moonslav59

I totally disagree. Devers is a monster. He's fearless. He is a leader. He has shown he can lead the team through very difficult times and key moments. No slight on Bogey (or JD, as well.)

Verdugo is better in LF. Kike is better in CF Arroyo is equal to Kike at 2B. Schwarber cannot be much worse, defensively, than Dalbec has been at 1B, and he can pull a hammy in LF, too.

If all goes as planned, we will be adding: Sale Schwarber Houck Sawamura Arroyo Marwin DHern That's a hell of an improvement over Richards Dalbec Perez Rios Arauz Cordero Robles/Davis/Valdez Can we all let this sink in? 1. Kike CF (where he belongs) 2. Devers 3B (solid all around) 3. JD DH (needs to get back on track) 4. Bogaerts (needs some more rest for that wrist) 5. Schwarber 1B (big bat help) 6. Renfroe RF (need some more O from him) 7. Verdugo LF (showing signs) 8. Arroyo 2B (did we forget how well he was doing?) 9. Vaz C (tired) Bench: Plawecki Duran Dalbec S1 Eovaldi S2 Sale S3 ERod S4 Houck S5 Pivetta CL Barnes R2 Ottavino R3 Whitlock R4 Taylor R5 DHern R6 Sawamura R7 Robles R8 Davis/Valdez

Nothing else makes sense and involves too many defensive switcheroos.

Schwarber is going to play 1B, when he comes off the IL. Dalbec will be on the bench or AAA. I think that's pretty certain. (I'm not sure about the mutual option for 2022, but I thought the team had first control for 2022.) Most of us felt we should not "count on Sale" giving us anything, but now it looks like he's our best hope, along with Schwarber and Houck. That's not such a horrible thing, since we know more about his health and velocity, now than we did back in the winter and spring. I know many are very disappointed in the lack of moves made at the deadline, but I am certain Bloom looked under every rock. I, for one, am glad he did not overpay, and since every other major contender got better, we'd have had to have done better than them to improve our odds. That would have meant doing much much more and emptying or nearly emptying our farm- both in quality and quantity. Have we learned nothing from 2019 and 2020? We were extremely lucky several low-drafted picks by DD have risen quickly in the ranks. We are extremely lucky we got Bloom, and he was able to greatly improve the farm and young players via the Betts trade, Whitlock steal and other moves. The "cliff" turned out to be very short-lived. Posters like Jacko were talking 4 or 5 year rebuilding plans. Bloom was able to work miracles, and people are blasting him for not abandoning the rebuild plan to blow it all up and go all in on a highly doubtful chance we might have pulled it off, this year. Had we gone for broke and got Scherzer, the Dodgers would have gotten Berrios, and we'd have gained very little ground. I still like our chances. I think this is just a funk we are going through, but I do realize maybe we are being exposed, as we speak, and we were never as good as these overachievers led us to believe they were or could be upon the return of Sale. We played a tough game, last night. We fought to the last out and pitch. Maybe we were never as good as we looked, at times, this year, but we are also not this bad, now. The Yanks still suck. Rizzo is all glitz. They traded a big chunk of their future for a pipe dream. I'm actually happy they did- same with the Jays. We're still better than both. On paper, the Rays, Astros and White Sox may look better, and having to win a WC game seems like a huge letdown, but lets give this season some perspective. We still have a good shot to win the division and even to have the best AL record. The Rays lost Glasnow for the season and have more black holes in their line-up than we do. They also don't have 4 premier hitters, like we now do. The Astros tried to improve their pen, but the jury is out on those moves. The CWS seem to struggle vs good teams and have none in their division. Once Sale and Schwarber join the 26 man roster, Sawamura and Arroyo return, and we lose some dead weight, we should be much better than we have looked over the last week and month. I'm staying positive, this year, after being one of the first to ditch 2019's team. Our players have shown to be true fighters with a ton of grit. They are worthy of our support. Any true Sox fan should give it to them.

The Yanks suck. Even you said so.

It does look like 2023- also for Ward, Song and Winckowski. We do have Whitlock, Houck, Bazardo and Seabold for 2022, though, but some will not be called prospects, anymore.

I'd still rather have Fabian and no #41 and Hickey.

Hitting in the clutch is not a skill or repeatable skill. Neither is not hitting in the clutch.

Thanks. I’ve been on the road.

How long can you force a rehab on a vet?

Bye bye Wilson, too. Schwarber will be on the 40. If we sign 4 free agents, someone goes.

You can’t shelter players on the IL over the winter. They take up a slot on the 40.

Cots has us under but do not have Santana’s contract listed.

Kinda wish we’d have signed Fabian and let others slide.

Do we lose Price’s contract, too? We do have arb raises and some pen slots to fill, too, but if we can go over the tax line, we should be able to vastly improve the team on paper.

I’m not rushing him. I want his continued rehab innings in BOS not Portland.

The pitching will not continue this badly. Regressing to the norm can be a good thing, sometimes.

It’s the only way to view our deadline moves. Bloom did what he felt he could looking at the full picture.

Perez, Richards and Pivetta are minor league ready. Any innings by Sale have to be better or at worst, the same.

And if he tried to wow them with quantity, we have emptied the farm just months after not learning the lesson of 2020. Plus, we are not sure even quantity would have been enough.

I’m on the road, but this is urgency time. I’ve seemed to morph into a one win and done thread starter, but at this point that may be the best we can hope for. To me, Pivetta has the best chance out of our bottom 3 starters at turning things around, so what better time than now. The magic returns, tonight.

Horrific game. For once, I’m speechless.

Schwarber was significant. Our farm was hardly touched. I feel much better about 2022, and still love our chances of winning the division or at worst, winning a WC slot. The Dodgers, Yanks and others overpaid. It’s pretty certain we’d have had to do the same or more to land any of the top players. Let’s save the overpays for this winter’s free agents.

Maybe just give him 3 days off and then use him less for a week or two.