moonslav59

You have to count the losses we'd have when Whitlock pitched well in long relief or as a starter. Subtract those from the projected wins we'd have with him closing, assuming he did very well in the closer role. I'm not doubting we'd have been better, but we can never know. It's a trade off. The fact that we lost many games where Whitlock pitched well in long relief or as a starter does not take away from the fact that he helped put us in a position to win, and a weak closer lost those games. Flip the roles, and maybe Whitlock never gets that many save opportunities, because the new long man is coughing up dingers, left and right, and we're down 6 by the 8th and 9th innings. We are 6-4 in games Whitlock has pitchers, and in all but 1 of those wins, he pitched very well. (That was his last start.) In the 4 losses he pitched in, he blew one save and started 3 games, where he allowed 3 ERs, total! It's hard for me to look at those 3 starts and say that because he we didn't win, he was misused. We've had this running debate for a while, but IMO, Houck's profile fits the closer role better than starter/long relief, and Whitlock's fits the starter/long relief role better than Houck. Better than closer? Who really knows? He's dove very well as a starter and long man. Yes, this year, his numbers in relief are much better than as a starter, but most of those numbers were not as a traditional closer (1 IP, maybe a little more every now and then).

And his OBP is 65 points higher than Beni's- more if you compare it to Beni's numbers after the trade. Just saying both of their names in the same sentence is Pink Hat extraordinaire/ Beni apologist territory.

It's you making the strawman argument. Where did I say or even hint Bloom is not accountable? Of course Henry's head will not roll. I was making a point about not signing Devers being more of Henry's call than Bloom's. If henry gives Bloom $110M, next winter, and he chooses to sign let-down free agents instead of extending Devers, then of course, it's all on Bloom, but he was just barely been given his first freedom to sign a longer term guy a couple months ago (Story.) Can we give the guy a chance? It's not like Bloom's moves have burdened the budget. It's not like the totality of Bloom's moves have been s*****. He brought a team crippled with debt and a sad bottom 20 on the 40 man roster and $40M to fix it. Only Story's contract continues past 2022, unless you want to count Diekman's $4M for 2023, then he's done. This next winter is Bloom's make or break period. The Story signing will be part of his evaluation after 2023. If we suck by then, I won't be defending Bloom. No, you can't fire the owner, but fans can blame him or Bloom for losing Devers, and I'm sure they both will get roasted, if we lose him.

Sounds like the Sox excuses when our starters were doing great. but we were still losing.

Nobody said he was a great runner. We compared him to the even slower runners on this team you thought would have been better. You also changed the subject on Vaz being the last catcher available. Just admit you were an idiot on that one, and stop moving the goalposts.

.288 and a .779 OPS since the trade- hardly Boggsish.

You'd rather we kept Workman and Hembree, instead of getting Pivetta and Seabold? BTW, you do know, with the money saved on the Beni trade, we signed Renfroe to play OF, right?

Yes, we should have kept Nomar, Ellsbury and Workman.

We also avoided paying Betts $40m X 10+ and half of Price's contract for several years. That money saved helped us sign Renfroe, Kike, Wacha, Hill and Starhm plus many more to come. It was not just about one year of Betts for a "grab bag."

If we lose Devers it will be with henry's blessing. Should his head roll, too? Bloom did not extend Sale. He did sign Story and extend Barnes, but I doubt those contracts are keeping us from extending Devers to a market rate contract.

I did not say by May 24th. Look at the May 6th numbers, as in "early May." I never said he might heat up on the exact same dates. BTW, he's at a whopping .613 in his last 9 games! Signs of starting to heat up? Who knows?

I'm not predicting a Dalbec heat-up, but he looked just as awful last April and early May. On May 6th, 2021: 1 HR 6 rbi and .507 OPS May 26, 2021: 5 HR 21 rbi .640 OPS On May 4, 2022: 1 HR 3 rbi and .441 OPS May 24, 2022: 1 HR 6 rbi and .486 OPS

You never know. If Dalbec heats up, like he did last summer, and our OF'er continue to all hit under .600, maybe we'll see him in LF more and more, especially vs LHPs.

One of the very few.

It's easier to ignore his defense in LF.

You knew a bad stretch was bound to happen, at some point. Now, how long will it last?

Yes, the bid 3 beyond pitching are (in no order) 2B, C, CF/RF. In 4th place might be RF/CF. Depending on where we decide to play Whitlock and Houck, we'll need at least 3 solid pitchers. That's 6-7 major slots to fill with perhaps $110M to spend (per year). That's not chump change. In the past 2 seasons, Bloom had about $40M to fill 10 slots before '21 and about $60M to fill 8 slots, this past winter.

If we have the same budget, next year, we should have about $100-110M to spend on... SP SP/RP RP 2B CF C RF That's 7 major slots and assuming 1B/DH will be covered by Casas/Dalbec/Cordero. I'm not counting on... Arroyo/Downs/Fitzy to cover 2B Duran/Cordero/Verdugo/JBJ/Fitzy to cover the whole OF Wong/RHern/Cottam to cover C and back-up C Bello/Winckowski/Seabold/Walter/Groome/Mata/German to cover a major pitching slot But out of all of these, I dislike the catching choices the most.

I think Rafaela has a chance to reach the top 100, but Walter might have the best chance of all.

I might count on him as the back-up, but we need a real catcher in '23.

Keep righting themselves, yes.

No doubt, Judge is worth more than Bogey, even if we didn't have Story, already. Maybe Devers takes $27.5M x 10.

Yes, but I've still lost hope. The guy hit close to .800 from '19-'20, but he seems to have lost that groove. I wish we had gotten Stallings.

Replace Bogey with Judge and all the nay-sayers will shut up. (Probably not. There's Devers to sign, too, and there's always Sale to bitch about.)

I've not given up on Dalbec, Verdugo or Kike's bats. Any one could fill in with a hot streak, if Cordero's is not sustained. I've all but given up on Vaz. JBJ is always tough to project.