moonslav59

That's exactly how I felt. The strong wrists and off-the-charts "twitch reflexes" make his skill a unique one that cannot just be simply grouped in to past "small players" that fizzled out quickly. I was a big supporter of bringing back Betts at nearly any cost, but I think we made out fine.

The budget is for GM of the year. The Rays had a better roster than ours, and everybody knew it. I'm not saying Cash does not deserve the award or some votes, but he had a damn good roster, despite the injuries to Glasnow and others. BTW, it's not just as simple as adding up the dollars. Some of our dollars are going to players not even on our roster, so what good is that salary to Cora?

Yes, so they should just have a team award called "Most Exceeded Expectations."

Who do you replace them with? Bazardo, Valdez and Davis? (Are they all healthy?) Too bad we lost Rios. He did okay.

Pivetta had only started 2 games for us in 2020 (none for Philly), so I kinda view him as a new addition to the 2022 team and staff. We also had no ERod or Sale in 2020. This is part of the reason we were able to dump many pitchers from 2020 and only added Richards, Whiltock and Sawamura (+Andriese) over the winter.

With a day off, one game, day off, 2 games, day off, 2 games, day off, one game, I'm not sure why 13 pitchers are needed, but my guess is that is what will happen. Is Davis still on the IL? I'd prefer him to Perez. Is Iggy ineligible? Even with an injury to someone?

Here are the Jays free agents to be and their 2021 salary: $18M Semien (724 PAs/ .873 OPS/ 45 HRs) $9.5 C Dickerson $8.0 R Ray (32 starts 2,84 ERA) $5.5 K Yates $5.2 S Matz (29 starts 3.82 ERA) $3.5M J Soria $1.75 D Phelps $1.5M J Dyson

I would not either, but it is still a big loss from the 2021 ledger.

Big loss, if Semien bolts. Ray, too.

This obsession cannot be healthy.

Any news on JD's ankle?

Exactly. Is there anyone with Earl's fire in MLB, today?

Fine. Lets move on.

I was angry, too. I never even hinted at the anger not being justified. I'm talking about totally, 100% giving up on us having any chance at making the playoffs. Look, I've admitted I was wrong in expecting a few poster to address those comments they made out of anger and frustration. I'm not asking anyone to own up. I was wrong. I made a mistake to ask. I was wrong. It was a mistake to expect it. I was wrong. Can we move on?

Eovaldi is the clear cut best starter we could have starting vs the Yanks in an elimination game. While Cole seems like the clear best for the Yanks, we have gotten to him, this year by more than NYY has gotten to big Nate. Sox vs Cole in 2021: 5IP 8H 5ER 2BB 6K 6IP 5H 1ER 2BB 11K 5IP 6H 3ER 2BB 8K 6IP 5H 3ER 3BB 6K Total: 4.91 ERA (6.19 at Fenway) 1.500 WHIP (1.625 at Fenway) .852 OPS Against (.964 at Fenway) Eovaldi 3.71 ERA 1.235 WHIP .744 OPS Against Of course, past or recent past performance is not always an indicator of what will happen going forward, but I feel good about this match up. It's not going to be a cakewalk, but we have a legit shot at a win.

You seemed to really hold the cheating against him, and I misread that as hate or an intense dislike. You have also said we should fire him. Do you still think that way?

It feels like we lost at least 10 games because of our poor D, but 97 is probably right.

We had a lot of question marks, but so did just about every team, except maybe 3-4. Sure, we got a big season from Eovaldi, and Sale did well upon his return, but the rest of our starters barely met expectations, at best. Our pen did about as expected, although not evenly during the year. Whitlock surprised, but others underperformed. Vaz hit about 140 points less than his previous 2 year average. Bogey declined while in prime. Devers did very well, but not a career year as he might have been expected to have at his age. JD followed a normal bell curve decline for his age. Renfroe surprised- Verdugo under-performed. Kike did well, which I expected, but many did not. Dalbec declined from 2020, but had a solid year. 2B was a position in flux, all year. We got less than nothing from Cordero, Marwin, Santana, Duran and others. All-in-all, it looks like our players did about as expected- some better- some worse. Cora made a big difference. Bloom's mid-season additions made a big difference, despite the early struggles and harsh criticisms from fans and the media. Knowing what we know now, and taking into account the 41-39 record to end the season, if we ran back the season, with the team we have right now (no Marwin,Cordero, Andriese...), how many wins would you project? (Assuming Schwarber, Sale, Houck and others for the whole season)

I'm not owed anything. I said I was more or less misguided for expecting others to own up.

60% is still odds on making it, yet some totally wrote us off.

You never said it, but you did and might still want him fired. Yes, "hate" is a powerful word, so I apologize for using it. You've roasted him alive, so I'm not sure it was wild exaggeration on my part, but I apologize for making an inference that may not be correct.

Good stuff. Fangraphs has us finishing... 2nd in SLG .449 2nd in BAbip .309 3rd in OPS .777 3rd in wOBA .333 4th in ISO .188 5th in Runs (1 behind LAD) 6th in Hard Hit% 33% 8th in fWAR by everyday players at 23.8 21st in Baserunning 23rd in Defense -15.6 Pitching 6th fWAR 19.2 (ahead of TBR & HOU) 6th HR/9 1.12 7th K% 24.8% T8th xFIP- 95 (TOR 95, NYY 93, TBR 93) 10th ERA- 94 10th xFIP 4.07 11th K-BB% 16% The most stunning stat, in terms of the distance between #1 and #2 and #1 and the league average: BAbip Against .323 BOS .305 BAL, LAA .302 COL, PIT .301 KCR .290 MLB Average #15 .289 KCR We finished the year 33 points above the league average! All-in-all, one can argue we were a top 3-6 offensive team, a top 9-12 Pitching team and a bottom 20-28 defensive team.

OPS .957 Schwarber (7 Hrs & 18 RBI in 168 PAs) .915 Iglesias (64 PAs and soid D) .842 T Shaw (48 PAs & a couple mammoth hits) 1.262 Motter (7 PA, but one big error) OPS Against .615 Rios (98 PAs) .692 Robles (109) .773 Davis (75) .819 Feliz (just 19) .864 Workman (93) 1.021 Peacock (just 26)

2nd Half OPS Against .569 Houck .694 Eovaldi .728 ERod .746 Pivetta .752 Sale .780 Richards .615 Rios .641 Taylor .650 Whitlock .692 Robles .742 Brasier .751 Valdez (one big meltdown game) .772 DHern .773 Davis .875 Barnes .883 Sawamura .948 Ottavino .963 Perez

Saying outright, "This team sucks," "We have no chance," and worse, not just in one game, but for weeks and months is not the same as several posters feeling down in the dumps in one or two games and sounding like we likely lost our chance. Yes, we've all had our highs and lows, but there is a wide range on the level of negativity and defeatism. I'm not claiming I was a believer every second of the season, and I have pointed out I was one of the first to jump ship in 2019, so I'm not trying to claim I'm "holier than thou.]," but I weirdly expected a little more contritions from some posters than I've seen. Perhaps, I should stop expecting or wishing for the impossible.