A Realistic View at 2021: Part II

[moonslav59]

Our 2 through 6 hitters are having an amazing year. We get more help from hitters 7 through 1 and wow, what an offense!!!!

 

It’s already started.

 

OPS last 14 days

1.133 Santana

1.125 Plawecki

1.000 Dalbec

.762 Cordero

 

The people who keep saying Renfroe is hot: he’s not.

[moonslav59]

WAR Leaders

fWAR player bWAR

2.7 Bogey 2.7

1.9 JD 2.3 (high for a DH)

1.8 Devers 2.1

1.0 Verdugo .8

.7 Vaz .6

.5 Arroyo .4

.2 Santana .2

.2 Chavis .2

.2 Renfroe .3

(-.1 Marwin +.5)

 

1.8 Eovaldi .7

1.3 Barnes 1.0

1.0 Pivetta .9

.8 Pérez .7

.8 ERod.1

.7 Richards .5

(.1 Whitlock .5)

 

 

[Nick]

It’s already started.

 

OPS last 14 days

1.133 Santana

1.125 Plawecki

1.000 Dalbec

.762 Cordero

 

The people who keep saying Renfroe is hot: he’s not.

 

Yep, you are what stats say you are.......initially I mentioned that his BA of .230 was his career norm. But I guess his career ops wasn't so bad.......

 

I've mentioned this elsewhere....I just don't see anything 'special' about Kike....a high energy guy whose offensive stats aren't so high energy.

[moonslav59]

Yep, you are what stats say you are.......initially I mentioned that his BA of .230 was his career norm. But I guess his career ops wasn't so bad.......

 

I've mentioned this elsewhere....I just don't see anything 'special' about Kike....a high energy guy whose offensive stats aren't so high energy.

 

Kike wasn’t signed to hit .850.

 

He’s actually done okay since his slow start and has his OBP up to .315.

 

He’s at .960 over his last 8 games.

Edited May 26, 2021 by moonslav59

[oldtimer]

They faced excellent pitching last night and got beat. It happens. To me the loss against the Phillies was worse, since we came at them with a weakened lineup. Let's hope for a rebound today.

[moonslav59]

They faced excellent pitching last night and got beat. It happens. To me the loss against the Phillies was worse, since we came at them with a weakened lineup. Let's hope for a rebound today.

 

I kinda get the feeling had we got 2-3 more key hits in the first and second inning the flood gates might have opened, and nobody is talking about how well our opposing pitcher is always pitching.

[jacksonianmarch]

You guys faced a good major leaguer. We got shut down by Steve Matz. What a joke

[Bellhorn04]

You guys faced a good major leaguer. We got shut down by Steve Matz. What a joke

 

Guys like Steve Matz have good nights. He wouldn't be still in the bigs otherwise.

[moonslav59]

Guys like Steve Matz have good nights. He wouldn't be still in the bigs otherwise.

 

That's what so many people don't get.

 

Yes, good pitching beats good hitting more often than not, but it is no where near a cinch, and the greatest pitchers on earth have off nights, and some of the worst have good nights.

 

Good hitting teams also have team slumps or off nights, and bad hitting teams sometimes click on a given night. Maybe as a result of the opposing pitcher having a bad night, but maybe not.

 

When good hitting teams, not in a funk, meet good pitching or vice versa, we might not even notice, and vice versa.

Edited May 26, 2021 by moonslav59

[Nick]

That's what so many people don't get.

 

Yes, good pitching beats good hitting more often than not, but it is no where a cinch, and the greatest pitchers on earth have off nights, and some of the worst have good nights.

 

Good hitting teams also have team slumps or off nights, and bad hitting teams sometimes click on a given night. Maybe as a result of the opposing pitcher having a bad night, but maybe not.

 

I think we all get that here on the board. Most are good baseball minds.

 

Sunday's lineup was a joke but I understand why we have to do it. We have some veterans that need rest. Maybe there's no other way to do it other than to sit out JD and Xander on the same day. But I get it. It's a long season.

 

That said, I want my major league team to have as many bullets as possible on its arsenal.

 

Why, why, why not try someone like Duran especially when he's hot. I'm not saying TODAY. But to put an arbitrary number games or at bats in the minors is ludicrous as well. We're trotting out a guy that's hitting well below .200. What good has HIS AT BATS done? What about a guy like Marwin? He's very valuable on defense but we have several of those guys. I would do everything I can to shore up the lineup.

I'm a big fan of Dalbec thinking he can occupy the 9th spot in the lineup. But if he needs to platooned, so be it.

 

We bitch and moan during off season about Bloom not doing enough. Hell, why not turn every rock looking for an edge? What you afraid of? That you're going to hurt his itty bitty feelings? I bet if you asked him, he'd say yes to playing center field on a major league team. I doubt he'd say "I'm not ready, I need about another couple of hundred at bats".

Edited May 26, 2021 by Nick

[notin]

Guys like Steve Matz have good nights. He wouldn't be still in the bigs otherwise.

 

Ditto nearly every pitcher in MLB...

[moonslav59]

I think we all get that here on the board. Most are good baseball minds.

 

Sunday's lineup was a joke but I understand why we have to do it. We have some veterans that need rest. Maybe there's no other way to do it other than to sit out JD and Xander on the same day. But I get it. It's a long season.

 

That said, I want my major league team to have as many bullets as possible on its arsenal.

 

Why, why, why not try someone like Duran especially when he's hot. I'm not saying TODAY. But to put an arbitrary number games or at bats in the minors is ludicrous as well. We're trotting out a guy that's hitting well below .200. What good has HIS AT BATS done? What about a guy like Marwin? He's very valuable on defense but we have several of those guys. I would do everything I can to shore up the lineup.

I'm a big fan of Dalbec thinking he can occupy the 9th spot in the lineup. But if he needs to platooned, so be it.

 

We bitch and moan during off season about Bloom not doing enough. Hell, why not turn every rock looking for an edge? What you afraid of? That you're going to hurt his itty bitty feelings? I bet if you asked him, he'd say yes to playing center field on a major league team. I doubt he'd say "I'm not ready, I need about another couple of hundred at bats".

 

I disagreed with resting 2 stars in the same game right before having 2 days off in 4 days, too. but I trust Cora knows what he's doing, and maybe the extra rest will give us an edge later in the season.

 

On Duran, I know I've sounded very cautious, and I have mentioned maybe his defense needing work, but I also think his offense has only been eye-popping for a very short time, and since they knew he was going to the Olympics, I can see why they held him back. There were no minor league games in April, as well.

 

If it was up to asking minor leaguers, if they are ready, my guess is many unready players would say, "yes." I really trust Bloom will know when Duran is ready. Maybe he already thinks he is, but held him back because of the Olympics and the team control aspect of making a move to bring him up earlier.

 

I have been very critical of Cordero, but he needed a few weeks to show what he has. It was only after 3-4 weeks that I started wondering about a change, platoon or whatever, so it's not like we overplayed him for 7 weeks. it's more like 2-4 weeks, and BTW, he's actually hitting the ball harder and bringing his OPS up, slowly.

 

I have also been saying a platoon might be needed for Dalbec, but again, he deserves a long enough sample size vs righties, before we decide to platoon him. Maybe we disagree on how long a sample size is needed, and I'm fine with that. I've always been one to think larger sample sizes are needed to know much about anything, and even then, players can change on a dime.

[notin]

That's what so many people don't get.

 

Yes, good pitching beats good hitting more often than not, but it is no where near a cinch, and the greatest pitchers on earth have off nights, and some of the worst have good nights.

 

Good hitting teams also have team slumps or off nights, and bad hitting teams sometimes click on a given night. Maybe as a result of the opposing pitcher having a bad night, but maybe not.

 

When good hitting teams, not in a funk, meet good pitching or vice versa, we might not even notice, and vice versa.

 

Hey, just look at the names with no hitters this year.

 

Sure, Kluber has a history of great seasons and awards. And Joe Musgrove and John Means are both good, albeit not great pitchers. But Spencer Turnbull? Carlos Rodon? Wade Miley? I mean, Wade Miley now has more career no hitters than Greg Maddux.

 

And last year, career minor leaguer Alec Mills tossed one.

 

So yes, any MLB pitcher can have a great day...

[moonslav59]

...Wade Miley now has more career no hitters than Greg Maddux.

 

And Pedro, too.

 

These no hitters are not due to defensive shifts.

[oldtimer]

I think we all get that here on the board. Most are good baseball minds.

 

Sunday's lineup was a joke but I understand why we have to do it. We have some veterans that need rest. Maybe there's no other way to do it other than to sit out JD and Xander on the same day. But I get it. It's a long season.

 

That said, I want my major league team to have as many bullets as possible on its arsenal.

 

Why, why, why not try someone like Duran especially when he's hot. I'm not saying TODAY. But to put an arbitrary number games or at bats in the minors is ludicrous as well. We're trotting out a guy that's hitting well below .200. What good has HIS AT BATS done? What about a guy like Marwin? He's very valuable on defense but we have several of those guys. I would do everything I can to shore up the lineup.

I'm a big fan of Dalbec thinking he can occupy the 9th spot in the lineup. But if he needs to platooned, so be it.

 

We bitch and moan during off season about Bloom not doing enough. Hell, why not turn every rock looking for an edge? What you afraid of? That you're going to hurt his itty bitty feelings? I bet if you asked him, he'd say yes to playing center field on a major league team. I doubt he'd say "I'm not ready, I need about another couple of hundred at bats".

 

We won't see Duran until the completion of the Olympics which would be at least into August. Casas is in the same boat but he is only at the AA level. These are the only two guys who might have bolstered the lineup and now they are unavailable.

 

During the last 7 days some of the guys are carrying weak batting averages: Dalbec .135, Cordero .208, Renfroe .115 and Gonzales .063. Very few teams, if any, are strong offensively 1 thru 9, but to your point, the team should be making every reasonable effort to improve. Santana was one of those moves but Duran looks like an obvious one as well.

[moonslav59]

We won't see Duran until the completion of the Olympics which would be at least into August. Casas is in the same boat but he is only at the AA level. These are the only two guys who might have bolstered the lineup and now they are unavailable.

 

During the last 7 days some of the guys are carrying weak batting averages: Dalbec .135, Cordero .208, Renfroe .115 and Gonzales .063. Very few teams, if any, are strong offensively 1 thru 9, but to your point, the team should be making every reasonable effort to improve. Santana was one of those moves but Duran looks like an obvious one as well.

 

It can't be obvious, because Duran is not available. He wasn't available for the first 10-14 days of May, either. He hadn't played in a month (since ST'ing). It might look obvious, because we see him crack 7 HRs in a couple weeks, but it wasn't so obvious before that, and we still don't know all the facts on Duran. I'm not trying to bust your balls, but do you really think you or I know more about when Duran is ready and/or available than Bloom?

 

His going to the Olympics was an obvious barrier all along. It's not something Bloom just found out about. (I just did, recently.)

 

Casas was not likely going to join the club before August anyway, even if we didn't have Chavis and Ockimey (who kills righties and has shown it at higher levels than Casas).

 

BTW, Dalbec may be batting .177 in the last 7 days, but is that really what you want to use to decide someone's fate or to call up someone from AA to replace or platoon with him? Dalbec did hit a huge HR and has 4 rbi in the last 7 days and has a .939 OPS the last 14 days, which to me, counts more than 7 days.

 

Had Santana been playing in April, which he couldn't due to injury and no games in the minors, he might have been called up earlier. I wanted him and Chavis up ASAP, but I didn't know what ASAP was specifically. I trusted Bloom to know.

 

I'm fine with you and others not trusting him. It's the nature of boards like this, but no way was Duran coming up in April: he wasn't playing live games.

 

No way was he coming up in early May, due to only playing a hand full of live games and only coming to life at the bat after the first few games- something hard to project.

 

No way they call him up for 3-7 days, then send him to the Olympics.

 

That's my opinion, and I think that might be Bloom's major reasons for not calling him up. It could also be that he doesn't think he's ready yet and even if he had played all April and wasn't going to the Olympics, he might still be in AAA. There's also the team control clock as a factor.

[mvp 78]

You do know that they can decide to promote him before the actual Olympics (Downs, too)? The preliminary round they are playing the next few weeks doesn't have to be the exact roster that goes to the Olympics.

[moonslav59]

You do know that they can decide to promote him before the actual Olympics (Downs, too)? The preliminary round they are playing the next few weeks doesn't have to be the exact roster that goes to the Olympics.

 

Yes, for what 3-7 days? maybe 10?

 

I seriously doubt they'd call up anyone in April, who was not playing live games, unless it was an emergency.

 

I seriously doubt they'd call someone up after playing just a week or 10 days of live ball in the minors, which started in early May.

 

The Olympic round start, soon. The is was very short, but yes, possible.

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

You do know that they can decide to promote him before the actual Olympics (Downs, too)? The preliminary round they are playing the next few weeks doesn't have to be the exact roster that goes to the Olympics.

 

But isn't the Olympics the exact kind of higher-level competition that will help these guys prepare for the bigs? I'd almost bet the Sox hierarchy welcomes the possible struggles Duran and Co. may experience in do-or-die stress going against the best amateurs (non-MLBers?) in the game...

[mvp 78]

But isn't the Olympics the exact kind of higher-level competition that will help these guys prepare for the bigs? I'd almost bet the Sox hierarchy welcomes the possible struggles Duran and Co. may experience in do-or-die stress going against the best amateurs (non-MLBers?) in the game...

 

I'm not sure the Olympics would be an increase in competition over AAA. It could be good for the guys to be around veteran players like Matt Kemp and others that fill out the roster though.

[mvp 78]

Yes, for what 3-7 days? maybe 10?

 

I seriously doubt they'd call up anyone in April, who was not playing live games, unless it was an emergency.

 

I seriously doubt they'd call someone up after playing just a week or 10 days of live ball in the minors, which started in early May.

 

The Olympic round start, soon. The is was very short, but yes, possible.

 

I doubt they'd call anyone up before mid June at the earliest regardless.

[notin]

But isn't the Olympics the exact kind of higher-level competition that will help these guys prepare for the bigs? I'd almost bet the Sox hierarchy welcomes the possible struggles Duran and Co. may experience in do-or-die stress going against the best amateurs (non-MLBers?) in the game...

 

Certainly some of the teams will provide great competition, like Korea, Japan and China. But those first round match ups against the best that, say, Uzbekistan can muster might not be so tough.

 

That said, it’s baseball, so any team with one pitcher at the top of his game can give his team a great chance...

[Nick]

Since our Yankee fan let us know of every Sox injury, I thought I'd return the favor.

 

NEW YORK -- Corey Kluber is expected to miss a minimum of two months after an MRI revealed a strain of the subscapular muscle of his right shoulder, Yankees manager Aaron Boone said on Wednesday.

 

Kluber will be shut down for at least four weeks without throwing, then he would likely need that same period of time to build back up, placing his best-case return in late July. Kluber, who pitched a no-hitter one week ago in Texas, lasted only three innings against the Blue Jays on Tuesday.

 

Yep, it was only a week ago that he pitched a no hitter. So far Sox starters have been healthier than the Yankees.

 

Looks like Brasier will return in couple of weeks for the Sox.

[Nick]

There is no formal limit on how long a rain delay can last.

 

My radar says rain will clear out around 12:15 am. Can they really make players wait that long?

[moonslav59]

There is no formal limit on how long a rain delay can last.

 

My radar says rain will clear out around 12:15 am. Can they really make players wait that long?

 

They have tomorrow off. It’s worse for the fans.

[moonslav59]

Since our Yankee fan let us know of every Sox injury, I thought I'd return the favor.

 

NEW YORK -- Corey Kluber is expected to miss a minimum of two months after an MRI revealed a strain of the subscapular muscle of his right shoulder, Yankees manager Aaron Boone said on Wednesday.

 

Kluber will be shut down for at least four weeks without throwing, then he would likely need that same period of time to build back up, placing his best-case return in late July. Kluber, who pitched a no-hitter one week ago in Texas, lasted only three innings against the Blue Jays on Tuesday.

 

Yep, it was only a week ago that he pitched a no hitter. So far Sox starters have been healthier than the Yankees.

 

Looks like Brasier will return in couple of weeks for the Sox.

 

Bad news on Kluber. Let’s see how good the hyped starter depth really is.

 

If Brasier can return at 2018 level, then he can be a big addition. With Taylor doing better, who is the odd man out?

[Nick]

 

Bad news on Kluber. Let’s see how good the hyped starter depth really is.

 

If Brasier can return at 2018 level, then he can be a big addition. With Taylor doing better, who is the odd man out?

 

Would they consider sending down Andriese to fully stretch him out (start in 3A) for starting depth?

[Nick]

They have tomorrow off. It’s worse for the fans.

 

I just woke up (4:26 am) and had to check the score. Almost a 3 hour delay. I know that rain is unpredictable but they surely saw this coming. Umpire ("Looks like rain is coming, we'll go as long as we can but once we stop play, you guys have 90 minutes to resume play or I'm calling it"....wouldn't that be better?)

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

I just woke up (4:26 am) and had to check the score. Almost a 3 hour delay. I know that rain is unpredictable but they surely saw this coming. Umpire ("Looks like rain is coming, we'll go as long as we can but once we stop play, you guys have 90 minutes to resume play or I'm calling it"....wouldn't that be better?)

 

The key was that Fenway could keep selling beer all night because the delay came before the end of the 7th inning. If they tarped the field after the 7th, they would have to call it, because everyone would go to bars.

[oldtimer]

It can't be obvious, because Duran is not available. He wasn't available for the first 10-14 days of May, either. He hadn't played in a month (since ST'ing). It might look obvious, because we see him crack 7 HRs in a couple weeks, but it wasn't so obvious before that, and we still don't know all the facts on Duran. I'm not trying to bust your balls, but do you really think you or I know more about when Duran is ready and/or available than Bloom?

 

His going to the Olympics was an obvious barrier all along. It's not something Bloom just found out about. (I just did, recently.)

 

Casas was not likely going to join the club before August anyway, even if we didn't have Chavis and Ockimey (who kills righties and has shown it at higher levels than Casas).

 

BTW, Dalbec may be batting .177 in the last 7 days, but is that really what you want to use to decide someone's fate or to call up someone from AA to replace or platoon with him? Dalbec did hit a huge HR and has 4 rbi in the last 7 days and has a .939 OPS the last 14 days, which to me, counts more than 7 days.

 

Had Santana been playing in April, which he couldn't due to injury and no games in the minors, he might have been called up earlier. I wanted him and Chavis up ASAP, but I didn't know what ASAP was specifically. I trusted Bloom to know.

 

I'm fine with you and others not trusting him. It's the nature of boards like this, but no way was Duran coming up in April: he wasn't playing live games.

 

No way was he coming up in early May, due to only playing a hand full of live games and only coming to life at the bat after the first few games- something hard to project.

 

No way they call him up for 3-7 days, then send him to the Olympics.

 

That's my opinion, and I think that might be Bloom's major reasons for not calling him up. It could also be that he doesn't think he's ready yet and even if he had played all April and wasn't going to the Olympics, he might still be in AAA. There's also the team control clock as a factor.

 

What should be considered was whether Duran was possibly better than Cordero not some paragon of baseball perfection. Duran was MVP of the Puerto Rican and has been demonstrating his quality since. In 24 exhibition games prior to the start of the 2021 season, Duran slashed .340/.352/.702 with three home runs, seven RBI, 10 runs scored and 16 hits (six doubles). Why not try him instead of going with a guy who has demonstrated he needs more work? I would say the performance of the Sox main club should come before the Olympics considerations. Dalbec has also regressed and Casas should be developed for a try soon. Quoting stats on Dalbec when he is clearly lost at the plate to me is foolishness.

Edited May 27, 2021 by oldtimer
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