moonslav59

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.

Sorry, I responded to the wrong post. It's hard to see from my small lil corner.

Sad for you, maybe. BTW, Texas corners are bigger.

Agreed. 100%. He may not even get the call in SEP. Don't the rules count SEPT as time served and influence Rafaela's service clock?

Although Dugo has not been platooned, he likely should have been. The long platoon is often called "the starter."

Like your confirmation bias on the one quote from Kennedy you agree with. Got it.

Glad you get to "feel the vibe." It seems important to you. I guess you can call that the "ear test," which must be must more informative to you than the "eye test." Your recent opinions are indicative of that situation.