Comments on: Pinch hitting: Pinstripe Alley

By: Smadar

Smadar — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 00:20:41 +0000

I did my own calculations. I replaced Julian Tavarez’ starts with the Red Sox last year. I replaced only his starts, and didn’t account for the extra innings he made the bullpen pitch, or any of the time he spent as a reliever in 2007. I also accounted for unearned runs, something John overlooked.

If you replace Tavarez’s 5.22 ERA as a starter, with the league average starter’s ERA of 4.47, it gives the Red Sox a Pythagorean Record of 103 wins in 2007.

I imagine the above poster was right. It looks like the Red Sox would win something like 110 games according to their Pythag Record if you replace the innings of Tavarez, Wakefield and Gagne with league average pitching from Lester, Buchholz and Delcarmen.

Is that good enough for you, Giuseppe Franco?

By: The Monk

The Monk — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 23:39:14 +0000

IMB — the disdain you show for Pettitte and Clemens is overblown. Whitey Ford did just about everything possible to make a baseball move unnaturally except use Vaseline or drain the slime from slugs and smear the ball with it; when Gaylord Perry pitched for the Yanks, you could see crud flying off the ball when the pitch came out of his hand (and I saw that on a 1970 model Zenith B&W TV!) and guess what — BOTH are in the Hall of Fame and no one’s calling for a recount.

Andy Pettitte gets two shots of crap in his elbow in the attempt to get back in the rotation and he’s banned from your good graces? That’s too harsh.

As for Clemens, he was a Hall of Fame pitcher before the alleged use of steroids and after (see 2004, 2005). The evidence against him consists of the statements of one man, who has a history of illegal actions and questionable ethics, who is facing serious time in the brig (Federal time does not get reduced much, unlike state prison time). If that proves guilt to you, I’d hate to be a defendant in front of your jury.

By: Drew

Drew — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 22:25:20 +0000

Good post John. I still have no faith in this bullpen. Farnsworth will stink again and the Hawkins signing was a mistake. Hopefully some of the young guys step up in the pen.

By: Jonathan Westman

Jonathan Westman — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 22:13:24 +0000

Great post! I hate it when people get mad if someone mentions that Kennedy and Hughes won’t be #1′s. If Kennedy is a good 3-5 and Hughes is a good 2-3 in the AL, those are a lot of quality innings. With our hitting, we don’t need 5 aces to win 100 games. In the playoffs it’s a different story, but if IK,Phil and Joba all become above average pitchers, we’ve got 4/5 (inc Wang) of our staff for the next 5-10 years.

By: jennifer- Hip Hip Jorge

jennifer- Hip Hip Jorge — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 19:50:45 +0000

Old Yanks Fan

I don’t know why you’d advertise that you were old and fat, that is not the way to get a date.

By: Old Yanks Fan

Old Yanks Fan — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 19:11:56 +0000

That was funny except the part calling me a midget. Hey Iâ€™m 5 4â€² in heals.
———————————————————
Hey Midge – I’m old and fat. Wanna do dinner sometime?
P.S. I’m also prone to gas.

By: jennifer- Hip Hip Jorge

jennifer- Hip Hip Jorge — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 17:35:48 +0000

Old Yanks Fan

That was funny except the part calling me a midget. Hey I’m 5 4′ in heals.

By: hmmm

hmmm — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 17:29:06 +0000

“However, our bullpen this season looks like it will be one of the worst bullpens weâ€™ve had in recent memory, so even if the starters improve to league average or better, the bullpen will probably regress from last season and negate the afore mentioned improvement.”

based on what? b/c you say so?

By: hmmm

hmmm — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 17:27:20 +0000

“Seriously, Pete, do you do any editing of these guest posts?”

why would he?

By: i miss bernie

i miss bernie — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 17:26:28 +0000

say it aint so:

whitey looked so pleased (maybe because i didnt ask for an autograph, maybe because he appreciated the sentiment) but thats all i needed.