A Realistic View of 2023: Part II

[cp176]

What i find particularly nerve wracking is the defense or lack thereof. Realistically, it kind of looks like we have 3 dh's in the lineup when Yoshida is in the outfield and Devers is at third and Casas is at first. They are all talented and likely are better than they look to me and maybe they might even get better but when did defense become so undervalued? It has cost us quite a few games.

[Old Red]

I would not bet on us even winning 4 or 5 out of those 7. My point was that going 7-0 might mean we could get by with less overall wins to close out the season, because we'd gain 3 on TX and TOR.

 

It's a very long shot from here- no doubt.

There is always hope, but I just can’t see all of a sudden the starting pitching gets better, and goes deeper in games to give the BP a breather, and I can’t see the D all of a sudden getting better either. Raffy has that deer in the headlights look out on D, and it might be affecting his hitting too. To me it would be some sort of a miracle at this point to turn things around given their remaining schedule, but as KG said anything’s possible. Mathematically they still have a chance, but it dwindles every day.

[moonslav59]

There is always hope, but I just can’t see all of a sudden the starting pitching gets better, and goes deeper in games to give the BP a breather, and I can’t see the D all of a sudden getting better either. Raffy has that deer in the headlights look out on D, and it might be affecting his hitting too. To me it would be some sort of a miracle at this point to turn things around given their remaining schedule, but as KG said anything’s possible. Mathematically they still have a chance, but it dwindles every day.

 

Our pitching has had some pretty long stretches of doing very well.

 

I suppose if could happen, again, but I see no signs of any starter "stepping it up."

[Old Red]

Our pitching has had some pretty long stretches of doing very well.

 

I suppose if could happen, again, but I see no signs of any starter "stepping it up."

 

Paxton definitely hasn’t been the same, and that may have been earlier in the season on the pitching, and now the BP has been cooked.

Edited August 30, 2023 by Old Red

[Duran Is The Man]

It's impossible with the state of our pitching staff.

 

Starters can't go 5 innings and relievers are burning out.

 

Bad defense only makes it all worse.

 

Such are Bloom's 2023 Red Sox.

 

to me, it's even more frustrating when i think have to suffer through another year of watching Bloom fumble his way through yet ANOTHER off-season of poor decision making.

[Dipre]

Look forward to 2024 gentlemen.

[Bellhorn04]

Look forward to 2024 gentlemen.

 

Not much choice, is there?

[mvp 78]

Not much choice, is there?

 

We already got the Rule 5 protection talk going!

[Old Red]

We already got the Rule 5 protection talk going!

 

Sam is already practicing his speel at the year end press conference. He said all of baseball ops failed last year, so what can he add to that this year?

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

Sam is already practicing his speel at the year end press conference. He said all of baseball ops failed last year, so what can he add to that this year?

 

"The owners failed to make changes at the top of the organization, staying with those responsible for assembling a big league roster worthy of World Series contention, and a front office fully committed to rewarding Red Sox fans who paid higher prices for tickets, parking, concessions, and cable bills with... uh: sincerity, integrity and honesty about delivering those goals-- um, hold on... wait a min-- "

[Old Red]

How can the Red Sox be this stupid? SB Nation Over The Monster by Bryan Joiner. Good reading, or listening.

[Bellhorn04]

Sam is already practicing his speel at the year end press conference. He said all of baseball ops failed last year, so what can he add to that this year?

 

Just tell everyone it's been a 5 Year Plan all along and the real awesomeness is on its way.

[Old Red]

Just tell everyone it's been a 5 Year Plan all along and the real awesomeness is on its way.

 

Probably another ticket price increase will be added as well.

[Dipre]

Just tell everyone it's been a 5 Year Plan all along and the real awesomeness is on its way.

 

"It's me Austin! It was me all aloooooooong!"

[moonslav59]

The season is not over, yet, but here is a look at my 2023 grades for last winter's additions (some deals are longer than 2023, but these grades are just for 2023, so far.):

 

D Yoshida $90M/5

A- Jansen $32M/2

A+ Martin $17.5M/2

F Kluber $10M/1

A+ Turner $8.3M/1)

A- Duvall $7M/1 (A+ had he not got hurt.)

C Bleier for Barnes (a push)

 

Minor moves, including in season:

F Mondesi for J Taylor (3+M contract) Not that Taylor did anything

F Joely ($1.5M) may help next year

F Mills (min) for Jacob Wallace- may help next year

A- P Reyes for cash

A Bernardino (waivers)

B+ Urias ($4.7M & 2 arbs left) for Blalock

C Alfaro & Chang

C Robertson for Kike

F Dermody, Lamet, Faria, T Scott, R Sherriff, Graza, jacques, Bear Claw & Llovera

 

Overall grade: B-

Biggest mistake: not adding more SP'ers

Biggest plus: improving the pen.

 

If you go by change in winning % from 2022 to 2023:

+.100 or more TX, WSH, CIN, BAL

+.050-.099: TBR, MIA, CHC, PIT, AZ

+.040 DET

+.038 BOS & MIN

+0.25 LAA & PHI

+.010-.020: SFG & SEA

 

The worst drops:

-.172 NYM

-.145 STL

-.126 NYY

-.109 CWS

-.095 KCR

-.094 CL

-.087 HOU

-.083 SDP

 

 

 

[mvp 78]

Just tell everyone it's been a 5 Year Plan all along and the real awesomeness is on its way.

 

That's how you find out your CBO is a procrastinator.

[mvp 78]

The season is not over, yet, but here is a look at my 2023 grades for last winter's additions (some deals are longer than 2023, but these grades are just for 2023, so far.):

 

D Yoshida $90M/5

 

 

You gave him a D based on one bad month. No need to read any more than that.

[Old Red]

The season is not over, yet, but here is a look at my 2023 grades for last winter's additions (some deals are longer than 2023, but these grades are just for 2023, so far.):

 

D Yoshida $90M/5

A- Jansen $32M/2

A+ Martin $17.5M/2

F Kluber $10M/1

A+ Turner $8.3M/1)

A- Duvall $7M/1 (A+ had he not got hurt.)

C Bleier for Barnes (a push)

 

Minor moves, including in season:

F Mondesi for J Taylor (3+M contract) Not that Taylor did anything

F Joely ($1.5M) may help next year

F Mills (min) for Jacob Wallace- may help next year

A- P Reyes for cash

A Bernardino (waivers)

B+ Urias ($4.7M & 2 arbs left) for Blalock

C Alfaro & Chang

C Robertson for Kike

F Dermody, Lamet, Faria, T Scott, R Sherriff, Graza, jacques, Bear Claw & Llovera

 

Overall grade: B-

Biggest mistake: not adding more SP'ers

Biggest plus: improving the pen.

 

If you go by change in winning % from 2022 to 2023:

+.100 or more TX, WSH, CIN, BAL

+.050-.099: TBR, MIA, CHC, PIT, AZ

+.040 DET

+.038 BOS & MIN

+0.25 LAA & PHI

+.010-.020: SFG & SEA

 

The worst drops:

-.172 NYM

-.145 STL

-.126 NYY

-.109 CWS

-.095 KCR

-.094 CL

-.087 HOU

-.083 SDP

 

 

 

 

This looks pretty good, but as big of a critic as I am I would probably give Yoshida/GOshida/ NOshida a little big better grade than a D. Maybe a C. Agree on biggest mistake, but only to add not getting a adequate fielding SS when Story went down before the season even started to be second biggest mistake, which was costly.

Edited August 30, 2023 by Old Red

[Bellhorn04]

You gave him a D based on one bad month. No need to read any more than that.

 

That was my bad influence.

[mvp 78]

That was my bad influence.

 

A lot of you guys got the knives out for him. He's been bad, but I'm surprised at how angry some of you are. Probably just bad timing as his slump coincides with the sinking ship.

[moonslav59]

You gave him a D based on one bad month. No need to read any more than that.

 

No. I think an .800 OPS for the year, at that money, along with poor D, is worth around a D.

 

C or C- would be okay.

[mvp 78]

No. I think an .800 OPS for the year, at that money, along with poor D, is worth around a D.

 

C or C- would be okay.

 

His OPS was 888 on July 25th. So yeah, one bad month tanked him by your measure.

[Dipre]

His OPS was 888 on July 25th. So yeah, one bad month tanked him by your measure.

 

He should be DFA'd.

[moonslav59]

His OPS was 888 on July 25th. So yeah, one bad month tanked him by your measure.

 

That's how you see it.

 

I'm grading him on his current OPS, defense and value per dollar paid. Yes, I'm counting the salary, too. Had I graded him a month ago, I might have given a C or B-. If I graded him after his first 3 weeks, maybe a D.

 

You can grade your way.

 

Would you give him a grade above a C?

 

[Bellhorn04]

A lot of you guys got the knives out for him. He's been bad, but I'm surprised at how angry some of you are. Probably just bad timing as his slump coincides with the sinking ship.

 

For me it's all about Bloom and his choices, and the realization that Yoshida is a highly paid DH with a lot of issues in his game, and a steadily shrinking fWAR.

 

Some of his current struggles may be about fatigue and adjustment - hopefully that's the case.

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

The season is not over, yet, but here is a look at my 2023 grades for last winter's additions (some deals are longer than 2023, but these grades are just for 2023, so far.):

 

D Yoshida $90M/5

A- Jansen $32M/2

A+ Martin $17.5M/2

F Kluber $10M/1

A+ Turner $8.3M/1)

A- Duvall $7M/1 (A+ had he not got hurt.)

C Bleier for Barnes (a push)

 

Minor moves, including in season:

F Mondesi for J Taylor (3+M contract) Not that Taylor did anything

F Joely ($1.5M) may help next year

F Mills (min) for Jacob Wallace- may help next year

A- P Reyes for cash

A Bernardino (waivers)

B+ Urias ($4.7M & 2 arbs left) for Blalock

C Alfaro & Chang

C Robertson for Kike

F Dermody, Lamet, Faria, T Scott, R Sherriff, Graza, jacques, Bear Claw & Llovera

 

Overall grade: B-

 

 

After the Bear Claw Game, most fans and media can see their ever-lasting summer fading fast, and are now calling the season a failure before mathematical elimination.

 

If the Red Sox finish with a winning record or even in fourth place, it's an improvement over last year. But if they don't qualify for the postseason, most of us here view 2023 as a failure -- at least in the fact that Boston would fail to make the playoffs.

 

As for your grades, I'm not sure how you calculated an overall GPA of B-

 

If you assign whole numbers of 4 for As, 3 for Bs, 2 for Cs, and 1 for Ds (0 for Fs); the point total adds to 36... divided by 24 players (or subjects) = a GPA of 1.5.

 

That's a solid D... overall for Chaim Bloom's additions to the roster.

 

Subjectively, I agree with most of your individual grades, except I'd go a little higher on Masa and a little lower on Duvall. A guy with a .300 batting average most of the season -- even without a lot of power -- contributes to the offense, and while a lot of fans are really down on Yoshida for August, he actually had a higher OPS in July than Duvall (who has had two hot streaks, but never had an .800 OPS for an entire six-month season in his career).

 

Those two, along with Turner, Jansen and Martin, have definitely compensated on the report card for the Ws -- subjects from last year that Withdrew or Went away...

[dgalehouse]

I never liked report cards.

[Bellhorn04]

Duvall has a 2.4 fWAR in 70 games. On a pro-rated basis, he's been the team's best position player by a wide margin.

[moonslav59]

For me it's all about Bloom and his choices, and the realization that Yoshida is a highly paid DH with a lot of issues in his game, and a steadily shrinking fWAR.

 

Some of his current struggles may be about fatigue and adjustment - hopefully that's the case.

 

Maybe they figured he could be a near average defender and Fenway's LF could hide some of his weaknesses on D.

 

If they thought they, they were wrong.

[Old Red]

Maybe they figured he could be a near average defender and Fenway's LF could hide some of his weaknesses on D.

 

If they thought they, they were wrong.

The more he has played in the field the more he has become more exposed. Luckily a light caught one of the balls for him. When he circles a fly ball he looks like he trying to avoid some doggie doo in the grass.