Clay Buchholz Outduels Shaun Marcum, Sox Clinch Series

Something more like how he pitched v. Texas—but with a better result.

His Ks are a little deceptive. His contact numbers are at 69% — second lowest of all major league starters — including a league-leading 77.9% contact on pitches in the zone. He’s also inducing players to swing at a lot of stuff outside the zone a ton. Honestly, based on the actual swings that batters are taking compared to the outcome of their AB, Clay should have some of the best K numbers in the league. I don’t think this is a “2-strike” problem for Clay, just a random bad luck timing-wise problem for Clay (especially when you see 10 K performances that he’s capable of).

This deserves a story of its own. Perhaps I shall invest the time.

but he has options and I don’t think he’s being placed on waivers – so that means we still need to make room on the 40 man for Embree, who was signed to a minor league deal (READ: No 40 man spot). Embree has to be added to the 40 man roster to be placed on the active roster. Since we currently have 40 guys on the 40 man roster we need to clear a spot. This can be done by designating someone from assignment (eventually leading to release or trade w/in 10 days) or perhaps by moving an injured player (maybe Boof Bonser) from the 15 day DL to the 60 day DL. The 60 day DL does NOT count against your 40 man roster, while the 15 day does. It can be backdated to the last time Boof played, so he need not be out for 60 days from this point on.

There’s no need to remove Fabio Castro from the 40 man (and thus expose him to waivers) since he has options remaining. He can be sent down and called up as often as we like this year. So either we cut ties with Castro – though we thought highly enough of him to call him up (albeit maybe just for mop up duty) or time might be up for Bates. I still seriously doubt we’re giving up a catcher right now with the problems we’ve been having(Dusty Brown). Plus, Brown is 3rd on the Catcher depth chart. Where is Bates… and on what depth chart? Not sure.

Its not just the pitching, either. The position players are not in comfortable roles either.

And the poor catching really has everyone on edge. Not to mention playing a in a bunch of close games. Everyone is a little out of sorts. We’re gonna get straightened out and go on a run. I dont consider this a real run, fwiw. We’re playing crappy and winning on talent alone.