moonslav59

Well said. Spending more on moderate deals makes more sense, but it’s not easy hitting those right, too. You get what you pay for. If pitchers making $20-40M fail more often than not, why do so many expect Bloom to hit on most of his signings at $5-10M? Blooms largest pitcher signings: $M 16 x 2 Jansen 9 x 2 Martin 10 x 1 Kluber 10 x 1 Richards 7 x 1 Wacha 6 x 1 Perez and 5 x 1 Perez II 5 x 1 Hill 4 x 2 Diekman (Barnes extension 9 x 2)

We need middle IF, and Story may DH for a while before playing SS or 2B. I think Duvall would go before Kike. The pitcher would be Paxton or Sale, depending on being in or out at the deadline.

We were 46-39, last year after 85 games- better than now. We ended July 3-12 and 4-16, and that was that. I think we may do better, this July, but who knows?

Paxton won the pitcher of the month award. Last time a Sox pitcher did it was Sale in 2018.

I'm not sure I remember a top 10 Sox prospects playing so many positions in the minors, and playing them well. GS 187 CF 47 SS 22 2B 18 3B 9 LF 1 RF He's played about 2/3 in the OF.

Drohan with another rough start at AAA 4IP, 7H, 5R, 3ER, 2BB, 5K (5.19 ERA POR won again 2-4 Mayer w BB 2-5 Yorke 2-5 Binelas w HR 1-4 Hickey w HR & BB 1-3 Kavadas w 3B & 2BB 1-4 Chang w BB Rogers got whacked as GRE lost Jordan 3-4 w 11th HR (.914 OPS) maybe ready for promotion to AA? SAL won Monegro still has a 0.00 ERA after 5 IP of shutout ball. 2-3 Mejicano w HR & BB (.809 OPS) 0-4 Ravelo w 4Ks

NYY and HOU won. BAL lost. +3.0 BAL +0.0 NYY & HOU -2.0 TOR -2.5 LAA -4.0 BOS -5.5 CLE & SEA MIN is in 1st at 42-43 CLE -0.5 ALC DET -4.0 ALC CWS -5.5 ALC Only OAK and KCR are more than 5.5 games behind a playoff slot in the AL! BOS -13.0 TBR -6.0 BAL -4.0 NYY & HOU -2.0 TOR -1.5 LAA We need to pass 3 of these teams (or TEX not HOU)

Injury report by Covers: Return Date: 7/4? Yoshida (leg) 7/4? Duvall (sickness) early July McGuire (oblique) Unknown: Houck (face) maybe after AS break? Whitlock (elbow) maybe miss one start? Sale (shoulder) maybe early August Schreiber (back- comes off 60 day in mid July) Joely (shoulder- comes off 15 day in mid July) Kelly (elbow- maybe early Sept) Reyes (oblique) Chang (wrist) Kluber (shoulder) Mills (elbow) Mondesi (knee)

I feel better about returning injured players this year over last year. Sale: I saw he still has it, this year. Last year, not only did I not know, if he was going to pitch, I did not know he'd be any good, if he did. True, this injury may make that question and answer the same, but I do feel slightly better. Duval is a damn good player. He had a bad injury for a hitter, but I do think he improves before the deadline. Story is a damn good player and an athlete. I do think he will be better than 2022, when he returns. I do worry about his D at SS, but if Chang can play SS and Story 2B, we might be a greatly improved team. (Add Reyes, if one does not make it. Forget about Mondesi.) Houck & Whitlock have done very well for us from 2021-2022. I'm confident both can return to a better place than they were earlier, this year. Schreiber, Bleier, Joely, Kelly, Mills offer a lot of options for pen help. Schreiber could be a difference maker. McGuire come back, soon. Will all these guys come back and do great? NO WAY! Ask yourself how many need to. I'll venture an answer: 2 from Sale, Whitlock and Houck (This may be the biggest reach.) 2 from Story, Chang, Reyes and Mondesi 2 from Schreiber, Duvall, McGuire or 1 with a 3 for 3 or 3 for 4 from above. What are the odds we get 5 back and producing, not the 6 I suggested we need? Would that be enough? Story, Houck, Whitlock, Schreiber and McGuire?

Exactly. No Kluber, Kike, Duvall and Mondesi. Add 2 solid SP'ers via FA or by trading prospects. 1. Duran CF 2. Devers 3B 3. Story SS 4. Yoshida LF 5. Turner DH 6. Dugo RF 7. Casas 1B 8. Chang/Arroyo/Valdez 2B 9. Wong/McGuire C Bench: Refsnyder, Chang/Arroyo/Valdez, Wong/McGuire SP1 ______ SP2 Bello SP3 ______ SP4 Houck SP5 Whitlock/Sale/Crawford/Pivetta CL Jansen R2 Martin R3 Schreiber R4 Winckowski R5 (see SP5) R6 (see SP5) R7 (see SP5) or Bleier/Mata/Walter/Murphy/Drohan/Kelly/Mills ML Ready on the farm: C C Hamilton, S Scott, R Hern (Hickey?) 1B Dalbec (Jordan?) 2B Yorke (Paulino?) 3B Sogard (Meidroth/Bonaci?) SS D Hamilton (Mayer?) OF Rafaela, Abreu, Rosier (Lugo?) DH Kavadas Maybe we add a 2Bman, too, but to me, 2-3 solid & durable SP'ers makes us strong contenders.

I don't think anyone thinks we can or will win, if these injuries stay like this. It's getting tiring always hoping injured players return. It's like we are becoming the Yankees with all the injuries and injury prone players on the roster.

We got the CWS to not only take Diekman and his full remaining salary for 2023 and 2024, but they gave us McGuire, too. I doubt we find any takers for Kluber or Mondesi, but we can hope. We could "sell" Duvall, and just play Duran FT in CF (with Kike as the RH'd possible platoon,) or we could trade Kike, if we know Story, Chang or Mondesi will be ready by the deadline. Pay off his whole salary, and maybe somebody wants him and will give more than a McGuire. In other words, we may buy and sell, again.

Turner will be back in 2024, IMO.

I’ve not given up, yet, but have no issues with those who have. Too many of these guys are expected back. At least Sale showed he can still bring it, when healthy. Story has been very disappointing but he’s still in his prime. I have faith in Houck and Whitlock, but they need to get back and soon. Schreiber was moved to 60 days, but I think that ends in July. Turner is a second half beast. Devers has the ability to have a career year, still. Have faith! Or not.

Many felt we should have had a fire sale in 2022. Many felt we should have been heavier buyers. Not many expected what we ended up doing. There are about 4 weeks left to go, and so many teams are still in the WC race. Do we sell? Do we buy? Do we do a little of both? Do we do next to nothing? If we do decide to sell, we have the luxury of offering to pay all or almost all remaining salaries. This should increase the amount of teams making offers, and improve the return value we get. I'd say all free agents to be would be on the table and maybe some players who will be FAs after 2024 or redundant positional players with longer control. FAs after 2023: Kike Duvall Paxton Kluber Mondesi After 2024 Sale Jansen Martin Turner Pivetta Others? Dalbec Arroyo

The day off doesn't really help much, either. How long is Paxton gone? I guess as long as he is back for one start before the break, it doesn't matter. Only tomorrow's starter can fill 2 of the 6 slots. It's weird they don't start Bello Tuesday on normal rest, then they could start hm Sunday before the break. That way, we get 2 of the 6 slots filled with one guy. Oh well. My guesses: 7/4 TEX Walter 7/5 TEX Bello (+1 day rest) 7/6 TEX Murphy 7/7 OAK Crawford (+1) 7/8 OAK Paxton (+3) 7/9 OAK Whitlock (+2) or Walter/pen game

A Zagnut bar?

Javier's ERA went from 3.72 to 4.34 after letting up 8 runs.

After losing 9 of 10 key games, last July, my gut was convinced it was over.

Sadly, I was one of the first to give up, last year.

It would be interesting to see records vs teams that had winning records when we played them- like adding the 3 gms vs PIT.

I don't think giving Whitlock one more chance to see if he could stick as a starter was not such a bad idea. I thought he was a better choice than Houck or Crawford, so with Paxton and Bello out to start the season, he seemed like the best choice, then. Some context: Whitlock only started 9 games in 2022, so the sample size was small. Furthermore, his first few starts were not much different from long men out of the pen: Game 1, 2, 3... IP pitches 4.0 48 3.0 61 5.0 78 3.0 82 5.0 80 3.0 71 6.0 84 6.0 70 4.0 71 One 9 game stretch from late April to early June. 2 starts over 5 IP 4 starts over 3 IP Hardly a sample size worthy of judging.

We have played more games vs .500+ teams than almost anyone else, so that is one reason we have the second most wins, but these are the only teams with winning records vs winning teams: 28-17 TBR 26-16 ATL 23-18 SFG 24-21 BAL 27-24 BOS 25-23 NYY Only the Padres and Sox do better vs winning teams than losing teams. Padres: 22-25 winning/16-21 losing Most games vs .500+ teams 54 TOR 51 BOS, CWS & STL 50 NYM 49 MIN 48 NYY & AZ 47 SDP 45 TBR, BAL, PHI & others The lowest games vs winning team by the better teams: 38 MIA & MIL 40 LAD 41 SFG, CIN & HOU 42 LAA 43 TEX

I counted about 28 starts missed due to injury. When you figure Kluber and Pivetta were demoted to the pen, and our 8th starter, Crawford, missed time in May, our rotation has done pretty well. They are actually top 15 and even top 8 in several meaningful stats. We've got next to nothing from Mata, Walter and Murphy, who were all supposed to be MLB ready and added depth, this year. Our pen had a few injuries, too, and are still missing Schreiber.

It's what doomed Ben. All the $5-10M deals like Kluber, Richards, Perez, Wacha, Hill and Kike are stabs in the dark, in general, at those prices. Story (1.5 years into a 6 year deal) Yoshida (0.5 yrs into a 5 year deal) Devers (starts next year) Think inflation: Ben started his career with a big salary dump trade, too. (Punto trade), then.... $110M/8 Pedey extension $72M/7 Rusney $39M/3 Vic $32M/2 Napoli $27M/2 Dempster (retired after 1 year) These 2 signings for 2015 did him in: $95M/5 Pablito $88M/4 HRam