moonslav59

Not only was Lopez just called up, he's starting. 1. Schwarber 1B 2. Renfroe RF 3. Devers 3B 4. JD DH 5. Verdugo LF 6. Vaz C 7. Duran CF 8. Lopez 2B 9. Arauz SS Lopez has a .749 OPS in the minors (1.213 AA/.699 AAA) I might have tried Dalbec at 1B with Schwarber in LF and Duran on the bench, but I guess Cora wants the lefty bat and Dalbec as a PH'er.

As tired as you guys are, you still have to play 2 more games than us, this month.

My God! I won't recognize half the team!

You expected 2 under-the-radar RP'ers to both work out, when the success rate for better RP'ers is 50-50, at best, and it's all Bloom's fault he missed on both, badly. I'm not doubting the significance of those two failures, even when weighed against the addition of Schwarber, but I guess I just think maybe expecting so much for so little is where the level of overall blame for the implosion is off a bit. Here, trade Alex Scherff and bring us a ring.

Sale is one smart cookie. I think he knows we need 7 innings or a superb 6. I think he may try to not K everyone and just get quick outs- like that's something easy to do. Maybe I'm wishful thinking, but Sale has shown flashes of quick innings, this year. He just needs to string a bunch together. The Rays are smart enough to know this, too.

Agreed, and he failed miserably at his attempt. I guess what I'm trying to say is that RP'ers are a crapshoot- even better ones than "under-the-radar" types and I don't think it's fair to blast Bloom so hardly for failing at a craps. I have to admit, he's missed on finding gems in the rough more than I expected. It shows how much the system is more important than the GM, as MVP has stated. I think I'm also trying to look at the big picture and let smaller moves go more than some seem to do. We went into this winter in total shambles. One can argue we are there, again, right now, but this is what Bloom had to work with. He had about $33-34M to spend and had these high need areas: S1 until Sale returned- say Richards at $10M (MISSED) (S2 & 3 were Eovaldi and the questionable ERod) S4 Pivetta (acquired last summer) S5 $6M Perez (MISSED, but only after his first 11+ starts were very good) (S6 Houck was not a bloom addition) R1 Barnes (Questionable as a closer- worked first half) R2 Ottavino (cost almost $9M. I think a plus but close) R3 Whitlock- a god send of a plus- major gem find. R4 Taylor/R5 DHern- the same R6 $1.9M Andreise a complete failure R7 Valdez- the same R8- Rios, Workman-Robles-Davis, Brice- MISSED (C- Vaz the same) Added Plawecki, last year 1B- Replaced Chavis with Dalbec last summer- stuck with him 2B- Arroyo added, last year- Kike, last winter (SS Bogey & 3B Devers- the same) Utility: $3M Marwin a complete disaster. MISSED LF- moved Verdugo from RF to LF CF-$7M x 2 Kike- a big plus. RF- $3.1M Renfroe- a big plus (DH- JD-the same) Added Schwarber at the deadline: Plus So, basically $33M to find 2 SP'ers, 3 RP'ers, a CF'er, a RF'er and a Utility Player, this winter, plus hope ERod & Eovaldi stayed healthy, Pivetta, Arroyo and Dalbec all held their own. One could argue their slots could have been considered "open," too. To, me the fact that it is September and we are in the lead for a playoff slot with all that going on, last winter, Bloom not guessing right on a couple RP'ers at the deadline seems rather trivial, despite the fact that it looks like that was a major reason we imploded.

I'm thinking we need 6/1 or 7/2.

Okay, but would you be bitching, now, if Kimbrel was acquired and doing well? If he was acquired and sucked like he has?

I don't disagree.

I was going to mention Yan Gomes. I don't know much about his staff handling, defense or anything else. I see he has had an OPS over .700 every year since 2017, so he seems way more consistent than Vaz on O. .761 from 2020-2021 .745 since 2018 .736 since 2017 .723 career, so he's on the up swing, as of now. As far as how pitchers do with him, his main back was Kurt Suzuki- widely known as a great defensive catcher, but here we go... (The non believer can just skip this part.) Corbin 3.94 CERA/.730 OPS Gomes (345 innings) 3.87 CERA/.673 OPS Avila (102) Scherzer 3.47/.671 Gomes (137) 3.19/.661 Avila (700) caught him in DET, too. 2.78/.647 Suzuki (155) Strasburg 3.25/.631 Gomes (116) 3.53/.627 Suzuki (184) Fedde 4.14/.721 Gomes (111) 4.47/.836 Suzuki (54) 4.50/.809 Barrera (38) Fangraphs ranks him 15th out of 49 catchers on defense with 1500+ innings since 2017 (just below Leon and above Mathis). Pina is ranked 13th, Posey 9th, Vaz 5th and Zunino 7th.

I'm not sure GMs look at catcher offense as much as we do, or how much the weigh just the previous season vs his .798 OPS from 2019-2020. He was 3rd in catcher OPS among all catchers with 700+ PAs (out of 3). He was 8th in catcher OPS among 28 catchers with 400+ PAs. Vaz is 15th in catcher OPS from 2019-2021 (out of 30 with 600+ PAs) He's second in catcher PAs at 1333. His .742 OPS is 40 points higher than the league average of .702.

Chris Freakin' Sale!

Some of these guys may not be out long, but yes, this is a crying shame.

He was one of the best before the trade. Had we gotten him for Aldo, you and I would have been dancing in the streets. Then, crying in our beer and wondering why we didn't get a guy like Schwarber.

He's on pause, to me. I'm surprised his value has stayed the same on BTV, but maybe they agree with you 100%. Wait, are you really the guy who runs BTV? Fess up!

Most of us who did not want Kimbrel was because we thought we'd have to give up too much to get him, IMO. My point was more about what a crapshoot it is when you trade for 2 months of any RP'er. To roast a GM for getting that wrong or not trying harder to get better than what he did is a bit off the mark, to me. That's not defending Bloom. It's just the way it is with any GM trying to catch lightening in a bottle.

Kike in CF, yes, but he was forced to play 2B, too much. That's it. Nobody else is a very good fielder- okay maybe Verdugo. Some may be slightly above average, but no. You can't make players into great fielders overnight. It's not easy coaching focus and confidence, either, though that's not impossible. Here are the UZR/150 numbers of our players before 2021 (2016-2020): 20.9 Verdugo LF 9.9 Kik CF 5.7 Arroyo 2B 5.6 Schwarber LF 1.1 Renfroe LF 0.8 Verdugo RF 0.6 Verdugo CF -0.1 Bogey SS -0.1 Renfroe RF -2.1 Dalbec 1B -3.8 Devers 3B -6.5 JD M RF -7.6 Kike 2B -9.8 Santana CF -14.4 JD RF -23.0 Arauz 2B If you look at what we had coming in, I'm not sure how much coaching could have or did make a difference. The 2021 numbers (200+ Innings at a position) 18.7 JD M LF 11.7 Kike CF 9.1 Arroyo 2B 1.6 Renfroe RF 0.6 Bogey SS 0.6 Verdugo LF 0.0 Devers 3B -2.8 Kike 2B -4.9 Dalbec 1B -7.7 Verdugo CF All but Verdugo & Dalbec, with a small 2020 sample size, apparently improved their defense, this year. Surprise, surprise. And we still sucked on D.

He needs to keep his pitch count low and do well. That might be a lot to ask, but a 5 inning 1 run game will likely not cut it.

I'm not a playoffs are a crapshoot guy. I don't think we can beat TBR or HOU in a playoff series, but I'd like to see us try. The only hope I have is that baseball has ebbs and flows. I still think this team is good enough to muster up another hot streak, and that the grit we showed earlier in the year was not a mirage.

Sox AL Defensive Rankings: 14th Errors (81) 11th fangraphs rating (-2.2) 10th in DRS (-7) I still don't know how UZR/150 places the Sox as third best. I've lost faith in their system. To me, this says it all: .323 BAbip Against (The next teams are .309, .305, .303 then the rest are bunched between .273 and .290.) It's not because our pitchers get hit hard the most, either. We are 5th best in Hit Hard % at 30.8-much closer to 1st than 10th, We are also 4tth in GB%. Our D is awful- no if, ands or buts.

I'm not sure coaching could fix the sloppy play. You can focus and D all you want, but when you have clowns as defenders, their big feet and make-up get in the way of making plays. We can't even make routine plays anymore, let along a good one. Great one, Fuggheagaboutit!

A point needs to be made that the odds of trading for 2 decent RP'ers that both do very well are not very high. The best one traded has sucked. Some that looked as bad as Robles and Davis have done ok.

Maybe just knowing they were going to Florida made them all just give up on any precautions. Sarcasm alert

Well worded.

I don't think Henry is shocked at this year's team missing out on the playoffs or just barely squeaking in. You think greatness was expected this quickly? Just because the team teased everybody over 100 games, doesn't change the fact that Henry and Bloom knew this was not the year to go all in. The team is proving it, now.