moonslav59

Cordero wasn't a prospect, and Winckowski looks like he may turn out to be more than just depth. Let's see what we get from KC.

Of course. It's the way you continually refresh your system, and once you get real good at it, and accumulate so many studs, you can afford to trade a Blake Snell and not miss a beat.

I know the standard answer, but thinking outside the box is what got the Rays where they are now.

The Rays traded their ace after a .667 winning season. They're in first place, now. We could be like the Rays, except spend 2 to 3 times what they spend, and spend it wisely. I'm not saying this is something we do every year, or that we should trade a young ace as he enters prime, assuming we ever have one, but being practical is not a bad strategy.

That's not a bad strategy. It then begs the question: why hold onto Barnes and get next to nothing, if you know you only have 2 more months of team control and are going to let him walk? In contention or not.

I get why. I was one of those doubters, too. One has to wonder, if this isn't just one of those outlier stretches a pitcher has in his career, and he will revert to his former self, at some point. He's had a very nice K rate for several years, but he is in Uehara territory, this year. OPS Against .399 ERA+ 13 WHIP 0.640 K/BB 8.80 Uehara in 2013: .466 OPS Against 30 ERA+ .565 WHIP 11.22 K/BB

Okay, I worded that wrongly. Between Ottavino and Barnes, yes many wanted Barnes, but nobody was happy with Barnes as our closer. Some didn't even think he was a good set up man, either.

Of course, if he's traded, it would be for a short term gain by whoever trades for him. We'd get something very good for 2 months of Barnes. We did pretty good in our returns for Workman/Hembree, Mazza/Springs, Moreland and other deadline deals in the past. Re-signing him may be very difficult after trading him, but it is not impossible, and there should be other closers on the market, too. It's weird how, two months ago, nobody wanted Barnes to be our closer. Now, he's "untouchable." LOL.

Totally agree. It may not just be about Santana, though. Santana may end up winning the 1B job, if he does well. Kike might end up being needed at 2B more than OF. Renfroe may prove he needs to be platooned, as originally thought when we signed him. Someone might get hurt. With the flexibility Kike, Santana and Marwin bring us, an injury at any position but catcher could open up a slot for Duran. If Duran is ready, and we are still in the race, after the Olympic games, he may get the call, if any of the scenarios I listed come true.

He had fire in his eyes, and his body language was clear.

The guy was a solid #2or #3 for 57 starts in 2018 and 2019, He was a decent #3-4 before that, despite his high pitch counts. The team went 45-12 in his starts from 2018-2019. I know wins are team numbers, but the guy must have done something right for that to happen. No #4 or 5 starter did that, and in fact almost no aces did that- maybe none. Then the team starts off 4-0 and 5-1 in his first 4 or 6 starts, this year, and after a 4-6 game bad stretch, he's hardly worth being called a 5th starter, anymore? Man, you guys are brutal. 49-12, then 1-5 and he's a bum? No doubt, the guy has sucked for his last 4 starts and 5 of is last 6, but they guy is coming off a serious heart condition. Maybe, he's toast. Maybe he'll never do well again. He deserves a longer look than 4 or 5 starts. If the guy had lost 2-3 mph off his fastball, maybe he should be on the IL as of yesterday. If he can't spin the ball like he used to, then the same thing. I'm sure all of that is being watched by the club. If he can't get back on track, real soon, they'll IL him, and give him a rest and a chance in rehab to show he can come back- or not.

X will likely opt out, unless the big FA SSs get less than him, this next off season. JD may opt-out or get the Sox to extend him. He'll want longer security than just 1 more year with the Sox. Barnes will likely get $19M+ x 3-4 years, assuming he continues. Barnes may be traded no matter where we stand at the deadline. Bloom is not shy about trading top talent as a top contender. I get how Boston is different than Tampa, but Bloom ended up winning almost everyone of those deals. Barnes might also be the type of guy that would re-sign with the Sox after being traded to the Padres at the deadline.

With the ghost, we'd have traded away the second 26, too.

I was surprised, too, but maybe the match-ups favored him over DHern or Whitlock. I'm not sure bringing in ex-Yankees, Ottavino or Whitlock, would have worked, but in hindsight, Cora was a genius, last night. Had Sawamura been lit up, we'd have a 100 posts roasting Cora alive.

BINGO! That is also why we can't just use a player like Duran's even shorter stat line to deem him "ML ready." Again, I'm not saying he's not ML ready or very close to being so. Maybe Sox management would have called him up after the extra team control year deadline passed, just recently, if it weren't for the Olympic trial games. Maybe, not.

No, I discounted JBJ's first 500 PAs and said "from 2015 or 2016 to now." It's .785 to .752 since 2015. Call it cherry-picking, if you want. But they've been pretty similar on offense since Beni was called up (.785 to .745). Beni has been better. My point was not "MUCH" better.

Does every player always repeat what they did in their last game? Their last 4 games? Their last 6 games? Look, I'm not at all confident in ERod, at this moment, either, but sometimes you just have to let proven players work through the kinks. I hope it is just a "kink." I'm not sure how much longer I'll feel this way, and I'm not trying to diss you for thinking he needs a break, right now. Clearly, something is not right. I'm sure management is watching him closely, monitoring his velo, spin rates and other factors. If the guys says he feels good, and I'm not saying I know what he's saying, he's due another start or two, at least- low confidence and all.

I guess you're only as good as your last game.

Yes, see my post. It may not have to "phantom," but either way, who starts, if he is pulled from the rotation?

If managers gave up on players as quickly as some of you guys do, there'd be almost nobody left to play, including Devers, JD, Verdugo and Bogey. .416 last 9 games Bogey (.377 last 7 games) .571 first 7 games Verdugo .626 first 6 games Devers .703 last 10 games JD ERod 3.82 ERA first 6 starts (team went 5-1) 8.69 ERA last 4 starts (team went 0-4) You can make the sample size his last 6 games with a 7.28 ERA, but I think ERod has earned the respect to not be judged so harshly over 4 to 6 games. I'm not saying his leash is long, at this point. Obviously, something is not right, but as of now, I'm not sure we have many other options. We could move him to the pen and start who? We could put him on the IL and start who? Houck is hurt. Seabold is hurt. Whitlock's "stretching" out has been a joke. (BTW, the opponent's OPS against has been .907 vs Whitlock in his last 7 games.) Andriese or a "pen game?" No minor league starter in on the 40 man roster, unless they are also on the IL. Would you DFA someone, so we can add... Raynel Espinal Daniel Gossett Ryan Weber Kyle Hart Stephen Gonsalvez ERod will get at least one or two more starts, before they even think about benching or demoting him. The IL may be the only thing open, but with no easy replacement, we may just leave him out there- struggling or not, as long as he feels okay, physically.

He's also been surprisingly (to me) good on defense at several positions, this year. I get being pissed off over the dumb error, but to me, it's more about the guy hitting .550 the whole year and then something like that E makes you think, "WTF!"

Exactly, and no player should be definitively judged by any 100 PA sample size, especially after a shortened 2020 season. Now, if a player had marginal numbers in the minors and exhibited very few plus skillsets before ever getting a chance in the bigs, then sometimes 100 PAs is the only chance they get, but Cordero had shown the skills earlier and had had some sporadic success in the bigs, already- in some very small sample sizes. The kid deserved a hundred PAs or more. It didn't work out, this time, but it is very likely he'll get another look.

.780 to .750 is not "much better." Yes, the 27 year old Beni is much better offensively than the 31 year old JBJ, now, but since 2015 or 2016, their offense has not been much different, overall. Both were streaky as hell. One was a great defender.

Which Beni is he? Some cherry-picked sample sizes that leave no PA unaccounted for in his Sox career: 2016 .767 in first 55 PAs .911 in last 58 PAs 2017 .717 in first 50 PAs 1.020 in next 90 PAs .350 in next 82 PAs .808 his last 436 PAs 2018 .712 in first 128 PAs .961 in his middle 365 PAs .641 his last 168 PAs 2019 .661 in first 57 PAs .826 in middle 279 PAs .745 last 279 PAs 2020 .442 in 52 PAs 2021 with KC .624 in April (90 PAs) about the same sample size as Cordero's .846 in his most recent 119 PAs

Like JBJ, Beni was a somewhat streaky hitter, unlike JBJ, his defense was not nearly as great. JBJ was a .750 hitter after his first 500 PAs in MLB. He has abysmal slumps that seemed to last forever, followed by red and white hot streaks that could last for weeks or months. Beni is a .780 hitter over a shorter career. His OPS seemed to yo-yo between .830 seasons and .775 ones, until the bottom fell out half way through 2019. Now, after 209 PAs, he's back up to .750, and people are acting like it's a sure thing the .830 Beni is back. True, he's only about to turn 27, but he's got one more year of team control, after this one, and I seriously doubt he was going to come back with the Sox after that, no matter what happened. We traded 2 years of Beni plus a little cash for 5 hopes and some salary relief that basically allowed us to sign Renfroe (or Sawamura). Beni for Renfroe, Cordero, Winckowski, Valdez and 2 more PTBNLs sounds like a pretty good deal, at worst.