chw42

This could open up Conforto going back to the Mets on a 1 year deal. I do find it kind of funny that they didn't want to change the rule just for Kyrie Irving, but now that the Yankees and Mets came knocking, they change the rule.

Kimbrel doesn't seem too concerned.

Yeah, just like how the Sox were going to acquire a left handed bat for RF this off-season, right?

Crochet's pitching today too. Interested to hear about how his stuff looks.

I've heard Lucas was sitting around 95 and can get up to 97. Not sure where Lynn's at, but seeing how he pitched today and knowing him, he's probably not ready yet. Kimbrel looks like he should be throwing side sessions with Kelly. Either his arm strength isn't there or his mechanics are so out of whack that he's losing a ton of velocity on his fastball.

You're doing Ray Ray's job for him. Something involving Kimbrel sucking and James? You'd think he would be in here like the Flash.

I looked this up. Between 6/21 and 7/30, he pitched 7.1 innings, gave up 0 runs, had a 0.72 FIP, 18.4 K/9, and 4.9 BB/9. His BB/9 in this period of time was 2 higher than his BB/9 in his innings before the ban, but his K/9 was also 3 higher. Could just be SSS variance. Either way, the results didn't seem to be affected much until he got to the Sox. I also looked at his spin rates around that time. He did throw with a little higher spin (like 50 RPMs on average) before the crackdown, but nothing too drastic.

Didn't he lose his closer job in 2020? He was still averaging 97 on his fastball that year.

I mean he was still really good with the Cubs after the crackdown, no? There was about a 5 week gap between the crackdown and when he got traded.

FWIW, Kimbrel never had velocity issues when he was bad with the Cubs. He had a lot of control issues. Now he has velocity and control issues...

I think the general rule of thumb for ST is that if you see nobodies performing like they're Mike Trout, it doesn't mean anything. But if an older pitcher like Kimbrel's stuff looks terrible and he gets hit around, it's a very bad sign. I remember Halladay looked awful in the Spring of 2013 and then he went on to retire that year.

I feel like the general consensus among other baseball fans is that Kimbrel's struggles were a combination of regression to the mean and him not pitching the 9th inning. What they didn't know is that his mechanics were fucked with us and his stuff and control were nowhere near what they were when he was with the Cubs. The fact that he's not even throwing 95 now means he's probably cooked.

Haven't you heard? Making him closer automatically adds 5 MPH to his fastball. ?

Yeah, that's not gonna work.

Since this isn't on TV, I can't really tell if Kimbrel looks any different than he did last year, but the box score sure doesn't help!

I know it's ST, but that can't be good for Kimbrel's trade value.

Garver's problem was always staying healthy. When healthy, he's a really good hitting catcher.

I mean, if it's between McCann and Harper vs. Grandal and Keuchel, I'd take the one with Harper in it every time.

The only problem is that he's a horrible OFer. He's probably no better than Sheets out there.

This is true. LaRussa was definitely his doing.

I don't really blame Jerry for spending this money so damn poorly. Even if we couldn't commit big money over multiple years for a RFer, there were short-term options that made so much more sense than what we did.

Last year, it was overcoming TLR. This year, it's overcoming TLR and the front office. Next year, it'll be overcoming TLR, the FO, and JR.

I remember thinking there was no way we'd spend $30+ million for 2 closers last year. Now we've done that and spent an additional $16 million on 2 other relievers. It's pure insanity.

He struggled in the first half cause he was battling injuries, but fared much better to end the season in August and September. His .340 wOBA in the 2nd half was much closer to his career norms. That's a sign that he hasn't just lost it and can't ever recover from his bad 2021. His Statcast numbers weren't that far off from his numbers in 2020, where he had a career year. His exit velocity, hard hit rate, and launch angle were all better in 2021 than in 2020. In fact, his xwOBA was .350, whereas his wOBA was .322. He even cut down on strike outs and walked more last year. There is a lot to point to in the underlying numbers that say Conforto will most likely bounce back. The only things I'd be concerned about him going forward is the lower barrel rate, which was its lowest it has ever been in his career last year and his lower line drive rate, which was also low compared to his career average last year. Those 2 factors probably affected his power output quite a bit, which is an area of concern for him going forward. I just think dismissing Conforto because of his subpar 2021 surface numbers gives a very incomplete picture of who he is as a player. Let's face it, the Sox would have no shot of signing Conforto had he had a normal year in 2021. But his subpar 2021 has afforded the Sox to have a seat at the table. It's just too bad the Sox have no intention of taking a seat.

It really should be Robert, but you know TLR is gonna either run Leury or Harrison there.