moonslav59

Our June to August 1st schedule is brutal. We don't play a single bad team- not even one game. That leads right up to the trade deadline. The good thing is, we end the season a little on the soft side. Our last 17: @SEA 3 BAL 3 NYM 2 NYY 3 @BAL 3 @WSH 3

Yes. He had a BB/9 of 4.0 before joining the Sox, but a 7.8 H/9 and 0.9 HR/9 is pretty decent. His 6.9 H/9 and 0.8 HR/9 in his previous 7 years was better than decent. His 7.6 BB/9, this year is whacky and unacceptable, but I do think he should be able to get that back down to 4 ish, which isn't great, but can be good enough, if he can also keep his hits (6.2 this year) and HRs (0.0 this year) against down.

I have zero complaints with how Cora has used Barnes and many other RP'ers. My point was about not needing 9 RP'ers. Overusing 5 of them actually strengthens my position on not needing 1 of the remaining 4. I'd expect the starters to begin going a bit deeper into games, but it seems like most of them fall apart in the 6th inning or when they start facing batters for the 3rd time- whichever comes first. That issue may never right itself. Here are the IP per GS, so far: 5.8 ERod (28/5) 5.6 Eovaldi (39/7) 5.1 Pivetta (30.2/6) 4.8 Richards (28.2/6) 4.8 Perez (28.2/6) 4.6 Houck (9.1/2) Team 5.1 IP (as in 5 and 1/10th not 5 1/3.) The pen: 32 games in 35 days: IP/Games 17.0/16 Barnes 15.1/12 Andriese 15.1/8 Whitlock (being "stretched out") 13.1/12 Sawamura 13.0/15 Ottavino 11.1/13 DHern 11.1/13 Taylor (mostly mop-up) 11.1/9 Valdez 8.0/9 Brice (mostly mop-up) 1.0/1 Bazardo & Houck PAs against in High Leverage situations (with OPS Against): 34 Ottavino .603 (more than any RP'er & .603 is not bad) 32 Andriese .746 27 Barnes .113 (not BA- OPS!!!!!) 27 DHern .633 12 Whitlock 1.000 (Where is the guy who bitched about him not getting more IP in pressure parts of the game?) 7 Houck 1.167 4 Taylor 1.000 (4 PAs too many) 3 Sawamura .000 (Maybe he can pick up some "slack?") 3 Valdez .667 3 Brice 1.333 (3 PAs too many) Late & Close 50 Ottavino .514 (closer numbers) 41 Barnes .248 (Koji numbers) 30 Andriese .516 (surprisingly great) 25 DHern 1.090 (should not be used here for a bit, anyway) 11 Whitlock 1.273 (getting to very small sample sizes, now) 10 Taylor .650 (I must have been napping and missed this) 6 Valdez .000 4 Houck 1.000 3 Richards & ERod both .000 3 Sawamura 1.333 (Thank Cora for never using Brice Late & Close.) In closing, any 2 of these 3 guys could have done what all 3 did combined: 11.1 IP (13 games) Taylot 11.1 IP (9 games) Valdez 8.0 IP (9 games) Brice That's under 30 IP in 31 games pitched out of our 32 games. 1 IP every other day by each of the 2 chosen ones.

Most of Bloom's dealing away stars with the rays was due to budget constraints. I'm not sure that M.O. will carry over to the Sox. I do think it makes sense to trade away free agents to be, but it gets tricky when we are still in contention. Bloom did just that while in Tampa, but it remains to be seen, if he goes that route, here.

Ottavino is a lot better than many think he is. He has the 6th best K/9 rate in MLB since 2018. Before Barnes became our go to guy, many felt he had the best chance at winning the closer job, or the job would be shared between the two. Ottavino has had some rough outings, but he is fully capable of taking a lot of the slack up. I also think Andriese and Sawamura can regain what they showed earlier in the year. DHern does not seem to be shedding the wildness that has kept him back. Valdez, Brasier and others seem like long shots. Whitlock remains the wild card. Houck is better utilized as starter depth.

Less than 1 IP per 2 calendar days. 16 appearances in 35 days. But, yes. he's on pace for over 80 innings. That's considerable more than the 69.2 he got a few years back, but nobody can say we have used him too much due to not having another RP'er available. He's being used, because he's the only guy with a nearly unblemished record, this season.

Pitchers have been going only 5 innings for years- without the need for 9 pen arms. We also have multiple RP'ers who can go 2 or more innings. We have never come close to overusing any or our RP'ers, and several have barely been used for long stretches.

Emphasis on "crap."

Agreed. Look what we got, last year, for lesser players than ERod, Barnes & Ottavino. Maybe even Marwin gets us something promising. (We can even pitch in cash to offset some of what is owed and up the return.) Pivetta & Seabold for Workman & Hembree (+cash) Potts & Rosario for Moreland Wallace for Pillar Z Bryant for Osich

I wouldn't take Pujols if the Angels paid all but min, wage.

The "improvement" is based on the supposition that Pujols will continue to outhit Dalbec or any in house replacement for him (Chavis/Marwin/Casas/Ockimey).

It will be difficult to keep fan interest, if we are a borderline playoff team at the deadline, and decide to be sellers. In a way, it makes sense to sell off any and every piece not part of the longer term outlook, but that might sour too many fans, and bring about a moderate loss of revenue for a year or two. I'm not even sure if we have the best record in the AL, we'll make major trades or additions. We'll probably play it halfway, and trade a few low-promise prospects for a couple players that may help us get to the playoffs without hurting our future. In some ways, being 15 down at the deadline would make Bloom's choice easier and more fruitful- in terms of the 2022 and beyond plan. Free Agents after 2021: Eduardo Rodriquez Matt Barnes Adam Ottavino Marwin Gonzalez (Pedey's deal is over) Team options after 2021: Garrett Richards Christian Vazquez Martin Perez Matt Andriese Free Agents after 2022: JD Martinez Nathan Eovaldi Enrique Hernandez Kevin Plawecki (Price's contract is gone & Sawamura has a team option after 2022)

Ugly wins are way better than ugly losses, but winning like that does not make me feel like we are on a good path or trend. The 9 game winning streak created a feeling that our weaknesses could be easily overcome. They did not disappear. They were always there and will continue to be there, unless some changes are made or some players step up or grow out of their weaknesses. We can't expect a major infusion of talent at the deadline. I seriously doubt we go all out on that front. I even have serious doubts we'd go over the tax line for just some modest additions. Our best hopes are likely already in our system. Sale is the obvious player, but we could see some help coming from players already on the 26 man roster who started slowly (Renfroe, Dalbec, Cordero and others). I'm not all that hopeful on players in the minors, now, making a major impact (Santana, Duran, Arauz, Seabold, Chavis, Downs, Casas and others), but maybe Brasier, Houck and Bazardo can gives us "just enough." Assuming we are in the race by the deadline, we'll likely add a RP'er and a bat, but we won't give up any top prospects to get them. We might get some help from the farm and players returning from injuries, but we'll need to keep all our key players healthy- even those not known for having the best of health. I'm trying to stay optimistic. We only have to win 55% of our remaining games to reach 90 wins and 58% to win 95. Right now, we're at .594.

Then, we'll trade him to the Phillies for 2 more young players.

Kinda like the saying, "Your starter is only as good as his last start."

Keep the mojo risin'! ERod looking to get back on track. The bats seem to have woken up, a bit. Some players dinged up. Will we see a roster move before game time?

Wasn't he negative value starting year 2 of his deal? (In terms of value vs contract cost)

One fifth of the season over.

Can't hurt. So, we got Pivetta, Seabold and Workman for Hembree.

He could very well be trade bait and bring the best return.

Pitching is every team's issue.

No, but we got no pitchers to call up with a much better outlook, unless we can talk Bloom into cutting Brice loose.

Danny Santana just homered. Times up. Call him up.

9 in a row, baby!

Back to +2.5 vs the Skankees!