W.S. Hangover Cures: The Devil is in the Details...

joe dokes

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If Nunez really felt he checked his swing, then the right play is to wait for the umpire to call it "no swing". Especially when the home plate umpire is really late on the call.
From what I saw, Nunez appeared to have successfully checked his swing. He then waited on the home plate umpire who took a long time to point down to the 1st base umpire for the call.
Of all the miscues/brain farts that have plagued the Sox during their opening road trip, this one (if it even qualifies as such) is WAY down the list.
I agree its small potatoes. But its an interesting point, w/r/t "not running if you think you didn't swing."
FWIW--I thought he swung.
But I disagree that the right play is to wait if he thinks he didn't swing. I guess part of it is that I don't buy that he'd be basically telling the 1st base ump to call a strike, so I dont see a downside to running when the ball goes that far away.
I'd like to see what the pros say.
 

soxhop411

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Lost games in March/April hurt just as much as games lost in September, and this hole the sox are digging themselves in is going to be a big challenge to get out of

Per the Globes Alex Speier‏
Since the introduction of the wild card in 1995, 57 teams prior to this year got off to 3-9 starts or worse. Of those, three (5.6%) made the playoffs.
 

uncannymanny

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How many of those 57 teams won 108 games the season prior and returned essentially the same team? How many were even playoff teams the prior year? Those numbers don’t mean much on their own. We know they’re digging a hole.
 

Red(s)HawksFan

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I've seen this pointed out on social media numerous times since the weekend, might as well bring it here...the 2011 team started 2-10 through 12 games. We all know how that season ended, but the fact that they started worse than this current incarnation and were still in a position to blow the division and a wildcard berth in a historic way in September suggests that this team can bounce back. I mean, do we think this bunch, the defending world champs, isn't better and more resilient than the "chicken and beer" crew?
 

DeadlySplitter

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I'm willing to chalk up today's loss to shitty BABIP, but Mookie, Beni and Devers need to pull their weight in clutch situations. That game was there to be salvaged.

the honeymoon period is officially over with the rings today and another day off tomorrow. They really should win at least four of the next five.
 

JohntheBaptist

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I'm gonna go ahead and say anyone that bailed on the team after one WS loss doesn't get to set the expiration date on the honeymoon period.

The honeymoon period for the 2018 Red Sox will end closer to 2098. Kvetch away and all, but the honeymoon period ending on 4/10 the season after 108 wins, an MVP, and forcing the Yankees to use a position player to pitch in a playoff game on their home field is fucking absurd.

Talk less. Watch more.
 

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I'm gonna go ahead and say anyone that bailed on the team after one WS loss doesn't get to set the expiration date on the honeymoon period.

The honeymoon period for the 2018 Red Sox will end closer to 2098. Kvetch away and all, but the honeymoon period ending on 4/10 the season after 108 wins, an MVP, and forcing the Yankees to use a position player to pitch in a playoff game on their home field is fucking absurd.

Talk less. Watch more.
Please excuse me while I make love to this post
 

DeadlySplitter

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I mean sure, as a fan the season will live on forever and I wouldn't trade it for anything.

the players gotta get going though!
 

soxin6

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I'm gonna go ahead and say anyone that bailed on the team after one WS loss doesn't get to set the expiration date on the honeymoon period.

The honeymoon period for the 2018 Red Sox will end closer to 2098. Kvetch away and all, but the honeymoon period ending on 4/10 the season after 108 wins, an MVP, and forcing the Yankees to use a position player to pitch in a playoff game on their home field is fucking absurd.

Talk less. Watch more.
No one is saying that they aren't going to watch or that 2018 wasn't magical, but the 2019 Red Sox are vastly underperforming expectations right now. A team that won 108 games cannot bring back essentially the same team and continue to play like this without sweeping changes happening. If you think they can keep playing like this and just live off the amazing season from last year, then you are delusional. These aren't the old Red Sox anymore and expectations are going to be high when you come off a record season and have the highest payroll in MLB.
 

JohntheBaptist

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No one is saying that they aren't going to watch or that 2018 wasn't magical, but the 2019 Red Sox are vastly underperforming expectations right now. A team that won 108 games cannot bring back essentially the same team and continue to play like this without sweeping changes happening. If you think they can keep playing like this and just live off the amazing season from last year, then you are delusional. These aren't the old Red Sox anymore and expectations are going to be high when you come off a record season and have the highest payroll in MLB.
What in the blue fuck does this have to do with what I wrote.

Go pitch your reasons for being miserable to someone else.
 

geoduck no quahog

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Thing to ask yourself: If the Red Sox were 6 games out of 1st place in early August, would you say the season is over?

(Oh, I'm sure there are plenty of situations where you could fabricate, "yes" - but, like John says - why then even bother watching.)
 

amfox1

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Thing to ask yourself: If the Red Sox were 6 games out of 1st place in early August, would you say the season is over?

(Oh, I'm sure there are plenty of situations where you could fabricate, "yes" - but, like John says - why then even bother watching.)
Of course not. I wonder if the Red Sox will blow it up if they are, let's say, 8-10 games out of the 2nd WC on July 29th. Last year's 2nd WC was 61-43 after 104 games; the Red Sox will have to go 58-34 (.630) to equal that record.

Have to assume all of the potential free agents - Porcello (3-team no-trade), Martinez (3-team no-trade), Moreland, Pearce, Nunez, Holt and Thornburg - would all go on the block, if that happens. The team could potentially get under the $226mm competitive balance tax threshold, shore up their minor league system and have a look-see at Darwinson Hernandez, Chavis, Shawaryn/Lakins, Dalbec and Lin to see if they become low-cost alternatives and free up money to re-sign Betts and JBJ.
 

dhappy42

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Abandon all hope ye who enter here

150 regular season games to play and “fans” are already talking about a fire sale.
 

glennhoffmania

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This team is almost identical to the team that won 108 games and a title last year. There's zero reason to believe the current roster isn't a good team, potentially even a great team. When the season started the most obvious weakness seemed to be the pen. Clearly their current record can't be blamed on the pen. They're playing like crap, they've had a couple of bad breaks, the schedule during the first two weeks sucked- shit happens. If they had gone 5-6 or 6-5 on the first road trip, which was very possible, I don't think anyone would've been all that upset.

We're 12 games in and everything that could've gone wrong or badly has done so. People need to lighten up.
 

uncannymanny

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No one is saying that they aren't going to watch or that 2018 wasn't magical, but the 2019 Red Sox are vastly underperforming expectations right now. A team that won 108 games cannot bring back essentially the same team and continue to play like this without sweeping changes happening. If you think they can keep playing like this and just live off the amazing season from last year, then you are delusional. These aren't the old Red Sox anymore and expectations are going to be high when you come off a record season and have the highest payroll in MLB.
What “sweeping changes” would you expect to happen?
 

chawson

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This team is almost identical to the team that won 108 games and a title last year. There's zero reason to believe the current roster isn't a good team, potentially even a great team. When the season started the most obvious weakness seemed to be the pen. Clearly their current record can't be blamed on the pen. They're playing like crap, they've had a couple of bad breaks, the schedule during the first two weeks sucked- shit happens. If they had gone 5-6 or 6-5 on the first road trip, which was very possible, I don't think anyone would've been all that upset.

We're 12 games in and everything that could've gone wrong or badly has done so. People need to lighten up.
Almost identical yes, except a year older after a deep playoff run, and the book may be out on some of them. They were hamstrung by the luxury tax and they'll be fine, but I don't know, I think it might have been a good idea to try to improve in the offseason.

It's way early, but some interesting trends so far:
- Vazquez may be trading contact for power, he's barreling the ball for the first time ever
- Barnes and Workman are 2 of 5 MLB pitchers to throw their curveballs more than 50 percent of their pitches
- Nunez's soft contact rate is highest among MLB position players. He seems broken or done.
- Beni's patience has not followed him to the leadoff spot; his K/BB v. RHB in particular is off (11:1)
- Thornburg's velocity is back
- Swihart is hitting the ball hard (again)
- Porcello's throwing more fastballs, and he's getting creamed because they're very slow
- Hitters aren't chasing EdRod's pitches out of the zone
 

ToeKneeArmAss

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For me the biggest frustration has been the baserunning. In game two, Devers made three egregious baserunning mistakes in one trip around the bases (bailed out by Moreland's game-winning HR). In game six, Bogaerts made three horrible baserunning mistakes on one play!

Nunez and Pearce also have made bonehead decisions on the base paths that immediately come to mind. And what was Vazquez thinking about on Tuesday? I'm sure there are others. It almost seems contagious.

I posit that baserunning is the single skill you can objectively judge with respect to how intelligent a baseball player is. By knowing the game situation, a smart player can take advantage of opportunities to be aggressive AND know better than to make foolhardy decisions when the payoff isn't worth it. While the starting pitching has been well below what we had anticipated, the single most controllable factor in the abysmal start has been the stupid choices they've been making on the base paths.

On the flip side, the home opener shows how smart baserunning will win you games. In a one-run game, Galvis sees that Barnes is giving him third with one out and takes it uncontested. And don't get me started about Gurriel's steal of home against Sale. What left-hander is stupid enough to go into the windup with a decent runner at third and the third baseman playing way off for a right-handed hitter at the plate?

In a way this is the flip side of the problems the Red Sox have running the bases. The pitchers are falling asleep too. When Cora talks about attention to details, this is a big part of what it means to me.
 

Harry Hooper

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FWIW, Bradford on the radio pregame said Porcello was really upset about the Sox not even trying to re-sign him when the season began.
 

Sandy Leon Trotsky

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What a horrible game (4/13). Every aspect of baseball was horribly represented by the defending champs: Starting Pitching... Porcello was absolute garbage. Offense.... 1 stinking hit off Cashner!?!?!? Bullpen.... crushed by a AAAA team, unable to throw strikes. Just horrible. If you thought the EdRod start was turning a corner- we just stepped on a dog turd.
 

dcmissle

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FWIW, Bradford on the radio pregame said Porcello was really upset about the Sox not even trying to re-sign him when the season began.
If that is impacting his performance, he is unprofessional. He got his ass beat by a minor league team today.
 

JohntheBaptist

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I've been wondering how the extensions might be affecting the clubhouse. Not just the haves/ have-nots, but the guys ostensibly taking less and Mookie holding out.

I know people hate that sort of discussion, and I get it because we will never have the real story and the way it plays out is complex. But they aren't getting snake-bit by bad bounces in a small sample to start. They're playing extremely bad baseball in every way imaginable and "distracted" does not seem like an unfair observation.

Who knows. I'm not going to mind an off year after 2018, they're human beings and extreme success and its aftermath can have weird side effects.

But yeah, at minimum if this continues these articles and rumors are just going to keep coming and probably get uglier.
 

Sandy Leon Trotsky

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I've been wondering how the extensions might be affecting the clubhouse. Not just the haves/ have-nots, but the guys ostensibly taking less and Mookie holding out.

I know people hate that sort of discussion, and I get it because we will never have the real story and the way it plays out is complex. But they aren't getting snake-bit by bad bounces in a small sample to start. They're playing extremely bad baseball in every way imaginable and "distracted" does not seem like an unfair observation.

Who knows. I'm not going to mind an off year after 2018, they're human beings and extreme success and its aftermath can have weird side effects.

But yeah, at minimum if this continues these articles and rumors are just going to keep coming and probably get uglier.
Doesn't Houston have issues like this? Yankees? (Granted, neither team is playing great either....) But stuff like this should be happening in every clubhouse... professionals should be getting past it
 

JohntheBaptist

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Doesn't Houston have issues like this? Yankees? (Granted, neither team is playing great either....) But stuff like this should be happening in every clubhouse... professionals should be getting past it
Maybe. I'd say I'm more likely wrong than right, but it did cross my mind. Houston has been scuffling, and New York has been decimated by injuries. The Red Sox have been a clownshow. Professionals should, but maybe they aren't.

Perhaps they're just under-prepared. Maybe just enough guys are just struggling out of the gate to make everything spiral downward. We're fans on the outside, we'll never know.
 

JohntheBaptist

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Just to be clear--"scuffling" was meant to say Houston had a blip out of the box and did not have issues similar to what we're seeing with the Red Sox. And I was wrong and they're not even scuffling.

That was my point--the Red Sox aren't having some bad breaks and a rough start.
 

Ale Xander

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What a horrible game (4/13). Every aspect of baseball was horribly represented by the defending champs: Starting Pitching... Porcello was absolute garbage. Offense.... 1 stinking hit off Cashner!?!?!? Bullpen.... crushed by a AAAA team, unable to throw strikes. Just horrible. If you thought the EdRod start was turning a corner- we just stepped on a dog turd.
Defense was horrid too
And coaching, weird time to sit Bradley for JD defensively. I get you don't want Pearce to get cold but wait a couple games.
 

Plympton91

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This is a shitshow. The team was not prepared to answer the bell.

But I’m not worried, AdriansDome assured us that another 108 win season was virtually guaranteed.
 

Lose Remerswaal

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Defense was horrid too
And coaching, weird time to sit Bradley for JD defensively. I get you don't want Pearce to get cold but wait a couple games.
You missed a great season last year whe Cora scheduled guys for games off a few days in advance and kept to that schedule even when they hit two HRs or had some other great game the day before the scheduled offday.
It's too bad. You would have enjoyed that season.
 

Sampo Gida

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I hesitate to make too much of a 2+ week bad stretch out of the gate. Most of these mistakes would have went under the radar with better starting pitching and a few more wins.

The starting pitching has truly been awful and is the biggest reason for a 5-10 start. You have to be worried some about Sale. Eovaldi has not looked great nor has Porcello. Price and E-rod showing some signs of life but Sale, Porcello and Eovaldi have to pitch better or it's going to be a long season.

Perhaps they have lost that fire in the belly. Big contracts followed by a championship can lead to a sense of complacency. As we saw in 2013 and 2018 players fighting for their next contract or looking to redeem themselves after poor seasons can be productive. I am not buying excuse for 2019 yet.

Sales issues are likely physical and Porcello is in a contract year. Eovaldi may simply be regressing as he never has had a sustained period of success

Come May and better weather we should have a better idea
 

Adrian's Dome

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This is a shitshow. The team was not prepared to answer the bell.

But I’m not worried, AdriansDome assured us that another 108 win season was virtually guaranteed.
Is there anything you don't whine about? Specifically what I said is that it was ridiculous to expect a 13-game regression from the exact same team minus Kimbrel, and I stand by that. Not even someone as shortsighted and knowledge-less as you expected this start, which is hilarious, because the only part of the team that HAS shown up, the bullpen, is the one you literally spent six months crying about.

It's barely halfway through April. Take a fucking Xanax.
 
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tims4wins

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Keep standing by it. It was a dumb comment then and it is a dumb comment now. Take a look at the 99 Yankees or the 02 Mariners.
 

JohntheBaptist

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It wasn't just a dumb comment then, the idea that it was something to mock others for wanting to discuss was even more embarrassing, but this is someone who has railed against math and probabilities like *we* were all drooling idiots too, so shoulder shrug.
 

jose melendez

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What about moving porcelain tot the pen? He was good out of there in he playoffs, and he does sort of have that Dlowe good year awful year vibe. It’s not based on much, but it’s better than this crap
 

chawson

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Who takes his place in the rotation?
Velazquez has had a velocity uptick which combined with his (very very low) spin rate is pretty effective, albeit in an unflashy way. After that maybe Erasmo Ramirez?

Either way it’d take probably 3-4 more terrible starts then a phantom injury for Porcello, not a demotion.
 
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bosockboy

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It wasn't just a dumb comment then, the idea that it was something to mock others for wanting to discuss was even more embarrassing, but this is someone who has railed against math and probabilities like *we* were all drooling idiots too, so shoulder shrug.
Yes, it started with me saying they had a baseline of 95 wins and was skewered for it.
 

chawson

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What we’re really missing is starters who haven’t had enough prep. What’s his price at this point?
If a 1/$18 contract for Kimbrel translated into $29 million for the Red Sox post-tax, so that’s probably how we should think about Keuchel too. Also, he’s a finesse lefty whose primary skill is inducing ground balls, which is the primary skill of our only in-house candidate (Velazquez).

Meanwhile Pomeranz is throwing harder than he ever has in his career for $1.5 million in San Francisco.