Frank Coztansa wrote:
ESPN Fantasy baseball;
Sale picked up his 17th win of the season after throwing six shutout innings, allowing just three hits with five strikeouts, against the Twins on Friday.
Spin:
Sale's breakout season continues and he is now 5-3 with a 3.18 ERA over his last eight starts. His overall ERA currently sits at 2.78 for the season, and with 173 strikeouts to just 44 walks in 175 innings, he continues to be as dominant a force now as he was back in April. rogers park bryan wrote:
Peavy and Sale were a lot better in the first half by the numbers.
Of course Sale was better in the first half. Even Elmhurst Steve 'predicted' that Sale's numbers would drop off, to which I replied;
Great insight there. Steve thinks that there is a chance that Chris Sale, pitching in the AL at one of the most home run friendly home ballparks in MLB, might not keep up his pace of a 9-2 record, 2.27 ERA, and 0.97 WHIP.
So let's say after the AS Break, he goes 6-4 with a 3.46 ERA
That's still pretty fucking good, but steve will come back and say "i told you so, i told you there would be a dropoff!"
viewtopic.php?f=33&t=66820&start=200#p1471215It's one thing to predict that Sale would not continue to dominate competition and hold onto a 2.27 ERA, that isn't saying much. But I predicted an ERA over a full run higher in the 2nd half, which has proven to be accurate. Look at Sales last 9 outings. In them he is 3-4 and in 53 1/3 innings he has given up 25 runs (an ERA over 4) and has given up over a hit per inning (57) as well as 20 walks. His ERA has gone from outstanding to pedestrian as has his WHIP. In his last 2 outings, he has given up 8 runs in just 10 1/3 innings, surrendering 17 hits and 5 walks. The strain of all the innings caught up with him as I was sure it would. I told you so and it really hasn't been that good at all down the stretch. If you want to be all chesty about the one really good outing he has had in recent starts against a terrible Twins team with Mauer out with an injury, go ahead and delude yourself. But the fact is, the guy wore down and his performance level dipped as a result.