moonslav59

We do have Jansen and Martin returning, too. When is the last time Bloom had more than 3 guys he added the previous year come back again? Good times ahead!!! LOL

What scorers call errors is an even bigger joke than it used to be. Our team has made dozens of bad plays not counted as errors more than any other team. I'd bet my house on that. DOZENS! Easily. Yes, offense and pitching still matters more, but defense has matter more this year than ever- for the Sox.

Must win series, and we get swept, at home. Yuck!

They need to be ML ready and on the 40.

Sure: give your number. I'm not "thinking 87" anymore. I'm worried about getting over 81, now.

I found a 70 game sample size where Yoshida did better than Duvall's 70 game sample. 4/20 to 7/18 Yoshida was +16.5 on O We don't know what Duvall would look like after 117 games. Good points, though.

We need to trade jansen and martin and have 8 long relief guys, next year. These one and done guys are killing us!

You have a point, but it wasn't really about saving them as it was about hardly any were available, due to prior overuse.

It would be one thing, if we were losing to good teams, but apparently, the league is so watered down, it's like we are losing to the A's, today.

Maybe a C+ or B-?

So?

The pen has been one of the most improved areas on the team from 2020-2022 vs 2023. Some pen numbers: OPS Against as RP ONLY .471 Crawford .561 Pivetta .572 Martin .657 Jansen .662 Bernardino\ .680 Llovera .738 Schreiber Inherited run scored % 7 Martin 17 Bernardino 17 Jansen 22 Jacques 32 Wink (32% is league avg.) ERA as RP'er only 1.25 Martin 1.66 Crawford 2.70 Bernardino 2.81 Jansen 3.08 Pivetta 3.09 Wink

IMO, we did not sign Yoshida for his D, and expecting value from the defense would be a mistake. That being said, for his salary, it's not unreasonable to expect better offense than he has given us, so far. He has been a bit inconsistent, so at various times in the season, he has looked better or worse, so maybe over the full season, we may think differently. I'm not ready to call the signing a failure or even a bad one, but I do feel like it would not be right to say it was a "good signing" at that cost.

What effect has our poor D had on our team ERA of 4.46? If we had average D? Maybe 3.90 to 4.10? With top D? Maybe 3.60 to 4.10? Just the change in scoring across the league has probably added 0.15 to the league ERA.

A count the revolving foor of our 8th RP slot as one grade, not 8 grades. I count the players expected to play FT or a lot more than role players. I don't even count the Barnes for Bleier deal, as it was meaningless. The top 6 moves comes to about a 2.2 or a C+. I did not expect much from the other moves, so I barely count them. If I change Yoshida to a C or better, like some seem to be saying, I should, the 6 moves would be a B-. Why not tell me how you grade each of the top 6 moves? I guess one could argue we should count Kike and McGuire- two players added last summer.

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.

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?

The problem is, they replaced Brasier with pitchers just as bad.

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.

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

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."

Yes, I saw that after my post. I'm still not sure Dalbec gets that one Sept 1st slot, though. DHam? EValdez? Maybe add Stephen Scott?

If he can get on base at .350, it's not a total loss with him at DH. I'm still holding out hope he can improve.

I feel he will have to do better, which he could do, and not burn out in August. $18M is a lot to pay for a .800 hitter with no D plus.

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.