That’s actually my point, although I didn’t quote stats to justify it. Sheffield has made the biggest year-over-year jump forward in an area that desperately needed it. I would put Moore a close 2nd, but with the addition of France, and (hopefully) Haniger’s return, wed stand a better chance of weathering any about face by Moore.D-train wrote: ↑Wed Oct 07, 2020 11:26 amI think Sheff has figured it out. After his first two starts he only had one bad start. And pitched at least 6 innings in all but one of those starts and 5 innings in the last start of the season.Petert wrote: ↑Wed Oct 07, 2020 2:24 amThanks for starting the new thread, Juliooo.
I thought about this, and I have to look at it carefully, as I was ready to mistake 'regressing' with 'not improving', and it's easy for me to mistake the latter for the former.
At the present time, I'd probably say Sheffield.
Kikuchi, I think is a lost cause as a starter (unless someone in the front office eats crow and moves him to the 4 or 5 slot in the rotation, before being assigned to the bullpen) so I can't count him as 'regressing', since he never met (my) expectations as a starter in the first place. (Again), He now should be targeted as an overpriced bullpen option where, maybe, his morse-code flashes of dominance can be better matched to situational matchups, rather than attempting to slog through 100 pitches of entertaining the gods of baseball into a 'thumbs up' or 'thumbs down' decision. Dunn holds his own, I believe, much better than Kikuchi does, and shows poise, intelligence and talent.
Any regression on his part would hurt, but not as much, IMO, if Sheffield lapsed into his 2019 form.
His last 8 starts he was 6-2 with a 2.64 ERA and 41 Ks in 47 innings (avg. of 6 innings a start) and a .622 OPS against. Will still only be 24 yo on OD next season. Paxton hasn't pitched since Aug. 20th LOL Killed that trade.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/play ... &year=2020
So, any regression by Sheffield would, in my mind, have a more detrimental effect on the team.