moonslav59

Or Renfroe, who has an arb year left after this year.

Big chance, here, to put some more distance between us the Yanks. Kick 'em when their down! The bats seem to be reawakening at just the right time and not just from the big 4. The pen seems to be back on track. The rotation is still carrying us, and this is a big start for Richards. Coming through, today, would be HUGE!

What happened is that all the doubters and bashers scraped their knees jumping off and back on the bandwagons so many times, it's not even funny. It's actually sad to watch it every game. I had to take a break from it all.

This was obviously just a bridge year to 2022. Only one guy was signed for longer than a year (kike)and that was just for 2 years. He waited to fill 2B, CF and 1B, so his top prospects could get a look at some point. He'll have plenty of cash to spend, next year and has nice options on Richards & Perez. He should have a lot of key questions answered- for good or bad, and the biggest choices start, this winter. He will ultimately be judged on this winter and beyond, IMO. He's shown he can find some gems in the rough, and that is important, but the big moves will mean more than anything he's done to date, except for the Betts deal.

Who knows. He deserves a shot, but maybe not at the 1 slot.

Besides Downs and Wong, he got Rolando Hernandez for 2 scrub pitchers everyone wanted DFA'd. He picked up Jeisson Rosario, my sleeper pick this year, Hudson Potts and recently Valdez. He drafted Nick Yorke & Blaze Jordan, too. Pillar was a nice pick up, last year. Maybe none will work out, and you can gloat.

He also looked pretty good in something like 7 IP in ST'ing.

Why leave out Verdugo, Renfroe, Arroyo, Plawecki and some minor league position players with promise? BTW, it's not stupid, if it's true. Your disdain for Bloom is well documented.

It must be killing you to watch Bloom's team win so much.

You'd like that. Reason enough not to. LOL.

You're down to one PA sample sizes, now? LOL.

Well, I stayed away from the game thread for 3 straight games, and we won all 3. I guess I have to stay away some more. Reading back a few pages, I guess the negativity hasn't let up. It's unrealistic to think it ever will. The offense came to life. ERod showed sigs of turning the corner. Some struggling bats came a live a bit. Devers is keyed in. Line shots everywhere.

Obviously no, and I never said that. I said it was a bigger factor than a most recent 50 PA sample size. Plus, players get extended, get hurt, have big seasons or bad ones (not tiny sample sizes) that all affect their value, but years of team control and what cost is certainly a significant factor.

I seriously doubt GMs set value based primarily on most recent small sample sizes. Years of team control, contractual costs and projected performance is likely all higher ranked than a tiny sample size.

He's hitting below his career norm and has less and less team control with every passing day.

He's a couple oh for 4's from equaling Cordero's OPS.

I'd rather have Renfroe, anyway. The rest is just gravy.

Beni's value is lower, now, and will continue to decline as his years of service decline.

The Rays won 3-0. Rich Hill with 2 hit ball through 5. How long will he last?

Is JD on a 2 days off a week plan?

Is Arroyo on a no 2 days in a row plan or something? I know Marwin is Cora's best bud, but what's up with the whole Arroyo situation? The guy hit a key 3 run job the other day and did well his last game, too. He has the highest OBP of any Sox player not named Devers, JD, Bogey or Verdugo. I thought the idea of removing Kike from the leadoff slot was to improve our chances of having someone get on base for the big 4. Santana has the worst OBP of all Sox players on the 26 man roster (.222 in a small sample).

How dumb are the Rangers? Down 3-0 to the Rays with 2 outs in the bottom of the eighth and Calhoun gets thrown out stealing 2B.

It's the only deadline trade I remember by the Rays at the deadline, yes. There may be more. I don't think the David Wells trade in 2006 was major enough to be an example, but we were 10 games over .500 at the time of the trade, and I do remember some grumbling about throwing in the towel too early. That season was promising until losing 5 in a row to the Yanks in mid August, which was part of losing 12 of 14 shortly before the deadline. We ended up 10 over .500 and lost out by 9 games to the 95 win Tigers, but at the end of August, it was not a clear thing.

I kinda liked the idea of trying Arroyo leading off. I know Santana has speed, but Arroyo has been getting on base better than any of the non top 4 hitters on the team... Note Santana's ranking. .326 Arroyo .310 Plawecki .299 Renfroe .288 Vaz .287 Marwin .284 Kike .248 Dalbec .222 Santana

He was hired to build a winning team and probably to set up a system where it can be sustainable. If you look at what the Rays did after some of their "sell-offs" they actually improved in the short and long terms, and many of the very good players they dealt away had a lot of people scratching their heads, until the guys they traded fell off a cliff shortly afterwards. Look, I'm not saying Bloom will trade Barnes, or that he will follow the Rays example 100%. He had to do some of those moves for financial reasons. He does not have to do that here, but he did learn some valuable lessons from several of those trades that may carry over to his time, here. Another factor to think about is how we define "competitiveness." Is it having an outside shot at a WC slot? Is it having an inside shot at a WC slot? Is it having a good chance to win the division? Is it having a good chance at winning a ring? I know many of you believe in the playoff crapshoot doctrine, but I don't, and maybe Bloom & Co. don't either. If they think we have a 10% chance at winning it all, and a trade of Barnes might make it a 2 or 3% chance, but will greatly increase our chances, next year and/or for several years afterwards, maybe they consider it. If they think our chances are 20-30%, the choice gets much harder, but if you believe in the crapshoot doctrine, nobody ever has a20-25% or higher chance of winning a ring.