is actually good in cooler weather? His FIPs last April and May were 7.13 and 4.99.

When he started sucking, there was a lot of "well, it's hot and he's sweaty" and "well, it's rainy and he can't get a grip" to explain his poor pitching. But the longer this stretch of "eh" pitching goes on (it was pretty cool and dry at Fenway today), the less I'm inclined to believe that's a driving force.

He was ~5.00 FIP pitcher last year. He has been ~5.00 FIP pitcher for the last ~2 months now. Even if you believe there's some knuckleball skill to minimizing HR/hard contact and his ERA ~0.5 less than his FIP, a 4.50 ERA moving forward isn't ideal. Over the course of a full season that's plenty valuable (see Wakefield's utility as a #4/5 inning eater), but the Red Sox are now in a position where they should be A) maximizing their stretch run expected wins and B) thinking about who'd be in a playoff rotation/on the roster should they make it there. I think a 4.50 ERA that chews up innings is less valuable in both cases, particularly with expanded rosters.

My guess is, there's something like a 20% chance Buchholz is worse than that, a 60% chance he's equal or marginally better than that, and a 20% chance he's much better than that. And (historically) Wright's "upside" isn't Buchholz "upside" over small stretches of games.

All of this is ignoring his comments re: his shoulder still possibly being an issue, which isn't exactly a vote of confidence.
 

Sandy Leon Trotsky

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Sadly with any knuckleball pitcher, we have to assume that a dominant stretch is just a lucky dominant stretch. I'd love for him to be the ace he appeared to be but he's more likely to be a good back of the rotation innings eating guy who can have stretches of dominance and stretches of awfulness- resulting somewhere around a 4.50 ERA on a season. Very valuable, but probably not someone you want in a playoff rotation. On a playoff roster? Yes. But if he's feeling the slightest bit of discomfort, why the crap was he put back in when Clay was pitching well? I know the bullpen is a disaster and there is/was some hope that Clay could provide some help there.....
Either way. His long term outlook should always be as the no. 6 guy in a rotation-long relief man. That's how he was viewed to start the season and when EdRod went down he ended up getting a shot. Thankfully he thrived enough to keep the Sox from falling far down the standings. Without him the first half we'd be looking up at the Yankees and possibly the Rays.
 

Plympton91

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I have always been baffled by the way this team manages injuries. If they put Wright back out there while he was still hurt even though Buchholz had made two high quality starts and Kelly could have come up to fortify the bullpen if Wright stayed on the DL, I just don't know what to say at all.

That doesn't make any sense to me.
 

tonyarmasjr

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As has also been pointed out, he's not a ballplayer, he's a pitcher.
This is such a tired argument. These guys train their bodies 250-300 days a year to perform athletic tasks. No. they're not all athletic freaks, so I wouldn't expect Steven Wright to run a 4.5 40 yard dash or tag from third on a shallow fly to left. But, I'm an out of shape 35 year old who hasn't worked out in months, and I would expect I could run around the bases and not hurt myself. Hell, I could even slide or dive once or twice and I bet I'd be fine! Argue the merits of pinch running an asset as valuable as Wright's right arm all you want, but this point just doesn't hold any water. This wasn't asking Tom Brady to return kickoffs, it was asking an athlete to run around the bases.

On second glance, this may not be directed at you...the point still stands,
 

SpaceMan37

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But do we have any evidence that Wright is actually good in cooler weather? His FIPs last April and May were 7.13 and 4.99.

When he started sucking, there was a lot of "well, it's hot and he's sweaty" and "well, it's rainy and he can't get a grip" to explain his poor pitching. But the longer this stretch of "eh" pitching goes on (it was pretty cool and dry at Fenway today), the less I'm inclined to believe that's a driving force.

He was ~5.00 FIP pitcher last year. He has been ~5.00 FIP pitcher for the last ~2 months now. Even if you believe there's some knuckleball skill to minimizing HR/hard contact and his ERA ~0.5 less than his FIP, a 4.50 ERA moving forward isn't ideal. Over the course of a full season that's plenty valuable (see Wakefield's utility as a #4/5 inning eater), but the Red Sox are now in a position where they should be A) maximizing their stretch run expected wins and B) thinking about who'd be in a playoff rotation/on the roster should they make it there. I think a 4.50 ERA that chews up innings is less valuable in both cases, particularly with expanded rosters.

My guess is, there's something like a 20% chance Buchholz is worse than that, a 60% chance he's equal or marginally better than that, and a 20% chance he's much better than that. And (historically) Wright's "upside" isn't Buchholz "upside" over small stretches of games.

All of this is ignoring his comments re: his shoulder still possibly being an issue, which isn't exactly a vote of confidence.
The only point I wanted to make on this is that knuckleball pitchers break FIP stats. They pretty much always beat their FIP because of a real weak contact skill.

There really isn't much luck involved with them. A well thrown knuckleball is about impossible for even the best hitters in baseball to hit. The issue is what happens on the not well thrown ones.
 

scotian1

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His interview yesterday seemed to me to reveal an individual who believes that he is still not right physically. Whether this is true or if he mentally does not trust himself who knows but it certainly revealed that he does not trust himself at present. Does he need to come out of the rotation until his head is right? I suggest he should.
 

czar

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The only point I wanted to make on this is that knuckleball pitchers break FIP stats. They pretty much always beat their FIP because of a real weak contact skill.

There really isn't much luck involved with them. A well thrown knuckleball is about impossible for even the best hitters in baseball to hit. The issue is what happens on the not well thrown ones.
Maybe you missed my "even if you believe there's some knuckleball skill to minimizing HR/hard contact and his ERA ~0.5 less than his FIP."

FWIW, just scanning career #s, -- 0.30ish (for a FIP-ERA split) seems to be a reasonable guess for knuckleballers, although the sample size of pitchers (Dickey, Wakefield, Sparks, etc.) who pitched in the last 15 years is pretty small.

But even if you give Wright ~0.50 (generous) on a 5.00 FIP, that's not really something too useful to this particular team down the stretch. Maybe he'll go on another April/May run where he can massively suppress his BABIP (beyond even "normal" for a knuckleballer) but I'm not sure we can bank on that.
 

SumnerH

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Maybe you missed my "even if you believe there's some knuckleball skill to minimizing HR/hard contact and his ERA ~0.5 less than his FIP."

FWIW, just scanning career #s, -- 0.30ish (for a FIP-ERA split) seems to be a reasonable guess for knuckleballers, although the sample size of pitchers (Dickey, Wakefield, Sparks, etc.) who pitched in the last 15 years is pretty small.

But even if you give Wright ~0.50 (generous) on a 5.00 FIP, that's not really something too useful to this particular team down the stretch. Maybe he'll go on another April/May run where he can massively suppress his BABIP (beyond even "normal" for a knuckleballer) but I'm not sure we can bank on that.
Voros McCracken (developer of DIPS) ran the numbers on H/BIP and found that to be in the .010 range.

Tom Tippet has some cool commentary on the subject (his IPavg is essentially BABIP) here including career graphs for Wakefield, Charlie Hough, and Phil Niekro.
 

SpaceMan37

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I really don't think there's a standard # you can apply to all knuckleball pitchers. I would bet that beating FIP is much higher on perfectly thrown knuckleballs and equal or worse on non-perfect ones. How can you possibly know which ones are perfect and which aren't though? And how do you know the frequency of perfect/non-perfect ones? I have to imagine that it changes greatly between different knuckleball pitchers and also the same one based on losing mechanics, weather factors, etc.

They are so different from regular pitchers that they break advanced stats. I'll say this 100 times. If you threw the most perfect knuckleball to the best hitter in history for an entire career, that hitter would be terrible. You cannot say that about any other pitchers.
 

jerry casale

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I just don't understand why Farrell is getting a pass here. Why in the world would he send in a 32 year old, somewhat fat, starting pitcher to pinch run. Wright's last start before the DL was a 3 hit, CG shutout, now he's "not right". Unbelievable!!!
 

SpaceMan37

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How would you do at diving back to a base to, say, avoid a pickoff?
I wouldn't be off the base that far, but that's on Wright's lack of experience. Farrell should have told him to just stand next to the base and listen to the coaches so he didn't have to dive anywhere.
 

SumnerH

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I really don't think there's a standard # you can apply to all knuckleball pitchers. I would bet that beating FIP is much higher on perfectly thrown knuckleballs and equal or worse on non-perfect ones. How can you possibly know which ones are perfect and which aren't though? And how do you know the frequency of perfect/non-perfect ones? I have to imagine that it changes greatly between different knuckleball pitchers and also the same one based on losing mechanics, weather factors, etc.
Sure, but there's still value in looking at the spread: if the historical range across knucklers from Steve Sparks to Charlie Hough is about -.005 to -.025, then you can be skeptical if someone claims that a new pitcher is -.075 (or whatever).

They are so different from regular pitchers that they break advanced stats. I'll say this 100 times. If you threw the most perfect knuckleball to the best hitter in history for an entire career, that hitter would be terrible. You cannot say that about any other pitchers.
Mariano Rivera disagrees.
 

Byrdbrain

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I'm so excited that we have a member of Devo on the board, "Girl You Want" is a great song. Sorry about your brother, he died way too young.
I started writing a real response regarding exhuming the dead horse to beat it some more but then I realized it was a troll account.
I do mean what I said about Devo though, loved those guys.
 

SpaceMan37

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Sure, but there's still value in looking at the spread: if the historical range across knucklers from Steve Sparks to Charlie Hough is about -.005 to -.025, then you can be skeptical if someone claims that a new pitcher is -.075 (or whatever).



Mariano Rivera disagrees.
Fair enough. Relief pitchers are a different category. Lots of them have a low BABIP skill because they only face batters once a game.
 

Zososoxfan

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Look at the bullpen for the last month. I don't think it's that baffling.
Robbing Peter to pay Paul. Farrell had to choose to drop Buch, Wright, or EdRo into the BP and I think most would agree that he should've kept the best starters as starters and drop the weakest one to the BP. At that time and with the roll Clay was on, I think there's a strong case to made that either Wright or EdRo should've been shuffled to the pen. In fact, Wright likely has the ability to pitch more frequently and more innings than the others, which would've been a real asset to this pen too.
 

Byrdbrain

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An argument could have been made for going in multiple directions, I don't think putting Wright back in the rotation right away was a bad call with the info at hand but it needs to be evaluated now. If he goes on Tuesday and stinks again then they probably need to seriously consider pulling him from the rotation.
There wasn't a huge outcry at the time the decision was made that Clay needed to stay in the rotation, there was some discussion but it was far from a consensus.
I'm not a huge fan of knuckleballers in general but I really hate them coming out of the bullpen. I don't recall anyone saying that Wright should go to the bullpen though I certainly could be wrong about that.
 

SpaceMan37

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Considering that Wright said he still doesn't feel right, he should still be on the DL with Buchholz in the rotation while he was pitching great. Now, who knows what he'd be like putting him back as a starter?

This could be one of the biggest mistakes of the year.
 

Byrdbrain

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If he had said that before he came back then he wouldn't have been put back in to pitch. There is no chance he gets activated and put in to start if he told the medical staff there was still something wrong with him.
 

Al Zarilla

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I just don't understand why Farrell is getting a pass here. Why in the world would he send in a 32 year old, somewhat fat, starting pitcher to pinch run. Wright's last start before the DL was a 3 hit, CG shutout, now he's "not right". Unbelievable!!!
There have been plenty of negative comments made here about the move Farrell made to pinch run with Wright, and with a lot of his other moves. After a while though, it's like what good can it do, broken record, etc. When he put him in to run, I was shocked. As said above, he's even somewhat fat. Anybody see any other cases in the majors of a Starting Pitcher/any pitcher being put in to pinch run this year? How would you look that up?
 

Byrdbrain

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There have been a number of starting pitchers who have pinch run this year, if I recall none of those pitchers were in the AL however. This was discussed when the horse was still on life support and not two weeks dead, I assume it is in the "Fire Farrell" thread.
The account you responded to is a troll FYI, a guitar player for Devo who is a new member using his first post to complain that no one has said anything about a subject that has been discussed to death.
 

Drek717

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He was ~5.00 FIP pitcher last year. He has been ~5.00 FIP pitcher for the last ~2 months now. Even if you believe there's some knuckleball skill to minimizing HR/hard contact and his ERA ~0.5 less than his FIP, a 4.50 ERA moving forward isn't ideal. Over the course of a full season that's plenty valuable (see Wakefield's utility as a #4/5 inning eater), but the Red Sox are now in a position where they should be A) maximizing their stretch run expected wins and B) thinking about who'd be in a playoff rotation/on the roster should they make it there. I think a 4.50 ERA that chews up innings is less valuable in both cases, particularly with expanded rosters.
First, I'd say just taking an aggregate over the last two months, which includes two post-injury starts where he clearly isn't right and a big hole punched in it from the proceeding DL stint is mining stats in an attempt to prove a point.

Second, it ignores the fact that pre-injury he had one start where he got blown up by Detroit (allowed two runs in the first two innings, then two scoreless frames before giving up another four before getting out of the fifth) and outside of that he had three non-quality starts in that time period, a 5 inning 3 run outing (so one IP shy but in the ER category), a 5 inning start against the Angels where he went five scoreless before giving up 4 in the 6th (on a grand slam) and a six inning start against Texas where he allowed one in the 2nd, two in the 6th (ending that inning at the exact definition of "quality start"), and then three in the 7th. In both cases those big innings ended with the Sox still ahead and were up big heading into those big innings. In most other scenarios the starter gets pulled before even having the opportunity to give up those kinds of single innings totals.

The rest of his starts in that time period were 6 innings - 3 runs, 8 innings - 1 run, and 9 innings - 0 runs.

You base this magic 5.00 FIP pitcher suggestion off of a 72 inning workload riding the shuttle last year while ignoring about 35 innings of ML work that predated it, all of his AAA numbers, and the roughly 100 IPs of ML level work he put up prior to June just this year.

Also, His HR/FB rate was 12.2% last season while this year it's 7.1%. Both are on the extreme fringe of what analysis suggests is the sustainable range for a pitcher, so hanging your hat on the 2015 numbers while citing HR/FB suppression is pretty fucking goofy. It's even more questionable when those big innings that came in July were frequently tied to giving up home runs with men on base (often from HBPs and walks, a real wart that accompanies any knuckleballer).

If instead we just throw all of this into a pot and take his ML aggregate numbers you probably wind up with a far more realistic representation of Steven Wright than what you are suggesting: 3.58 ERA, 4.03 FIP, 8.9% HR/FB, 7.2 K/9, 3.3 BB/9 pitcher. A guy you really like as your third best starter and would be content with as your #2.

My guess is, there's something like a 20% chance Buchholz is worse than that, a 60% chance he's equal or marginally better than that, and a 20% chance he's much better than that. And (historically) Wright's "upside" isn't Buchholz "upside" over small stretches of games.
So a guy who, in 110 innings of work this year, has an ERA of 5.20 and a near perfect FIP match of 5.28 is only a 20% chance to be worse than a guy with a 3.33 ERA and 3.76 FIP over 156 innings this year as well? Like all things originating from someone's ass these numbers are shit. Buchholz had three starts of 4.1 innings - 3 runs, 6.1 innings - 1 run, 6 innings - 1 run and now suddenly people want to crown him. Lets just ignore that he's given up runs in two of his last three relief appearances.

Also, what Steven Wright did for this club from the start of the year through June was about as good a stretch as Buchholz has ever done with one brief flash in 2013 as the only exception. Hell, if we define small stretches as just a handful of games Wright has had equal or better flashes within 2016 to anything Buchholz did in 2013. Like May 18th to June 20th when his starts were:
8 innings - 3 runs
7 innings - 2 runs
9 innings - 2 runs
5 innings - 0 runs
7.1 innings - 0 runs
7.1 innings - 3 runs
9 innings - 0 runs

The best stretch Buchholz had in 2013 was six starts to open the year:
7 innings - 1 run
7 innings - 0 runs
8 innings - 0 runs
8 innings - 2 runs
7.2 innings - 2 runs
7 innings - 0 runs

So what Wright lacked in complete run prevention he made up for in innings - both in going deeper into starts (two complete games and 9 innings of shutout work lost in extra innings) and in taking stretch to seven games instead of six. Oh yeah, and Buchholz didn't make it past 110 innings that year and when he returned in the playoffs was throwing mid-80's fastballs and he's never been the same again.

All of this is ignoring his comments re: his shoulder still possibly being an issue, which isn't exactly a vote of confidence.
And here is the one valid point about Wright. He didn't look good yesterday, his fastball velo was down, his knuckle ball was clearly not consistent because his release point and arm action was a mess. That is the argument for sticking with Buchholz, not the fever dreams of Clay Buchholz circa 2013 showing back up for a limited time engagement to cap the 2016 season.

I'll also add - you can make the same argument for EdRo in my opinion, who came back from injury earlier this year clearly still tentative and physically uncomfortable. Wright's return is the second time the club has brought a starter back from injury and into the ML rotation when they were clearly not 100%. I'm pretty sure we're seeing #3 concurrent with #2 as well right now with EdRo's return from the hamstring issue, only made worse by the fact that there were starts in AAA to be had up to this point where both Wright and EdRo could tune up if that was all they need. Instead we're putting people into ML games who clearly aren't physically where they should be for a precision craft such as ML pitching.

To recap - acting like a less than awesome stretch in July is the 'real' Steven Wright when the three months prior and starts within that exact same stretch were generally excellent is lame. Acting like the last three starts from Buchholz means "Cy" Buchholz has arrived is just delusional. But neither are as bad as an organization willing to put guys back into the rotation who clearly aren't ready to pitch effectively when the club is in the middle of a pennant race.
 

doctorogres

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I'm wondering if what really happened is more like this: an injured Wright, who has struggled for the last few seasons to get a shot at starting despite some really excellent numbers and spot starts, sees Buchholz come back and pitch well. Worried he may get kicked back to the 6th starter / mop up role, he convinces himself he's feeling better than he is, until opposing hitters tell him otherwise. Finally, he admits he might not be 100%.
 

Hee Sox Choi

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Clay Buchholz took batting practice in Oakland on Saturday.

So did David Price and Drew Pomeranz, who are both lined up to start against the Padres next week. The implication is that Buchholz will be starting in place of Steven Wright, who hasn't looked right since coming off the disabled list with a shoulder injury. Assuming the other starters stay on schedule, Buchholz would likely fill in on Tuesday night.
 

soxhop411

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“@MikeSilvermanBB: Wright can’t say if he’ll pitch again this season. His shoulder at 50% now. Seeing specialist in LA next week.”

“@bradfo: Steven Wright will not start Tuesday. Will be getting second opinion on shoulder. Farrell said everything points to Buchholz making start”
 

geoduck no quahog

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I don't understand these baseball thoroughbreds. MRI's revealed no structural damage. On August 22 Wright said he was no longer feeling any pain in his shoulder. Now it's at 50%.

I'm not questioning him at all. It's just remarkable how fragile these arms can sometimes be, particularly with a non-throwing injury.
 

soxhop411

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Brian MacPherson ‏@brianmacp 7m7 minutes ago
There's a very real chance that Steven Wright doesn't pitch again this season: http://www.providencejournal.com/sports/20160903/steven-wright-to-miss-next-start-rest-of-season-in-jeopardy…


Posted Sep. 3, 2016 at 7:51 PM

OAKLAND, Calif. -- Steven Wright will not make his scheduled start Tuesday for the Red Sox, Red Sox manager John Farrell said. Clay Buchholz is likely to get that start instead, returning to the starting rotation for the third time since he originally was bumped from it.Wright will visit a specialist in Los Angeles next week to get a second opinion on a shoulder injury that he said has "plateaued" in its recovery. That he misses the rest of the season has become a real possibility.The knuckleballer injured his shoulder diving back into second base while running the bases a month ago at Dodger Stadium. He landed on the disabled list after the injury, and he has yielded nine runs while issuing six walks in 10 innings pitched since he was activated.Before that, Wright had posted a 3.01 ERA in a career-high 22 starts and had earned his first trip to the All-Star Game."I'm no help going out there at 50 percent," he said. "The last two games, I didn't have the same effectiveness with my knuckleball. I had some pain throwing. I tried throwing through it, but it's at the point where I need another set of eyes on my shoulder.""When he tries to get his best knuckleball, which has got further exertion, that's where he feels the restriction," Farrell said." When he's not able to be his best, we've got to take a different route."Buchholz had a 6.35 ERA in his first 10 starts this season before the Red Sox shifted him to the bullpen for the first time, and he had a 6.14 ERA in three starts after he got a second chance starting in late June.A midseason adjustment to his arm slot, however, saw him regain the effectiveness of old, the effectiveness that can his struggles so maddening. He had a 2.70 ERA with 13 strikeouts and five walks in three starts while Wright was on the disabled list. He has yielded just one home run in 30 innings pitched since the All-Star break.
 

Montana Fan

Member
SoSH Member
Oct 18, 2000
8,880
Twin Bridges, Mt.
“@MikeSilvermanBB: Wright can’t say if he’ll pitch again this season. His shoulder at 50% now. Seeing specialist in LA next week.”

“@bradfo: Steven Wright will not start Tuesday. Will be getting second opinion on shoulder. Farrell said everything points to Buchholz making start”
God fucking dammit!
 

Plympton91

bubble burster
SoSH Member
Oct 19, 2008
12,408
Wow. Can someone explain this to me?

1. Wright lied about feeling better and the the Red Soc relied on him telling the truth so didn't do any standard battery of strength tests to determine this 59% number

2. The Red Sox doctors are incompetent

3. The Red Sox out an injured pitcher on the mound during a pennant race because the. Ill own was so bad they needed Buxhholz out there.


Ugh!


None of those are pretty.
 

Van Everyman

Member
SoSH Member
Apr 30, 2009
26,993
Newton
Wow. Can someone explain this to me?

1. Wright lied about feeling better and the the Red Soc relied on him telling the truth so didn't do any standard battery of strength tests to determine this 59% number

2. The Red Sox doctors are incompetent

3. The Red Sox out an injured pitcher on the mound during a pennant race because the. Ill own was so bad they needed Buxhholz out there.


Ugh!


None of those are pretty.
Why does there need to be someone at fault here? Maybe he thought he was starting to feel better or felt better enough to pitch and then felt crappy once he actually did pitch or afterwards.
 

Snodgrass'Muff

oppresses WARmongers
SoSH Member
Mar 11, 2008
27,644
Roanoke, VA
Or maybe he's a knuckleballer who was outperforming his peripherals and his talent level was never that of a top of the rotation guy. I don't think we need to look for reasons why Steven Wright was struggling in July beyond the random variation that all pitchers see during a season, especially knuckleballers.