moonslav59

Maybe he's done "working on" certain pitches and just let it rip, today.

I almost said that, but I'm not sure how it looked a century ago.

If the Sox win, it would ruin the ongoing narrative for some. You are right: I keep hearing about the legions of "Bloom apologists" and the big crowd of "Bloom can do no wrong" sayers, but when pressed for names or examples, it's cricketts. Not one person is happy with .500 or is calling it a success. Pointing out that we are .500 vs teams that are .618 vs all others is not claiming glory or success, It's just stating facts and pointing towards a possible bright side to being .500 with more games to go vs bad teams than those in front of us. This team has some serious weaknesses, and IMO, the worst one to have is SP'ing, so I am far from thinking we are looking successful, right now. I still see hope our starters will turn things around, and with parity the way it looks, right now, maybe they don't have to be great to ride this train to something that resembles success.

Good to see Sale throwing 95-96. Nice game. Now, he needs to string a few together, like this. We need the pen to shine, today!

Not only did he miss 43% of his starts, he sucked in 2019 and was more like a #3 in 2022, when he did pitch (4.30 FIP).

We did offer a QO. Texas basically gave him a QO x 2 yrs.

The schedule is more balanced than I can ever remember, so we will eventually play the bad teams, and a few winning teams will begin playing more winning teams than they have, so far. We still have to beat the bad teams, and being at .500, now is nothing to be happy about, but we do have some tings working in our favor, if we choose to look at the bright side once in a while.

Ignore the facts, if you want to think gloom & doom... Team Records vs Sox and vs rest of league: v Sox / v others 4-0 TBR 19-5 3-0 PIT 17-8 3-3 BAL 15-6 1-1 CLE 12-13 1-2 MIL 17-7 1-2 MIN 15-10 1-3 LAA 13-11 0-3 DET 10-13 118- 73 vs others 14-14 vs the Sox I thought the idea was always to play .500 vs good teams and mop up on the bad ones. Note: we will play the bad teams, at some point. Wow, even Detroit is not far from .500, if the never played us. We are at .500 or better vs these 4 teams with winning records outside of playing us: BAL, MIL, MIN & LAA We are below .500 vs these 2: TBR & PIT Call it a balanced mediocre league all you want, but just don't say we can't beat winning teams. We've beaten 3, tied 1 and lost to 2.

Legit #2 for April- agreed.

If Ben leads the Bucs to greatness, it would crush his narrative.

True, some have us $7M under.

Nobody is even close to being satisfied, but some seem to gravitate towards gloom & doom, more than others. My hopes have certainly dropped from where they were after the opening series, but they are not dashed. Yes, part of the reason they are not dashed has to do with how almost every AL team has some serious issues, too, and just haven't been bitten by them, yet, but also because I still see a lot of promise in our players. Then, there are the returning players added promise. Perhaps, my biggest reason for promise may surprise some, here. It is actually the starting rotation. As badly as they have done, we are still just 1GB the WC. It appears we don't need greatness from the rotation- just some sort return to close to norms by most of them. I could end up with dozens of eggs on my face, but I refuse to believe these guys are and will continue to be as bad as they have been. How many more wins would we have, right now, had Sale (8.22), Kluber (6.75), Bello (6.57) and Whitlock (6.19) just been at 5.00, let alone near their career norms? Had Pivetta been at his 4.47 ERA, since joining the Sox, instead of 5.11, do we have one more win? How about Houck at 4.50? My point is, we may not need these guys to be at 3.00 to 3.75 to have a good chance at advancing through a round or two of the playoffs. I know there might not be any signs these guys can or will turn things around, but is it unreasonable to think 3-4 of these guys might give us these ERAs over the remainder of the season (not counting their starts to the season:) Houck 4.10 (3.50 career ERA as a SP in 25 GS, including 2023.) Whitlock 4.20 (4.15 ERA as a SP'er, last season in 9 GS) assuming healthy Sale 4.30 (4.09 ERA from 2019-2022) Bello 4.40 (3.83 last 11 games in 2022) Pivetta 4.50 (4.47 ERA w Sox from 2020-2022) Kluber 4.60 (4.34 in 2022/ 4.36 after injury in 55 GS) Paxton 4.75 ??? Is it absurd to actually expect 3-4 of these happening?

So, maybe we are just a 4 game win streak away from you feeling bliss.

Not everyone.

Pitchers with known command get the calls.

Let's see if Nate makes it through a full season of even 25 starts. The Eflin one may hurt more, since we could have signed him over Kluber and still re-set.

Having a lot of older players plus players with injury histories increases the odds, but yes- insane. The Sox have had their share, but not like this.

You think he passes Mata, Perales and Walter on the next rankings list? It seems to me to be a near certainty, unless one of the other three start turning things around. Current: 5. Mata 8. Perales 9. Walter 12. Drohan

According to CBSMLB, Joely Rodriguez may come off the IL on May 5th. Paxton may be called up, if he begins pitching well, at some point. Whitlock is unknown. (They say May 10th.) Wyatt Mills is due around May 30th, but it's not clear he is a better than our number 13, anyway. For everyday players.... June 1st Duvall (at the earliest) June 1st Mondesi June 10 Chang July 14th Story

As bad as we have looked, we are just 1 GB a playoff slot. We are 0.5 behind the Astros. We are 1 GB the Yanks. We are 2.5 GB the 4th best record in the AL. I keep saying it, but many teams have serious issues, too- not just us.

As much as adding a top SP'er to our team was essential, this past winter, let's look how the big shots are doing, so far.... Salary SP'er ERA/FIP $37M x 5 deGrom 2.67/ 1.63 $27M x 6 Rodon no IP $43M x 2 Verlander 6 IP $15M x 5 Senga 4.15/ 5.46 $18M x 4 Walker 4.97/ 5.24 $17M x 4 Taillon 14 IP 4.50/ 1.92 $21M x 3 Bassitt 4.82/ 5.67 $13.3M x 3 Eflin 3.00/ 3.78 (The guy Bloom wanted first.) $13M x 3 T Anderson 5.74/ 6.39 $17M x 2 Eovaldi 5.20/ 2.23 (before tonight's masterpiece)

Because there have been that many mop up opportunities? LOL Look, I'm with you and everyone else 100%. Brasier and Ort should not be on the 26, and never should have. Yes, Cora should not have pitched them in a few of the games, but most have been out of need or because the game was 4 or more runs away. I still blame Bloom more than Cora, but apparently I'm a Bloon apologist, so I must be lying.

Only when it counts.

I'm just not overjoyed Sale is throwing near 94.

Yankee killer, still.