moonslav59

I think this team is very "entertaining" and exciting to watch. There are many subplots going on, where just about every game has some kind of, "I can't wait to see how ____ pitches, today," or "I'm looking forward to seeing if _____ can continue to show growth as a rookie or newly acquire vet." I don't think this team will end up between 80-84 wins, but it would not surprise me. I still think we are better than this, and hopefully the returning players will give us a boost. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I'm going to repeat: the other teams are not as good as some think they are. Look at their rosters and numbers- most have huge weaknesses, like we do. There is no reason to think some of the teams ahead of us are clearly better than us. A lot will come down to health, and some of those teams have returning players, too.

I don't think anyone was expecting Mo. RP'er WARs are always on the low side, even good ones. The last 2 years, Joely had a 0.4 and 0.6 fWAR. Only 72 RP'ers have 80+ IP and a 1.0+ fWAR from 2021-2022. That's a little over 2 per team. Joely was expected to be our lefty specialist and fill the 5 or 6 slot in the pen- maybe the 4 slot. He still may round into shape and be a plus. I think he may have a better outlook than Bleier.

I do think they knew this was not going to be a ring year, unless everything went right, and I mean 99-100% everything. I also think they viewed this team as a better than 50-50 chance at making the playoffs. That was at odds with what most posters here felt, but I do think they believed it. We still have some budget space to make deals at the deadline, and we could get some big boosts from returning IL guys, soon, but we can't keep slipping away, with these series sweeps and losses to bad teams. We are at a point in our schedule, where we can make a strong push. There is a healthy mix of bad teams and teams we need to pass mixed in. If we don't start making a move, we may be talking fire sale, again in a couple months. (Please God, NO!) This team has shown some fire. The pen is way better than it has been in years. The depth has proven to be our savior, up to now. Some of our best players are below their norms. We need them to step it up, and NOW! Our rotation needs to prove they can gel for more than 1-2 starts in a row. Our line-up should get more consistent when Duvall & Story return, but I'm not sure we can wait that long. We need who we have now to return to early season form. That's a lot of ifs and promises. We knew we had a lot back in March. Some, like Sale have more or less answered the questions, but too many others are waffling.

I'm not saying there were no good things that happened in the game, but I was not "encouraged" at all by losing to the Reds 9-0 or 9-8. We need to beat these teams and badly, not like 10-1 but by sweeps and 2 out of 3, at worst. I also think, I get antsy after days off, and the next game seems to take on more importance. That loss hurt.

Of course. I'm not sure they have seen anyone they really want. Rumors of wanting Heaney, Eflin and guys like that are not who I am thinking of. I do think, with signing big FAs, the chances of failure is so high, especially in their later years of the deal- and sometimes as soon as year 2 or 3, you do want to time it just right.

Good point, but I think Kike was option #3 (ahead of Chang) to start the season, with Story & Mondesi on the IL and #1 and #2. He played his way into #4 as Chang passed him, then got hurt. How bad is Hamilton to not be able to play SS better than Kike?

One is on the IL and making $23.3M x 6. Another is at least a year away and was just promoted to AA. Chang was a stop gap addition, and he's on the IL, too. Mondesi was a cluster addition who may never be ready to play. He has 4 SSs, but none can play, today. Kike was not supposed to be this bad, but man, he sure has been! Many of us wanted us to sign Andrus or trade for one of the SSs that were traded over the winter, seemingly for peanuts, but I guess Sox brass thought Kike/Chang could carry until Mondesi/Story returned. It was a big swing and miss.

Wasn't that the Dalbec early story, too? That being said, Casas has a better skill set than Dalbec ever did, including good defense.

I don't disagree, and obviously it was a big one for Drohan, but AA is still a pretty big proving ground. (Yes, 6 BB makes my "well" statement questionable, at best.)

I remember thinking, way back when, we should have signed Scherzer not HRam & Pablito, but I think the plan was to wait a year on adding bigtime to the staff. Some argued the next year's class was bigger and better for pitchers, so it was a decent idea. (We signed Price the next winter.) I'm not sure there is a lesson to be learned from that, as Scherzer turned out to be way better, but back then, it was not a known thing. I do know this: we have spent a hell of a lot of money on everyday players that look better than HRam and Pablito, but it's hard to evaluate the foundation. We certainly don't have young and inexpensive players like Betts, Bogey, Beni and more. The ones we have now, show promise but many are still unproven. Until we know they are for real (or not,) it's hard to know when JH feels "the time is now." I'm hopeful, he does, but who knows? We don't even know that if he does feel like we are an ace away, he will spend, anyway. On what we have spent, look at the shift away from SP dollars: New spending only... (per year dollars) 2021: $15M SP- Richards & Perez $10M RP-Andriese, Sawamura (Ottavino via trade) $13M Everyday- Kike, Renfroe, Marwin 2022 $18M SP- Wacha, Paxton, Hill $11M RP- Strahm, Diekman, Robles, Davis (Barnes extension) $28M Everyday- Story, Shaw (JBJ via trade) 2023 $10M SP- Kluber (Do we spend more if Paxton turns down $4M option?) $25M RP- Jansen, Martin, Joely $40M Everyday- Yoshida, Turner, Duvall, Tapia (Mondesi via trade) 2024 $29M x 10 Everyday- Devers When you look at total cost of contracts (not AAV), WOW! 313/10 3B Devers 140/6 SS/2B Story 90/5 LF Yoshida (plus posting fee) 32/2 RP Jansen 24/3 CF/IF Kike (2 deals) 22/2 DH Turner (19/2 RP Barnes extensión) 18/2 RP Martin 10/1 Kluber 10/1 Richards 10M/2 Paxton 5-7/1 Duvall, Wacha, Perez, Hill It's easy to see where our new priority needs to be. I'm just not sure JH. Bloom & Co. are willing to address that need in dollars or by trading for an ace.

I didn't. We need to beat up on teams like the Reds.

I keep hearing about how other teams have so much more talent than us, but let's take a look at teams not named the Rays: Texas is riding high and the numbers don't lie. They have 5 SP'ers with an ERA under 3.84, but deGrom is on the IL and the others are named Nate, Perez, jon Gray and Heaney. I'm not sure those numbers hold up. Their pen is sketchy Their offense looks pretty solid and deep. None of their top 12 batters by PAs have an OPS below .700. I'm not sure that continues, either, but I do feel like they are beatable. I'm still thinking HOU will pass them for the division win. Hou, speaking of... might be the only team with more key injuries than the Yanks. They only have one batter over .795 and have 9 of their top 12 batters under .722. As mudh as the Yanks were pumped up over the winter, the injuries have killed them, and some aren't or may not be back in '23. They have 3 SP'ers over 5.30, and their pen is nowhere near what they have been in recent years. If our offense looked like NY's, this board would have dumped on them to no end. 6 of their top 12 batters have an OPS under .648 and 8 are under .730. YUCK! BAL has a lot of fine young talent and have been doing very well. It remains to be seen, if they can keep it up. Their rotation is Gibson, Wells, Kremer, Bradish and Rodriguez. Have they been overperforming? Their O looks pretty good, as their top 7 guys are over .701, but after that, it drops off quickly and totally. If we can't stay ahead or TOR by season's end, we don't deserve a playoff slot.

Time for a team meeting.

Meet the new boss- same as the old boss Bye bye Brasier- Hello Joely!

Now that Freddy Valdez, of the Beni trade, has been cut loose, can we start talking about Luis de la Rosa and the guy who pitched a a good game at AA, tonight: Grant Gambrell 6 IP 3 H 1 ER 4 BB 3 K (1.62 ERA in AA) I other POR news, they won 3-1 as... Hickey went 3-4, Yorke 2-4 w 2B & BB, Meidroth 2-3 w BB and Rafaela 1-3 w SF. Drohan pitched well in AAA, tonight, but the lost 5-4. 6 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 6BB, 3 K Hamilton stole his 26th base Agreu hit his 8th HR Dalbec, Sogard and Fitzy had 2 hits each. GRE lost 5-0 Bonaci and Jordan went 2-3 for the only 4 hits by the team. SAL is in extra innings as Dean went 5 IP, 3H, 0 ER, O BB, 7 K Ravelo and Castro both went 2-4

Agreed, and it's always easier to build a team through spending, when you have a base or foundation on pre-arb and arb salaries that came from your farm or via trades or Rule 5/MiLFA/Waivers.

Mr. Know-it-all! LOL!

I meant eligible in terms of the military commitment being lifted after the draft.

We have two game threads. Is that bad luck?

MVP started a game thread.

Valuing a 24 year old pitcher in AA is delusional. Yup: trolling.

I think maybe most teams passed, because they never expected he'd be available. A lot will depend on how he looks whenever he throws.

Some early results... .910 JD (11 Hrs in 169 PAs vs 16 in 596, last year.) .742 Bogey .704 Pham .610 Hosmer .578 Cordero .545 Vazquez .545 Plawecki .420 JBJ 2.42 Nate (Lead league in IP) 3.45 Wacha 3.13 Strahm (7GS/7 RP) 4.76 R Hill 7.56 Diekman (2 teams) 3.43 Barnes (1.43 WHIP) 4.96 in Japan Sawamura Notable Sox 1.544 Duvall .853 Yoshida .769 Turner .710 Valdez .678 Reyes .659 Tapia .642 McGuire (.825 Dugo & .772 Wong) 0.00 Garza & Sheriff (6.2 IP combined) 1.32 Martin 3.38 Bernardino 3.45 Jansen 5.14 Paxton 5.85 Bleier 6.26 Kluber 8.10 Joely

He has played some 3B, and isn't 1B more value than DH, though?

One big concern going into 2023 was trusting Casas. We had Dalbec as depth. Turner gives us 1B and 3B depth. If I had to bet, I'd place money on Turner ending up with a higher OPS and certainly a higher fWAR due to playing some decent D. Nothing against JD. The guy brought us glory, but his time, here, was up.