moonslav59

Ok, thanks for the tutorial. I just wonder why it makes a difference for a "cheap Team" like PIT, if they end up spending the same in the long run, no matter who they take at #1 and how much they pay him. I guess some cheap teams may like to try and add several good players and not one great one.

Nice read. Even someone like me, who is usually critical of those who make judgments on small sample sizes, suggested we trade or DFA Josh, earlier this season.

Let me get this straight: does a team really save money, if they sign their first pick below slot, but then make later round picks "above slot?"

Maybe this can be like the Max Mojo date thing. Sorry, guys. Is there anyway to change a thread title?

All Star break.

A lot can happen in the next 7 weeks.

Makes sense. We are 10th in the AL in OF WAR at 1.7, No ALE team is worse. Another way to look at OF is to make a list of the top 45 OF'ers in the AL (3 x 15 teams). To get to 45, I had to set the min PAs in 2021 to 140. Here is how we stand by WAR: 11. Verdugo 1.2 (in the bottom third of top 15) 27. Renfroe 0.6 (in the bottom third of middle 15) We have no 3rd OF'er with 140+ PAs, but if I set the PAs to 130, Kike joins the list at #30 (+0.6). That gives us 3 OF'ers in the top 30 out of 54, which is not too bad, despite not having a top 10 number 1 OF'er or top 10 number 2 OF'er. Our biggest weakness, so far, has clearly been 1B. Catcher, 2B and OF could all use improvement according to WAR rankings, but nothing too glaring. Pitching is the highest need area, in my book. I think we give Dalbec a longer look and see about picking up a Moreland type player near the deadline, but adding pitching beyond Sale, Brasier, Houck, Seabold & Bazardo may still be our acquisition area.

Yes, Pivetta is the hard one to call. He's always had nasty stuff and poor control, but there were hopes he could turn it around and make himself into a better and more consistent pitcher. The jury is still out on him. Perez was more of a "known," but that does not mean he can not become a better overall pitcher and stay that way for a while, but yes, he was expected to regress closer to his norm. Let's hope he can stay around 4.00 to 4.20 the rest of the way. Richards was also a big unknown- mostly concerning his health, not his skillset, except to wonder if all the injuries and missed time permanently lowered his abilities. Again, another "jury still out". ERod and Eovaldi were always our best bets for having a good to great 2021 season. Eovaldi's health has always been the main issues, and knock on wood, he seems to be on his way to his first full season in a long time. How good he can be is another question. ERod's COVID issue made him another wild card, and he still falls in that category. Sale coming back at somewhat of a strong ability is likely our best hope to get somewhere, this fall.

Sorry, I copied and pasted from a previous post. It should have been: IP ER (H+BB) 6.0 3 (6) 5.0 2 (5) 7.2 0 (7) 2.0 6 (9) 1.1 5 (7) Yes, 2 of his last 5 starts (actually 2 of his last 10) have been horrific. Those 2 starts make his ERA over the last 10 starts 4.13. Last 6 starts: 5.13 His ERA in his previous 4 starts before the last 2? 1.82. Last 2? 29.70!

According to just 2021 positional WAR rankings, here are our weakest to strongest positions: Red= best of top 4 ALE teams Blue= worst of top 4 15th 1B -0.6 (TOR 1, TBR 7, NYY 10) 10th RF +0,6 (TBR 1, TOR 3, NYY 7) 9th C +0.5 (TB 1, NYY 3, TOR 13) 8th LF +0.8 (TBR 2, TOR 5, NYY 13) 8th 2B +0.8 (TOR 1, NYY 5, TBR 9) 7th CF +1.4 (TBR 8, TOR 11, NYY 13) 3rd DH +1.9 (TBR 6, NYY 9, TOR 12) 3rd 3B +1.9 (TBR 4, NYY 8, TOR 11) 1st SS +3.2 (TOR 5, NYY 8, TBR 12)

AL Team Leader Boards Hitting + Defense WAR 15.0 HOU 12.8 CWS 11.0 TBR 10.9 TOR 9.5 BOS 9.5 OAK 9.3 MN 7.5 LAA 6.4 NYY (BOS is 8th in wRC+ at 102.) Defense UZR/150 7.9 TBR (This is how they win.) 5.7 CWS 5.5 BOS (Find this hard to believe) 4.8 TOR (This, too) 8. NYY -1.0 DRS 53 TBR (Spectacular number) 35 HOU 21 BOS (Again, hard to see how) 9. TOR -1 10. NYY -4 (Off- BOS is 8th/ Def 6th: hard to believe) Batting OPS .789 HOU .781 TOR .751 CWS .748 BOS 9. NYY .703 Pitching WAR 11.5 CWS 10.0 NYY 8.1 BOS 7.8 TBR 7.1 OAK 10. HOU 4.5 14. TOR 3.0 ERA- 76 CWS 81 TBR 85 NYY 93 TOR 8. BOS 97 5.4 BAL (BOS is 15th in WHIP at 1.41!) SPing WAR 8.3 CWS 7.2 NYY 6.0 BOS 5.9 OAK 5.3 TBR 4.8 LAA 4.8 HOU 13. TOR 2.2 (Our starters are 8th in ERA- at 98 & 13th in WHIP at 1.41) RP'ing WAR 3.2 CWS 2.8 NYY 2.4 TBR 2.2 SEA 2.1 BOS 9. TOR 0.8 15. HOU -0.3 (BOS is 12th in WHIP at 1.39)

Perez has not been all that bad... IP ER (H+BB) 6.0 3 (6) 5.0 2 (5) 7.2 0 (7) 2.0 6 (9) One bad game out of his last 4. Pivetta has fallen apart... Nick (5 starts for him) 5.0 4 (9) 6.0 4 (11) 6.0 4 (9) 4.2 2 (10) 5.0 6 (8)

Well said. I don't ever remember being so excited and inquisitive about a MLB draft in my lifetime.

Dreamy!

The Yanks are almost as close to the O's (-11.5) and the Rays (-8.5). If they keep going 5-13, like they have in their last 18 games, maybe- just maybe...

On paper, they are 63-40, according to some.

As bad as our pitching has been in the last 6 games, the 17 games before that, we let up these amount of ERs: 3 4 3 3 6 3 5 2 1 11 3 2 1 1 3 4 3 Only 3 games saw 5 or more runs allowed. 2 games 6 or more 1 game 7 or more These last 6 games have seen all at 5 or more 5 at 7 or more 3 at 8 or more

I'm trying to help. Let's see if there is anything to this hocus pocus jive.

Starters Last 30 days: Sox are 7th worst at 5.24. Last 25 days: Sox are 6th worst at 5.55. Last 27 days (23 games): Sox are 5th worst at 5.53 7.30 PIT 7.05 AZ 6.48 BAL 5.61 BAL 5.53 BOS

Nate has to be the stopper, here. He was actually doing pretty well before his last start, so maybe he can break the funk our rotation has been in. Let's hope everyone is healthy and in the line-up. It's way too early to call any game a "must win" game, but the way this team is listing towards a very bad direction, this game seems more important than most.

Eovaldi is about our only starter who has not gotten shelled in 2 or more starts out of the pitchers last 3-4 starts. Nate 5.1 IP 2 ER (7 H+BB) 5.1 IP 0 ER (5) 6.0 IP 1 ER (8) 5.2 IP 5 ER (14) Perez has not been all that bad... 6.0 3 (6) 5.0 2 (5) 7.2 0 (7) 2.0 6 (9) Garrett has not been horrible, but the H+BB numbers have been alarming 5.2 3 (10) 6.0 2 (8) 5.0 3 (10) 5.1 4 (13) Nick (5 starts for him) 5.0 4 (9) 6.0 4 (11) 6.0 4 (9) 4.2 2 (10) 5.0 6 (8) Eduardo (6 starts for him) 6.0 4 (8) 5.0 5 (12) 4.0 4 (8) 4.2 6 (9) 5.1 3 (8) 4.2 6 (9)

I'll trust he knows what he's doing, but I will be highly skeptical and probably ready to pounce a few years down the road. Bllom started with the Rays in 2005, moved up in 2008 and became Director of Baseball Operations in 2011. He pretty much gained control in 2014, after Friedman left to LA. It's hard to attribute this player or that player to Bloom or someone else, and most picks are consensus choices, but here are the Rays first picks since 2005 with the pick number in front: 8. Wade Twonsend 3. Evan Longoria 1. David Price 1. Tim Beckham 30. LeVon Washington 17. Josh Sale, 31. Justin O'Conner, 42. Drew Vettleson (2010) 24. Taylor Guerrieri, 31. Mikie Mahtook, 32.Jake Hager, 38. Brandon Martin, 41. Tyler Goeddel, 52. Blake Snell,, 56. Kes Carter, 59. Grayson Garvin, 60. James Harris (The famed 2011 draft where they had something like 11 of the top 80 picks and only chose one right: Snell.) 25. Richie Shaffer 21. Nick Ciuffo 29 Ryne Stanek (Still in the bigs) 20. Casey Gillaspie 13. Josh Lowe 4. Brendon McKay (2017- same pick we have, this year #4) 16. Mathew Liberatore 22. Greg Jones 24. Nick Bitsko One thing about Bloom and his days with the Rays. Their draft picks were not their strong area, especially their first picks, but they may have chosen players not wanting big signing bonuses.

Well said.

Of course, and I am a long way from giving up on 2021. If we lose the next 4, I'm still liking our playoff chances. Every AL team has serious weaknesses, even the Rays, Astros, White Sox and A's. They will all hit a tough patch, at some point. BTW, we all knew June was going to be tough, and we are only 6-6, but it feels like we've lost 11 of 12 reading all these posts- mine included.

I'd be thrilled getting him at 4, and would feel like it is a safer pick than either HS SS. My hopes are: 1. Leiter 2. Davis 3. Rocker 4. Jobe, but if my top 3 picks are gone, I'd be fine with a HS SS.