Nick

Interesting article on MassLive about how the Sox dodged a bullett on Jose Abreau, who spurned Sox offer and signed with the Astros for close to $60M over 3 years. Now it's possible he will turn things around but that signing may have been Bllom' s last failure with the Sox had the deal consummated. Bloom scares me sometimes.

Marcelo Mayer records two more hits Red Sox top prospect Marcelo Mayer stayed hot in Greenville’s win. He went 2-for-5 with one double, three RBIs and one walk. The 20-year-old left-handed hitting shortstop is batting .299 with a .370 on-base percentage, .547 slugging percentage, .917 OPS, seven homers, 11 doubles, one triple, 23 runs, 32 RBIs, 15 walks and 36 strikeouts in 33 games. I'd like to see him move up to AA before the year is out....

Future Second baseman is back on track it seems. Yorke’s homer was his sixth. The 21-year-old is batting .269 with a .395 on-base percentage, .478 slugging percentage, .873 OPS, six homers, six doubles, two triples, 33 runs, 17 RBIs, 26 walks and 38 strikeouts in 35 games.

I'm not talking about 2023. You do know that Paxton is a free agent after this year? He will need to be replaced. Has nothing to do with his performance. I like him.

This is pretty much the current core group I have going forward... Big question mark.. 1 Casas...will his #'s improve? A premium offensive position. We continue to underperform.I want it to be Casas but... 2 Will Duran maintain his new found offense? Not as much pressure offensively as 1B but he can't be JBJ 3 A right handed power bat ....can use Turner at multiple positions Need to sign an impact player somewhere.... Prefer a #1 to replace Paxton I do expect us to blow past the tax limit in 2025 when I believe we will be closer to world series title chase.

Posting on another thread, I agree with Red about Kike. It's my hope that we move away from Kike and his $10M contract in 2024. Thinking like a CPA, this is one bean counter's recommendation. We have to come up with $12M or so to take care of Dever's new contract. The tax limit increases by $4M. Matt Barnes dead money of $5.6M also goes away. I'll just add Mondesi's $3M to the pot. Hey Bloom, that takes care of Dever's money. I'll lump together Kluber's $10M, Kike's $10M and Pivetta's $5.3M, total of $25.3M and go buy me an ace. We still are left with Duvall's $7. I would WAIT until the season is over to decide on Verdugo. I still need to see where he ends up production wise. I believe the time to extend players are before the start of 3rd full season. Something similar to what we did with Whitlock. Verdugo is in his fifth year. I would simply pay him market value next year. I think it's too late to extend him and get a favorable contract. It maybe too expensive at this point and the Sox take all the RISK with any type of extension. Bloom, please work on extending Houck and Bello.

I hope we move from Kike for 2024. We can put $10M to better use. Use Pivetta's $6.3M, Kluber's $10M and Kike's $10M and go get an ace.

Pivetta He has been sub par since last June. We did get some quality innings out of him when you look at what little we gave up to acquire him. But what more can be done to take him up another notch? Where is his ceiling? Where is it compared not only to Bello, Houck and Whitlock, but to Kutter and Winckowski? I think I prefer the latter two over rehabilitating Pivetta. He's got year and a half of team control. Trade him in July. Surely he has some value to a team such as Oakland or Reds if we pay his salary for the remainder of 2023. (although I doubt they would pay him for 2024) If a starter or two goes down at this point, the season is over anyway. All of our chips are in play (healthy ones anyway). This team will not get better by starting a Pivetta.

We do have some easy games coming up. But As of yesterday, Tampa has played the most divisional games at 21, they are +5 against the rest of AL East. 21 Tampa 13-8 +5 17 Baltimore 10-7 +3 19 New York 10-9 +1 14 Boston 7-7 E 21 Toronto 6-15 -9 As you can see Blue Jays have taken a beating so far in AL East. But they are still 26-25, going 20-5 against non AL East teams. Boston still has 38 games within the division. The good news is that we are beginning to get healthy. Our rotation is pretty well set. Good or bad, baseball operations people have the five they want going forward. It would be nice if we're at full strength when we start playing our division rivals. I believe this team is stronger with Story at short and Duvall in the lineup full time, I don't care what position he's playing. I'd still want to see couple of additions in the pen at the All Star break. (see what we can get for Kluber and Pivetta).

I'd love to have Soto.....along with a top of the line starter. Sale's days are numbered. He may get the option year but nothing after that.....

Wouldn't it be funny if Cora is actually playing Duran for his defensive prowess and not his bat?

Cora has this team set up the way I had hoped recently. Pivetta is not starting. Kluber is not starting. I get to watch 3 of my favorite players Bello, Houck and Whitlock start. Next up is for Story or Mondesi to play short and Kike to platoon at second vs lefties and play some outfield. I really don't have any complaints. It's now up to the players to perform. It's on them!

Thanks for saying that. You're right. I don't remember anyone stating that we'd do better than getting into the playoffs.

6 worst records are owned by the Reds, the White Sox, the Rockies, the Royals, the Nationals and the A's. We have not played a single game vs any of them.

The last place team in NL is only 4 games out of last wild card spot.

So $1M per start for Kluber. No freakin way the Rays would have done it. This is exactly why Kluber was availabe. I just wished we stop pissing away money.

Verdugo is Arb 2 player with only one more year of team control. He is Not in my core group unless he is extended.

Corey Kluber to the Pen Sox finally does the right thing. One thing to consider is how committed Sox are to Whitlock as a starter. He's coming off an injury. We haven't seen him pitch but only 3 starts this year. There's no doubt baseball people are all in on him. Same goes for Bello and Houck. We bitch and moan about not developing starting pitching. We go on and on about it. But this is the most proven talent of young pitching we've had in a long time. Yes I said it, PROVEN. Bello, Houck and Whitlock looks to have the 'stuff', both physically and mentally, to get the job done. They simply needed an opportunity. Now they can just concentrate on improving their craft. My guess is at some point, Kutter will also get an opportunity to start. Maybe next year. I'm elated. OUR CORE GROUP IS BEGINNING TO EMERGE. Sale Bello Whitlock Houck Winckowski Schreiber Crawford Wong Casas Valdez Story Devers Yoshida Duran Best news? I can turn on EVERY Sox game and watch a starter I enjoy watching. It's been awhile. (last time may have been Sale, Porcello, Eovaldi, Price and Edwards......I'm guessing they were the starters in 2018 after Eovaldi came on board?)

I'm happy with our core group. I'm willing to give a longer leash for some (Casas). But at the end of the day, what they do on the field matters. Casas at the plate was atrocious last night. I see Valdez go up to the plate and he has one mission, swing and connect with the ball. Casas seems he's fighting with umpires on boarder line calls. He counts as a win when he thinks the ump makes the right call and as a loss when the ump makes a bad ball/strike calls. Does he know that he's playing a premium offensive position? Just go up and make contacts. At times, I feel like I'm watching Dalbec at the plate. It was very frustrating last night.

And it looks like we have a starting catcher for our pitching staff in Wong, 6 years of team control starting this year.

Not sure what's up with Walter. Last year in AA, he walked 3, yes count it, 3 batters in 50 innings. Unreal. (he did hit 5 batters) This year in AAA, he's walked 18 batters in 38 innings. What's up?

My Updated Core Group for Pitchers SP Sale (2+1) SP Bello (6) SP Whitlock (4+2) SP Houck (5) RP Crawford (6) RP Winckowski (6) RP Schreiber (4) It's unlikely that we can acquire a team controlled up and coming starter in July. This is a group we can win with. Maybe not this year but in 2024 and thereafter.

It was enjoyable watching Houck pitch last night. It's my hope Houck continues to start. He looks to have the makeup to be a starter. Bello, Houck and Whitlock maybe our future.

Turner with 2 K's and GIDP.

6 worst teams are Oakland, Reds, White Sox, Colorado, Kansas City and the Nationals. We have not played one single game againt any of them. Meanwhile Tampa is 14-2, Yankees 6-0, Orioles 9-3 and the Jays 6-3 against those 6 teams. We will definitely make up grounds against the rest of AL East as schedules balance out.