Nick

Cora has done a good job with platooning. At first glance, you do a double take seeing Refsnyder batting 3rd until you do some research. Here's a guy with no name recognition but he absolutely destroys lefties. He's on his second season doing it. As long as Duran contines to hit, our lineup looks deep. Yes, I love our left handed lineup.

Tonight is another big game for Chris Sale. I'm calling it his final exam. If he can come close to his last outing, then I think it's safe to say that he's back!

I think a poster objected to the use of Winckowski for 3 innings last night but disagree with the poster. The game was still too close in my mind to replace Winckowski when he was throwing well. We have everyone available for next 5 games (other than Winckowski) including 'new' arrivals Kutter Crawford and Nick Pivetta. We have another off day before traveling to Arizona thereafter. I believe our pen is well rested and probably in the best shape. With the return of Whitlock (I'm guessing our next homestand vs Cincy), the bullpen will get another boost with a quality arm off the starting rotation. Schreiber should be returning at some point also. It's night and day compared to last year's bullpen.

Paxton throwing 109 pitches tells me his arm is in good shape. He is capable of going 7/8 innings with a better command.

With a better commad he can go deep into games.

My hats off to Cora for letting Paxton throw 107 pitches. Find out what Paxton can do. I like it.

Is Kike that much better than Chang?

Xander only has 16 RBI hitting in the clean up spot. His HR total last year was underwhelming for a guy looking for a big payday.

Wow horrible at bat from #9 hitter.

Paxton is pitching well. So far so good despite giving up a HR.

We gave the $$$ to the right guy.

With Pivetta now in the pen Sox can have a bullpen game from time to time. Pivetta, Crawford, Winckowski could pit 7 to 8 innins combined.

We did not replace Xander's production at short per se. But say in tandem with the center field position, I bet the production year over year is pretty close. I am very anxious to see Mondesi take the field. From all the reports including one from Cora, Mondesi is an elite athlete. A guy like him can return in 2024 n the cheap and allow us to again allocate money elsewhere. Valdez, Arroyo, Chang along with the return of Story gives us much option. Yorke and Mayer should be getting close to the majors by 2025.

It will be interesting to see what Bloom does with Verdugo. I am not advocating a trade. Verdugo waited until his 5th year to blossom. Easiest thing for Bloom to do is to open up the wallett and sign him to a long term contract. But is there a better option? Can Bloom trade him when his trade value is the highest? Does Bloom have a confidence in his system to produce a replacement in 24? Can that player be Abreau? Can Abreau give the Sox pretty close to what Verdugo has so far in 2023? So you replace a guy projected to earn $10M+ in 2024 with a minimum wage guy with 6 years of team control. That's how Bloom will earn his money. Msking smart moves in order to allocate the savings to other areas.

Story has horrible plate discipline. That's my take away watching him last year. Very similar to Kike, regardless of K stats.

Cot's show $81M available for next year based on luxury tax limit. Verdugo I'm thinking will need about $10M (he's earning $6.3M this year). Let's say another $10M for arbitration raises. I'm assuming Pivetta will be traded and Kike not signed (along with Duvall). Now we're talking about $60M. We have the money to significantly improve this ball club next year, without going over the limit. We can buy a lot for $80M if we want to go there.

My favorite topic is coming up with the 'core' group for multiple playoff chase. I do think there's more positive than negative for Bloom. Position Players (under contract as of 2024 + options, if any) CC Wong (5)/McGuire (2) 1B Casas (5) 2B Valdez (5) SS Story (4+1) 3B Devers (10) LF Yoshida (4) CF Duran (5) RF Verdugo (1) DH Turner (1) UT Arroyo (1) UT Refsnyder (1) UT Chang (2) UT Abreau (6) UT Dalbec (3) I believe this is a good start from which to improve upon. This group can use a power right handed bat that can play 1B and maybe corner outfield. (at least left) Pitching (it appears deep but Starting Pitching is 'thin' from quality standpoint) SP Sale (1+1) SP Bello (5) SP Whitlock (3+2) SP SP CL Jansen (1) RP Martin (1) RP Bleier (0+1) RP Rodriguez (2) RP Pivetta (1) No I don't want him to start RP Schreiber (3) RP Houck (4) RP Kutter (5) RP Winckowski (5) RP Bernardino (5) RP Sherriff (4) RP Ort (5) As you can see, I think our bullpen is deep. How do we fill the void at starting pitching? I understand the short term deals to Wacha, Hill, Kluber (I don't think Sox will pick up the option for 2024) but if we are to be a serious player for World Series chase, don't we need something better than a Kluber type signing? (I think we all agree and the answer is yes) This is why we need to keep a close eye on the development of Drohan who was just promoted to AAA. He looks to me like a young Chris Sale. He will be 25 on January 1 so he's not a BABY. I think it was DD that thought the jump from AA to majors was doable. It appears he'll have 4 months to prove himself in AAA. Perhaps he'll be next year's version of this year's Bello. Do we try Kutter? Do we keep working with Houck? Do we give Winckowski another shot? To me, Pivetta is or should be our #7 starter. We're really not that far off. Aren't we just a young Freakin' Sale away from chasing the World Series title?

Plus we are not at full strength yet Let's see what the division race looks like in July.

Question then becomes do we empty the farm JUST to get into the playoffs? Similar to having Devers to pinch hit in s one run ball game. Do you use Devers in the seventh inning with a runner on 1st base with two outs or do you wait for a better opportunity later? I really don't want to give up on our top prospects this year.

Drohan has been promoted to AAA and will start today. He's been lights out at Portland. We have some young talent coming through the system.

2 losses to St. Louis really hurts.

What would it cost to get an upgrade over Sale Paxton Kluber Bello Whitlock? What prospects? I just don't see Bloom giving up top prospects this year.

Always go with the high ceilng guy. Even at his age, Paxton has better stuff than Pivetta.

I will say it. I don't miss Xander at all. I enjoy watching this group of hitters. Duran Casas Wong Yoshida Turner Tapia Valdez.....new and improved Verdugo along with Devers....it was time to move on. There's always something exciting about infusion of some young talent.

The more the reason to stick with Bello. 6 years of team control.