GAME #84 - FRIDAY, JULY 8, 2022 - NEW YORK YANKEES @ BOSTON RED SOX

[markj]

JBJ pitching. Now I've seen everything.

[SeaBeachFred]

SeaSHIT has no business being on the team and if this is the best we can do for a replacement for an injured player, we might as well chuck it all in.  The guy didn't even look like he wanted to be out there in the first place and I actually could read his fear from my television vantage point.  When you have a retread starting staff long in the tooth it stands to reason they will eventually break down and w hat a time for that to happen.  Last night it was WinckCRUDSKI, tonight it was SeaSHIT.  The latter is not a prospect and will never be anything more than a human pinata. Crudski looks like he may have something but the jury is out.  I was deeply disappointed in Bello the other night too.  He may be another pitching "prospect"  that shits the bed.  Why is it TB can develop pi tchers like an assembly line while all we get are a pack of turds that fail time after time.  You need to spend money if you can't develop pitchers as we haven't in almost 20 years and we saw last fall that the f ront office wasn't going to do that and try to win on the cheap.  You cannot replicate 2013 except for maybe once a century and we haven't done that this year and won't.  THANKS JOHN HENRY YOU TIGHTWAD, CHEAP NO GOOD BASTARD.

[Sea Dog 23]

All good points, Fred.  The Yanks were bought and tooled for the playoffs.   There are two teams that have the pitching to possibly control their bats, Houston and the Rays. That is where the playoffs are going.  The Sox are looking more like the Royals last couple weeks. A parade of half-baked retreads, mixed in with one super star. What a charade.

[MongoLikeSox]

We turned the game off about 9:30 or so. Surprised I lasted that long.

So, is Devers down for a couple of weeks? They need to reign him in NOW. That stupid injure yourself swing ain't gonna cut it. It's not why he's had his superstar year. Hopefully a couple of days off will fix it? If not.........

Our other infielder on the 40-man is, of course, Jeter Downs. He's turned it on since his little stint in Beantown. He's got his BA up 40 points, now .217 up from .177 on June 17th. Maybe something clicked finally? He did have a hot week with 5HRs(IIRC) in AFL that turned out to be nothing. Kind of hate to call him up if he's only going to ride the pine, though. That's a lot of momentum this young kid needs to turn the next page.

[MongoLikeSox]

SeaSHIT has no business being on the team and if this is the best we can do for a replacement for an injured player, we might as well chuck it all in.  The guy didn't even look like he wanted to be out there in the first place and I actually could read his fear from my television vantage point.  When you have a retread starting staff long in the tooth it stands to reason they will eventually break down and w hat a time for that to happen.  Last night it was WinckCRUDSKI, tonight it was SeaSHIT.  The latter is not a prospect and will never be anything more than a human pinata. Crudski looks like he may have something but the jury is out.  I was deeply disappointed in Bello the other night too.  He may be another pitching "prospect"  that shits the bed.  Why is it TB can develop pi tchers like an assembly line while all we get are a pack of turds that fail time after time.  You need to spend money if you can't develop pitchers as we haven't in almost 20 years and we saw last fall that the f ront office wasn't going to do that and try to win on the cheap.  You cannot replicate 2013 except for maybe once a century and we haven't done that this year and won't.  THANKS JOHN HENRY YOU TIGHTWAD, CHEAP NO GOOD BASTARD.

The one I don't get is how do young kids come up and smoke the Red Sox hitters with ease while ours come up and implode? That's more of a rhetorical question than anything.

We know what Seabold is capable of as far as stuff goes. Throwing 5 good pitches out of 30 because of nerves ain't gonna cut it. I hope his forearm tightness is not too serious. Still don't know why he was down earlier. I think we'll know more today. He's gonna need to be spot on more than most pitchers if he's gonna be a big leaguer, though. That much I think we've seen.

I do have a lot of optimism for Winckowski.

I wrote somewhere here a couple weeks ago that Bello was not ready. This was a desperation move only. That  said, what we saw was not the pitcher I saw on MiLB. He's still going to get hit hard up here due to his normal mistake pitch being left up out over the plate. That said, he's a much better pitcher than we saw the other night. I hope his next start is closer to himself than his debut was. My optimism is high for him too, but not yet.

The one I'm worried about is the one in charge. Bloom. I hope he's learning from this. His cheering hard for Franchy's grand slam vindication episode was a long time ago.

[elktonnick]

Seabold has fore arm tightness.  Wacha has forearm tightness.  4 starters are out with various ailments.  It seems that Boston is plagued with more than its fair cost share of pitching injuries. Once again I say that their is something fundamental wrong with Boston's entire approach towards pitching from scouting, training, development pitch selection towards their entire philosophy of pitching.  Theyl must deemphasize  the damned cutter. They must adopt an approach that emphasizes fastball, splitter, changeup and yes the long forgotten screwball. These pitches with proper mechanics will put less stress on the forearm and elbow and reduce injuries.

[elktonnick]

Check out Juan Marichal's stats.  From aged 23 to 35 he had between 24 to 40 starts and completed over 240 games.  I do not see any significant periods on the DL.  If they could do it during his time why not now.  Answer no cutters!

[longgame]

Check out Juan Marichal's stats.  From aged 23 to 35 he had between 24 to 40 starts and completed over 240 games.  I do not see any significant periods on the DL.  If they could do it during his time why not now.  Answer no cutters!

He probably threw twice the number of innings too.  Just amazing how fragile they are. I always criticize the team for not having enough starter depth, although this year they banked on Sale coming back, which looks like it will happen (we'll see how effective), and to some extent Paxton.  Eovaldi always needs time off, but it seems like he's been out a while now.  Hill is old, of course he's going to need time off.  I think the hard part is that you can't anticipate having almost your entire rotation being on the DL at the same time.  That being said, we've seen enough of these guys to know that Winchowski and Crawford can be somewhat effective (if they could avoid the single meltdown), although maybe not against a top level team and that Seabold and pretty much anyone else they have is not MLB material.  Fact is they need a full healthy rotation and to not have one during this two weeks is just devastating to them.

Now the good news.  Sale is coming back.  Eovaldi shouldn't be far behind.  Not sure on Wacha or Hill.  Whitlock improves the bullpen.  I'm more worried that Hernandez is coming back and that Duran and Refsnyder lose at bats to him.  But if they get to a playoff series with a Sale, Eovaldi, Pivetta and Wacha then I like their chances.  Although I hate to say it, I don't think anyone is beating the Yankees this year who are winning at a record pace in the best division in baseball.  So that raises a question - do you concede that the Yankees are likely to win and roll the dice with what you have or does it make sense to invest and try to overcome them?

[markj]

No overcoming the Yankees. And I wouldn't count on Sale lasting long. He's so fragile.

[MongoLikeSox]

I agree - no overcoming the Yankees. This team will have to come back again after the all-star break as they've done in recent past.

They will bet on Kike in CF. I can see Duran getting traded for bullpen help. He's proven enough. Pisses me off, but that's the likely play.

I've railed on them for not coming out of Spring Training with even 5 decent starters for way too many years. This year was better than most, and we covered an extra spot or two decently. I can't rail on them for not having 10 starters ready at the same time. Even with how this old/fragile/old-and-fragile as this staff was as constructed.

I was mad as heck about the bull-pen for the first couple months. That one was avoidable and inexcusable.