The latest updates on coronavirus situations around baseball…
Latest Moves
- The Red Sox placed yet another player on the COVID list, as right-hander Phillips Valdez tested positive for the virus (MassLive.com’s Chris Cotillo was among those to report the news.) Right-hander Brad Peacock will join the active roster in Valdez’s place after Peacock’s contract was selected from Triple-A Worcester. Between Pivetta’s activation and Valdez joining, Boston’s COVID list remains at 10 players.
Earlier Today
- The Red Sox reinstated right-hander Nick Pivetta from the COVID-related injury list today, and optioned righty Connor Seabold to Triple-A. Pivetta will get the start today against the White Sox after recovering from a case of COVID-19 that sidelined him on September 5. (As per league regulations, Pivetta was cleared to return after seven days because he was fully vaccinated earlier this season.) It has been something of an up-and-down season for Pivetta, and the righty is looking to bounce back after posting a 10.13 ERA over 10 2/3 innings pitched in his last three starts.
Conner did great.
He did okay, if Sale can’t make his next start I wouldn’t mind Seabold taking it again.
As for Pivetta, I hafta believe his poor performance over his prior three starts was Covid related. Just like Barnes poor performance in his last few games.
I wouldn’t mind Seabold starting again. It does seem that he either needs his prior velo bump or plus command of the changeup to be an effective starter. 90-91 with iffy command of his best pitch is not going to cut it. That said, that’s not an easy lineup to debut against.
Barnes was overperforming earlier in the season. Look at his career stats. Doubt these are covid related.
Overperforming?
Yes let’s look at his K/9 over the years:
2018 – 14.0
2019 – 15.4
2021 – 14.1
He’s consistently been among the leaders.
FPG – Great K numbers. K rate is always nice but they are not the critical stats for closers. Here are some critical stats:
2017 – IP 69.2 BR/9 = 11.0 Total WPs 3 Unearned Runs 1
2018 – IP 61.2 BR/9 = 11.4 Total WPs 8 Unearned Runs 0
2019 – IP 64.1 BR/9 = 12.4 Total WPs 13 Unearned Runs 2
2020 – IP 23.0 BR/9 = 12.5 Total WPs 4 Unearned Runs 2
2021 – IP 49.2 BR/9 = 9.6 Total WPs 3 Unearned Runs 2
Obviously dropping his Base Runners per 9 from the 11 to 12 range the previous four years to 9.6 accounts for his good first half of the season. He’s giving up slightly lower Hits per 9 but his BBs per nine has dropped by 2 in 2021. He solved one of his biggest problems with being a closer. Wild pitches are down significantly since his peak in 2019 and that helps too. Unearned runs are listed because a passed ball leads to unearned runs. The Red Sox catchers have done a nice job blocking the bouncing ball limiting the opposition to 2 unearned runs per season.
Barnes has come in with inherited runs 7 times this year and allowed them to score 4 of the 7 times. Obviously, he’s a guy that should start the inning. This season he has blown saves in May (1), June (2), July (1) and August (2). 6 blown saves in 36 opportunities to blow a save. That’s why he made the all-star team, he only had 3 by the all=star game.to go with his 19 saves.
Since the all-star game he has 5 saves (4 in July), 2 Wins, 2 Losses and 2 blown saves. That’s a huge drop off and much more like the Barnes we all knew prior to his fast start in 2021. Since the all star game he has the following stats:
12.2 IP 16 hits 8 walks for a total of 24 base runners!!!
11 ER for an ERA of 7.82!! The all-star Barnes left the building!!
KD – the new extra innings rule of the inning starting with a runner on second has added a ton of unearned runs around the mlb, so you would need to make sure if the unearned runs are due to errors or the new rules. The unearned runs are not all because of wild pitches. It is more likely that the unearned runs are because the of the Red Sox wonderful defense and not something the pitcher caused, thus the term “unearned”. Otherwise, your analysis is good, and like always you ended with the always snotty comment. You would not be KD without that. Lol lol lol
…. – I thought you were banned from the sight!!
I’ll go back and check but the unearned numbers didn’t real jump out as being unusual so I didn’t bother with the detail of how it happened. Obviously, the most likely case is Devers made the error or if an unearned run happened in the 10th then it’s because of the base runner being put on 2B not earning 2nd base
Just validated that in 2021 Barnes has pitched in the 10th twice. Once in April and gave up no runs and on July 22 against the Yankees where he gave up a ground ball back to him that advanced the runner to 3B and then a sac fly brought the runner in but Boston scored two in the bottom of the 10th to win the game. One of his two unearned runs was in that game.
Snotty comment? All-star Barnes has left the building? That’s not snotty it’s a fact. The performance in the second half has been vintage Barnes whereas the performance prior to his all-star election was a very different Barnes with control and effectiveness. That Barnes has left the building!! That’s a fact, not a snotty comment!!! It’s not my fault he left the building!!
Blame Cora!!! hahaha or Bloom!!! hahaha Now that’s a snotty remark!!!
The only thing I disagree on is the timing of his slide. It actually started August 7th, which coincidentally or not is when the Covid breakout began on the team. That’s the game when he served up a game-winning dinger to his buddy in Toronto.
Prior to that game, from July 3-August 6 he pitched one inning in each of 8 games and didn’t allow an earned run. He also gave up just 3 hits and 2 walks with 7 strikeouts.
I think it’s highly possible the next 8 games in which he pitched so poorly, he might have been fighting Covid fatigue symptoms. Maybe not, but I’m a “benefit of the doubt” kind of guy.
He got shelled, but it is only one game. Maybe the equivalent of Lester’s first game. Not too concerned.
The pride of Victoria.
And he’s not a secret anymore.
What on earth is going on with COVID and the Red Sox? Is it all stemming from unvaccinated players??? I would think their teammates would be incensed by now…not to mention the fanbase. Why isn’t this a bigger deal??? I heard something about Renfroe speaking up but then the story died. There should be hell to pay and I don’t understand why players aren’t being called out.
Thank you, I’ve been saying the same thing. At the very least MLB should be investigating why the Red Sox are the only team being hit this hard for this long.
Players should have been called out by Sox management long ago. John Henry has been non-existent all season. Winning is simply not a priority, perhaps they want to use Covid as a built-in excuse.
“Winning is not a priority”…Checks standings, Red Sox lead Al wild Card. Doh!
Red Sox led the AL Wild Card by 6 games on July 28.
Check the standings in 4 hours. Doh!
Since 7/28,the NYY went 24-5. Sometimes the other guys win. Then the Yankees went 3-11, because sometime the other team loses,.
@ fever and @ ignorant, I agree with you! It is unconscionable for players working/playing/traveling as a team to not be vaxxed. There is no way the Sox have such a large outbreak if a majority/all players were vaxxed. For a team in the playoff race, it’s a total bummer!! Same happened to the Giants…Alex Wood, un-vaxxed, got covid and has missed multiple starts now. Puts a ton of stress on our pitching staff at exactly the wrong time of the season! If I was a GM I’d mandate vaxs for all players on my team to avoid this exact thing! (Ok….I’m ready to get raked….bring it on)