"Hating the Yankees like it's a religion since 94'" RIP Mike.
"It's also a simple and indisputable fact that WAR isn't the be-all end-all in valuations, especially in real life. Wanna know why? Because an ace in run-prevention for 120 innings means more often than not, a sub-standard pitcher covering for the rest of the IP that pitcher fails to provide. You can't see value in a vacuum when a player does not provide full-time production."
"Hating the Yankees like it's a religion since 94'" RIP Mike.
"It's also a simple and indisputable fact that WAR isn't the be-all end-all in valuations, especially in real life. Wanna know why? Because an ace in run-prevention for 120 innings means more often than not, a sub-standard pitcher covering for the rest of the IP that pitcher fails to provide. You can't see value in a vacuum when a player does not provide full-time production."
I was down on our pen prospects before the season began. I didn't think Thornburg was enough to compensate for losing Koji, Ziegs and Taz. When we lost Thornburg, I had little hope our pen would be even average. Then, we lost Robbie Ross.
Kimbrel has been a God send. He's pitching like the old days.
Hembree, Barnes & Kelly have all done better than expected. Scott has done well.
If we can get Thornburg or Smith back and pitching well, we should be fine, even if someone doing well slumps a little.
Heck, our pen is actually fun to watch. We have some fireballers in the pen.
This year is so strange. Xander is a great hitter for sure. But I never was all that interested in watching him bat. This year he's a can't miss at bat for me. I guess I just want to see how pitchers try to get him out and how he eventually slaps the ball somewhere. I never would have thought watching the bullpen and seeing Xander at bat would be something that draws me to watch.
In the town where I was born
Lived a man who sailed to sea
And he told us of his life
In the land of submarines
So we sailed up to the sun
'Til we found a sea of green
And we lived beneath the waves
In our yellow submarine
In the town where I was born
Lived a man who sailed to sea
And he told us of his life
In the land of submarines
So we sailed up to the sun
'Til we found a sea of green
And we lived beneath the waves
In our yellow submarine
I once met an old blog buddy from the other site for a Sea Dogs game. That was fun.
A lot of heroes in last night's game--bullpen, Moreland, JBJ, even Johnson, who got hammered and threw a lot of pitches by still managed to go 4.1 innings while giving up 3 runs. HanRam and Pablo pissed me off , but others came thru--as it turned out, just in time.
More and more I am convinced, however, that this just might be the first Sox team in the John Henry era that relies on pitching more than hitting and is--the operative term--successful.