Now that I’ve got the joke out of the way, May is a rather
down time in baseball. As far as trades and player movement goes, not much happens.
Players generally know their role, the closer carousel figures itself out and the surprises of the season become the norm at this point.
It wasn’t surprising when the team started the month off
3-2. That moved us to 14-20 on the year. Still not ideal but a step in the
right direction. I’m thoroughly impressed with David Price and Craig Kimbrel so
far this season. Price sports a 4-3 at this point of the season and has pitched
46.2 innings in seven games with a 2.51 ERA. Batters are hitting .172 against
him and he has a 0.75 WHIP. Kimbrel has seven saves to this point and has been
lights out. In 11.2 innings, he has a 0.77 ERA (one earned run) and opponents
are hitting .081 against him. The combo has been lights out and I’m loving it
because I’m actually a huge David Price fan. When Price is going, he’s the key
to the team winning the World Series. And with Chris Sale 1-4 with a 6.03 ERA,
that’s the reason why the team is six games under .500.
When Tyler Thornburg came back on May 5, I designated Brian
Johnson for assignment. Johnson just wasn’t doing it. He had a 6.20 ERA and a
negative WAR. While the easiest option would have been to send Bobby Poyner
back to Pawtucket, Poyner actually has a 2.57 ERA in seven innings with
opponents batting .222 against him. He’s a better fit for the bullpen and it
allows Steven Wright to move back to the rotation.
In case you were wondering, this was the top players in the
draft class.
I’m not a huge believer in the top player projections.
I go for more of the potential star ratings when drafting. I usually match the
players that the game projects to reach five stars and my scout projects to
reach five stars and draft those players. But the list is always handy to have
by one’s side.
On May 7, I made one of the hardest decisions I had to make
so far in my tenure. Dustin Pedroia came back from the disabled list. Fitting
him onto my roster was kind of hard. I didn’t want to get rid of Brock Holt
because of his positional flexibility and because he was hitting .284 with a
positive WAR. I didn’t want to get rid of a guy like Blake Swihart or release a
player with multiple years left on their contract (Mitch Moreland, Eduardo
Nunez, etc.). So I released DFA’d Hanley Ramirez, who was hitting .154 in 14
games. Taking on another dead contract wasn’t ideal, but without positional
flexibility and without giving any productivity, Ramirez had to go.
Halfway through the month, my team is 18-25 and 7-7 in the
month of May. Good enough for fourth place in the American League East in front
of the New York Yankees. I can pinpoint the exact reasons why the team is under
achieving. Reason one is Chris Sale. He is 1-5 with a 6.23 ERA at this point.
Hitters are hitting .322 against him with a 1.7 HR/9 rate. What’s interesting
is his fielding independent pitching is 3.76, meaning he’s actually pitching
great outside the defense around him. Secondly is Rick Porcel-blow, I mean
Porcello. He’s 2-5 with a 6.39 ERA with opponents hitting .322 against him. His
FIP is 6.76, meaning, his fielders are actually make him better, which seems
hard to do because of how bad he currently is pitching. When combining two top
tier and top paid pitchers performing badly with a team that is 13th
in the American League in runs scored and 14th in home runs, that
will cause a sub .500 team right there. No excuses, we just have to do better.
Unfortunately, this is a computer game so I can’t give the players a pep talk
or call a meeting.
On a small note, on May 16 after our 6-0 win against the
Oakland A’s Joe Kelly went on the DL with a dead arm. I called up Roenis Elias
again. In that game, Sale actually went six innings and gave up zero runs in
the win. Make me eat my words Sale! Make me!
On May 28, I received an email from the league about Andrew
McCutchen, who will miss an “indefinite amount of time” for “personal issues.”
Quite the shame for the Giants because McCutchen had hit 12 home runs up until
that point with 39 RBIs and a .298 batting average.
As for us, we ended the month on a three game losing streak.
Our record is 26-31. Not good. On to June.
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