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saddles
No More "Bullpen Failure" - maybe
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Over the past few days the Rangers have brought up Blaine Crim, optioned Jake Burger to AAA, activated Corey Seager from the DL, placed Leody Taveras on outright waivers, fired Offensive Coordinator Donnie Ecker, decided to recall Evan Carter, and hired hitting coach Bret Boone. The decision makers are trying to reconfigure the team as much as it can be at this stage. Those decisions were a little slow coming, for some, and very late coming for some more of us.
We move on to Boston where it looks like, on paper, we have a great advantage when it comes to the starting pitchers. Eovaldi and Mahle start the first 2 games, and between the two of them, have a 7.5 ERA advantage over their mound opponents. Leiter has a 2 run ERA disadvantage, but then he has been trying to regain his form after missing time due to a blister problem. If the Leiter from early Aoril shows up we should be competitive, pitching-wise, in that last game.
All three Red Sox starters are right handed so Bochy will be tempted to use Pederson in all three games. I think for the organization's sake Blaine Crim needs to have a really good offensive game very soon or Bochy will lose patience with him. He did draw a walk and showed some high level baseball IQ when running the bases on Sunday. Bochy was no doubt impressed by that. Nevertheless, Crim needs to get some hits in his next couple of games in order to earn a small fraction of the trust that Bochy shows veterans who oftentimes, seemingly do not deserve such trust.
It would be good if we could get some good offensive production out of several players in these three games instead of having to rely on 2 or 3 guys, mostly. We need Seager, Jung, Smith, and Langford to lead the way, and I think they will. Let's hope we get enough from Carter, Heim, Srmien, Garcia, Crim and Pederson to score a lot more than we have been scoring.
One thing we really need during this series is for Leiter to return to form. That Thursday afternoon game is very important for that reason. There are naturally going to be some peaks and valleys for him this year, but let's hope is is on his way to another peak. If we can get him straightened out this week and then have Rocker get straightened out in his rehab starts, that will bode very well for the future, both near-term and longterm.
We move on to Boston where it looks like, on paper, we have a great advantage when it comes to the starting pitchers. Eovaldi and Mahle start the first 2 games, and between the two of them, have a 7.5 ERA advantage over their mound opponents. Leiter has a 2 run ERA disadvantage, but then he has been trying to regain his form after missing time due to a blister problem. If the Leiter from early Aoril shows up we should be competitive, pitching-wise, in that last game.
All three Red Sox starters are right handed so Bochy will be tempted to use Pederson in all three games. I think for the organization's sake Blaine Crim needs to have a really good offensive game very soon or Bochy will lose patience with him. He did draw a walk and showed some high level baseball IQ when running the bases on Sunday. Bochy was no doubt impressed by that. Nevertheless, Crim needs to get some hits in his next couple of games in order to earn a small fraction of the trust that Bochy shows veterans who oftentimes, seemingly do not deserve such trust.
It would be good if we could get some good offensive production out of several players in these three games instead of having to rely on 2 or 3 guys, mostly. We need Seager, Jung, Smith, and Langford to lead the way, and I think they will. Let's hope we get enough from Carter, Heim, Srmien, Garcia, Crim and Pederson to score a lot more than we have been scoring.
One thing we really need during this series is for Leiter to return to form. That Thursday afternoon game is very important for that reason. There are naturally going to be some peaks and valleys for him this year, but let's hope is is on his way to another peak. If we can get him straightened out this week and then have Rocker get straightened out in his rehab starts, that will bode very well for the future, both near-term and longterm.
