moonslav59

If Ben leads the Bucs to greatness, it would crush his narrative.

True, some have us $7M under.

Nobody is even close to being satisfied, but some seem to gravitate towards gloom & doom, more than others. My hopes have certainly dropped from where they were after the opening series, but they are not dashed. Yes, part of the reason they are not dashed has to do with how almost every AL team has some serious issues, too, and just haven't been bitten by them, yet, but also because I still see a lot of promise in our players. Then, there are the returning players added promise. Perhaps, my biggest reason for promise may surprise some, here. It is actually the starting rotation. As badly as they have done, we are still just 1GB the WC. It appears we don't need greatness from the rotation- just some sort return to close to norms by most of them. I could end up with dozens of eggs on my face, but I refuse to believe these guys are and will continue to be as bad as they have been. How many more wins would we have, right now, had Sale (8.22), Kluber (6.75), Bello (6.57) and Whitlock (6.19) just been at 5.00, let alone near their career norms? Had Pivetta been at his 4.47 ERA, since joining the Sox, instead of 5.11, do we have one more win? How about Houck at 4.50? My point is, we may not need these guys to be at 3.00 to 3.75 to have a good chance at advancing through a round or two of the playoffs. I know there might not be any signs these guys can or will turn things around, but is it unreasonable to think 3-4 of these guys might give us these ERAs over the remainder of the season (not counting their starts to the season:) Houck 4.10 (3.50 career ERA as a SP in 25 GS, including 2023.) Whitlock 4.20 (4.15 ERA as a SP'er, last season in 9 GS) assuming healthy Sale 4.30 (4.09 ERA from 2019-2022) Bello 4.40 (3.83 last 11 games in 2022) Pivetta 4.50 (4.47 ERA w Sox from 2020-2022) Kluber 4.60 (4.34 in 2022/ 4.36 after injury in 55 GS) Paxton 4.75 ??? Is it absurd to actually expect 3-4 of these happening?

So, maybe we are just a 4 game win streak away from you feeling bliss.

Not everyone.

Pitchers with known command get the calls.

Let's see if Nate makes it through a full season of even 25 starts. The Eflin one may hurt more, since we could have signed him over Kluber and still re-set.

Having a lot of older players plus players with injury histories increases the odds, but yes- insane. The Sox have had their share, but not like this.

You think he passes Mata, Perales and Walter on the next rankings list? It seems to me to be a near certainty, unless one of the other three start turning things around. Current: 5. Mata 8. Perales 9. Walter 12. Drohan

According to CBSMLB, Joely Rodriguez may come off the IL on May 5th. Paxton may be called up, if he begins pitching well, at some point. Whitlock is unknown. (They say May 10th.) Wyatt Mills is due around May 30th, but it's not clear he is a better than our number 13, anyway. For everyday players.... June 1st Duvall (at the earliest) June 1st Mondesi June 10 Chang July 14th Story

As bad as we have looked, we are just 1 GB a playoff slot. We are 0.5 behind the Astros. We are 1 GB the Yanks. We are 2.5 GB the 4th best record in the AL. I keep saying it, but many teams have serious issues, too- not just us.

As much as adding a top SP'er to our team was essential, this past winter, let's look how the big shots are doing, so far.... Salary SP'er ERA/FIP $37M x 5 deGrom 2.67/ 1.63 $27M x 6 Rodon no IP $43M x 2 Verlander 6 IP $15M x 5 Senga 4.15/ 5.46 $18M x 4 Walker 4.97/ 5.24 $17M x 4 Taillon 14 IP 4.50/ 1.92 $21M x 3 Bassitt 4.82/ 5.67 $13.3M x 3 Eflin 3.00/ 3.78 (The guy Bloom wanted first.) $13M x 3 T Anderson 5.74/ 6.39 $17M x 2 Eovaldi 5.20/ 2.23 (before tonight's masterpiece)

Because there have been that many mop up opportunities? LOL Look, I'm with you and everyone else 100%. Brasier and Ort should not be on the 26, and never should have. Yes, Cora should not have pitched them in a few of the games, but most have been out of need or because the game was 4 or more runs away. I still blame Bloom more than Cora, but apparently I'm a Bloon apologist, so I must be lying.

Only when it counts.

I'm just not overjoyed Sale is throwing near 94.

Yankee killer, still.

Woo won 7-6 in 11. Walter did not do well 5.1, 6H, 4ER, 3BB, 5K) 3-5 Alfaro w 3B & SF 2-5 Abreu w BB 1-5 Hamilton w BB & 2 SB 1-4 R Hern w 2B & BB 2-3 Allen w BB & SF Portland continued winning (11-10 in 10) Sharp came down to earth (3.1, 9H, 5ER, 2BB, 4K) 3-5 McDonough w 2B and 3 rbi 2-5 Rosier w HR 2-5 Scott w HR & 2B 2-5 Sikes, Yorke, Binelas and Koss 7 of the 9 batters had 2+ hits. (Rafaela 1-5, Dearden 0-4 w BB) Salem lost game one 5-3 Perales looked better (5.0, 4, 1, 4, 2) Ravelo had the team's only hit. The team had 7 BBs (Chacon & Coffey w 2) Greenville up 13-3 early. 4-4 Paulino 3-3 w BB Meidroth 1-4 Mayer

All I can say on Ort is, "What took it so long?" One Brasier, "Please be soon!"

You gotta use your 12 and 13 slots in games like, today. It's Bloom's fault for these guys still being on the 26.

That pretty much sums it up, well.

OBP Leaders .514 Duvall .429 Duran .369 Turner .367 Yoshida .364 Dalbec .363 Verdugo .353 Refsnyder .340 McGuire .333 Tapia .318 Kike .313 Valdez .300 Wong .296 Devers .283 Casas .262 Arroyo .174 Chang SLG 1.030 Duvall .659 Duran .578 Devers .452 Yoshida .451 Verdugo .438 Valdez .400 McGuire .398 Kike .385 Tapia .375 Turner .341 Chang .310 Ref .296 Wong .293 Casas .274 Arroyo .222 Dalbec

Well, the bad news is, he used to throw 95-97 pretty often. I'll give him more time to improve his control, but we can't count on him pitching like an ace, again. We need to plan on adding an ace or two solid #2's, like yesterday. If he ends up pitching like an ace again, then great, but should never have been the plan- not that I think it was. I think Sox brass hoped he could pitch like a solid #3, along with Kluber, and that Whitlock and Bello could pitch like solid #2's. We'd have a lot more wins, if all these guys just pitched like #4's and maybe even 5's, instead of #8's.

Imagine this lineup: 1. L Verdugo RF 2. L Devers 3B 3. R Duvall R CF 4. L Yoshida LF 5. R Story SS 6. R Turner 1B/DH 7. L Valdez /L Duran /R Refsnyder DH/L Casas 1B 8. R Kike 2B 9. L McGuire C/R Wong C

The guy can hit. Minor League OPS Leaders in 2022 (515 PAs+) 2. Kavadas .990 (A, A+, AA) 14. E Valdez .918 (AA, AAA) Only 2 batters had more PAs and a higher OPS than Valdez in 2022. He hit .860 in 2021 (A+, AA).

It's never fair to definitively judge any player over tiny sample sizes. We can argue about what "tiny" or "small sample sizes" are, but 2 starts, especially after pretty much missing ST'ing is tiny. It may take Bello a while to improve his command, but he's got enough nasty stuff to be pretty good as soon as now. I hate to pin so much of our hopes on this kid, but who besides Houck and Crawford have shown better hope in our rotation, so far this year? I know- I know, that's not saying much, and guys like jacko will probably bust my balls for saying that about a pitcher with a 6.57 ERA, right now, but it's how my gut feels right now. Maybe, I'm just hungry.