When Bregman left, the Red Sox pivoted – you could say panicked – and signed free agent pitcher pitcher Ranger Suarez to a five-year, $130 million contract. Suarez is a pitcher who relies on hitting the edges and he is not hitting any edges. With the ABS system in place, you have to be more precise than ever if you cannot blow the baseball past hitters like say, Schlittler can do.
Right now, Suarez is a victim of ABS. Those friendly calls he has gotten in the past from umpires with generous strike zones are no longer there, so he has lost his pitching way, my guess is he is trying to be too fine, trying not to make mistakes and you know what happens when you try not to make mistakes.
You make enough mistakes to post a hideous 8.64 ERA after two starts.
The Red Sox have some good young talent, but they are asking way too much after throwing Roman Anthony into the deep end of the major league pool. Same goes for young Marcelo Mayer. And the evaluation was really off when last April the Red Sox and Brez gave Kristian Campbell an eight-year, $60 million contract extension.
Campbell remains in the minors trying to learn his craft.
Maybe metrics will make him a major league player, not baseball work. But I doubt it and that is the central point here. Too many front offices have forgotten about baseball principles. See the ball, hit the ball. Run hard. Hustle.
I will say this, the Marlins, have put some real baseball into their teaching ways.
“They run out every ball hard,’’ said a scout who was at Yankee Stadium for the series where, if not for a panic move, removing the starter after 4.2 innings, the Marlins might have won two out of three from the Yankees.
Ask Jazz Chisholm if the Marlins run out every ball.
So far, the Red Sox are averaging 10.3 Ks per game. That is no way to start the season, and one of the treats of watching the NESN postgame shows is seeing Jim Rice shaking his head about all the strikeouts.