Jake

Entering today, Statcast expected Palka to catch 92% of the balls hit to him this season if he were an average defender. Actual catch percentage: 69%

Please spare me another month of Palka playing defense

Should be a good test for Lopez. They really didn't hit him very well last inning, but mentally he might feel like he's getting his ass kicked. Has to just buckle in and forget about it

One hell of an unlucky inning for Lopez

Don't worry, Zack and Seby are on their way

Here's all of his starts with us:

I'm ready for Avi to come back.

Well the one game on one game off pattern probably is random. The variation is really weird though. His average velo varies by 2 mph game by game

Just had a "is that Adam LaRoche???" moment

Wonder what's going on. At least the bad stuff version of Lopez still has good stuff. His version of taking lumps still looks like a guy who could figure it out.

Lopez game by game velocity this year. Clear "tick tock" pattern and we're unfortunately on a "tock" day

Our defensive alignments have not served us well thus far in this inning

He looks really, really bad out there

Okay, my half-baked rankings for the Sox: 1. Mize 2. Madrigal 3. Liberatore 4. Bart You'll get one of the four, so no sense ranking beyond that.

I know all the caveats about drafting for need, but I just don't know what we'd do with another OF in our low minors. Lucky there aren't many that we would seriously consider at our spot.

As far as the HOF discussion is concerned, it's easier for me to entertain the case of guys like this because there's a testing regimen in place and I have a decent amount of trust in it.

Was just reported on MLB Network that part of the drug testing agreement calls for an independent doctor to review cases like this to determine whether there was likely a legitimate medical use for the substance. Given that he was suspended, the doctor must not have been convinced.

105.6 off the bat there for Nicky. 73% hit probability per Statcast. Wrong ballpark/conditions to hit it there.

Here's Lucas's average release points this year. You can see the curve is release both much higher and earlier than the others. The slider is released earlier but coming from closer to the same spot in terms of left/right and up/down so is probably still hard to track out of the hand.

If I had to guess, I think it may mean the opposite. What we can't see in that chart is the distance from home but I suspect the reason the curveballs are higher release point is because he lets go of them sooner (before the arm is finished moving forward).

I'm having too much fun with Statcast, but if you wonder why nobody swings and misses at Lucas's curveball it's because its release is almost a foot higher than his fastball.

Fry managed to get 4 different pitch types into that one at bat. Last year I thought part of his problem was trying to use what was a pretty big repertoire even for a starter. But this year he's kept the 4-5 pitch mix and is dominating.

Fry's ability to mix up his pitches out of the pen is astounding to me

If you wonder whether the problem is Lucas's ability to repeat his release point... (this is just today) It is. Hendricks today for comparison:

Really playing with fire leaving Gio in here