moonslav59

...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?

Oh, I noticed! How do you massively cut your budget year one and then fill 10+ slots on $40M, year 2, and make the whole team solid? You'd think our GM came from Tampa, or something... err... what? wait...

How many GMs in MLB would NOT give a 26 year old player, who started his career off with an .819 OPS and 33 HRs 94 RBIs in his first 156 games (497 ABs), a pretty long look? Now, how long he and Cora stuck with him in 2021, which worked well in 201, but was a disaster, this season, is a point well-taken.

They hardly gave Bogey any prep time at 3B, even in the minors. I think they played him 10 games at 3B before throwing him into a new position in the heat of a ring run, as a rookie. Some blamed that move on slowing his progress, out of the gate, but we won, and all was good in La-La Red Sox Nation.

Let's be honest. Year one, Bloom had to make serious cuts to the budget. He essentially had to trade Betts and Price just to have a few measly millions to try and make the 2020 team presentable. You can say he failed, but seriously, who could have produced a winner on that winter spending budget and ERod and Sale out all year? Year two, one could view having spending $40M as more than what most teams get, and you'd be right, but the roster had at least 10 slots to fill without even being able to address adding depth beyond those 10 without doing it by waiver-wire, Rule 5 or minor league free agency. Again, did you expect much better than what the team gave us in 2021 on $40M for 10+ slots? Year three, looked like another limited budget, until the big Story splash. No doubt, Bloom is responsible for the Story signing and adding to the budget with the JBJ trade. The Wacha, Hill and Strahm signings were okay, considering the budget limits. All earned their pay, and the year is not over. Even Story is still 2nd in RBIs, despite having way less PAs than Bogey, JD and others. The spending goes in cycles, and IMO, we will spend large again, maybe as soon as this winter.

He's not worth $30M for anything more than 2-3 years.

Of course, they would not sign Bogey just to sock the Sox with PR, but it might be a factor that tips the balance, if they are serious, in the first place. Why wouldn't they? Many felt they were going to sign a big SS, last winter. Maybe a playoff loss might give them the incentive to go "all in." I actually hope they do. Then, they will be like us in a few years.

Maybe so, but Bloom has not been given the winter spending budgets the others have been given, until just before this season started. Click has had to deal with stars leaving due to not wanting to extend them, so maybe we got the wrong one.

Most ring teams have 1 or 2 positions where a player is "passable," and utility IF'er is probably one area you can win without greatness. I would not be happy with Dalbec or Arroyo as our utility IF'er, but if the rest of the team is solid, I'm okay with the idea. Dalbec still has options, so he can be stashed in AAA as injury depth. I like Arroyo, but he's always hurt.

If they lose Judge, Bogey is certainly in play. If they keep Judge, they may still want to hit the Sox where it hurts. They can use their SS prospects at other positions, trade them, of use them to fill in for Bogey, when he changes positions in a couple years or more.

Team's usually don't go with utility players who can only play 1B and 3B. If it comes down to Dalbec vs Arroyo (or Downs), being passable at 2B might be all Dalbec needs to win the 2023 job.

He did not screw up with the Rays, and we'd know, if he did. There is a reason the leader of the Dodgers and Astros' front offices are from the Rays.