moonslav59

He was saying Schwarber is not a fit, because JD is not opting out and he does not fit at 1B. He's not saying get rid of 3 players.

Iggy at 2B has been a big plus. It also forces Kike to CF. Dalbec has improved immensely in just the past 4-6 weeks. Bogey missed time with Covid, but seems to be the same steady, below average defender. (Iggy has played some SS, too.) Devers was a mess, but the last few days has looked better. Am I wrong on any of this? Motter, Lopez, Schwarber, Santana and others playing in the infield have hurt our D more than helped.

We are 67-52 (.563) in games Kike starts. The team has a .570 winning %. He started 72 games in CF. He started 42 games at 2B. I count the team at 19-19 when Kike plays 2B. 4-2 when he plays both in the same game. 2-3 when he plays SS 42-28 in CF.

The piggy back starter idea interests me, but I'm not sure how practical it is. Let's say you have 4 guys who fit the bill perfectly: Houck, Whitlock, Richards and Pivetta. Do they just pitch 3-4 innings every 5 days? Do you use them in short relief on their "throwing days?" In theory, it might work best for them to pitch 3-4 innings every 4 days, but that would mess up the 5 day starter routines. Can a pitcher thrive under this routine: 3 IP rest 1 IP rest 3 IP... Over 160 games, the pitcher would have 40 three inning games and 40 one inning games for 160 IP. Let's say you have 4 guys that follow this pattern: it would line up like this with 4 IP everyday from 2 players out of the 4. 20 games cycle with 3 five day starters 3-1-0-0 +5 (9) 0-0-3-1 +5 (9) 1-3-0 0 (4) 0-0-1-3 +5 (9) 3-1-0-0 (4) 0-0-3-1 +5 (9) 1-3-0 0 +5 (9) 0-0-1-3 (4) 3-1-0-0 +5 (9) 0-0-3-1 (4) 1-3-0 0 +5 (9) 0-0-1-3 +5 (9) 3-1-0-0 (4) 0-0-3-1 +5 (9) 1-3-0 0 (4) 0-0-1-3 +5 (9) 3-1-0-0 +5 (9) 0-0-3-1 (4) 1-3-0 0 +5 (9) 0-0-1-3 (4) Of course these numbers would not come out perfectly, as pitchers might get yanked early when doing poorly or left in longer when doing well, but if it works out something like this, we are talking about 3 starters (5 IP x 33 starts= 165) and 4 pitchers with 160 IP (see above). That leaves 5 IP needed from the pen in 3 of every 5 games (days). If we have 6 pen arms, that's 15 IP/ 6 pitchers every 5 days.

I think ERod would take the QO in hopes of resetting his value with a nice 2022 season.

The $1.5M buy out makes taking the $10M on the table more and more likely with every nice game Richards gives us. $8.5M is about what we are giving Barnes, so the same for one year of Richards seems probable, at this point in time.

Cole has been their one steady guy. Yankee fans suck.

Knee jerk reactions often prove wrong.

Agreed. That's how the team has to look at it, but fans can look ahead without messing up any chances of winning the next game. Nice time to start streaking, though, right? Not long ago, the Yanks looked unbeatable, and it looked like we had no chance at holding them off, then they slumped worse than we ever have. Then, the Jays looked unbeatable. They are still playing well, but they look beatable, now. Here are some looks at recent ups and downs by the contenders: Sox: 2-10 4-1 1-4 5-1 0-3 4-0 2-6 5-0 Jays 2-6 9-1 7-12 12-1 3-2 Yanks 1-7 9-3 1-3 10-2 2-2 13-0 2-11 4-1 1-3 The only patterns I see are that ups are followed by downs and vice versa. BTW, we are now tied with the CWS for the 3rd best AL record! (3 games behind HOU for 2nd best)

I don't disagree with much, here. I will say Bloom's pace of building was slowed by spending limits that DD did not have, until 2019. I do see at least 2 major additions being made, this winter- maybe 3 if ERod bolts. All should be pitching, but Bloom may surprise with an everyday player addition via tradeor free agency designed to improve defense without killing the O. These big choices with the staff will be dictated by our role choices for Houck and Whitlock. The secondary issue is the QO or no QO for ERod. If I had to guess, we may make Whitlock the 3 or 4 starter and Houck the closer or #1 set-up man (replacing Ottavino). They could also place both in the pen or in the rotation. Here's how I see it: No ERod 1. Sale 2. ______ 3. Eovaldi 4. Whitlock 5. Pivetta 6. Seabold/Bello 1. Houck 2. _______ 3. Barnes 4. Richards 5. Taylor 6. DHern 7. Sawamura 8. Valdez/Rioz/Davis/Brasier/Bazardo/Feltman With ERod 1. Sale 2. Eovaldi 3. _______ 4. ERod 5. Pivetta 6. Seabold/Bello 1. Houck 2. Whitlock 3. ________ 4. Barnes 5. Taylor (No Richards option) 6. 6. DHern 7. Sawamura 8. Valdez/Rioz/Davis/Brasier/Bazardo/Feltman What's the time table of offering and accepting QOs and when to accept or buy out options? My thought is that if ERod is given and accepts a QO, we may say no to the Richard's option. If we say good bye to ERod, we may be more likely to keep Richards and his contract.

I'd love to have Schwarber back, even if JD stays, but our budget is not limitless. I think we have higher priorities, such as a solid SP'er and a solid pen arm or two. Maybe bring back Iggy as our utility IF'er. Maybe T Shaw on a cheap deal, too. I'm not all that happy with Renfroe's D in RF, but his arm cancels out the errors, leaving his lack of range to create a slight minus on D. Keep Kike n CF to make up for the minus in RF. Arroyo & Iggy at 2B. No other additions are really needed on offense.

I think 1 out of 3, we win and 0 out of 3 might makes it 50-50.

JD may opt out, if he values a longer term deal over this one year left. I doubt he'll do it, but he may think a 3-4 year offer at less per year is better than just this one year deal. I seriously doubt we trade Dalbec, but not because we don't like how Schwarber plays 1B, but because he is low cost and still has upside. I don't think we re-sign Schwarber, unless we plan on trading Verdugo or Renfroe or platooning them, when Schwarber does not DH or play 1B. I doubt we plan on Kike at 2B and Verdugo in CF for all of 2022.

86-65 BOS 84-65 TOR (extra games: TBR Mon & MIN Thur) 83-67 NYY (extra game: TEX mon)

So, thanks Bloom?

People often talk about the loss column and what if team A or B wins out. Here's an interesting scenario playing off that concept. Say the Yanks and Rays win every game the rest of the way. That would mean 6 losses for the Rays, and we are just 7 down in the loss column. (Of course, if the Yanks win out, it would mean they beat us 3 times, too.)

The whole covid thing allowed us to call up numerous players- some not even on our 40 man roster. While some who sat out due to Covid might not have really gotten much "rest," it seems like several did- like Bogey. We have this Monday and Thursday off, then next Monday, so IMO, we don't need to rest anyone, except pitchers recently used, but even the staff should be allowed better usage due to the 3 days off.

Games Remaining & Strength of Schedule: A: .550+ B: .500-.549 C: .450-.499 D: BOS 11 3 A 0 B 2 C 6 D TOR 13 6 A 0 B 0 C 7 D NYY 9 A 0 B 0 C 3 D

Next Match-ups: MON (Sox off) TEX (Alexy) @ NYY (Cortes) TOR (Ray) @ TBR (Baz- #1 prospect's debut) M's (TBD) @ OAK (Manaea) TUE NYM (Stroman) @ BOS (ERod) TEX (Dunning) @ NYY (Montgomery) TOR (Manoah) @ TBR (Rasmussen) SEA (TBD) @ OAK (Blackburn) WED NYM (Megill) @ BOS(Seabold?) TOR (TBD) @ TBR (Wacha) TEX (Hearn) @NYY (Kluber) SEA (TBD) @ OAK (Irvin) THUR (Sox, NYY, TBR off) TOR @ MIN

I think we only sign Schwarber, if JD opts out (not likely) or we trade Dalbec, Verdugo, Renfroe or Duran (not likely).

It's gotta be one of the biggest surprises in all of MLB- not just that he's closing, but that he's doing a fine job at it! I'm really thinking we take the $10M option rather than pay the $1.5M buy-out. Maybe, we restructure the deal.

Since we lost the series to the Rays in mid August, we have done this: 2 sweep win (BAL x 2) 5 non sweep win (TEX, MIN, CLE x 2, SEA) 1 split (TBR) 2 non sweep loss (TBR, CWS) 1 sweep loss (NYY) 7 wins 2 splits 3 losses

Big sweep! Rays lost. Jays won. Yanks down 10-1 in 9th. (Judge K'd with men on 2nd & 3rd in the 8th)

I've never been one to admire the Quality Start stat, but I made some adjustments to my own system, and here are the results for 2021, including today. (I went through every game box score to gather these results.) A Quality Start: 8+ IP 0-3 ERs/ 6+ IP 0-2 ERs/ 5+ IP 0-1 ER/ 4+ IP 0 ER B Quality Start: 8+ IP 4 ER/ 6+IP 3 ER/ 5+ IP 2 ER/ 4+ IP 1 ER/ 3+ IP 0 ER C Quality Start: 6.2-7.2IP 4 ER/ 5.1-5.2 IP 3 ER/ 4+ IP 2 ER/ 3+ IP 1 ER D (just missed QS): 8+ IP 5 ER/ 6+IP 4 ER/4.1-5.0IP 3ER/ 3.1-3.2 IP 2ER The 2021 Red Sox Starters: Eovaldi 30 GS (20 QS/ 20 A+ 15 QSA 5 QSB 0 QSC 2 Close 22/30 QS+ close 73.3% ERod 28 GS (15 QS/14 A+ 9 QSA 5 QSB 1 QSC 1 close 16/28 QS+ close 57.1% Pivetta 28 GS (12 QS/ 10 QS A+ 10 QSA 0 QSB 2 QSC 6 close 18/28 QS+close 64.3% Perez 22 GS (13 QS/ 13 QS A+ 6 QSA 7 QSB 0 QSC 2 close 15/22 QS+ close 68.2% Richards 22 GS (10 QS/ 8 QS A+ 6 QSA 2 QSB 2 QSC 3 close 13/22 QS + close 59.1%

This should all be on the 2021 thread, except that we will have the gift of playing the O's a bunch, next year, too. One can argue part of that gift also means playing TR, TOR and NYY 19 times, too, so I'm not sure about this being a gift.