moonslav59

It sure is. I wouldn't say we've had more than our share of injuries, but other than Duvall's, they all seem to be targeted to 2 positions: Pitching and SS. Pitching: Sale Paxton Houck (twice) Whitlock Martin Scheiber Crawford Bleier Joely Kelly & W MIlls SS Story Mondesi Chang (Arroyo)

Maybe he was dealing with an injury. We have 4 teams in the minors and he currently ranks T26th in PAs with W Abreu. That's more than Hickey and Lugo. Gotta like Rosier's .364 OBP and 24 SBs.

The last point actually works in Bloom's favor.

3.5 games has knocked all belief out of you? The people who still think Bloom has a shot, may or may not be growing, but not giving up is certainly a viable position to hold. Now, that begs the question: what if we squeak into the playoffs and get knocked off in round one or two? Again, I'd say, nobody would be happy, but if the younger players are looking good, and the farm looks to be more improved than right now, maybe some will think Bloom deserves one more season. (Even this does not equate to "happiness.")

One might argue 20+ teams have a chance and 14 have a decent chance.

Finishing 4th or 5th every year is "not enough" for any Sox fan. Nobody is happy with it. We finished last in 3 of 4 years sandwiched around the 2013 Boston Strong season, but we did wina ring and the future looked brighter, so I'm not sure fans were totally T'd off, but they weren't happy, then either. We may be headed for 3 of 4 seasons again, but only sandwiched around strong run at the ALCS not a WS win, so of course, it's worse. Some have hope the future looks brighter, but I don't think anyone thinks that's enough. The debate is about what to do about it, and for some, who to blame.

TOR, LAA, BAL, HOU and even TBR & SEA lost, today. The Yanks and Sox gained a half game on everyone. NYY in the 2nd WC slot and HOU now tied with LAA for the 3rd and final slot. -0.0 LAA -0.5 TOR -3.5 BOS -4.0 SEA

How many do this?

Seems about time, but I trust the Sox know when the time is right. Look how many people wanted Duran promoted to MLB much earlier or a little earlier. Turns out, maybe we should have waited longer.

He was from New England, so winter baseball is hard to find. I'm not so sure New England kids play year round much more than 30-50+ years ago. Do Latin American kids play more now than before?

I think Turner ends up over .830- maybe even .850. I'm not so sure JD will drop off, like last year.

Or, better yet, "What is the definition of is?"

Minor League Baseball OPS Leaders: AAA 3. Dalbec 1.058 17. Fitzy .929 27. Alfaro .886 (gone) 40. Hamilton .845 (5th in SBs with 26) All Minors combined (900 players with 160+ PAs) 13. Dalbec (14th in HRs) 7th in ISO at .343 79. Meidroth .934 (11th in OBP at .464) 83. Fitzy .930 (45th in SLG at .565) 84. Hickey .929 114. Jordan .899 185. Abreu .858 202. Yorke .850 203. Kavadas .848 212. Hamilton .845 184. Mayer .811 SB Leaders 11. Rafaela 29 (7 CS) 20. Liendo 27 (5) 23. Hamilton 26 (6) 24. Rosier 26 (4) 28. Sikes 25 (3) 35. Ferguson 23 (4)

Guess who has the 13th best OPS over the past 365 days among players with 550 + PAs? (14th out of 169 batters with 450 PAs) 450+ 1.118 Judge .998 Alvarez .975 Freeman .953 Ohtani .910 Altuve .898 Trout .892 Y Diaz .891 Goldschmidt .883 Arenado .882 Seager .879 Betts .874 Soto .867 Realmuto .865 Justin Turner Other notables... 35. Schwarber .814 44. Nimmo .804 49. Verdugo .793 50. Devers .793 51. Renfroe .791 59. Suzuki .782 67. Bogey .775 86. T Turner .753 88. JD Martinez .751 91. Swanson .748 101. J Abreu .735 105. Beni .733 124. Bellinger .712 146. Andrus .668 154. Moncada .657

lol!

Let's be honest, it wasn't the 95 mph thingy.

I'm not sure about "playing more baseball," but the rest is spot on.

Our batting OPS has gone in the opposite direction as our pitching OPS Against: .769 April .766 May .748 June Top June OPS (10 players with 26+ PAs) .991 Turner (3rd in PAs for June) .858 Devers (2nd) .822 Casas (5th) .795 Dugo (1st) .746 Duran (7th) .742 Reyes (10th) .733 Yoshida (4th) .686 Wong (8th) .676 Arroyo (9th) .607 Kike (10th) Last 28 days... .923 Refsnyder (only 36 PAs) .849 Yoshida .830 Turner .822 Wong .764 Tapia (gone) .732 Casas .717 Dugo .676 Arroyo (33 PAs) .670 Devers .663 Kike .641 McGuire .613 Reyes .545 EValdez .518 Duran .467 Duvall (just 25 PAs)

Our pitching OPS Against has improved each month: .769 April .741 May .699 June, so far Of our top 10 pitchers by most PAs Against in June, only 1 has an OPSA higher than .785. 1.141 Kluber .785 Winckowski (mostly due to one really bad game) .778 Crawford (He and Wink carried the staff in April and May) 7 of the next 10 are all under .684! .426 Bernardino .455 Bello .545 Paxton (Pivetta is .554 but is 12th in PAs Against since June 1st) .572 Jansen .583 Martin .682 Houck .684 Whitlock Last 4 weeks top 13 pitchers by PAs Against (28+) .407 Bernardino (Has Bloom gotten any credit for this find?) .438 Martin (WOW!) .491 Jansen (Rumors of his demise have vanished) .566 Pivetta (Earning another look in the rotation?) .582 Bello (Earning more and more respect) .659 Whitlock (improved greatly from April) .660 Garza (surprising, to me) .676 Paxton (Impressive in all but one start) .685 Houck (Doing better than April-May) .701 Sale (on IL) .745 Crawford (regressing to norm?) .790 Winckowski (Regressing to norm?) 1.112 Kluber (demoted to pen) Not counting Sale, 9 of the top 12 adre at .685 or under!

Yes, bigger and stronger (and I'll add faster) is not always "better," maybe more so in baseball than football and basketball. Pedro is smaller than most pitchers, today. I'll stack him up vs anyone- past or present. The word "watered down" has a lower connotation than "balanced." Usually, it is associated with a reduction in overall value or talent level. Many felt that happened when expansion occurred, which seems logical, but we haven't had that in a long time. This era in baseball seems like we are seeing more and more younger studs than in the past, but that is based on eye testing, in my case. I don't think the overall talent level is lower, now than 2-5 years ago, 6-10 years ago or any time frame you want to use, but it does seem more spread out. Several more teams have begun spending big, so that group has grown. Other teams seem to be more stingy about trading away top prospects for rentals or 1-2 year controlled players. It still happens, but it seems like less often, to me. We still have some real sucky teams, and they are not new names, although OAK finished first in the AL West in 2020 and second the two years before. One would think this is good for baseball, overall. We'll see.

I think we all enjoy watching two great teams play each other, and maybe some prefer more balanced leagues than some from the past, but those are separate issues than saying spreading the talent out more means the talent level is more or less than before- or "watered down." If watered down means spread out but not less talented, then maybe that's where we are trending towards. If you want to say the talent level is declining, I'm not sure I'd agree, and notin's Merloni quote sure sound like the opposite is happening. IMO, a balanced talent pool makes for better competition and more teams alive, each year. That is a huge plus, but not having a few stacked teams playing each other every so often, including the playoffs is a minus, in some ways. The move towards a more balanced schedule might be one reason we are seeing more teams near playoff contention than the previous norm, and my guess is, MLB wants this. As of now, only 2 teams are more than 11 games behind a playoff slot with 90+ games to go. More amazingly, only 7 teams are more than 6.5 GB a WC slot! 23 teams are in the race, by the numbers. (18 teams are 4 GB or under.) On June 17, 2022... 13 teams were 4 GB or more (1 more than 2023) 11 teams were 6.5 or more GB (4 more than 2023) 6 teams are 11 games or more behind (4 more than '23) What a difference, one year makes.

It's "the spend like we did" comment that is not so clear cut. No, we are not spending like 2018 or 2019, and we have not been 11th or 12th in spending since JH took over. Your point has merit, for sure, but we have reset many times- only to go on to spend larger again, afterwards. We are spending more the 14+ seasons before 2015, perhaps even if adjusting for inflation. The not being below 6th in opening day or EOY spending until the last 3-4 seasons is certainly factual. To me, it is more out of other teams suddenly spending like maniacs, than us spending less than before, but us spending less is a factor, for sure. Some sort of tax began in 1997. We paid a tax in 1998 and a tiny one in 1999 ($21K.) We then stayed under for 4 years, including 2 JH seasons. We went over for 4 straight (2004-2007) Under for 2. Over for 2. Under for 3. Over for 2. Under for 1 Over for 2. Under for 2. Over for 1 (2022 and not by much) Looks like under for 2023 A clear pattern developed after 2008. No 3 straight overs and only 1 under for 3 straight ('12-'14 surrounding a ring season!) I happen to think we will spend, again. We may spend some at the deadline and get us up to 8th place in the spending rankings. In terms of spending on actual active players- not player on the IL or paying players to play elsewhere, we are not much different from other years. No paying ERod to sit out 2020 No Half-Price No Rusney No Pedey No Pablito & HRam No $3.9M Dodger payment for Crawford I probably forgot others. We even got something from Sale, finally. We have one more year to pay Sale, and the budget looks clear of deadwood, unless Story continues to stay on the IL. I expect more spending in 2024 and almost all of it on active 26 man roster players, except for Sale, who drops off after '24 and was not a Bloom signing.

Balanced means watered down to some.

Isn't hoping the offense returns and the pitching stays like it has, recently a more likely winning combination? To vastly improve the D would mean a few trades that would likely hurt the O. To me, our best hope is that these things happen: The offense hits nearly as well as it did in April, for the rest of the season. (Not a big ask) The pitching continues to pitch like it has in June and for some of May. (A bigger ask, but not a huge one, and I'm not even factoring in a possible Sale return.) The D improves slightly by these things occuring: 1. No Kike at SS (huge boost and not even an ask.) 2. Story returns at SS (or even 2B) 3. Duvall plays more LF and Yoshida less. 4. Kike/Arroyo play more 2B than Valdez did. 5. Kike/Duran play more CF than Duvall/Refsnyder did earlier. 6. Casas becomes the defender we thought he was or just does better as time goes by. 7. McGuire/Wong move up the learning curve and improve. Are any of these things big asks or something we clearly cannot expect?

We are resetting, this year. If we spent $10M more and got just below the line, we'd be about 8th or 9th. That is the real reason we have dropped. Yes, the reset is just an excuse that does not take away the fact that we are spending less than before, but it is something that has been done often, since JH took over. JH has never gone over 3 years in a row, and going over 2 years in a row, under the newer systems is not a frequent thing, either. If we don't spend big, this coming winter, I will feel like you do, now.