notin

I’m on board with that..

But it also means it’s no longer a reason to keep Houck out of it…

Ok so what reliable reliever? As weird as it sounds, Hansel Robles was actually one of the better relievers moved at the deadline. His 2021 hasn’t been stellar, but he was a 1.4 fWAR reliever in 2019. Some of the better ones moved went for packages the Sox simply could not match with their mediocre farm system. Ricardo Rodriguez went for a 23yo MLB pitcher with 5 years of control. Ian Kennedy a as part of a package that brought back, among others, Spencer Howard, who not only has MLB experience, but was also BA#27 before the season, Yimi Garcia? I’d have been ok with him, but let’s not pretend he has some of career that instills confidence. Kendall Graveman is having a good year, but it’s his first season as a full time reliever and the guy is a walking arm injury (and could we really top Abraham Toro?) Diego Castillo went for what’s dirt cheap package, but no way in Hell was Tampa going to trade him to Boston. I wanted more, too. But would you have traded Casas for another reliever? The price tag for a lot of these guys was more than expected and more than a lot of prospects in the Sox farm seem to be worth in the eyes of other GMs. And it may be a long time before a Sox GM can trade another highly ranked first base prospects for a relief pitcher again. Maybe we could have gotten Joakim Soria, but really he strikes me as a guy people get and still pine for someone else…

A QO to a guy on a one year $1mill contract? Cron is having a good year, but I don't think he is doing anything that will merit him a 1700% raise. He seems to have seasons like this a lot recently and still gets non-tendered...

Eh. What starter do we have who goes 6 innings any more?

Sure, but maybe he can ride some horses in the 7th inning for a week...

But even then, in the three games in which Barnes collapsed, those were all games for a closer/high leverage reliever. So unless the Red Sox acquired Kimbrel, they likely would have all been sports for Barnes anyway. We’ve now come full circle here. The one thing a lot of us wanted at the deadline was starting pitching. Ironically over the last few games that’s the one area probably doing the best. The lineup can’t seem to score after the fifth inning. And the bullpen has been an utter disaster the last few games..

I do agree DFAing Gonzalez is unlikely when there are players who can be demoted and there is no reason to keep Danny Santana on the 40 man roster…

Most of those moves hinge on someone being activated…

According to someone named Darren Hartwell in an article on Yahoo, the Sox might be making the following changes. 1. Sale and Houck to the rotation; Richards joins Perez in the bullpen 2. Demoting Dalbec when Schwarber is activated. 3. Yairo Munoz to Boston; Marwin Gonzalez to free agency. Not sure why they demoted Dalbec when activating Schwarber negates the need for Cordero Anyway…. https://www.yahoo.com/sports/mlb-rumors-red-sox-discussing-190039239.html

Well, that was back when Alex was getting some sleep…

Sounds good to me. Where do I vote for it?

You’re not legally required to watch all 18. Just don’t step on the toes of us who do want it…

To be fair to Gallo, why would anyone ever pitch to him in a high leverage situation? There’s never been anyone behind him in that lineup that you feared with men on base…

And just can’t do anything against left-handed pitching..

I think their approach this year was to “rereset”…

If only MLB didn’t have that new extremist deadline rule where teams have to either stay under the limit or trade away every prospect and take on as much salary as possible. Curse you, Rob Manfred!! Allow for a “middle off the road” approach where teams just go over a little. Also, bring back 9 inning double headers …

If that kids like his dad, he’s never going to learn to walk. Rimshot (Actually I know Verdugo is like 4th on the team in walks, but I needed a punchline.)

They couldn’t “reset” since they did so last year; they needed to set something first so they could reset it…

Unrelated follow up, but on the date (10/18/2004) Ortiz had two walk off postseason hit, the Astros also won their game by a score of 3-0 on a 3 run walkoff home run by Jeff Kent Amazing day for baseball…

Wrong JD and wrong season. But I think you knew that…

Possibly. Counting Machado, the Padres have incredible depth at shortstop…

The Stanton signing wasn’t so bad. He won an MVP on that deal for the team that signed him. Now the Stanton trade is another matter…

Reportedly the Padres will be moving Fernando Tatis Jr. to the outfield due to his shoulder issues, thus answering 5Gold’s questions about the last time a player changed positions to a totally new one in the middle of a pennant race…

My favorite Ortiz postseason story is that in that he actually got two walk off hits in that same series on the same day!! His home run in game 4 came well past midnight, even out here in the Central Time Zone. And then later that day, he singled in Damon, who was able to “run all the way to New York!” Two walkoff postseason hits on the same day - that has to be a record. (If memory serves, the NLCS game that day between Houston and St. Louis also ended in a walkoff hit. 3 LCS walkoffs on the same day is just flat out awesome baseball.)