moonslav59

Shuffling the bottom of the pen feeders has not worked.

I had hoped "the sacrifices" would last maybe 2-3 years. I hoped the rebuilding the farm that would not be as easy with all the new rules and restrictions that hurt winning and high spending teams would happen, more quickly, but I think we have to give all those high pick HS players have to be given time to mature. For fans that are restless or only care about the here and now, that falls on their deaf ears, but to me, it could be the formation of the essential building blocks of the next winning era. It sucked going 5 years with just one playoff trip. Nobody is enjoying this. That being said, we choose to be doom and gloom or optimistic, or somewhere in between. I think expectations have a lot to do with the happiness/excitement meter of each fan. I've actually enjoyed watching all but a few games, this season. There were certainly some real stinkers, including last night's game, but many of our losses were closely fought battles that had something worthwhile to cheer for. The season is not over, yet, but our backs are too the wall, and most of Sox Nation checking out for the year or releasing years of anger here and according to one poster all over "the big corner" that is Sox Nation. I never expected others to accept the sacrifice that was sure to come, and it seems like those who refused to accept that hard times were coming, are the ones most angry, now. In the"live for the moment" society we have become, it's totally understandable and predictable. They take comfort in being in the majority, while eone even seems to celebrate being right about how much this year's team sucks, despite the fact that the "optimists" appear to be closer to predicting our win totals, this year than they did. True, there is still plenty of time for us to lose over 81 games, and maybe that is something they can cheer for, now.

I see it more as a moving post.

He did keep "the right ones," whether he even knew who some of them were, or not. Devers Bello Casas Duran Crawford Houck Maybe Rafaela, Perales and Wikelman Some other question could be asked: Are those 6-10 players enough to pass along after being in control for just over 4 years? Was the budget sound and relatively free of sunken costs? Did the core vet players passed along produce at expected levels, based on their previous production and advancing age? Like I've said many times, I'm glad DD was our GM. That 3 year period capped off by a special 2018 season was worth every bit of the sacrifices we faced afterwards- starting in 2019.

It should have been and to me, still was. It looks like he will be back and maybe even extended. I'll be watching the budget to see if the plan has changed.

I'd have called up Walter, and as you like to say, "He's on the 40, already."

Don't even start going there.

I did not count Pivetta, but yes, most of the money comes from jansen & Martin plus the Barnes payments to MIA. 16 Jansen 8.0 Martin 5.6 Barnes 3.5 Bleier 2.0 Brasier 1.5 Joely (Not counting $10 Kluber) Name a season we paid more.

These guys crack me up.

The poster using him as a reference is very revealing.

Far from happiness, no doubt, but to me, there has been a glimmer of hope added to the gloom & doom. Despite the fact that our three top pitchers going into the season, Sale, Houck and Whitlock, combined for an ERA over 5.00, we still managed to be over .500 for most of the year. I know that's not what we wanted, but that is a good sign, if those guys, or 2 out of 3 of them, ever come around. It's been fun watching the younger players mature before my eyes.To see so many do so was surprising and uplifting, to me. Bello Casas Duran Wong Crawford Winckowski Murphy and some brief glimpses of hopes from others. Our core of young players has grown in numbers and quality: 23: Casas 24: Bello, Robertson 25 Winckowski, Murphy 26 Devers, Duran, Urias, Walter 27 Houck, Crawford, Whitlock, Wong, Verdugo 28 McGuire 29 Yoshida, Schreiber, Reyes Other teams have more and or better younger players, but we are improving. Not much else to be optimistic about, right now.

I agree. IMO, the punting has gone on long enough. We have not been at the point where some targeted big spending would have been enough to get us to glory. It feels like we are close, now. The play we got from Bello, Duran, Casas, Wink, Crawford and Wong was great, and getting four kids to all mature at the same time, in one season, is a fantastic thing, but the lack of hardly anything for 5 years before them has taken its toll- perhaps an insurmountable one for another year or two. Bloom's choice of mostly HS draftees over the year has delayed any idea of continuous farm infusions beyond the six I mentioned. We do have a lot of players that are very close to ML ready, but not many seem to be on the level of the top 3-4 on that list, except maybe Rafaela. I'm not sure we see Mayer until 2025. Is JH & Co. really going to wait until 2025 and beyond? That goes well beyond the traditional 5 year plan talk. Certainly, some mistakes and "mysterious moves" were made, especially as you pointed out with pitching, and I'll narrow it further to SP';ing. Of all the places to swing and miss, last winter, the rotation was the worst. The Kluber signing stung, badly. Our SS defense was a close second. The pen would have been fine, or even great, had we not had to raid it for the rotation injuries and demotions. The Yoshida, Duvall, Jansen and Martin signings and gambles on Casas, Wong, Duran and others seemed to work, okay, but it wasn't enough to compensate for the weak rotation, poor defense and overly taxed pen. I doubt throwing an extra $10-25M at the budget would have won us a ring, but I do think we were close enough where that might have inched us into the playoffs. The damn luxury tax fiasco from last year is at least partially responsible for that, although I wonder if JH would have spent more, regardless. This winter will be very closely watched by Sox fans, and as always the vulture media types.

Sounds like a song a Yankee fan would make up and sing to all his worldly friends

Great stuff, Hugh. What Teel also does is possibly make the decision to move some guys off catcher, sooner- like Hickey help them learn their new positions, earlier and better. It seems early to start anointing him a "can't miss prospect," but I can't help myself. He is!

Indeed, but also a few of the "good players" getting paid mid range contracts started to decline in production, some even while still in the so-called "prime years." You couple that with basically no farm infusion, except Houck from 2019-2022, and it's no wonder how restricted winter spending budgets always came up short.

The top 5-6, alone, plus payments made for RP'ers on other teams, would still be the highest paid.

We can guess. Too bad we couldn't have gotten Cora more SP'ers. This pen might have been one of MLB's best: Jansen Martin Winckowski Schreiber Houck Whitlock Crawford Murphy/Joely/Bernardino/Walter/Kelly I know, I know- you need to plan for injuries and injuries to the replacements, too. The major weakness of this team has been the rotation and defense. Secondary issues have been inconsistent and untimely hitting, plus poor base-running. The pen carried us for much of the year, but so many were moved to the rotation or needed in pen games, we ended up with too many Lametts, Jacues, Lloveras and Orts.

McGuire would have held KC to 8 runs.

Woo won 10-9. DHam 1-3 w 3BB (.809) Rafaela 1-6 w 2B (1.049) EValdez 1-2 w 3BB (.962) Dalbec 1-3 w 2BB (.996) Abreu 2-4 w BB (.804) RHern 2-5 w 2B (.840) Woo had 10 BBs and 12 Hits. Denlinger blew up the pen just like the big club. Wikelman was wild but went 4 with just 1 ER (2H, 5B, 8K) Meidroth 2-4 Yorke 1-4 w 2B Jordan 2-4 Lugo 2-5 GRE lost 14-8 as Perales struggled: 4.2 IP, 6H, 6ER, 3BB, 5K Anthony homered (11th) and walked twice. Castro homered Teel went 3-5 in his GRE debut. Ferguson 3-5 SAL won 9-8 Nothing major to report.

His name is Chris Sale.

This is the most expensive Bullpen in Sox history, including what we are paying Barnes to be on the IL with MIA.

Both. I thought the one thing our staff had this year was decent depth. Quantity of mediocrity or better, but we taxed it too much, or I just over-valued the quality aspect of all the "quantity." I'm still not giving up, but we need to go 6-1 in the next 7 games- 5-2, if we can go on a run vs the big boys afterwards. It's not looking good. There is no denying that.

This feels like rapid stabbing to my gut. Our pen depth is doing its best to twist the knife.

Again, making no sense.

Once again, you contradict yourself.