hansen {l Wrote}:twballgame9 {l Wrote}:A. Why would a lineup full of guys that you should not throw fastballs to be concerned with "power arms"? Throw that 98 mph gas to Napoli at the letters and see where it ends up. Boston mashed fastball pitchers all season. The only pitch that concerns me is Wacha's +changeup, and he better hope they don't guess right.
B. Molina is an excellent throwing catcher. The Red Sox led the league in steals while converting the highest percentage of attempts in the history of baseball. Molina's impact on this series is more likely to be at the plate. Oh, by the way, Wieters is probably the best throwing catcher in baseball and Ellsbury stole 6 of 7 on the Orioles this year.
Given that the Sox just beat a team with Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer starting and Miguel Cabrera, Victor Martinez and Prince Fielder in the lineup, it is hard to get too worried about this series with Yadier Molina and Allen Craig in the power spots and Adam Wainwright and a rookie in the top two pitching slots. Not to say the Cardinals can't win, because they can, but there's not a lot to get worked up about in this series. If the Sox play like they did all season, they should win relatively easily. But there's no guarantee that they will - they certainly did not with the bats against Detroit.
One further note, I think it will be very interesting to see what Wacha does with a lineup full of guys that you have to throw a lot of strikes to or else you are out of the game in the 6th inning.
1. All Wacha does is throw strikes. His precision with his fastball is incredible. But your right that Wacha's changeup is deadly and easily his best pitch.
2. Molina is ridiculous behind the plate. If the redsox steal more than 1-2 bags the whole series, then I will shocked and will tip my cap.
3. As for the Detroit series, 11 of the 19 runs were scored against the bullpen of Detroit. That will not happen again as St Louis' bullpen is superior to the team's starting staff. There is no way the bullpen will give up that many runs.
A. There's a downside to throwing all strikes against the Red Sox. Not only do they see the most pitches, they lead the league in many hitting categories and score the most runs. This is not the As - unless your name is Verlander (and even then) - they are capable of hitting the strikes down in the count.
B. Molina is top 5 throwers in the game, but he's not the best, and it's not really close. Red Sox having the highest steal percentage in the history of baseball while leading the league - that's ridiculous.
C. The numbers were skewed that way in the Detroit series because there were 2 lights out Cy Young award winners (one of whom is already knocking on the doors of Cooperstown) in that rotation. The Sox won that series by intentionally trying to get to the bullpen - which is what caused all of the high pitch counts and strikeouts. They will continue to work counts, but I don't think there will be the urgency to get this collection of starters out of the game.
In short, I don't expect the STL bullpen to be as bad as Detroit, much the same way that I don't expect the starters to be remotely in the ballpark of the DET starters. No one with a clue does.