Nick

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.

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.