moonslav59

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?

Maybe mediocrity is a step to excellence.

I don't disagree, but we are talking about the best GM and manager the Sox have ever had, here.

No doubt, but the thing is, it went on during winning seasons, too. We blamed Tito. We blamed Theo. We canned one of the best of the best Sox manager we ever had over this. What I was trying to get at with my "lesson learned" comment was not about making it okay to do what those gys did, but maybe not to play the blame game so harshly we make choices that have lasting negative affects- like firing Tito. Now, we are facing extreme bashing of Cora and Bloom over what is happening, now. Is it totally justifiable? I remember thinking Tito lost control of the team, back then, and agreed he had to go. I'm thinking I over-reacted and so did Sox top brass. Maybe not.

It appears the attempt to not turn off fans by "throwing in the towel" did not work. I don't think that's a radical position to hold. I think it helped lead to the decision to not trade JD, Nate, Wacha, Hill, Strahm and others. I'd totally understand that would have made a lot of fans angry. It's not rocket science. On the whole "Red thing." I admit I went too far, too many times. I can explain it away all I want as just playing tit for tat, but I was just as responsible for the grief I caused others having to put up with our BS. I've put Red, JD and Swi on ignore to try and avoid continuing or lessening the grief and personal attacks, but apparently it hasn't worked all that well. I am able to see a few posts by those I ignore, when others respond to them, and I'm happy with my choice to put and keep them on ignore. I don't want to open a can of worms or try and tell anyone what they should do. I don't want to try and force my ideas on anyone else. I realize it is a very rare thing when anyone on this site convinces someone else to change their opinion. I give my opinions, fully expecting someone or maybe even many people to disagree. I know I get testy, too easily. I'm trying to work on that, but I'm not perfect. I love the Sox, and I know most of those I disagree with on this site do, too (except JD.) We all have different expectations, viewpoints and opinions. What a boring world it would be, if we all agreed on everything. I do think I have tried hard to not make things personal, but sometimes it doesn't come across that way, and I apologize for my behaviors, in the past, most recently towards dgale and others. I'll continue to try and improve my tone and testiness, but I'm human. There is nothing like a bad stretch by the Sox to bring out the worst in most of us. Again, I sincerely apologize. No excuses. I went too far, too many times.

Every time a team does poorly, especially if there were high expectations, the blame game goes berserk. Where was the team leadership and manager through all that chickengate mess? Ow was the "mess" just a made up excuse? Did we learn a lesson from all that?

So, wait! Bogey, JD and Vaz are not good clubhouse leaders? I'm confused.

Or, it takes a long time to get there.

Seems to be a consistent trait of every Sox GM since early Theo.

an important distinction lost on several posters.

1/3 is about $8M. cots shows we are $11.8M over, right now, and I assume that counts Vaz's cut.

I read somewhere it was about $7M, and that trading JD alone would get us under. cots shows you are correct, so maybe trading JD, Vaz and Dieman would have gotten us close. Probably would have had to trade Wacha, Kike or Hill, too.

Good one. Vic had a 3 year deal and was eventually traded for fan favorite Josh Rutledge.