moonslav59

Are you sure it's not just a "pitching slump?"

It looks like the Astros are alternating catchers, and if anything, Vaz is their back-up, so far. How is that working out for them?

He probably has a big hand on deciding who is called up to replace injured players, too., in other words, is part of roster construction decisions, I would not be surprised, if Bloom or any other top brass person tells Cora who to play and where. I'm not even sure they give many forceful suggestions. I'm sure they have discussions about choices, but Cora is the manager.

Interesting negotiation tactic.

Makes me wonder, if he's done it before, and that was part of the reason he started out so well.

Enmauel Valdez 1.017 OPS in 2022 1.043 AAA WOR (29 AB) .907 AAA Sugar Land (159 AB) 1.112 AA (168 ABs) 25 HRs and 89 RBI in just 458 ABs Wilyer Abreu .842 in '22 .858 AA CC (329 ABs) .648 AA POR (27 ABs) 15 HRs and 56 RBI in 356 ABs Abraham Almonte .942 in '22 .1.037 AAA WOR (56) .913 AAA NAS (184) Pham .784 BOS (44) .694 CIN (340) Hosmer .686 BOS (19) .727 SDP (335) McGuire .967 BOS (15) .546 SDP (151)

DD extended Bogey. I think he jumps at this chance to bring him to Philly. Correa goes to NYY, after the get eliminated in the playoffs. Turner stays in LA. The Sox end up with Swanson. 2020-2022 Defensive Numbers: UZR/150 4. Story 3.8 8. Bogey 3.2 9. Correa 2.5 16. Turner 1.0 17. Swanson 0.6 21. Gregorius -1.1 23. T Anderson -3.3 DRS 1. Correa 29 7. Story 15 10. Swanson 6 18. Anderson -2 23. Turner -7 24. Bogey -9 26. Gregorius -18 fWAR 20-22 1. T Turner 13.8 4. Swanson 10.5 5. Bogey 10.5 7. Anderson 9.3 8. Correa 9.2 14. Story 6.9 OPS 2. Turner .903 4. Bogey .852 6. Anderson .799 7. Correa .799 10. Story .792 11. Swanson .787 24. Gregorius .670

Maybe we should have kept Dalbec at 3B and traded Devers.

Kavadas got his walk, but made the last out.

4 down with 48 to go. Here's what we have left: 2 more v NYY (Monday off) then a 6 game road trip ( 3 v PIT/ 3 v BAL- big chance to make serious gains) day off then a 6 game homestand (3 v TOR/ 3 V TBR- another big chance.) squeeze a 3 game road series v MIN (another team ahead of us) no days off back home to start SEP (no days off) for 4 v TEX (still no day off) 3 at TBR, ending a 16 day streak day off 3 at BAL day off 2 v NYY at BOS day off 3 v KCR at home day off (4th day off in 12 days!) Finish well rested... @ CIN 3 @NYY 3 BAL 4 @ TOR 3 TBR 3

Just 4 down from the last WC game with 48 to play! These guys Bloom picked up are playing like Schwarber, Iggy and Shaw!

...and all we got was some guy who made 2 outs in 6 PAs and failed to hit an HR in 4 of the 6 PAs, tonight, plus some other guy with an OPS b elow .900.

Oh, MY!

It's called a pitching slump. Ask jacko about them.

McGuinn and McGuire couldn't get no higher But that's what they were aimin' at And no one's gettin' fat except Mama Cass

You've lost the best record to the Astros. These games matter. You traded away some of your future- not the big prospect guns, but some good ones, for the here and now. If you come up short, what next? Do you guys go all in in 2023? Do you take the plunge with Judge and sign another big FA and trade a big SS prospect for a pitcher and or SS, or do you get stuck in the never-never tweener land you always caution the Sox about getting sucked into?

Here is the final report on Vaz, as compared to other Sox catchers and how well our pitchers did with him or others catching them. Call it CERA. Call it staff-handling. Call it whatever you want, but almost all of these numbers point in one direction: other catchers got more from our pitchers than Vaz did. This doesn't mean the others were better, overall, or that Vaz did not deserve to start or that he sucked as a catcher. It just shows one aspect of a catchers job and how Vaz compares to other on the Sox. I listed all Sox catchers who had sample sizes larger than 40 IP. One can argue 40-80 or 100 IP sample sizes are too small, and it's a good point, but when they almost all point in the same direction, and the samples with 100+ IP each all show the same thing, I think the numbers speak for themselves. Total IP as a Sox Pitcher CERA Pitcher (IP with catcher) 6 Highest IP Starting Pitchers: 964 Porcello 3.95 Hanigan (55) 4.19 Leon (576) 4.93 Swihart (112) 4.96 Vaz (211) 5.38 Holaday (82) 857 ERod 3.78 Hanigan (50) 4.05 Leon (118) 4.18 Vaz (614) 4.44 Swihart (75) 588 Price 2.96 Leon (204) 4.27 Vaz (360) 568 Sale 2.51 AJ Pier (226) 2.79 Leon (436) 4.08 Vaz (132) 446 Eovaldi 3.40 Plawecki (177) 4.53 Leon (44) 4.64 Vaz (176) 423 Buccholz 2.83 VMart (241) 3.01 Leon (155) 3.95 Salty (207) 4.44 Vaz (118) 5.63 AJ Pier. (62) Summary: Vaz 0.80 to 1.00 higher than Leon & Hanigan with Porcello (Significantly higher) Vaz 0.40 to 0.15 higher than Leon & Hanigan with ERod (Very close) Vaz 1.30 higher than Leon with Price (Way higher) Vaz 1.30 to 1.50 higher than Leon & AJ P with Sale(Way higher) Vaz 0.10 higher than Leon, but 1.25 higher than Plawecki with Eovaldi(Higher) Vaz 0.50 to 1.60 higher than Leon, Salty & VMart with Buchholz(Much higher) All 6 did better with others- 4 by a lot, 1 by kinda a lot and 1 close (ERod) The next tier Starters (some as SP & RP): 359 Kelly 3.23 Vaz (98) 4.48 Swi (74) 4.63 Leon (56) 4.83 Hanigan (91) 334 Wright 2.94 Hanigan (95) 3.49 Vaz (95) 4.06 Swihart (71) 5.83 Leon (59) 316 Pomeranz 3.32 Holaday (41) 3.92 Vaz (198) 6.02 Leon (46) 295 Pivetta 3.41 Plawecki (63) 4.55 Vaz (221) Summary:' Vaz much better with Kelly Vaz about in the middle with Wright & Pom Vaz worse with Pivetta Looks about dead even, here Relief Pitchers: 412 Barnes 3.83 Leon (99) 3.96 Vaz (216) 4.50 Swi (42) 266 Workman 3.04 Vaz (136) 3.83 Leon (54) 4.03 AJ Pier, (45) 258 Hembree 3.42 Leon (92) 4.26 Vaz (106) 184 Kimbrel 1.94 Leon (79) 1.95 Vaz (88) Summary: Looks about even here, too. Overall, Vaz did about the same with the second tier SP'ers and the top RP'ers, but much worse with the top 6 SP'ers from 2014-2022. Take it for what it is. I still liked Vaz as a catcher, for us, but I think these numbers take away some of the shine.

Here are some interesting numbers: BB- K's 83-107 Kavadas (.468 OBP) 52-56 Hickey (.422) Northcut (.281 OBP/ .513 SLG) 28 HRs 42 XBHs 32 singles

Valdez is now 4 for 4, with 2 HRs and 6 RBI. Vaz, who???

Of course, he bears some responsibility. How much is what could be what the discussion is about. You brought up the payroll being high, but how much of that is on Bloom? 2020: Bloom's spending was less than what he was forced to dump. Should he have been expected to improve the team by spending less than what he had to trade away? 2021: He spent about $40M- almost all on 1 year deals: $10M Richards $8M Ottavino (trade that brought us German) $7M x 2 Kike $5M Perez (a year too early) $3M Renfroe (a spectacular signing made with money saved in Beni deal) $3M Marwin $2M Andriese $1.5M x 2 Sawamura and a bunch of min salary deals. Bloom carried over or added min salaries that included Pivetta, Whitlock, Verdugo, Arroyo and others Out of $180M on the opening day player payroll, over $130 was DD's & Ben's: 25.6 Sale (out all year) 22.0 JD 20.0 Bogey 17.0 Nate 16. Price 10.0 ERod 4.6 Devers 4.6 Vaz 4.5 Barnes 1.6 Plawecki 1.3 Brasier The rest were min salary leftover. 2020: This was where the budget became closer to 50-50: 50% Bloom guys and 50% DD & Ben. About $225M player salary. (2022 bWAR) 25.6 Sale (0.0) 22.0 JD (0.6) 20.0 Bogey (3.9) 17.0 Nate (0.7) 16.0 Price (0.0) 11.2 Devers (4.0) 7.0 Vaz (1.9 traded away) 2.3 Plawecki (-1.3) 1.4 Brasier (-0.5) 1.0 Taylor (Injured) min Houck (1.6 T 4th best) min Crawford (1.1 6th best) Others make the total near $112.5M, which is half. Bloom's guys: 23.3 Story (2.1 injured) 10.0 Paxton (0.0 more about 2023) 9.4 Barnes (extension) 7.0 Wacha (2.2 tops on team) 7.0 Kike (0.3 injured) 5.0 Hill (0.1) 3.5 Verdugo (-0.2) 3.5 Strahm (0.2) 3.0 Pivetta (2.1 second on team) 3.0 Diekman (traded away) 1.6 Sawamura (0.8) 1.2 Arroyo (0.4) Min Whitlock (1.6 4th on team) Schreiber (2.1 third on team) Refsnyder (0.6) Davis (0.3) Cordero (-0.5) I'm not seeing Bloom making the team worse. I'm seeing a slow turnover of contracts from bad to better, overall.

A guy named Franchy Cordero is having a big night with Woo (3 for 3). Maybe we should call him up! Can he play 1B? How hard can it be? Enmanuel Valdez is continuing his tearing up of AAA, after hitting 1.112 in AA (205 PAs). He was hitting .907, here in Sugar Land in 173 PAs. Tonight, he has 2 taters, already, and is 3 for 4. Almonte has a tater, too. (A guy Bloom traded cash for, recently.) Maybe, the best news of the night is Mata going 6 IP for POR, allowing just 5 hits and no walks. 0 ER and 6 Ks.

Picking up players off the waiver wire could be called "lucky," too, but some GMs do much better than others at finding helpful pieces that way. Signing players at min salary or under $1-3M and watching them do well could be considered "luck," as well, since the large majority do not do well. So, when Bloom is forced to sign most of his players at under $3M, isn't it expected and not really "bad luck" that most ended up sucking? No, they want to blame Bloom for not getting lucky, but then discount the times he did get "lucky."

What does risk have to do with luck? Bloom saw something in Whitlock, Schreiber and Refsnyder other GMs did not see. He deserves credit for choosing correctly. He saw something in others that ended up sucking, many out of the need to sign at min salary- much like rule 5 and waiver wire pick-up players snd rule 5 that failed, and you don't call that bad luck. You roast him for it.

Sounds like you're making excuses. LOL! Lucky here, but not unlucky there, I guess.

Lame excuse? He was forced to cut the budget by a massive amount. You think he wanted to trade Betts?