oldtimer

Who would have thought Casas would be hitting ,263 after the anemic start to the season. I believe he leads the team in OBP. Management ought to work with him to get his weight down a little to make him more agile but he can hit and should improve defensively with a year under his belt.

It will be over mathematically soon and we can start to focus on the steps we should be taking for the 2024 season.

And Marv Throneberry. Was he before your time?

He's consistent!

I agree, there are lots of examples of high paid starting pitchers not being worth the money they are paid. We had Price (which at least partially cost us Betts} and now we have Sale. We also have Kluber, but at least he is only getting paid 4th or 5th starter money. Other teams have their own nightmares. It comes down to wise decision making by the GM and front office in general. I agree with Moon, we need a couple of front line pitchers for 2024 if we are to be seriously competitive. Bloom has to stop dumpster diving and find legitimate healthy talent. On the offensive side Bloom did well with Turner, Duval and Abreu, now get with the pitching and also lets get a look at some of our top prospects as our chances of reaching the playoffs this year are minimal.

Only two guys are pitching well as starters for us (Bello and Crawford) and that is not enough to get us into the play offs. We do have a strong offense but not strong enough to overcome the deficit in starting pitching. Might as well bring up our best pitching prospects for a look.

Dombrowski extended Chris Sale for 5 years beginning in 2020 for a contract value of $145 Mil. He was 31 yo at the time and had been a great ML pitcher and been in the league for 10 years at that time. Chris is a very competitive guy and of course is long and very thin. Dave signed Chris to be an ace based on the money laid out, which runs through 2024. One can ask if that contract was sensible at the time. It is hard to anticipate the future, but what has happened clearly shows the investment has not paid off in value. 2020 was a Covid shortened year and Chris didn't appear. 2021 saw Chris appear in only 9 games for 42.2 innings with a 3.10 ERA 2022 saw Chris appear in 2 games for 5.2 innings with a 3.18 ERA , 2023 ytd has seen Chris appear in 15 games for 77.2 innings and a 4.75 ERA The results have certainly not lived up to the expectations brought about by the ace level effect on payroll. The remainder of the contract does not appear to be rosy as Chris is in decline. While it is easy to criticize Dombrowski's decision in retrospect, it may not be all that fair. One thing for sure though is that the contract has been an albatross hung around the Sox neck which has limited what Bloom has been able to do.

John said he was a good hitter but we are paying him to be a great player. Clearly he is not even a good defensive fielder and his hitting numbers are good but are they great? I don't see John's question as stupid but instead, thought provoking.

The Yahoo sports article by John Tomase on August 24th brings us back to the question of Raffy and where he fits in the future of the Red Sox. John's summary of Raffy as a 7 year player who has led the league in errors at 3rd base for going on 6 years and with a good but inconsistent bat seems close to reality. We are paying Raffy to be a star, but where does he fit? Too highly paid as a DH and 1st base already occupied. Is there an alternative position?

Devers seems to lose focus on some of his throws and while he can make tough plays, he also gets eaten up at times. We love his bat in the lineup and I know the guy is trying hard, but we use to say a guy who loses focus is sort of out in left field. Maybe that is where he should play.

The time is past due for MLB to adopt technology assisted strike zone management. Too many bad calls in critical game situations when the technology exists to avoid the problems.

Getting Turner back is a big boost for the Sox and if Story can be a solid hitter we can generate the runs that have been so hard to come by of late.

Difficult to win with an anemic offense. Good that Turner is back but we need mire from others.

Bloom has acted like Mr. Dithers at the trade deadline two years in a row, neither buying or selling effectively. If we believed we wouldn't make the playoffs and would flame out quickly, we should have sold pieces we didn't plan on keeping for 2024 and brought up prospects that we do expect to make the roster in 2024. The halfway approach has not been effective and it is hard to see in gameplan in Bloom's doings.

With Turner, Story and Reyes where will Chang get PT? Same with the OF with Duran, Yoshida, Verdugo and Duvall, where would Rafaela get PT? Sounds like some additional DFA's may be coming.

The team was playing well until around the time of the trade deadline. The pitching held up fairly well until the 13 run pounding. The offense on the other hand has declined with 3 or fewer runs more the norm recently. What factors have caused that? 1. Facing better pitching 2. Frustration in the clubhouse over the lack of significant mores to improve the club 3. Verdugo and Cora's dust up 4. Issues with the lineup based on SS options and play 5. Loss of Hernandez or Arroyo 6. Wear and tear of so many games and so much travel recently Whatever the cause, it is getting late to expect a turnaround for 2023. Should management bring up players expected to play a role in 2024 and give them experience?

Bloom tends to wait until the last moment.

My view as early as May was that we weren't a playoff caliber team let alone a WS competitor. We were missing quality at too many positions and my thought was to trade away the players with value who wouldn't be around for 2024 on and by doing so make us competitive. It appears I was wrong in my assessment as Duran, Casas and Yoshida all exceeded expectations and the pitching, while short of starters due to injuries, held together. Now, with Story and 3 starters likely back in August, the team may be able to overtake at least a couple of teams and looks competitive. Getting rid of the underperforming Kike was a good idea but I would avoid letting go of others who are helping us despite the likelihood of them being gone next year. Trades of Dalbec or some of our mid quality prospects to get additional pitching would be agreeable to me. I have been pleasantly surprised by the Sox streak and hope it can continue.

Did you mean Kike?

It would be addition by subtraction to get rid of Kike and if we can save so salary against the cap, then we may be able to afford a starter who can help us. Picking up another Kluber would be a mistake. If we truly expect to make the playoffs, we desperately need starting pitching.

Going on a losing streak before the trade deadline draws into question the wisdom of buying buyers. Will we have enough pitching to make the playoffs? It is a legitimate question to me at this point.

You are correct. We picked up guys who have done nothing for us, so we won't miss them. We also have guys like Sale, Story and Kluber who represent a significant part of the payroll and who have done little or nothing for the team. It's somewhat remarkable that we are over 500 and not completely out of it. Bloom will have a tough call in the trade market, but I would certainly get rid or underperformers and non performers, who have no 2024 future. Kike is another tough call but replaceable and probably should be traded at any reasonable opportunity. Checking the All Star game and we had one guy involved and only pitching 1/3 of an inning. Shows how our personnel are perceived.

I originally wanted to give Duran a chance because of his speed and his prospect ranking. At the time we needed help and he seemed ready. When he came up he was a disappointment. His hitting was below expectations and his defense was worse. This year things have changed for the better. He is essentially leading the club in BA and his speed plays well on the bases. His defense has also markedly improved so he can play CF fairly well. I don't understand why Cora doesn't put him in the lineup, especially against right hand pitching. I assume it is because of Duvall and perhaps doing it to showcase some trade bait. I like a lot of what Cora does but often wonders why he sets the lineups to rest players when games are on the line.

The Sox are not a playoff team this year so I believe the best strategy is to accept that idea and start the process of building the best possible team for 2024. Trade guys with value that aren't expected to be there in 2024 anyway. Play the guys more consistently who are expected to be core players. Bring up Mayer in August and let him earn a spot as a FT SS for 2024. Who goes and who stays? Paxton, Duvall, Jansen and Dalbec may be tradeable. Kluber probably not but shouldn't be with the team. Could we move Sale for money owed? How about Story who doesn't figure to play consistently for us and is another underperforming big contract. With Mayer coming, his value to the team is more attuned to 2nd base. We have 3 young starters and perhaps could sign another one or two for the money tied up in Sale and Story. We have a first pass at am outfield and Devers, possibly Mayer, Arroyo and Casas as starters for the infield. Time for Bloom to act decisively..

I expected the team to play .500 ball or slightly below this year. Our young starting pitching has been better than expected and Paxton is helping, however Sale is having yet another injury plagued year while getting Ace pay. This far into the season, I am hoping that Cora will stabilize the lineup as much as possible. Seems like we are putting a lot of sub-par lineups in and we go from a good run scoring team to one that has trouble getting the hit with runners on base. I question Cora's approach but admit to not knowing the circumstances. I still don't see us as a playoff team so recommend that Bloom take meaningful action to improve for the 2024 season.