Dominikk85

Of course the royals would have been bad even without the injuries:)

Looked up some stat ranks in the AL by the sox. As of today Hitting Bb%: 7.2 (12th) K%: 24.8 (11th) Iso: .163 (12th) Wrc+: 105 (5th) Babip: .317 (1st) Pitching K%: 23.2 (7th) Bb%: 9.0 (9th) Hr/9: 1.28 (9th) Fip: 4.3 (8th) Era: 4.26 (9th) Overall pretty middle of the road albeit with 8 playoff teams that could be enough. Hitting bad k to bb rate is no surprise of course. Babip could regress but I expect power to get better with tim back and EE and jose getting better in the second half which they often do albeit it is not guaranteed at their age. Pitching is probably about right albeit there are guys who could improve or get healthy again.

Really anyone slides headfirst though. It is dumb but players are doing it all the time because they think they can avoid a tag better. I think even trout still does it on SB attempts despite having hurt his thumb before that way.

He obviously isn't a star player but it is hard for 1b men to put up great war numbers, he was ranked 6th in war in the AL among 1b men last year. This year his start was not great but he usually gets better later in the year and while he has some cold streaks he usually delivers you your 115-125 wrc+, 30 bombs and 100 RBI with a decent average and that is all you can ask for from your 1b. Obviously he is no miggy but he is a perfectly fine winning team first baseman. Of course at some point decline will come but then the sox hopefully has vaughn filling in and I would be very happy if vaughn delivered the same stats that jose delivered so far over his career (.292/348/512) with 30 bombs and 100 rbi a year.

For a one year deal team greatness doesn't matter though. Sure a ring would be welcome but pitchers aren't judged by wins anymore and basically you just need one year of good results.

The thing that makes trout special is that he has almost a 1 to 1 walk to k rate (at least the last 4-5 years) while hitting 40 bombs. That combination is really rare, the last before trout really was prime pujols who did the same (pujols even walked more than he struck out), mookie betts is kinda like that too albeit it is more 30 than 40 hr power. That level is almost impossible to attain but it is possible to still be elite with a worse k to bb rate if power and contact quality is there. Robert will never be trout or pujols because of the k to bb rate but tatis JR and acuna also had very bad k to bb rates in the minors and are still way more Ks and they are elite. If robert can tighten up that k/bb from 4-5/1 to 2.5-3/1 he will be an absolute elite player. Still work to do to get there though but it is possible.

Line up construction is overrated anyway. Lots of comments here "why is ricky batting jose 3rd..." but I played with a lineup construction tool and I used a lineup of all great hitters (350/500) except for two who I made really super bad (280/300) and made lineups those guys one and three and 8 and 9. The difference was 0.25 runs or 40 runs over 162=4 wins. That is quite a bit but in reality examples are never that extreme (850 ops vs 580 and 8/9 vs 1/3 for the super bad guys) so realistically the worst lineups a mlb manager can create probably cost about a win per season. Much more important than batting order is who is batting in that lineup... https://www.baseballmusings.com/cgi-bin/LineupAnalysis.py?Player0=A&OBA0=+0.350&Slug0=+0.500&Player1=C&OBA1=+0.350&Slug1=+0.500&Player2=D&OBA2=+0.350&Slug2=+0.500&Player3=S&OBA3=+0.350&Slug3=+0.500&Player4=D&OBA4=+0.350&Slug4=+0.500&Player5=D&OBA5=+0.350&Slug5=+0.500&Player6=S&OBA6=+0.350&Slug6=+0.500&Player7=D&OBA7=+0.280&Slug7=+0.300&Player8=D&OBA8=+0.280&Slug8=+0.300&Model=0

Long term I want madrigal there, leadoff should be a guy with a good k/bb rate and both tim and robert aren't great in that department. This year I want tim there, no great k/bb rate but very consistent contact quality.

That one was pretty controlled by eloy though. He saw he wouldn't get to the ball and then just laid casually into that net for fun, that was not really a dangerous situation. He was just hangin out a little

He did show some good signs but in what planet is 5 runs in 6 a quality start? He did keep them in the game and went 6 but 5 in 6 is a 7.5 ERA in that game. I do think he is showing signs of improvement but I would not call that a QS yet.

Cease breaking ball has decent action but really not much command. Often either fat in the zone or a for outside, not many in that borderline strike area maybe an inch outside where you want it.

Clevinger also suspended for violating covid policy https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/29635888/indians-mike-clevinger-miss-start-violating-protocol%3fplatform=amp

Good observation with the bat angle at contact. Classic teaching was always level bat, level shoulders at impact and for preteen kids that is still a good cue but most good hitters use a vertical bat angle downward of like 30-40 degrees on contact. Robert also does that very well. I'm using that also a lot with the more advanced kids I'm working with, bat sensors like blast are also able to measure that. This can create issues on higher pitches but the big advantage of that is that you can hit lower pitches straight at a good angle while the classic flat bat at contact often creates roll overs on low pitches. There are still good flatter bat guys like bregman but they tend to be high ball hitters. Engel is obviously not that good but I would be fine if he was a league average hitter the next 2 years combined with his defense.

Yeah can't believe ball boys are out there who don't understand baseball enough to stay away until you know it is foul. Albeit in that case it was likely good for the sox, that ball was going to rattle in the corner and at least two, possibly 3 without the kid interfering.

They have lost 3 games but they are still on a 108 win pace for 162 games (.667). They likely won't hold that pace and their SP is questionable but that offense is just pure terror. I think the twins will win the division but the sox also have a good chance to make a playoff spot but only if that injury thing doesn't continue, pitching depth is thinned out a lot.

His heat map shows he handles most of the zone very well, he struggles mostly out of the zone and very down and away https://www.fangraphs.com/players/luis-robert/20043/heat-maps?position=OF&ss=2020-07-24&se=2020-08-08&type=5&hand=all&count=all&blur=2&grid=10&view=bat&pitch=&season=all&data= His walk rate his been good but probably mostly because he sees very few pitches in the zone (35%), his chase rate has been extremely high (47%). This means his walks will probably regress but that also mean he is seeing more strikes which would be a good thing that might lower his walk rate but cause more damage too.

He is not a burner but his sprint speed is actually about average (27.7 last year) which is faster than some pretty good fielders (Kepler for example). He doesn't look good out there but his speed is actually ok for LF at least for the next 2-3 years. He "just" needs to improve his routes and general awareness in the OF. Not an easy thing to do of course.

Not saying Ricky makes no mistakes but with the sox lack of SP depth and lack of ability of those starters to go deep (only keuchel and giolito really can go 6+) you can't always use a quick hook and ride your pen aces hard or you will burn out the pen. Ricky thus needs to sometimes leave in a struggling starter or put in a bad reliever and hope they make it through the inning in order to manage the workload. Yeah that will cost games but due to injuries the situation is as it is. If the sox had 5 durable starters and a deep pen they could use a quick hook and still be fine but with the sox situation you always have to be ready for 2 3 inning starts in a row so you can't always pull the trigger and sometimes you need to leave a struggling pitcher in with bases loaded and hope somebody hits into a double play. that isn't ideal but it is the way it is currently.

I think long term it is madrigal. Tim didn't have great K to BB rates in his career but robert didn't have good ones either and was mostly like 4 to 1 in the minors. He obviously has more room for growth than tim but I think madrigal should be a better bet to get on base a lot. Robert should be a 30+ homer guy even if it is a 320 obp so that would fit better in the middle of the lineup.

Keuchel really was a much needed signing. He won't be that good all season but he will throw strikes, go deep in games, rest the pen and gives the offense a chance to win the game. He probably is more a 3.5 to 4 era guy but if he gives you 7 innings and 3 runs that should give the offense a chance.

It depends. A separated shoulder can be a scary thing that can relapse in the future. It all depends on whether there is damage of ligaments and cartilage. If there isn't he should be fine but if there is it could require surgery and be much worse than a broken forearm or wrist. So let's hope there is no structural damage in the shoulder.

That would be concerning but it is more concerning if you hurt your dominant arm shoulder.

We just need to wait for the news. Could be something harmless or could be a subluxation with a torn tendon and cartilage damage which would be the worst case. Hopefully it is the former, but good thing it is his left shoulder so he should be fine again even if it is bad. But let's hope for the best now.

Actually that is part of the rule, you still can bring in a lefty with two outs to finish the inning but if he doesn't get the out he has to continue pitching. The rule states 3 outs OR until the end of an inning. http://m.mlb.com/glossary/rules/three-batter-minimum#:~:text=In an effort to reduce,exceptions for injuries and illnesses. So pitchers can pitch less than 3 batters if they are brought in with outs but they need to get the out then.

I'm not ruling out basabe could become a decent player but it is going a long road for him. On the positive side he can take a walk but while he does have a bit of pop it is not nearly enough to make a 30% k rate work. To make a 30% k rate work you need to hit 30+ bombs and I dont see that for him. Realistically he is a .245 hitter with 15 bombs at his peak. Even with a 10% walk rate that is not that exciting (maybe like a 90wrc+) especially since he is ok in the Of but not great there either.