Every time Gray pitches, the trade price for a starting pitcher goes up, and so does the pressure on Cashman to trade for another starter.
Gray can't handle the big lights of New York. It happens. Some players just can't. Too bad, because he is a good pitcher.
David "Big Game" Price, Boston's answer to Sonny Gray. Gagging up a 6-0 lead. Between innings, it looked like the Red Sox trainer was doing the Heimlich maneuver on Price in the dugout. Picture this: an ALCS Game 7 between the Red Sox and the Yankees with Sonny Gray against David Price. After four innings, the score would probably be 10-10.
We complain about Ellsbury and Sonny Gray, but think of what the Red Sox have done. They signed Price for seven years/$217 million, but there are just two problems. He can't pitch against the Yankees, their main rival, and he can't pitch in the post-season. What a bargain, huh?
Tom Verducci has some interesting takes on Sonny Gray today. https://www.si.com/mlb/2018/07/02/y...lb-trade-deadline-michael-jordan-lebron-james
Except that in Sunday’s blowout they had to use a few relievers because they hadn’t been getting enough work.
Gleyber sidelined with a hip strain. Hopefully it's not a long term injury and he's able to return soon. CC continues to be the second best pitcher in our rotation this year. We really need Tanaka to come back and be the 2nd half pitcher he was last year.
Boone shouldn't take the heat. Cashman makes the decisions, and Boone carries them out. For Cashman, the nice thing about that is that Boone will unfairly take the heat for decisions Cashman made. Does anyone really think that Boone and Boone alone decided to play Torres?
Um, yes. With the possible exception of the medical staff giving a green light. What kind of conspiracy theory you running at here?
I dunno, man. Cashman making game-related decisions seems pretty gosh-darn frikkin' far from obvious, especially if you're talking about him making the decision to play Torres instead of rest him. You think a GM is focused more on the day-to-day than the long-term health of his assets? That's not how any of this works. In any system. CEOs and VPs don't tell their directors and managers how to run their departments on a person by person level. They offer support. They offer suggestions. They make their high-level interests and directives known. They don't micromanage (not if they expect to stick around longer than a year or two). Cashman isn't calling the pitches or telling Boone to yank a guy when he's spent. I wouldn't be surprised if Cashman is giving higher level directions that can impact things on a week-long basis, like, "Make sure the kids get at-bats and exposure," or "Here are some advanced metrics I think we should consider -- use this guy to help you," or "Here's what I think worked and didn't work this past week." I'd bet you almost any amount of money Cashman isn't making the intra-day decisions about who sits/starts.
