The Red Sox are out to a decent start in 2024. Despite dropping five of their last six, they’re above .500 at 19-18. They’re currently in third place in a division where most observers felt they’d finish fourth or fifth. That’s a credit to a pitching staff that leads the majors with a 2.75 earned run average.
Boston’s bullpen looked solid coming into the year, yet the rotation was more of a question mark. It wasn’t that the group was devoid of talent. It was light on pitchers with a proven track record as starters, though, particularly after Lucas Giolito went down for the season in Spring Training. That left the Sox relying on a handful of pitchers who’d been productive as relievers to shoulder important rotation jobs. They’ve delivered thus far, with Tanner Houck and Kutter Crawford out to particularly excellent starts.
Houck and Crawford are the only members of Boston’s season-opening rotation who haven’t spent time on the injured list. Garrett Whitlock, Brayan Bello and Nick Pivetta have all missed time. (Pivetta returned on Wednesday and Bello could be back by the weekend.) Houck wasn’t even a lock for the Opening Day starting five until Giolito’s injury. By all accounts, the Sox rotation should have struggled to this point.
Instead, they easily lead the majors with a 2.33 ERA. That’s at least partially a reflection of their usage. Only the White Sox — whose rotation has been one of the league’s worst — have allowed their starters to face an opposing hitter for a third time in an outing less often. Alex Cora is getting to the bullpen early, which takes some of the higher-pressure at-bats off the rotation. Yet that doesn’t entirely detract from how effective Boston’s starters have been.
Crawford, 28, has appeared in parts of four seasons. He held a rotation spot from June onward last year, turning in solid if unexciting results. Over 23 starts, he worked to a 4.51 ERA with an above-average 26.2% strikeout rate. It was enough for the Sox to guarantee him a rotation spot even when they expected Giolito would be healthy. He went into 2024 with a season-opening starting job for the first time in his career.
The right-hander has doubled down on last year’s success. Through eight starts, he carries a 1.75 ERA that ranks seventh among qualified starters. He has fanned 24.3% of opponents and is generating swinging strikes at a solid 12.3% clip. Crawford has held opponents to two or fewer runs in seven of his appearances.
Crawford probably isn’t an ace. He’s not missing bats at the level associated with the game’s truly elite pitchers. He’s a fly-ball pitcher who’ll surely allow a few more home runs over the course of the year. Crawford looks like a legitimate mid-rotation arm, though. He’s attacking hitters with more offspeed stuff — part of a team-wide philosophical shift under new pitching coach Andrew Bailey — and has done an excellent job staying off barrels. That’s true against left-handed and righty batters alike, making it difficult for opponents to play matchups and allowing him to at least work through the batting order twice in a start.
That has also been true for Houck, at least this season. Concerns about the right-hander’s low arm angle and heavy reliance on a sinker/slider combination have led some evaluators to project him to the bullpen going back to his college days in Missouri. It’s difficult to avoid huge platoon splits with that kind of profile. Left-handed batters can identify the ball early in his delivery. For most of his career, Houck hasn’t had a pitch to keep opposing southpaws at bay.
Houck kicked between starting and relief over his first three-plus seasons. He worked out of the rotation for all 21 of his appearances last year but struggled to a 5.01 ERA. Handling left-handed hitters was indeed an issue. Through the end of the 2023 season, Houck stifled righties to a .214/.282/.283 batting line behind a 27.4% strikeout rate. Lefty batters turned in a much more productive .251/.343/.420 slash while striking out 22% of the time. Lefties drew more walks and hit for much more power against him.
That hasn’t been the case this season. While Houck has still been better against right-handed hitters in 2024, that’s more a reflection of his dominance against everyone than any kind of issue handling southpaws. Houck is holding left-handers to a .227/.279/.258 slash in 104 plate appearances. His 21.2% strikeout rate isn’t great, but he has more than halved his walks and pushed his ground-ball percentage north of 60%. Even if they’re still putting the ball in play at a decent clip, lefty batters aren’t doing any kind of damage. (Houck has completely befuddled right-handed opponents, limiting them to a .203/.234/.284 mark behind a huge 31.2% strikeout rate.)
As is the case with Crawford, Houck has found that new level by moving away from his heater. Houck has essentially doubled the usage of his splitter against left-handed batters while scaling back on his fastball and cutter. The split isn’t a new pitch — he has had it throughout his career — but he’s getting more downward action on it. The uptick in its deployment suggests Houck is far more comfortable with the pitch than he’d been before this year.
Whether Crawford and Houck can maintain an upper mid-rotation pace or better over a full schedule remains to be seen. Neither pitcher has yet reached 130 major league innings in a season. Opposing lineups will adjust to their heavier reliance on offspeed stuff, and league-wide offense generally improves as the weather warms. They’ve each been among the best pitchers in the majors through six weeks, though. These kinds of breakouts are necessary for a team to outperform expectations and stick in the playoff mix against the odds.
Images courtesy of USA Today Sports.
The speed of a 24 year old Jacoby Ellsbury combined with the defense of a 25 year old Kevin Kiermaier combined with batting prowess of a 32 year old Edgar Martinez combined with the durability/dependability of a 34 year old Cal Ripken combined with the hustle of a 39 year old Peter Rose.
Jac – I’d be happy for even one of those.
I think it’s safe to say the Sox have hit rock bottom.
They just got SHUT DOWN by a guy with a 6.45 ERA and 1.805 WHIP.
They are now 0-15 when trailing after 7 innings.
They are now 7-16 against teams that currently have a winning record.
Abreu should be starting every day, putting Rafaela in CF tonight was a horrendous decision.
Tyler is not an everyday player, he needs to sit when Ref is playing.
Houck was fantastic once again, 7 strong innings.
This was supposed to be the ONE GAME this weekend that they absolutely should have won. Now they have to face a solid starter in Irvin tomorrow and and even better one in Gore on Sunday.
Statistically the Red Sox rank 23rd out of 30 MLB teams in clutch hitting.
Cora had ZERO right-handed hitters on the bench.
The bench consisted of Dom Smith and his .465 OPS
David Hamilton and his .608 OPS
Reese McGuire who you try not to use the backup catcher
And Abreu who was fantastic in his 2 PA’s
Why have a RHB on the bench when you can have a scrub like Anderson stinking up the bullpen, right?
We have just witnessed the dumbest managerial decision in MLB this year!
Intentionally walk the ice-cold RHB Tyler O’Neill to face the red hot LHB Devers …. radio announcers are annihilating Martinez for such a dumb computer spitout decision.
Take ’em as they come!
Another great outing from Criswell. I keep waiting for the league to catch up to him, but he is working twice through the lineup with tremendous success so far. Not an ace, of course, but a really solid #5.
TFF – He’s certainly pitching like an ace!
Can’t say enough about what the 3 B’s have done to improve the pitching staff, let’s hope it continues.
Criswell is facing 18 batters per start, and is getting tagged for a .500+ SLG the second time through. He *isn’t* an ace, because he needs to be sheltered a bit, but he is a very solid #5 pitcher.
Still huge to get that kind of find off the waiver wire!
TFF – I wish they could play the Nats every game of the season! The Nats make the Sox look fundamentally sound. LOL!
Cannot believe the Nats today ran into 5 outs on the basepath along with 2 fielding errors, they totally handed the game to the Sox.
Victor Robles did more today to help the Sox win than Hansel did over the 53 games he played with the Sox. LOL!!
TFF – I think it’s just a matter of building his stamina. Prior to this season he had only two career starts, both as an opener.
Andrew Bailey deserves a lot of credit for the rotation this year.
He’s missed in SF but his philosophy stayed.
dave – It’s safe to say Krapler would have had a lot fewer wins without Bailey.
Without doubt. Same could be said of any manager that has the benefit of elite support.
As an aside, the prevalence of adults on here coming up with juvenile name variations is so weird.
Fap – I can’t speak for mothers, but my phone gets wonky with auto correct.
Ha ha. Good. I was surprised when I read it.
can we just take a second to find humor in autocorrect being made fun of in a comment that clearly changed others to mothers!! haha perfect joke 100% by accident!
Yes he does. No surprise here and it shouldn’t be for any Giants fan. Bailey is the man. I thought at the time he was the best pitching acquisition any team made last FA. Very happy his impact is becoming indisputable. Good things happening to a good guy. Nice.
Adding to that, Bailey is here because of Breslow. Strong mutual respect between those two. I know some are already jumping on Breslow’s “failures”, but he has done a great job from the little ownership has given him to work with.
His development legacy remains at the Giants but I sure do miss his mound visits. The prevalence of the big inning is hurting the Giants. He seemed so good at helping a pitcher stop the bleeding.
TFF – It’s on the job training for Breslow with a very limited budget, so I don’t see how anyone can give him 100% blame for failures.
As he continues to gain experience, he will hopefully have more autonomy. And within 4-5 years if there’s not a massive change with ownership’s behavior, I’m certain Breslow will go to a better run organization ….. just like Dombrowski did.
The majority of the TOR starters now are pitching up in the zone and initiating weak fly balls.
The reason for this is simple, most hitters are trying to hit the ball in air so they swing below fastballs in the upper part of the strike zone (until Manfred lowers the strike zone as is rumored). The banning of the shift has limited the value on inducing ground balls while pitching lower in the zone increases the risk of line drives.
Where fly balls do increase the chances of a ball leaving the yard, the trade off of the lower batting average and higher strike out rate makes it significantly more attractive to the number crunchers.
So, in other words, cora is going to burn out the bullpen just as many of us had suspected coming into the season.
So, in other words, Red Sox fans will find something to complain about in even the most positive articles on the Red Sox.
BTW, nice job Anthony Franco, very informative.
Kyle- deny reality all you want. I think Bailey had done wonders with the starting pitching, but cora needs to give them a chance to pitch deeper if the bullpen is going to hold up long term.
This is the reason why I’m not all onboard the hype train. The SP has been good, but not going deep in games is going to burn out the staff. This has happened frequently with the Sox.
I would hope that as the season progresses, the starters will go deeper. But with Pivetta, Bello and Whitlock experiencing early IL stints they may need more time to ramp up enough to go deeper.
But let’s not take away from the work that the staff as a whole has done. I wouldn’t have never expected Houck to look that good and have those few deep outings. Criswell has looked great, which I was completely wrong on. Crawford has looked good, but his mechanics worry me. The way he throws, it kind of looks like a short arm throw like more of a catcher/infielder trying to release the ball quickly. But mechanics aside, great job so far.
Joe – Sorry I have to disagree with the notion that all the Sox starters are getting pulled too early. Yes it would be great to see them go into the 7th more often …. but fact is Cora HAS left them in longer than prior years, which is a good thing.
Crawford is 8th in the league in Innings Pitched, and Houck is 10th.
Hard to complain about them being pulled too early, and if the crappy offense had provided decent leads then those two guys would have pitched even more innings.
Fever – I was just speaking in general. I was recently looking up criswell’s stats and he hasn’t gone over 5 – which I can understand as he’s essentially a fill in. The opener games also kill the bullpen.
MLB.com has a way to view IP by starters mlb.com/stats/team/pitching/innings-pitched?split=… (by applying a filter), and the Sox are near the bottom. This isn’t IP/Game so some teams higher up may have played more games.
Hopefully Crawford and Houck keep up this success and the rest of the staff can come back healthy and keep up the good work.
Best way to judge relief load is to look at the IP by the relievers.
The bullpen games are absolutely a killer.
Criswell is your classic “5 inning starter” when he is good, 4 innings when not sharp. His limit is (or should be) 18 batters. You can live with one or two guys like that in the rotation. The problem last year was that guys like Paxton and Sale weren’t carrying their load, averaging just 5.1 IP/GS. That is understandable for a fill-in like Criswell, but not acceptable for a veteran who is paid like a star.
Joe – I wouldn’t be surprised if Houck and Crawford finish the season with ERA’s under 3 …. provided they stay healthy of course.
TFF – The only problem with using SP/RP Splits is when relievers are used as Openers, their numbers for those games are included in SP.
Yes, can get a bit messy. But when Bernardino opens for Winck, the innings all end up on the bullpen arms…
Fever – if Crawford and Houck have around 30 starts and an era under 3.5 I would be ecstatic. That would also mean the team is probably a buyer at the deadline, so we would get to see how Breslow handles that.
Yeah, an ERA around 3.50 for those two seems possible. Hard to say for sure.
They don’t have enough offense to compete, though, no matter how good the pitching is.
The “real” starters are going relatively deep. Both Houck and Crawford have gone 7 lately. That they aren’t trusting Cruswell or Winckowski to do the same is because they are injury replacements and that makes sense. When Bello, Pivetta and Whitlock come back then we’ll see how Cora let’s or doesn’t let starters go deeper into games. But from what I’ve seen with Houck and Kutter — he seems all in on 6+
You realize that the Red Sox bullpen is merely #10 in the majors in innings pitched, even WITH the bullpen starts? The bullpen was stretched this past week, but not yet to the point of breaking.
Trying to push your starting pitchers beyond their limit is a losing game. They get hit hard in that last inning, often requiring the bullpen to come in for a partial inning to bail them out, and the cumulative stress on the starters leads to some blowout starts as the season wears on. Remember all of that last year?!?
Houck and Crawford have been studs so far, pitching long innings with success. Bello was right at the league average before going on the DL, and will hopefully improve on that as the season warms. Pivetta too. They have enough innings from the rotation IF they can get guys healthy, just not enough of they are throwing two bullpen games each turn of the rotation,
That’s where the failure to add a veteran starter hurts (swapping Sale for Giolito was at best a lateral swap even before Giolito went on the DL). Too little depth to cover when guys get injured – as they always do.
TFF – It’s unfortunate Gio got hurt enough to need surgery, but if he hadn’t gotten hurt then quite possibly Houck would have started the season in the BP. Good thing he was allowed to be a starter, which is what he wanted all along.
I would have pushed Whitlock back before Houck, but you never know…. Good that Houck got his chance.
TFF – I could be wrong, but from what I remember Houck was the last pitcher named to the starting rotation.
Could be. But you know how I feel about the best role for Whitlock.
Yeah Houck was last one named. And while I disagree from a potential value perspective about Whitlock… the injuries are becoming too overwhelming to ignore as a SP. If he can’t stay healthy as a SP but can as a RP… its time to keep him full time in relief where we know he can be an absolute weapon.
Never any questions about Whitlock’s talent!
Andrew Bailey is the guy
soxfan – Yes, firing Bush and bringing Bailey aboard was Breslow’s best move.
The real Sox fans were demanding Bush’s firing for years and years.
Red Sox have the second best rotation in the Bigs, based on fWAR.
IM – Yeah it’s basically just Duran, Abreu, Devers and Wong right now that are hitting. Once Casas and Macho Man return, the offense will improve.
Coop and Dom are pathetic though.
Casas and Yoshida return when? August? September? 2025?
Am thinking WYSIWYG for most of this year.
TFF – With all these scrap heap signings it’s GIGO.
Hey, don’t knock scrap heap scavenging! Sometimes turn up a real gem, like that kid’s desk we picked up 15 years ago (and just kicked out to the curb from whence it came).
Most of the time, though, guys you can get off waivers are worth approximately what you gave to get them. Not the fault of Cooper and Dom, really, just who they are at this stage of their careers.
TFF – I just think getting the scraps reinforced ownership’s message that they had no intention of competing this year.
I mean Cooper is 3-for-23 and didn’t even have an extra-base hit until tonight.
Smith is 4-for-21 with just one extra-base hit.
There were so many better options if the Sox were willing to spend.
Can’t wait to re-live The Season From Hell on Netflix next year.
Is this going to be the Netflix Halloween Special? One of those where two or three guys end up brutally murdered in the opening scenes, there is no help in sight, and you find yourself shouting at the screen, “Don’t go out on that field!”
Yea Fever this offense looks a lot better with Casas anchoring it and Yoshida in there. It would allow Abreu to hit back in the order where he should be and would allow Cooper and Smith to be where they should be off the team. If Abreu is your 7th hitter instead of where he is now the offense is much better.
Bruin1012 – Players go through hot and cold streaks.
I go to websites that show stats over periods to see who is hot and cold. Right now during the last two weeks Rafaela is the hottest hitter on the Red Sox batting .317 slugging .561 with 1 sb. Devers is next with .a better average of .325 but a .475 slugging.and no sbs. Devers scored 5 and drove in 5 and had 1 HR. Rafaela scored 6 and drove in 10 on 2 HRs.
It’s all about who is hot and where in the schedule the team is. They are playing good teams and Rafaela is ranked 103 over the last 2 weeks and Devers is second at 312. Abreu who was hot versus the weak teams is 587 now as he slumps.
This just shows that nobody on Boston is a true all star like Mookie or JD or Bogey were. O’Neill is hot and cold just like Devers since he no longer has the other great all-star hitters. All the rest will fluctuate so nobody should talk down to any of the young guys. They are simply trying to establish themselves as players heading toward stardom.
Cooper and Smith are what they are and they are not the guys to make this team better, they are here to lessen the damage of losing Casas. Yoshida isn’t a guy to anchor the team because he’s just a slightly above average hitter and a DH.
We need Duran, Rafaela, Abreu, Teel and eventually Anthony to become the climbing stars to help save the Red Sox in the next several years. This year does not matter from a standings perspective. They will be last by a significant distance. What matters is that the future stars take steps toward the stardom. It that happens, it’s been a good year.
TF – I thought of you a few minutes ago as Devers made a SENSATIONAL play bare-handing the ball and throwing out one of the fastest baserunners in the game! Haha!
What are your thoughts on Rafaela moving back to CF tonight? I thought Cora insisted Rafaela is the starting shortstop for the rest of the season??
BTW – That was a really dumb decision to send the runner on a base hit to Duran in LF …. Nats must have forgotten they were playing in Fenway.
Bruin – Good news, no surgery needed for Yoshida. Hopefully back in a couple weeks.
Fever – I saw the play and was shocked. May be the best play he’s made in 8 seasons. Every once in a while a blind squirrel finds an acorn!!
If there is a mistake to be made, Cora makes it.
Washington is really aggressive because they are young and aggressive and experiencing winning for the first time.this season.
Troll your correct players go through hot and cold streaks but imo the best and most consistent hitter the Red Sox have is Triston Casas his loss was immense. He wasn’t even hit in the 90 plate appearances before he got injured and he was a mid 800’s ops guy. I see him as a .280-.300 type hitter with .350 to .400 obp and 40 homer power a true superstar pre injury we will se how he looks when he comes back. His swing is massive rotational swing and I wonder how his particular injury affects him moving forward.
Marcelo Mayer is probably the first guy called up to AAA along with Nick Yorke and probably Lugo who has had a great start and looks like a different guy this year. Mayer start this year was clearly babip driven but he is really impacting the ball now imo his last few weeks he’s really starting to look good and that off speed pitch down and in that he swings over all the time he’s starting to lay off that pitch. He looks much better.
Nick Yorke has been the exact opposite of Mayer in that he started extremely unlucky but the good thing is he has so far gotten away from trying to launch balls and he’s back to using the whole field with a line drive approach. His k rate has plummeted with this approach and he has maintained excellent walk rates his defense at second has been outstanding he is no longer an offense first prospect they are also putting him in the outfield which is a work in progress. His power is all pull side power so if he can continue to take the outer half pitches up the middle and turn on the middle in fastballs he can reach his potential offensively. He looks really good.
I put Anthony and Teel in the same boat they are both being challenged in AA right now Teel for the first time anywhere. They are both striking out a lot and Anthony in particular is caught in between right now. The good news is they are still maintains high walk rates and I think it’s only a matter of time before they take off. Lugo has looked like a different player he looks really physical this year and he’s strong. His swing is geared for damage with a lot of lift unfortunately he’s going to strike out a lot but his start has put him back on the radar as a prospect.
I’d like to see them move Yorke to AAA soon he can really increase his trade value if he hits there with his stellar defense at second. The problem is Valdez is playing second and tearing the cover off the ball in Worcster. Yorke is the much better defender at second but I’m afraid that he’s ahead of Yorke on the pecking order so it’s time to look at moving Yorke if the right deal can be found.
Troll I like Rafaela I think he’s going to figure it out offensively. He’s never going to walk a lot but he has good hand eye coordination and should be able to get to .250 hitter with sneaky pop. He’s a keeper for sure. His defensive versatility is very helpful as well. I just thought he would take longer to get to his offense than Abreu due to Abreu’s more mature plate approach.
I think people are seeing what I saw in Worcester Abreu can really p,at defense. He takes great routes he has a great jump and he catches nearly anything that gets close to his glove he’s a keeper as well. Offensively he’s more of a .250 hitter imo but with high obp and more power when he really settles in more of 20-25 hr guy. He’s still learning big league pitching I kind of look at him as Casas lite.
Wow what a difference Duran looks like in the outfield his jumps and reads are much better this year. I have been really impressed with his improvement defensively. You made the right call on him I was skeptical he would ever become the fielder he is today good call on your part.
Yea Fever I think he can really help the offense. Hopefully he is back soon but hopefully we start to see guys like Kavadas and Meidroth I agree with Troll this season doesn’t really matter they aren’t nearly as good as the Orioles and the Yankees probably not Tampa or the Toronto either but Toronto is a mess right now. Kavadas is rule 5 eligible this year need to see if he can handle big league pitching. He can’t be worse than Dom Smith.
Bruin1012 = I think my issue with Abrue is he reminds me too much of Bobby Abreu. The problem is I remember both the good and the bad Bobby Abreu and at different points in time he looks like both. The Bobby Abreu who was playing well was an all-star who could hit, field and run. The bad Bobby Abrue who was slumping would go through long hit less streaks, have mental lapses on defense and made bad decisions on the bases. I hope Wilyer is more often the good version than the bad but so far he seems like a balance. I’ve seen him make great plays and some not so great ones. I’ve seen him beat up on weak pitching staffs and get eaten alive by good ones. Given time to improve I expect him to be the good Bobby Abreu much more than the bad.
Rafaela is a great athlete. His speed raises his value and his versatility does too. I’m not sold on Mayer so I still see him as a potential future SS for the team since we are exceedingly deep in the outfield. If they move Story when he gets healthy to 3B and Devers to DH the team defense goes up enormously. Story would be a far better 3B than Devers despite never playing there and committing to Rafaela gives him time develop his skills at SS. He’s far more athletic than Story, he has a better arm than Story and he seems to have a high baseball IQ like Story.
I did not like Casas when he was in the minors. His numbers were just average and his defense was shaky. Last year I saw nothing in the first half to change my mind but in the second half I saw a young player grow. He made the adjustments mid season that shows his knowledge of hitting. I did a 180 on him based on his second half. I think he is a future all-star and his fielding will get better. He probably won’t be a GG at 1B but he’ll be more than adequate and carry a very big bat.
Grissom is a pre-arb 1 so it’s really hard to know how much he will grow or not grow. His minor league numbers suggest high average, low power, solid OBP and average speed. His defense seems average to slightly above average. He still can develop power, speed might improve so he has plenty of upside but $17MM and Sale was way too high of a price.
Just like I always preach evaluating the team’s record based on opponents, let me suggest evaluating hitters based on the quality of pitchers they face and when they hit. We’ve all played with guys who are monsters when facing bad pitching and worthless when facing quality pitching. They are great players for a long season but fairly worthless against good teams in short playoff series.
Sometime in the future when Boston improves I look forward to seeing how the young players match up in the short series with good pitching. It will tell me who the real future all-stars will be.
My opinion today is Casas, Duran and Rafaela will shine based on who they have had success against so far. I’m excited to see if Teel, Mayer,and even Yorke and some of the others will shine when the day finally happens.
I always look forward to your progress reports from the minors. Thanks.
Abreu is a rookie, not yet the finished project. Have high hopes that he will be the next Trot Nixon. That would be a tremendous outcome,
Oneill chokes again big whiff with runners on corners 1 out. Youk bashed him 0 for 12 now RISP.
Andrew Bailey was the best move the Sox did last winter. It’s nice to watch Tanner and Kutter attacking batters and not nitpicking. It seems they go 6 or 7 innings every start. Breaking balls rule!!!
Connor Wong needs to play everyday. If not catching his bat needs to be in the lineup.
I am soorry, I just have to ask this. When the eff did throwing strikes become scientific?
I realize that I am getting older… I even have my AARP card. But throwing strikes was the first thing every kid learned in pop warner. Throw the strike, let the fielders field it if it’s hit. And if it’s not hit, throw another.
When will changing speeds and location be labeled AI?
DBH – Isn’t it amazing how that AARP card comes in the mail like two days after your 50th birthday? How do they know everyone’s birthdate? Man they don’t waste any time! Getting that in the mail is when it first hit me that I’m nearing retirement.
I no longer say Senior Citizen… I now say Seasoned Citizen+
You learned to throw strikes in pop Warner? I think your coach was confused… hahaha (just a light hearted joke I know you meant little league but just said pop Warner — believe me happens to me all the time! Still worth a chuckle though!)
Ya, Kyle caught that, too. See below hah
I thought tackling was the first thing I learned in pop warner. Tackle the hips.
Jk, I know you meant LL. I think the main thing Breslow is pushing is get away from too many fastballs. And he’s doing this by getting pitchers to add east/west movement to their sweepers. At least, thats my opinion.
Lol. Ya, don’t post before the first coffee. Meant little league lol. Thanks for pointing out the mistake. Lkm3 I siad… getting old 🙁
Winckowski optioned to the minors?!? That surprises me.
A little surprising, but he would be able to stay stretched out as a starter there.
These guys are both 4+ years away from free agency, and since they’re performing well, there’s no reason a transactions site should be analyzing them since they aren’t candidates for being dealt. Are they extension candidates? That’s what this site should be talking about, and what the contracts might look like, rather than a player-friendly puff piece, likely as a favor to their agents. Probably for a payout too.
This is so out of place among the actual news and transactional analysis that this site is actually good at. Stop trying to be Fangraphs by posting some stats that anyone can find online.