moonslav59

I'm curious on what people expected Bloom to do when handed what he was given after 2019, told to dump Betts and given just $20M to spend on 2020 and $40M on 2021. I guess expectations were much higher than I had. This was the roster at the end of 2019: Sale (IL), Eovaldi, ERod, Price (to be dumped), Porcello (FA) and B Johnson Workman, Barnes, Taylor, Walden, DHern, Brasier, Hembree and a bunch of scrubs named Lakins, Weber, Velazquez, Chacin, Brewer, Poyner, T Kelley Vaz & Leon Moreland & Sam Travis Holt & Marco Hernandez Bogey & C Owings Devers Beni & Gorkys JBJ Betts (to be traded) JD Sure, there is a solid core of 6-10 players, but the rest were at or near replacement level, and Betts & Price were traded (not Bloom's fault), and Sale & Erod missed 2020 while others like Beni missed some. Bloom was supposed to make us a contender on a $20M winter spending budget? Really? Seriously? Okay, he was given $40M to spend before 2021, but when you consider we needed about 10 slots filled, not to mention trying to beef up the rest of the weak 40 man and farm at the same time, I think building a team 2 games away from a WS appearance rates at higher than a "C". This past winter, he was given a comparable amount to spend as other past Sox GMs, but still with limits. Diekman looks like a bust, but that was just $4M x 2. Story has not lived up to expectations, so far, and he was his only LNL signings, so I guess maybe some are taking away big points on this move. Hill has been Okay. Wacha and Strahm have been miracles. Other key additions made by Bloom since taking over: Whitlock- rule 5 Pivetta & Seabold- trade (Workman & Hembree) Schreiber- waivers Kike- FA A Davis- trade German- with Ottavino trade Paxton- FA more for 2023 and beyond Arroyo- waivers R Hernandez- trade Sawamura- cheap FA signing Verdugo, Downs and Wong (Betts) Cordero, Winckowski and long shots for Beni JBJ, Binelas & Hamilton for Renfroe (who he signed to replace JBJ B4 2021) Draft & IFA: Mayer Yorke Bleis Murphy McDonough Lugo Song Jordan Hickey

Does anyone know what happened to Sale's ribs?

Wait... Refsnyder is pregnant?

I think the Dodgers used Kershaw in relief in the previous WS. The interesting thing about 2018 was that once Eovaldi volunteered to pitch in relief (in a loss, no less), a line formed outside Cora's door with other starters wanting in on the idea.

And baseball smarts also help players take extra bases on its, too.

Good stuff. When you figure Mayer missed time, his 8 looks even larger.

The fact that he totally bought into the FT 2B role, even if Bogey got hurt or needed a rest shows he's fine playing 2B, and he has quickly turned himself into a whiz on D, there. We might try finding a 1 year solution at SS, next year, or give the kids a chance. Right now, the most ML ready SSs might be Downs, Fitzy or Arroyo. I'm not sure Sox Nation could handle that part of the plan. I guess if we get someone else glitzy at another position, they might live with it. But who? Judge? BTW, I see different numbers for Story at SS. fangraphs: 2021 +9 DRS at SS +3.1 UZR/150 2019-2021 DRS 40 Baez 36 Correa 36 Story 30 Delong (-18 Bogey) UZR/150 9.5 Rojas 8.2 Simmons 7.4 Delong 6.7 Lindor 5.9 Story 4.6 Baez 2.2 Crawford & Correa 1.8 Adames 1.4 Kiner-Falefa, Ahmed & Bogey

This is the thing I love about Devers, and it's not stat based or metric driven. The guy is an unconventional hitter with amazing instincts, batting skills and hand-eye coordination. My philosophy is that a winning line-up needs batters with varying approaches and a bit of unpredictability, especially to beat teams that study the hell out of their opponent's tendencies and hitting strategies. How can any team or pitcher plan to pitch Devers? You can't. What you beat him with the previous 5 times will lead to a homer on the 6th. When you are facing a pitcher who seems to have our line-up's number, there is always Devers there to throw a wrench in his groove. He may look bad swinging at some pitches a foot out of the zone, but he has a certain calmness about his approach that strongly reminds me of Manny. He also seems to have fun playing the game- like Manny, too, but without the immaturity or childishness coming out in bad ways. Sign this guy. PLEASE! Just do it. Devers Forevers!

Certainly a possibility.

I had a few head-scratching moments, this winter, and giving this guy two years was one. He's not making big money ($8M/2 counting his 3rd year buyout), but with the very few 2 year deals Bloom has given out, Diekman's seems strange. (Sawamura is another, but at $1.5M per, he's making nearly the min wage.) I doubt Bloom gives up, this quickly, on Diekman, but I share your opinion. He has been deserving of a DFA.

Maybe. Maybe not. I'm not saying I'm against calling someone up to replace at least one of these guys, but there is a chance one of these guys could regain their best stuff, again. They have already shown they can be good, at the ML level, for extended times. They just haven't shown it, recently, and we all know how most RP'ers are up and down. I'm not defending giving these guys endless chances, but I think that's what the continuous recycling of our botton 6-8 guys is all about- hoping one or two can turn things around and become the pitchers they were when they were pretty good. Expecting Seabold, Crawford or Winckowski to do well, just because they have "upside" is an unlikely gamble, too. To me, German and maybe Bello are in a separate category, but they may be deemed not ML ready, at this moment.

I'm not advocating keeping any of these guys, unless they have options. I'm just saying they all have shown something to stick in the bigs, this long, and all have have shown decent stuff as recently as last year, except Brasier. My other point is that many of the farm names thrown around are not really known for having nasty stuff, except maybe German, who was just recently promoted.

They won't rush him, even if he's mashing, but 2024 would be fantastic.

Sounds about right. There may be several promotions around that time. Some of these guys are doing so well, they deserve a bigger challenge. Some are aging out of their levels, and it's time to see what they can do at the next level, deserving or not. Maybe a few prospects being traded at the deadline will open up some room for promotions, as well.

I'd seriously consider keeping Refsnyder or bringing up Duran, when Kike returns. Trade or DFA Arroyo. I've been a fairly big supporter of Arroyo, in the past, and as a back-up IF'er he's not the worst utility guy in MLB, but as an OF'er, I agree. That experiment needs to end, and now. With Bogey's status for 2023 unknown, maybe they want to keep Arroyo around, but it's not hard to replace a guy like him, next winter, for a low cost.

Other managers have done the same sort of thing in the playoffs, but risk is often thrown out the window, when a title is on the line. Look at the Bill Walton example.

No, not at all, but let's not be so sure they have nasty stuff that is clearly better than the current RP'ers who are underperforming or, maybe, just plain suck. We all know RP'ers are a fickle bunch. The vast majority are very hard to project production and vary wildly from year-to- year or month-to-month. That may be one reason why managers and GM stick with struggling RP'ers for much longer than many of us would have done. (Another reason might be that the manager has no better options.) I'm not defending our RP'ers, who have sucked so far, this year, or saying that calling up a German, Seabold or someone else isn't a good idea. I'm just saying some of these guys might turn tings around, and some have some nasty stuff and have been pretty good, as recently as last year. Sometimes sticking with a player for a long time fails miserably- sometimes it doesn't. Will Barnes ever come close to what he was even before the first half of 2021? Can Robles pitch like he did at the end of 2021? Was Brasier ever as good as he looked in 2018, or was that just a mirage? (It was a long time ago, but he does seem to throw some good stuff, every so often.) What seems to be the biggest issue with our pen is not so much about them giving up too many hits, walks and homers, it's their timing. We've used 14 pitchers in relief roles, and looking at the numbers I see a few surprising facts: 1) Our pen has a .650 OPS Against, whereas our starters have a .282 OPSA. (Note: this is not to say I think they have done a better job, but only to say they've done okay- just not when it counts most.) 2) This is the shocker, IMO, out of the 14 RP'ers used this year, only 4 have an OPS Against below the team average of .650. .742 Diekman .784 Barnes .871 Brasier .908 Crawford (yesterday's hero) 3) The Cora bashers will love this one; one main reason our team OPSA is .650 with only 4 of 14 pitchers over .650, is how much those 4 have b een used: Most PAs Against (in relief ONLY): 104 Houck 100 Diekman 97 Davis 90 Brasier 88 Danish 81 Barnes 80 Sawamura 80 Robles 4 of the top 8 76 Strahm 71 Schreiber 55 Crawford 53 Valdez 35 Whitlock 4 Plawecki Granted, some of these PAs Against were in mop up roles, and some of our better RP'ers do not go multiple innings, so some context is needed, but some of these PAs have been high leverage or Late & Close by our worst RP'ers, and this is where Cora's choices come into question. Late & Close PAs Against (Note: some may be as a SP'er): 70 Robles (.590 OPSA) I'd have thought it would be much worse than .590. 58 Strahm (.722) I'd have thought his numbers would be better than Robles, here. 51 Diekman (.717) Not really a horrible number. 39 Schreiber (.427) The unsung hero. 27 Davis (.738) 25 Houck (.670) Should see more use in this role going forward 24 Barnes (1.010) 23 Brasier (.998) 18 Whitlock (.278) 14 Danish (1.095) Clearly a 6th or 7th inning guy) 10 Crawford (.800) 7 Sawamura (.629) Cora must not trust him 4) Maybe Houck can nail down the closer role. Strahm and Schreiber can be decent back-up closers or solid set-up men, but a winning pen needs to be deeper than 3 pitchers, and none of these 3 have long histories of being very good for full seasons in these roles. It seems obvious we need new blood, either b y trade or by giving some prospect a chance. The question is when?

Devers is truly a wonder.

They have a day they throw, but not at the level of a game, and coming into a game involves warming up and stepping out of their normal routine. Baseball is very much into routines and patterns- for good or bad.

Maybe before.

Duran went 3 for 4 with his 5th dinger. Downs hit his 10th and went 1-2 w a BB Hamilton, Rafaela and Castellanos all went 2 for 5- the last 2 had 2Bs. Greenville hit 4 HRs, including McDonough who went 2-4, Scott 2-5, Binelas 1-5 & Davis 2-4. Flores went 2-2 w 2 BB. Northcut actually had a non HR hit and 2 BBs! Mayer went 2-4 with his 4th HR & 15th 2B. Jordan had a 2B.

Vote.

I'm all for giving these guys a shot, and we have tried Winckowski and Crawford, but most of our farm guys are projected as back end starters, at best, so I'm not so sure they clearly have "better stuff." Some of our RP'ers doing very poorly have some pretty good stuff. Some have been getting most of the batters out and have have low OPS Against, but they have just failed at the worst possible moments. I'd like to see German get a shot. I trust Bloom to know when the right time is, but mistakes can be made with these choices.

Hip injury- day to day

Huge game for Crawford and the pen! Spring board this- one game at a time!