moonslav59

Or, Cordero for Fitzy.

We finally face a lefty. It's going to be mid 60's, tonight, so not as warm as last night, but maybe we can keep the bats hot.

At age 32, Charlie Morton has an ERA+ of 86, CAREER. His WHIP was 1.44. FIP was 4.10. When he joined Houston, they helped him focus on his best pitches and changed his approach. From age 33-37 (5 season w HOU, TBR & ATL), he went... 61-24 3.34 128 ERA+ 1.130 WHIP 3.25 FIP You can choose to see him as a career 101 ERA+ pitcher, or you can look past your own nose and see he became a much better pitcher for a sample size worthy of clear proof. Now, one can easily argue Pivetta is no Morton, and his sample size is not yet large enough to prove anything, but he's over 207 IP with the Sox, and certaainly one can imagine he is not the same guy he was with Philly: 78 ERA+ w PHI 106 w BOS 1.433 WHIP w PHI 1.271 w BOS 4.64 FIP w PHI 4.13 w BOS All very good numbers for a #5, and also b etter than many teams' #3's and 4's.

Too many posters assume a player is doomed to repeat his past. Nobody gets better or worse. It's obvious they don't know jack. Like Papi never got better than the Minnesota Papi.

Who said we'd only sign worse players? Also, it is possible to spend the money on the 6 big gaps that will be open on 8-9 players and technically take a step down at all 6 "open slots" but still be just as good, because you are deeper and improved another 2-3 slost by a combined amount bigger than what we lost at the 6 slots. We could lose Bogey & Kike and add Judge and play Arroyo at 2B. Is that a net loss? Yes, we got worse at 2B, but way better in RF. (I'm not saying Bloom will splurge on Judge, bujt can we wait to see what he does with $100+M to spend?[ We've only seen Bloom spend big on one player: Story, and he's been playing about 6-7 weeks. Can we really learn that much about Bloom based on one big signing? You make a good point about man of us seemingly blindly trusting Bloom will do fine signing stars. We really cannot know about this area of his "game," but it seems like many are assuming he will fail, and/or that Bogey cannot be replaced, in kind. We need a SP'er, Catcher, 2Bman, closer and 2 OF'ers & DH. We will probably use Houck or Whitlock as a closer or SP'er, so maybe we have 6-7 major slots to fill and close to $100-110M to spend. Maybe we spend $10M on some depth and have $90-100M leftover to fill those 6-7 major slots. Replace: Wacha/Hill Vazquez Strahm Bogey Kike JBJ JD I know it's hard to find a good catcher, but improving on Vaz might be easier and cheaper than we think. Improving on the 2022 Kike and JBJ, could be done with $5M each. We could have $20M to spend on SP, 2B, OF and DH, assuming we use Whitlock or Houck as a closer. Why imply we will fail?

This is the template. I put ___gaps___ where I think we add someone not in the system, or bring one of our current players back: (Some players may be slotted differently; this is just a rough quideline.) SP1 ________ SP2 Whitlock SP3 Sale SP4 Paxton SP5 Pivetta SP6 Bello/Seabold/Winckowski, (Mata, Walter, Murphy, Ward) Closer _______ RP2 Houck RP3 _______ RP4 Taylor RP5 Barnes RP6 Diekman RP7 _______ RP8 Crawford/German/Politi/Feltman/Kelly/Ort/Wallace C1 ________ C2 Wong, R Hernandez, Cottam 1B Casas (Binelas) 2B ______, Arroyo/Downs/Hamilton (Yorke) 3B Devers SS Story, Arauz (Lugo) LF Verdugo, Duran CF ______, (Rafaela) RF ______, (Jimenez) DH ______, Dalbec, Koss, (McDonough) (Player in parenthesis are likely not ML ready by 2023.)

No, you went beyond that. You started getting critical of him, recently.

Which is now nearly 2 full years and not just a few starts strung together.

I have no issues with jacko. I will say, it's fine to change your opinion as more evidence is gathered, but he does seem to flip and flop on Bloom quite a bit. When we are doing well, he loves and praises him, maybe even secretly dreams of him as the next Yankee GM, but he can suddenly turn on him in the blink of an eye.

Green = sarcasm.

The same reason they've waited this long. July is about as far away as opening day was. Also, sayiung "maybe they...." does not mean I condone waiting. I've been saying name Houck the closer for weeks and wanted it opening day, too.

wow!

No closer has emerged, in part because we have not needed one, lately. I still think Houck should get the role. Maybe they wait until Sale or Paxton return. Maybe, sooner, when Wacha returns. Maybe they make Whitlock the long man again or piggy backer, and move Houch to closer. Maybe they make Whitlock the closer.

To think he got cut by the Astros! OPS+ since 2014 154 139 142 168 165 170 173 139 79 (COVID Year) 126 172 Amazing consistency: besides 2020, he's been between 126 and 173 for 10 years!

I'm not worried about Hill's performance- only his health. That was his first bad start in over 40 starts.

I'd offer than, as of right now.

I would not be surprised to see JD replaced with Dalbec, assuming Dalbec heats up again, this summer. (Note: I'm not saying I like the idea.) FA at C Casas at 1B FA at 2B or Downs/Arroyo/Hamilton/Arauz Story at SS Devers at 3B Verdugo in LF FA in CF FA in RF FA or Dalbec/Cordero/Koss at DH

DHern to have knee surgery. Now, we know why his control has been off.

Indeed. The problem might be that bringing him back at any cost will likely be a step down, as he is likely to decline. "Declining" to .875 is still a huge plus, though- even .825-.875.

I'm not sure he makes more than $18M a year, unless it's a one year deal. He might make $38M/2 with and counting options.

I remember pressing him for evidence, and I believe he said he claimed he could see it on TV.

Houck's ERA went from 5.40 to 4.70. Hill's from 2.89 to 3.90.

Remind me what poster said he noticed JD's bat slowing and proclaimed him over the hill?

We finally have a better in the 700's.

It just took some warm weather to heat things up for the Sox.