Jake

Ricky's boys don't quit!

I'm not too sure what we have here in Banuelos. Will be interesting to see if he's on the team come September.

Here's something worth knowing about Ervin Santana: His name is not Ervin. His real name is Johan. Coming up through the minors he decided he didn't want to be confused with *the* Johan Santana. Did he take on his middle name? Nope. He just picked Ervin because he thought it sounded cool. I find that to be hilarious

Santana looks like shit but I just don't feel up in arms about this. I'm happy enough to give him a couple more starts and see if he can find the release on anything

I said earlier that Yoan can't afford to foul off the fastball in the zone early in the AB because they'll get him with the curve in the zone later. This time he didn't miss it. See, this game's not so hard

108mph off the bat. Not a cheapie

It's an interesting dynamic since with GarPax, the non-hardliners tend to focus on Gar and think Paxson may actually be competent. I assume this is partly because the team was better when Paxson was more clearly in control. With the Sox, it's the opposite despite the fact it's also true the team was better before Hahn became the face of the front office

If I'm coaching, I go out there and tell him to throw that slider 60-70% of the time until he has the feel for it. No need to pitch conventionally when you've already given up 5 in 2 and 2/3 innings

Key thing to watch with Santana is the slider. It's been bad so far. His entire career, he's gotten by with a mix of just-okay fastball and just-okay changeup and an elite slider. Much like Rodon, he may be able to pitch over reduced velocity — at least well enough to stick around in this rotation — but only if he's throwing his slider well

Santana up about 2mph compared to last year, so he has at least restored his health somewhat. Down about 2mph from 2017. He clearly has no feel for his stuff though. We might be paying for skipping his spot more than anything.

The plan of attack against Moncada from both sides should be breaking pitches in the zone. He really can't afford to foul off those fastballs early in the AB.

When all the Ks are swinging, I'm not too worried. Today's game was the first time he'd struck out on a pitch that wasn't either in the zone or very close to it — I'll give a pass against Blake Snell for his first true chasing K. Not surprising that he has slowed down as he's been having more right-handed ABs. As long as he continues to make contact on strikes at a decent rate, is aggressive on pitches in the zone, and keeps his elite patience on pitches outside the zone, I'll keep my patience too.

How many relievers do you think are still reliably effective 3 innings into an appearance? I'd love for Carson to be able to go 100 pitches but the Sox moved him to the bullpen presumably because they wanted to focus him on throwing 20 good pitches per day

Well it was a good day for Carson. I think he may be good enough to stay up here, although I doubt he will

predictable

The problem with the review here is you're making Carson throw the 3-1 pitch cold when he's ruled safe

Going 50% cutters is a good strategy for Carson, I'd say

Either way those up and in misses are a clue that he's running out of gas

I'm not sure why we kept going inside there when Carson kept missing in. If you really think inside is going to work you might as well have him aim for the outside edge.

Yeah I'm not mad at Moncada there. Once he saw that bat coming at him he just said screw it I've gotta get an out here

Getting Snell out after 6 innings feels like a real accomplishment

That guy finally got a good hack at it but that 83-ish breaking ball is tight

I'm open-minded and could see it going a different way but I see a younger Bartolo Colon in Lopez. When he has his good heater he might be best off just attacking with it and hoping to generate soft contact. Needs to have enough command to at least be wild in the zone for that to work though. It's odd that Fulmer gets hit so hard on his fastball when he has a high spin rate and good release point that makes his perceived velocity better than the measured velocity. Just goes to show that sometimes you just have to go out and play the games.

Crazy that Montas only has a little more than a year of service time with 100 innings across 4 years and 3 seasons under his belt. I'm guessing someone lucked out with him getting hurt just after a demotion.

Woah now, the Big Hurt was a clearly superior hitter compared to Cabrera. He had a better peak and was more consistently great. But it is true that Eloy is more similar to Cabrera than Thomas