moonslav59
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Everything posted by moonslav59
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Agreed, and I listen to every podcast. To me, Perales needs to get his BB rate under control to maintain his ranking. I remember Roniel Raudes being highly ranked due to scouting and not on the field performance, but he tumbled quickly. It can happen. Owens, too.
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I think it affected Henry's spending ideas more than Chaim's choices. I'm not even sure the plan was to sign Story. I have no evidence to support the notion, and I'm not sure it's true, but I do wonder, if Henry just reacted to the swelling rumbles from Sox Nation and thought he'd throw a bone our way. I'm still baffled why they did not re-set in 2022 and go big in 2023, but this punting thing seems to have taken hold of the organization, and I don't think it's Chaim's idea or plan. I do think Chaim is fully on board with hoarding prospects and not pulling off a Castillo-type trade. I think the outlandish salaries given out this past winter were just too much for Henry and Chaim to match, so they did what they felt was "enough" to keep us relevant (many here disagree, of course) and punted on the rotation, once again.
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Their hope was that we might have 4 solid #3's and a solid #5 (Pivetta), but that is not a winning strategy, even with great hitting and a good pen. I think they saw Whitlock as a #2 ceiling guy for 2023 and maybe Sale as a longer shot at reaching #2. Yes, Kluber, Bello and Pivetta as #3 ceilings. Paxton as a who-knows-what? It's not a winning plan. It's a punt. 4-5 years of punting is frustrating.
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What makes me really think back to Castillo is his extension at $108M/5. Compare that to Cole. Ding, ding, DING!
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I get the 20 year old thing, and I'm not saying I think Drohan will pass him- only that it is possible. They jumped Perales by a lot- based on 35 IP in 2022 and what they felt about him back in 2019. They jumped Drohan by a lot, too, in the last rankings, and he is pitching out of this world. Yes, he's much older, and a lot can happen between now and July.
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Committing to over $650M since the Story signing is "opening the wallet," to me. I get the fact that the added salary committed to 2023 barely replaced what came off the books from 2022, but when you look at where we were after the budget cuts that actually began before the 2019 season, we have begun to return to the high added spending of previous years. From the winter of '18-'19 to the Story signing in March 2022, we were far from spending like a large market team, but since then, I disagree with your take.
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You should change your name to "The Almighty."
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We do better with blockbusters for aces (Pedro, Schilling, Beckett and Sale) than FAs (Lackey, Price.)
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I don't disagree. He should not be our #1 or #2. As bad as he's pitched, 4.8 IP/GS seemed high, to me.
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Agreed. I'm okay with varying the order, but at some point, you need to build the rotation from the top- not the middle and bottom. I'm okay with cycling to rings, but we are overdue. The last major expenditure on the rotation was just an extension (Sale) not an addition. That is way too many years to neglect the most important area of a team.
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It's hard to know, if he can adjust or get that velo back. He has lasted 4.8 IP per start, which is not too far from the league avg of 5.2, but I agree with your point.
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Not hearing much from the Yoshida doubters, anymore. (Stay tuned, though.) Sox OPS+ Leaders 308 Duval 184 Duran 131 Verdugo 126 Yoshida 124 Devers 102 McGuire 102 Valdez 99 Turner 96 Tapia 94 Kike (on the rise) 84 Wong (on the rise) 73 Refsnyder 64 Arroyo (on the rise) 59 Casas
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I agree, each trade should be judged on its own merits, but it is not uncommon to think, at the time of the trade, that we gave up a lot, but from an area of strength, so it hurts less. Now, on the Betts trade, after losing him, we did not have "strength in the OF," but Verdugo was meant to lessen the blow of losing Mookie, and his 5 years of control vs 1 was the key. Adding budget space is often a big help, but since it took us 3 years to replace Mookie and half-Price's salaries, I'm not sure it helped all that much. On the Vaz trade, he was going to be a FA, and we knew we were not re-signing him, due in part to having Wong in the wings and the McGuire addition in the works, at the time. I have no problem with people seeing the trade as a three team deal: Vaz to HOU Diekman to CWS McGuire, Valdez, Abreu and the Hosmer rental to BOS (I do think we make the Vaz trade, even if we didn't add McGuire.)
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I think of this often. We'd have had to give up Mayer and maybe Rafaela to get Castillo, but that might have been enough to get us into the top mix. We might have not spent on Kluber, so we could afford his extension, which kicks in after this year. We keep looking ahead and planning for a date that always seems to be a year or more away. As The Smiths put it so well... "How Soon Is Now?"
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Yes, too many of the hopes and promises several starters had at the start of the season (some rather remote to begin with) have not grown in April. Whitlock's injury scares the bejesus out of me. I'm not sure the rest of the staff can make up for a pro-longed loss. Kluber's hopes are still there, but not like I felt in March. I feel better about Sale than I have in years, but that may not be saying much. Pivetta is Pivetta. Houck could improve. Bello might be the wild card. Crawford might be a successful fall-back plan. Paxton is a total question mark. Mata, Walter and Murphy look like they are not ready to step in.
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If the mid season rankings came out, now, it might look like: 1. Mayer 2. Bleis 3. Rafaela 4. Yorke 5. Mata 6. Romero 7. Perales 8. Draohan 9. Walter 10. Valdez 11. Anthony 12. Lugo 13. Paulino 14. ERC 15. Wikelman
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Point taken. There is still one major issue continuing: over those last 3 games (11.1 IP), he has 11 BBs and 9 Ks.
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Yes, the 21st time being told is usually what is needed, here.
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I've always felt having the strongest rotation was the biggest key to sustained success. We've neglected it for far too long. I still have hope we can recover to get into the mid tier- maybe even upper mid tier the rest of the way. That might be enough to carry us a ways.
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May Day- MAY DAY! How about our catching tandem batting .278? Their combined OPS is .715. Last year, it was .694, and Vaz was known most for his bat. The biggest upward wing on the 2023 team from 2022 is the OF: .676 in 2022 .890 in 2023, so far! (.798 in LF, 1.049 in CF and .831 in RF) Biggest drops: 2B: .724> .541 (Arroyo is heating up.) SS: .815> .704 (expected some drop, here) 1B: .683> .612 (didn't think we could get much worse, but at least the 1B defense is improved.) Similar DH: .763> .756 (Turner is a 2nd half whizzard) 3B: .856> .831 (Devers has slugged his way to an impressive OPS.)
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04/30 Cleveland @ SOX 1:35PM ET
moonslav59 replied to SPLENDIDSPLINTER's topic in Mike Grace Memorial Game Thread Forum
Good take. It's the same amount as the glass half full. It's all about perspective. To me, I'm not just encouraged about Sale due to one start. He's looked better than his results in a few other games, and seeing his velo tick up is very exciting. We all know he is a fierce competitor, and that is a real factor. In a way, I'm almost more worried him trying too hard might create another injury more than him getting complacent. Having an 80-90% Sale for the remainder of the season could, by itself, get us over the hump in this "watered down" league. BTW, how does balance equate to "watered down?" Did 30 of MLB's players retire, last winter? -
I don't expect it to happen. I just said it might. Drohan is looking great.
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The only reason I still see a flip as possible, is just how little we know about Perales. His giant jump was based on a small sample (38 IP in '22) and speculation. It seems, to me, that could be strongly affected by a larger sample size in 2023 that may not look so good. He was a highly-regarded prospect back in 2019, and I think that plays into the speculation- rightly so, but that was a long time ago.
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04/30 Cleveland @ SOX 1:35PM ET
moonslav59 replied to SPLENDIDSPLINTER's topic in Mike Grace Memorial Game Thread Forum
True. I'd say a 3-4 game stretch of doing well, each time is needed to think maybe it's for real. (MAYBE.) There is nothing wrong with being a little encouraged by just one good game, though. -
Guess
