moonslav59

If you went 2 divisions of 15 teams, you could go 6 games vs 17 teams (102) and 5 games vs 12 teams (60), or go 8 games vs own div (104) and 4 games vs 13 of the other div and 3 vs 2 of the other.

How about this... East: BOS, NYY, NYM, PHI, BAL, WSH South: ATL, TBR, MIA, KCR, STL, CHC North: TOR, PIT, DET, CLE, CIN, CWS Central: MN, MIL, HOU, TEX, COL, AZ West: SEA. OAK, SFG, LAA, LAD, SDP Games vs Own Div: 11 gms x 5 teams= 65 Games vs others: 4 games x 24 other teams= 96 games + 1 gm vs similar record team from previous season. or (I like this better.) Northeast: TOR, BOS, NYY, NYM, PHI Southeast: BAL, WSH, ATL, TBR, MIA Mideast: PIT, DET, CLE, CIN, CWS Midwest: MN, MIL Northwest: SEA, OAK, SFG, LAA, LAD Southwest: TEX, HOU, COL, AZ, SDP Games vs own div: 16 x 4 teams= 64 games Games vs others: 4 x 23 teams= 100 gms and 3 games vs 2 teams

I'm not complaining, but yes, I have always been for a balanced schedule and playing every team in MLB. I'm not sure, if we'd have been in last place had we been in some other divisions. I'm not one to complain about that kind of thing. I'm even for a massive realignment of divisions based on geography. 6 divisions of 5 or 5 divisions of 6.

When we are talking about 2023 and expected win totals, I think it's fine to discuss how the schedule change seems to be a good thing for Boston- maybe better than for any other team in MLB.

...just don't say anyone hates him.

No, but they rate to be in 2023. It is more fun watching us beat the Yanks than the Pirates, but I prefer watching as many wins as possible, and just about anything that helps that happen, I'm going to support.

I'd rather the Yanks keep Boone right where he is. Cora would probably win 3-6 more games for them, so I wouldn't like it.

I like a more balanced schedule. Yes, it's all speculation, but I'd rather us be playing closer to our fair share of good teams than more than our fair share, and closer to our fair share of bad teams than less than our fair share. I'm not sure why you prefer we play a harder schedule than any team in MLB.

Shortens some games, but Yuk-A-Doo-Doo!

Yup. On Hernandez, they spoke of how they learned more about him when talking Rule chances.

Makes sense, since the AL is better.

IMO, the schedule will be significantly easier, anyway you look at it. W-L records from last year. Projected W-L records for this year. We drop 6 games from NYY, TOR & BAL and 6 from BAL, who is better than most team's 3rd and 4th place teams. We add 24 games vs a mix of good and bad teams.

I'm sure it made sense to Bloom and likely a few others, maybe yes men. He must have liked Binela and or Hamilton more than just about anyone else. He might have also thought or hoped JBJ would rebound and or Renfroe would regress, but many here felt he was going to be wrong on 3 fronts: 1. More money for JBJ than Renfroe 2. JBJ was not going to bounce back. 3. The prospects were not promising enough to be worth it. (This could still change.)

Including MVJ 78.

I'm not sure Yoshiad is "lackluster," but he could end up being so. Turner has been at .866 from 2014 (133 OPS+). He also hit .941 in his last 65 games in 2022 (271 PAs.) This guy can hit. Duvall is rather pedestrian, but he did lead the league in RBIs in 2021. He also had an .802 OPS (107 OPS+) from 2019-2021. He his 1.101 in his last 42 PAs of 2022. Mondesi and McGguire are highly questionable. Casas could be a wild card.

Spotrac has $26.1M.

You act like this means he never can. Even if he just goes 80-100, the ones taking his place are equal (the same guys as 2022 like Crawford or Winckowski) or possibly better (Mata, Walter or Murphy.) Okay, maybe I'm optimistic about more than 80 or 100 IP from Whitlock, but he was used in the pen for 2 years, and that's a reason it didn't happen. You do know Logan Gilbert never pitched more than 135 IP and that was his only time over 112, until he went 186, last year. It does happen, you know.

Using your source: Projected OPS for 2023 .868 Yoshida> .767 Bogey (4.5 fWAR) .763 Turner> .750 JD Martinez .683 Duvall> (way better than JBJ/Duran/Pham) .663 Mondesi (1.3 fWAR- better D than Bogey) .652 McGuire (1.5 fWAR) .674 Vaz (1.8 proj fWAR) .770 Casas>> (way better than Dalbec/Cordero/Hosmer) .703 Kike >(way better than 2022 Kike) 0.8 fWAR Wong >(-0.4 Plawecki in 2022) ass this to McGuire and our catchers will be better by projections.

Whitlock was in the pen. Several SP'ers start 30-33 games and have 150-165 IP. If they don't start as many as I put together, here, plugging in Crawford, Wink, Mata, Walter & Murphy is at least equal to last year's guys and the scrubs from 2021.) I'm not saying that many starts is not being optimistic, but unless they get hurt, I'm expecting 26-32 GS'd with maybe some quick hooks to keep their IP down. We now have a pen that can allow for that.

Story missed a bunch of 2022, too. Kike should be healthy. Add Casas. Add more from Whitlock and Bello. Don't forget addition by subtraction on JBJ (.578) Diekman, Plawecki (5.74), Pham (.672), Cordero (.697). Hosmer (.631), Davis (5.47), Sawamura, Seabold (11.29), Robles (5.84) and more, plus projected less playing time to... .652 Dalbec .645 Duran 5.47 Crawford 5.89 Wink 5.78 Brasier More time from... 3.45 Whitlock 3.15 Houck 2.22 Schreiber 4.71 Bello .766 Casas .629 Kike (should be over .725) .736 Arroyo .877 McGuire . ,

True. Not many trades are done around this time, but maybe one has been on the burner for a while, but one team is waiting something else out. Some big contracts that are near zero on BTV at positions we need: Salary (BTV) Player (Some are very likely not trade bait) SS $120M (-14.4) Javier Baez $150M (-7.2) Marcus Semien $10M (-5.9) Nick Ahmed $16M (-0.7) Brandon Crawford 2B $46M (-11.7) Yoan Moncada $10.5 (-9.1) David Bote $73M (-1.8) Ketel Marte (OF) $20M (-1.8) David Fletcher (SS) $10M (+0.1) Kolten Wong $7.3M (+2.0) Whit Merrifield (OF) $5.2M (+3.9) Jorge Mateo (OF) P $46M (-4.9) Marcus Stroman $14M (-4.7) Carlos Carrasco I'm sure there are more.

Let's compare 2021's rotation to 2023's: GS 2021 ERA> 2023 32 Nate 3.75> Kluber 31 ERod 4.74> Whitlock 30 Pivetta 4.53 >Pivetta 22 Richards 4.87+13 Houck 3.52> Bello 22 Perez 4.74+9 Sale 3.16+ 3 Peacock/Seabold/Crawford> Sale + Paxton + others Note how 4 of the 5 rotation slots from 2021 had ERAs over 4.50.

There are various ways to look at and compare the 2023 Sox rotation and the 2022 rotation, and even the 2021 one. I like to look at GS'd and what is returning vs being replaced. With so many moving parts there are a number of ways to mix and match the comps. Matching pitchers to come to 33 GS'd method: 2022> 2023 33 Pivetta 4.56> 33 Pivetta (equal) 26 RHill 4.27+5 Seabold 11.29 + 3 Davis 5.47 > 33 Kluber (???) 23 Wacha 3.32 + 9 Whitlock> 32 Whitlock 3.45 (???) 20 Nate 3.87 + 11 Bello 4.71> 31 Bello (???) 14 Wink 5.89+ 4 Houck 3.15 + 2 Sale 3.18? 31 Sale+ Paxton + others (???) Or like this: 69 GS (Nate, Wacha, Hill= 2 FT SP'er) > 29 Kluber and Bello/Whitlock 20GS to 50GS 34 GS (Wink, Craw, Seabold, Davis= horrible!)? 34 Sale, Paxton, Mata, Walter, Murphy (Wink/Craw) Any way you shake it, I don't see a worse rotation, unless Sale and Paxton give us close to nothing and Mata, Walter, Murphy and second year men, Wink & Crawford, all suck. Pivetta should be about the same. Bello, Whitlock and Kluber need to produce, but is that really asking much? Are they bigger question marks than pitchers on other teams? It's easy to look at the ERAs of Wacha, Nate and Hill and say, that will b e hard to replace, but they only started 69 games, last year. Wink, Craw, Seabold and Davis started 34. Our SP'er ERA of 4.49 was just 0.10 better than our horrific pen (4.59.) WHIP: 1.352 SP 1.356 RP OPSA .763 SP .722 RP I'm not sure showing how bad our rotation was last year helps make the 2023 one look good, but I do think it can and will be better in 2023. I realize there are some major what ifs, but there was last year, too, and this year we have added Mata, Walter and Murphy to Wink and Crawford and removed Seabold and Davis from the mix. In a sense, we also added Sale & Paxton to the mix, too. It sucks having so many questions, but we only need 3 to 4 out of 10 to come through. Pivetta is our solid #5. We need 3-4 from this list to do well: Sale Kluber Whitlock Bello Paxton Mata Crawford Walter Winckowski Murphy (We could even add Houck to make this list 11.) Those odds do not look bad, to me.

Is Kyle Gibson (35) somehow better than Kluber? He's the guy the O's signed to replace Jordan Lyles. Is Cole Irvin better than Bello and Whitlock? They signed big stud Adam Frazier and who else? James MCCann & Michael Givens? lmao! This is the team that traded away their best pen arm (Jorge Lopez) and club house leader Trey Mancini, last deadline. Mancini had the 3rd best OPS+ on the team. Now, the O's are stacked with young talent who should be improving, but they got worse. How did the Rays get better? The Jays added some and subtracted some. The Yanks lost their closer!!! LOL

Could they really be saving all that wiggle room for deadline trades? I don't see anything to spend it on, now, except Andrus, and he'd not even eat up half of what we have.