Jake

Looking like this season is going to be a hell of a grind for Giolito

Almost literally tripping over our own dicks out there

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 12, 2018 -> 08:59 PM) Doesn't show his velocity in Charlotte There was a lot of doom and gloom about his velocity in Charlotte early last season, but no we don't have hard measurements. I don't know how you could look at that and not be really concerned about it. It's not 100% evidence of something that can't be flukey, but it's certainly much more probable than not that his "true" velocity irrespective of time of season/weather is on a downward trend.

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 12, 2018 -> 08:51 PM) Was his velocity better to start last year? Don't think so

Hard to understand Giolito's dropping velocity. Have to wonder if this ends with a surgery for him.

I sure don't get this one. It's like a reward just for pitching all those miserable mop-up end of game innings in spring training.

Out of curiosity, do the Sox have long-ish term control over Bruce Rondon or is he treated like a typical MLB free agent on a 1-year deal?

Well folks I think people may have been a little quick to anoint Renteria as an amazing manager.

I'm honestly not overly alarmed by this kind of outing from Fulmer. It's obviously not good but I knew he was going to fight his command a lot and that's what this was. I'm encouraged because his stuff looked good and they struggled to square him up. I'm prepared for much of his season to be filled with this kind of inconsistency.

There's really very little doubt that he's going to be a competent hitter. The real question is how good will it get? His propensity to strike out means there's some risk he's going to be more of a .750-.800 OPS type, but I don't see much downside below that.

Really excited about Lopez. I'm not going to lose sleep over the offense at this point given there aren't specific guys who really worry me as of yet.

QUOTE (SoxAce @ Apr 7, 2018 -> 04:20 PM) Honestly, Fulmer didn't look good either. Sox just couldn't capitalize on his mistakes. We had a chance to get to him, but his stuff looked great. Right when you start to think you can hit that running heater at 95, he mixes in a changeup or cutter to throw you off.

QUOTE (Scoots @ Apr 7, 2018 -> 04:12 PM) I disagree. Let him work through the jam. He makes the double play earlier, the inning is over. He almost threw more balls than strikes, never had any rhythm, and hit the first two batters of the inning. The best thing we could do is have the start end without him giving up any more runs than he had to. There was no value in having him continue to pitch the way he did today.

Shouldn't have had him in there with a rested bullpen

QUOTE (soxfan49 @ Apr 7, 2018 -> 03:47 PM) He’s throwing 91 mph You say that, but it's not like the Tigers hitting him has really been the problem in this game at all. It's his command and to a lesser extent the defense. Hard to blame the stuff for the runs in this outing

Giolito is very concerned about his speed to home so I can only assume that each stolen base will further contribute to his inconsistency

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 7, 2018 -> 03:18 PM) Yet looked good in the dome I think part of the reason he looks like he's half-assing it is it's just the way he bats. Just looks like he's teeing off every swing. It obviously has worked for him

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 7, 2018 -> 03:16 PM) Giolito, Abreu and Castillo look like they're in slow motion Castillo in particular has looked half-there most of the season thus far for me.

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 7, 2018 -> 03:10 PM) Davidson great eye this year I think that's the big thing to watch from him in terms of early indicators that he's a different guy from last year.

I do like the run on Giolito's fastball today.

Giolito falling apart out of the stretch also reminiscent of Gavin Floyd, his alter ego

QUOTE (mac9001 @ Apr 7, 2018 -> 02:30 PM) Giolito's fastball velocity has been very underwhelming so far, he's down probably another 2 MPH over even last year. Tricky thing with this can be when he's throwing the cutter that can look a lot like a slow fastball to the naked eye.

Yoan has basically zero track record of being a bad hitter. I'm not going to worry about him too much.

QUOTE (bmags @ Apr 5, 2018 -> 07:55 PM) I’d mark this one down as a game where Ricky’s guys kinda quit (and Ricky too). I'm not sure how I see that one. We rolled with our best end of game bullpen configuration with a 4 run lead and gave up the lead anyway.

Infante was basically minimum MLB competence last year but he has looked...not even up to that low bar this year.