MackowiakYakYak

They’ve got a roster built around sluggers. They’re great fastball hitters and a lot of the “stuff” pitchers are more or less two-pitch fastball and slider guys. Many of the hitters on their roster can more or less sit fastball and wait to punish that or a hanging slider. If Keuchel is on his game then you have to work with something outside of that “mash fastball” comfort zone. Line drive hitters can mostly adjust their approach but a lot of the Yankees power guys only have one way to operate.

The only balls that have landed for him have been these barrels. 2 of his 3 hits are a double and triple. Once his regular contact gets through the infield then his BA is going to get up to at least .250

Great among MLBers in a given year is what people typically mean. I think you’re looking for all-time great with your list.

Bryant also became a mediocre defender at 3rd before he started getting moved around. You don’t see the top tier defensive 3Bs being moved out of position all that often. You really don’t see any great defenders moved out of their main position because great defense is rare and incredibly valuable. Peak Eaton wasn’t much more valuable because he could also pass as a center fielder. You want to set up great defenders so you don’t have to move them.

“Oh man Leury is terrible cut him” ”Wow he is really heating up” ”That Leury home run was the best part of the series!” He’s paid $5.5m and consistently puts up 1 war with a 2 war peak last year. He doesn’t look like he’s slowed down or gotten worse. We know who Leury is. He’s just bad for stretches of time but he makes up for it by letting us use two roster spots on the positionless Vaughn and Sheets.

Jerry is going to be the one funding it. Giolito wouldn’t be on there because he’d probably have to negotiate with Boras.

I think it’s true he won’t be good this year but I hold out hope because he’s a low velocity, feel pitcher. I haven’t seen anyone show he’s lost velocity or the stuff on his pitches. His biggest issue last year was that he couldn’t locate anything the way he did in years prior. I wouldn’t want to say he’s cooked like Shields when he’s not a pitcher relying on pure stuff.

It depends on what we want out of him. Stone was talking about how 6 weeks of spring training really is necessary to get pitchers up to speed. If we want him to be 100% and more durable over the course of the year then we give him that full 6 weeks. I haven’t seen reports on how much preparation he had already done before signing though so his six weeks could be very soon or a full six from near opening day.

If Brash is going to be their starter it’ll be interesting to see if the Sox struggle again this year against good sliders. He’s a well-regarded prospect and is coming off a great season split between A+ and AA. Reports say he’s got good velocity, a good slider, and passable curves and changes.

Better stuff but with a worse walk rate. It comes close to evening out the quality of the two.

Who do you use in those innings? I like where our bullpen’s innings totals are at by having Banks throw 2. It gives another pitcher a day of rest and gets Banks acclimated to pitching multiple innings a game in the majors. I know Banks is an experienced starting pitcher but I wouldn’t peg him as a 3-5 inning reliever at this point because he has made changes to increase his velocity.

My first thoughts are that Tony had a good opening series. Bringing Hendriks in was the right decision even though it didn't turn out. My only critique would be that he possibly didn't give Hendriks enough time to get warmed up before entering in the 8th. Being quick to go to the bullpen instead of forcing starters into more innings was a good decision as well. Trusting the rookies turned out to be a great choice and will help the health of our bullpen overall. 2 and 2/3rds innings for Graveman is the only outlier for inning count. I'd give Tony an A grading for bullpen usage in the opening Detroit series. He did what the situations warranted and didn't have anyone throw too many pitches.

I thought it would be useful to have a thread to keep coming back to throughout the year. It would be interesting to see what kind of takes people are producing throughout the year and if they match up with Soxtalk's thoughts about Tony at the end of the season.

Some of each. The Detroit pitchers seemed to either have weak stuff or control issues, but the Sox still had to have good approaches to take advantage. Our guys did what they needed to. The mix of approaches, strengths, and weaknesses seem better this year

In a field that was not giving up many homers this series.