chw42

He really made himself some money this year with how he's hit. He's gotten a lot more patient too.

It seems like he throws 2 of them too. One like a classic knuckle curve that drops 12-9 and another one that almost breaks like a slurve. Or maybe that's just his erratic control on the pitch.

Nice job by Kimbrel to clean up the mess.

Don't throw him a fastball in the zone.

lmao how was that caught?

Kimbrel's curve doesn't have a whole lot of bite right now. It's in the zone, but they're kind of hanging up there.

This is fucking embarrassing.

Robert made another dumb play throwing home.

Welp there goes those 2 runs we scored.

He made Gomes look bad before that too with his cutter. TBF, that play should have been made on Gomes' grounder. I'm not sure what kind of positioning we were playing there.

How many times is Tony gonna try to save Kimbrel or Hendriks by going to a lesser reliever only to use them 3 batters later anyways?

Christ Robert...pick up the damn ball. This has been happening way too often.

Burr in. There's a chance he might make this into a save situation for Kimbrel.

Man Diekman's been getting destroyed.

GOODWIN!

Seems like the obvious play here, especially for defense. But TLR doesn't think so.

Sox have done this 3 times against Oakland already. Bases loaded in the first inning and end up with only 1 run.

I'll be happy with just 1 win this series given our history in Oakland and who we're throwing out there as starters. The A's are coming off an abysmal series in Toronto though. Lou Trivino singlehandedly blew 3 games for them recently.

I mean it's not that hard to predict doom and gloom for a team that hasn't been very good since the ASB. Either way, it's basically 50/50 that he's right or wrong. I think a lot of people on this board have their doubts on just how good this team will be in the playoffs, but I don't think everyone is saying for sure that they'll fail like OP is. Besides, the MLB playoffs are a total crapshoot.

Yeah up until the Rays start in Tampa, he was actually pretty decent until he got went through the order the 3rd time. That's been his issue most of his career though.

A 3.65 ERA in September/October for his career is notoriously bad I guess...

The Blue Jays were hitting the ball off Lynn that game pretty hard, they just happened to go right at people. He's clearly been working through some stuff injury-wise. I don't think he's really been fully healthy all year. First it was the neck issue he went on the IL for and now it's the knee.

That 2000 rotation was all smoke and mirrors. Parque's arm was also about to fall off and Sirotka's actually did right after the season. Lynn and Giolito's injuries aren't that serious. Rodon is concerning, but even without him, we have wayyy better starters than we did in 2000.

2021 Keuchel: 2020 Keuchel: The biggest difference I see is that his cutter is now terrible. He was mostly throwing it low and in to hitters last year. It's far more off the plate this year and up. High cutters get destroyed. And if it's too far inside, righties won't swing at it. He was in a good place with it last year, but now it's a meat pitch. It's so terrible that he throws it 5% less now. His cutter was his best pitch by run value last year at +10. It's now his second worst (next to the sinker) at -9. That's almost a 20 run difference in the span of a year. His slider is also far more inconsistent this year, which is a big reason why his number vs. lefties are terrible. It seems like he only throws his sinker and change up in almost one spot as well, which kind of goes back to the idea that he's been nibbling since he's afraid of those 2 pitches getting hit hard if they are anywhere near the middle of the plate (and they have been). I think the fact that he can't use his cutter anymore as a consistent out-pitch has decreased the effectiveness of his change up and sinker. His control on the cutter has been bad all year with the exception of a few starts. When he's had good cutter command, he's been able to post good starts vs. good offenses like Cincinnati, Tampa, and Toronto. When he hasn't had it...well you've seen how the last 3 starts went.