Nick

As bad as Dalbec has been, he sure doesn't look out of place with his latest OPS. 100 pts better than Vaz?

Hey let's not get carried away and start the blame game. Some of the guys that tested positive are vaccinated. Let's not pretend we have all the answers. We know that JD is not vaccinated but he hasn't tested positive. It's still a personal choice. Or do you want to place a gold star marker on those not vaccinated? I've been vaccinated. It was my choice.

I like your wife.

Vaz (0- dropped from 20 in April to 11 in June to 0, now) A bag of used balls I'll repeat. Rays would not pick up his option.

Little perspective on the team we're chasing. Rays $08.917M Kiermaier $06.500M Archer $06.000M Yashimoto $04.000M Glasnow $03.400M Margot $03.000M Wacha Red Sox $25.600M Sale $22.000M JD $20.000M Xander $17.000M Eovaldi $10.000M Richards (option $) $08.300M E Rod $07.150M Ottavino $07.000M Kike $05.000M Perez $04.517M Vaz $04.500M Barnes (last contract) $03.100M Renfroe $03.000M Marwin It will be very interesting to see what we do with Kike after 2022. I think we'll give him a raise and sign him to a long term contract. THAT IN A NUTSHELL WILL TELL US BLOOM NO LONGER OPERATES AS A RAY AND GOTTEN DRUNK ON BIGGER TEAM BUDGET. Rays the best run team will NOT pick up Vaz's option for 2022. They'd go with Wong and live with it. That's how they control cost. We have chance to get rid of everyone but Sale after 2022 and extend Devers. Then build a team around them. Do it.

Even with only two years left before arbitration, I assume Devers has the best trade value. What pitcher is comparable to Devers in a straight up trade?

Moon, I get headaches thinking about pitching for 2022. Not many 'sure' things.

That my friend more than anything else adds tremendous internal pressure on Bloom.

For most part, Bloom is waiting on younger kids to develop and replace veterans. C. Vaz to be replaced by Hernandez or Wong? 1B Dalbec to platoon with Casas? 2B See if Downs can become better than Arroyo? SS Wait and see if Xander opts out? 3B Extend Devers? LF Verdugo CF Waiting on Duran to takeover, Kike has one more year on his contract RF Renfroe DH If JD opts out, sign Schwarber? Sign Schwarber anyway? Not really complicated....Bloom will live with what we have and let the players/agents make the move first Waiting on wings, Jimenez (OF), Mayer (SS), Yorke (2B), Blaze Jordan (3B), etc, etc. Rebuilding our pitching staff is our priority for 2022.

Better yet, move him to the pen.

Do you think it was good for Yankee fans earlier in the year when they struggled? Of course not. Good start got the Sox fans excited. There's still close to 30 games to be played. Maybe I should ask you the question. If the Yankees lose in a one game playoff, would it have been better if you guys did nothing at all at trade deadline? How do the Yankees approach 2022 after losing in the playoffs, again?

I'm only suggesting trading Xander because it appears he wants to opt out. I'm okay with rebuild phase. I just don't want bunch of washed up players from other organizations. Let's be little more patient with guys in Sox organization. I would keep Dalbec as a back up to both Casas and Devers, especially if the latter enters FA market in couple of years. Looks like last year's #1 pick, Yorke, is a keeper. Is our future infield Casas, Yorke, Mayer and Devers? Do not, I repeat, do not trade Duran as some here have suggested for a middle of the road reliever. He's a freakin top 25 prospect in the majors. Quit trading away our younger chips.

This is why you can't fall in love with every single Sox player. Always look at the trade value and see if you can improve the team. Losing Betts to Dodgers did not make me a Dodgers fan. I rarely think about him. He's not US. He's THEM. See how that works? We can't afford to give raise to Xander and sign Devers to a mega deal. I would trade Xander this winter and focus on extending Devers. He's not even 25 yet. He will always hit. We are losing JD, I hope he opts out. Our bullpen is in shambles. Art of winning big requires bringing group of players to come together as a unit, at the same time. Had Chris Sale been healthy all year then maybe we could have ponied up a bit more at trading deadline and gone for the gold. We're now in a position having to draw an inside straight. Possible, but not likely (I'm talking about winning the world series, because that's all it matters, ask a Yankee fan). Our defense is horrible. Improvement must start at shortstop. We're fortunate to have found a decent defensive outfield group when JD/Schwarber is not in the outfield. Pedey's dead money ($13.75M), Richards ($10M), Ottavino ($7.15M), Beni ($2.8M), Marwin ($3M), E Rod ($8.3M), Perez ($5M) adds up to little over $50M. Trading Xander will give us another $20M. We'll lose Price's money ($16M), Eovaldi ($17M) and JD's ($22M) after 2022, totaling $55M. That's total of $125M. Enough money to acquire an ace and rebuild the bullpen. Our #9 ranked farm system should provide the parent club with some younger talent, Casas at 1B as an example. Do not trade young guys, Dalbec comes to mind. He's cheap. We don't know what he's capable of. We don't need multiple 'super' talent. Rays do it with not one single player making over $10M. Keep churning players. Get some pitching help more than anything else. Out hitting the other team is not baseball and it's not working. The goal is not to collect high ops guys. The goal is to win.

“Right now, as I told the coaches, this is not the time to quit,” Cora said. “This is not the time to feel sorry about us. We’ve got to keep pushing these guys to be great like we’ve done the whole season. Is it a challenge? Of course it’s a challenge. It’s not easy. A lot of teams have gone through (it). It’s just kind of like the timing of it, right? It’s a little bit tougher. But we’ll be OK. We’ll show up tomorrow. I’ve always said, ‘When? Where? And we’ll be there.’ And we’ll play with energy and try to win a ballgame.” Mr. Cora, believe me, you get no sympathy from me. We deal with this every day in high school.

Is Renfroe ever coming back?

Hell no. We don't have quality pitching evaluators.

What is about Rays jersey so magical when it comes to pitching? Boston lost 6-1 here to the Rays on Monday as the offense went silent against rookie starter Luis Patiño. The 21-year-old from Colombia allowed only one run, five hits and one walk while striking out five. The Red Sox recorded just six hits (five singles) and had just two at-bats with runners in scoring position (0-for-2). They left six men on base.

It's good that Bloom is building for future...not realizing we're wasting another good year from Devers as an example. It's been a long day for me. We're down 3-1. If we get swept by the Rays, I'll probably quit watching. I have no confidence for next year. Who cares if we jump out to the lead? We've shown that we can blow it and management will sit on their collective asses. Later boys.

I can pretty much spew darkness on that site.....

If I was building a team from scratch, I load up on 1. starting pitching 2. bullpen 3. cheap, defensive position players Not the other way around......

If we go all out to sign Schwarber this winter, then we'll have to live with his defense or lack of until JD is gone after 2022. I'm just not sure if JD will opt out. You are correct about Dalbec. We can't give up on him. Getting a reliever for him in a trade is giving up too much. I still think he has an upside. Again, he comes very cheap for at least two more years. I would do nothing with Xander situation. If he opts out, then he opts out. He may need to move to 3B at some point, especially if we lose Devers for whatever reason in two years. (remember Betts) We're just very short handed right now with Renfroe gone, Kike gone and Arroyo gone. C Vaz/BackUp 1B Schwarber/Dalbec 2B Arroyo/Kike SS Xander 3B Devers/Dalbec LF Verdugo/Schwarber/JD CF Kike/Duran RF Renfroe DH JD/Schwarber #10=backup catcher #11=Dalbec #12=Duran #13=utility infielder It is what it is.....we can never become stellar defensive team with this group

It's hard to get mad about today's game. It was comical. Pray for rain and 7 inning games because we can't stop the other teams in last two innings. I'm glad to have Bloom but he missed on relievers. And all of us were so worried about locking up Barnes. He never fails to disappoint me.

We need major rain outs so we get multiple double headers, you know 7 inning games.

I like that!

All kidding aside, we get Rays tomorrow. I feel a sweep coming.