moonslav59

To me, this is a huge game for Bello. He needs to show he can put together some good stretches and not be so up and down. Wink should not be available, tonight, but the rest of the big names should be. With tomorrow off, it should be all hands on deck.

I'm I the only one who sees the German ejection as a possible bone thrown at the crowd who believe the league lets the Yanks get away with cheating?

Hard to know. I'm pretty sure we'd have signed someone else had we missed out on Dice-K, but yes, he was a big part of winning that year.

It seems like Fenway sometimes hurts LF'er's defensive metrics, but then again, maybe they all have not been all that good.

If he has one more bad stretch like his first 3 weeks, which is entirely possible, the doubts will be highlighted. I'm certainly liking what I see and think he is the real deal, but it is still early, even for an old foggie, IMO.

LOL! Your slippage is noticeable.

Indeed. Way too early to know much. The sample size is larger than the one some used to jump against the signing after the first 2-3 weeks, though.

Very true. I do think the cases you mentioned differ in significant ways. Rusney: I did not get the sense, this was their guy. It was more reactive to missing out on Abreu the previous year. Still, a big swing and miss. Dice-K: was a tough nut to crack. He was a very good pitcher, even with us, but I think the routine switch messed him up. That as hard to foresee. He wasn't a total bust, but when you factor in the posting fee... YIKES! Apparently, Sox scouts have been over-the-top high on Yoshida for years.`This was clearly the guy they wanted. It does not lessen the past mistakes, in any way, but it is a good sign, so far. (The season is still early.) I liked the signing, when made, and was glad we missed out on Abreu.

Last night, we kept pace with our two closest WC competitors (NYY & HOU, who also won,) and here are the updated WC standings after 43 games: +3.0 BAL (not sure they can stay here all season, unless they buy at the deadline, which hasn't happened in forever.) 0.0 TOR (has lost 2 straight but is 6-4 in last 10) 0.0 NYY (playing better, now at 7-3 in last 10) -1.0 HOU (keep promoting good, young pitchers to replace injured ones) -1.5 BOS (4-6 in last 10) -2.5 LAA (3-7) -3.0 SEA (6-4) One at a time, guys!

Maybe the Sox scouts actually knew what they were doing (on this one, anyway.) Maybe.

I was very high on Wacha, and suggested a possible QO offer, until I found out he was not going to get anywhere near that amount, due mainly to injury and durability concerns. I was surprised he signed for so low. $6.5M x 4 is just $6M over a QO for 1 year!

He's been tweaking his swing for years, so it's not a huge surprise that he finally found an approach that works. I was highly skeptical from day one on him. What shocks me the most is his defense. It is very rare to see a player at a premium position reinvent himself, virtually overnight. He went from sucky suck to pretty good in just a few months of winter focus and workouts. Good for him! Great for us! I'm sure pitchers will adjust to his new approach, and he may need to further tweak something to compensate, but I'm liking what I see, so far. I'm hopeful he can keep it up.

Isn't every signing and trade a gamble? Look at Rodon and others that signed for huge money.

I'd have hated to lose Mayer plus probably Casas or Rafaela (or both), but we need an ace and seem to do fine with the farm on everyday players. Maybe Mayer, Rafaela, Mata and Walter could have gotten it done.

My point was that I know you've seen enough baseball and watched enough trends reverse on a dime, that I'm not sure why you can't entertain the idea of "could." Our pen has been good to very good for about 40 games, then was bad for 2, yet you weigh those two games way more than they should be. Now, if Jansen is hurt, or something, and we just saw Schreiber go on the IL, that's different, and I the concern over Jansen's loss of velo after his amped up game vs his old team, the Braves, but why assume the worst?

We should have known we'd never have all our pitchers and everyday players healthy, at the same time, but here is a possible look at the elusive dream. Pitching: Crawford > Sheriff Whitlock> Garza Schreiber> DFA Bleier Everyday: Arroyo> E Valdez Mondesi> Reyes (no options remaining) Story> Tapia (no options remaining) Duvall> Refsnyder (no options remaining) No way this all happens, but it's an interesting puzzle to try and solve. Red Sox Injury Report: Red Sox injuries and roster moves WWW.MLB.COM LATEST NEWS Wednesday: Kike Friday: Crawford 5 Days from Sunday? Whitlock (one more start in AAA?) Late May> Arroyo May 31> Schreiber June 9> Duvall (likely later) Mid June> Chang June or later> Mondesi July> Story TBD> W Mills Sept?> Kelly

Let's hope tonight's win stopped the bleeding and is a sign of more to come. It was good to see the offense break out of their funk, the pen do well, again, and even Pivetta getting past a bad inning and getting us into the 6th. Lot's of new names, these last few days. Let's hope getting our regulars back will bring us better results.

I think Bloom muttered it under his breath, last winter.

Be a starter is being the stud. Who gets the free beers after a win?

Okay, Max. I'm not going to gloat, because I predicted nothing, but I hope you can see how yesterday's results don't have very much to do with today's results. Trends turn on a dime in MLB, especially with RP'ers and pens. Whodathunk Sheriff & Garza, of all people? Good to see Wink snap out of it, despite the two hits allowed. Onward and upward... (I hope!)

Good news from the farm, tonight, as all 4 Sox teams either won or are winning, but first, some non-prospect events: Woo won 9-4 Whitlock 4 IP, 5H, 1ER, 0BB, 4K Crawford 3 IP, 3H, 1 ER, 0BB, 4K Dalbec 2-3 w 5th HR & HBP Hamilton 1-5 w 8th HR Fitzy 1-4 w 7th HR POR is up 11-0 in the 7th Liu 5.2, 4, 0, 3, 8 Kavadas w 2 dingers, 5 rbi & BB Binelas w HR Yorke 2-4 w 2B Rafaela 2-3 Hickey 1-3 but w 2 PBs GRE up 7-3 in 7th Wikelman 5.2, 4, 1, 4, 8 B Gonzalez 3-3 w 2 dingers, BB & SB Ferguson 2-4 w 19th SB Jordan 2-4 w 2B and 4 rbi Mayer 0-2 w BB Salem won 3-0 E R-C 5.0, 3, 0, 4, 3 My man DLR got a hold Team got 6 hits- nobody got on base 2 times, except James.

I said "could" not "should" or "would." Pens are always fickle.

As bad as our pitching was, last season, it's hard to imagine our best move might have been to bring back Nate & Wacha for a re-run.

That's been one of my biggest beefs against Bloom. He has found a few "diamonds in the rough," but most of those have been off the waiver wire, Rule 5 or lower dollar signings. The $10M Richards, $10M Kluber and the two Perez signings did not work well. Wacha and Hill were decent, but less than Kluber & Richards. He had more than $10M to spend on a SP'er, this year but chose not to. I don't really blame him as I was not impressed by any of last winter's pitchers. (I was hoping for a big trade.)

We did offer more for Eflin. I think it was $11M x 2. Even that is rarely going to get you a solid #2 or #3. Had we known Duran was going to morph from a butterfly to an eagle, we could have used Duvall's money ($7M) to add to Kluber's, but who saw that coming? Had we Known Kike was going to suck, this badly, we could have used his money ($10M). I think the Turner signing was needed, especially with what Casas was going to be in question and with the departure of JD. I think the pen money was needed, and it was apparently spent pretty well, despite recent developments. So, Kluber (10) + Duvall (7) + Kike (10) could have gotten us what? (Plus, who plays SS?) $27M AAV was what Rodon got, but the added years... YUCK! (And, as it turned out, the first year is a bummer.) $21M x 3 Bassitt? Pretty good, so far at 3.49 in 8 GS $18M x 4 T Walker? YUCK! 5.75 in 8 GS $17M x 4 Taillon? YUCK! $17M x 2 Nate Ding, ding, DING! 2.70 in 8 GS (Can ge go 28+ GS?) $15M x 5 Senga? (Meh... 4.14 in 7GS) $13.3M x 3 Eflin? (Might have taken much more to lure him from his home are in FL) $13M x 3 TAnderson (YUCK! 5.26 in 7GS) $12.5 to 13M x 2 JQuintana (0GS), RStripling (7.14 in 4 GS + 4 RP), SManaea (7.96 in 6 GS + 2 RP), AHeaney (4.71 in 8GS) $6.5M x 4 Wacha Best for the money at 4.06 in 8 GS At $27M, we could have brought back Nate and Wacha or Bassitt & Wacha, but most of these signings look like busts, so far.