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6-19 GT: Sox @ Astros (6:15pm)


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Alright boys, the Sox are coming off a tough loss last night and are now at risk of losing their third straight game for just the second time all season.  The momentum is in the Astros’ favor right now, but we have our stopper on the mound tonight.  Lance Lynn, one of the most bad ass players to ever baseball, enters today with an AL leading 1.51 ERA, an 88th percentile xwOBA, and 1.9 fWAR on the season (19th overall | 6th in AL).  All those numbers were even better prior to a shit start against the Rays earlier this week.  Point is Lance has been damn good this year behind his fastball heavy arsenal and that’s not going to change tonight.  Sure, you could point out that the Astros are one of the better teams against 4-seamers & cutters or that Altuve, Brantley, & Alvarez have all roughed up Lynn in the past.  None of that matters right now as Lynn can still taste the stink from Monday’s loss and will be even more amped up than usual.  I’m confident he gets the job done tonight as the true ace of the staff.

For the Astros will be lefty Framber Valdez, who will be making his 5th start of the season due to a spring training injury.  Valdez has pitched very well in his first four starts, putting up a 1.41 ERA, 3.48 FIP, & 85th percentile xwOBA.  Framber’s arsenal is built around a sinker that he uses to induce ground balls at an elite rate (64% over his career).  He supplements that with an excellent curveball (93% percentile spin rate | 47% whiff rate), a changeup used to keep RH hitters off balanced, and the occasion 4 seamer.  His weapon is no doubt the curve, but surprisingly we are one of the better teams in baseball against curveballs.  We also remain the best team in baseball against LHP, although our dominance has started to trend in the wrong direction as of late.

Overall, I really like our odds tonight.  In terms of the lineup, the only person who has really faced Valdez is Goodwin and he’s been very bad (SSS).  That’s perfect as we should be rocking an OF of Vaughn in LF (if available), Engel in CF, & Leury in RF.  Given Valdez’s ground-ball tendencies, I would try to space out the four slow guys by batting Grandal 2nd, Jose 4th, Vaughn 6th, & Mercedes 8th, but I don’t anticipate happening.  Regardless, we need to take advantage of our opportunities tonight as Valdez doesn’t walk a lot of guys or give a lot of HRs.  We can’t leave 11 guys on base again and can’t have our managers throwing away outs early in the game.  If we can avoid those two pitfalls, then I think we’re going to win this one.

Let’s fucking go!

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Sox have a decent chance because they are facing a LH starter. Lynn will hopefully be good, but Houston spanked his ass last season so hopefully he will bounce back against them. My main concern for today is Vaughn is OK long term. They are at the limits of their OF depth with Roberts, Hamilton and Eaton out. 

Would love to see: TA SS; YM DH; YM 3B; JA 1B; AV LF; YG C; BG RF; AE CF; DM 2B, LG the only Sox likely to crash this party at 2B or in the OF.

The other good news tonight is Crochet and Burdi are likely the only pitchers not available out of the bullpen tonight.

Bullpen usage.

Go Sox!

Edited by South Side Hit Men
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41 minutes ago, South Side Hit Men said:

Sox have a decent chance because they are facing a LH starter. Lynn will hopefully be good, but Houston spanked his ass last season so hopefully he will bounce back against them. My main concern for today is Vaughn is OK long term. They are at the limits of their OF depth with Roberts, Hamilton and Eaton out. 

Would love to see: TA SS; YM DH; YM 3B; JA 1B; AV LF; YG C; BG RF; AE CF; DM 2B, LG the only Sox likely to crash this party at 2B or in the OF.

The other good news tonight is Crochet and Burdi are likely the only pitchers not available out of the bullpen tonight.

Bullpen usage.

Go Sox!

cool site, the indians pen is getting in some work

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  • Kalapse changed the title to 6-19 GT: Sox @ Astros (6:15pm)
  • Kalapse pinned this topic
5 hours ago, Chicago White Sox said:

Mods - Can you please change the title to “Sox @ Astros”?

Just an FYI, you can edit your own thread title when you edit the first post. The mods stole our ability to delete threads, but they didn't steal that yet. 

Edited by ron883
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