ptatc

Kahnle, Clippard, Gonzalez, and Swarzak just from last year. All had good enough years to get traded.

Yes. He had a hamstring issue.

I've seen plenty of times where velocity is inconsistent. One is the deadarm period. another is a young pitcher struggling with mechanics. Another one could be he had trouble getting loose because he has been the only Sox starter to go to 100 pitches regularly in the beginning of the season. A fourth one especially with the Sox and cooper could be adjustments to philosophy. If you remember the last start he was 92-93 in the first inning but 96-97 in the second. I could see this conversation: Coop: Hey Rey. I know you've been out there throwing as hard as you can but you aren't getting many strikeouts or swings and misses. How about we try taking something off the fastball to get more swings and misses. Lopez: Ok. that sounds good. After the first inning and getting beat around. Lopez: I think I'm going back to my way. Coop: Yeah. We'll work on it the next game. This game is a game of adjustments and learning.

Its very common for all pitchers to go through dead arm periods. Ever heard an announcer discuss having to pitch without their best stuff? If youve never seen a young pitcher struggle to adjust to MLB hitter or struggle to amintain their stuff, you havent watch enough MLB. Its fairly rare that a young pitcher comes up to the MLB and doesnt have a period of adjustment and can be consistent right away.

Sale and Rodon come to mind in recent memory. Believe it or not some players need to be pushed to the point of failure then go learn from it. Some can do it in the MLB. Some need to go down again. Very few of them can come to the MLB and stay. Don't be surprised that Kopech pr Jimenez come to the MLB and need to go back down. How many times to Rizzo go to the MLB and need to go back down. Player development isnt linear.

Thanks for the reminder. Sorry, I lost my head there for a second.

Isn't this a common issue with young pitchers? The guy has started 22 MLB games and he is supposed to be a finished product? You a far too pessimistic.

I would say that it still qualfies as freedom of speech. I don't agree with it but it still qualifies. Opinions are out there in many forms whether you agree with them or not. Not believing anything any one person writes or says should be something every parent teaches their children, especially in mass media outlets.

After only 257 at bats, you are ready to declare him done? Thaffs not evrn half a season. I wouldnt say thats a solid shot.

+1

Everyone is entitled to free speech and due process. As soon as you start restricting those, it becomes the police state that these wacko groups say is happening. It's up to the parents raising these kids to show them right from wrong. With the population increasing there will always be a greater number of mentally unstable people that the parents won't be able to teach. I don't know enough about that to know if it can be predicted or prevented.

Nice. He's going to have a nice little bump there for the rest of his life.

I really don't think the single release point and repeatability is the primary issue. Many of the walks yesterday had a consistent grouping of pitches. He just needs to make some adjustment to bring that grouping in the zone. That is what he needs to work on.

No. Not unless it is a complete fracture and is significantly displaced,which can happen but doesn't often.

If he can't figure out how to throw strikes, he won't help in the bullpen. As i said in the game thread, his piches seemed to group well but just out of the strike zone. He needs to move over on the rubber or find a way to get that group in the strike zone. His pitches have excellent movement.

It is most likely closer to the 6 weeks. The callus of the bone will form in 4 weeks. This is when it will be stable. However, it won't be fully healed for 8 weeks. It just depends on how large the fracture is. The third metacarpal is the most stable bone which all the other metacarpals move around when you grab something. So it is important to heal properly.

The fact that his groupings are so tight in the same spot tells me he's got pretty good control. He's throwing them where he wants to. He needs an adjustment to get it over the plate.

Hopefully, when he says he is learning to stay over the top more, he is being serious about it. This will be the change that will keep the injury from happening again.

It's like the Cubs of the early 70's (i think) when they had 3 pitchers scheduled to only go 3 innings each. Who knew the cubs were the future back then?

He led of all of NCAA in HRs. Did the entire nation have marginal power that year?

This is the key. He had adjusted to them. It will change again. The really successful players continually make adjustments. This is what someone like Beckham couldn't do.

I totally agree with this. It's asinine for things like this to be legal.

Yes. most people are in favor of increased gun control, even within the NRA membership.

No. However, something like a ban on all semi-automatic weapons could be the next step from greater regulations in ammo, magazines and vetting (all of which I'm am in favor of).

That would be the goal. However, do we just wait around and continue to watch this in the meantime?