moonslav59

I'm done thinking this. I still think it will happen someday, but I'm not going to guess "this winter."

I just don't go off on anyone without knowing for sure what was said or not. I'm preetty sure most 1B coaches say and do the same things in that situation. What bothers me is how it seems like so many of us go out of our ways to blame anyone but the players. Bloom added some nice players. Cora has gotten more than what most expected out of the players he was given. Yet, it is rarely the player's fault. "Fire Cora!" "Fire Bloom!" Now, we are hearing "Replace JH!"

Interesting to see Freeman #1 and relate that to the poster who thinks 1Bmen should not make the kind of money Devers is getting.

Great. I’d recommend you starting on Monday.

Urias vs Paxton Refsnyder batting 3rd with Yoshida, Abreu, Reyes and McGuire on the bench. Go Sox!

How do you know what Wong was told? This is not Wong's first baserunning blunder. It's okay to blame the player, when it's on him. A player is expected to go into 2B and look at the runner in front of him and/or the 3B coach in time to be able to apply the brakes and get back to 2B safely. This is zero percent on the 1B coach. Zero. He can't go through every possible scenario with the runner. It's expected of the player to not EFF up.

,,,and Houston got James Click, who has since been let go.

...and he seems like the type of guy that would value RBIs more than I do. Devers is third and not far from 2nd and 1st since 2019. He's also a Yankee killer. .856 career OPS .874 Men on Base .877 High Leverage .906 2 outs RISP .920 RISP .955 Playoffs One could claim this guy is "clutch," too.

In all fairness, I think many of us thought his defense was better than earlier in his career and might get to a point where he could be near average. His worse two DRS years were -11 in 2018 and -13 in 2021, and while -6 in 2022 was not great, it was better. (he's at -6, now in almost the same innings at 3B as last year.) His UZR/150 has improved steadily and surprisingly is near average, now: -10.6 '20 -5.8 '21 -1.9 '22 -0.2 '23 About half his career errors are throwing (62 to 64,) and 7 of his 16 errors, this year are throwing. According to fangraphs, he has the 3rd best range factor score (+1.9) among all 3Bmen with 900+ innings (4th best among those with 500+.) The eye test does not seem to match these numbers, I admit.

I'd say his hitting skills are great. 2000+ PAs since 2019 8th in OPS at .881 7th in SLG at .530 18th wRC+ at 131 1000+ PAs 18th fWAR at 19.1 (0.1 behind Altuve) T8th in HRs with 137 (with Betts) and 2 behind Arenado. 3rd in RBIs at 447 (10 behind Olsen and 28 behind Alonso) 7th Runs scored (2 behind Soto and 3 behind TTurner) Looks like a top 15-20 player making top 15-20 money, starting next season.

No, that beef should be with the GM, scouts and those making the roster personnel decisions. There is not much that coaching can do for 22-36 year olds. It can help, but I see it very differently. When it's everyone making mistakes, there is less chance for coaching to make a difference and less reason to blame them. For some reason we choose players without several fundamental skills or "the smarts."

I see that, too. It worries me. He needs an OBP over .350 and enough extra base hits to earn that money as a DH.

He does NOT deserve slack on anything that was his doing. I agree on that. I may apply more context to his record than you and others, but he deserves to be roasted for several choices made.

He is really an idiot. Not counting 2020, here are Rafael's OPS: .916 in 2019 .890 in '21 .879 in '22 .867 in '23 How many MLB batters see their yearly OPS within a .050 range? I bet it's a small percentage. From 2021-2023, his OPS range is .023. Sheer stupidity.

He came up at a very early age, so let's look at his age 22 and beyond years (2019>2023>.) Where does Devers rank? 2000+ PAs since 2019 8th in OPS at .881 7th in SLG at .530 18th wRC+ at 131 1000+ PAs 18th fWAR at 19.1 (0.1 behind Altuve) T8th in HRs with 137 (with Betts) and 2 behind Arenado. 3rd in RBIs at 447 (10 behind Olsen and 28 behind Alonso) 7th Runs scored (2 behind Soto and 3 behind TTurner) He has not even turned 27, so he is in the heart of normal peak prime with a few more years within that time frame.

He hasn't done it as well as I expected, so maybe just a prince. Renfroe Arroyo Winckowski Wong Pivetta Whitlock Iggy, Shaw and Robles (summer of '21 only) Refsnyder Schreiber Strahm Rich Hill & Wacha (not all the cheap for the dumpster) Duvall, Martin & Turner (not really dumpster, either but great deals, moneywise) McGuire Tapia Reyes Bernardino Abreu

That does not fit their narrative. It has to be Bloom's fault, because DD brought us to the promiseland.

His June 1>>> numbers are not great. His .313 OBP is scary. That is 278 PAs and significant. A .731 OPS is not what we need from a guy getting paid that much and destined to play DH for the remainder of his contract, starting in 2024. It is worrisome, to say the least, but it is just once chosen sample size. A more recent one shows improvement in the trend, while an even more recent and smaller one shows greater worry. .713 June 1>>> .759 June 30>>> Not great, but better than June 1>>> .659 July 16>>> .538 July 30>>> He was at .862 from June 1 to July 22, so making it look like he's been bad since June 1st is a bit misleading. Bad on BBs, yes, but I'll take .862 with a .368 OBP. It should be about 19Ks and 2BBs in his last 115 PAs- a much smaller sample size and less worrisome..

No doubt: horrific and extremely concerning. I also remember criticism over his s tart to his MLB career (.560 after the first couple weeks.) He adjusted and bounced back. Maybe he needs to readjust to the adjustments pitchers made on him. Maybe he can- maybe not. I'm worried, too, but I don't think taking a player's worst 40-45 game stretch and acting like this is what we will see, forever is not really fair. I'm not forgetting he also had a 75 game stretch of .942 ball from April 20th up to July 25th. (.886 from 4/20 to 8/7.) His actual slump is really 26 games at .503. (july 26>) He was fine in his 15-20 games before that. (1.055 from July 1 to July 25th- 16 games.)1.121 from June 30-July 25. I think you are being rather harsh over 26 games.

Based on the assumption that the last 42 games Yoshida is the one we will see going forward.

It can't be they don't trust the accountant's numbers after bungling 2022's budget. I'm pretty sure that even if we stayed under in 2022, we would not have gone over in 2023. Could they have purposely gone over to give them a plausible narrative for not going over this year? (These guys are such scammers, it makes us actually consider ideas like this!) My best guess is, they stopped spending when the thought they did just enough to give the fans hope for 2023- enough to keep buying season tickets, game tickets and NESN subscriptions on a level satisfactory to to the money crunchers and JH. No more- no less. It's no guarantee we'd have been a better team, if Bloom spent $18M on a pitcher, instead of $10M on Kluber, or any hindsight budget what ifs, we can come up with, like No Kluber + Mondesi + Brasier f+$8M for ____. Many pitchers paid over $18M have been total failures, too. Still, had we made that effort, I'd feel better knowing they tried their best within the parameter of staying under the tax line, which in theory would have been done to allow us to spend way more in 2024 and maybe 2025, too. I have my doubts about that happening, either.

It blows my mind to think someone can actually believe Bloom's thought process was basically this: I want to make my mark on this team, immediately- like most GMs before me. I think trading a generational talent who happens to be the most beloved Sox player in decades is a great idea. I'll talk my basses into trading him by convincing them they can save a lot of money. I'll even lessen our return value by insisting JH can put more money in his pocket by forcing LAD to take half Price, too. I'm so happy I put my stamp on this team.

I doubt a single one voluntarily does it.

Kike has almost always been a second half hitter (.760 to .700), and his best career month is August. Let's see where his final LAD numbers end up. Let's also see where Duvall, Urais and Reyes AUG-SEP numbers end up, as they are the ones playing, for the Sox, instead of Kike. (Kike was not ever going to play SS again, once Urias was obtained or Story returned.)

Same with the Astros: Springer, Cole, Correa and Verlander. The issue isn't us losing some top players, it's the losing afterwards. It's the not replacing them, in kind, either from the farm or via spending the money coming off the books at an equal rate and or making wiser choices with that spending.