Bellhorn04

Yeah, subtracting both Turner and Duvall doesn't leave much in the way of RH power. Doesn't help that Story looks so brutal at the plate.

Again - I'm fairly sure he was not hired with the objective of consistently missing the playoffs.

And if CB doesn't do something to seriously upgrade the rotation before 2024, he's an abject failure.

Martin was available for the 8th. As you say there just wasn't anyone who could get us there.

-The problems are with relief pitchers who are gassed from recent overuse. -How should we have handled it better? Anything specific?

Barraclough was that healthy and fresh arm.

And a lot of people don't even like other people's opinions!

If they had no intention of adding, they should have subtracted.

Time for some more Noah Song talk!

Or you could put him in a dunking booth.

Kind of ironic that Bloom's biggest strength was supposed to be the pitching side of the game.

And the folly of that is now being exposed in a brutal way.

Bumping this because it has really come to ugly fruition now.

Reportedly all three were deemed unavailable for the game because of recent usage and health concerns. We're totally effed, in other words.

Peter Abraham's take on the fiasco: In what is Chaim Bloom’s fourth season as chief baseball officer, the Red Sox entered an important game without any lefthanded relievers in the bullpen and at least four righthanders who were deemed unavailable. That left manager Alex Cora with little choice but to wear out a pitcher who was called up from Triple A Worcester before the game and will surely be sent back on Tuesday, if not released. “We had a lot of guys down,” Cora said in a low voice. “This is where we were. It just didn’t happen with [barraclough] today.” That the Red Sox did not even attempt to cobble together 12 outs was stunning. Barraclough walked the first two batters in the sixth inning on 10 pitches and nobody stirred in the bullpen. Houston went on to send 12 batters to the plate and score six runs and nobody warmed up. Barraclough threw 94 pitches, 48 more than he had thrown in any of his previous 227 major league games. He walked five, hit three, and allowed 11 hits. “As bad as I’ve ever thrown the ball in my life,” said Barraclough, who offered no excuses. Once the Astros took a 9-4 lead, Barraclough was left with the task of finishing the game. Houston took full advantage, pounding out hit after hit. It was so bad that Cora offered to have a position player pitch the ninth inning but Barraclough said he would finish the game. “You saw my face. It was all over TV. It’s uncomfortable,” Cora said. Cora said the Sox had Chris Martin and Kenley Jansen available. Josh Winckowski had thrown only 20 pitches over the previous four days, those coming on Saturday. But he was not cleared to pitch by the medical staff. “This is where we were,” Cora said again, a phrase he repeated several times. Where they are is a product of the rotation having thrown the second-fewest innings in the American League. Only Oakland, which gave up on its season before it started, has fewer. Bloom’s decision to add only one starting pitcher to the roster in the offseason, 37-year-old Corey Kluber, has proven disastrous. Kluber was hit hard on Opening Day and had a 6.26 ERA over nine starts before being demoted to the bullpen. He has been on the injured list since June 21. Injury-prone Chris Sale, who allowed three runs over 4⅔ innings Monday, has a 4.75 ERA in 15 starts. James Paxton, who appeared in only six games from 2020-22, pitched well for much of the season but has predictably worn down in recent weeks. Kutter Crawford, Tanner Houck, and Garrett Whitlock have had good moments but all three had been swingmen in their careers. Only Brayan Bello has been in the rotation since April.

Who is overworked in terms of total innings? The biggest problem is the rotation-starters not going deep into games, or no starter available at all, necessitating bullpen games. It's been a ragtag rotation from the get-go. Bello has obviously been the mainstay, the one exciting development. Paxton and Crawford have been good at times. Houck very spotty. Sale mostly injured. Whitlock mostly injured. Kluber useless. Pivetta demoted to the pen.

Runs please!

Yes, the quick twitch muscles, baby. But he's got the whole package of physical and mental attributes you could ask for in a baseball player. Or a bowler LOL

The last couple of years he had some nagging injuries that I thought might be taking a toll on his numbers. Right now he is making it look like he's playing against Little Leaguers.

I didn't think this had anything to do with pitchers. What are you saying about the usage of our pitchers?

You do have a good point there, Max, based on actual logic. Another point which notin made was that you have to play your subs some to keep them from getting rusty.

Scheduled rest days are part of the Age of Analytics. I too would be interested in knowing what data they used in determining how many rest days a player should have to optimize their performance.

They probably lowballed him like they did with Lester and Bogaerts. Can't really put it past them to offer Betts $250 mill or something like that - something they knew he wouldn't take.

Mookie Betts AAV 29 mill Raffy AAV - starting in 2024 - 31.35 mill

You probably remember the NFL strike and the games that were played with replacement players.