moonslav59

It will be interesting to see how long Mayer takes. One guy I find interesting is Rafaela. I know he broke into the minors at 17, but the guy can field and has hit pretty well at every level- a little slow to start, but was just promoted to AA, this year- his 6th season with the Sox, counting the lost 2020 season. Gotta think he gets a ST'ing invite after he gets protected from Rule 5.

Sounds like you know exactly what I meant.

Who is the crappy GM who thought it was a good idea to pay Wacha $7M?

It's gotta be... Devers Forevers!

All some noticed was trading away 2 months of Vaz.

I think the Sox were all set to call up Casas, but he got hurt at exactly the wrong time. Wasn't Devers called up after about 3 years in the minors?

And Wink?

That's assuming Renfroe ages well. Not many players do better after age 30 than before, like Dewey did. Renfroe has had 3 decent seasons and has never played over 144 games in a season, only 2 seasons over 122 games and 3 over 117 games. I think that is a huge leap of faith on Renfroe's abilities and aging composition. Even when Evans struggled, his defense and OBP made him a net plus for pretty much all of his 20 seasons in MLB. He never had a bWAR below 0.3, and for his middle 16 seasons, his lowest bWAR was 1.2. His next 2 lowests were 2.0 and 3.0!

No doubt, that plays into it, hence the "intricacy" term used.

We have brought up Whitlock (a prospect but not really ours), Houck, Wink, Crawford, Wong, Ja Davis, who have mostly done well, and guys like Bello, Seabold and a couple others who have not done all that well, so far.

Sounds about right, unless all three are hitting well.

I don't see a good comp between Renfroe and Evans. They are too dissimilar in almost every category. Renfore hits way more HRs, which makes their SLG% close. They both had strong arms. That's about it. You mentioned BAs being about the same, but they really were not. The OBP, throwing accuracy and overall defense are way apart. I'm okay with Renfroe reminding you of Evans. I just don't see it. I'm not sure how current payroll plays into the comp.

The trumpeting blares at just how bad Bloom's inherited pitchers were, this year in ERA, not how great the staff was. The staff is 13th in ERA- and 9th in xFIP-. There is no sugar-coating how bad this staff was. These numbers show a more balanced credit/blame matrix. By pitchers (30+ IP): ERA- 47 Scheiber 66 Wacha 74 Whitlock 77 Houck (DD's guy) 78 Sawamura 98 Danish 102 Nate (DD) 102 Crawford (DD) 103 Diekman 110 Pivetta 115 Wink 115 Davis 116 Hill 130 Brasier (DD) xFIP- 67 Schreiber 83 Whitlock 84 Nate (DD) 87 Brasier (DD) 92 Houck (DD) 102 Danish 104 Crawford (DD) 105 Pivetta 105 Sawamura 108 Wacha 109 Davis 111 Hill 114 Diekman 115 Wink

No doubt. Other GMs had equal deadwood to Sale being on their 4th year budget, so yes, no excuses.

Damn edit function not working, again. Renfroe's career BA is .238. It's .246, this year

Evans aged very well. Renfroe is 30, and it remains to be seen how he ages. Evans was more than just an arm in RF, and his arm was not only strong, it was accurate as hell. I'm not sure where your BA information is coming from but here are their career lines, which include Dwight's past prime years: BA .272 Evans OBP. .370 Evans (This alone, blows any comp with renfroe out of the water, IMO.) .298 Renfroe SLG .470 Evans .490 Renfroe (makes up a little for lower OBP) Defense: 8 GGs Evans 0 top 10m finishes in GG voting

2BB and 7Ks

Some K:BB ratios on the farm: 75:7 Walter (.585 OPSA as well.) 115:13 Van Belle (lets up a lot of hits) 118:34 Bello (might be our best farm pitching hope) 129:38 Drohan (showing signs) 120:54 Murphy (Could be our closer for the future?) 81:21 Santos (.789 OPSA not so great) 94:32 Keller (the quiet one) 95:33 Uberstine (the sleeper?) 98:48 Gonzalez (needs to improve, here.) 59:26 Mata (not bad in rehab) 66:18 Seabold (over-rated?) 54:18 in 39 IP Frank German (Closer material?)

Ref should be on the big club. I see Kike is playing, now. Hmmm...

Wong will have an option, and if RHern and Wong are as close as I think they are, there is no harm in starting Wong in AAA and RHern as the back-up. This is assuming McGuire starts and is not the back-up. If he is, then we likely trade RHern.

Good summary. The Bobby V signing was a complete disaster and wake-up call. Would it be right to can Cora for the 2022 disaster?

I've been a Sox fan since the early 70's, so I suffered a long time. Tons and tons of heartbreak, frustration and worse. I remember telling my fellow Sox friends that I'd take 10 last place finishes for just one ring. Well, after that ring in 2004, my attitude changed, but I'm still willing to sustain some down years, if and only if the future keeps looking brighter and brighter. I don't "worry about" the Sox exceeding the tax limit, but it is what it is. I'm not going to just fall back on, "Henry needs to spend more" as the answer to everything (not that that is your position.) I think this team is building up for a more sustainable winning team, but it remains to be seen, if it works. They gave up on that path when they hired DD. Those 3 years were great, and maybe we go that route again, at some point, if Bloom's plan backfires. I admit, I let 2021 get my expectations too high for a quicker turn-around than I initially expected after 2019, but I do think we're on the right path. This season would really suck, if I thought we were getting worse, long term. This winter's additions will be telling. We could easily e worse, but bringing back Bogey, JD, Nate and everyone else does not look all that promising, either, to me.

It took the Astros a few years of tanking and a long time to build up the farm where they could sustain letting a few stars go to free agency and having fresh blue chippers to step in. That is a very hard thing to do, and even harder to sustain, but they look to be on the right path.

He was the clubhouse leader, for sure, yet the team did not pout and cry, when he was traded. Yet, this team management was bashed for trading one our three apparent clubhouse leaders, in Vaz, and the team did not come close to responding like the O's did after the Mancini trade. Oh, the intricacies of the game of baseball.

In hindsight, was it right to can Tito?