Orioles manager Brandon Hyde issued a fairly encouraging update on right-hander Felix Hernandez, who left his outing Tuesday with discomfort in his pitching elbow. Hyde told Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com and other reporters that the issue is “just bothering him a little bit right now,” but there isn’t a timetable for his return. As of now, the Orioles have not scheduled any exams for Hernandez, a minor league signing who looked likely to win a season-opening rotation spot in the bigs before this injury cropped up. He should still be in position to start for the O’s this year if his elbow heals.
- After an ugly season with the Angels in 2020, righty Julio Teheran sat on the free-agent market until last month, when he settled for a minors deal with the Tigers. The 30-year-old has fared so well this spring that he’s on track to claim a spot on Detroit’s Opening Day roster. Manager AJ Hinch said Wednesday that Teheran is “getting pretty close to” earning a job, Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press relays. If the longtime Brave is able to pull that off, he’ll earn a $3MM salary this season.
- Righty Tanner Houck was among the players the Red Sox sent down Wednesday, leaving fellow RHP Nick Pivetta as a lock to open the season as their fifth starter, Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com writes. Pivetta, whom the Red Sox acquired from the Phillies last summer, endured his share of struggles during the first four years of his career, but he finished 2020 in encouraging fashion and has continued to turn heads this spring. Houck, meanwhile, was outstanding during a three-start, 17-inning major league debut last year, when he pitched to a near-spotless 0.53 ERA and struck out 33.3 percent of the batters he faced. However, unlike Pivetta, Houck has minor league options remaining – which surely impacted Boston’s decision.
- Even though Diamondbacks right J.B. Bukauskas flashed an impressive repertoire across four scoreless innings this spring, the club demoted him earlier this week. Agent Scott Boras took exception to the decision, per Zach Buchanan of The Athletic, saying “we all know it’s about service-clock issues” and adding that “We all know we’ll see J.B. on April 15.” Unsurprisingly, general manager Mike Hazen denied that service time was one of the causes for the move, claiming it had “zero” impact. Rather, according to Hazen, the Diamondbacks preferred to open the season with more experienced options in their bullpen. Manager Torey Lovullo does expect the 24-year-old to make his major league debut this year, though, “if he continues on the same path.”
- Angels righty Felix Pena is expected to miss two to four weeks with a Grade 1 right hamstring strain, Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com tweets. That should rule out Pena for the beginning of the season, which is a blow to the Angels’ bullpen. Last year, Pena threw 26 2/3 innings of 4.05 ERA/3.52 SIERA ball with above-average strikeout and walk percentages of 25.2 and 7.0, respectively.
i dont know how likely it was for Felix to win a starting spot with an ERA near 8.00
For a competitive club, perhaps.. but this is the Orioles we’re talking about.
i mean they have a bunch of young guys and LeBlanc, who is pitching better
I with you on Felix not making the team. Zimmerman and Lopez are pitching great but I would rather see them and Leblanc in the bullpen.
The 86 mph fastball with no movement isn’t gonna work. Only value he brings is for tanking for draft pick.
The value it brings is in absorbing innings. Can’t expect rookies to hold up thru a.season that is longer than anything they have been exposed to before.
I agree. Let the young guys figure it out. Otherwise how else will you rebuild. All I could see is maybe putting Felix in the bullpen as long relief and mop-ups. Then he can sorta be a player coach. Kinda like tomlin has acted as for the Braves.
Felix was never interested in a bullpen role with Mariners. Tried to get him to look at that, change pitching style, approach, training for that type of role. He only wants to start. If he had been open to that role who knows might still be Mariner.
Your forgetting it’s the Orioles.
Even though it seems like he’s been around forever, Julio is just 30 years old. I wish him well and hope he makes the team.
Lots of miles on his arm being 30. Have always been amazed how he can out preform his advanced stats year in and year out
The FiP Destroyer. I still remember traveling to PHI for his debut. Glad he found those extra mph in Detroit. Seems fitting.
Except the one year he “pitched” for the Angels
Kinda surprised all the detractors didn’t host his funeral after last season. Very clear the pitching-starved Angels rushed him back too early after he contracted COVID-19. At a certain point, you’re just good.
Gotta agree with Boras on this one. Bukauskas is the best arm in the D-backs pen. He’ll be closing games by the end of next season.
i mean, i agree if they are sticking with him in the pen, but why not let him start at AAA?
The team probably wants to have him start games at AAA to see if he can maintain his stuff over longer outings. He seems ticketed for the bullpen long term but there’s no harm in trying him out as a starter first.
They told him to prepare to be a reliever this spring. If the goal was to keep him in the rotation, they wouldn’t have done that.
i mean could have just been they didnt have the starts to give him. regardless, i feel its silly to complain about service time here when A. no one manipulates service time with RPs. and B. any RP with options tends to get sent from time to time to cycle arms, even if said RP is doing quite well. chances are he wasnt getting a full year of service time regardless.
Starts mean nothing in spring training. Innings matter. You can be stretched out and pitch the middle of games in spring training. So I have no idea what your didn’t have the starts to give him” comment even means. It’s cool if you don’t know much about baseball though. Maybe you meant “didn’t have the innings to give him.” If he is so important that they need to see what he can do as a starter, then why couldn’t they find some innings to give him. Your logic makes no sense. I agree with you that most RP have their options used, but I full believe he has by far the best stuff in the Dbacks pen right now. That will be born out in the next 6 months.
@Nebraska – I have to vehemently disagree. Bukaki has only pitched as high as AA (2019) and his results were awful there. He pitched to a 5.5 ERA and allowed too many hits and walks to AA batters (1.40 Career WHIP and 1.62 WHIP at AA). Besides his high strikeout rates, nothing he has done to date shows that he’s ready to consistently get outs in the majors and keep runs off the board. What he did at their alternate site in 2020 and his 4 scoreless innings this spring training means next to nothing. He needs to show that he can walk fewer batters and keep runners off base in AAA before getting his chance in the majors. Boras is once again trying to position one of his younger clients as a service time victim when he hasn’t done nearly enough to even earn a spot on the big league roster. This kid is not the next Kris Bryant (the pitching version of him anyways).
Dorothy –
Great comment. I was going to say the same thing. The guy was downright awful in AA in 2019, averaging 5.7 bb/9 in addition to the stats you mentioned. Then of course he wasn’t able to show anything last year. I think it’s a ridiculous claim for Boras to make simply because the kid had 4(!) good innings this spring. Talk about small sample size. Statements like this are not helping Boras’ reputation at all
I agree KCJ. It would be nice if Boras took his half a billion in net worth bought a island somewhere and disappeared from the media and professional baseball forever. He is not the only agent on the planet.
Like him or not, it’s Boras’s job to promote his clients. Take what he says sometimes with a grain of salt but he set the table to push for a promotion early should “the player” (put any of his young client’s name here) get off to a hot start. Otherwise round two will be forthcoming. He eventually lost his argument with Bryant but the next time it could be a different arbitrator.
@Dorothy You get all of you opinions off of what you read on a stat sheet? If it was that easy anyone could be a GM. He was starting then. He has been moved to the bullpen. His velo is way up, his stuff is way better and that showed this spring. There are several accounts in just the last few years of guys moving to the bullpen in the minors after failing as starters and then quickly getting promotions to the MLB. Jonathan Hernandez, Seranthony Dominguez. It happens all the time. He is the best pitcher in that bullpen right now. The GM knows it, the manager knows it, and Scott Boras knows it.
Steve Nebraska
@Dorothy You get all of you opinions off of what you read on a stat sheet?
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He only has 4 innings in ST. Have you seen all four innings, and are four innings enough to form an opinion of him? Especially in ST out of the BP. Half the batters he faced might be minor leaguers.
It makes no difference if he was starting or coming out of the bullpen (which he did in AA for 6 games btw), control is control and hits are hits. He walked way too many batters and allowed too many hits, period. Sure, a move to the bullpen can help pitchers blossom but 4 measly innings in Spring Training does not prove his control issues are behind him. We all know he can strike batters out but that’s about it so far. He needs to develop more in AAA before they throw him to the wolves. If he starts in MLB and gets rocked in his first 3-4 appearances, that could all but destroy his confidence. They need to see how he does against advanced hitters on back to back nights and how he rebounds after a tough performance. The D-Backs believe they can compete this year and if that’s the case, they can’t rely on this kid quite yet. Give him a month or two in AAA and then assess him. Boras just being Boras…what else is new?
to be fair, id imagine they would still have justification for carrying him even with how he pitched at AA if he was progressing well in 2020.
Nebraska, 12 Dbacks pitchers have ERA of 0.00 in Spring Training, including Bukauskas.. The agents for all 12 should make the case for their clients, as Boras did. Boras doesn’t construct any team’s bullpen. Both the Astros, Bukauskas’ last team, and the Dbacks see areas for refinement in a young pitcher’s delivery and arsenal…so do all of the scouts who have commented on Bukauskas. Just because an agent makes the tired, old, overused claim about service time, that probably was valid for a few players in the history of MLB, and is now popularly used by fans, doesn’t mean it is true. As a Dbacks fan, I’ll let the Manager, coaches and GM decide on roster composition for Opening Day. Especially this year, when many pitchers should be on innings counts and pitcher injuries will be up significantly because last year was so limited, the Dbacks and every other team will be using more pitching depth than usual, I fully expect to see Bukauskas on the roster. But IF the Dbacks get into the post-season, I’m more interested in who is healthy and available at the end of the year than I am in who is on the Opening Day roster.
So who will take a bump for the Orioles on opening day now that they lost their former cy young winner?
John Means
Houck has also been terrible this spring– and has walked 10 in 6.1 innings while striking out only 4.
It’s spring training. You’re talking about the equivalent of basically one start. While 10 walks is ugly, he could have been working on something. Even if he had 10 k’s, we all knew he was starting 21 in the minors. Just stay healthy is my spring training motto,
Pivetta has looked better than Houck and needs a chance to prove himself. For the start of 2022 I could see:
Sale
E/Rod (extended)
Pivetta
Houck
Martin Perez
Assuming Eovaldi and Richards pitch well enough…I could see them flipped for prospects at the trading deadline.
It’d be nice if Pivetta, Houck and Perez prove themselves worthy of a spot in the rotation by 2022. The Red Sox need some guys to step up and a few surprise success stories to get a decent pitching staff pieced together. Keeping my fingers crossed!
Fingers and toes crossed….
I don’t know why everyone thinks the Sox are going to be terrible. Yes they threw in the towel on last season but its understandable not being too invested in a 60 game extended spring training.
The starting pitching is far better than last season. ERod has looked good and Eovaldi and Richards are solid. You know what to expect from Perez. Pivetta may be the wild card but he’s looked good so far.
The bullpen is concerning, not having a true Closer is nerv racking.
The defense will be suspect but i expect the offense to be much better. Remember they won a World Series with the likes of Daniel Nava, Will Middlebrooks, Jonny Gomes, and Jarrod Saltalamacchia playing key roles. This team may surprise people
The issue with Houck is that he is currently a two pitch pitcher and needs a 3rd pitch to get lefties out on a consistent basis. His slider is filthy and his fastball is a great pitch for him too, but they are much more effective against RH batters than LH batters. He tried adding a change up in the past but that didn’t work for him so he’s been working on his splitter all spring (hence the 10 BBs). The Red Sox have committed to him as a starter, so it makes sense to send him down to AAA where he can refine that 3rd offering. If he’s able to master his splitter, he’s going to be an excellent #4 starter for Boston, and perhaps a very good #3 should he put it all together. Should there be any injuries to Boston pitchers or if Pivetta reverts to Philly Pivetta, Houck should be one of their first call-ups from AAA. He still has a bright future in Boston.
Dorothy – Houck is working on his 3rd pitch and I do believe you are right that it’s not been effective yet thus the walks. The goofy rules will keep him down in the minors long enough to ensure the extra year of control.
Pivetta got rushed to the majors to help a deal that was being made. He failed for Philly for good reason. He’s had time to mature and he looked great the one time I saw him this spring. It was the game where he threw 3 innings and Devers made two errors but the scorekeeper gave the home town #3 and #5 hitters hits so Pivetta had a 3IP 1 ER 3H line that should have been 3IP 1H 0ER line. The entire staff needs Dalbec at 3B this year to reduce their ERA and WHIP because Devers makes 2 dozen errors and doesn’t get charged for another dozen and that extra dozen kills ERAs, WHIPs adds stress innings and extra pitches. It happens about 1 game a series so the impact is huge. Dalbec won’t be perfect but ANYTHING is better than the butcher. The Red Sox need to find an effective way to keep his bat in the line-up.
E-Rod is the guy that I am doubtful of this year. He’s a #3 or #4 SP being asked to be a #1 after he missed a year with COVID and a heart condition. He’ll experience what Eovaldi experienced in 2020. He can pitch excellent and still lose to the other team’s #1 SP especially against Cole, Ryu and Glasnow.
People tend to forget or over-look the fact that E-Rod from 2015 to 2019 had ERAs of 3.85, 4.71, 4.19, 3.82 and 3.81 with WHIPs of 1.29, 1.299, 1.282, 1.265 and 1.328. His BEST year was the 3.81/1.328 because he won 19 games with basically the same stuff that won him 25 games over the previous 4 years. So is he a 6 win pitcher or a 19 win pitcher with a 3.81 ERA and 1.32 WHIP? Run support made him look better than he was in 2019. Now take off a year while being dangerously sick and weakened and ask this guy to come back as the #1 until June or July? That’s a lot to ask and expect from him.
Houck will be up a fast as possible while the team ensures the extra year of control. Everyone is pulling for E-Rod but I fear expectations are far too high. What the Red Sox REALLY need is David Price!!! I guarantee he will out-perform everyone except Sale in 2021 and to have him as the #1 right now with E-Rod at #2 would have been a much stronger team.
Good luck to both Mookie and David out in LA and Benny in KC!!
Huck’s service clock started last year.
I couldn’t disagree more on Eduardo Rodriguez.
The second half of 2019 he was one of the best pitchers in all of baseball. When spring training started in 2020 he looked just as good as at the end of the 2019 season. After watching Eddie this spring, easily the best looking pitcher on the staff, the only thing that I would be concerned about is his stamina.
Eddie throws a four-seam and two seam fastball he also throws a slider and his best pitch a changeup he channels well of his fastball. All of the pitches are plus pitches with his changeup among the best in baseball. The point his stuff is top of the rotation stuff. The reason I think he will build on that 2nd half of 2019 he learned to pitch and throw strikes. The problem with Eddie before was he simply threw to many balls walked to many people and would get stung by that. The second half of 2019 he stopped trying to nibble and started trusting his stuff and walked less people in the second half. KD in the first half you are right he was getting very fortunate with run support and he really wasn’t pitching all that well. In the second half completely different story.
I think there is an excellent chance that he takes the next step this year and becomes the top of rotation Boston needs him to be. There is no questioning the stuff as long as trusts it and doesn’t try and nibble it will happen for him.
Devers is another story altogether he came into camp looking slimmer and moving better but he simply has to many mental lapses to be relied on at third. I still think that physically he has the tools to play third but he just seems to have a permanent case of the yips defensively at third. I know they are going to continue to play him at third this year but if appears to be time to move him off third defensively. His bat must still be in the lineup though which is why they won’t move him off third this year but hold out little hope that stops making the silly errors he makes on an alarmingly consistent basis.
You are correct Houck’s service time has already started he is arb eligible in 2024 and a free agent in 2027. There is a couple of reasons he isn’t up with the big club the first is he really hasn’t pitched real well in spring training. I know that players work on things and that’s fine and dandy for a veteran who’s spot is insured but for a guy trying to make the rotation you can’t pitch like he has especially when his competition for that spot has easily been better this spring. The other big reason is he has the options remaining it’s a no brainer he has the option he has t pitched his way on this spring so he goes back to AAA to work on things. He will be up when there is an injury or possibly if they need a 6th starter if they keep Andriese in that long relief role. I expect to see quite a bit of Houck this year.
KD the Dodgers biggest fan (former Red Sox fan)! Lol
One move that I have read on other sites is that Cora may play JD more at home in left field opening up the DH for Devers and 3B for Dalbec. With Dalbec at 3B then 1B becomes open for Chavis, Casas, or Danny Santana, but as everything in 2021, it will be a work in progress.
@spike13 True, but an extended stay in the minors to open the season will still add another year of service time
I will always appreciate a player more than a team and Mookie, Price and Benny did lots to bring the Red Sox a ring so I will always root for them.
RS8 = Sounds too smart for Cora to have thought of it but whoever did has the right idea. There is LESS damage done defensively with JD in left than Devers at 3B. If Chavis keeps hitting the ball that could be an excellent line-up to maximize their chances of winning.
Is that true I’m not 100% positive but I do know all the sites I looked at said he is a free agent in 2027 and arb eligible in 2024. I can’t find any info that it’s different then that.
Rsox – From the MLB site – A player is deemed to have reached “one year” of Major League service upon accruing 172 days in a given year. That starts the six years of control. That’s why call-ups in September don’t impact the clock. That’s why Houck is at ground ZERO and no clock is running according to the MLB site.
From Fangraphs – Generally speaking, this clearly defined cutoff point means that most players spend their first seven major league seasons with their original team (unless they are traded or released, of course) because teams know not to call a player up until they can no longer earn 172 service days in their first year.
That suggests to me that if you count backwards from September 30 171 days you end up at Tuesday April 13th, Anything before that would put you over 171 service days. So no call-ups before the 13th!
The CBA is far more confusing because of the “Super Two” rule:
Section E – Salary Arbitration
(1) Eligibility.
(a) General Rule. Any Player with a total of three or more
years of Major League service, however accumulated, but with less than six years of Major League service, may submit the issue
of the Player’s salary to final and binding arbitration without the
consent of the Club, subject to the provisions of paragraph (3)
below. Nothing contained herein shall limit the right of any
Player, with the consent of the Club, to submit the issue of his
salary to final and binding arbitration.
(b) “Super Two” Players. In addition, a Player with at least
two but less than three years of Major League service shall be eligible
for salary arbitration if: (a) he has accumulated at least 86
days of service during the immediately preceding season; and (b)
he ranks in the top 22% (rounded to the nearest whole number)
in total service in the class of Players who have at least two but
less than three years of Major League service, however accumulated,
but with at least 86 days of service accumulated during the
immediately preceding season. If two or more Players are tied at
22%, all such Players shall be eligible.
So if Houck comes up on April 13th then he does not meet the 172 day criteria and his first controllable year becomes 2022. The big challenge with the Super Two clause is that in 2024 what would be his last year prior to arbitration if he is in the top 22% of the players getting arbitration in 2025 then he qualifies in 2024 so 2021 ends up counting even though they waiting until after April 13th. That’s why teams often wait until May to make sure the player isn’t in that top 22%.
This rule is one of the most convoluted in baseball. If 172 days constitutes a year then why not simply make the year that you hit 516 days (3 years) is the last before you are arbitration eligible?
I’ll be curious to see how they play the Super Two rule. How much beyond April 13 will they wait to reduce the risk of the Super Two rule applying.
I’m reading from thee sources, if someone knows exactly what the Red Sox will do to ensure Houck is arbitration eligible in 2025 not 2024 please explain things. Thanks.
I have to admit I read that too but and see that his service time is at .036 according to baseball reference I’m pretty sure that can’t be just ignored I wonder if that means they would ha e to delay him a little longer then a player that has never played in the bigs it’s pretty confusing. I’m just trying to figure out what they have to do to make him a free agent in 2028 instead of the 2027 that seems to be the consensus at this time.
Bruin1012 – The eligibility rules are insane.
About your evaluation of E-Rod. Maybe he’s made some type of jump in skill that you believe he did in late 2019. I see a guy who looks the same as he did in 2015. He’s got excellent stuff but he walks too many and leaves the ball over the plate too often so his hits per inning pitched is higher than it should be. Here are the numbers:
Hits/9 – BBs/9
2015 – 8.88 – 2.71
2016 – 8.33 – 3.36
2017 – 8..26 – 3.28
2018 – 8.26 – 3..12
2019 – 8.63 – 3.32
This is why his WHIP is always so high. Base runners lead to runs.
2019 E-Rod by month pitched as follows:
April – 2 wins/6 starts/40 runs scored (6.67/game)
May – 3 wins/5 starts/42 runs scored (8.4/game)
June – 3 wins/6 starts/45 runs scored (7.5/game)
July – 5 wins/5 starts/40 runs scored (8.0/game)
Aug – 3 wins/6 starts/34 runs scored (5.67/game)
Sept – 3 wins/6 starts/30 runs scored (5.0/game)
2019 provided E-ROD with 19 wins in 34 starts and the Red Sox scored 231 runs (6.8 runs per game). I can’t even imagine how many wins a guy like Sale ( a TRUE #1) might have if he got that type of run support. He might win 30!
E-Rod is a nice middle of the rotation pitcher. Until he lowers his hits per 9 and his walks per 9, he’ll just be a guy with great stuff and an inability to spot his pitches. If he overcomes his weakness, I think he will live up to your expectations.
@Spike13 – Houck didn’t pitch enough last year for it to count as a full year of service, so he’s still a rookie and Boston still has a full 6 years of control over him.
I know the chances are very slim….but man I’d love to see Felix regain just 50% of that arm. Was such fun seeing him Pitch. Stupid mariners destroyed his arm with massive overuse during a lot of crappy years.
Even if he could just be bullpen help it’d still be cool.
I read an article several years ago about the number of pitchers that accumulated 1,000 or more IPs by age 24, and the results were not good. It’s amazing how many young pitchers left the game really early. Gooden was about the best pitched I’ve ever seen, outside of Pedro. The NYMs had him throw 276.2 IPs when he was only 20 years old. He had a 3.04 ERA thru age 28, and then he was finished. He had 40 wins the rest of his career, with a 4.99 ERA.
The drugs didn’t help, but he should’ve been a 1st ballot HOF.
Houck has options, Jake the snake doesn’t… easy choice
Who is Jake the snake?
wrong ex-Phillies pitcher. same ERA this year though most likely
Red Sox have lots of young talent (Dalbec, Downs, Duran, Chavis, Houck, Rodriguez, Pivetta) having strong spring. Its early and only ST, but still a good sign.
It’s spring training against pitchers who also are trying to find themselves. Again, just stay healthy.
All true, but trends still count, and I suspect there is a lot of mental stuff that goes on with these players. Pivetta has had some stretches where he’s pitched like an AS for a month or two at a time, and then completely disappeared for months at a time.
That tells me that the talent is there. Maybe he was tipping his pitches, or maybe it was the way Philly used him, or maybe he is one of those guys that simply doesn’t trust his stuff enough.
Good ST numbers give great optimism. Down’s 9 at bats is truly a small, small sample. Pivetta is the lone standout added by Bloom. Downs needs to go to AA and prove he can hit. Pivetta was a nice add. Hernandez should be a solid add and I’m not sold on M Gonzalez or Renfroe. Time will tell. Let’s hope Verdugo has no back problems this year.
Downs hit great in AA back in 2019. He should start this season at AAA if I were to guess. He’s real close to the majors now. If all goes well, Boston should have its next core group all starting by 2022 opening day at the latest. They used to have the Killer B’s (Betts, Benny, Bradley); now they’re going to have the Killer D’s (Duran, Dalbec, Downs, Devers and ‘Dugie’). 2021 is the season to break most of the kids in, add more depth to the farm both via the draft (#4 overall pick!) and via trade deadline deals and to lock up Verdugo, Devers, E-Rod and maybe even Dalbec to long term deals. A lot of money comes off the books after this year and much more after 2022 so the Red Sox are in great shape and are in the process of building their next contender right now! Fans are going to be shocked at how good this team is going to be come 2022 & 2023. Have some patience this season as Chaim decides who’s staying and who’s going.
Dorothy – I get that you are a cheerleader of sorts but can we keep it real? Downs played 12 games at AA out of his 289 game minor league career so far. Hardly a valid sample size especially since the 12 games were against two of the worst teams in the league and their pitching staffs were two of the three worst in the league.
Downs hasn’t hit over .267 at any stop other than the 12 game stop at AA. He’s very average but has walked a lot. He swings for the fences on all counts and makes very little contact. Not a super star in the making!!
Duran looks legit, Dalbec needs to keep pounding the homers and reducing his Ks, Downs needs to learn how to make contact against good pitchers and Devers needs to become the DH to stop hurting the pitchers.
You want to lock up guys like Verdugo after one season? What about his back? You might want to temper the enthusiasm. You want to lock up a 23 year old DH? You might want to move him to DH to see if he can handle it before you lock him up. The team can’t afford 24 errors and 12 errors that aren’t recorded by the scorekeeper but the balls should have been played successfully like good 3Bs do. Dalbec is the Red Sox future 3B and if not Dalbec then Casas or Potts.
Fans are going to be shocked at how bad this team will be in 2021. 65 wins unless Sale gets back by May and is the old Sale. E-Rod will struggle against #1 SPs from NYY, TB and TOR in the division and he’ll have to face DeGrom, Nola, Fried and others from the NL East. Nobody has replaced the 260 times Mookie used to get on so scoring will be down but yes it could be up compared to last year. If it’s not, then the disaster will be bigger than I projected.
Wishing is a great way to approach life. Being realistic about the future tends to keep people grounded and expectations limited to things that can actually be achieved. Consider 2021 a victory if the Red Sox win more than 65 games because that would be an improvement on 2020.
Seeing the future as being bright after giving away your best player and your second best pitcher is unrealistic. There are lots of things to be thankful for like COVID coming to an end and businesses beginning to recover. The Red Sox future is not one of them. It will take a very, very long time to repair the damage done since DD was fired. Lets hope it’s not 86 years.
12 games in AA and calling that small sample size “great”?
Ok there.
Dorothy Downs is a very good prospect. KD. A little deeper dive and after watching him no he doesn’t swing for the fences all the time he has a less then 20% K rate in the minors. He is a very patient hitter who will get down in the count and thus strike out some but he is also a severe fly ball and line drive hitter. He makes loud contact from a quick bat that he whips through the zone. He is an elite hitting prospect absolutely no doubt in my mind. His patience is rare in young prospects and while the one negative is that he is a heavy pull hitter he hunts pitches and looks to punish them. KD he is absolutely not an air nothing hitter he walks, he hits the ball hard, and he hits the ball into the air this guy is for real. I am just surprised that you can’t see this i have to wonder if you just have this bias because he was part of the Betts trade. I will give you this he is a prospect and prospects flame out all the time but you portraying him as a swing for the fences all or nothing guy is simply wrong. Dorothy I think the Sox have a serious player with big upside on their hands. I am very bullish on Downs. In fact I’m bullish on quite a few of the young Sox.
Hopefully they get Pena completely right before they bring him back. He’s looked pretty good since moving to the bullpen.
Sign Greene. Give Pena six weeks. Then in six weeks figure out who to cut when Pena is ready or wait until someone goes on the DL. They’ll figure it out.
The type of luck the Angels have, in 6 weeks there would be another pitcher heading to the DL.
While i dont expect much from Boston this year, i do think pivetta looks really good, definitely worth the chance
good luck with that one
With their other (lack of) options, the Red Sox need a little luck to come their way LOL. Who knows, maybe Pivetta shows something…definitely not going to count on it but it would be a nice surprise
To keep things in perspective, there are a half dozen guys that are no longer in the organization that he should outshine compared to 2020!! Maybe more than 65 wins is possible!
I’ve always thought Pivetta drew the same reviews as Jake Arrieta with Baltimore, Both were filthy “stuff”guys who just could not put it all together.
Pivetta (though age 27 with Philly): 396.1 IP, 5.51 ERA/4.64 FIP, 79 ERA+, 2..84 K/BB
Arrieta (though age 27 with Baltimore): 358 IP, 5.46 ERA/4.72FIP, 77 ERA+, 1.74 K/BB
Both were traded in July of their age 27 seasons. Arrieta to the Cubs, Pivetta to Boston.
With the Cubs, Arrieta threw 803 IP with a 2.73ERA/3.16 FIP, 147 ERA+ and 3.25 K/BB and also won a Cy Young and finished in the top ten 2 other times.
Hopefully Pivetta can turn around likewise…
Ketch – Nice job on the research! I don’t know Arrieta’s minor league situation as well as Pivetta’s but he didn’t get the right grooming. At 20 he is in the Washington organization and was ho hum in ROK ball and low A. At 21, he goes 13-8 in A ball but his ERA and WHIP are terrible but his velocity puts him on a fast track as a touted prospect (4th rd pick). At 22, Washington prematurely moves him to AA from Hi-A where he is doing very well to start the year. The promotion was part of a bigger plan to make a deal with Philly so he became a showcase prospect in the deal who was at AA when he should have been at Hi-A.
Philly, not wanting to down grade their new prospect to where he should be in Hi-A ball chooses to put him in AA ball and he has a very rough season as one would expect. At age 23, in 2016, Philly returns Pivetta to AA ball and he starts to master the hitters like one would hope a player would do before he gets moved up. Almost a strike out per inning and an ERA of 3.41 and WHIP of 1.20. He gets promoted to AAA and has similar success to end the year but he only throws 24 innings.
Pivetta throws 32 more innings in 2017 at AAA (56 total) before his call-up to Philly. For me, he should have stayed in AAA until he had better command of his pitches but sometimes it’s important to add a high prospect to show fans all you are doing to win.
He got clobbered in his first season in the MLB. He gave up more hits than innings pitched and walked a guy every other inning. 2017, his 24 year old season, was a disaster. 2018 was his chance to shine. Unfortunately, it didn’t happen but he did get his hits per inning down to 1 but his BB rate was still at 2.8 per 9 innings. He finished with a 1.30 WHIP which isn’t terrible for year two (heck we applauded E-Rod when he posted 1.31 in 2019) but his 4.77 ERA was not what the Phillys were hoping for.
Pivetta split time between the majors and minors in 2019 with his AAA experience being decent with both his ERA and WHIP looking good. His MLB work, however, was not so positive because once again he was giving up more than a hit an inning and his walk rate jumped up to 3.7 per 9 innings.
He threw 5 innings in 2020 for Philly and was traded to Boston. Naturally, with the COVID situation and no minor league teams he couldn’t go back to AAA where he needed to go so he threw 10 innings for Boston. He gave up less than a hit an inning but still had control issues.
With this history, I would start Pivetta at AAA and work on his control issues. If they figured things out during Spring Training, great! If not, then we should expect more of the same in 2021. He needs to improve his ability to spot the ball where the catcher wants it. Lets hope they worked things out during Spring Training, otherwise, they may end up with a broken pitcher and no value from the trade. His potential is great but he needs the right pitching instruction to succeed.
Ahh… gone are the days when Teheran was a good pitcher…which was never.
Still waiting for him to turn into an ace…like Faulty.
For someone who wasn’t good, he got pretty good results.
He sure did. People confuse good with good peripherals. If you pitched as long as he has, throw out the peripherals, look at performance He had. COVID last year, maybe he never fully recovered.
They need to see what Pivetta can do over an extended period. Zero chance he would clear waivers if he didn’t make the team
Especially since Tampa was reportedly trying to acquire him. I do find it a bit hard to believe they got outbid by the Red Sox, however…..
The O’s will make history as Jim Palmer pitches the middle 3 innings of every game, sandwiched around his telecasting responsibilities’. If Palmer can keep his ERA under 5, Red Sox will do the same with Eck.
Gotta save NESN and MASN some money.
Almost funny Bob
Are Palmer and Eck older than Brady? hehehe shucks it started to sound good if only they were Brady’s age!!
Felix Hernandez continues to do everything possible to avoid retiring and going home to make up for lost time with the family.
He has 40 years to spend with his family once he officially retires. I’m sure his wife is more than fine with him trying to make another couple of million for his family and for his charities too. People make such a big issue out of this. His family is living a great life because of his sacrifices. Let the man do what he wants to do and leave the game when he’s ready. He’ll have all the time in the world to spend with them once he has retired; much more time than most of us will ever have with our families given our 9-5 or 8-6 jobs we work until we’re 65+.
Giving up years in the prime of your life to make an extra few million when you’ve already got 100+ million in the bank is questionable to me. I’m 49, and I’d gladly give up 2-3% of my net worth to have a couple years back of the prime of my life, especially with a family involved. You can’t get those “best years of your life” back. That’s just my take…I realize that some others think that the dollars mean everything, but for me there’s more valuable things in life especially when you’ve already earned more than you could ever possible spend.
You also don’t know that he’d have 40 years after retirement. People die at young ages all the time. Life is unpredictable
I worked for a foreign company for a while, and they decided to repatriate my position, with a fairly good separation package. Since my spouse worked, she told me that, unless I stumbled into something good, she was okay with me staying home until the school year was over.
That might’ve been the best three months of my life. I’d get up, make breakfast and lunch, walk the kids to the school, go for a run, clean the house, get stuff together for dinner, get the kids from school, take them to their activities, watch their basketball games, etc.
I don’t know if I would to do that forever, but for the three months I did it, it was unbeatable.
The King hasn’t left the building… Not yet anyway…
“Agent Scott Boras took exception to the decision… ”
-Who more than Scott Boras is understands the urge to maximize profit. Surely he is not surprised that the Diamondbacks are choosing to hold back Bukouskas. He would do the exact same thing were he in their situation.
I was thinking the same thing. Yet, I remember him making a stink to shut down Stephen Strasberg during a playoff run and subsequent post season. Buy a team!
There is a lot to be said about that. Guys like Britt Burns and Richard Dotson were top-tier pitchers at one point. But the WS burned them out early. Dotson had a ERA+ of 109 by age 25, but also had > 1,000 IPs. After age 25, he was mostly finished. Burns had 238 IPs at age 21, had a career ERA+ of 111, but his career ended at age 28.
You really want to, and have to, be fully invested. But at the same time, if it’s your arm and your career, you can’t risk it all by being careless, especially if the shots are being called by someone not necessarily interested in your long-term success.
Angels pro. Someone tell Jose Mota not to talk so much during the baseball game.
He’s just temporary. The regular guys will be there at the start of the season.
Actually Sutton starts on the 23rd. Mota is staying as the third man.
Matty V will be the third guy with Sutton and Gubby for the Angels TV broadcasts
Probably the best signing the Angels have made all winter. Vasgersian’s a terrific play-by-play broadcaster. Rojas was horrible to listen to
Jose Mota has no sideburns. That’s more interesting than anything the Angels done this off-season!
If the Angels get out to any kind of respectable start, they should be kicking the tires on Cincinnati’s SP (Castillo, Gray) before anyone else.
The question is, can they get either without giving up David Fletcher? Every team the Angels call to trade for pitching, ask for Fletcher. Now if I was an opposing GM, he would be at the top of my request list as well. The Angels need to hope guys like Adams, Jackson, Sotto, Yan, and Knowls show that they are taking it to another level, to have a chance to get some of the top pitchers who will be available in trades.
Maybe if they are willing to give up Brandon Marsh? If/when Adell pans out, where is Marsh supposed to play?
Seeing how the Reds need a SS badly, yes you probably can get either of them without giving up Fletcher. The Reds would probably Ward and Canning. Canning to go into the rotation and Ward to add to the pile of Infielders/Outfielders they have that can’t play Short
Well, the Angels cut their already ineffective scouting corps to save $$$ during the pandemic. I seriously doubt we’re out ahead on other teams in identifying hidden gems.
@Sealbeach, you do realize that the Angels finally overhauled their entire scouting team right? The Angels hired one of the Cardinals head scouts to be the Farm Director and got a couple of scouts from the Dodgers as well.
The Angels scouting all fell apart the day they let the late David Lander aka Squiggy go to the Mariners. 😉
Another day, another fragile Angels pitcher injured, another trip to the bargain bin to look for low risk/low reward replacements….based on ineffective scouting.
JB Bukauskas might be good and could make his major league debut this year but Scott Boras will sell ice to polar bears. You cannot under any circumstance take spring training numbers and equate that to regular season game numbers. Not the kids fault, but in Spring Training if you are pitching the eighth or ninth innings ( and this kid finished 2 of the 4 games he was in) he was seeing AA and AAA and vets trying to hang on, not starting player who left the game. Through his time in AA, he couldn’t keep runners off the bases. Let this year’s Sid Finch produce against a steady diet of AAA hitters before i believe the Scott Boras marketing pitch.
Other than that, his AA numbers seem to mirror the major league numbers of Juan Minaya, except two levels below. If he is a superstar, let him grow into one.
Or better yet, maybe the Angels should look to pull Trevor Hildenberger out of his Syracuse contract. Seems as if he has seen 7 batters in 3 outings and struck out all seven for the Mets this spring