Running 2017 MLB regular season thread

Home run Jon fucking Lester!!!!

 

He's also at 97 pitches through four innings. He'll be lucky to make it through five. That's trouble, isn't it?

 

As great as Chris Sale is, damn is he good for a couple of absolute stinkers a year.

 

He's a 3.90-4.00-ish ERA pitcher. So, yeah, that's gonna happen.

 

F'n Carrasco. Your team gets that many off Sale and you got to get your tits ripped and can't even get out of the 2nd.

 

Wild finish in Boston.

 

Why not? It's a sunk cost. Ellsbury gets paid either way. Put the best team on the field.

 

I think they are hoping that A. he'll get hurt and be able to recoup some via insurance, B. he turns it on next year and can be moved at close to value or at the very least a similar contract on someone who can help at different position or C. they can trade him and eat half the money to help lower their luxury tax hit. Better to have him count 11.5 against it than 21-plus for the next four years.

It's not like he is totally worthless. He can be a fifth outfielder/defensive replacement/pinch runner if need be. Supposedly Hicks won't start a rehab assignment until next week. Assuming no injuries, either Frazier goes down for about 10 games, which I know no one ones, or they get by with the extra outfielder, which they can do thanks to their super-charged pen.

 

You mean the guy with a 3.47 career ERA who hasn't had an ERA as high as the range you are talking about since 2012?

But yes, he was due for another stinker, exactly the concern I brought up after his last start.

 

At this stage of his career, his peripherals say he is a 3.90-ish pitcher.

 

That sounds like you believe he is in genuine decline, which fits perfectly with what I've been saying about him for months. Lester is not the pitcher he was last year and due to his age (33) and the mileage on his arm after pitching over 200 innings eight of the last nine seasons, there is reason to believe his skills are diminishing. Glad you've come around to my thinking.

The good thing is that Lester is still an effective pitcher most of the time. He just has more crappy starts mixed in with the good ones. Hopefully, he learns how to manage them a little better.

 

I think that you are way overvaluing that 2.44 ERA last year. His peripherals weren't nearly that good. What I'm arguing is that 2016 Jon Lester and 2017 Jon Lester are not as far apart as his ERA would indicate.