GAME #94, MONDAY, JULY 15, 2019, TORONTO BLUE JAYS @ BOSTON RED SOX

[elktonnick]

More sloppy baseball but Manager What Me Worry finally pulls Braiser.

[elktonnick]

But he puts in Barnes. 

[Sea Dog 23]

No lead is safe with the cast of characters in the Pen.

[Sea Dog 23]

Workman with a clean 9th for the save.

[SeaBeachFred]

Porcello is getting clobbered.  The effective Porcello pitched down in the zone.  This version is up constantly.  I don't understand why they aren't working with him on this.  No one on the NESN broadcast is mentioning this but I recall this was the common commentary years past that is to be effective Rick Porcello had to pitch down in the zone.   Why the change?

Porcello needs help and tutoring in the worst way.  Perhaps he should drop that four seamer that stays high and is very hittable as shownby the way Rick has been getting the shit knocked out of him...like again tonight and having Levangie as pitching coach does nothing because I'm convinced the guy doesn't know shit from shinola about pitching.  Both need to go, but I would think if Porcello gets with a good pitching coach next season he will pitch better.  Cora wanted Levangie last year as hit pitching tutor so that should tell you all you need to know.

[SeaBeachFred]

Workman with a clean 9th for the save.

Anybody out there feel confident when our bullpen is called on to save a lead?  I'm not, and I think Dombrowski needs to address that fast.  We get ten runs and it is still a nail biter.  Tonight's win doesn't please me one twit because once again the pen shit the bed, this time Brasier who for the most part has been horse dung since the second week of the season.

[Sea Dog 23]

Workman with a clean 9th for the save.

Anybody out there feel confident when our bullpen is called on to save a lead?  I'm not, and I think Dombrowski needs to address that fast.  We get ten runs and it is still a nail biter.  Tonight's win doesn't please me one twit because once again the pen shit the bed, this time Brasier who for the most part has been horse dung since the second week of the season.

Fred, I think we've tied our wagon to horses that are going to break the hearts of Sox fans around the country. 

I saw that the Rays got a go-ahead 3run homer in the 9th at Yankee  Stadium.  Again st their BP that sends a message to the AL.  We play the contenders a lot coming up, I think NY and Rays 9 times in the next 20.  With the contenders now going after good pitching at the deadline (Nyy dealing with Mets?) , I think we're in deep sh!t.  We are just screwed by our rotation this year.  We really need about three Eovaldis.

[Bill-806]

One game at a time ……  YANKS & RAYS in a big 4 game series !!!!!  SOX, take care of business !!!! thumb_u thumb_u

[longgame]

The bullpen tried to give this away.

Elk - Porcello's pitching location was the talk of a lot of discussion earlier in the year. I think Lavangie is enamored with the high fastball as a lot of hitters are looking up there to launch one but can't catch up with the high ones.  The problem is if you leave it down it gets cleaned out.  Like you mentioned yesterday, I don't think pitching low is in favor anymore unless it's a breaking ball in the dirt.  The other thing was Porcello wasn't getting calls in the bottom of the strike zone last night.

Fred - no I'm not comfortable with any of these guys and these guys aren't comfortable because they don't have roles.  This is bullpen management 101 and we saw what a disaster it was the last time the Sox used bullpen by committee.  This is a proven failed strategy and that's why it doesn't work. 

Sea Dog - you are right.  We need 3 good arms and they are a brokedown horse. 

[elktonnick]

The bullpen tried to give this away.

Elk - Porcello's pitching location was the talk of a lot of discussion earlier in the year. I think Lavangie is enamored with the high fastball as a lot of hitters are looking up there to launch one but can't catch up with the high ones.  The problem is if you leave it down it gets cleaned out.  Like you mentioned yesterday, I don't think pitching low is in favor anymore unless it's a breaking ball in the dirt.  The other thing was Porcello wasn't getting calls in the bottom of the strike zone last night.

Fred - no I'm not comfortable with any of these guys and these guys aren't comfortable because they don't have roles.  This is bullpen management 101 and we saw what a disaster it was the last time the Sox used bullpen by committee.  This is a proven failed strategy and that's why it doesn't work. 

Sea Dog - you are right.  We need 3 good arms and they are a brokedown horse.

Low and away is always an effective pitch  The problem Porcello is having is he is pitching to the center of the plate.

[longgame]

But nobody is pitching like that anymore, at least on the Sox.  Or when they do, it's really away.  It seems that the shift has lead to the HR boom, which has led to the hot arm boom, which as led to more high fastballs with the thought that a guy swinging hard will never get his bat up that high (maybe they never saw Gary Sheffield!).  Maybe they ought to get back to the basics that have worked for the past 100 years - throw it by the guy, not around him.

[Bill-806]

But nobody is pitching like that anymore, at least on the Sox.  Or when they do, it's really away.  It seems that the shift has lead to the HR boom, which has led to the hot arm boom, which as led to more high fastballs with the thought that a guy swinging hard will never get his bat up that high (maybe they never saw Gary Sheffield!).  Maybe they ought to get back to the basics that have worked for the past 100 years - throw it by the guy, not around him.

The JUICED BALL  is the major culprit ……..IMO ….. iono iono

[elktonnick]

But nobody is pitching like that anymore, at least on the Sox.  Or when they do, it's really away.  It seems that the shift has lead to the HR boom, which has led to the hot arm boom, which as led to more high fastballs with the thought that a guy swinging hard will never get his bat up that high (maybe they never saw Gary Sheffield!).  Maybe they ought to get back to the basics that have worked for the past 100 years - throw it by the guy, not around him.

That's where I am at

[SeaBeachFred]

Workman with a clean 9th for the save.

Anybody out there feel confident when our bullpen is called on to save a lead?  I'm not, and I think Dombrowski needs to address that fast.  We get ten runs and it is still a nail biter.  Tonight's win doesn't please me one twit because once again the pen shit the bed, this time Brasier who for the most part has been horse dung since the second week of the season.

Fred, I think we've tied our wagon to horses that are going to break the hearts of Sox fans around the country. 

I saw that the Rays got a go-ahead 3run homer in the 9th at Yankee  Stadium.  Again st their BP that sends a message to the AL.  We play the contenders a lot coming up, I think NY and Rays 9 times in the next 20.  With the contenders now going after good pitching at the deadline (Nyy dealing with Mets?) , I think we're in deep sh!t.  We are just screwed by our rotation this year.  We really need about three Eovaldis.

Right now my friend I would settle for one healthy and effective Eovaldi.  As for the rest of your missive I'm afraid you may be very very right Sea Dog.

[SeaBeachFred]

The bullpen tried to give this away.

Elk - Porcello's pitching location was the talk of a lot of discussion earlier in the year. I think Lavangie is enamored with the high fastball as a lot of hitters are looking up there to launch one but can't catch up with the high ones.  The problem is if you leave it down it gets cleaned out.  Like you mentioned yesterday, I don't think pitching low is in favor anymore unless it's a breaking ball in the dirt.  The other thing was Porcello wasn't getting calls in the bottom of the strike zone last night.

Fred - no I'm not comfortable with any of these guys and these guys aren't comfortable because they don't have roles.  This is bullpen management 101 and we saw what a disaster it was the last time the Sox used bullpen by committee.  This is a proven failed strategy and that's why it doesn't work. 

Sea Dog - you are right.  We need 3 good arms and they are a brokedown horse.

Ted---what can you do???  You, Sea Dog, Elk and Bill see the same things I am seeing but why is Cora so tone deaf to what's happened to us this season?  Porcello should go back to the two seemer and get more movement on the ball and get it to run more and keep it down.  But it all comes down to how the pen was put together in the first place.  Bullpen and Closer by committee is a design that has failure written all over it and it astounds me that so many teams (us in 2003 and 2019) and others seem to go to it every few years with disastrous results and yet never learn from those mistakes.  Right now though I don't give a rat's ass for how it effects other teams, just how it is effecting our team.  Again, I hark back to ST where this debacle was first put into effect.  We've been reaping the whirlwind from Cora's mismanaging since.