Nick

Got to do it... We're Wong, Chang, Pham Reds tonight.

Red Sox cutting Kevin Plawecki seems to have ruffled feathers in clubhouse | Chris Cotillo This is NOT NBA. Players don't get to pick teammates. I want to see the two catchers we now have on the roster. Why not bring up Hernandez too? I really don't care what Hill and Eovaldi thinks. Last time I checked, Cora is the manager. Didn't we go through this with Vaz? No one really seems to care now.

There's absolutely no reason to play JD at this point. WE ARE 20-42 VS AL EAST WHEN IT MATTERED. We know what we have in JD. Give someone else a chance. Why play Story? Why chance him getting injured? Get the injured guys out of lineup.

As an old timer, I think it sucks that we suck at hitting positions, 3 outfield positions and 1B.

It would be interesting to see run average, capped at +4 differential each game. So assuming this game stays at 11-4, Sox would get credit for 8 runs.

Do we need to see JD anymore?

It says mediocre to me.

This is post #12...it says everything we need to know about what the fans think of Red Sox these days..... 7-3 lead and Ort walks two guys......get rid of pitchers that can't throw strikes. Ok...2 K's. Much better...

Our starting pitching without outside addition is NOT adequate to improve the team. This has to be the starting point. We need 2 aces to go along with Sale (assuming healthy) Paxton (assuming healthy) Pivetta (he's establishing himself as 4/5 starter) Bello Wacha (assuming he comes back to the Sox)

So MassLive has an article about going with the tandem of McGuire and Wong. Arbitration 1 guy and a league minimum guy. So we have on the cheap C Wong/McGuire 1B Casas (league minimum) SS TBD DH TBD LF Pham ($6M) CF Kike ($10M) RF Verdugo (arb 2, earning $3.5M this year) As fill ins , we have Hosmer, Arroyo, Refsnyder, Chang, Dalbec, Cordero. If Xander is not resigned then we should have loads of money to "make the team, way better".

We have a winner....quit sugar coating it. Love him but unwilling to spend $30M on the guy.

Maybe true in center field but I don't see it on the base path. I recall Duran scoring from second base on a sacrifice fly. Let's not make him worse than he is.

My point is what starting pitchers does he need to add in order to make us "way better". Our offense is fine by just bring back Xander. Any thoughts?

I'll give him until April 1st. I just wanted to make a point. He's not a liar, obviously.

Kike was promised by Bloom that the team will be "way better". Not to be a jerk, but having Kike back is NOT way better. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad he's back. Suppose we have Pham, Kike and Verdugo in the OF. Suppose we extend Xander and return Devers, Xander, Story and Casas in the infield. At this point, the team is NOT WAY BETTER. What does Bloom need to do TO MAKE THIS TEAM WAY BETTER? BLOOM SUPPOSEDLY SAID IT ACCORDING TO KIKE. Signing Judge as an example is one step in making the team way better. I have supported Bloom. I'm going to hold him to his words. Otherwise, he's a f***ing liar.

We have a rule on our team. If you are hurt, you don't play. Decide. Maybe we should have him NOT play so he is 100% healed. What if he reinjures himself in these meaningless games? I just didn't like the headline.

Boston Red Sox lineup: Trevor Story will play Friday vs. Orioles despite expected day off Are you serious? He needs a day off after all the games he has missed? And those of you want to argue that's just Cora, why not just sit his ass down on the bench for the rest of the season and play younger players? Play Arroyo. I bet he doesn't think he needs a day off. I get that Xander probably deserves a day off but Story? Sorry, the headline just pissed me off. $23M f***ing dollars. What a bunch of pussies....sorry again.

Bloom supposedly promised Kike we will be "much better" next year. Bringing back same faces won't accomplish that goal. He better be spending money.

I was just patting myself on the back for 'predicting' Kike signing at $10M on the same day, earlier.

Staying on the topic...how to spend $79M with Pham in fold in left field ($6M mutual option seems will be exercised) Notin had Sox picking up Paxton's 2 year, $26M option. So our starters are now Sale, Pivetta, Paxton, Bello and Whitlock (my pick). Notin however had Xander gone, saving $20M + $10M raise I used. That takes us up to $96M to improve the team. Why not sign Kike for $10M to play centerfield/shortstop, splitting time with Arroyo and Duran? You can buy lot of pitching for $86M that's leftover, if we can live without both JD and Xander and duplicate this year's run total. I got a call from Bloom. He just said "not a bad idea, Nick"

Staying on the topic...how to spend $79M with Pham in fold in left field ($6M mutual option seems will be exercised) Notin had Sox picking up Paxton's 2 year, $26M option. So our starters are now Sale, Pivetta, Paxton, Bello and Whitlock (my pick). Notin however had Xander gone, saving $20M + $10M raise I used. That takes us up to $96M to improve the team. Why not sign Kike for $10M to play centerfield/shortstop, splitting time with Arroyo and Duran? You can buy lot of pitching for $86M that's leftover, if we can live without both JD and Xander and duplicate this year's run total.

Big ??? mark on Paxton. He can chose to play for $4M for Sox in 2023 if Sox does not pick up the option. It will cost Sox 2 year $26M to pick up Paxton's option. It seems pretty large for a guy that never pitched in 2022.

Life would be easier if we had Dodger's payroll. But I guess that's true for 29 teams.

Let's go with what we know. Starting luxury tax payroll for 2022 was $242M. Tax limit is $232M for 2023. Say that's what Henry wants for 2023 budget. Comparing apples to apples (this is for Moon), Sox have 16 expiring contracts (some have already been traded away) totaling $118M, including Price's contract. To get in line with 2023 tax limit, we have $109M to spend for 2023. Let's get the big elephants out of the way. Devers will cost us $10M, minimum, Xander say $10M maximum, and Whitlock's new contract will give us delta of $4M. Assuming Pham and Sox agree on mutual option, that's another $6M. That's total of $30M, leaving us with $79M to spend. With that what we have is as follows C Wong 1B Casas 2B Story SS Xander 3B Devers DH Hosmer LF Pham (mutual option for $6M picked up) CF Duran RF Verdugo Would you spend any more to upgrade this lineup? Or spend it all on pitching? Remember that we rank 14th in team ERA in AL while we are second in runs scored. SP1 Sale SP2 Pivetta SP3 Bello SP4 Whitlock SP5 Winckowski Bullpen RP Barnes RP Houck RP Schrieber RP RP RP RP RP IF I'm Henry, I'd want to know how Bloom is going to fill these openings before I open up my wallet. Come on folks, fill out the roster within the budget. Then you can go to Henry and say with another $30M, we can sign an ace and increase our chances of winning the world series. Bottom line is other than Bello and Casas, who came on aboard within last month, what youngster has made a case that our farm is producing? Are we still couple of years away?

I'm guessing Moon is kidding about trading away Casas. That's not in Bloom's DNA. Simple thing to do is to bring back the left side of infield At most that will cost $20M. Its affordable. Money can come out of JD' s expiring contract. DH role can from Hosmer. Bring back Kike. He would be a valuable infield backup in addition to playing solid center field D.