moonslav59

It’s hard enough to predict how well journeymen RPers will do in any given year in MLB, but I have to think they have better odds in Japan, unless they have serious adjustment to culture problems.

Merry Christmas!

Well, we did sign Andriese to an AAV of $2.1M and Sawamura to an AVV of $1.5M. Maybe his 4.55 ERA over his first 358 IP (over 4 seasons) was enough to impress Bloom. Certainly, his last 2 years should not have impressed anyone, but you know how most RP'ers are up and down. I'm thinking the odds favor him doing better in Japan.

Not surprising. Players need to stick together and demand a stiff raise for min wage and pre-arb salary raises.

Player Salaries down... https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2021/12/2021-leaguewide-player-payroll-reportedly-down-4-relative-to-2019.html

Yes, it's quantity vs quality. I think he's just hoping 1 or 2 from Hill, Wacha and Paxton do well or plus.

I wouldn't mind seeing him and/or Robles back, at the right price.

Certainly yes! (2.7 bWAR, BTW) ERA+ 113 Ottavino 109 Robles 100 ERod 100 Perez 97 Richards 97 Rios 97 Workman 79 Andriese 64 Brice

These three can eat ERod's & Ottavino's innings, but there are hundreds of other innings needed to be replaced, too- inning of less than mediocrity.

The Perez, Richards, Andriese and Sawamura signing were no more impressive, and we ended up doing well, despite their lack of solid production. I'm hopeful we add 2 more solid pen arms-perhaps by trade.

Every year I get all optimistic over replacing mostly bad numbers with hopeful additions, and yet the following year just produces a whole new set of replaceable players with similar numbers and IP & PAs. I don't expect 2022 to be much different, but I remain hopeful we can do better with next winter's list. Here is what we are replacing, and I'm including some players still in our system, but who are expected not to play or to play just in mop up situations: IP/ERA 158/4.74 ERod 137/4.87 Richards 114/4.74 Perez 62.0/4.21 Ottavino 37.1/6.03 Andriese 25.0/3.60 Robles 24.1/3.70 Rios 20.0/4.95 Workman 13.2/6.59 Brice 30+/XXX Weber, Peacock, Feliz, Gonsalves, Schreiber, Brennen, Espinal... That's over 600 IP! (Over 43% of the 2021 team IP total!!!) Plus, maybe less IP by Valdez (40). Replaced by... Hill (100+?) Wacha (100+?) Paxton (50+?) TBA RP (60+?) TBA RP (60+?) We might get 350-400 from this group plus more IP from... Whitlock (73), Houck (69), Sale (43), Barnes (55), Taylor (48), DHern (40), Davis (17), Brasier (12), Seabold (3), Bazardo (3), Crawford (2), Winckowski, Feltman (0) PA/OPS 572/.816 Renfroe 271/.567 Marwin 168/.957 Schwarber 136/.497 Cordero 127/.597 Santana 82/.549 Chavis 75/.643 Arauz 64/.915 Iggy 48/.843 Shaw 16/.522 Lopez 11/.182 Munoz 7/1.262 Motter While losing Renfroe, Schwarber, Iggy and Shaw (852 PAs combined) looks very bad, there are also 725 PAs of scrubs combined that bring the overall numbers down to pretty close to mediocrity. (This is clearly the more difficult set of numbers to replace) Replaced by... JBJ (250+) TBA (450+) Suzuki? More PAs by... Bogey (603), Kike (585), Dalbec (453), Arroyo (181), Duran (112), Casas (0) I'm cautiously optimistic we can improve on 2021's overall numbers with 3 more solid additions: OF/2B, RP & RP.

While the three Bloom signed do not look all that good, it should not be real difficult to improve on Perez(114 IP) , Richards (137), Andriese (37) and a bunch of scrubs totaling about 100 IP. It's replacing ERod (158) and to some extent Ottavino (62) that seems more difficult, but then again, their 2021 numbers don't seem too hard to replace: ERA/WHIP 4.74/1.39 ERod 4.21/1.45 Ottavino Bloom has said he plans on addressing the pen before opening day- whenever that is. If we can add a couple solid pen arms and someone like Suzuki, I can't see how anyone can say we took a step back or sideways- overall. Possible 26 Man: Eovaldi, Sale, Hill, Pivetta, Wacha (Paxton IL) Houck, Whitlock, FA, FA, Barnes, Taylor, Brasier, DHern/Sawamura/Davis/Valdez/Bazardo 1. Kike 2B/CF 2. Devers 3B 3. JD DH 4. Bogey SS 5. Verdugo LF 6. Suzuki RF 7. Dalbec 1B (July? Casas) 8. JBJ CF/Arroyo 2B (platoon: see Kike's positions) 9. Vazquez (Plawecki)

I don't think 1 or 2 of the 3 pitchers he signed were all that surprising. Getting all 3 was, to me. The JBJ trade was surprising, but I think Bloom must really like the prospects more than any of us do, so I guess this might be like the Ottavino deal from last winter. Signing Suzuki or Story would be a big surprise on the other end of the spectrum. I don't expect either one to be in a Sox uniform, next year.

We won’t even look at the tires.

We can be right by speculating Bloom will not do what we expect.

Two big strikes.

No doubt. JBJ's defense might save a few runs, but 96 is a lot to make up. Hopefully, we find a good RH'd bat for the OF to ease some of the offense lost, and maybe it's Suzuki. Or, we get a decent 2B bat, so Kike plays OF FT. We need the pen built up.

Does he pitch?

You have someone who agrees with you... https://www.nbcsports.com/boston/red-sox/making-case-red-sox-sign-carlos-correa

Once pressure builds, maybe they’ll change their minds

They might agree to begin play under the old rules until an agreement is made.

I’m excited about seeing Yorke in’22 as he advance upward to higher levels. Duran still seems to have a ways to go to become a FTer.

Which is very likely a zero chance of happening this time.

Of course, the owners will try, but if the players refuse, there wont be one. I'm not sure why you feel they have to be linked. It seems obvious, the lower-spending teams are not using revenue sharing on player salaries.

You can have a floor and a lux tax at the top. There is no need to have a firm cap with a firm floor.