moonslav59

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.

Tough call, and I don't have all the info Cora has, but with the day off on May 11th, pitching Bello would still give him an extra day off, so in a bubble, I'd go with Bello and give Pivetta some extra-extra rest. Tomorrow? It might be a good idea to break paxton in slowly by giving him an extra day of rest, which he would not get by pitching, tomorrow. (With Thursday off, he'd get 2 extra days.) I might go... 5/16 Bello (+1 day rest) 5/17 Pivetta (+3 days might be what he needs) Day off 5/19 Paxton (+2) @SDP 5/20 Sale (+2) @SDP 5/21 Kluber (+2) @SDP (I might give Kluber a day or more off) 5/22 Bello (+1) @LAA (maybe pitch him on the 21st) 5/23 Pivetta (+1) @LAA (or maybe Kluber here, if he pitched well in his previous start) 5/24 Paxton (no extra rest) @LAA OFF 5/26 Sale (+1) @AZ 5/27 Whitlock or Crawford? (Or, Bello over Kluber)@AZ 5/28 ??? It's getting too far out@AZ OFF Home for 3 v CIN then 4 v TBR

Plus, the fact that he's so damn good the first time through, makes the choice so freakin obvious, it's hard to grasp the reasoning for hoping things change. These career numbers are astoundingly great! .453 first PA .440 first 25 pitches

Maybe he views walking as one of his big strengths, which it is, but he does hit first pitches very well, when he swings. If he tries to swing at more, it does not mean he will do better. He has a good eye, and swinging at bad pitches will not help. BTW, he has swung at 38 first pitches out of 132 total, this year.(.878 OPS) He's at .834 career in 59 swings in 227 PAs.

I wouldn't mind giving Pivetta (#5) a few more starts and Crawford (#4) a chance to start.

The pen could start being fine, tonight. Losing Schreiber hurts, but we still have others that have done well, this year, despite some recent melt-downs. According to one site, Crawford may return by May 19th and Whitlock by the 26th.

Agreed. All I was trying to say is that we might not have the 29th worst pitching staff. I don't watch every pitch of every other team's games. I only watch the Sox. Maybe we actually have the worst staff. I provided other numbers that seem to indicate while we are still bad, in comparison, maybe we are not as bad as 29th. I know our D is worse than most teams. I know our park is viewed as a hitter's park. I'm pretty sure our opponents have better offenses than most team's pitchers have faced, but I'm not sure on that. Saying we not not be 29th is not saying we don't still suck in that area. IMO, we have sucked, up to now, anyway.

I do wonder, just how much our crappy D is responsible for our poor pitching, but my eye test tells me other teams have bad D's, too, at least vs us.