Jake

Tall left field wall covered in ads gives me a minor league vibe. Especially with the late afternoon lighting.

I continue to think that opposing teams try to bait us into running leads based on timing like that. Or else the Sox have a team philosophy of being very aggressive in stealing on a pitcher's cadence and it causes them to get burned more than I've ever seen.

Also despite what I said about Braden's arm looking weaker than expected, his defense overall has been way above expectation as he's catching everything and making it look easy as he does it. His jumps as measured by Statcast would rank #5 or #2 in MLB depending on which version of it you prefer. That's not the "he's raw but will get better later" guy we were told he would be. Offense for him isn't perfect but I'm very comfortable that he's the best RF option in the organization and he clearly isn't overwhelmed so I think you can reasonably believe he's getting good developmental reps in MLB as he currently posts league averageish production.

Just for the record, despite this talk about Romo, I don't think he was at fault for that wild pitch run. That was a really bad pitch and I think it hit home plate which made the bounce even more unpredictable.

I think what fathom means by salvaging is consistent with what you're saying. They see signs of life and want to give him a chance to play every day so he might get himself back to a competent level. I think the Sox don't have high hopes for Romo so they don't really mind if his low usage makes him worse.

Statcast data on Braden's arm has him averaging about 91mph on competitive throws, which is very good. And FWIW, those same metrics say he's holding runners better than the average RF. But the hardest throw has been 93mph, which is pretty unimpressive and certainly low for a player with a reputed 60-70 grade arm. On the showcase circuit he hit 100 on outfield throws which is more in line with what you'd expect to see on occasion from a guy with a gun out there. But you look at him throwing and it doesn't look like he's throwing it as hard as he can basically ever. He makes some throws that look impressive, especially on plays where there's no time to get momentum behind the throws — the ball comes out like a strong-armed 3B would throw it on a ball to his backhand side. But then on the few plays like that sac fly, it looks like he throws it with more concern about making it accurate. There's worse things you can do, but it has just left me wondering whether he's nursing some soreness or something.

As rotten as Romo has been, I just don't see them doing anything with him yet. Quero hasn't done anything to get called back up. They're not going to use a 40-man spot on Lee who is playing like crap in AAA. I don't know about Michael Turner's defense but his nice hitting stats in AAA look like a mirage per the Statcast data. I think the Sox are probably going to ride it out and hope Edgar shows some life down there.

I feel like Braden didn't get everything on that throw. In general, while he gets easy velocity on his throws, it feels like he just doesn't totally let it rip. I was hopeful he'd air it out there and get him but it's a tall ask. Hope Richards can end the rally here and the Sox won't be in too bad of shape. Teams are really playing about evenly in this one so far but the O's have been lucky enough to get all their production into one inning.

Dominant inning

Threw 3 pitches in the zone in the leadoff AB, ump missed two of them

Amazing that Drew Romo has already screwed Noah Schultz

Joe Rock is a giant left-hander with a funky throwing motion, I think it's obvious why the Sox were interested in him. It's like asking what somebody sees in Sydney Sweeney since she says dumb things sometimes.

I haven't really been a Peoples believer, so in principle trading him is fine by me. But I am definitely a little confused about the return. Even if you saw something in this kid you traded for, well, you probably could have had him for a small cash fee. I almost wonder if that's how the conversation between the teams started.

FWIW, yesterday Braden dove for a bloop off the bat of Isaac Collins and came up just short. Some folks thought he might have misplayed it since the ball hung up in the air for a long time. Statcast data is in: 5% catch probability, the first time Statcast has classified a ball hit to him as potentially catchable without him catching it. That's basically at the "only PCA can catch it" tier. So ultimately I'm fairly impressed that he was only a step from catching it and his ability to run down fly balls continues to impress, especially when you consider the scouting reports usually suggested that he didn't know what he was doing out there and would have to develop in order to be a good overall outfield defender. Interestingly, this is his highest difficulty catch so far: https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/sporty-videos?playId=2131e45a-c7a0-33f5-bc02-8a31eccd7a58 Such a good jump and speed that it looks like a routine out.

This play is going to help, but the metrics have not liked Braden's throwing arm so far. We know he's reputed to have a gun but I've thought the ball has tended to come out of his hand not looking too good in these MLB games. Statcast has not gunned a throw of his in MLB above 92.7mph which is not very fast at all, especially since he's had several opportunities where he's looked like he was airing it out. He hit 100mph+ on outfield throws on the showcase circuit. I think his arm might be hurting him or something.

5 hop assist from Braden, lol

Sam would have lost the challenge that he wishes he had

Saving too many of our baserunners for 2 out situations. Hard to manufacture runs when that happens.

So far, Sox have played them about even on the batter vs. pitcher confrontation, but Sox have an error and allowed them to run wild on the bases. Sox have not gained an edge for themselves in those areas.

I don't want to see Cruz pitch anymore.

I think it's a thing that started coming into fashion around the time I stopped playing baseball. Basically functions as a cushion to reduce the sting/vibration on balls hit off of the sweet spot. If that's what it is, I'm not sure why he'd keep it on while running the bases other than just not wanting to lose it.

I know you were wondering, but no the Sox do not lead MLB in pickoffs. That moves us to 11. There are two teams with 13 (COL and TBR) and one with 12 (HOU). Sox move into a tie with ATL. Interestingly, HOU and ATL have stolen very few bases relative to the others on the leaderboard.

Richards is an interesting player to me. He's essentially a trick pitcher. The trick often works but you never know when it's going to stop working. The trick being that he has a changeup that breaks almost a foot more than any comparable change at the same speed would be expected to.

Jensen has had no problem seeing Kay at all today. I think he's just sitting sweeper or else knows it's coming from tipping/scouting.

On the bloop double, what I see on the Statcast view is that the route was maybe a step or two deep. My guess is when we get the catch probability, it will rank as a difficult play. Up to today, Braden has caught every ball that Statcast has judged as potentially catchable by a major league outfielder thus far. He hasn't had many high-difficulty ones hit his way though.