caulfield12

So are DJ and Kasper…especially Jackson.

Anderson up to .363, battling with Arraez. And more poor baserunning. Boston caught sleeping, too. First base coach reacting late.

Ten outs, 7 k’s. Would prefer he still had the bullets in the gun for the 6th and 7th.

You can’t give up that many missed opportunities to score and not pay the price against Toronto.

Abreu visibly wincing.

Anderson needed to be at second and now 3rd…not the first baserunning error by Mendick this year. We should be up 3 or 4 to 0…Abreu needs to salvage something. Could have had a triple play there.

Alcohol-induced?

Or Rolen.

Harrison finally over a 600 ops but can’t come through there with a huge base knock to extend the lead.

Why is Zavala swinging 3-0? Interesting there TLR. Almost worked.

Stay inside the baseball. Three swings towards RF so far this inning.

Pollock finally over a 600 OPS against RHP. Blue Jays’ starters have struggled to a 9.31 ERA and fewer than 4 innings their last five games…bullpen really worn down.

Eloy Jimenez 0/3 tonight at DH. Not hurt as of yet. Maybe teach him to strike out rather than ground out…? Have to take the Gausman splitter up the middle and to RF just like they did with Verlander. Big power swings and you just top the ball into the ground for DPs.

He’s the anti-Uribe hands-wise. Hands of stone. Which would be quite useful for boxing and MMA. Naylor terrorizing the Twins now, too. 3-0.

Slider is killing off the Jays one by one…killing two birds with one stone.

Kirk was walking more than striking out before that at-bat. Pretty much half these guys will be in the All-Star game.

Plus Burger’s not as athletic…he picked up that ball he misplayed with the glove. More experienced players know the runner and barehand it. Can’t imagine all the plays he would struggle with at second base.

It’s warmer than SF, and has that nice cool crisp air at night by the water…

Is going at 75-85% actually protecting them, though? Look at the recent Grandal and Moncada injuries. One thing it does lead to is that getting into the scouting report that you run run run on the Sox outfielders other than Engel until they start cutting down runners with some consistency. Fwiw, the Eloy injury was obviously flukey, like Machado having a similar play over the weekend where the 1B actually blocked his path coming over into foul territory.

Baltimore has been playing MUCH better the last 4-6 weeks. They are no longer pushovers like DET. That also comes from playing nearly half the season against four playoff contenders in the East. Have won 8 of their last 14, fwiw. RS/RA they are -39. White Sox -38.

There are currently 24 qualified guys in the majors with a 3.00 ERA or below (Rodon #19, Cease tied for 20th). The big question now is how he reacts to the knee discomfort and prevents a second half fade like 2021…especially considering they have to be a bit careful in the middle of the year with his usage to keep him fresh for August/Sept. Kopech would be 11th behind Corbin Burnes at 2.38, along with a sub 1.00 WHIP. Of course, he would need to be at 65 innings pitched. Averaging 88 pitches per game his last seven starts…one game he left after just 13 pitches. 56.66 IP/12 starts gives you an average of 4 2/3, pretty similar to Cease (correcting for early injury game you get 5.15 IP/game). Obviously both those guys are taxing the pen, along with Giolito having a propensity to get knocked out early, at least recently. Over the course of a full year, Kopech would be at 141 innings, which is pretty close to that 120-140 range everyone was looking at before the season. The problem is just as much the high pitch counts, though.

Through at least 2023 at $3.75 million.

Winning the Gold Glove so early in his career didn’t help. He needs a defensive specialist like Rusty Kuntz in KC that would demand the players’ attention and respect…with that history of turning guys like Gordon, Cain and Dyson into defensive studs. Boston isn’t that guy. We need those young guys like Moncada and Robert working hard or even harder than anyone else…to set an example for the rest of the team. If Abreu can’t get through to them, another approach is needed.

Even if he gets to that ball to cut it off in the corner…it’s a double. Maybe he prevents a few triples. But then Jimenez in LF is going to undermine the defense more than enough to offset any advantage gained.

Pollock has a 593 OPS against RHP and almost 1000 against lefties. Hahn mission a failure in that regard. Abreu and Robert have been decent but still mid to low 700’s against RHP…726 for Luis and that obviously has to tick up to the 750-775 range. Vaughn 877 vs. 918 is the obvious major improvement. Burger 643 vs. 1.169 even more extreme than Pollock. Brandon Drury, fwiw, is this year’s Cesar Hernandez/Adam Frazier candidate. Near 800 against righties and 1000 against lefties.