Nick

I really love having him here. I think he's a good guy and knowledgeable. But, he's beginning to set himself up for a bigger disappointment. Yankees have high hurdle to go over. Winning the Division is no big deal. They've done it. Not sure getting into the World Series is enough. They have to win their last game. Sox can squeeze into the playoffs, have everyone healthy, pitching and hitting come together at the same time and go do battles with Yankees. He'll be mad, we'll laugh a little bit and wait for his 2023 prediction.

Sometimes as an accountant, it's better to simply write off bad assets and start 2023 with a clean slate. No need to make numbers look bad for 2 years. I'm speaking strictly as CFO of Sox. Free advice.

There's a possibility of having JD, Xander and Eovaldi all coming back. First of all, you have Price's $16M coming off the books. Xander may take a $5M upgrade for longer terms. A $30M dream may just be that. It'll be interesting to watch how all the new money SS do this year. If couple of them fail, GM's will think long and hard. Having a great year in itself will NOT guaranty big pay day of Xander. Eovaldi may come in at $22M for 5 years, another $5M raise. JD will not get $22M from any team as a DH. His actual pay is $19.375M this year. It's hard for me to imagine him getting that either. He will not cost the Sox any addition to his luxury tax payroll number if we retain him. Only other significant increase will be Devers. Sox can decide to EAT Bradley money all this year and let him become a free agent. That will save $12M for 2023. Wacha, Kike and Vaz all come off the books at $7M apiece, sum of $21M. In summary, if Bloom wants, he can keep top tier players and do away with lesser players. It doesn't have to be a 300' cliff. You'd want to keep best players to mix in with younger ones.

Good point.....He's better at cashing in players with likely career bests. I have no inclination paying either Xander or Devers $30M at this time. They both probably will be traded at some point.

Back to Starting Rotation I did not watch today's game. I see that our catcher is pitching now. Isn't it about time Sox do something with Pivetta? 10 day disable list? He needs to work on whatever is ailing him. These games count. You can't let him 'work' on his game in a real game. Just a thought.

Looks like we're very pleased with ourselves for taking the lead 1-0 against dreadful pitcher. I'll wait. Not sure if this is a good hitting ball club.

Thank God....get rid of old, out of shape has beens not in our future plans. Good for Bloom. I puked every time he came to the plate.

I'm old school. He's a starter. Moon does all the thinking for me. Maybe Bob Gibson would have helped the team more as a closer. Who the hell knows.

DATE IP-(ER) Pitcher Eovaldi 04/08 5.0-(3) 04/13 5.0-(2) Quality TEAM WON 04/19 4.1-(1) Quality TEAM WON 04/25 7.0-(2) Quality Pivetta 04/09 5.2-(4) 04/15 2.0-(4) 04/20 4.0-(5) 04/26 4.2-(2) Houck (he's not on the 40 man roster right now, no stats in MLB.com, back on tomorrow) 04/00 3.1-(3) TEAM WON 04/16 5.2-(0) Quality TEAM WON Wacha 04/11 4.1-(1) Quality 04/17 5.0-(0) Quality TEAM WON 04/22 5.0-(2) Quality TEAM WON 04/27 6.0-(1) Quality TEAM WON Hill 04/12 4.1-(3) TEAM WON 04/18 4.2-(4) 04/24 4.0-(0) Quality Whitlock 04/23 4.0-(0) Quality Board members want to minimize starting pitching. Making fun of me of my statement that a team has a fiduciary responsibility to start a pitcher that give us a reasonable chance to compete, every game. 6 of 8 wins come via Quality Starts (say Moon's definition) I'm not ready to discount the role of starting pitchers. No kid grows up wanting to be a closer.

Well I did hear that both Verdugo and Story pitched in high school. BTW, didn't Dalbec also pitch in college? Maybe he can DH and come out of bullpen. Then we can sign both Xander and Devers.

Why are we discussing Xander's contract in the "2022 Starting Rotation" thread? Is he going to pitch with his next contract?

76 pitches over 5 innings 101 pitches over 5 innings 95 pitches over 4.2 innings Tell me why Eovaldi was pulled with game tied 2-2 after 7 innings with pitch count of 72? Tell me why? He's our f***ING ACE. This coaching staff f***ing sucks. It's time Bloom looks at our hitting and pitching coaches.

During pre-game, the announcer mentioned Houck was going to piggy back on Hill. It's good that he came in with the score 2-5. Let's see, if Whitlock had not started, he would have came in for fifth inning. That's how much they value 2-0 lead. But they saved Houck for that crucial ninth inning which never came. Another fine outing by Brasier. His ERA today was zero. Atta boy. (I always have one in my dog house. He's it this year) I really don't have any complaints about our overall pitching. We've scored 3-2-1-2-4-2-2 the last 7 games. Won't win too many with those numbers. I'm anxious to see so called I fixed the mechanics now Pivetta throw on Tuesday.

What is he waiting on? Ask yourself one question Do you think the Rays, Yankees and the Jays prefer Whitlock starting or coming out of bullpen.

Against our weak bats, every starter in the league is a legit.

And I thought our manager was lot smarter than your manager.

Maybe I'm old school. IF I OWN A MAJOR LEAGUE TEAM, I THINK I HAVE A FIDUCIARY RESPONSIBILITY TO TROT OUT A LEGIT STARTER EVERY GAME. I NOT ONLY OWE IT TO THE PAYING PUBLIC, I OWE IT TO THE POSITION PLAYERS. THEY SHOULD NEVER FEEL "OH GREAT, WE'LL HAVE SCORE 6 RUNS TO WIN THIS GAME" What good is to have the best closer if we can't use him because we're playing from behind all the time? Soooooo, this Tyler Danish guy shows up AND does the job. I think that's pretty much how the relievers roll. It really is a crap shoot sometimes. I will not complain about our pen. It feels like it's a deeper pen than in the past. I think Bloom has done a good job.

Many fans on this board complain about not spending 'real' money to acquire a 'real' starter. Same fans argue Whitlock is more valuable in the pen. I don't f***ing get it. We have a 2nd year pro, who to me matches the command that Maddox of Braves had in 1990's. He's got good stuff to go with his command. Stretch him out for God's sake. Give him the f***ing ball every fifth day and let him start 32 games. Maybe Sale should go to the pen. At this point in his career, he seems more physically frail than say Whitlock. Whitlock is efficient. He has chance to go into 6/7th innings....and if our offense can put up couple of runs, we have chance to win the game. Wake up man. I don't want to hear anyone complain about our starters when we have have a starter hidden in the pen.

I was dead set against signing a long term deal with E Rod. I wish him well. The year he was traded for, he was the only starter I cared to watch. I like the Paxton deal. Bloom is hoping for 2 solid years for 3 years worth of money. (the last two is for $13M per annum). Whatever he's able to give us this year is big bonus. If he breaks a leg, well it cost us $10M and we can walk away. Wacha looks like he'll give the innings we need from a starter. As you have alluded to, Bloom saw something in his last few starts last year. Hill is Hill. He's hittable but can provide us with innings. At $4M, not a big risk. I think Moon and I always think alike in that we think the way to go is to sign a #1 pitcher and slide everyone else down a slot. But that's expensive and risky. I would not want to own G Cole's contract. Another 7 years at $36M annually (counting 2022). I would only do it if we have a very good team and the signing is way over the top. (ie blow away others in AL EAST) Ultimately Bloom is buying time to get some of our younger pitcher time develop. Need Bello to continue ascending and Matta to come back from TJ.

My source if I heard it correctly was Eck during recent appearance by Valdez on NESN telecast. Eck was impressed with his change and added how many in a row he had thrown. Anyone else hear it? I'm beginning to be less impressed by all the one inning guys.

Robles 16 pitches (4 outs), Dieckman 28 pitches (2 outs) If it's all about pitch count, I was little surprised we didn't go with Robles to start the 9th inning. I'm sure the pitching coach wanted Dieckman to have a clean inning. I just thought Robles had decent command and the first batter in 9th was right handed (maybe he was a switch hitter). On his second walk, he was ahead in count 1-2 and I thought he got little cute throwing 3 breaking balls to walk the hitter. Then he also had the next hitter 1-2, and even thought the batter looked overmatched, Dieckman again got away from his fastball couple of times. If you allow Dieckman 28 pitches, why not a longer outing for Robles? Do you count the warm up pitches on top? Just asking.

My source if I heard it correctly was Eck during recent appearance by Valdez on NESN telecast. Eck was impressed with his change and added how many in a row he had thrown. Anyone else hear it? Even 12 straight is impressive.

Yes but it's really hard to swallow his two year contract. Ottavino signed for $4M this year. Too bad we didn't pick up that contract, a one year deal. We paid him net $7.875M last year. I think Bloom is waiting for our farm to provide outstanding pitching in near future. Bello is at the top of my list to become a starter in 2023. Our pen will be better when and if 'old' Taylor returns.

I tend to agree with Moon on relievers...hit and miss Gee, all you have to do is look at Barnes...2 year $18.75M is no chump change...how many of these mistakes do you want? He's at best our #5 reliever right now...

Toronto starter goes 8+ innings. We're doing cartwheels for 5 innings. Do Sox pitching coaches have low expectation of our starters? I heard Cora say Whitlock may go 3 or 4 innings. WTF? I'm anxious to see how efficient Whitlock will be Saturday. I'm excited.