SoxBlanco

This is like deja vu from last year after the first handful of games. "Why are we burning a year of service for Vaughn if we aren't going to play him every day?!?!" He ended up playing 127 games. Yes, I know not all of those were starts, but he still played a lot. I'm probably a bigger Vaughn supporter than anybody here and I want him playing a lot this year, but there's no need to overreact this early in the year.

TLR looks at the entire series before making his decisions. Vaughn is a no brainer for tomorrow with a lefty (Ray) on the mound. He wants to give Sheets one of the three games, so he'd rather sit Vaughn against the guy with a nasty slider. I won't complain until I see Sheets starting against all righties.

That's still not correct. The magic number is 160 this year. For the option to vest, BOTH of these things must happen: 320 total combined innings in 2021 and 2022 160 innings in 2022 So once he hit 160 last year, he could have gone all the way up to 200, and the magic number would still be 160 this year. However, if he had only pitched 120 innings last year, then the magic number would be 200 innings this year.

I don’t think you are correct there. If he pitched 158 last year, then the option would kick in if he pitches 162 this year. I’m pretty sure it kicks in if the two-year total is 320, with AT LEAST 160 this year. So even if he pitched 200 innings last year, he would still need 160 this year for the option to kick in.

Wow, very surprising. Somebody called this a week or so ago and got laughed at. EDIT: Just found the post. It was @bmags. Great call.

Is this Jack trying to calm down somebody else from panicking? That’s the spirit! Everything goes uphill from here. I think Jack just saved the season.

Leury was playing on the right side of second base. Do we not like shifting now? I can’t keep track. Or do we just hate it when they hit it where we aren’t?

My weather app is now showing no rain in the afternoon. Possible spotty showers in the 5-8 PM range, but nothing before that. I think the rain might hold off for the whole day. It'll be cold though, that's for sure.

I’d guess that’s also overrated, but it would be nice to see some numbers. I’d be curious to see how many extra hits we give up because of it…and then how many of those hits lead to runs…and then how many of those runs change the outcome of the game. Over the course of a 162 game season, how many games do we think are affected by shifting vs not shifting?

Who said it was ONLY the pitchers? There were many factors, but pitching was number 1. Regardless of the position they were put it, they still sucked. If you want to believe that Lynn would have been better if saved for a home game, then that’s your opinion (I have no idea if that’s what you believe, but I’m just using that as an example). I think we lose that series regardless of who pitched in which games.

Managerial in-game decisions (lineups, pitching changes, bunting, stealing, etc.) are overrated. Not saying they don’t matter, but they don’t matter nearly to the degree you would think from reading this message board. Oh, and it was the pitching staff who failed to deliver in the playoffs last year.

I’ve been out of the loop today. Was the official 28-man roster released?

Allagash White, my personal favorite beer. Excellent.

Same here, but how much playing time would he get if we keep him on the 28-man roster? I don't think he will be given any chance to prove himself.

Got it. Thanks. So eventually, a non-contending team will give him a shot to play every day. He will either play well and be a steal for that team, or he will struggle to the point where no other team wants to claim him.

Pardon my ignorance, by what happens if we expose him to waivers and he gets claimed by another team? Then are the options reset?

I feel like we should be packaging Adolfo with some other prospects to land a solid starter from a team that won't be contending this year. Is John Means an option? Anybody else?

100% this. Couldn't have said it any better myself.

I actually wasn’t even talking about Lopez. Giolito, Cease, Kopech, and Lynn (via Dunning). But now that you mention it, if Lopez starts in place of Lynn and performs better than Keuchel, we could have a situation when Lynn returns where the entire starting rotation is a result of the big 3 trades.

Yeah, if you don’t count 80% of the rotation and a third of the lineup, we would probably be struggling.

Velazquez! ???

Alright, as one of the more optimistic people here, I’m going to attempt to stay positive. Let’s say Lynn misses 8 starts. How many of those games would we have won? Last year, we were 5-3 in his first 8 starts, so that seems like a reasonable estimate. I assume Lopez will be taking these starts. So how many of those first 8 games with Lopez/Velasquez pitching will we win? Maybe 3? So we are looking at a 2 or 3 game difference, perhaps. Could be more, could even be less. Definitely sucks, but not the end of the world. Like others have said, though, one more injury and we could be in big trouble.

I think the plan is to just wait until the deadline now. See what the team looks like in July and see what other players (pitchers) might be available. Some of our younger prospects might have increased their value a little bit, too.

He can also play a decent LF (and possibly RF). And could end up being one of the best hitters in the league. Even if he’s at 1B, that’s very valuable.

The board also told us that Vaughn was out for year because the team played him out of position. They also told us Kimbrel could not be traded.