moonslav59

The sample sizes are too small, and Houston used an almost total personal caddy set-up, so Vaz and Maldy caught different starters, almost exclusively. It would not be fair to compare overall CERA, which Vaz did amazingly close to Maldy's whole season numbers (3.02 to 2.91) OPS Against (note very unbalanced sample sizes) .730 Garcia w Vaz (189 PAs against) .395 w Maldy (371) .749 Urquidy w Vaz (133) .695 w Madly (449) .388 Javier w Vaz (127) .596 w Maldy (303) .784 W Smith v Vaz (63) .704 w Maldy (27) .449 Neris w Vaz (58) .572 w Madly (150) .800 Valdez w Vaz (58) .587 w Maldy (744) I'm not going to claim a 4-2 edge to Maldy proves anything, especially with small and unbalanced sample sizes, but it doesn't show Vaz was better than Madly, here.

I'm not sure what expectations have to do with it. Many here viewed Vaz a plus starting catcher and still want him back as our starter. He sucked after the trade. That is not "over the top." He did suck. For those who poo-poo the idea that many pitchers feel much more comfortable with a certain catcher over another, despite the guy they like better having a .586 OPS since 2021 (Maldonado) vs a guy they acquired, who had a .750 OPS, this is one further example of evidence that a specific catcher matters. Vaz did start many games (23) for the Astros- more than a typical back-up does, and he hit .583. GS'd 33 Maldonado (59%) 23 Vaz (41%) Before Vaz: 77 Maldonado (73%) 29 others (27%) Clearly, the Astros valued Vaz more than their previous back-ups and/or felt Maldy needed some rest for the playoffs, but Vaz has been a let-down in Houston.

Before the deadline, too: Donaldson Carpenter Gallo K-F Taillon to some extent

So every FA not signed by a GM on a restricted spending budget is a "whiff?" I thought you were against signing him to such a big contract, too. You blasted those who wanted to sign him to a "lifetime contract," as I recall. Please, correct me if I am wrong. (I was not for signing Schwarber for what he was signed for, unless we traded JD, which may have been difficult to do without including $5-10M, which in a sense should have been added to the price of Schwarber's contract.)

It might have been an organizational choice to stop trading promising prospects after the 2018 season, so crediting DD for keeping all our top prospects might be unwarranted, but the fact is, many of the prospects acquired under DD were not traded. We hear about the ones that were traded, all the time- even those not taken first. It's only fair he gets credit for those acquired and kept by him and the organization. He also kept some prospects acquired before he was the GM, so when someone says he "decimated" the farm, they are totally discarding Devers, who was our top prospect in 2017 [/b. Beni was a numb er 1, at one point, too- not traded by DD. Chavis was one of our top prospects from before DD and was never traded by DD. DD drafted Groome in the first round of 2016. He was our top prospect at the end of 2017, due to Beni & Devers graduating, but still, he was not traded by DD. Dalbec may not have been highly coveted by other GMs, but he did begin to show promise before DD's tenure ended and was not traded. Chatham, too. One would expect most of an organization's top prospects to have been acquired 3-6 years ago, unless you had top 5 picks in the last 2 years. I'm not trying to gloss over the fact that between Devers and Bello, only Houck has been a major factor. That's a pretty long stretch of very little farm significance, but here is how it looks, right now with Bello #3 at highest ranking, Duran #3, Crawford #16 as recent graduates: soxprospects.com: (Red= in farm under DD) Mayer Casas Bleis Rafaela Yorke Mata Romero Walter Paulino Anthony Wong Murphy Wikelman E Valdez Perales Jordan Lugo Ward Bonaci There is no doubt, the many prospect trades by DD hurt the farm, and hurt the big club after the players acquired by those prospects moved on from the team or their years of initial team control when acquired, but DD's farm was not as bad as many of us thought it was when he left.

I think this was a case of selective amnesia by RR.

He was a very good defensive SS and way better than Nomar, especially the hobbled Nomar of '04. How could Nomar have done what OCab did for us? OCab gave us a 1.3 dWAR in less than 60 games. He hit very well for us, too. .294 w 26 XBHs in 58 games. He then had 11 RBI in 14 playoff games with and .873 OPS vs the Yanks. He got a big hit in game 4 vs the Yanks that drove in a run to make it 2-1. He went 2 for 6 w BB in game 5. 2-4 with big hit before Bellhorn's HR in game 6. Game 7, he got on base 3 of 4 times, scored twice and had an RBI. Hard to forget all that. He was a big part of our winning effort in 2004.

If you look at his stats after the trade, it's very "believable," and it came at just the right time. Nomar was going to be a FA, so he was basically a rental trade. OCab was no slouch, but he was going to be a FA, too, so it was basically a wash there. Doug M was kind of a minor aspect of the trade. We needed defense at SS to make the team a WS contender. Nomar was never gong to give us that. I don't think we win in 2004 with Nomar over OCab, but there is no way to know. I remember, when the deal was made, I said to my fellow Sox fans brothers-in-laws, "We just won the ring by trading Nomar for Orlando Cabrera." They all said in unison, "Cabrera who?" The rest is history. It's almost always all about defense up the middle.

Nobody has come close to saying he has made all the right moves. No need to respond to rest.

Vaz totally sucked after the trade and was basically their back-up catcher for the last 2 months.

The Astros have found the way to let key players go, and still be competitive.

Good to see Vaz get a key hit!

If career OPS v RHPs is everything, why not just play Hosmer at min pay? He has an .810 career split.

Bob Ryan? LOL!

I'm saying that was part of the reason they looked to trade him. IMO, the biggest reason was his s***** D at SS- a key position for D, when going for a ring. The rest just made the choice easier.

Apparently, he came to ST'ing already hurt, but pretended he got hurt there. I think that upset management from the start, and refusing the extension combined to make him dumpable.

He might be just the type we are looking for, or not. Despite his rather pedestrian .739 OPS since 2020, he has averaged 23 Hrs and 98 RBI per 162 games in that stretch. I doubt he ever repeats 2019's .922 OPS, he's only 27, so there is hope he can get over .800, again. Zero HRs in 147 PAs, this year could be a warning sign, but he did have a career high OBP of .347. Hard to know, if this is a Bloom guy.

Hitting on other players' wives wasn't very good for the clubhouse, either. The trade could not have been to improve team character, although Doug M. might have helped, a little. It was all about improving SS defense and stability, which it did, and that, IMO, made the difference in the end. Plus, OCab gave us more offense than we bargained for.

The JBJ deal does seem to be the be-all-end-all move made. Not only did he suck, his contract, alone, put us over the lux tax. While his $8M b uyout for 2023 does not count on the tax line for '23, it's still $8M JH is spending, this winter. I'm not a fan of brining in another LF'er. I was a broken record on out glut of LF'ers, this season, but I do want to see our OBP greatly improved without spending a ton doing it. I'm not sure what Beni will end up getting, but if he's much cheaper than Nimmo, and Nimmo gets a massive overpay, I'm not sure what better options are out there. I would not say he is my Plan B for the OF, but among FAs, he's pretty close.

I think the uncertainty surrounding the CBA was part of the reason so many teams waited and waited, last winter. Maybe we return to a more spread out signing period.

Yes, I understood your point and would not minds having the next Darren Lewis on our club for 6 prime years. I'm just saying I expect better-fully aware of the chances of being disappointed.

I'm the driver of the bandwagon that claims Jeter was the absolute worst defensive SS of his era, so saying Nomar was better than him says basically nothing good.

A little true. 1st half>2nd half K% 21.9%>23.3% BB% 10.4%>9.6% ISO .199>.166 While you guys K'd more, walked less, the biggest change was in your ISO. You may have swung more for the fences, but you became less successful at hitting HRs. You guys did try to change the dynamic. You dumped Gallo and added Beni, but the injury bug came b ack to bite your ass on that one. Lowest K% (Top 9 by PA) 13.1 LeMahieu 13.6 Kiner-Falefa 17.6 Trevino 18.4 Rizzo 22.6 Torres 24.1 Hicks 25.1 Judge 27.1 Donaldson 30.3 Stanton The two players you count on the most are among your biggest K men. Peraza had 57 PAs, this year. Here are the rest of the players with 100-350 PAs 17.6% Trevino 19.1% Beni 21.0% Higgy 22.0% Andujar 22.7 Carpenter 25.7 Cabrera 26.1 Marwin 38.8% Gallo Your lowest BA players: .159 Gallo .185 Marwin .211 Stanton (The new Dave Kingman) .216 Hicks .222 Donaldson .224 Rizzo .227 Higgy .229 Andujar .247 Cabrera .248 Trevino .254 Beni .257 Torres & LeMahieu .305 Carpenter .306 Peraza .311 Judge

Key Offseason Dates: NOV 7 at 5 pm deadline for offering QO NOV 8 Free Agency begins NOV 9 GM Meetings begin NOV 17 Deadline for players to accept or reject QO NOV 19 Deadline to protect eligible prospects from Rule 5 Draft NOV 30 Non-Tender Deadline DEC 6 Draft Order Determined for July 11-13, 2023 /Winter Meetings begin DEC 9 Rule 5 Draft JAN 14 Arbitration figures exchanged

The team was built on relying on the HR. It's too late to change the tiger's stripes.