moonslav59

As it turned out, we needed a SS slot on the 40- maybe not DHam, but to me, it was never Ward v DHam. I have no beef with Ort and Brasier points. They both were more ML ready and likely to help (and yes hurt, too) in 2023 than Ward.

Nah... We just need to play TOR and NYY, again.

The one time Bloom seemed to care more about 2023 over the extended future, and he can't live it down.

Why keep spreading unfounded rumors?

That's natural. Not acquiring a SP'er might prove to be the biggest mistake. If we get one at the deadline, that might be enough. If we had one from couple days ago, that could start tonight or tomorrow, it might have meant one more win. If we lose by 1 game, we may look back at these pre-deadline deals and ponder...

I'd have played him at 2B and kept Chang at SS. Re-evaluate in the off season, if you must.

We needed pen help, then, and he got it. We need rotation help, now, so...

Certainly, yes. We may still end up with Song. The Ward loss seemed worse, at the time, but he is pretty much forgotten, now- in hindsight.

Just one and we’d be sitting in a WC seat, right now. I just find it hard to get super angry, when so many other choices were good to great ones (so far.)

Now calling Casas “his boy” is comical.

We need one, NOW!

I could have been wrong, but Turner has almost always done great in the second half, and last year was huge. His OPS has gone down like 6 straight years, but he was great6 years ago and the decline has been slow. Casas has carried us. Duran has shocked us. Bello has impressed us. Crawink have boosted us. See what good farm infusion can do to a team? (Even Murphy, Walter,Bernardino and EValdez have helped.)

My bad.

I was all for signing Swanson. I was all for Andrus. I had hopes we’d add Iggy when he was available after the season started. I also thought Kike would be okay at SS. Nobody thought Mondesi would miss the full year. Chang was and still is a decent back up. DHam was apparently protected for a reason. It’s not excuse making. We all know Bloom chose to fill other high need areas over SS and SP. I remember some poster bitching about not adding a catcher, 1Bman and bettter OF choices. SS was an issue day one. The hope was Kike and Chang could hold it down until Mondesi (May) and Story (August) returned. DHam offered some minor depth. It all failed, miserably, but at the time it was just one of many worries, at a time when the money was just about all spent. Had Casas and Turner bombed, we’d be bitching about Bloom missing the boat at 1B. Had Kluber done well, we might have not cared so much about the SS mess. Had Wong flipped, we’d be saying Bloom’s neglect at C was his major mistake, and who here didn’t see it? Our OF was putrid, last year. We had so many holes to fill from that and departing respectable players. Bloom made his choices on which ones needed more attention. Many were right that he miss guessed on some areas over others, at the time. In hindsight, it’s clear he missed at SS and SPer. I guess he could have not signed Yoshida or traded Duran for a SS. It’s easy to say he should not have signed Kluber or counted on Mondesi, but to me, that’s less than the norm for”mistakes” when you consider he had about 13 slots to fill or improve on. He rolled the dice on 1B and C, so he could steer more resources to the pen and OF. Good job. He rolled the dice on Bello, Paxton, Sale, Kluber, Pivetta, Whit,Houck and others and got mixed results. He rolled the dice on 3 healthy SSs and 2 injured ones and lost, bigly. All GMs are graded in hindsight, and he gets an F at SS. When the season started, I was more worried about the rotation, OF and maybe 1B and C as much as SS. on.

I’m waiting for a SPer to arrive via trade, first.

Think of all the worry that Bloom got fleeced.

Sox Games Behind: -1.5 TOR WC -1.5 HOU WC -3.5 TEX (If HOU passes TEX, they will be WC team) -5.5 TBR WC#1 -7.0 BAL Div lead and AL best record We are currently tied with PHI for the 9th best record in MLB. -0.5 MIL -2.5 LAD -10.0 ATL

Much has been said about the lack of good pitching in our farm system. No top picks have been used on pitchers in a while. That seems to support the idea that we are not focusing enough resources on pitching. The recent additions to the big club have brightened things a bit. Some came via trade (Winkowski), some came via Rule 5 (Whitlock), some came in other ways (Schreiber, Bernardino and others,) and some came from DD's farm, like Bello, Crawford, Murphy and Walter. Here is a quick look at some still on the farm, listed in order of SP's rankings. (Note: I am no expert on prospects.) 6. Drohan has struggled in AAA, after looking great in AA. He did okay in his last start, but has a ways to go to hold the #6 slot. (.751 OPS Against AA/AAA) 7. Perales has started pitching well, of late and is a 20 year old in A+. (.621 OPSA) 9. Wikelman has pitched very well, recently. He walked 4, tonight, but still did okay. (.618 OPSA) (#11 Walter, #13 Murphy & #47 Jacques may graduate, due to playing in MLB, now.) 18. Mata may be activated, this month with Woo. The guy can't stay healthy. 19. Rodriguez-Cruz has looked good this year and should rise in the rankings. (.660) 25. Guerrero had a tough outing, tonight, but has been decent, this year. (.545) 26. Fernandez has struggled and may drop in the rankings, soon. (.685) 30. Rogers A+ .676 OPSA 32. Monegro A- amazing .530 OPSA 36. Dobbins AA .600 OPSA 37. Blalock A+ .611 OPSA 40. Bastardo A+ .614 OPSA 41. Hoppe A+ .777 42. Paez A- dropped, last month, but is pitching well, now. (.649) 44. Dean A- .852 is disappointing. 48. Politi AAA 51. Denlinger AAA .598 52. Liu AA has 104K and 41 BB in 83 IP 54. Zeferjahn AA 55. Gambrell AA should move up, a lot. Leads farm in IP 56. I Coffey AA should move up, too. (.678 OPSA) 57. J Ramirez A- (.655) Luis de la Rosa A- (.627) Jonathan Brand A- .418 Elvis Soto FCL/A- .542 Nathanael Cruz A- .567 Please feel free to add comments on any of these guys.

What a game. I thought the magic was going to carry us to an undeserved win, and it almost did. Turner has been such a force on this team- on the field and in the clubhouse. This season is no fluke, either. He's been one of MLB's most consistently good hitters for about 10 years. Yoshida drew the big walk, and Duran came through with the nice double. Jansen has been pretty solid, all year, so it's hard to put the loss all on him. Paxton showed some guts. Lets win the series, tomorrow.

He's still a decent defensive CF'er and may be okay at 2B. He's always hit lefties, pretty well, although he's been up and down on that- down, lately. LA was willing to pay $1M and give up 2 somewhat decent RP'ers. I guess their talent guys must suck, right? I'm glad he will have a chance to play where he may turn things around. It sucks how he ended his career here. I agree, he had to go. I'm hopeful the 2 pitchers help us, someday. Maybe the $1M saved will be used to get us a pitcher at the deadline.

We don't make the playoffs in 2021 without Kike in CF. We don't get to within 2 games of the WS without Kike's fantastic playoff heroics. Apparently, I made the mistake of thinking maybe Kike would do the same after a slow start in 2022, and when he didn't, the gloating began. The $10M was about the going rate for someone with Kike's history. He may have done better had he been placed in CF or 2B, but he didn't. He sucked at SS and at the plate. Some pouting poster, upset at the fact that he was wrong about this team goes into hiding, and comes out for a drive-by hit on Kike after he was traded. As great as the Sox have been playing, the most important thing on his mind was to get one last jab in on an ex Sox player and about being right about a Sox player sucking. All I can say is that it did not surprise me. He's not the kind of "fan" I can relate to. To soften the post on bashing an ex-Sox player, he acts like Casas is "his boy." I thought maybe he was joking. He's called all our prospects "suspects" and was saying Casas should not play everyday just 3 weeks ago and worse about him, earlier, this year. Free speech is fine- just be ready to be called out when spewing nonsense and hating that he claims can't be called hating. If his feelings towards Kike was not hate, I don't know what hate is.

I'm not for banning anyone, but if someone is trolling or being a jerk, my free speech allows me to call it out. Same with others if and when I am being a jerk.

Nobody is expecting all 3 to come back and be great. We don't ven need great from 1. We just need one to be good or two to be decent or give us 3-5 IP. On Sale, you act like 8 out of 11 good to great starts is bad, and it was his last 8, so I'd think that counts for something more. On Houck, it's not like he had TJ surgery. He's been throwing since 7/11 and threw his second pen session on 7/28. He could be ack before September. On Whitlock, he threw his second pen session 7/29 (35-40 pitches), and he may start rehabbing in the minors in less than a week. Mid August is not out of the question. (I think we add a SP'er and hope one comes back from the 3. If more come back, they go to the pen.

Does anybody expect a GM on a reset budget to build a roster 3 deep and strong at every position? Yes, many of us wanted more SS depth. Yes, we could have added someone like Iggy midseason- maybe. SS depth was not close to our biggest weakness to start the year. It just became it.

lol