Maxbialystock

I almost never agree with you and I'm not about to start now. But I absolutely grant you the right to point fingers at whoever you think is responsible for this cesspool of a season. That said, I'm inclined to defend Bloom for three reasons: 1. Last year the Sox were very competitive despite the departure of Betts and Price and the nonseason of Chris Sale. They also had no real closer, and Cora managed--and boy is that the right word--to keep that from killing them in the postseason. Indeed, I challenge you to compare 2021 to 2019, DD's last season as GM when he still had Betts, Devers, Bogey, JDM, Benintendi, JBJ (when his OPS was .738), Moreland, Sale, Price, ERod (his best season ever), Porcello, Eovaldi, et al. The 2019 team finished 84-78 and had no postseason. The 2021 Sox won 92 games, beat the Yankees in the wild card, beat the 100 win Rays in the ALDS, and finally lost to the Astros, 4 games to 2, in the ALCS. 2. This year the rotation, which actually has some pretty good arms, has been decimated by injuries. To wit, 7 freaking starters--Sale, Whitlock, Eovaldi, Wacha, Hill, Houck (moved back to bullpen, plus no covid vacc), and Winckowski (covid)--and right now absolutely none of those seven is back the way they were when they were pitching well. Sale hasn't been Sale since 2018. Whitlock is back in the bullpen. Wacha and Hill are still on the IL. Eovaldi is back, but ain't himself. Oh, and the presumptive ace Pivetta has had a disastrous July (ERA over 13). 3. Despite the above and other malfeasances (which I find infuriating) like lousy defense, lousy baserunning, and weak hitting with RISP, this Sox team is still 2 games above .500. Oh, I also forgot that the Sox rbi leader and best defender--Story--is also on the IL.

Well, it makes sense to me. I'm a firm believer that big contracts are fraught with peril and to be avoided. Mookie was terrific while he was with the Sox, but he simply became unaffordable. DD had no hesitation in paying big bucks for Price and Sale, and they did help in the truly great 2018 season--but at a fearsome price. The 2018 team, built by DD and others and paid for by JH, was probably the best team in Sox history. Then they bombed in 2019, out went DD, and in came Chaim Bloom, probably with instructions from JH not to do it the DD way. Thus the departure of Mookie Betts--and David Price, but with the requirement to continue paying some of Price's salary. Retained, no doubt because of the elbow and need for tommy john surgery, was Chris Sale, who barely pitched in 2019 (DD's last season in Boston), couldn't pitch in 2020, barely pitched in 2021, and now will barely pitch in 2022 despite that $30M/year contract that continues after this year. Last year was Bloom's 2d year--or 1st year if you believe 2020 was a non-season--and the Sox were missing Mookie, Price, and Sale, but they still won 92 games, beat the Yankees in the Wild Card, beat the 100 regular season wins Rays in the ALCS, and then lost, 4 games to 2, to a very good Astros team in the ALCS. To me that demonstrated Bloom's acumen. This year is beyond question a disaster, despite the fact that the Sox right now are 2 games above .500. Like everyone else, I'm mad at the players, the manager, the GM (or whatever Chaim Bloom's title is), and anyone else hired by JH. But I can't be mad at John Henry because he's brought four freaking World Series titles to Boston after that 86 year drought. Last night was shameful--and in front of a sizable (36,796) home crowd. The past 2-3 weeks have been awful (except for splitting with the Yankees July 7-10, which gave us false hope). The chickens are coming home to roost. And yet. The rotation has been decimated, which actually started before the season did. Thus were both Whitlock and Houck initially used as starters, which in turn did real damage to the bullpen. No less than six bonafide Sox starters--Sale, Whitlock, Eovaldi, Wacha, Hill, and Winckowski (covid)--have been on the IL. Eovaldi is back, but clearly ain't the same guy who pitched 5 innings on June 8 and 6 innings on June 3 while giving up 0 runs before going on the IL. Sale was great for 5 freaking innings and will now likely not return until September, if then. Wacha and Hill are pending and could well return as badly as Eovaldi has. Whitlock is in the bullpen, as is Houck. Pivetta, the one uninjured starter who still has the second best WAR (+1.7) on the entire freaking pitching staff, has had a disastrous July (3 starts, 13.1 innings, 20 earned runs). If you are still reading, you might realize that ace of this team right now is probably the rookie with covid, Winckowski. So, yeah, let's grant there have been extenuating/mitigating factors in this cesspool of a season. Nevertheless, I'm still pissed at those lineup players who can't run the bases, play defense, or get timely hits the way, for example, the Tampa Bay Rays do.

Fascinating list. I see you left Kike off, so I looked up his salary--$8M. Last year his WAR was 4.9, so he was a bargain. WAR of 3.5 in 2018 also not bad. His career OPS is .737. He was great last year, but he turns 31 next month, and that hip has to be worrisome--to him and to Chaim Bloom.

My gosh!!! I thought I was the only one who noticed the misplay. It also bugs me that he invariably has some kind of deliberate decision-making process when he hits the ball, so much so that he never, ever immediately starts running hard to 1b. I'm guessing some coach somewhere told him he only has so many sprints in him and to conserve his energy. Even on grounders, he first calculates whether it's got a chance of getting through. If not, it's "brakes on, chaps!" With Dugo, sauntering is in, busting your butt ain't.

My Red Sox player of the year candidate, the embodiment of what I think they have accomplished this season, is the guy with the big necklace, Alex Verdugo!! To me nothing represents the Sox unprofessionalism this year more than that necklace. Let me hasten to add that I also think there are plenty of players on this team who are in fact trying hard. There also some who hit the ball well or pitch the ball well--and a few who are not bad on defense. But, when I compare them to, say, the Tampa Bay Rays, I see a significance difference in overall professionalism. And what astounds me about that comparison to the Rays is that the latter play in the worst ballpark in MLB which rightfully discourages fans from coming to games played by a very watchable home team. These Sox are so spoiled it's sickening, and the biggest brat is Verdugo. Vazquez with his insane baserunning ain't far behind.

It should not have tested your limit because it only confirmed what we saw at Yankee Stadium before the ASG break and the four straight losses at Tampa before that. None of those four losses were debacles, but every game seemed to me to demonstrate how professional the Rays are--even without their SS Wander Franco--in every aspect of the game and how the Red Sox are not.

That's what I kept saying--as recently as yesterday before the game. I think the bullpen is OK--despite last night--but the rotation is a disaster, and it is hurt further by the weak defense, especially in the outfield and @ first base. While the hitting this season is down, it's better than the pitching, defense, and baserunning--but last night the 7th, 8th, and 9th hitters all had OPS's below .600. I keep remembering that series 2 weeks ago at Tampa where the Rays swept 4 straight. That the scores were close was misleading because to my eyes one team was professional in all aspects of the game, and the other, our Sox, was not. And guess what? Their presumptive star, 21 year old shortstop Wander Franco who recently signed a big contract (but nowhere near what Mookie got and Bogaerts and Devers are demanding), didn't play in any of those four games. On top of that, a really nice crowd, almost 37,000, at Fenway last night. The display by this Sox team was disgraceful.

While I agree a bunch of pitchers/starters have been injured, there is no way some of this debacle tonight and the last two losses to the Yankees don't reflect on the manager.

I think you are missing the point. You can pick any three excellent players you want to pick--on this Sox team or from any other team--and this team would still stink. The pitching stinks. The defense stinks. The baserunning stinks. And the hitting is suspect--tonight, for example, the 7th, 8th, and 9th batters all had OPS's below .600. Do you seriously think all Bloom has to do is make up a list of good players he would like to have and they will magically show up on the roster?

He had two closers at the start of the season, Barnes and Robles, neither of whom worked out. He currently has three decent closers in Schreiber, Whitlock, and the actual closer, Houck. Dalbec/Shaw were supposed to give Cora good options at 1b, and both bombed. Last fall I campaigned for Schwarber, but apparently he was unaffordable. Kike Hernandez was/is that other outfielder and has been on the IL forever. I think I can claim to have griped about this team as much as anyone, but I also remind everyone of the absolute decimation of the rotation from injuries to Sale, Eovaldi, Whitlock, Wacha, and Hill. I hope you know that Chaim Bloom has done this job with an interesting handicap: in his 3 years as GM his payroll has included pricey guys like Price and Sale who have done almost nothing for the Sox while at the same time not having the no longer affordable services of the Sox only AL MVP in the past 43 years (since Jim Rice in 1978). I like Chaim Bloom, who I think has been given a herculean task--which I hasten to add can be no more difficult than that of the Washington Nationals GM, who recently offered Juan Soto $420M and was promptly rebuffed for being a cheapskate.

Duran CF Devers 3B JD Martinez DH Bogaerts SS Verdugo LF Vazquez 1B Plawecki C JBJ RF Jeter Downs 2B Against righty Gausman, three lefty bats in the outfield--plus Devers. No Refsnyder, no Dalbec, no Cordero. On June 27th, Gausman shut the Sox down (4 hits, 0 runs, 10 K's) for 7 innings. On April 21 and 5 days later, April 26, he pitched a combined total of 14 innings vs the Sox while giving up 1 run and striking out 17. Season to date, Gausman's ERA is 2.67, but against the Sox it's 0.43.

A good discussion on here and on the Part II thread. My ranting on this team today has made me lose track of the fact that August 1 is just ten days away. So it is indeed decision-making time at the old hacienda. Almost everyone on this thread and on the Part II thread has better insights than I do about what Bloom's best options might be. One factor, which I tend to downplay, is that the Sox right now are at 48-45, which does in fact put them in the hunt for the playoffs. On the other hand, as I have repeated ad nauseum, I don't think this team is all that competitive right now. The bullpen looks OK, but the the rotation is in disarray, largely because of so many being on or just coming off the IL. I also have my doubts about the fielding, baserunning, and even the hitting. Bottom line: it's easy to be a carping critic and much harder to try to figure out the way ahead.

On the other hand, five lefty bats in the lineup tonight: Duran, Devers, Dugo (the three D's), Cordero, and JBJ.

Duran's OPS for July is .600 and he's a liability in the outfield.

Devers current WAR is +4.2, which makes him the 3d best third baseman after Arenado (4.9) and Machado (4.3). Bogaerts WAR is now +3.7, which is the best among MLB shortstops.

Amazing game and theft of home by Bogey--which won't be called a theft. Great job by the bullpen and not too shabby by Eovaldi in his first start in a month. Well done, Sox, who bore little resemblance to the screw-ups who went to Tampa.

Back to Cora as manager of the year. After watching and thinking about this series with the Rays, I'm beginning to have doubts about Cora. Tonight Schreiber should have started the 7th. Plus why oh why was Houck never used despite the fact that the middle relievers were killing the Sox (except in last night's game). More than that, the Rays simply look more professional than the Sox--on the mound, running the bases, playing defense, and hitting.

This time Crawford had a great start, 6 shutout innings. Then the bottom dropped out in the 7th with three straight hard hit balls off Crawford and not much help from Schreiber. My no doubt unfair view is that Cora should have pulled the trigger sooner on Crawford. Schreiber should have either pitched the 7th or gone in after the first hit. Interesting too is that in all four games of this series Houck didn't pitch a single inning because he's the closer and lesser folk are supposed to take care of the 6th, 7th, and 8th innings, which is pretty much when 3 of the 4 games were lost. I saw no boneheaded plays by the Sox tonight, but to me it is painfully clear that the Rays were more professional on the mound, on the basepaths, in the field, and even in the batter's box. I also think they were better managed.

Last night Winckowski actually had a quality start. Crawford has pitched well lately. The lineup is what's screwed up--at bat, in the field, and on the basepaths. They look weak on the fundamentals.

How can any MLB pitcher, going lefty vs lefty, get an 0-2 count and then walk a guy?

Nice grab by JBJ. Duran doesn't get to that one.

Verdugo last night was completely different. He was picked off when there was no one out and he was on 3d base. To me that's just an indicator that Verdugo doesn't focus when he is on the field. Dever was extremely focused and knew that: a) he had a good chance of getting to 3d base; when he did, JDM would have a much easier job driving him home with just 1 out.

I love that expression "you have to make sure" when applying to what has to be an semi-instantaneous decision made on the basepaths.

If Youk said Devers was brain dead, he's a freaking idiot. As I recall, he used to throw tantrums now and then.

Yes, I think Dugo needs to ditch that very large and showy necklace during games. As for Vazquez, you have a point. I hate his baserunning and sometimes his work behind the plate, but his over WAR (1.3) says I'm wrong.