moonslav59

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.

1. I'm pretty certain the coach told him there was 2 outs, and he shouldn't have to tell a grown man that, anyway. 2. A coach should not have to and should not actually say that whole script you laid out. 3. That was not Wong's first base-running blunder. It's time to start holding players accountable. Our players suck at certain things. Most outweigh what they suck at by being even better in other areas to create a net plus value. Some barely get their value to even or near replacement player levels (Not Wong: he is a clear net plus and can still improve.) BTW, the reason we rejoiced when Kike was traded was because we knew, if he stayed, he'd play SS some more. We had no room for him in CF or 2B. The players who have been playing CF and 2B for us, since the trade have blown Kike's LAD numbers off the charts. The spending excuse is no longer an issue, IMO. It was in 2020. It was in 2021, but to a lesser extent. When we signed Kike, our opening day budget was $180M. The end of the year tax number was $207M. In 2022, the two numbers were $206 and $236M. We are resetting, this year, but these numbers are higher than 2021, too (181 & 217.) One big adjustment should be made that widens these gaps even more: We stopped paying the $16M for Price in 2023. We also shed some other large salaries that were not producing at previous levels. I'll leave it at that. The Dodger are not doing great because they added Kike, and I doubt our record would be any different had we kept Kike, but the way he was playing out of position was hurting us. That was not his fault, but it was the reality of the situation.

We don't really even know if Bloom was the one who "pulled the trigger." They might have forges his signature.

He has not been used with just one day rest, since he was more of a short RP'er. He pitched 2 nights ago. I'm not sure if that made a difference, or not.

Yes, or no: did this team do better than you expected? Short answer follow up: was it blind luck or could the coaches and manager have something to do with them "playing over their heads?"

It should be something recognizable and sought after by the scouts and GM, right?

I don't think the best coaching in the world would have gotten better results, unless that coaching started when our players were in little league and all through their lives.

Maybe- maybe not, but the point is, there are so many permutations, than nobody should ever talk with so much certainty about any choice made by any manager. I swear to God, had Cora brought in Bernardino and Taylor hit a PH homer, we'd be hearing the same posters calling it one more Cora blunder.

That was what I was getting at. No coach, manager or whatever can "coach" a guy to not do that. Do you run drills for that specific play? Do you sit down with players and go over it 1,000 times, saying, "make sure you don't have mental farts?" It seems like some posters think it's this simple. Like all a coach had to do was tell the players to not make mistakes and they won't. Like they should have practiced fundamentals instead of hitting in the batting cages, more often. I'm not joking. I literally burst out laughing sometimes, and my wife asks me what I'm laughing at. My favorite is when someone says, "They need to tell ____ to be more patient and not strike out so much." Man, that is some brilliant stuff these guys come up with. If only Cora would try it!

The way you guys talked about how much the Sox were going to suck, this year, and all during the year, you'd think the manager must be a triple genius to get a s***** team like this to be 7 games over .500, but I guess we don't see baseball the same way. This is the worst defensive team in MLB history. One of the worst baserunning teams ever. The offense sucks, according to you guys. Bloom sucks at building a rotation, and 4 of our original SP'ers either got demoted or have an ERA over 5.00 (or both): Kluber, Houck, Whitlock & Pivetta. Another, Sale, is at 4.68. Cora mismanages the pen "endless times," and yet somehow we are 68-61. Sounds like our manager sucks, right? LMAO!