Tuesday, July 30, 2013
The Peavy Thing's At The Bottom
The M's were hot, and we'd had our troubles with Saunders, but I knew it'd be a W tonight. The Blue Collar Man had his third straight good start. TC said he's the first Sock to pitch 6 or more innings and give up 2 or fewer runs in each of his first three starts since Don Aase in the late 70s. Ells, Pedr, and Saltal went deep--we were up 5-1 after 2 and you could turn your sets off there, folks. Sox win 8-2. (And Dr. Frank Field was at the game! This is Warner Wolf.)
A few things:
1. Remember Pedroia's RBI single where he got thrown out going back to first? Yes? Let's talk about that. There were two outs. We saw the shot of Victorino between third and home. My immediate thought was, "he's kinda jogging--I hope Pedroia doesn't go for two because if he's thrown out, it might be before Shane crosses the plate, and his run wouldn't count." He was looking back at the play, and he appeared to be close to home, so it wasn't that much of a worry, but as it turns out, Pedroia started to go for two, went to far, and was thrown out back at first pretty quickly. Fortunately we've got cameras, producers, and announcers to tell us whether or not the run counted and how close it was, provide a split screen showing the two plays side by side, and talk about the rules (third out made on force vs. non-force) and why running hard to home in that situation is crucial. We got none of that, though. Never even came up. And what kills me is that a casual fan wouldn't even know that anything was wrong there, they'd see one more run on the scoreboard and not even know how close to the sun they flew. They got no help from the supposed professionals. I mean Jesus, even if it wasn't even close, Don's gotta say something like, "the runner did cross the plate before Dustin was tagged out, so that run counts." I ended up doing my own slo-mo replay of Victorino and I had to estimate by the cut of the grass how many steps away from home he was and how long it would have taken to get there vs. the time it took for Dustin to get tagged out. I have to assume since Shane was watching, he probably sped up and made sure he got in there, but I think he was only 3-4.5 steps ahead of that tag. Close enough to warrant a replay/discussion.
2. TC said something about how we're "getting rid of the AL East and taking advantage" of playing a team from another division. Does this motherfucker know that we're 8 games over .500 against the East? No other team in the division is more that 2 over. We just won a series on the road against Baltimore, won one at home against New York, and might have split four with the Rays had it not been for an egregiously bad call. So we're not running scared from our divisional foes. But they've always gotta sell the drama.
3. Had the first few innings on radio. So pissed I had to hear Clemens in the booth--and to make it worse, he ends up shouting "uh-oh! uh-oh! uh-oh!" DURING the Pedroia home run call. Later I saw NESN's postgame highlight list and it included "Clemens back at Fenway." I purposely didn't watch because I didn't know what the fuck was going on, and I was getting ready to get really pissed about him being welcomed back into the fold, but then I saw online that the reason he'd been there was for a little Morgan's Magic celebration. My happiness about that trumps the pissed-ness of Asshole being there. (And it makes me wonder why the hell wouldn't have titled that highlight "Morgan's Magic Remembered at Fenway." Hello?) Did I ever tell you about the time I went to that Morgan's Magic-opening doubleheader to start the second half in '88? What an awesome summer that was.
4. MLB's scoreboard is running about two innings behind tonight. And more than an hour after the Red Sox game, the box score has a complete linescore, but the stats only go through the 7th inning. Why is mlb.com so non-2013-y?
5. Just went to check the Yanks-Dodgers score (at a different, not-two-innings-late-updating site), and I see we got Jake Peavy. Or at least that's what "sources" are saying. Whoa. We're trading Iglesias. For two months of a 32-year old pitcher who is good but not "knock your sox off" good. All I'll say is, this Xander Bogeaeaoeaooeaoeartz guy better reeaoeoaeoaoally good....
Newport sunset from last week:
A few things:
1. Remember Pedroia's RBI single where he got thrown out going back to first? Yes? Let's talk about that. There were two outs. We saw the shot of Victorino between third and home. My immediate thought was, "he's kinda jogging--I hope Pedroia doesn't go for two because if he's thrown out, it might be before Shane crosses the plate, and his run wouldn't count." He was looking back at the play, and he appeared to be close to home, so it wasn't that much of a worry, but as it turns out, Pedroia started to go for two, went to far, and was thrown out back at first pretty quickly. Fortunately we've got cameras, producers, and announcers to tell us whether or not the run counted and how close it was, provide a split screen showing the two plays side by side, and talk about the rules (third out made on force vs. non-force) and why running hard to home in that situation is crucial. We got none of that, though. Never even came up. And what kills me is that a casual fan wouldn't even know that anything was wrong there, they'd see one more run on the scoreboard and not even know how close to the sun they flew. They got no help from the supposed professionals. I mean Jesus, even if it wasn't even close, Don's gotta say something like, "the runner did cross the plate before Dustin was tagged out, so that run counts." I ended up doing my own slo-mo replay of Victorino and I had to estimate by the cut of the grass how many steps away from home he was and how long it would have taken to get there vs. the time it took for Dustin to get tagged out. I have to assume since Shane was watching, he probably sped up and made sure he got in there, but I think he was only 3-4.5 steps ahead of that tag. Close enough to warrant a replay/discussion.
2. TC said something about how we're "getting rid of the AL East and taking advantage" of playing a team from another division. Does this motherfucker know that we're 8 games over .500 against the East? No other team in the division is more that 2 over. We just won a series on the road against Baltimore, won one at home against New York, and might have split four with the Rays had it not been for an egregiously bad call. So we're not running scared from our divisional foes. But they've always gotta sell the drama.
3. Had the first few innings on radio. So pissed I had to hear Clemens in the booth--and to make it worse, he ends up shouting "uh-oh! uh-oh! uh-oh!" DURING the Pedroia home run call. Later I saw NESN's postgame highlight list and it included "Clemens back at Fenway." I purposely didn't watch because I didn't know what the fuck was going on, and I was getting ready to get really pissed about him being welcomed back into the fold, but then I saw online that the reason he'd been there was for a little Morgan's Magic celebration. My happiness about that trumps the pissed-ness of Asshole being there. (And it makes me wonder why the hell wouldn't have titled that highlight "Morgan's Magic Remembered at Fenway." Hello?) Did I ever tell you about the time I went to that Morgan's Magic-opening doubleheader to start the second half in '88? What an awesome summer that was.
4. MLB's scoreboard is running about two innings behind tonight. And more than an hour after the Red Sox game, the box score has a complete linescore, but the stats only go through the 7th inning. Why is mlb.com so non-2013-y?
5. Just went to check the Yanks-Dodgers score (at a different, not-two-innings-late-updating site), and I see we got Jake Peavy. Or at least that's what "sources" are saying. Whoa. We're trading Iglesias. For two months of a 32-year old pitcher who is good but not "knock your sox off" good. All I'll say is, this Xander Bogeaeaoeaooeaoeartz guy better reeaoeoaeoaoally good....
Newport sunset from last week:
Comments:
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Ak-shee, I will say more. I like Iglesias a lot. And it kills me every time JD Drew's brother can't get to a ball or doesn't get a hit, knowing we've got a shortstop on the team who fields AND hits better than him. What do we do? We trade the better guy. But Jose has cooled off at the plate. A .113 batting average in his last 13 games. Who knows. I don't know. I know he's an extremely talented fielder and will be for years. And either is a great hitter, or a guy who had a great run as a hitter and never will repeat it again. Either way I don't look forward to facing him when he plays us.
Tsk, tsk, fact checking at a standard that NESN would be proud of. Peavy is under contract for next year as well as the remainder of this and a player option for 2015. :-)
# posted by 
: Wednesday, July 31, 2013 12:02:00 AM
: Wednesday, July 31, 2013 12:02:00 AM
It is a big difference though as if he had been a two month rental the deal would have been very poor. I am no big fan of letting young talent go at the best of times but in many ways this makes sense.
We have a lot of cover at SS coming through and whilst none can field at the level of Iglesias (who really can, he is exceptional) they all have the potential to be better with the bat. His career to date both in the minors and majors seems to indicate that the hot streak (what a great one it was too) was an outlier and not likely to indicate a likelihood of being a good career hitter. Of course, any predictions good or bad at this stage are just that and no one knows how this may look in a few years. Drew is a proven better batter (at least at this stage of their careers) so not sure why you think Iggy's hot streak has made him somehow better than Drew and whilst Drew is no Iglesias in the field he isn't awful either and is slightly above league average at SS over his career.
Always trade when a player's value is high they say and that explains trading Iglesias now as his bat has already dropped significantly and is likely to continue that downward trend back to the Mendoza-line threatening bat he really is. Drew is neither going to get any better or worse than he is (depending on one's opinion of his skill set) and is a known quality who is likely gone after this year anyway with a certain SS just waiting for his chance in AAA right now.
Add the need for a starting pitcher with Buchholz having huge questionmarks over when he will return this season (if at all) and this deal doesn't look so bad.
Having Workman presumably go into the pen will certainly bolster that area based on his starts so far for us too, a nice side effect.
We have got weaker on the left side defensively undoubtedly but have gained in terms of pitching regarding both starting and the pen (without taking into account Villareal).
Will watch his career closely and no doubt on occasion miss his amazing glove and may even regret losing his bat in time (not convinced of that though)
We have a lot of cover at SS coming through and whilst none can field at the level of Iglesias (who really can, he is exceptional) they all have the potential to be better with the bat. His career to date both in the minors and majors seems to indicate that the hot streak (what a great one it was too) was an outlier and not likely to indicate a likelihood of being a good career hitter. Of course, any predictions good or bad at this stage are just that and no one knows how this may look in a few years. Drew is a proven better batter (at least at this stage of their careers) so not sure why you think Iggy's hot streak has made him somehow better than Drew and whilst Drew is no Iglesias in the field he isn't awful either and is slightly above league average at SS over his career.
Always trade when a player's value is high they say and that explains trading Iglesias now as his bat has already dropped significantly and is likely to continue that downward trend back to the Mendoza-line threatening bat he really is. Drew is neither going to get any better or worse than he is (depending on one's opinion of his skill set) and is a known quality who is likely gone after this year anyway with a certain SS just waiting for his chance in AAA right now.
Add the need for a starting pitcher with Buchholz having huge questionmarks over when he will return this season (if at all) and this deal doesn't look so bad.
Having Workman presumably go into the pen will certainly bolster that area based on his starts so far for us too, a nice side effect.
We have got weaker on the left side defensively undoubtedly but have gained in terms of pitching regarding both starting and the pen (without taking into account Villareal).
Will watch his career closely and no doubt on occasion miss his amazing glove and may even regret losing his bat in time (not convinced of that though)
# posted by : Wednesday, July 31, 2013 1:41:00 AM
: Wednesday, July 31, 2013 1:41:00 AM
Devine here to basically say "What Rich G" said. Iglesias is likely to be pretty crap with the bat, more than bad enough to not be worth the superior fielding, in the long run. Taking on a distinctly non-shitty starting pitcher for at least 8 baseball months (okay, 6 if you factor Peavy will be hurt for a good stretch, hopefully not this year) makes sense given Buchholz's uncertainty, Lester's propensity to be bad and gives them a better chance to win this year, IMO. But if he hits .300 and OBP's .350 or whatever the next few years, you have every right to gloat!
# posted by : Wednesday, July 31, 2013 3:27:00 PM
: Wednesday, July 31, 2013 3:27:00 PM<< Home
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