*OFFICIAL* 4/15/22 Burger Bomb Grinds Rays SOX 3 TB 2 Postgamer

[Frater Perdurabo]

Cease was dominant. Only Bummer’s struggle to get the third out in the sixth kept this from being a shutout.

[Frater Perdurabo]

Old friend alert: Apple TV postgame show is co-hosted by Yonder Alonso.

[Zakath]

16 K's now for Dylan over 10 2/3 IP. He can be a 1 or a 2 long-term, especially with that slider, as long as he can keep his pitch count down and not go 3-2 a lot as he did last year. Graveman with another solid inning, and Hendriks finally looked like the dominant closer we know he is. Burger continues to hit the snot out of the ball.

Not impressed with the Apple TV coverage.

[berwyn]

From the look of this thread MLB isn't going out for volume with the Apple deal. I did get to see a great NBA game. Thx, MLB.

[Dumpjerry]

I was planning on catching the first couple of innings before Passover got started. We have Comcast. Opened up the Apple+ app, declined to get a subscription, clicked on the game which was "free." They wanted me to register anyway if I wanted to watch the game. I turned off the TV.

Manfred hates Baseball. What's wrong with each team being on the same channel day after day in its hometown? Takes the guesswork out of "which station are we supposed to see tonight and did we pay for the privilege to watch my team?"

[Lipman 1]

I was planning on catching the first couple of innings before Passover got started. We have Comcast. Opened up the Apple+ app, declined to get a subscription, clicked on the game which was "free." They wanted me to register anyway if I wanted to watch the game. I turned off the TV.

Manfred hates Baseball. What's wrong with each team being on the same channel day after day in its hometown? Takes the guesswork out of "which station are we supposed to see tonight and did we pay for the privilege to watch my team?"

It's the wave of the future...anything and everything revolves around the millions and millions of dollars going into the owners pockets at the expense of the sport.

This is one area, maybe the ONLY area where you and I agree on, Manfred is terrible for the sport. He's an ex-tennis player from Brown University who has little to any feel or passion for the sport.

Remember this is the same guy who called the World Series Trophy a "piece of metal" to Karl Ravech of ESPN.

He makes "Proud To Be Your Bud" Selig look and sound intelligent.

[Lipman 1]

As far as the game tonight, I understand it's still pretty cold in Chicago, talked with my Mom this morning. Kept the crowd down.

Just a few thoughts on the bullpen, nice to see Hendriks finally get a clean inning. Regarding Bummer, I read a lot last year that according to analytics he was pitching in "bad luck". Ground balls, instead of being caught ,were going through for hits, bloop shots were falling in etc. I don't know...maybe he's just not that good. Maybe he's tipping something.

As far as the hitting, the only guys really hitting right now are Anderson and Vaughn. They are winning with timely hits but these guys need to start squaring up to the ball. Granted the weather and "heavy air" are impacting things.

Take the win against a good team and move along.

[voodoochile]

I was planning on catching the first couple of innings before Passover got started. We have Comcast. Opened up the Apple+ app, declined to get a subscription, clicked on the game which was "free." They wanted me to register anyway if I wanted to watch the game. I turned off the TV.

Manfred hates Baseball. What's wrong with each team being on the same channel day after day in its hometown? Takes the guesswork out of "which station are we supposed to see tonight and did we pay for the privilege to watch my team?"

All you need is an Apple ID like many people have for their iPhones and iPads.

Great win against a quality team. Burger continues to impress. Garcia had a double and the pitching was dominant.

Dylan “Huckleberry” Cease… ‘nuff said.

[davenicholson]

It was nice catching my 1st Sox game on TV in a long time (thanks for the free Apple TV+, TMO!). Some thoughts: I was definitely impressed with Cease, and the Hamburgler looked good as well. Hendriks looked like the dominant reliever I thought he was. Announcers made me miss the Hawkeroo. Oh, and a sub-3:00 game! Cold weather does have its advantages, I guess.

[Noneck]

Wonder if the Sox are contemplating what they will do if Burger keeps playing the way he has been?

[thomas35forever]

Wonder if the Sox are contemplating what they will do if Burger keeps playing the way he has been?

At this point, I would keep him over Sheets. I'm not saying I don't want Sheets on this team, but you have to go with solid contact and consistency, and I trust Burger more in both of those areas right now. At the same time, if it takes one of those guys to shore up a position of need heading into the playoffs, I immediately pull the trigger.

As for the game, a well-played one except for the top of the sixth, but all's well that ends well.

[Krs1]

I was planning on catching the first couple of innings before Passover got started. We have Comcast. Opened up the Apple+ app, declined to get a subscription, clicked on the game which was "free." They wanted me to register anyway if I wanted to watch the game. I turned off the TV.

Manfred hates Baseball. What's wrong with each team being on the same channel day after day in its hometown? Takes the guesswork out of "which station are we supposed to see tonight and did we pay for the privilege to watch my team?"

I have Apple+ and even I think it's ****ing ridiculous. $ is everything, though, so I'll just have to get used to it. Anything that keeps giant ads on jerseys is okay, I guess?

On the plus side, I'm sure there were a lot of sons talking to their fathers today over the phone for the first time in a while, telling them how they can watch the game.

[ChiTownTrojan]

As far as the game tonight, I understand it's still pretty cold in Chicago, talked with my Mom this morning. Kept the crowd down.

Just a few thoughts on the bullpen, nice to see Hendriks finally get a clean inning. Regarding Bummer, I read a lot last year that according to analytics he was pitching in "bad luck". Ground balls, instead of being caught ,were going through for hits, bloop shots were falling in etc. I don't know...maybe he's just not that good. Maybe he's tipping something.

As far as the hitting, the only guys really hitting right now are Anderson and Vaughn. They are winning with timely hits but these guys need to start squaring up to the ball. Granted the weather and "heavy air" are impacting things.

Take the win against a good team and move along.

I saw a crazy stat on Bummer before the game. He had an ERA over 9, but a FIP of under 1. That’s what happens when every one of your outs is a strikeout, and your BABIP-against is 1.000.

I also read an analysis yesterday on South Side Sox that compared Bummer’s dominant 2019 season to his “unlucky” 2021. The main difference is that in 2019 he relied almost exclusively on the sinker, whereas last year he was throwing the slider a lot more often (30% of the time). The slider is an absolutely dominant pitch, getting a lot of swings and misses. But it often drops out of the zone (as sliders are wont to do), leading to more balls. Also the sinker often generated weak contact earlier in the count, so being more slider-dominant sometimes leads to deeper counts (and walks).

https://www.southsidesox.com/2022/4/...-fly-zone-with

I have no idea if this is related to Bummers issues this year. I’ve been on vacation for the past week and have only caught bits and pieces of the games, and I’m too lazy to check the stat cast data right now. But based solely on his K rate so far (all 7 outs coming via the strikeout entering today), I’m assuming he’s using the slider a lot.

I don’t really know what the solution is, because it’s hard to argue with an approach that generates so much swing and miss. And again, I haven’t been watching him pitch so it’s not clear to me what isn’t working for him. But my intuition is that if a pitcher is striking out 3 batters per inning, he’s doing something right, and eventually the results will catch up to the dominant numbers.

[voodoochile]

5-2 and the only players currently living up to or above offensive expectations are TA, Vaughn and Burger. Well Harrison because not much is expected from him and Robert if you factor in the SB, but none of the middle order bats are OPS like we want/need them to so far.

[LITTLE NELL]

5-2 and the only players currently living up to or above offensive expectations are TA, Vaughn and Burger. Well Harrison because not much is expected from him and Robert if you factor in the SB, but none of the middle order bats are OPS like we want/need them to so far.

It's early and it's cold.