Dominikk85

There is a zero percent chance that ricky gets fired after this year, even if they lose all the remaining games they still had a 92 win pace season and ricky has a good chance to win manager of the year. Yeah he also had a good team but it still beat the preseason projections by about 6 or 7 games. There simply is no precedent for a team projected for 85 wins winning 92+ games firing their manager. This is a talented team but by no means they were considered a juggernaut like the Dodgers or astros and they do have some big holes too (back of rotation, bullpen depth). There is a reason why projection systems had the sox around mid 80s wins. However I think next season he could be on a somewhat short leash, not after a bad month but if he is let's say 6 games under .500 at the all star break next year he could get fired.

Bummer hasn't pitched in 6 weeks either

Hahn has to be blamed just as much for not getting a starter at the deadline. The sox pen is overworked since they only have two starters who can go more than 5 innings which means you have to pitch bullpen innings by bad guys.

It is only partially his fault since the sox pen has been overworked a lot recently and some guys just need a breather but still rodon should not pitch here, he has no control over the ball.

Why is he throwing 7 fastballs in a row? Doesn't he have a breaking ball?

Madrigal has played the last 10 games in a row while Sanchez got 14 ABs in September,I wouldn't say that is too much, especially since he produced a .940 ops during that time. Now obviously that is not even close to his skill level but he neither has hit a lot, nor has he hurt the sox when he did. Madrigal probably just needs a breather here

Tell robert to be aggressive and on time with the fastball. Long term he should work on his plate discipline but you are not fixing this right now. Currently he tries to be patient and see the ball a little causing him to be in between the offspeed and the FB so he is often beat. He kinda tries to guess before pitch release whether it is a ball and strike leading to an only marginally lower if any chase rate but much lower zone swing rate. Tell him it is ok if he is on the FB and then whiffs on the slider in the dirt because if he is in between he is helping nobody. I rather have him hit a few fastballs 500 feet mixed with some embarrassing Ks on 3 consecutive sliders than him trying to be pseudo patient but in between pitch speeds so he doesn't really hit any pitch. Sure pitchers will adjust to that and he will strike out a lot but he just cant go looking on fastballs down the pipe because he tries to cover both speeds.

Or two top 100 prospects in a trade if they are multiple year cost controlled and under 30 (see chapman, Miller, Diaz). Obviously you try to make crochet a starter but if it doesn't work being a backend reliever is a very nice floor. On the other hand if you have a finesse/control pitcher throwing 92 and starting doesn't work you only have a spot starter or middle reliever which is not so great. Crochet also has upside, he could be an excellent starter too (not using the sale comparison here but he could be a dominant starter). Getting a possible dominant starter with a "floor" of an elite reliever is a damn nice get at 11 (of course not the actual floor as the actual floor is blows out his arm and never pitches again - but a "good outcome floor", maybe like 50th percentile or so)

Actually a high end reliever is not a dissapointing outcome for a 10th overall pick. The average 10th pick produces about 7 war over the 6 control years and the best relievers average about 2 war per year (chapman averaged 2.4 war his best 6 years). That means if crochet becomes hader or chapman that would be better than the average 10th or 11th pick. It is correct you don't want to draft a player with a reliever CEILING, you do need at least a 30-40% chance to start to migrate the downside and of course you give crochet every chance to become a starter the next couple years but if he turns out to be a high leverage reliever that absolutely would be a positive outcome. Here are the 11th overall picks 2007 to 16 (because later ones cant be evaluated yet). 2016: burger 2015: kyle Lewis 2014: pentecost 2013: dom smith 2012: addison russell 2011: george Springer 2010:deck McGuire (sounds made up:)) 2009: tyler matzek 2008: justin Smoak 2007: phillipe aumont So you can see that a high end reliever would not be the best guy of that group (that would be springer as the ceiling) but still that outcome would probably be 3rd or 4th at worst out of those 10 so about 60th to 70th percentile outcome. Still of course you dont want a ceiling reliever at 11 but if the sox think it is 40% good starter, 40% high end reliever, 20% journeyman or bust that is a great pick.

McCann is in a slump

It Sounds strange but imo robert is not aggressive enough. Long term you want to improve his plate discipline but right now his pitch recognition is what it is and imo robert tries to show false patience here by waiting a little longer to see the ball better and then being late on the FB. Javier baez had that too, the Cubs had one season where the Cubs tried to make him more patient and his chase rate slightly dropped but so did his zone swing. Robert needs to start guessing again and swing before he has fully recognized it. That isnt a great long term strategy but at least he would be all over the FB again even though he would look silly at times.

Probably a financial decision as you have no gate revenue and the safety concept with all the tests, possible quarantine and so on costs a lot. Bad for player dev of course but if it hurts anyone the same way the owners probably feel it is not so bad. They also have that instructional league as a replacement albeit it of course is on a much smaller scale

Hernandez is bad but I think it is also about were you miss. Hernandez is calling outside and also low but not up or in. The indians have missed a lot away while sox missed many in or up too.

The league is adjusting a bit to madrigal and catching some of those high liners into the oppo gap by playing the RF in. Madrigal needs to mix up his batted ball location a bit:).

Angel Hernandez is not good at umpiring:) But robert also looks lost, he chases balls and then takes strikes. At his best he is chasing but he is also all over balls in the zone.

The question is whether that improves the result. Yeah it is more sample size but the goal has to be to replicate the same result that would have happened over a full 162 this year. Would adding results of a different team improve the sample?

Mccann's stats are good but like Engel they are probably looking better due to being put into favorable matchups.

2019 standing after 60 games 1. Bal (+1) 2. Kc (-2) 3. Tor (-2) 4. Det (-3) 5. Mia (-1) 6. Sea (0) 7.SF (-6) 8. Washington (+14) 9. Reds (+3) 10. Mets (+9) 2020 end of season 1. Det 2. Bal 3. Mia 4. Kc 5. TOR 6.sea 7. Pittsburgh 8.SD 9. Col 10. LAL My suggestion would have been to use pythagorean record standing. End of may 2019 (little less than 60 games) 1. Mia (+3) 2. Det (-1) 3. Bal (-1) 4. SFG (-8) 5. Pitt (+2) 6.tor (-1) 7.sea (+1) 8. KC (-4) 9.CHW (+1) 10. Washington (+12) Every method is not really fair but what are you going to do?

Tatis only hit. 194 with a 75 ops+ in September so far.

I agree. The tigers actually overperformed this year, don't think the tigers blame him for their record when they go full tank mode. Maybe they wouldn't have brought him back anyway but I think with his health situation and the added risk of corona he was not willing to take the risk anymore (or his family didn't want him to).

I agree. Preller is great at trading and the international market but his free agent deals haven't been great. Myers and hosmer have hit well this year but have largely been a disappointment over their contract so far. The Machado deal has been looking ok but the under 30 years of a 300m deal should look good and later this could turn bad like the pujols deal. The clevinger deal was fantastic though, Padres trade away low upside but decent floor depth which might get rule 5ed or traded anyway in a year or two and get a stud starter.

I think EE and grandal is more on hahn than on ricky. EE has been sitting some games but you can't really sit him more than like 2 times a week or he would just block a roster spot, you are not carrying a part time DH on the roster, I.e. if you don't want him to play you need to release him or fake a DL stint. By keeping him on the roster hahn basically has decided EE plays at least 4-5 times a week. Grandal also is the most expensive FA in sox history of course Hahn wants him to play. The only decision that is really more on ricky is playing mazara over engel most of the time. Now engel's stats definitely benefit from being protected but he still could be better than mazara at this point albeit steamer and zips don't really agree and project engel about for a 75 wRC+ the rest of the way.

Madrigal hits a lot of 180 footers the other way for hits so they take the chance to take away some of those even of it means he occasionally beats you above the outfielders head.

Really can't blame ricky here. If he would brought in fry in the 8th you can criticize him but when you need a reliever in the 5th you can't use your top 2-3 pen guys because you will need them later. Fry came in with bases empty in the 5th, doesn't get lower leverage than that. If you don't use him here you can never use him.He simply didn't get it done.

6 pitches, no strikes so far