moonslav59

How often does anyone say "hater?" Is it really "way overused?" Like 3 years ago, I made the mistake of saying a poster "hated Cora." I quickly admitted I was wrong to call someone who bashes him often a "hater," but I have to relive that horrible moment in my life, over and over. As far as I know, it's the only time the word "hate" has been used in this sort of context. To me, the term "Bloom apologists" or "Bloom lovers" is way overused, and nobody has yet to answer the call to name just one from the apparent legion of them.

I do wonder, sometimes, when the biggest bashers go silent during a win streak. Is that being pessimistic?

If the Sox are winning, and it might make the Bloom hiring more palatable, then there has to be a reason it can't be Bloom getting something right. The league must be watered down, but only the teams the Sox play. Other GMs, doing worse, must be playing a non-watered down schedule.

But you honestly don't understand why many people think winning (or losing) vs tougher teams shows more than winning (or losing) to worse teams? I get why some don't care, but to say you don't "get it" is hard for me to understand. To me, it's worse for my Bucks to get beat in the first round by an 8 seed than to lose in the conference or NBA finals. I don't think that should be hard to understand.

You've been a beacon of light through all the gloominess.

You honestly don't "get why?" Couldn't I ask why you go on and on about how watered down MLB is? It's the exact same thing, just with opposite perspectives.

You think that is the only gloom and doom thing you've said? (BTW, that wasn't even gloom n doomish. That was just being real.)

Yes. You've always been so high on Yoshida.

Just mentioning how strong the AL East is forbidden.

It's probably about the same. I never said the Sox benefited more. If you look at the amount of blowout wins and losses vs close wins and losses, it's hard to imagine we won more due to good luck than lost due to bad luck or handing games away with poor D, blunders or whatever.

Sure, it would have been better had we signed him to $65M instead of $80M, but nobody knows what other team might have swooped in. Just like we don't know what Bogey would have accepted in 2021, 2022 or early 2023.

That was "call 'em all suspects" Ole Red, perhaps.

Pick-sixes? I just used that as a hyper example. I watched many games, where he sucked all game, then played great in the 4th quarter and became the "hero." I've said it's anecdotal. If someone wants to do some research and prove me wrong, go for it.

Just don't say he might pass Perales in the rankings.

It's not about how good I think the teams we beat are. You've said all along it doesn't matter and you are tired of hearing about it. Now that we are winning, you want to talk about how bad the winning teams we are beating are. You don't see the double standard being used? As to "handing games away," that will always be something subjective, and the half empty glass guys will keep seeing gloom and doom, no matter what. Fact: we are 6-6 in one run games. Game 1: 10-9 loss to BAL. We handed them the early lead on a platter. Our D sucked and sucked many games afterwards. Poor D is often the definition of handing games away, and we are one of the worst. We also WP'd in a run that game. We walked in a run and had so many infield hits allowed that could have been outs, that the earned run stat was put to shame. Game 4: 7-6 loss to PIT: Go back and look at the first inning, where we went down 3-0. It was a joke. One legit hit the whole inning. Game 13: 9-7 loss to TBR: 1st inning: error, walk, HR Game 18: 5-4 loss to LAA: 1st inning: IF hit, HBP, HR, then BB, 1B, SF Game 23: 5-4 loss to MIL: 3rd inning: weak IF hit to SS that should have been an out- later with 2 outs (would have been 3) Tellez hits a 2 run jack. An infield hit led to another run, later. Game 25: 5-4 loss to O's: seeing eye single lets in 5th run. No doubt, we had some luck in some of our wins, and maybe a more than I remember, but we have given up a lot, too. 9 of our wins have been by 3 or more runs. 4 by 2 runs 6 by 1 run Loses: We've only lost 3 games by 3 or more runs The rest have been closer losses. Do the math.

Okay. I view "line-up" as batting.

Wonder who they were.

But was it because Brady put them in a hole with 2 pick-sixes?

You see what you want to see. We've handed as many games away as have been handed to us. We are not as good as these last 5 games have shown. We are not as bad as the .500 team before. To me, we are an 87-90 win team. You blast us for bringing up how strong our opponents and division is, but then fall back on how weak MLB is, now. What's the difference?

Are you counting just fWAR for the everyday players, which includes defense? fangraphs Offense rating has us second: https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=all&stats=bat&lg=all&qual=0&type=8&season=2023&month=0&season1=2023&ind=0&team=0,ts&rost=0&age=0&filter=&players=0&startdate=2023-01-01&enddate=2023-12-31&sort=20,d 73.6 TBR 29.2 BOS 29.2 LAD 27.9 ATL 25.7 BAL

Very true, and if you take away every pitchers worst 3 IP, they'd be much better, too. I think Paxton will push Houck back to the pen, where he has always belonged. I had hoped the jerking of Houck from pen to rotation would stop, this year. (Same with Whitlock.)

We have more top quality LH'd platoon types- almost too many. Ref may stick around, because he is one of our few RH'd platoon guys. (Dalbec may never get another look on the Sox. Arroyo is needed in the field.)

Did they ever say "executives?" I thought they said "evaluators and scouts" or "baseball insiders." Maybe they did say execs, too, but yes, name names! Several posters jumped on the story- like it meant something important.

I'm not saying he sucked. I'm just saying the "clutch" tag needs an asterisk.

I'm thinking about 2B only, with the Arroyo comp, but if Story comes back as a 2Bman only, that would change. If Mondesi comes back (at SS), first, Kike is my guy at 2B over Arroyo by a landslide. We may end up seeing a Kike-Duran CF platoon with Kike playing 2B vs RHPs, which would essentially be a Duran-Arroyo platoon. What we do when Duvall returns could change that, unless we bench Casas (Turner to 1B/ Duvall to DH).