[stevenash]

The Red Sox have six pitchers that have made ten or more starts thus far yet none of the six qualify for any pitching major awards due to lack of inning pitched.
(Minimum 88 IP)

Not one of the six average six innings per start.
It's a bullpen game these days.

Pos	Name	W	L	ERA	GS	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	WHIP	H9	HR9	BB9	SO9
SP	Brayan Bello	6	5	3.04	14	80	73	29	27	8	22	1.188	8.2	0.9	2.5	7.9
SP	Tanner Houck (15-day IL)	3	6	5.05	13	67.2	62	39	38	9	23	1.256	8.2	1.2	3.1	8.5
SP	Chris Sale* (60-day IL)	5	2	4.58	11	59	55	31	30	8	15	1.186	8.4	1.2	2.3	10.8
SP	James Paxton*	5	1	2.73	10	56	41	18	17	8	14	0.982	6.6	1.3	2.3	10.3
SP	Garrett Whitlock (15-day IL)	4	3	5.23	10	51.2	61	31	30	10	7	1.316	10.6	1.7	1.2	8.2

[stevenash]

Bryan Bello just pitched his sixth consrutive 'quality start' and the Red Sox just won their sixth consecutive game.

Bryan Bello's previous five starts.
Pretty tidy huh?

Date	Tm		Opp	Result	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR
7/5/2023	BOS		TEX	W 4-2	7	8	2	2	0	3	1
6/29/2023	BOS		MIA	L 0-2	7	2	1	1	1	5	0
6/23/2023	BOS	@	CHW	W 3-1	6.2	6	1	1	1	5	0
6/18/2023	BOS		NYY	W 4-1	7	4	1	1	3	8	0
6/11/2023	BOS	@	NYY	W 3-2 (10)	7	3	2	2	2	3	0
					34.2	23	7	7	7	24	1

That's an 1.82 ERA and AN 0.82 WH/IP

[DrunkHorseplayer]

The criteria for qualification for pitching leaders needs to be revised; one 30 day stint on the DL and it becomes difficult to average one inning pitched per team game.

[stevenash]

The criteria for qualification for pitching leaders needs to be revised; one 30 day stint on the DL and it becomes difficult to average one inning pitched per team game.

Make it 140 IPs to qualify instead of the standard 162?
I can live with that.

[unusialsusp5]

The criteria for qualification for pitching leaders needs to be revised; one 30 day stint on the DL and it becomes difficult to average one inning pitched per team game.

Same with hitters. Jarren Duran is only a few plate appearances shy of being listed in the top ten hitters. They could include him on the list figuring that eventually he is going to catch up and get enough of them. If they fail then exclude them of course from the final list for the batting title but fans enjoy seeing someone trying to catch up with plate appearances on that list even if currently they do not qualify to win the batting title I thought banning the shift was going to help batting averages. Still not enough .300 hitters. Many are teetering on the edge of it.

[stevenash]

BOSTON — It’s Opening Day at Fenway Park, and you’ve suddenly seen into the future.
Brayan Bello is going to pitch like a young ace this season, Kenley Jansen is going to be an All-Star and Alex Verdugo is going to be on pace for a career year. Masataka Yoshida is going to be top 10 in the American League in OPS, Rafael Devers is going to be one of the league leaders in RBIs and Chris Martin is going to be one of the game’s best setup men. Connor Wong is going to be better than Christian Vázquez, Jarren Duran is going to finally live up to his prospect hype and James Paxton is going to consistently pitch like he did on Saturday (six innings, two runs) and reach the All-Star break with a 2.73 ERA.

If you’d known all of that three months ago, how good would you have felt about the Red Sox this season?


After a 10-3 win against the Athletics on Saturday, the Sox will enter Sunday’s first-half finale with a 47-43 record. They’ll still be in last place in the American League East but within two games of the Yankees and Blue Jays, who are tied for the final wild card. They’ll have the AL’s best record since June 14, meaning when the second half starts on Friday, they’ll have been one of the best teams in the league for a full month (after having been one of the league’s worst teams for the previous month).

Would that have been better than you expected? Worse than you expected? Oddly, just about right?

Saturday’s game was something of a gimme considering the worst-in-baseball A’s made every kind of mistake. There was a dropped fly ball, a base running blunder, a fielding error and a couple of hit batters. It didn’t take much for the Red Sox to beat the A’s, but Paxton’s pitching line wasn’t atypical, nor was the fact Yoshida and Devers each doubled, or that Duran had three hits as the leadoff man, or that Verdugo had one of the biggest crowd-on-its-feet moments with a just-inside-the-foul-pole home run which he tried to coax fair with body language as he watched it fly.

[stevenash]

It was the Red Sox’s seventh consecutive game with at least 10 hits, the longest such streak in the majors this season, and the longest for Boston since 2019.
Duran, Yoshida, Verdugo, Wong, Justin Turner and Rob Refsnyder have so far matched or exceeded most expectations this season (so has Adam Duvall when he’s been healthy). The same could be said for Bello, Paxton, Jansen, Martin, Kutter Crawford, Josh Winckowski and Brennan Bernardino (and Nick Pivetta since he moved into the bullpen). Devers hasn’t been his elite self, but even this ho-hum version has been one of the best run producers and power hitters in baseball.
That’s more than half of the roster playing quite well — well enough to be in contention, anyway.
So why the relatively underwhelming record that’s just good enough to keep the Red Sox relevant without having them in a playoff position as they near the All-Star break?
What if on Opening Day you knew that Kiké Hernández would have the worst fWAR among qualified players in the majors, that Corey Kluber would have a 7.04 ERA and that the Red Sox would reach the All-Star break with 13 players — including three-fifths of their rotation — on the injured list? While most of the roster has played well, the rest has fallen into three categories: key players who have radically underperformed, key players who haven’t been healthy enough to perform at all, or depth players who have been asked to do too much.

[stevenash]

Take the rotation, for example. Bello and Paxton have been excellent, and Crawford has a 4.11 ERA after entering spring training no higher than eighth on the rotation depth chart. But the Red Sox have used each of their top 11 starting pitchers in some capacity — either as starters or long relievers — and might have used a 12th had Bryan Mata not been hurt in Triple A. Winckowski pitched his way into a key bullpen role, and both Chris Murphy and Brandon Walter have provided solid long relief in recent weeks. But with Chris Sale, Garrett Whitlock and Tanner Houck hurt, and Pivetta and Kluber struggling so much as starters that they were demoted to the bullpen, the back of the rotation has become a hard-to-predict mix of openers and long men. The rotation’s lack of depth was created by a lack of health and a lack of veteran production.
In the lineup, Baseball Reference credits four Red Sox position players with a negative-0.3 WAR or worse this season. Only one is a true depth player

— Enmanuel Valdez — while the others made up one-third of the Opening Day

[Madison]

Bello is the man/future.

[stevenash]

starting lineup (Hernández, Triston Casas, Reese McGuire), and a fourth Opening Day starting position player (Christian Arroyo) had a negative-0.3 WAR before playing well over the past week
nd getting himself back near replacement level. That’s not a lack of depth, it’s a lack of production at the top of the depth chart at key spots.
The bullpen lately has been held together by call-ups and waiver claims largely because more established options have been hurt (John Schreiber), ineffective (Ryan Brasier), or some combination of the two (Joely Rodriguez, Richard Bleier). That’s a lack of availability and a lack of innings.

And so, while the Red Sox spent Saturday afternoon beating up on an easily beaten team, a notable conversation happened before the first pitch when a player in a Red Sox clubhouse raved about the way Trevor Story has been throwing the ball during defensive drills this week, before also talking candidly and excitedly about the potential impact Sale could have when he returns from the scapula stress reaction that’s sidelined him for more than a month. Both Houck and Schreiber also talked to reporters pregame to provide updates on their rehab processes. Houck hopes to start playing catch next week; Schreiber will make a second rehab appearance on Sunday and hopes to be activated a week after the All-Star break.

Those are not depth players. The Red Sox already have depth players filling in as necessary. What they need are impact players to fill in the gaps around those who already are performing as expected or better. Story represents the team’s best hope for a massive infield boost over the last two months or so of the season, while Sale was a resurgent top-of-the-rotation starter and Schreiber an excellent setup man before their injuries. The Red Sox believe Houck and Whitlock were showing signs of truly adapting as young major-league starting pitchers.

What if you knew all five of those players were going to get back this season? What if you knew they were going to make a difference again? Would that be enough for you to believe in the Red Sox as legitimate contenders heading into the second half? And if that’s what your crystal ball showed, would you dare believe it?

“I think we’re a really good team,” Duran said. “And I think we’re just keeping our heads down and we’re just working right now. Like, we don’t need anybody to put the spotlight on us. We’ll just be keeping our heads down working and then by the end, guys will be like, ‘Wow, I didn’t even see that happening.'”

[stevenash]

One of my go to sources for content is the 'Athletic'
THe best sports writers in the business
I'd give my left nut to write for them, but forget about it, I don't have that kind of talent,

Any way, I have to chop up their articles, it's just to big.
I have to copy and paste, sorry about that, but it won't format if I don't

I could link thir stuff, but you need a subscription to read.

[stevenash]

Bello is the man/future.

He gave up eight hits last night, that's OK, he still got the W
Makes up for the gem he pitched before the break when the Sox lost that 2-0 classic to Miami

Sox are getting hot at the right time.
It's now or never, they got some ground to catch up on.

[Madison]

[QUOTE=stevenash;31208050]He gave up eight hits last night, that's OK, he still got the W
Makes up for the gem he pitched before the break when the Sox lost that 2-0 classic to Miami

Sox are getting hot at the right time.
It's now or never, they got some ground to catch up on.[/QUOTE

When that sinker split like pitch doesn't have the control/cut he'll get touched up. He's putting the pieces together slowly. Pedro influencing , just not short how much. He'll be solid for years.

[44 Mag]

He gave up eight hits last night, that's OK, he still got the W
Makes up for the gem he pitched before the break when the Sox lost that 2-0 classic to Miami

Sox are getting hot at the right time.
It's now or never, they got some ground to catch up on.

Nash, didn't know you were a Red Sox fan. All these years.

[stevenash]

Nash, didn't know you were a Red Sox fan. All these years.

MLB fan first.
KC Royals fan second.

I live in New England, I have my finger on the pulse of Boston/NY sports teams.
I have my eye on the Sox, they have an interesting team and they're steam rolling right now.

The Sox are only two games back of a WC and have a 29 percent chance of a playoff spot.
They're not dead.
They had a wishy washy first half, but it looks like Alex Cora has figured it out now.
Make know mistake, Cora is a very smart baseball man.
He was a smart player, now he's a smart manager that his guys really like.
Cora's only 47, the kids can relate to him, and Cora relates to the kids too.

Sox had to work like crazy just to get here, I expect a little leveling off now.

[stevenash]

Current Average Tm W L W L Post WC Div AL East 1 Tampa Bay Rays 58 35 98.3 63.7 98.70% 21.90% 76.80% 2 Baltimore Orioles 55 35 92.3 69.7 86.30% 67.60% 18.70% 3 Toronto Blue Jays 51 41 88.9 73.1 64.70% 61.90% 2.80% 4 New York Yankees 49 43 86.9 75.1 44.80% 43.70% 1.10% 5 Boston Red Sox 49 43 85 77 29.00% 28.40% 0.60%

[44 Mag]

MLB fan first.
KC Royals fan second.

I live in New England, I have my finger on the pulse of Boston/NY sports teams.
I have my eye on the Sox, they have an interesting team and they're steam rolling right now.

The Sox are only two games back of a WC and have a 29 percent chance of a playoff spot.
They're not dead.
They had a wishy washy first half, but it looks like Alex Cora has figured it out now.
Make know mistake, Cora is a very smart baseball man.
He was a smart player, now he's a smart manager that his guys really like.
Cora's only 47, the kids can relate to him, and Cora relates to the kids too.

Sox had to work like crazy just to get here, I expect a little leveling off now.

Sorry, but Cora should be disqualified for cheating. Not only that, but he orchestrated the plan with the Astro's. I can't condone that.

[slewfan]

MLB fan first.
KC Royals fan second.

I live in New England, I have my finger on the pulse of Boston/NY sports teams.
I have my eye on the Sox, they have an interesting team and they're steam rolling right now.

The Sox are only two games back of a WC and have a 29 percent chance of a playoff spot.
They're not dead.
They had a wishy washy first half, but it looks like Alex Cora has figured it out now.
Make know mistake, Cora is a very smart baseball man.
He was a smart player, now he's a smart manager that his guys really like.
Cora's only 47, the kids can relate to him, and Cora relates to the kids too.

Sox had to work like crazy just to get here, I expect a little leveling off now.

I was listening to the AM ESPN radio sports guys last week while driving. They were saying the Red Sox weakness was their bullpen. I have not researched it myself. I’ve just been looking for and betting a dog or two each day..

[stevenash]

I was listening to the AM ESPN radio sports guys last week while driving. They were saying the Red Sox weakness was their bullpen. I have not researched it myself. I’ve just been looking for and betting a dog or two each day..

Their bullpen is OK .
Depending on what metrics you apply, their pen is 10-12th ranked.
Above average, I'm talking all 30 MLB teams, not just the AL.

Sox need Sale and Corey Kluber 100 percent if they are really going to make some noise.
Paxton was having a gad season so fare, Clay Bellinger made him his personal whipping boy today.
Cubs ended the streak, that was expected, Cubs hung a ten burger on Boston.

[stevenash]

Sox 'pen
Team totals and rank are for the entire relief staff, these five listed are the mainstay.

Jansen can make your stomach queasy at times. The 'pen is OK

Pos Name W L ERA G GF SV IP H BB WHIP CL Kenley Jansen 2 4 3.19 33 27 20 31 29 13 1.355 RP Nick Pivetta 5 5 4.83 22 2 0 69 58 31 1.29 RP Josh Winckowski 3 1 3.14 32 5 2 51.2 54 16 1.355 RP Brennan Bernardino* 1 0 2.43 26 6 0 29.2 23 8 1.045 RP Chris Martin 3 1 1.57 30 6 1 28.2 25 3 0.977 Team Totals 49 43 4.31 92 92 27 814 794 262 1.297 Rank in 15 AL teams 6 9 10 5 10 13 5

[stevenash]

Kutter Stevenson spins a very tidy one hit no run game as Yoshida and Devers pound Steele.
Very encouraging win if you're a Sox Booster.

[Kermit]

Kutter Stevenson spins a very tidy one hit no run game as Yoshida and Devers pound Steele.
Very encouraging win if you're a Sox Booster.

I was liking it today.

Run Line: BOS Red Sox -1.0 @ +575 BOS Red Sox @ CHI Cubs
Total Runs: Over 9 @ +575 BOS Red Sox @ CHI Cubs
Total RBIs by the Player - Including Extra Innings Devers, Rafael - Over 0.5 @ +575 BOS Red Sox @ CHI Cubs

[Chief Wahoo]

Did I read that right you are counting on Kluber? Wow, last time I seen him was when the Sox were in Cleveland and we hung like 7 on him in one inning and since it was a blowout and you were short pitchers they just left him out there. Felt horrible for him. Don't see him producing enough for any team let alone a contender.

[stevenash]

I was liking it today.

Run Line: BOS Red Sox -1.0 @ +575 BOS Red Sox @ CHI Cubs
Total Runs: Over 9 @ +575 BOS Red Sox @ CHI Cubs
Total RBIs by the Player - Including Extra Innings Devers, Rafael - Over 0.5 @ +575 BOS Red Sox @ CHI Cubs

Nice, I had a lean on the Sox today, but didn't pull the trigger.
Good job Kermy.

[Kermit]

Nice, I had a lean on the Sox today, but didn't pull the trigger.
Good job Kermy.

This shit is gonna be sick is the Halos can hold on and win this.

Run Line: BOS Red Sox -1.0 @ +335 BOS Red Sox @ CHI Cubs Total Runs: Over 9 @ +335 BOS Red Sox @ CHI Cubs Run Line: LA Angels -1.0 @ +360 Live HOU Astros @ LA Angels 3-7 Total Runs: Over 9 @ +360 Live HOU Astros @ LA Angels 3-7

Odds: +1901

[funnyb25]

Kutter Stevenson spins a very tidy one hit no run game as Yoshida and Devers pound Steele.
Very encouraging win if you're a Sox Booster.

It's Kutter Crawford, but who's counting?

[stevenash]

It's Kutter Crawford, but who's counting?

Good catch, my bad.

[Kermit]

And of course the Angels fukking blew it.

[stevenash]

And of course the Angels fukking blew it.

I'm watching it, my set is next to my desk.
I just said to nobody in particular "Do you believe this shit"?

[stevenash]

Orioles are still a good bet at +260 to win the AL EAST
I still say Balt. is as good as TB if not better, and a couple of games back.

Acuna at -400 to win the league MVP is as sure as a bet as they come.
(If you don't mind laying -400)