moonslav59

I know many disagree, and I can't say teams cannot win with a subpar defensive SS, but to me, it is an essential priority for a team to win consistently. It would instantly make our staff better- all 13 to 14 of them. Yes, one move improves 14-15 slots on the 26 man roster.

The money saved by trading Bogey might allow us to get a great SP'er via free agency or two very good ones, instead of the one we were probably planning on adding, anyway.

Indeed. I can understand the whys, and I share in the frustration. I know sometimes people speak out of anger and lash out with statements that don't capture their whole position. I get that.

Well said.

To me, defense starts at SS (maybe catcher.) I don't want to trade Bogey, so maybe moving him to 3B, Devers to 1B and finding a great defensive SS is the answer. I realize that squeezes out low-paid Dalbec and pretty much means Bogey will opt out and never come back.

I'm not asking for stellar. Just one improvement would help. I realize it's not easy, and I have no answer, at this time. (You know, if I have no opinion, it's not an easy issue.)

He's bringing in scrubs up by 3-4 runs, in hopes that he can save Whitlock for one run situations. The problem is, bringing in anyone but Whitlock, quickly makes it a 1 run game... EVERY GAME! You are right, we can't use him for 2-3 innings, every game. If we turn him into our closer, who can go 1 IP 3 out of 4 games, we lose the only set up guys worth a grain of salt (other than maybe Ottavino), so we'd never even be able to present Whitlock with save opportunities. Cora has a lose-lose choice to make, every game. Blaming Bloom and Henry makes way more sense than blaming Cora, but I still think Bloom has been a genius. He prevented what I thought might be a 2-3 year cliff. People should go back and look at least year's roster, and not just the 26 man one. The guy built an amazing team with a very limited budget and limits on trading prospects for short term gratification. Our pen was our strength for much of the year, but because they nearly all imploded at once, Bloom should be fed to the wolves for getting Robles and Davis wrong. For not foreseeing a total meltdown by our lights-out closer. For not knowing DHern would get hurt, among others, and just about everyone not named Garrett would implode at once. Look, I get how the GM is always the ultimate "buck stops here" guys in an organization, but really? Bashing Bloom over Robles and Davis? Had Bloom not gotten Whitlock in Rule 5 and Kike& Renfroe in free agency, we'd be talking about getting a high draft pick, next year. This year has been a miracle, yet many can't seem to appreciate it. I'm not trying to sound holier than thou. I'm frustrated as hell, too. I wish we'd have chosen a better RP'er or two than the two we got, but RP'ers are hard to figure out. Even Kimbrel has struggled since the trade. Blaming the GM and manager are as old as baseball, itself, but that doesn't make it right in every case.

I'm always for improving the staff, and not by getting a better 4th or 5th starter. Improve from the top, is my motto, but as we have seen this year, good pitching can get lost, when basic plays are not made, and we need to get 4-5 outs some innings due to missed plays. I'm not even talking about the errors, and there were plenty of those. I'm talking about non error plays that other teams make easily. I'm talking about the very few nice plays that other teams seem to make several times a game. Even the best pitchers can't do all that well needing to make 4 outs an inning. Yes, I'm exaggerating, but our defense is pathetic. Our BAbip against blows everyone away. If it wasn't for BAL at .311, we'd be over 20 points higher than the next team! And, before anyone argue that opposing teams are hitting our pitching harder than others, the data shows they are not. We have the 6th best Hard Hits Against percent in the AL and 9th best in MLB. That's upper tier. We have the 12th best GB% in MLB. I have to think we've allowed the most IF hits in the league. It's really quite sickening. I'm all for boosting the staff in a major way, this winter, but ignoring the defense would be a major mistake. I don't have a simple answer. I don't want us to trade Bogey or Dalbec. I don't think trading Vaz will help. Moving Devers to 1B could easily backfire, while squeezing one of our low pay hopes (Dalbec) out of a spot in the line-up. Maybe, because there is no easy solution, nothing will be done. I think signing Marwin was a feeble attempt at improving our defense. I don't think adding a great defensive utility player is the answer for 2022. Any ideas?

I'm thinking we might pull a big surprise. The Rays are playing better than even the Yanks. It seems like the perfect storm is brewing for the Sox to get throttled. It's times like this that what seems like the obvious never happens. Our team has grit. Renfroe is back. Our starters are doing well. Our offense seems to come and go, but Schwarber has provided a big boost. The defense is scary, but the pen is not this bad. Maybe they weren't as good as they looked earlier in the year, but they should bounce back. 7 of the next 10 vs the Rays should be telling. We could lose 5 and still have the inside track on the WC2 slot, but I'm hoping for 4-5 wins.

Not even the major part, yes.

They got nobody else. He gets criticized for using Ottavino as the closer, brining in Barnes, using Perez, Robles and Davis, but what else can he do? He can't pitch Whitlock and Richards, everyday for 2 innings each, and there was a time he was bashed for bringing in Richards in high leverage situations, too. Maybe, he's hoping the next guy is the next Richards. He has no other options. Now, even Taylor is a big gamble.

Good point. Probably Valdez and Rios are our best bets, but is Rios still out?

Kemp with a 2 run HR off Green to give the A's a 3-1 lead in the 8th.

I guess when you're lucky, you're lucky. The Yanks tied the As in the 7th like this: BB K K WP (Man to 2nd) E (dropped foul pop up by catcher) E (Error by 3Bman allows run to score)

Here's a look at the OPS Against from some of our pen arms by month: APR-MAY-JUN-JUL-AUG .319-.966-.616-.525-.582 Whitlock .351-.501-.606-.521-1.253 Barnes .606-.498-.616-.856-.637 Ottavino .993-.443-.358-.591-.892 Taylor .796-.509-.720-.732-n/a DHern .792-.820-.641-.886-.712 Sawamura

One area the Sox need to improve is their defense. The problem is, our best hitters seem to be our weakest links on defense. I think one simple step would be to make sure Kike starts in CF, next year and Arroyo at 2B. Verdugo & Renfroe are fine defenders at the corner OF positions, so that leaves SS, 3B, 1B and C. Bogey and Vaz may be gone after 2022, but what about 2021> Dalbec has not improved at all, this year and seems much worse than anyone expected at 1B. Devers has shown long stretches of fine, or at least plus, defense at 3B but seems to have too many stretches of poor D, almost all of which is throwing. I keep expecting him to put it all together, but how soon will that be? To me, Devers is our keeper. We can move him to 1B or keep him at 3B, and he will always be a huge net plus. I'd look to extend him- large and long. Suggesting trading Bogey is just about blasphemy in Sox nation. Dalbec's low contract cost makes trading him unlikely. Trading Vaz may not net as much as we think, and it's hard to find good catching, these days, so that seems like a hard thing to pull off. I'm not seeing any easy solutions, and many here want JD and Schwarber back, next year. That's a big drain on the D, as one has to not be the DH. What's the best move to make? None at all?

What's up with Valdez & Rios? They both are not all that great, but they were doing better than this pen is doing, now.

Brasier may be next.

Bloom should have know the entire pen was going to implode all at once. He sucks. Many posters, here were screaming for a 1Bman and SP'er not pen help.

So, at least three plays not called errors., and all led to runs, but no, this is 100% on the pen, Cora and Bloom. Yes, it's on Bloom for not doing better building the pen and defense, but can you guys look at what he was given to build this team from worse than scratch? I mean, look at the team we had, last year and the budget he was given. Yes, we could have been better had he spent some of the money more wisely, but overall, the guy did a fantastic job building a competitive team out of almost nothing. He could have traded some more youth to get better relievers or a better defender than Schwarber, but just yesterday almost everyone was praising the Schwarber get, a guy we got for way less than what the Yanks gave for Rizzo. Yes, this team has glaring weaknesses Bloom did not or could not address, without sacrificing the future or the budget. The Richards, Perez, Marwin and Andriese signings sucked, no doubt. I guess some of you think he deserves to be hung for that, despite our doing well beyond expectations. Bloom has been far from perfect, but the guy is a genius who has us on the right track beyond 2021 and favorites to make the playoffs, this year. I guess that's not enough.

Bogey's range sucks. You and I and everyone should know, he is a minus defender, overall. That doesn't mean he sucks. I've never criticized his offense and have been defending it, citing his wrist injury. Of course the pitchers are sucking, but that doesn't let the D totally off the hook. I'm not making excuses, but it's not just the pen that is letting us down. I haven't watched every play of evry MLB games, but I'd bet our defense has allowed more EARNED runs to score than any other team. We've made so many defensive mistakes not called errors, it's hard to fathom. I know there is more to BAbip than bad luck; much of it has to do with poor defense. 27 MLB teams are bunched between a .270 and .304 BAbip Against. The 3 that are not? .324 BOS .311 BAL .259 LAD A 13 point lead over the next team is huge when you figure the sample size is over 5,000 PAs. We are dead last in plays made with Balls hit into the zone, percentage-wise (.774). That's like making a little more than 3 out of 4 plays hit into the fielding zone. Most teams are over 81% and some over 82%. No way am I saying Bogey is a net minus on this team. It's not even close. He does normally make the sure plays, so that's a big help, but he is most certainly a drag on the D and the staff, and has been for 8 years.

You keep thinking and hoping our struggling players will eventually regress to their norm, but how long is this pen implosion going to continue?

Pivetta, Sale, ERod, Eovaldi for the 4 games in Tampa. Let's hope they can go deep. It might be our only hope.

I think we go with Munoz and Shaw at 2B and hold off adding Downs until Rule 5 day.

Our pen has sucked, but the D has to do something to pick them up in times of greatest need. Instead they shrink when it counts most. No doubt, our pen let up some hard hits, but we have to make the freakin' plays when it counts. I guess you should expect your 6th string 2Bman to make a blunder, and I've never been high on Bogey's D, buy MAN-O-Freakin'-Man!