moonslav59

TBD vs Houck Big game. Batters are hot. Jansen is supposedly back. The pen was taxed, today, so let's get some innings from Houck. Go Sox!

OPS Leaders, now: .885 Duvall .862 Devers .848 Turner (JD is at .856) .828 Duran (on IL) .826 Casas .801 Yoshida .797 Verdugo .714 Wong Under 225 ABs 1.379 Abreu .769 Reyes .740 Urias .728 McGuire .705 Refsnyder .626 Story All above .705, even the bench, except for Story, who seems to be on the rise. Balance. No black holes

It's easy to say a team as inconsistent in batting, starting pitching and relief pitching is in their rightful place, but I'm still hopeful, we can have a stretch where it all comes together at once. Maybe it's pink glasses. Maybe it's a pipedream. But we have had some very long stretches where the rotation did very well. We have had some very long stretches where the did did very well. We have had some very long stretches where the line up did very well. Granted, our D has sucked, all year, but let's put it all together over these last 5 weeks.

You tell me. You made the remark not knowing what other choices there were, not me. I know Llovera was warming up.

Some fans can never just be happy.

Shoulda brought in Llovera?

Nothing is ever easy.

He had a major injury. I'm not saying you are wrong, but let's see.

The ump has sucked for both teams.

They actually deserve more bashing than they get.

You mean the bum who just made a big error? LOL

I was big on bringing Wacha back. I liked that idea more than Nate. It's hard for me to get real down on that move, though, when Martin, Jansen, Turner and Duvall are all doing so well. These are mid level signings that are doing better than bigger ones made by other teams. Yoshi and Kluber are bad or questionable. (The Story signing from last March is actually starting to look like it might not be a bust.)

Another head-scratcher, for sure.

I've never seen a more negative fan than you. dmoney is close. others are close. Stork is not a Sox fan. You win (lose!)

Duvall is BUTTAH! Who is the GM who finds guys like him and Turner? Maybe it was Kennedy.

We need to figure out a way to get Paxton some rest. He is not the same pitcher, now. Before today: 9.82 on 4 days rest (3 GS) 1.95 on 5 days (6 GS) 3.83 on 6+ (8 GS)

Turner is BUTTAH!

Another "non error" leading to a run and forcing our pitcher to get 4 outs.

Indeed, maybe 10x longer, and that is what I did not expect from Bloom, when he came here. I know the Rays swung and missed on low cost additions, too. It is expected to miss more than you hit on these types of deals, but man-o-man! He has missed badly on a ton of additions. 2020 was understandable. I've talked a lot about how Bloom has worked hard to improve the depth of the 26 and 40 man rosters, as well as the minor league depth from where he started in 2020. I even argued he had too much quantity and not enough quality on the pitching staff, this spring, yet as it turned out 20+ decent looking pitcher profiles was not nearly enough. Had we just added 1-2 more durabale and dependable pitchers, we could have limited all those failures we've seen come and go. Just looking at the pitching, we started the season with this: Sale & Paxton known to be starting on the IL, but expected back early or mid season. Kluber, Kelly and Mills missing most or all of the whole season, perhaps unexpectedly. That's 5. Bello, Pivetta, Whitlock, Houck and Crawford is 5 more. Jansen, Martin, Schreiber, Winckowski and Bleier were 5 more. That's 15 The next 5 might have their quality questioned, but it was 6 more: Joely, Brasier, Ort, Mata, Murphy and Walter. That was 21. Had we had 22 or 23, we don't see: 22.50 Faria 13.50 Lamet 9.00 Littell 9.00 Robertson 7.36 Garza 6.75 Dermody 5.85 Jacques 5.69 Llovera 4.91 TScott 2.70 Sherriff 2.70 Barraclough That's 11 pitchers totalling over 80 IP of crap. Had we had two better pitchers than Brasier and Ort, add 45 more IP.

I feel your frustration, and it sucked so badly, that we want to lash out and anyone and everyone. I still really like Wong. He is still a clear net plus, and his speed will make him a plus baserunning catcher, despite some blunders, but the kid has to smarten up in key situations. It's better to be overly safe in those situations than overly aggressive. He knows that. No amount of telling him that will make him less likely to do it, again.

The Sox have spent big, then cut back, then spent big again, several times under JH. I'm not sure why everyone thinks that trend has ended. We've already seen an uptick in spending since 2020, and the Devers deal has not even kicked in, yet. Devers, Story and Yoshida plus a few two year deals is showing an upward trend, to me. I could be wrong, but I do think JH will spend big when he thinks the farm is set up to the point where he does not have to fill 6 slots with expensive long term FAs. We can all guess when and if that ever happens.

He's much more easier to believe, but he has also never said what the lowest number he'd have taken, so "wanting to play in Boston" for $400M might not carry much weight in this debate. We just don't know the whole picture.

No, but he has a long track record of getting on base at a nice rate. I doubt he ends up near .400 like he did in Japan, but I think he'll do better than he has in the last 3 weeks.

I'm not sure DD argued with JH about who should get the biggest offer: Betts, Sale or Bogey, of if extending all of them was a better choice than signing Price. I don't think the cost of locking up Betts in 2017 or earlier would have been so drastic, JH would say no. I think it was an either or situation with a somewhat set amount of money being given to DD to sign and extend the players he felt were worth it. I'm not sure, if it was more about the feeling that Betts was not going to settle for what DD felt he was worth, of what, do I don't like blaming anyone without knowing all the ins and outs, but I'm pretty damn certain, Bloom is not to blame for the whole Betts situation, and it was not the "stamp" he wanted to put on the franchise in his name.

That still does not mean he will stay stuck in this mode for the next 4 years.