moonslav59

Me, too. Same as some Sox strugglers.

Here's a review of Bloom's additions from year one and year two. Remember, he had a limited spending budget and a lot of holes to fill not just on the 26 and 40 man rosters but throughout the farm levels. Year One (10/19 to end of 2020 season) FAs: Mitch Moreland, Martin Perez, Kevin Plawecki, Kevin Pillar, Jose Peraza, Josh Osich, Collin McHugh, Yairo Munoz & Zack Godley(MiLB) Rule 5: Jonathan Arauz Waivers: C Arroyo, Chris Mazza, Phillips Valdez,Josh Osich, Stephen Gonsalves, Andrew Triggs, Deivy Grullon Trades: Betts & Price + Cash for Verdugo, Downs & Wong, Workman & Hembree for Pivetta & Seabold, Moreland for Potts & Rosario, Pillar for Jacob Wallace, Osich for Zach Bryant, Santos for Brice, Lakins for Jhonny Perada, Jhon Nunez for Matt Hall, Sam Travis for Jefferey Springs Drafted: (Dave's draft) IFAs: Chih-Jung Liu, Diego Rodriguez Year Two (October 2020 to today) FAs: Kike Hernandez, Garrett Richards, Martin Perez, Hirokazu Sawamura, Hunter Renfroe, Matt Andriese, Marwin Gonzalez Rule 5: Garrett Whitlock Waivers: Joel Payamps, John Schreiber Trades: Benintendi + cash for Franchy Cordero, Winckowski & 3 PTBNL, PTBNL or Cash for Ottavino, Frank German & cash, Mazza & Springs for Ronaldo Hernandez & Nick Sogard, Yoan Aybar for C. Koss, CJ Chatham for PTBNL or cash, Draft: Nick Yorke, Blaze Jordan, J Wu-Yelleand, Shane Drohan IFAs: Miguel Bleis, Enderso Lira, Luis Ravelo, J. Paez, A Liendo, A Mejias Did I miss anyone important?

From the other side, we may not want to call up players who have not been playing live games until about mid May.

How far has Torres fallen? WOW!

Renfroe has a long enough record of success vs LHPs, and he is over .700, this year on that split, so we just need to put him in situations where he can be successful. I would not send him down. (Plus AAA has not started, so he won't be playing any games, if optioned.) Cordero is a wildcard. To me, he should get a longer look, but the concern level is reaching the tipping point. Maybe once AAA starts, we can let him work out some issues there, but for now, start him vs some RHPs, and let Marwin play sometimes.

The game, last night was a masterpiece.

They should have platooned from day one, but certainly by now, the writing is on the wall. With Arroyo on his way winning the 2B job FT, Kike can play OF. Marwin is doing better than both Cordero & Renfroe, so there is no reason either starts a game off-handed.

Trying to turn your total lack of respect for any Sox player in a prolonged slump into something good?

Barnes the Noble!

Close the Barnes door!

I:f Richards could return to anywhere near the form he had over 5 years ago, this team would be viewed as "for real" by many doubters. 10 Ks and 0 BBs, tonight is a nice step. His ERA dropped below 5 from almost 6.50. Now, close this one out, boys!

Why was it his to start with?

Devers forevers!

With that HR, Booby D is now over .700 (.719). Let's hope this is just the beginning of something special.

The steroid injection must be kicking in.

Yes, and I've even given some. Having 15 pitchers is better than 14. Again, I'm not bashing Cora or Bloom, but I still think my opinion has merit. With so many of our hitters doing so poorly, and some of them having massive L-R splits, having an extra bench guy would allow for more flexibility with late inning PH'ing and maybe even defensive upgrades. I'm pretty sure Cora has decided not to PH for Cordero, Renfroe and maybe even Kike, Marwin or Arroyo, because he was afraid of emptying his bench too much and not being able to handle an injury or other need that might arise. It's a trade off, and I'm not criticizing Bloom or Cora. I just think 13 pitchers would have been fine, and with 2 days off in 8 days, would still be fine, now. I'm not trying to make a big deal about this, especially since I'm not trying to say Cora is making a mistake.

Still, not many moves made in April. Like I said.

I did not mean it that way. I meant that we have never come close to having to use a pitcher on short rest due to not having anyone else with a fresh arm. Had we had a game where we needed 6-7 pitchers, we could have simply called someone up that night- for the next day's game. (We also added a 15th pitcher on our two dblheader days, and those games were only 7 innings each, thereby lessening the strain more than a normal season by the "old rules." Extra inning games are shorter, too. Okay: 24 days since day one. Matt Barnes, who struggles in back-to-back games has only pitched B2B twice (once was when we played a 3 games in 2 days.) He pitched way more than that in previous years, including some stretches where he went B2B 3-4 games in a row. We've played 23 games in 25 days. Appearances/ IP Pitcher 11/12.0 Barnes 10/8.1 Ottavino 9/10.0 Sawamura 9/ 8.1 Taylor 8/11.2 Andriese 8/10.1 Valdez 8/ 7.0 DHern 7/ 6.2 Brice 5/11.1 Whitlock 1/1.0 Bazardo (dblhdr game) All but 2 guys average pitching every 3 days or more- some are more than 1 inning guys, so that is normal. Barnes + Ottavino have pitched 21 games in 25 days. I won't argue they could have pitched more but neither are close to having to pitch every other day on average. I won't argue Sawamura, Andriese, Valdez or Whitlock should have been given more appearances or IP, bur someone might, especially with Andriese and Whitlock. That leaves DHern, Taylor and Brice who have pitched 24 times and 22 innings. I don't think anyone of those three would be considered overused had we split those 24 outings in 25 days in two, instead of 3. They'd average pitching every other day at slightly less than 1 IP per appearance. (BTW, they all have not pitched all that well, so it's hard to imagine getting worse from D Hern & Brice over DHern, Brice & Taylor.) I realize it's April, and you don't want to push people too hard, especially on cold days, but none of these guys are close to being over-taxed. Andriese averaged 2 IP/gm,last year with LA and has even spot started a few times in the last 3+ years. Valdez pitched 30.1 IP,last season, in 24 games, so he's about on the same pace. Whitlock was the great unknown. Had he sucked his first outing, he may have been parked on the end of the bullpen bench and only pitch mop-up duty. I can understand thinking of not counting on him to eat meaningful innings, at the start of the season, but now, we are "stretching him out" to the point where he may piggy back with a starter and allow us to not need any RP'ers but him every 5th day or so. (Maybe.) My point has always been that if we ever got in a pinch, like having to use 4-6 RP'ers 2 nights in a row, we could simply call up Houck or Bazardo. Presto: problem solved.

Bandwagon jumper! He mentions the bottom of the order becoming and issue. Well, with the whole league hitting so poorly, how much worse are our bottom 3 slots? 2021 OPS Slot MLB BOS 7. .664 .552 8. .610 .639 9. .541 (.583 AL) .519 While our 7-9 numbers look bad, they are not all that awful when compared to all of MLB. Hell, here's the rest: 1. .761 .748 2. .755 .905 3. .774 1.158 4. .736 1.026 5. .721 .860 6. .685 .632

Sometimes, we do better against the best starters and get shut down by unknowns.

I can think of about 5 guys I'd like to replace on defense late in games, but I'm not sure we have anyone much better. Marwin has looked great at SS, but we aren't benching Bogey late in games. (If we had Chavis, Arauz or Duran on the bench, maybe we'd feel better about using Marwin late in games or PH'ing Cordero or Renfroe for the other. Chavis is no wonder on D. Arauz, Munoz, Duran, Ockimey and Puello aren't known for D either, and some aren't even on the 40. I can remember a few times, I wished we had Chavis to PH or enough flex to PH someone else. I can't remember a time we needed even 13 pitchers, let alone 14. Can you?

Not many moves are made in April.

Now, the pitching: (In order of most IP) IP Pitcher ERA/WHIP 29 Eovaldi 3.77/1.151- He has finally started to give a season we all hoped he could give after signing for $17M x 4. It's only 1/7th of the way over, so there are still questions, but Eovaldi is doing very well- likely a career best. (So far, the second Sox player I've talked about having a "career year."- JD) 23 ERod 3.52/0.870- no surprise here, except for maybe the low WHIP. The COVID affects question was a big one, and he could still show some effects as the year goes on, but he's right on the level he left off. 21 Pivetta 3.48/1.355- Maybe a big surprise, but I liked this addition from day 1. He did have a better WHIP in 2018. I can't believe we got Seabold with him, too. 17 Perez 5.71/1.673- I expect he can and should do better. 17 Richards 6.48/ 1.860- Still hard to project. He hasn't had a meaningful season since 2015. One should expect it will take time to find a groove, but how long can his leash be? 12 Barnes 3.00/0.667- One pitch away from being nearly perfect, this year, but he's been solid for us for many years. Yes, He is on pace for a career year, but it should not be all that shocking. 12 Andriese 1.54/1.200- a great addition by Bloom. Maybe on his way to a career year. 11 Whitlock 0.00/0.529- What can I say? The kid is buttah! 10 Houck 4.35/1.452- On an innings restricted plan and doing about as well as expected. Could do better. 10 Valdez 3.48/0.774- Continues to surprise. A great get by bloom. 10 Sawamura 1.80/1.100- So far, so good. Thanks, Bloom. 8.1 Ottavino 4.32/2.143- coming around to expectations. 8.1 Taylor 9.72/2.640- may not be around long. 7.0 DHern 5.14/2.143- still walking the world. 6.2 Brice 4.05/1.500- may not stick around all year Note: These are some small sample sizes, and the numbers can flip on a dime. By and large, this is not really like 2013. Yes, we have several players headed towards "career years," but several more are having their worst years or are under career or recent numbers.

Yess, and it's hard to judge, sometimes, because one team might be on a very restricted budget, so getting someone like Beeks at a fraction of the cost of Eovaldi and with many years of cheap team control in a big win, for them, but maybe wouldn't be for a team like the Sox.

I do think we might add pieces, but I doubt we go over the tax line, and other teams will add players, too.