JoeC

You haven't been watching the Sox play the Royals this year, have you?

Am I allowed to say that Kelly looks good right now? Or will that ruin things?

I understand that. Trying to compromise since the team insists he has to be active to be able to play defense in CF.

My Gawd Luis is awful at the plate right now. Can we just use our DH on him instead of the pitcher?

2 RBI single!!!

Bases loaded, nobody out in the 7th....

We'll see. To me, 2023 is the bellwether season for him. We knew going into 2022 that he'd be ramping up. We'd see his velocity decrease, arm tire out, and preventative stints on the IL. Given that, I'm willing to give a somewhat of a pass on his 2022 season as far as durability and sustainment are concerned. 2023 is the big test - he's got his innings up closer to a starter's workload (120IP and counting... nearly a career high for him, including minors), and he's going to be an established member of the rotation with routines worked out, etc.

1-0 seems insurmountable.

Physical error you expect out of a rookie occasionally in the spotlight. Not acceptable, but I'm giving Romy the benefit of the doubt... at least half as much as the team seems to have given other fielders.

When i read this thread title for some reason it reminds me of the primal scream my cat lets out right before she vomits

Probably depends on where the muscle is, right?

Well, here's to hoping Project Birmingham pans out.

Sorry for the long post - been thinking about this a bit, but I've been noticing something a little bit different with Gio's mechanics... specifically on the finishing side. Long story short, it seems like in 2020 (didn't look at 2021), his follow-through was much leggier - as in, he would land and follow through with a much more pronounced knee bend on his front leg. I have no expertise in pitching mechanics, but I do know that: 1) stride and landing are crucially important to velocity; 2) sometimes upper body issues can manifest themselves in the legs (some form of compensation). Below are 4 screen shots from home starts - two from his 2020 no hitter, and two from 2022 against the Angels. 1) 2020 Fastball: 2) 2022 Fastball: I've tried grabbing exact same frames, but I'm dealing with YouTube screenshots here (no frame-by-frame available), but in watching / pausing many times, it looks like his motion in 2020 was more toward home plate, and 2022 seems to be more toward the first base side / torsional (less longitudinal) 3) 2020 Changeup: 4) 2022 Changeup: Here's the main difference I see. In all clips of 2020, you can see the landing and finish like you see above in image (3). In 2022, his finish is much more straight-legged. To me (again, I'm NOT an expert in baseball mechanics... just hockey stuff), this suggests either a) less of a forward push off of his back leg (less momentum to absorb), or b) more strain on his knee, or c) I don't know wtf I'm talking about, but it looks different anyways. To me, the biggest outward symptom of Gio's 2022 season has been a dip in velocity from 94~97 to 90~93. That's either indicative of aging (not likely yet at age 28...?), injury (maybe), or a change in mechanics. No, you don't NEED velocity to succeed, but if you've built your repertoire based on throwing at one velocity and are now throwing softer, you're going to need to change something.

2 strikes now. gotta walk him NOW, right?

That homer by Yaz was seemingly the first time I've seen him with THAT swing (swing-to-bat drop) all seaso.

Bummer inducing grounder after grounder... all to Elvis.

Tony's gonna be pissed when he finds out about this.

3 home runs?

E-2. Why wasn't Jose taking that one?

...and for comparison, Leury's had a slash line of .212 / .212 / .212 / .424 over that same timeframe. (Yes - BA = OBP = SLG. All singles. No walks, no XBH). Just putting it out there for reference.

Posting this here for posterity... because that's clearly something that is important.

Again, thank you for the updates and information. ...and again, I wish all IT teams communicated as transparently and frequently as you have throughout this process.

There it is. We've found our 2022 slogan.

Joe Kelly with an uncharacteristic lights-out first AB (3-pitch strikeout including a painted-corner sinker for strike 1 and a wipeout curveball for strike 3)

From those numbers it's clear that teams are afraid to run on our outfielders.