The Red Sox are moving right-hander Nick Pivetta into a multi-inning relief role, manager Alex Cora informed reporters after tonight’s win over the Mariners (relayed by Alex Speier of the Boston Globe). It’ll be his first bullpen work since Boston acquired him from the Phillies during the abbreviated 2020 campaign.
Pivetta has been a durable but somewhat frustrating starter over his two and a half seasons in Boston. He topped 30 starts and 150 innings in both 2021-22, leading the team with 179 2/3 frames last year. He’s flashed decent swing-and-miss stuff but been prone to a few too many walks and plenty of hard contact. His ERA sat just north of 4.50 in both seasons.
It has been more of the same for the 30-year-old to this point in 2023. Pivetta has taken all eight turns through the rotation and logged 40 innings of 6.30 ERA ball. While his 23% strikeout rate and 10.7% swinging strike percentage are respectable, he has issued free passes at an elevated 10.4% clip. Pivetta has surrendered nine home runs and given up hard contact on a massive 51.7% of batted balls. He’s perhaps fortunate to have surrendered “only” a .309 batting average on balls in play in light of that contact quality.
Pivetta hasn’t traditionally dealt with notable platoon splits throughout his career. Left-handed hitters have put together a .268/.361/.592 batting line in 84 trips to the plate this season though. The Red Sox aren’t planning to use him in a strict matchup capacity, although the relief role could afford Cora a little more flexibility in deploying him against more right-handed batters.
The organization obviously hopes Pivetta’s high-octane arsenal can translate more effectively in shorter bursts. He has averaged 93.8 MPH on his fastball out of the rotation. It wouldn’t be a surprise if that ticked up a bit in briefer stints that allow Pivetta to max out his effort, so it’s not hard to envision him finding success in a relief capacity.
Pivetta saw some relief work with the Phillies four years ago. He’s otherwise worked primarily as a starter, opening 144 of his 166 MLB outings. He’s spoken on a few occasions this season of his desire to stick in the rotation. Boston has a number of starting pitching options, though, and Pivetta’s struggles over the past month and a half apparently leave him the odd man out. Pivetta told reporters this evening he understands the club’s decision (via Chris Cotillo of MassLive).
Boston recently activated James Paxton from the injured list. The veteran southpaw joined Chris Sale, Corey Kluber, Brayan Bello, Tanner Houck and Pivetta in the starting staff. Garrett Whitlock is on the 15-day IL and could return by the end of next week. Cora has already announced they’ll keep Whitlock in the rotation, while Sale is a lock for the starting staff. The Red Sox have been reluctant to put Paxton in an unfamiliar relief role in light of his injury history. Kluber hasn’t pitched well this year but he’s a career-long starter who signed a $10MM free agent contract over the offseason. It seemed unlikely Boston would kick him into the bullpen or move on entirely.
That appeared to leave Houck, Bello and Pivetta jockeying for rotation spots. All three carried an ERA north of 5.00. Bello and Houck have comparable strikeout rates to Pivetta with significantly higher ground-ball rates. They’ve been more consistent strike throwers. They’ll each keep their rotation spots for now, though Whitlock’s eventual reinstatement could lead to another change.
Pivetta has surpassed five years of major league service and was out of minor league options regardless. The Red Sox can’t send him to the minors without his approval, leaving a bullpen transfer or DFA as the only options to bump him from the rotation. It’s possible Pivetta gets another look as a starter down the line if future injuries necessitate. He’s making $5.35MM this season and will be eligible for arbitration once more next winter.
Nick Pivetta doesn’t even understand what we’re talking about here. Bullpen? He’s started for this team his entire career. He’s gonna continue to do his job day in and day out, and by seasons end he’ll still be a starter
For Oakland maybe.
Sodo I agree, having watched this unfortunate series pretty closely, it would be Houck I would send to the multi-inning flamethrower role. First time thru a batting order Houck is stupendous, but starts to wobble in inning four. Alternatively I was impressed watching Pivetta NOT necessarily fall off the rails and was able to ride out some rough patches into the 6th inning. He stabilized and picked himself back up a couple times. I tip my cap to him.
Ignorant – I like both pitchers and would prefer having both in the rotation, but I agree Nick has really struggled of late and therefore makes sense going to the pen since they won’t move Kluber yet.
One thing I’d like to point out, yeah Houck struggles to pitch effectively after the 6th inning … but he’s young and inexperienced and making changes to resolve the issue. He’s got a brand new cutter, and he’s been modifying his splitter. Don’t you think he deserves a chance to improve?
The game’s greatest pitchers struggled early in their career, but nobody said “He stinks, don’t let him start games anymore” when Scherzer was getting raked back in 2011.
Houck should get at least 20 starts this year to prove himself, don’t ya think?
Reminds me of my younger days when I first took up running. I could barely run a half mile before tiring out. But I kept pushing myself, going a little longer every run, building up my stamina, and before you knew it I was running nearly 8 miles. Improvement takes time.
Fever: Thank you for your considered post, and I really have high expectations for Houck, I think he’s really talented and I love his attitude & demeanor on the mound. I was thinking at this point in time he might be a nice weapon to have in the bullpen as a multi-inning strikeout weapon, like Andrew Miller of old. In an ideal world, yes, you want your best pitchers in the starting rotation, and Houck is indeed one of their best.
“It’ll be his first bullpen work since Boston acquired him from the Phillies during the abbreviated 2020 campaign”
Not true, he came out of the pen down the stretch and in the postseason in 2021, and he was lights out. This is the smart move. Hopefully they put Houck in the bullpen when Whitlock comes back next week.
Nick hasn’t been good, but Kluber should have moved first
No they should admit their mistake and cut Kluber. His velocity is so diminished he has to have pinpoint control to be even semi-successful. You didn’t see NY or Tampa clamoring to resign him did you? Because they saw he’s pretty much done. Time to cut bait and move on.
Im sure he wont whine and cry about this at all.
Everyone lost the Workman-Pivetta trade!
Sox got a serviceable starting pitcher for a guy who is out of baseball. Sox won.
The RS basically got a #4 SP in exchange for nothing.
@Joe,
At this point, Pivetta’s more of a #6 or #7 SP. He’s refined his skillset into that of a long reliever.
Now he is, but we got two decent years out of him. That’s a winning trade.
That’s fine. As long as we keep the numbers straight, or crooked, in Pivetta’s case.
ellis – Not to be picky, but Heath “Don’t Call Me Alan” Hembree who went to Philly with Workman is still with the Tigers organization.
And the Sox flipped Connor Seabold, who came to Boston with Pivetta, for a PTBNL.
Does Kluber have anything left in the tank?
No
notagain – Yes, sediment.
There is really only one thing you can do when you see Bloom making yet another mistake…. SHAKE YOUR HEAD!!!
If my count is correct that is 274 mistakes during his far too extended tenure!!
Pivetta isn’t the problem, Kluber is. Why is that not obvious to every human being? You don’t even have to be a baseball fan, you just have to look at the stats.
The good news is with yet another win against the SEA ball club Boston remains 4 games ahead of the 74 win pace they were projected to have in 2023. 78 wins….hmmm… that sounds familar!!
So off to the west coast and three tough series. As I mentioned after the doom and gloom two days ago, the one thing the 2023 Red Sox are consistent with is being unpredictable. They win when they shouldn’t and they lose when they shouldn’t. Right when a losing streak is going strong it flips to a winning steak and then as that streak picks up steam they flip back to a losing streak. Go figure!!
Should be fun to see Raffy hang with his big brother Bogey in SD. Hopefully, the opposite of what one would expect continues on the West coast, otherwise, they could be in a huge hole 9 games from now. 24-20 rather than 20-24 by the end of May is a nice surprise. Lets hope it continues.
A bit of Red Sox 2023 trivia. They have played 14 series so far with a record of 24-20 yet their series record is 9-4-1 so if they can avoid sweeps they could potentially win 81 games or more. Time will tell.
You may want to work on your math there. The Red Sox currently have a .545 winning percentage. .545× 162 which is a full season, is 88 wins, not 78. Not sure how you can take a team that is 4 games above .500, and plot out an entire season where they would continue at the same pace and finish 3 games under .500. That said, if they increase their pace just a hair they could win 90 games. Probably even make the playoffs. Sorry that doesn’t fit your narrative.
@VAR, he is talking about the projected wins the Sox were expected to have that was posted by analysts.
Yes, the Sox are up a bit, but they’re still a .500 club at best end of season. They will win a few here, lose a few there, but at the end of the day…. still .500
no. KD17 is talking about his weird method of projecting wins based in large part on his opinion of how the series will go. he uses what he thinks are “elite teams”. the analysis is based largely on his ideas of what constitutes an elite team not analysts.
@ace, I see that now, thanks
Back to the topic.
I hope they try to trade Kluber and release him if they can’t. I don’t want to see the young guys in the pen. I want to see them work out their issues in the rotation. None of these guys are going to learn how to make it through the line up 3 times if they are in the pen.
When he issued his famous ’65 wins at best” proclamation in 2021, he actually predicted every series. Some folks (actually, all folks) would’ve used runs scored and runs against, or OPS & OPSa to come up with an accurate prediction.
Right now, .500 puts you on the edge of the playoffs. In the NL, you’re IN.
DBH: KD did one of his “projected wins” for mid-April and came up with 5-12. They went something like 11-6. His projections come with far too much ‘I hate the Red Sox’ bias.
@RSmith
I have no problem with KD posting what his views are on a forum, or even how he comes to them. I think it is what sites like this are for.
You don’t have to agree with them. Heck, we can even reply if we think they’re wrong and then give our own views and the reason for those views.
Example… you and I disagree on Bloom (though I was one of the ones doing cartwheels when we signed him. I was really excited!) I’m not going to mute you any more than I’m going to mute KD or anyone else.
Well, the bigot who posted first in this topic? Ya, he gets the Mute lol
@DBH: KDs predictions were so far off in April, I find there is no value in ‘how he comes to them’, because they’ll show the same bias.
Pivetta is the last guy I would move to the pen. Houck should be the guy to the pen. He’s had more success there than as a starter. His numbers are abysmal the third time through the order.
But to DBH’s point, you will never find out anything about these guys if you don’t start them. It could just be a matter of adjustments.
@JoeBrady. Exacly. Pitchers need to adjust just as much as the hitters. Take Manny and Pedro as examples. Manny would purposely not swing at a pitch early in the game so he could get a good look and drive it over the monster later in the game. And Pedro would take something off a pitch, or add a little later on in games when hitters began to cue in on his pitches.
How are the young guys going to learn how to make these adjustments if they are pulled after 5 or worse… in the pen.
Lickyh – I believe Houck needs to remain in the rotation he just needs to figure out how to get past the 5th inning. He has been lights out 1-4 innings while Pivetta has been flat out bad regardless.
I still say this team is as likely to struggle to flirt around .500 around the season, which was my prediction before this season after the roster jellied as much as it was going to.
I’ve seen a pattern so far from the commenting… the sox put a couple wins together and one group thumps their chests. Sox go on a losing streak and slide back towards .500, the chest thumpers go silent, the pessimists take over.
Rinse. Repeat.
3 facts remain:
1) lots of talent remains sidelined due to injuries.
2) lots of talent is injury-prone
3) lots of talent is inconsistent due to age, both youth and geriatrics.
Most clubs don’t ever have as heavy a dose of those three variables as these sox do, and, I’m having a hard time recalling quite as similarly constituted RS team.
This has been going on since the beginning of time, and is not restricted to the RS. Due to the length of the season, and a large variance with one-run games, with scarcely 5 minutes worth of work, I can give you logical reasons why the RS will win 78 or why the RS will win 92.
That’s why I never get too high or too low. Long winning streaks and long losing streaks are generally more related to competition and luck in one-run games than they are to talent.
In 2021, SD looked like world-beaters, until the schedule flipped. Their Aug/Sept schedule was tough, but their last 22 games were brutal, and they went 4-18, including 2-6 in one-run games.
Two years before that, SF went 19-5 before the trade deadline, and went from sellers to buyers. But in those 24 games, they went 9-1 in one-run games.
I mean, one can use smaller sample, but they still need to look at the details. FWIW, our last 18 games were against teams that made the playoffs in 2022, and we went 11-7.
I expect half of y’all to love that and half of y’all to hate it.
Just a data point Joe – this year sox are 6-6, .500 exactly in one run games. That’s about how things should be in a vacuum where you expect close games happen because teams are evenly matched that day.
They seem to oscillate between blowing out teams and getting blown out as much as anything else. Before the last two Seattle games, the team was almost back to .500, and, their run differential was almost back to exactly zero.
I think the team has benefitted from some overperformers, and, it’s got a lot of missing contributors to balance that out.
Like you said, it’s easy to shift a bunch of assumptions all to one side, or the other, and wind up equal sides above or below .500. But it’s also not likely all the factors will break one way without some others going the opposite.
Still looks like a team to hover near .500 at this point.
I think the team has benefitted from some overperformers, and, it’s got a lot of missing contributors to balance that out.
==============================
I think that’s one of the fun parts of these analyses. You are usually exactly waht your record says you are, until you start accounting for under- and over-performers.
On offense, the only statistically-meaningful outliers I see are Duran and Devers. I would say their reversion will be slightly negative.
In the rotation, we have an entire rotation of upsiders. Sale in his last 5 v Sale in his first 3. Or the difference between starting Paxton v starting Pivetta. Or, assuming Whitlock can perform, compare him to Kluber. Those are three huge upsides.
And I’d say the BP is exactly where it should be.
GASox – Great observations!! Yes you’re right about the chest thumpers and negative nellies, there’s only a few like KD and myself and you who are unbiased and rational and show up win or lose. So I’m very glad you’re both here!
I agree with your #2 and #3, but that’s no different anywhere else in MLB. Sox have not been hit as hard by the injury bug as other teams, they just have a lot of bad players and underperformers.
I disagree with your #1. Duvall is not a star player, Mondesi and Story we knew well in advance they’d miss most of the season, neither are star players. Schreiber and Whitlock, that’s the extent of the impact injuries. Thank God Devers, Yoshida and Dugie have managed to stay healthy along with Kenley for the most part.
BTW – Rich Hill tossed 6 shutout innings last night, giving up just one hit! Good for him, glad to see him doing well. Kinda hard to swallow the Sox replaced him with Kluber.
Fever – But I did say ‘talent’, not ‘stars’ in number one 😉
Regardless of how when or why they wound up in the IL, you probably agree this team is better if Story is in at 2B, Mondesi is at SS, and Duvall is in the OF with Kiki roaming giving days off than the current lineup? (Much like having Rodriguez back is better than having had brasier)
Likewise, having Whitlock back would upgrade pitching, whether you slot him as a SP over kluber, or a high leverage shut down arm in the pen. Or swapping houck to long swing man and keep Whitlock and kluber in. However you slice it.
GASox – You have a valid point, everyone has their own definition of “star” and “talent”.
Of course they are better with a healthy Story and Mondesi. Unfortunately Bloom didn’t plan very well, even though he knew both of those players would be out for a very long time. He assumed a combination of Arroyo, Hernandez and Dalbec could cover the two positions. Needless to say, it was an atrocious assumption.
So how do you envision the lineup when/if Duvall returns? Other than giving Duran and Yoshida the occasional day off from the OF, I really don’t want to see him playing much OF. If Turner is at 1B and Duvall at DH I’m cool with that, until Casas turns things around of course.
I really wonder if Whitlock can ever remain healthy for a long period of time, I think we got lucky with him staying healthy in 2021.
Fever – I agree wholeheartedly Bloom planned poorly for depth and his risk appetite with his choices of signings. I was fairly critcial in that arena.
As far as what the line-up looks like, Cora will screw it up of course.
I’m not sure the team isn’t better off with Duvall in LF and Yoshi as the DH much of the time, sometimes you let Yoshi LF, Duvall CF, Kiki give someone a day off instead.
Last winter I got raked for suggesting casas was going to be a 15-20hr guy and still hit below the mendoza line while pulling in his hit charts and showing his hr rate was unsustainable. But I was being a downer and just a troll per many here.
I think this team is also better if casas takes a break for a bit in AAA to work on stuff without the pressure and Dalbec plays some 1B. Let JT and Dalbec share time at 1b of you want, but, if the sox want to move dalbec the best way to make it happen is let him get more looks at the mlb plate. Or at least look better than his miniscule dozen PA sample size. Meanwhile, maybe a low pressure chance to breathe while getting everyday ABs, work with some different guys let’s casas get called back up and be a more impactful hitter.
“planned poorly for depth”
How do you figure that. They have enough pitchers to have an 8-man staff. They have 3 ML level catchers, and many middle infielder options even with 4 on the IR. Where are you saying they have no depth?
I would say they have some of the best Triple A depth in baseball.
I think this team is also better if casas takes a break for a bit in AAA
============================
Casas has been our best hitter over the past 14 days.
@GASox, “But I was being a downer and just a troll per many here.”
We are not allowed to point out the obvious around here without somebody smacking you in the face with their pom=pom. It’s a commandment or something.
And really be careful if you say, “Nice move by the Sox…” You’ll here the Crocodile Hunter’s ‘They’re Angry” in your head o.0
“Last winter I got raked for suggesting casas was going to be a 15-20hr guy and still hit below the mendoza line while pulling in his hit charts and showing his hr rate was unsustainable. But I was being a downer and just a troll per many here.”
I always felt Casa was a poor man’s version of Dalbec.
@Joebrady –
“I think this team is also better if casas takes a break for a bit in AAA
============================
Casas has been our best hitter over the past 14 days.”
Where are you getting your info from? He isn’t even the 3rd best over the last 14 days.
Duran – .310 1 Hr
Yoshida – .296 3 Hr
Casa – .276 3 Hr
Where are you getting your info from?
==========================
I was using OPS.
KD17 – You really can’t see why Bloom sent Pivetta to the bullpen? Who is more valuable to the team, Kluber or Pivetta? Since the obvious question is Pivetta then it makes sense to move him to the bullpen and make him a multi inning pitcher and in the process hoping he can right the ship and return to the rotation, Kluber is who he is and is toast.
lamars – Great post. Yes. Point taken. Blooming idiot thinks things through so differently than most. Kluber is an admitted mistake whereas Pivetta is a move to help a youngster. I can hear the spin doctors in Bloom’s office right now explaining why Pivetta when Kluber sucks so badly.
So probably not a fan of Mookie Betts or Rafael Devers, but really missing guys like Benintendi right?
The Red Sox have a long history of turning mediocre starters into elite relievers. I shouldn’t have to rattle off the dozen examples that pop into my head. So maybe, just maybe, we see how this goes? Just a thought.
Derek Lowe
Hayzee – Great thought!! I was gonna name a few conversions in a Flash, but in the Wake of everything else being discussed today I decided against it.
BTW – The experiment with Schilling didn’t go very well, and Eck’s conversion never would have happened if he hadn’t been traded for Billy Buck.
@whyhayzee
Bob Stanley. 16 wins as a started one year, Converted to reliever part way through the next year. Went on to get over 100 saves the rest of his career
Paplebon, too
DBH – You got me on Papelbon, I totally forgot he was a starter in the minors and briefly to start his ML career!
It just hit me today. I honestly thought of Bob Stanley first. And I agree about Pap. I remember thinking he would be the next Roger Clemens.
“…walks and plenty of hard contact.”
Other than that, what’s the problem?
HRs.
If they would have just left Whitlock in the multi-inning role, which he was very good at, by the way, maybe he doesn’t end up on the IL. And maybe they don’t need to make this change.
Or maybe he ends up on the IL faster due to more appearances and with max effort?
KD is a troll with his Cora/Bloom hate and 65 win predictions.
Ignore him or he will hijack the site.
no don’t ignore him. If you ignore him he will just become more aggressive. Call out his BS. the mods will have to do something about him hijacking the site and insulting people.
I give Red Sox fans all kinds of razzing. All in fun. But Bloom/Cora has the team 24-20. Sure it’s last place. But it’s also half game out of the playoffs, and would be first in the ALC. I gotta tip my NYY cap to whatever the Sox are doing.
The Bloom & Gloom BS is silly.
Last week you said you werent a NYY fan. Which is it?
Lots of good points made by many… I believe Tanner will be next..again reminds me of Pap and that’s a good thing as reliever… just one thing NATION…. Is it too late to bring Brais back or has that ship sailed( sunk)….
I believe he is still listed as designated for assignment. Who knows. Might end up with the WoSox
doesn’t he have enough service time to reject the assignment to AAA?
Braiser Service Time: 5.109
5 years needed to reject assignment.
For r smith and acell10 also watched game after his release. Cora said lots of nice things as well as Tom c and Lenny D but it was one thing Cora said that was so true… he had lots of chances to righten ship. Funny thing I heard about him yelling at sloth ( Gary s) to get back in box but I missed that moment.. hate to say only moment vs Gary I remember was about a 450 he he gave up to him .. so now the rest of the story… daughter about to graduate from BC Monday and In 19 , family took in game. Got great picture with Brian ( slits guy) as we were done with Brian I noticed two Redsox players ( red warm up jerseys on) come towards me on their way back into Fenway. One was Rick Porcello the other was Brais.. while Rick was the obvious choice he hurried by me while I cut you know who off… I asked for a quick picture and he obliged ( was kind as wife snapped a couple) I thanked him and he hurried through crowd and caught up with Rick before anyone else could stop them… SO NATION NOW YOU KNOW THE REST OF THE STORY!!! ( until I tell you how manny and Julio lugo came face to face with OLMTIANT in 07 after game in Minnesota)
Tanner as a reliever only makes sense if he is the closer. Otherwise, it’s a waste of talent. Pivetta makes no sense in relief when Kluber is failing so badly. This year means nothing and Pivetta needs to have the support of the organization behind him going forward and this move screams we don’t support you.
That’s why Bloom and Cora need to go asap before they impact players of the future with their ridiculous prejudices. Kike shouldn’t be playing, Kluber shouldn’t be playing, Arroyo shouldn’t be playing, Reyes shouldn’t be playing. These are talentless back-up players that should only make the roster if things are in deep trouble. Since this team isn’t competitive this year it can’t be in trouble!! Why? Because it’s an expected failure whether Kluber gets put in relief or cut. The future is all that should matter unless Bloom picks up all-star quality players to fill holes and go for it this year. Does that make sense? NO.
There is no place for Kluber on the roster and when he gets cut his salary of $10MM will still count against the CAP!! It was wasted money from the start so why make this guy happy and make Pivetta unhappy? Who will be on the 2024 Roster? Pivetta.not Kluber!!
This is one more example of how Bloom doesn’t understand baseball dynamics. Last year he made 3 star players lame ducks and didn’t realize the impact to the clubhouse. Now he’s taken a “one and gone” guy and prioritizing him over a young future player.
Bloom is so bad at his job!!!
The starting pitchers that give the Red Sox the best chance to win as starters are Sale, Paxton, Bello, Whitlock, and Houck or Crawford. This your top 6 starters on this team. Houck is a management problem we have seen enough of him to know he can be really good for 3 to 4 innings so the logical thing would be to have Wink or Crawford to piggyback off of him if runs into trouble in those middle innings. He has shown enough of a track record of struggling in the 4th and 5th to be ready to pull him if he gets into trouble. You could also put Crawford in the rotation and move Houck into a multi inning role but for now I’d keep him in the rotation. Houck’s issue is with lefties since he’s a side slinger lefties get real good look at him, in fact if you look at the hard contact he has given up in the middle innings it is almost all lefties that are really hurting him. Houck will need to refine his changeup/ splitter to keep lefties off his fastball. Houck has to really fine against lefties especially after those first few innings when his fastball seems to lose a bit of bite.
Bruin1012 – Dismissing Houck for struggling briefly with his control is short-sighted.
Let’s look at some fun facts you may have ignored to make your point.
As a Starter:
Houck – 135IP 3.93 ERA and 1.178 WHIP 145 Ks (10 more Ks than IP)
Whitlock – 55IP 4.75 ERA and 1.291 WHIP 49 Ks (sub 1 Ks to IP)
As a Reliever:
Houck – 53.2 IP 2.68 ERA and 1.137 WHIP 57 Ks (barely over 1 Ks per IP)
Whitlock – 112.2IP 2.24 ERA and 0.944 WHIP 125 Ks (over 1 Ks per IP)
WOW…. look at that. The data shows Houck to be the better SP and Whitlock the better RP just like I have always stated!!! The role of the stress inning reliever was made for Whitlock and the role of closer was made for Houck if he’s not a top of the rotation SP..
You can misinterpret struggling all you want. That data clearly says you are wrong.
If Houck has issues to work on as a young stud SP then you work on the issues not throw the baby out with the bath water!! This is Bloom-like thinking!!! WOW.
So who are the best 5 SPs for 2023? SALE, HOUCK, BELLO, PIVETTA and TBD.
TBD could be Paxton if his first start was real. It could be Crawford which would allow Whitlock to be the stress inning guy bailing out the starters when they get in trouble.
What we know is it’s not Kluber. My preference based on what’s best for the team is:
Sale, Houck, Bello, Crawford and Pivetta/Paxton depending on Paxton and if he is really going to be effective or just had one lucky start.
So as I read your comments and how you believe you are expert in talking pitching (which you are not) let me educate you on a key description you got wrong. Fastballs don’t have bite that’s an adjective for breaking pitches because the bite happens when the rotation of the baseball successfully meets the air in such a way that the spin on the ball uses the airflow to increase the break on the pitch. Hard throwers have MOVEMENT on their fastball but the laces spin upward on fastballs not downward like breaking pitches. Thus, a fastball can have a tail on it or live movement but bite is a phrase reserved for balls rotating in a downward or sideways direction. It would be like calling a fastball an off speed pitch. A fastball is neither an off speed pitch nor a pitch with bite!!
Houck is just fine. You don’t like the guy so you create a bunch of BS about what’s wrong with him. He’s a young pitcher who has done great and will continue to do great. Reading your comments reminds me of Cora telling Sale how to pitch. Stay in your lane when it comes to analysis. Talk about what you know. Don’t be a Cora!!! Oh yeah and stop using Fangraphs and Statcast, it’s really causing your analysis to be skewed from reality!!
KD can you read you clearly can’t.
I never said Houck shouldn’t be in the rotation what I said is clearly Houck struggles after once through the order and that’s a fact. Clearly there are people on this site that are intimated by you but I’m not one of them. I have destroyed you in the past and stopped commenting on your clown opinions because your feelings got hurt.
Here’s are facts and they are indisputable per Fangraphs:
1st time through the order Houck has a .92 era he is outstanding
2nd time through the order 5.4 era
3rd time 17.61
Why not use Fangraphs when those stats are available. Do you watch the games clearly you don’t if you don’t think Houck has an issue after one time through the order. Stop being obtuse when I say his fastball is losing bite I mean it becomes much more hittable after one time through the you clown. Go ahead argue it you can’t because it’s a fact.
You clearly can’t read either never said that Houck shouldn’t be in the rotation I just said he has an issue after one time through the order, what you going to argue that? I like Houck hopefully he figures a way to pitch more effectively after one time through the order hopefully he figures something out but what I said is real he struggles after the first time through the order and lefties hit him especially hard argue that you clown.
I have just started disputing your clown views let’s keep it going.
No KD you have issues I simply make a comment a completely factual comment and you get your panties in a bunch when someone actually stands up to you.
It’s clear to me you don’t watch the games even Houck himself has talked about it in postgame interviews it’s an issue if you took the time time to watch the game and not comment from biased ignorance you would know what I’m saying is true.
Houck clearly has an issue after going through the order one time I don’t know why you can’t admit it because Houck can. He has a precipitous falloff after one time through the order. By the way no not that’s a false statement not every starter gets weaker the second time through the order there are numerous starters that are stronger the second time through the order. There are numerous starters that you have to get early because once they settle in they are real tough especially in the middle innings. Just admit it KD Houck has an issue after the first time through. Is this really the hill you want to die on when even Houck has admitted it’s a problem? This is an argument you can’t win because you are wrong end of story stop letting your biases cloud your judgement. I’m just curious to see how long you will continue to argue with me when this is actually funny when you make an argument that the guy you are arguing about admits it’s an issue.
I was pretty upset he did not pitch for Canada in the WBC.
As patriots as Canadians claim themselves to be, Canada out a pretty pathetic roster in the WBC.
Just knowing Canada’s WBC record is as good as the Chinese (not Taipei) team, which is, well, not very inspiring.