moonslav59

Man, those are some long deals! Is Casas worthy of a 9+ year deal? Bello?

Isn't kershaw out until June>?

Pretty high on Mayer and Rafaela. 5 in the top 90 is real nice, although still no pitchers. Law has been known to downgrade the Sox, so this is encouraging.

Thanks for the updates. Did I miss anyone significant? (I know I list some that aren't.)

Indeed, and in Foulke's case, he had pitched more innings in a previous season and near or over 80 high leverage IP, numerous times before 2004.

There has been significant turnover on the pitching staff and farm staff, but not enough at the top of the rotation. Here is an incomplete list of pitchers lost and gained since the end of 2023: Lost: IP/ERA Paxton 96/4.50 Sale 103/4.30 Kluber 55/7.04 Bleier 31/5.28 Llovera 30/5.46 K. Ort 23/6.26 Brasier 21/7.29 Garza 18/7.36 Robertson 12/6.00 Joel Rod. 11/6.55 Bearclaw 8/12.91 Sheriff 7/2.70 Dermody 4/6.75 T Scott 4/4.91 Littell 3/9.00 Faria 2/22.50 Lamet 2/13.50 S Drohan V Santos Brock Bell, Jose Ramirez, Railin Perez, Ryan Miller, R Ammons To DFA or stay in AAA? Jacques 27/5.06 Added: Giolito I Campbell J Slaten C Criswell R Fitts G Weissert J Benitez H Olivarez N Judice C Zink (Added to 40: Wikelman & Perales: doubtful either will see MLB in '24.)

We also seem to have some decent role players: O'Neill, Abreu, Rafaela, Reyes, Wong/McGuire and platoon Ref. It's all on the rotation.

That's all we got, right now: hope. We need a 2013 type confluence of good luck, good health and some career years mixed in. We have 6 pitchers who have some hope as starters. All but maybe Whitlock have some pretty long stretches of pitching like a solid #2 or #3. They pretty much all have to gel at once, and for longer stretches than ever before. (Gio excepted- he's had some good full seasons.)

That is certainly the main reason we can't get over the hump, or even to the top of the hump. We keep "putting it off" another year and snow-jobbing the fans into thinking an effort is being made.

I live in Sugar Land, TX. I lived in Maine from '71 to '04.

Yes. It was astoundingly great. Eye Test: Gold Glove quality UZR/150: 2nd to G Henderson at +12.8 DRS: 7th but kille everyone in DRS per Inning 8 in 314 innings 10 in 585 Gunnar 16 in 948 Franco 18 in 1279 Swanson Outs Above Average: same thing. He blew everyone away in OAA per inning. He finished 8th at +8 while playing 1/3 to 1/4 the innings. He was incredible.

You guys say we are obsessed, when you obviously can't live without it. Let it go, guys.

I thought the site was doing a little better without Red & I going at it, nonstop, but it's like these guys are egging us on.

Crazy weather, every where. We were below 20 a couple weeks ago and just had a week straight over 70.

The post was about D. Yes, Story has been below average in batting, when he has played over the past two years, but over his career- no. Even going by just the last 3 years, among the 29 SSs with 700+ PAs, Story placed 8th in OPS at .770.

For many of these positions, average is way better than 2023. BTW, Story is way better than average on D.

We were like 5th to 10th in most categories until September. We ended up around 11th in runs and OPS. We need some health and things to go right. We can't just focus on losing JT, Duvall & Dugo: we also lost Kike, Arroyo and other poor hitters.

Kimmi left.

There are many pacifists in the US, too.

Foulke is a hero. No regrets. Plus, it was only a 3 year deal.

Like Red, you totally don't understand who I am or my motives. I have no wish to meet with someone like Red. He's a troll and continually lies about me and my position. There would be nothing to gain or enjoy. I'm not sure why you and others are trying to stir things back up. I've put Red on ignore and am trying to avoid talking about him and his lies and misrepresentations. Just leave well enough alone and mind your own business.

A while ago, I posted a breakdown of the best, somewhat long, stretches of good to excellent starting pitching by 6 of our current pitchers: Bello, Gio, Pivetta, Crawford, Houck and to a lesser extent Whitlock. There is some reason to think, they could stretch this out to a full season of good pitching. my worry is that we are hoping than 3-4 of them can all do it at the same time, while a 1-2 of the others don't suck. It just seems like way too much to hope for. Maybe the rest of the team can take up the slack. Maybe improved defense can help the pitching do better. (Maybe the pitching wasn't as bad as we thought, because our D sucked, last year.) Maybe, maybe, maybe...

He pitched more innings in another season, earlier than 2004, even counting the playoffs. He routinely pitched near or over 80 high leverage innings. It is more likely, a few years of this took its toll, than one season or 3 game stretch. I agree, but who can ever know, for sure?

I have never said we should not have signed Foulke, Lackey or Price, even in hindsight. In fact, I have said the opposite. I was fine with the Price signing and said it was "necessary." I make a comment about how his whole body of work "might not have been worth it," as he was a part of the Betts trade to cut salary and minimized our return, and it's like I'm saying it was an awful signing. It wasn't, and I didn't say it was. I defended the Lackey signing. I think the 3 years of Foulke is not in the same boat as 5 for Lackey and 7 for Price. 1 great year that led to a ring, and without him we don't win, for sure, out of 3 is not bad. 3 out of 5 seasons for Lackey, with only one bad year was a good signing. 2 years out of 7 for Price is questionable, especially since it's not a clear point that we could not have won it all in 2018, without him. (My guess is, we'd have signed someone else.) I'm sure glad we had him in 2018, and he helped us win more games than lose in a couple other seasons, but that contract was a drain. To me, there is no clear answer on Price. I was fine with us signing him, and we won a ring with him. That may or may not outweigh the rest. I have no firm yes or no answer on him.

"Not sure" is not the same as saying they weren't worth it. For one thing, I'm not sure we couldn't win without Price, or Sale, for that matter. Lackey was more important, IMO, to the ring won than Price. I'm not sure we could have won, without him. I also just showed how he had 3 good seasons out of 5 and 1 okay one, and was the one most worth it out of Price, Lackey and Foulke, because he did give more than just a ring boost season. I do tend to think more about rings, but I'm not a black & white type of person. I enjoy rings and consistent winning teams, but if I had to choose, yes, I'd still take 1 ring and 9 last place finishes over 10 second place seasons and no rings. It's not a slam dunk position in my mind.