moonslav59

I've always believed this to be so. They knew he'd never take that last gasp final offer. It was all for PR. I feel the same about Bogey. They never gave him an offer they knew or even thought he might take. It scared them that he might have taken $160M/6 early on, so they never offered it. (I, for one, have my doubts he'd have taken that or even $200M/7.)

I agree in theory, but these guys ended up being right on waiting to call up Duran. Maybe Hamilton has a major flaw they know will be exposed at the big level. He certainly seems like he has done what it takes to be the 5th string call-up over Bobby Dee, to me.

As a Red Sox fan, I have always hoped you keep Cashman and Boone at the helm. Cashman's other big fault is adding injury-prone everyday players, big hulky guys or dicks like Donaldson.

My heart says our rotation has a 67% chance to get to mediocrity, which may be all we need. My brain says 33% to maybe 50%.

The Yanks finally score some runs and have their ace on the hill, but the Rays still find a way to win. These Rays will not go away. (I once started a thread on that other site with this title. There was a poster there that kept saying the Rays would fade away in the "dog days of summer.")

Revisiting the pitcher-catcher tandems: it looks like we are settling into a binky system, but some are maybe still in flux. OPS Against/ The Starters: Sale .657 w Wong (96 PAs) 1.061 w McGuire (64) Kluber UNBALANCED .544 w Wong (just 19 PAs) .885 w McGuire (135 PAs) Pivetta .759 w Wong (69) .858 w Pivetta (65) Whitlock ONE CATCHER ONLY .944 w Wong (65) N/A w McGuire Houck ONE CATCHER ONLY .718 w Wong (138 PAs before today) Bello .836 w Wong (41) 1.026 w McGuire (41) Long men/spot starters: Wink .553 w Wong (51) .513 w McGuire (40) Crawford .854 w Wong (51) .412 w McGuire (51)

To me, the season looked to be an exciting one from day one. with very good offenses are almost always fun to watch. It's fun watching good pitching, and I wish we could have mor fun with that, going forward.

Max, I totally respect your opinion, and despite what another poster said, I would not have been upset had Cora left Houck in, at least until someone got on base. We've talked about this issue a lot, here. The numbers are pretty clear and do actually represent real games. The fact is, Houck often looks really good, but then starts to slip the 2nd time through, at times, and then the 3rd time through almost always leads to disaster. They key is deciding when to take him out, even when he has looked good. Waiting for 1-2 or two to get on base might be too late, since we don't have 4 Winks to bring into the 5th inning. The numbers are stark, although the 3rd time through is a rather small sample size, and one could argue Houck deserves some more chances to show he can do better. .479 1st time (234 PAs) .706 2nd time (217 PAs) 1.030 3rd time (59 PAs) An eye opener is that he has only 1 PA against the 4th time through. Let's look at this year: Game 1: After 4 IP 0 ERs, 1 hit, 1 BB- looking great going into the 5th right? Leave him in, right? (Better stats than today.) In the 5th, near the end of the second time through, he gets the first guy out. 13 outs, 1 hit, 1BB, then... Single and HR (last two batter of second time through, then he gets the second out. 14 outs, 3 hits, 1 BB, 2 R. Still okay, right? Leave him in? 3rd time through, starting with 2 outs: HR by Mullins. He gets the last guy out and then is yanked. Game 2: Cruises through the first time through: 9 outs, 0 ER, 0 Hits, 1 BB. 2nd time: ground out, BB, K, 1B, 2B, SF (2 runs in) But he was doing so well! He gets the next inning out 1-2-3 all groundouts and is yanked after 5. (only faced 1 guy 3rd time through.) Game 3: He struggles in the first (BB, 1B, 2B and 2 runs), then settles down a bit, although he allows a BB and 1B in 2 of the innings that followed and a BB in the other. He's yanked after facing 1 batter 3rd time through. BTW, we won all 3 games. Game is a win, too. Houck cruises through 3 (9 outs, 0 hits, 1BB). 4th inning (2nd time) he allows 2 hits but no runs. 5th inning (last guy up 2nd time through ground rule 2B), first guy 3rd time through- you guessed it- another ground rule 2B for a run. He was doing great up to then! Let's give him a chance to see the 3rd time through- great! a 1-2-3 6th. The 7th was not so kind (still 3rd time) 1B, line out, ground out, HR- Ooops! 6th start (only loss in Houck start, until today) Unearned run in 1st He does okay until the 4th: the last 4 guys of the second time through go 1B, 1B, 1B, Ground out, then 3rd time through... 1B (run) and deep SF (run) then lineout to end inning. They leave him in the 5th and he does fine- just 1 BB, then he's yanked. His last start (a win): 2BB and a 2B through the first 17 batters, then: 1B, 1B. K, BB, 1B, 1B, HR (6 runs) He was doing pretty well before batter #17. I just don't see how Cora can be blamed for trying to guess the exact moment to yank Houck. He could have left him in, which would have been fine, but who knows, really? I do not think it was so obvious. I think yanking him was a good choice. I just wish we had better middle guys to bring in. -

Indeed! But I'm just the resident Bloom apologist.

In 2021, correct. I figured out, later, this is what you meant.

They didn't need an OF'er? Our OF was close to the worst in MLB, last year. We had the 4th worst OF fWAR in MLB, last year and the 6th worst season in the last 2 seasons individually. I'm not defending protecting him over Ward. I made the point he is not in the same class as Rafaela- too skilled to leave unprotected, even if not ready for 2023 use, per se. Maybe, they felt someone would take him, and they think, over time, he will grow into a worthy player, but who knows if he will, or not? You'd think he's playing FT SS in AAA and doing well. He can even PR. We have 4 middle IF'er down, and he's still not high enough on the depth chart? I remember with Duran, the thought was his defense was so bad, we didn't want to place him in a position to embarrass himself.

When have I ever gone nutty over any one decision Cora has made? Hell, I'm one of the few who still defend it being reasonable that Grady left Pedro in. As much as I disliked Bobby V, I don't think I bashed individual game moves. There is just too many moving parts none of us are privy to, to be so emphatic over any one choice. (Someone may dig up some old post to prove me wrong, but I don't go nutty over game moves.)

We need to face the fact that we will never have everyone healthy at the same time, which is what is needed to knock Ort, Bleier and Brasier off the 26, so as much as Bloom did to build up the pen, we still need more additions. Paxton will join the club, next week, but someone else will probably do on the IL. Right now, we have 4 pitchers on the IL and 2 on the 60s: Whitlock Paxton Crawford Joely 60: Kelly Mills

I'm not straddling the fence. "Insisted" implies a hard stand. I never take a hard stan against Cora. He knows more than I do, and I accept that. I won't reply to your baiting.

Murphy pitched well in the Woo 4-2 loss. 4 IP, 4H, 1ER, 2BB, 3K 3-4 Allen w 2B & 17th SB 2-4 Goodrum 2-4 Sogard w 2B POR lost 5-4 Sharp finally had a bad day (5.1, 7, 4, 4, 0) 3-4 Sikes w 2B & HBP 2-4 Yorke w BB GRE won 7-3 4-4 Mayer w HR and two 2Bs 2-3 Bonaci w BB 2-3 Miller w HR & BB SAL lost 5-3 2-5 Ravelo 2-3 Mejicano w 2B 2-4 James 0-4 Bleis w 3Ks

Hamilton does not have the skillset of a guy like Rafaela, who was protected not to use in 2023, but for the future. This situation reminds me of Duran situation, where they held off calling him up.

I never insisted. Houck has sucked the third time through- just about every game. At some point they have to take the training wheels off. Max, almost every game Houck sucks the 3rd time through, he looked to be in total control up to that moment.

I love when someone says this kind of thing.

Right move: taking Houck out. Wrong move: brining in Bleier or Brasier. That being said, if Bloom found someone to replace those two, this may not happen.

I knew I shouldn't have dissed Schwarber with a game left to play v PHI.

Houck with just 30 pitches after 3. Let's hope he handles the lineup better the second and maybe third time through and start to change the narrative.

Has Kike turned the corner on SS D? 0 Errors last 5 games 2 Errors last 12 games (both in 1 game) 6 in first 12 games.

1976 Brawl: 1967: Pedro-Zimmer: VTek-ARod Rice v Yankee hat stealer: One more...

Despite Bill Lee having a bad 1976 season, thanks to that brawl, the rotation still had several SP'er under 3.55: 3.06 Tiant 3,07 Cleveland (2.44 as SP) 3.27 Jenkins 3.36 Rick Jones (3.00 as SP) 3.53 Wise (Dick Pole was 4.33, Kreuger 4.06 and Lee was 5.63.)

All our pitchers with more than a 2.0 bWAR are relievers: 1.0 Wink 0.6 Jansen (under 11 IP) 0.6 Schreiber 0.5 Crawford (some starts) 0.4 Martin (just 10 IP) 0.4 Bernardino (just 8.1 IP) fWAR 0.6 Sale 0.5 Jansen 0.4 Wink 0.3 Houck 0.2 Schreiber 0.1 Crawford, Bleier & Bernardino