Nick

I forgot about him...he's on positive side of ledger.

Repeating myself but I believe Sox thought between Robles, Dieckman and Barnes, they would find a closer. It has not worked out. Lucky that Schrieber has come out of nowhere. Both Houck and Whitlock were going to be multiple inning guys with Houck getting the first crack at starting. I'm convinced Houck is better suited to be the closer. We can't have him pitch 3 or 4 innings every 5th day. As Cora like to say "piggyback" for a starter. With our bats heating up, we'll have to protect leads in 8/9th innings. No confidence in Barnes, Sawamura, Dieckman and Robles in that order for me right now. Brasier was on the list but he got sent down. Davis is out of my doghouse. Tyler has take a step back for me. Strahm and Schrieber have pitched well.

Yes...but I think most agreed that Suzuki was legit. Given the choice, I'd gone with Suzuki locked up for 5 years.

I wanted Schwarber but from position wise I knew it didn't work as long as we had JD. (although he would have look good as a 1B for one year before moving to DH). My next choice was Suzuki. Renfroe is making $7.65M versus Suzuki's tax payroll of $17M. I would've taken the risk of 5year/$85M. No matter what anyone says, Story was signed to take over the SS position. From my perspective, Suzuki/Story was NOT either/or. Both should have been signed. Suzuki was an upgrade over Renfroe in right field and Story was future replacement for Xander. PS Just think of this possibility by blowing way past the tax limit for one year. 1B Schwarber (moved to DH or LF in 2023) 2B Story (moved to SS in 2023) 3B Devers (extended in winter 2022) SS Xander (elsewhere in 2023) LF Verdugo CF Kike RF Suzuki DH JD CC Vaz. Now they'd score some runs. Xander and JD probably move on so over a two year period, you replaced Xander with Story, Renfroe with Suzuki, and JD with Schwarber. Net annual cost? $10M Doable.

FAVORITE PASTE TIME-REWRITING THE HISTORY DD was hired to change the downward directory of Red Sox. Team won the World Series in 2013, after last place finish in 2012. Then the team again came in dead last in 2014 and 2015. Henry knew what DD was all about (trade away young talent and spend money). Henry hired DD anyway. For the first time in team history, Red Sox under DD won 3 STRAIGHT EASTERN DIVISION TITLE (2016-2018), culminating with a World Series ring in 2018. First big singing was David Price. I still cringe every time I see that we're still paying $16M to the Dodgers. But I get it. David is David. He was given free reins to improve the team that had finished DEAD LAST three out of 4 previous seasons. I'll take the World Series ring and move on. Not one complaint from me. You don't ever return a World Series Champion honor.

I want to repeat what I've said. Bloom is gathering 'core group' to chase championships. As many here have said, last season was surprise for many, probably including Bloom. Age and contract length matter as we discuss who is in that core group. This group has to be relatively young and the money must be reasonable (with one exception, Devers) Definites Whitlock Houck Pivetta Story (6 year deal) Definite Outs JD, maybe another 2 year deal Vaz, at best a backup Kike (age, contract terms) JBJ Xander (probably due to Boras factor) Hopeful Devers...he should be the #1 target On the fence Verdugo (hasn't shown noticeable improvement) I get it there are several other pieces. I'm just tired. I think Moon had a good template to build a future roster, if someone can create it, I'll participate C 1B 2B etc. etc. etc.

Worcester Red Sox 5, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders (NYY) 2 After turning 23 on Tuesday, Brayan Bello celebrated by impressing in his Triple-A debut. Over six innings of work, the right-hander allowed just two runs on six hits and one walk to go along with 10 strikeouts on 94 pitches (64 strikes). Out of the Worcester bullpen, Eduard Bazardo, Phillips Valdez, Zack Kelly, and Kaleb Ort combined for three scoreless frames. Ort earned his fifth save of the season. Six innings, one walk.....I wouldn't be surprised to see him 'arrive' sometime in 2023.

I do remember that. I'd channel 'surf' and pick up a random game.

Can't worry the playoffs. Gotta get back to .500. FOCUS ON WINNING EACH SERIES. NOTHING ELSE MATTERS.

Ryan Fitzgerald, once called ‘baby Andrew Benintendi’ by Red Sox teammates, can taste MLB call-up after 8 homers with WooSox I saw him on TV during spring training, love his bat. Instead of Fitzgerald padding his stat sheet with monster games, the Red Sox want him to do everything on a more consistent basis. If he does so, he’ll be knocking even louder on door to the major league clubhouse. “I’ve been closer every year,” Fitzgerald said. “There are a lot of things out of my control, so I’ve got to just try to keep hitting home runs.” Gotta love his attitude...... Is it time to rethink strikeouts when a guy is hitting bombs? Look what singles are getting us.

I have Sox offering Xander $200M/6years. I doubt he'll do any better. You have to make choices. I rather take Kike's $7M and Wacha's $7M and pay Xander. We gave Wacha a one year deal for a reason.

There is a path to keeping our key players..... Keep +13.333M Xander (6 year/$200M) +11.000M Devers (Arb 3, wait for winter of 2023 for Mega Deal) +07.000M Eovaldi (4 Year/$96M) -02.000M JD (2 year/$40M)...I can't see him getting much higher, his current luxury tax pay is $22M so he'll save Sox money Total say $30M Financed by +16.000M Price +07.000M Kike +07.000M Vaz +05.000M Hill +07.000M Wacha Total say $42M Sure we'll have to fill in some gaping holes....but I rather work on replacing Vaz, Kike, Wacha, Hill than JD, Xander and Eovaldi. Wouldn't you? Our starting rotation could be Eovaldi, Whitlock, Sale, Paxton, Pivetta.....Hell by spring of 2023, we should have plethora of young arms to fill up the pitching staff. We'll still have Story Devers JD Xander Verdugo JBJ Dalbec/Codero/Cass Arroyo I don't believe Sox will 'blow it up'.....just don't see it. They're not stupid. Sorry, I'm a numbers guy. I can't talk about roster without mentioning payroll.

And of those 5 run game was a 10-5 loss (?) with a meaningless grand slam home run by JD in 9th. We're not hitting and we're asking Cora to manage games based on projected one or two run offense? Hell we better start bunting every time we have a runner.

We have a winning post here. Why not manage each game like the 7th game of the World Series then? In the end, that too will fail over 162 games. Every time we have a lead after 7th inning, only pitcher NOT available would be next day starter. We scored one run, one run, one run. That simply won't get the job done. Biggest mistake Bloom has made is to extend Barnes when he did. He's back to where he was couple of years ago. Unreliable, unconfident, 5th inning reliever.

Boston Red Sox keeping Garrett Whitlock as starter, believe Tanner Houck ‘can actually do what Whit was doing’ as reliever For all your Whitlock should be a reliever believers......I TOLD YOU SO! There's no going back now. Starting Pitcher #1 Whitlock for 6 YEARS...You're going to complain because why? How about some concrete ideas on how to turn our hitters into hitters? Okay......we're all fans here. One problem solved. It was unrealistic to move Whitlock around for entire year. I'm glad it's settled.

For the next World Series chase, the core group maybe headed by Whitlock as a starting pitcher. We sit around and talk about signing an 'ACE' for $30M. Well we got one locked up for several years at a very reasonable price. Re-sign Eovaldi and we have the top two locked up. Go find a closer in July trade deadline. Let the Whitlock starting era begin. We're NOT scoring runs right now. That somehow needs to be fixed. Maybe Cordero and/or Duran can get hot.

Other pitcher's pitch count was over 90. He faced the Sox lineup 3 times, including Story 4 times. Isn't this what starting pitcher looks like? Or are you now going to tell me that the opposing pitcher is Cy Young caliber? Our bullpen problem is partially manufactured by Cora and the pitching coaches. By limiting starter's role, we give ourselves greater chance to fail out of bullpen. Put that in your analytics. Common sense to me especially when the starter is pitching well.

You are selective with your stats.....what happened against the Yankees? Whitlock couldn't hold a one run lead and despite me protesting to my TV, Cora pulls him out. Point is because of that outing, Whitlock still had to rest up for his next outing...... But I respect your opinion about Whitlock being a closer.....My final point is to quit jerking him around. It will backfire. Count on it.

Lets be realistic. For Whitlock to peggy back Hill as an example will almost make him a starter. I guess if the game is out of hand, either way, Whitlck would be held out for another time. But if comes in to peggy back for someone else, then he probably won't be available when Hill starts next time. What I'm saying is that it's a stupid plan, plain and simple. Now if he's the closer and does go two innings, can he pitch on consecutive nights? Probably not. That means he should mostly be a one inning guy. The ninth inning guy. If Whitlock comes in a high leverage situation say in 7th inning, we may still lose because someone else is closing. I need for all of you to lay out a pitching plan for Whitlock. Don't simply say he can pitch 3-4 times a week. Tell me when, how many innings, which innings, etc. All of you are making generalized comments....Give me a f***ing plan. My plan is to make him an ace and start every fifth day. Not much thinking involved. What if he's the next Pedro Martinez? I want to BUILD A PLAYOFF CONTENDER. IDENTIFY THE CORE PLAYERS AND THEIR POSITIONS. 1 3B....Devers 2 SP.....Whitlock 3 SP.....Eovaldi 4 SP....Sale, next time he's hurt, he's our next David Price 5 2B/SS..Story 6 SS...Xander....not sure if he can be extended 7 DH...JD...not sure if there are any upgrade guys at this position 8 SP/Closer....Houck.. I'm not sold on Verdugo as an example. There are other, worse problems with this team so Verdugo gets a pass at this time. I'm not sold on Vaz as long term catching solution. This position should be upgraded. I'm not sole on Arroyo as a full time starter. He's a utility guy.....

There's no f***ing way he pitches 3-4 times a week unless he's limited to one inning stints.

Cora lets Eovaldi throw 101 pitches. I thought he was injury prone? Not anymore?

I think Eck shares my sentiment and I'm good with that...'babying" or whatever you want to call it. I call it 'babying'. It's interesting to follow Cora's strategy. There are games he manages very tight but at other times he'll put the worse hitting lineup possible without a care in the world. His record speaks for itself so I'm good with that.

Wacha 26 IP 4 ER .095 WHIP .257 AVG Whitlock 16.2 IP 1 ER .078 WHIP .218 AVG Let's quit babying him. I think they are ready to stretch him and that's my prediction. Not sure if he's been 'overworked'. Last night, Eck was laughing when Wacha got pulled with his 60 or so pitch count. I know what he thinks of current state of pitcher management. I agree with him.

Kopech was the only player I regret Sox had to relinquish to acquire Sale. Worth the title in 2018. Sale was a great get at the time. It's his extension that's in doubt.

Jackie Bradley Jr. has started 18 of the 23 games in right field. He went 0-for-4 Sunday to drop his batting average to .147. He has a .227 on-base percentage and .206 slugging percentage. The Red Sox right field position has posted a .445 OPS, which ranks 29th in the majors. Dalbec has garnered much of attention I know, but geez, catching fly balls in outfield is not enough, is it? Right now he's costing us $12M because of his option, but if we pick up his option, that money rolls into 2023 for luxury tax purposes. That's where I'm going.