Jake

Guess we're not going to challenge...

As far as professional ABs go, Benny is currently at a career high in chase rate and it's not really trending down. He's also at a career low in zone contact but that has improved a lot in the past 2 or 3 weeks so that may not last.

Could Benny do just well enough that you could get another team to take on any portion of his salary?

Benny crushes in the game-tying ribby

Not sure why they have him shifted to pull. Maybe the data contradicts my intuition.

Burke averaging 20" induced vertical break on his 4-seam today which is just stupendous and even better than his already-great norm. That will tend to induce whiffs. Part of the T-Mobile effect is that a mixture of the prevailing wind blowing in from center and the overall environmental conditions makes most pitchers' pitches move better.

Nice pitching!

Not exactly making the Mariners earn it here

91.9

There was no problem using Castillo in relief. But look at that 9th inning. Mune, Vargas, Colson due up. That's where you either go get a trusted lefty (may have already burned their only one?) or just your most trusted reliever, period. If you're up by three, sure keep Castillo stretched out and maybe give him some momentum. But it's a 1-run game. I bet Munoz's poor start to the season played a role in the decisionmaking too.

Sorry for lacking sources, but I saw an interview with Jacob Gonzalez recently in which he expressed interest in playing the outfield. Said he felt comfortable doing so thanks to experience from his amateur days. He probably would like a taste of those big league paychecks so he might be willing to say such a thing even if he doesn't mean it, lol

Rock is getting a lot more whiff this season in AAA than he has gotten before. That is coming at a big price in that he's posting walk numbers that make Hagen Smith look like Greg Maddux. Just glancing at the Statcast data, seems that he's gained a good bit of extension this season whilst throwing slightly more overhand. Not sure that it's been a great tradeoff. The command metrics are trending in the right direction, though. In May, he's got 6.2 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 4 BB, 11 K. Whiff rate way down, zone rate way up, effectiveness pretty fine. Sox pitching brain trust likes guys with weird releases and Rock is a big dude (think Hudson) who doesn't throw that hard (think Hudson), is left-handed (think Hudson), throws from a low arm slot (think Hudson), gets a surprising amount of strikeouts given the stuff (think Hudson), but has been limited by command (think Hudson). Unlike Hudson, Rock had always been a starter until late last season.

I assume Miguel got an X-ray before hitting the hay last night. Not sure what to make of there not being an update coming out of that. Obviously the late hour might just be the explanation for everything. I'd be hopeful that nothing showed on the X-ray but they want to see if it's badly swollen or bruised before putting something out there about his condition.

That's my 9 hitter! I'm a big Rikuu fan because I love a weird little guy but I don't know if his game will translate whatsoever. Don't know if they can simply bring the outfield in to take away the dink and dunk game. Don't know if his defense will grade out well, especially if they try him in the outfield. But I want to see it work out, somehow some way!

By the way, at some point we may have to have an uncomfortable conversation about Nishida posting an .886 OPS in AAA

I think the ability to play SS is a plus for Acuna but not something that is going to keep his spot on the roster. You're two deep all over the place and in the worst case, even Antonacci could play a competent-enough SS for a game (or part of one) if something extraordinary happened. I think maybe you could end up with more outfielders than you need, but ultimately they might just start looking at Jacob Gonzalez, Rikuu Nishida, etc. rather than continuing to turn to Acuna. Bright side is his chances of passing through waivers are only increasing and he's a player who could realistically really benefit from some time in AAA — especially the joke of a stadium Charlotte plays in where you are massively incentivized to learn how to loft the ball a little bit.

I'm probably something approximating an Acuna booster but I think it's fairly clear the Sox have seen him as a dead man walking for at least a couple weeks now. I don't think he survives the upcoming returns of Hays and soon thereafter, Pereira. I might lean towards just cutting Grichuk when Hays comes back but that will only delay the inevitable with regard to Acuna if the rest of the current squad stays healthy.

IMO, Sox do not have enough trustworthy relievers to use an opener for Kay except in special cases

I guess I'll piss in the punch bowl and point out that we have a chance of a very disheartening Vargas update in the near future

Winning ugly anyone?

It's a real baseball team folks, this one is going to win somewhere in the neighborhood of 50% of the 50/50 games!

To be frank, it's a great gig for him. Controlling how often he has to pitch to lefties greatly increases his usefulness

Boo yeah!

Don't blow it buddy!

Strike 3 to Acuna appears to have justttttt barely clipped the zone. Good no-challenge (especially because you have to ask what is the benefit of buying this batter another strike anyway)