moonslav59

100% accurate. We have some reports of what else might have been offered for Betts, and it didn't even include the Price throw-in. Downs ended up sucking, but 4.3 years or Dugo plus 5 years of Wong looks like a good trade for 0.3 years of Betts. The extension issues are separate- both the Sox failure or give one and the Dodger giving one.

I don't give up on players for a 3 week slump-like Duvall. I don't give up on an .800+ OPS guy vs lefties, career, and until yesterday had a better OPS vs LHPs, this year than Duran. Were you an apologist for Duran, last year? Hint: nobody was, and look what happened, when he was given a chance, despite what he did the previous X amount of PAs. As far as all of us were concerned, Duran was a "has been," last year. I'm glad Cora doesn't think like that. I've never been one to argue someone should play over another player based on small sample sizes. The Kike argument is valid. He has not hit well for 1.5 seasons, but then again, neither did Duran for much of the last 2 years. BTW, I'm not arguing to play Kike or Duvall "everyday." I'm talking about ONLY who should play vs LHPs. Duvall led the legue in RBIs WAY, WAY back 1.5 years ago (2021.) Yes, let's just ignore that and bench him vs the handed pitchers he does best against- all because Duran has been killing righties. That's not apologies- that's facts. I've said I want to see Duran get to play everyday. I also want Duvall to play vs LHPs, as well as Turner and Yoshida. I'd be okay with benching Casas vs LHPs and playing Turner at 1B, Yoshida at DH and Duvall in LF, so Duran could play everyday. I'm not going to the mat saying Kike should play CF over Duran vs RHPs, but he has a pretty good record vs them. He was 68 points ahead of Duran vs LHPs until yesterday, even in this crappy year. Career, Kike is .812 and was .775, last year. What's your apology for Duran's .538 career OPS vs lefties? His greatness against righties makes him deserve to play vs LHPs, despite his awful record vs them?

Like all the quotes never provided for all the "experts" that graded certain trades with an "F." Talk radio is his bible. It explains pretty much everything.

So, one bad decision out of thousands makes for a crappy manager.

We don't need all of these guys to do great or even good to add a big boost. The sheer number of returning good players makes the odds pretty good that 1-2 or maybe even 3 do well, upon returning. (I didn't even list everyone.) Story Sale Whitlock Houck Schreiber McGuire Longshots to help: Joely (just returned) Kelly Mondesi Mills Bleier Kluber Not hoping these guys comeback: Ort

It was a logical question. If one or two of these guys don't come back, we don't get worse- we stay the same at their slots. I do agree on being a buyer for a solid SP'er, if we want to make a move for a 2023 ring, but I'm not sure the improved chances would be worth trading some of the future away for. Now, if we trade for a longer term SP'er, I'm listening. Nobody gives us a good SP'er for Duvall & Dalbec, so who do we give up? Do we give up much for a rental? Bloom's biggest rental trade, so far was Aldo Ramirez for Schwarber. Could we trade Duvall and Dalbec for prospects, then flip them plus Rafaela and Mata for a solid SP with more than 1 year of control? Do we add Walter or Murphy to sweeten the deal? Romero? I doubt we trade any key prospects, this deadline.

Is 4.3 for 0.3 better? Plus 5 Wong. Plus the addition by subtraction of Price

Whitlock Winckowski ZKelly Drohan (ranked 6th) E R-C (ranked 19th at age 19) L Guerrero (25th) Rogers (30th) Denlinger Not a great list, but he's only had 3 drafts, and one was the shortened 2020 one, plus there was no 2020 season for any prospects to devlop a full year.

It seems to hurt more when that top pick is top 15. Here's a look at our "top picks:" Theo '03: David Murphy (pretty solid pick at #17) '04: 2nd rd Pedroia at #65 WOW! '05: Jacoby Ellsbury (#23 comp pick for OCab) and Craig Hansen (#26 BUST) '06: Jason Place (#27 BUST) '07: 2nd rd Nick Hagadone (#55 and a rare pitcher with our first pick) '08: Casey Kelly (#30 a pitcher that was traded for AGon) '09: Raymond Fuentes (#28 BUST) '10 Kolbrin Vitek (#20 BUST) '11 Matt Barnes (Pitcher #26 comp for VMart) & Blake Swihart (#26 com for Beltre) Ben '12 Deven Marrero (#24), Brian Johnson (#31 Comp for Papelbon) & Pat Light (#37 also for Papelbon) '13: Trey Ball (#7 Biggest Bust and a pitcher) '14: Michael Chavis (#26) & Michael Kopech (#33 P traded for Sale) '15: Andrew Benintendi (#7) '16: Jay Groome (#12 HS pitcher - likely a bust) DD '17: Tanner Houck (#24 P looking pretty good) '18: Tristan Casas (#26) '19: 2nd rd Cameron Cannon (#43 BUST) Bloom '20: Nick Yorke (#17) '21: Marcelo Mayer (#4- the highest pick by the Sox) '22: Mikey Romero (#24) (Anthony picked 79th got a bigger signing bonus)

Well said. When I said "tied," I meant factoring in the higher risk pitchers bring to a draft.

Not Bloom. He doesn't do it.

He seems to have improved on our IFA signings, as well. He also added prospects Whitlock, Winck, Wong, EValdez, Abreu, Kelly, Gambrell and others in nondraft/IFA methods. To me, this was his number one priority- maybe co-number one with fixing the budget. I think he has done well in both areas, but his grade is incomplete, to me. Building up the 26 and 40 man roster foundation has been more difficult, especially with dwindling budgets for his first 3 seasons, and virtually no farm help until Bello & Duran, this year, so I find it hard to grade him on just W-L results. I think our foundation is much stronger than in 2019, but much of it is speculative, in nature. Farm: INC (Already seeing Whitlock, Wong & Wink is a good start.) Budget: INC (The Yoshida, Story and Devers signings are still pending) MLB Foundation (26 & 40 man rosters): C- maybe. (2020 does not count, to me. 2021 was a plus. 2022 was a minus. This year is INC.) I'm assuming the poster who keep talking about the legion of "Bloom Supporters" thinks I'm one, but I don't see it that way. To me, he appears to have done what he was told to do, and the major results are still pending. I'm not going to ding him for selecting HS players and delaying the farm's ML impact, until we see how well or poorly they do.

Just pick the player you think is best. Position should not be a factor, unless you think it is an exact tie. BTW, our young pitchers have been shining, of late, and the farm has some encouraging pitchers, too.

What makes it tougher is the fact that several SP'ers are supposed to return, perhaps Houck and Whitlock right after the AS break and Sale near the trade deadline. How good will they be? Houck & Whitlock have not been all that good, so far. Sale was really finding his groove and may not find it again. If we can get to 4 games over .500 (an 85 win pace) missing over 30 GS'd by our top 5 SP'ers (and I'm not counting Kluber or Pivetta as top 5,) maybe we can improve, greatly with their return plus Story, Schreiber and others. How can our current roster not improve by replacing these guys with these other guys: Scott> Houck Jacques> Whitlock Murphy> Schreiber Walter>Sale Trade Arroyo, Duvall or Kike > Story Alfaro> McGuire I'm not sure what most of Red Sox Nation thinks, but these 26 man roster looks pretty damn salid to me. We could even add a SP'er at the deadline and be better. SP: Bello, Paxton, Sale, Whitlock, Houck or player acquired by trade LR: Houck or player acquired by trade, Crawford, Pivetta, Winckowski SR: Jansen, Martin, Schreiber, Bernardino/Bleier/Joely/Walter/Murphy C: Wong & McGuire or Alfaro 1B: Casas (Turner) 2B: Kike, Arroyo/Chang SS: Story, Chang 3B: Devers (Turner) LF: Yoshida, Refsnyder CF: Duran, Duvall (if not traded) RF: Dugo (Duvall) DH: Turner (Yoshida) People laughed at this group back in March, and many still are, but I'm liking our outlook, right now and going forward into the next few years. (I realize my opinion might change in 2-3 weeks, but I'm staying hopeful.)

All those guys will hold a a special place in my heart.

Was this Dugo's scheduled day of rest? LOL!

Some mocks... Colt Enerson SS (HS) Emerson’s one of the younger players in the draft class and there are at least some scouts who think he’s one of the better pure hitters. I’m only hearing them with hitters, including college guys Shaw, Brock Wilken and Chase Davis; and high schoolers with Bryce Eldridge – who supposedly wants to go to a team that will also let him pitch – Houck and Mitchell as other possibilities. MLB.com has the same pick and adds, "Houck, Emerson, third baseman Aidan Miller or Peete would give the Red Sox a prep infielder in the Draft for the fourth straight year. Mitchell could be appealing as well. " Aidan Miller 3B (HS) mymlbdraft.com Tommy Troy 3B (Stanford) It's been a number of bats mentioned in connection with the Red Sox, and one of the best on the table at this point is Stanford's Tommy Troy. He's bounced around a bit defensively, but he should be able to stick at third base, where he has more than enough bat to profile. If Boston doesn't go with him, it's possible it looks at some prep hitters still around. -Sporting News. Justbaseball.com has the same pick...It is easy to fall in love with Taylor’s sweet swing from the left side, and there’s a decent chance a team ahead of the White Sox could. Should the draft shake out this way, it would be hard to imagine Taylor falling beyond 15. Taylor’s feel to hit is impressive, driving the ball to all fields with a smooth ease along with a great feel for the strike zone. The power presently looks average, but he has decently long levers with some more room for strength within his frame. He should have no issue sticking at third, but could play a solid second base as well.

Cora has led a team that has... used 27 pitchers and saw at least 30 games started lost by injuries to our top 5 SP'ers no fWAR leader in the top 45, and the one at 46 is named Jarren Duran. no fWAR pitching leader in the top 56, and the one at 57 is named Brayan Bello. the 68th best fWAR pitcher (Sale) on the 60 day IL I could go on and on, but I think you get the point. One more thing, many here, including myself, felt our roster needed more quality and not quantity, but this more balanced approach seems to be doing pretty well, especially in light of the fact that our recent rotation has... Sale on the 60 Houck on the IL Whitlock on the IL Paxton was on PAT leave Kluber on the IL (after pen demotion) Pivetta demoted to the pen Crawford seeing sometime on the IL I can't help but chuckle at those hyper critical of Cora. Most who are seem to have also hated the job Bloom did building this roster, yet somehow think Cora should be getting more out of this "crappy team." It literally cracks me up.

It would not surprise me. It would add some extra Bloom-bashing fodder, for sure.

Cora is a clear net plus, IMO. If anyone thinks he's a problem, I'll just say, we have much larger problems than him.

Am I reading this wrongly, or did you misplace a word or two?

I'm happy JD is doing well in LA. I'm glad he did not go to the Yanks, Jays or O's.

True. Maybe the Rays know what tweak is needed, and we don’t.

Well, they were in on Diekman and Littell.

My bad. .790 from opening day to May 19. 1.184 May 20 to June 10 .594 June 11 to July 6. 2.238 last 2 games. .872 for season is damn good. It was .837 on June 6th.