Dennis LinVerified account @sdutdennislin 3m3 minutes ago
Anderson Espinoza has a torn UCL. He will undergo Tommy John surgery next week.
Anderson Espinoza has a torn UCL. He will undergo Tommy John surgery next week.
Pomeranz is healthy and pitching for now
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I hope he doesnt try to atone by trading groome for Espinoza.
He's roughly 4 years younger than the average age for the league and missed half a season due to an injury. His xFIP isn't bad and he's striking guys out. That's really all you should be hoping for right now. His stuff is playing, and he's getting his work in.
I wouldn't worry about it unless he continues to walk the world in 2018.
Groome's dad was also recently arrested on drug and weapons charges. That he has continued to at least go out there and throw respectable innings is good enough for me.
I hope not. While I like Pomeranz more than Porcello, he is still projected to pitch less than 170 innings this year and we have no idea how well he will hold up health wise. It's only his 2nd year starting and injuries are already a concern. Not to mention Rick Porcello himself has been pretty mediocre outside of 2016.
No and probably yes.
They shouldn't offer it not because Pomeranz isn't a good pitcher they should want to keep, but because they aren't in a position to keep throwing out $20M/year contracts. They're up against the tax threshold right now because of contracts that won't expire for a couple more years and the cost to retain all their young stars (primarily the Bs) is only going to go up as well. There's only so much money to go around.
I think if Pomeranz finishes up the year as well as he's pitched so far, they might consider trading him this winter and see if they can't get someone similar with longer/cheaper control. Or if they want to keep him, trading Porcello. I don't foresee a way they can keep Porcello and Pomeranz beyond 2018 if Pomeranz is making a market-value salary.
Not something I'd count on in the least. Besides which, if he did opt out, I don't think the salary surplus it would create would be best spent on a Pomeranz extension. Extending Sale would be the priority and would likely eat up most of the surplus by itself.
Fair enough, but If it's a pure extension (as opposed to ripping up the final year of his deal, as per my suggestion), the extension would only intersect with Porcello for one year. More palatable?
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I assume extension to mean signing it before he's eligible for free agency, which would be before the end of 2018. If he's signing it in 2018, even if it includes whatever his 2018 salary would be independent of the extension, the AAV for the whole thing is what would be counted for 2018. So it could overlap with Porcello for two years.
Even if it was strictly a free agent signing for 2019 and beyond, the overlap in 2019 might be enough to be concerned. In addition to Porcello and Price and Sale (at a modest $12.5M) still on the books, you also have Sandoval's salary still around, Bogaerts and JBJ in their third year of arb, Betts and ERod in their second year of arb, and only Hanley (if his option doesn't vest) and Kimbrel as significant salaries coming off the books to balance everything out (and presumably they may want to retain Kimbrel). Not a ton of freed up money and the penalties for exceeding the luxury tax, even for a year, are going to be quite high.
Plus, as this would be Sale's final year pending an extension, they might be in a GFIN mode where they might want to direct big dollars at a Hanley substitute or somewhere else in the lineup or rotation. That's the winter that guys like Harper and Machado and Kershaw may be on the market. Could be better things to spend money on than Drew Pomeranz.
Watching Pom's interview after the game, he didn't seem particularly concerned. He discussed how this had happened before, how he had been getting treatment between innings for it and how it just didn't settle down. He has said that in the past he's just had to give his back a day to "realign."
Given that this is a guy who has also experienced elbow issues in the past, I found his demeanor reassuring.
Given that this is a guy who has also experienced elbow issues in the past, I found his demeanor reassuring.
If they can win the next 2 games, a DL stint for Pom to get his back right and rest his arm would be welcomed.
That's great news. Let's hope it doesn't affect him on the mound, though. The difference between slight aches and a clear bill of health could be huge in baseball.
Drew is a tough mofo. Didn't think I'd be close to typing that at times last year or early this year.
Seconded. He has been huge this season, and we need him for stretch and beyond. Be safe out there, Drew.
This guy would be an Ace on most other teams this season. With Price mostly injured and Porcello having a shitty first half, (not to mention the early lack of run support and wins we'd get behind Sale) we'd have been buried if not for Drew. His inability to go deep into games is his only flaw this season... I'm assuming he was pulled after only 5+ innings last night due to his soreness from the week? Haven't seen any reason why... his pitch count was low and he was killing Cleveland
His pitch count was over 100 after having left the last game prematurely with an injury in the early innings. It was a cautious move, but entirely defensible. He threw a lot of pitches even in his successful outing which happens when you strike out a ton of batters and walk more than a couple, which was the case last night. Not really that much of a mystery.
Last night is pretty much best case what I am hoping for out of Pomz in a playoff game: 5-6 IP, 1-2 R, turn it over to the pen. The 0 on the board was a bonus last night. In the playoffs there is a much higher tolerance for letting him throw a lot of pitches and put up goose eggs and leave it to the pen for 3-4 innings. In the regular season, that can drain the pen. In the playoffs with the off days, it is perfectly acceptable. Reminds me a bit of the 2007 playoffs actually, aside from Beckett. Oki threw a ton of playoff innings that year, and Paps was used for 4+ outs several times.
From Speier's 108 Stitches today:
"The Sox are 35-15 in games started by Pomeranz and Chris Sale, 38-38 otherwise."
"The Sox are 35-15 in games started by Pomeranz and Chris Sale, 38-38 otherwise."
You could do the same kind of thing last year when Porcello was 22-4 and Price 17-9.
I know he's doing "record in games started by" instead of record, but same kind of thing.
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It's an old saw that if you can get to 20 games over .500 with your two best starters and the rest of your pitching staff goes .500, you win 90 games. (40-20 + 51-51).
Obviously the trick is finding both two starters who can combine for 20 games over .500 and having the rest of the staff get to .500.
Yes, if you take the best results out of your sample and the remaining 60% still is league average you're doing pretty well!
Try the same trick with the Yankees and you get that they are 29-16 with Severino or Sabathia pitching and 39-42 otherwise.
If your team is .500 in games started by your back three rotation slots, you probably have a very good rotation.
Edit: WOW. The Dodgers are 37-6 in games started by Kershaw (19-2) and Wood (18-4), and 53-30 in other pitchers starts.
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Not just the back 3 - the back 6 or 7! And the key is that your top 2 is determined ex-post. Who here would have picked Pomeranz as the #2 at the start of the season?
