moonslav59

Iggy signs with the team that has 13 SSs- the Padres.

That time was long ago, but Bloom has to finally think the same way. AbOrt this mission!

Updated Sox OPS 1.544 Duvall (still 2nd in HRs and 3rd in RBI!) 1.062 Duran (.417 OBP) .890 Devers (.598 SLG) .852 McGuire (.390 OBP) .847 Dugo (steady) .807 Yoshida (10 BB/ 9 K & .376 OBP) .767 Turner (.376 OBP) .679 Kike (Heating up) .663 Ref (.353 OBP) .605 Casas (needs to step it up) .549 Wong (doing it on D) .515 Chang (playing good D at SS) .474 Arroyo (needs to snap out of this funk)

AbORT!

How is there any remaining sliver of hope for Ort? Come on, Bloom!

Yup. Some "suspects" take time to get it together. He even made a very nice catch, last night.

Duvall who? Man o man, our CF position sure is hitting, this year.

Duran just went from butterfly man to a condor.

The park dimensions is another HR factor as well as parks better suited for LHBs or RHBs and what hand the pitcher throws from. K's and BBs can be affected by who the ump is, but that likely evens out, unless you are a rookie or respected vet with ump cred.

Top OPS on the Sox Farm (32+ ABs) .997 Hamilton (Renfroe trade) .972 Meidroth ('22 draft) .910 Chacon ('19 IFA) The only DD guy on this list. .871 Sogard (Springs/Mazza trade) .863 Ferguson (Groome trade) .848 Hickey ('21 draft) .847 Rosier (Groome trade) .846 Yorke ('20 draft) OPS Against (10+ IP) .388 Sharp MiLB FA '22) .398 de la Rosa (Beni trade) .412 Drohan ('20 draft)

I'm not giving up hope on this year's rotation's ability to turn things around, but my hopes are fading. Was the way Bello looked at the end of 2022 a mirage? Can Whitlock find his groove as a starter? Can Houck continue looking fine as a starter? Pivetta is about the only "known commodity" we have in the rotation, but he's just a very good #5. The rest is on some vets and prospects: Sale, Kluber and Paxton as the vets and Mata, Walter and Murphy (Drohan?) as the prospects. By next winter, Kluber and Paxton's control is up. Sale and Pivetta will be on their last years, so we should have the outlook of treating the rotation as a high need area in terms of allocating resources to upgrading it. I sure hope so. I had hopes we'd have spent more on it, this past winter, but it is what it is.

Yes. With bonuses and options, it's hard to know exactly what the numbers are, and different sites have differing actual and luxury numbers.

I thought the Price signing was needed, despite the 2-3 extra years. He had a record nearly unmatched by any big pitcher signing in that decade.

He could have been right, but gotten bad results. I coulda been wrong and maybe got lucky. There is very little I disagree with Cora on, and what little there is is mostly theoretical and not specific instances of disagreement.

Different sites range from 12th to 14th, from what I've found.

How long should it take a team to reach sustained winning after going from the 2017 Devers call up to today with just Houck being a major help? One can't expect a farm to be contributing in just 3 years, especially when drafting HS players, every year. Add to that, the first 2 years of budget cuts and limits. I agree, they have not been "transparent" about this being a rebuild or a 4-5 year plan, but it seems obvious it has been and maybe still is, this year. I do think they felt we'd be good enough to compete for the playoffs in 2022 and 2023, but they know these were/are not ring teams. We did/do, too. If you want to count 2020 as a year, 2024 will be year 5. The prospects added in 2020: Yorke and Jordan and 2021: Mayer may not be impact players by then. Bleis (2021) is too far away. We have some DD guys looking to help, and the farm outlook does look better than just Houck and Dalbec over 5 years, but I'm not sure 2024 is looking like "the year," either. I hate thinking like this.

With the way we spent, this winter, and with the re-set likely, I doubt we go 2 straight, unless 10 other teams go nutty. According to Steve the Ump, the Sox have been... 3rd 2020 (although we slashed the budget) 3rd 2021 (although we still did not replace all the money off the books from '20- '21) 6th 2022 (despite the Story signings) 13th 2023

Jansen has been the most consistently good closer since Mo. Story has a name in Colorado. Turner in LA... oh, maybe that's the other Turner. Duvall led the league in RBIs, 2 years ago, but apparently RBIs matter when it's Renfroe, only.

Our #5 prospect that was supposed to be ML ready, this year. He was ranked 3rd before his injury.

Kluber's FIP reamined amazingly consistent, all year. 3.54 after game one. down to 3.29 by game 17. as high as 3.75 game 6. Game 12 to the end: 4.57 ERA but 3.55 FIP. His .742 OPSA was not helped by his .324 BAbip Small sample size, but his last 3 starts: 3.38 ERA 3.30 FIP despite a .359 BAbip

I'm usually not one to bash a manager over one specific move, since I don't have access to all the info he has/had. I'm just talking in generalities. I think we have left some SP'ers in a few too many batters, after they seem to have clearly "lost it." I get the fact that there are plenty of anecdotal instances where a pitcher regained his composure and went on to eat some innings and help keep us in game, where he struggled early, but this team can score a lot of runs, and has shown it can comeback and win games 10-9. I'm thinking we should have yanked a starter a little earlier a couple or maybe three or four times, this year, and it's not just hindsight thinking, on my part. I felt it at the time, too. (I'm not pretending to know more than Cora. I still think he is a fine manager.) Game 1: understandable. Kluber looked okay until the 4th: BB, HR, lineout, liner 2B, liner 1B, BB and then yanked. (Kelly let two of Kluber's 5 runs score.) Game 4: I have issues. Crawford was in trouble every inning, but it took 2 HRs in the 4th to yank him- even then, he waited for him to get 2 more outs. (4IP 8 hits & 2 BB and 7 runs) Game 11: No issues, despite Whitlock going 5 IP with 8 hits & 0BB (5 ERs). He did not look all that badly until 2 outs in the 5th with those back-to-back solo blasts. Game 12: Questionable. After Sale let up 3 in the first, he sort of looked okay. A couple line drive hits in the 4th and a bunt single might have been enough to yank him before Franco's deep 2B, but I can live with that choice. Game 13: hard to have issues, when many felt they yanked Kluber, too early, and Bleier allowed a mess of IR's to score. Game 15: is an example of not yanking a guy too early. Pivetta let up 4 in the first, but then settled down, nicely, until the 4th, where Cora did yank him after 3 straight hits. (Ort let one of Pivetta's 6 runs score.) Game 17: Close call. Bello did not last long, but it was clear he did not have it from the second batter on. 2.2 IP 8 hits, 1 BB, 5 ERs Game 19: Another Kluber stinker. (5 IP, 6hits, 2 BBs and 7 ERs) He did not allow any ERs in his last 2 IP, so it's hard to say he should have been yanked early, but 7 ERs in 3 IP? Game 24: I'd have yanked sale, earlier. (5 IP, 9 hits, 1 BB 5 Ers and NO K's) There could have been more runs, but a timely DP helped. I like Cora. I'm not really complaining, but I'd have done a couple things differently. Maybe we would have done worse had we followed my suggestions.

The Sale trade worked. (It was the extension that is killing us.) The Nate trade worked. He was a big part of the playoff victories. (The extension was meh.) The Price signing was a gross overpay and 2-3 years too long. We all knew it, but how else do you get an ace, when you can't produce one from within the system? (Yes, the easy answer is to improve your system, but that solution has been elusive.) The Beckett trade worked. The Schilling trade worked. The Pedro trade more than worked. The Lackey signing was so-so, but we needed a solid #2 for that ring year.

My point was directed at those who called us a small market team. My other point was about recent spending, which matters, too. We have started spending more since the Story signing. The fact that we had gotten so far behind, beforehand, does not change that fact, either. Wanting to re-set makes some sense, so that alone keeps us from being a top ___ spending team.

We should be able to pitch Wink and Crawford 2-3 innings every 3-4 days. Guys like Schreiber and Bleier can go more than 1 from time to time. We have an 8 man pen, which was not something many teams had before the roster expansion to 26. Our starters, as badly as they have done, are 3rd in IP. We should be able to yank a couple starters earlier than we want.

I still think our rotation might get their act together and find the middle of the pack, but my hopes are dimming with the passing of time.