moonslav59
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Everything posted by moonslav59
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Devers and Bogey are gone? Did I miss something? BTW, I really liked DD but part of the reason we got where we are today was the depletion of the farm by 2019. Should Bloom have emptied the farm to win now? BRW
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Even AA & AAA. I can see avoiding signing a player, long term, to play a position where you have a blue-chipper in AA or AAA, but even then, a position change or trade is always available, if there is a bottleneck.
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I agree, those losses hurt more, and may have lasting affects on team morale and confidence. I also think losing on a late error or base-running blunder hurts like hell, too. That big error by Story with 2 outs and the lead, followed by a BB and a dinger was a horrible loss, and could be partially blamed for setting the tone. The games where the offense goes flat and is the main reason for a loss, don't seem to have such a lasting affect, unless the slump continues onwards.
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His defense has really declined, in recent years.
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Just because there was one series, where our pen sucked, but did not blow any games, doesn't mean a closer is not important or very important. Maybe others are blowing the closer impact out of proportion does not mean undervaluing the role is the right position to hold.
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Isn't going from bad to worse kind of like a double negative that turns it into a positive? Am I reaching with Murphy? When things can't get any worse or chaotic, isn't there just one way to go? If anything, Murphy preaches there is not constants.
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With all due respect, I think you guys have beaten this horse to death several times, already. I do the same thing, too, at times, so I'm not trying to sound holier than thou, but nothing new is being added to this debate. I will add that the team is 50-5 when ahead after 7 innings and 52-4 when ahead after 8. The numbers when tied are troubling: 8-8 after 6 5-9 after 7 4-10 after 8 7-7 after 9 One has to expect, even the teams with good closer would have lost some of these games, too, so how many "extra loses" are we talking about, here? Sure, even 2-3 would make a big difference in the WC standings, but so would just having decent 1B defense, better offense, better SP'ing, better set up men and less blunders on the basepaths or on defense. Closer has been a weak spot on this team. There is no doubt about that. It does matter. How much is debatable, and how much moving Whitlock or Houck to closer earlier would have hurt another area should be considered, too. You both have logical positions. It's time to let it go, IMO.
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I was big on trying to get Stallings. He's apparently very good with the staff, too. I must have suggested 2 dozen trades with PIT to get him- sometimes with others included. I do think that was a clear sign the Sox had concerns about Vaz's intangibles on defense. His trade is more evidence that they wanted to move on from what he brought to the team, clubhouse leadership and all. I don't know enough about McGuire to comment on his intangibles, but my guess is, he falls into the Stallings, Plawecki, Leon category of working well with pitchers and doing the unmeasurable very well. I hope they know what they are doing, here. Stallings took a huge nosedive on offense in 2022. (.701 career before 2022 to .576 in '22, which looks like Plawecki material. The team is 37-42 in his starts, however, and 14-23 in games he did not start. The staff has a .690 OPSA with him catching and .738 with Fortes catching/.752 with Henry catching. The 2 years of McGuire's team control far outweighed Vaz's 2 months, IMO.
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I'm not sure why you keep bringing up our record since the Vaz trade. We added Pham, McGuire and Hosmer, so the team's change goes way beyond changing our regular catcher. BTW, Vaz has started 5 of the Astros 13 games since the trade and is hitting .571 OPS. McGuire has started 5 games for the Sox and has a 1.056 OPS, so far. The sample sizes are so small, I consider them near meaningless. The team got better by the trades- both now and likely going forward, too. We got Wacha back, and maybe Kike and others will join the team, soon. I think things look brighter after the deadline.
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No doubt. It was also fun as all hell to watch the low cost Uehara mow down batter after batter like no Sox RP'er had ever done before. It won't be easy finding someone even close to Koji, but I think that is the type of initial closer profile we are seeking.
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Yes, I took it that way. I was just emphasizing the scope of what Bloom & Cora faced in July and early August. We did get to see some good or promising things from our farm, and some not so great, but it looks like some pieces are falling back into place, and not so coincidentally, we are starting to win again- and vs good opps, to boot.
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But the plan is to find a cheap but good closer and set-up- maybe via trade.
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Maybe the whole obsession with going overboard to assign blame is the root of the problem. I get how finding who or what went wrong enables a path to corrections, but the blame game has gotten out of hand, IMO. (Plus, as you pointed out, it's never "my fault."
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I think expecting injuries should have been part of the plan, but no GM plans for their best 5 out of 6 starters to be on the IL at the same time. (BTW, there was talk, in March, that maybe Paxton would be ready by July/Aug, or the time Wacha came off his rehab.
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This is one reason I chose those 2 slots to "let be." However, I also agree on not spending big money or prospect capital on upgrading those two slots. To me, our most pressing needs are (in order): 1. CF 2. Ace or solid #2 type 3. 2B/SS T4. C T4. RF/DH 6. Closer/solid set-up for Houck 7. SP depth 8. 1B/DH 9. Pen depth 10. OF depth
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Maybe, the bad luck trend has run dry.
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Hmm....
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This was June 19th. My post was made in jest- someone called it "trolling," but I did think the Yankee pitching staff had been playing over their heads. I did not expect this steep of a decline: Pre 6/19 > post 6/19 ERA: 3.29 (85 ERA-) > 3.86 (100) xFIP 3.60> 3.79 WHIP 1.11>1.17 K/BB 3.4> 3.1 Hardly a "slump," but the ERA- sure took a major hit.
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Not for us.
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I disagree. It was the one plus from the Renfroe trade (prospects pending.) JBJ: Second best UZR/150 out of all RF'ers with 500+ innings in RF. T3 in DRS.
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Good analogy. (I wasn't dissing Devers. I loved the kid from year one. I was just saying that some other Sox prospects had similar or better numbers at those ages, especially at A- and A+ ball, and did not turn out as good.)
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The thing is, we improved at SS and 3B without changing who we had. We greatly improved 2B defense with Story. We greatly improved RF defense with JBJ. Our 1B defense was atrocious. Our CF defense suffered with Kike's injury. Our LF defense was maybe the same as 2021- not great/not horrible. I won't get into catcher D. Obviously, something went wrong along the way to improving D.
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With the club option for 2023, don't we want to see if he's got something left? The way I read the option is that Paxton can take $4M or the Sox have to give him $13M x 2 for '23 and '24. We need to know a bit more, right?
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Family Dollar
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You don't see adding Hosmer, a real 1Bman, and Pham, the RH'd OF bat we've craved all year might have outweighed the Vaz to McGuire downgrade? To me, trading Diekman was an addition by subtraction, despite DHern's numbers, since the trade. We will replace him going forward. Pham and Hosmer add a lot to this team, even in mainly support roles. Maybe this McGuire kid ends up doing better than Vaz, not just this year, but going forward and at a much lower cost.
