Papelbon’s First Four-Game Stretch Without A Strikeout

In blowing his second straight save tonight (How the hell do you walk Carlos Gomez?), Jonathan Papelbon now has only one strikeout in his last 5.2 innings pitched and is on a four-game stretch without a punchout.

He has only gone three consecutive games pitched without a K one other time in his career, last year from September 22nd to the 28th (2.1 IP).

And That is Why Sports are Great

You wake up at 5am to watch the pregame show, the first pitch of your team’s 2008 season is at 6am and they are playing in Japan. A few hours later, it’s not Manny Ramirez, David Ortiz, or Jonathan Papelbon on the front of ESPN.com, it’s literally the last guy on the roster. Brandon Moss gets the start in right field because of JD Drew’s back stiffness, drives in a run early in the game, then ties the game in the 9th with his first major league homer. Incredible.

It was a fun way to start the season, even though Daisuke looked shaky in the first two innings, Snyder sucked, and Papelbon allowed four men to reach in the bottom of the 10th. Manny’s drive for 150 RBI and a new contract got off to a good start with 4 RBI and the game winning hit. The guy is locked in, has inner peace and is even talkative with the media. Amazing.

Now all we have to do is wake up early again tomorrow, hope Jon Lester throws first pitch strikes, and hope the jet lag is easier to deal with being 2-0 on the season.

Manny Delcarmen Injured

Playing on a wet field, Manny Delcarmen fielded a ball this afternoon, slipped, and then came up lame.  After this play the game was put into a rain delay. Goddamnit.

As I wrote a few days ago, the only thing you have to worry about with veteran players in spring training is avoiding injuries and the Red Sox have had a million this spring.

Hopfully MDC can get back on the mound a time or two before the trip to Japan.

It’s too bad we don’t just send a Triple-A squad to play the A’s, we would still probably split the 2-game series and not have to worry about 30 billion miles traveled right before the start of a grueling 162+ game season.

Quick Thoughts on Aardsma’s Good Times

While David Aardsma was dominating during his first 20.2 IP last year to the tune of a .183/.272/.239/.511 against, he threw 346 pitches, with 172 (49.7%) tracked by MLB Pitch F/X data.

I decided just to look at those pitches and see what he was doing before it all came crumbling to pieces.

The graphs above show the first interesting thing I noticed, he was mostly pitching away from batters. While it was successful during this period, most White Sox fans got fed up with his nibbling as his performance worsened. It will be interesting to see if the Red Sox try to get him to work both sides of the plate, and if he struggles, if he can ward off confidence issues he has had in the past.

I have read about him throwing, at one time or another, a fastball, changeup, slider, splitter and knuckle curve.

While doing some googling, I learned that last spring the White Sox told Aardsma to scrap his k-curve and focus on the slider. I also came across a quote of him saying that he throws his split against lefties as his 3rd pitch, while against righties he mixes in a changeup. And, through my own research, I learned his fastballs do not sink, as some have suggested (and his gopheritis refutes).

According to the data, versus righties, I have him at: 6% changeup, 22% slider, 29% fastball, 43% 95+ mph gas

According to the data, versus lefties, I have him at: 8% split, 13% slider, 36% fastball, 43% 95+ mph gas

Needless to say, Aardsma is going to be an interesting cases to follow in spring training. We shall see just how much polish John Farrell can put on this out-of-whack million dollar arm.

Aardsma Acquired for Mota and Socolovich

Interesting move made by Theo Epstein today in acquiring David Aardsma from the White Sox. Aardsma has a big arm and can overpower hitters with his 94-99 MPH fastball; however he has been erratic with his control and secondary pitches and has yet to put it all together for any extended period of time. His best secondary pitch has been his slider, which would be good if he could control it. As of now he sounds like an older version Craig Hansen, which is damning praise for both, I suppose. Aardsma is on the 40-man roster and should be a fairly good lock to break camp with the big club. What he does under John Farrell’s tutelage is anyone’s guess.

The two players sent back to the White Sox were Willy Mota and Miguel Socolovich.

Mota, 22, was once a young toolsy outfielder from the Dominican who projected to be a plus defender and a low OBP, decent SLG player. The Red Sox moved him to the mound before last year and he didn’t embarrass himself in short season Lowell while working almost exclusively with his fastball.

Socolovich, 21, caught a lot of people’s eye in 2004 when he pitched well in the Venezuelan Summer League as a 17 year old. After missing all of 2005 because of Tommy John surgery, he has pitch an unspectacular 115.2 innings between short season and low-A ball the last three seasons.