But, it's an interesting question. The Red Sox went into this last offseason thinking they needed an ace. So, they went out and dropped $200+ million to make sure they got one. And, thus far at least, Steven Wright has pitched like every bit of the ace they wanted.
Unfortunately, he's not the guy they gave all the money to. David Price is the one chasing the enormous paychecks. But, he's pitching like the worst starter on the team. (When his bunk bed buddy is saying that he's concerned, you know there's a problem.) Many people have wondered if there's really a issue with Price. Has he lost it suddenly? It he hurt? Is he wearing down? Is this the terror of signing an older pitcher long-term?
Price has been saying all the right things. He knows he's been terrible. He's feeling fine. He just needs to find his old self. But after his last start, he said something interesting.
He said he found the problem. (Well he said Dustin Pedroia found the problem, but we'll get into that in a second.) He was doing something with his hands that he didn't used to do with them. He said it would be an easy fix, and his last bullpen felt great.
What's interesting is that he's publicly saying he found an easy problem to fix. He better be right. If you bring you car into the mechanic saying "something's making a weird noise" there's probably no obvious solution. If the mechanic tells you that, and says there are a couple things that may help that's one approach. If the fix doesn't work right off the bat, you understand more. You knew all along it was just a trial balloon. But, if you bring it to the mechanic and they say "Oh. I know exactly what's wrong. It's this easy fix. Ten minutes" and then it doesn't work, you're left to wonder. Were they lying to you? Were they just guessing? Did they just want to get me in the garage so they could keep charging me to fix different things? Do you still have confidence?
That's the risk that Price is running. What if he goes out tomorrow and absolutely stinks up the joint? What then? Can we believe him the next time he finds a solution? What's going to happen? It could get very messy.
And, about Pedroia. Does that story seem odd to anyone else? So Pedroia wants to watch video of his at-bats against lefties. I'll assume that doing that actually serves a purpose, even though I can't imagine what it is. But, he doesn't watch video of recent lefty at-bats. No, he goes to a three year old video of a lefty. And, not just any lefty. A lefty that he is now guaranteed not to have to face for at least a couple more years. That's the guy he chooses to bring up video on? Then, to top it off, he doesn't watch himself in the video. He watches this pitcher that he's not facing. He watches this pitcher's hand placement. Why? How does that help Pedroia in his upcoming at-bats against other lefties? This doesn't seem like the real story to me.
Although, I admit, the part where Pedroia does something good, and then immediately makes sure every member of the media finds out about it seems right.
Guy might as well be a Kardashian.
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