oldtimer

Taylor is now out on a Covid break. He is one of our top 5 so it thins us down a bit, at least until he returns.

I was looking over our minor league and prospect player list and I see darn few who may be brought up in 2022. Duran and Houck are already up so in my view we have possibilities in the field of: Casas Munoz DeShields Yorke and Jimenez are very promising for 2023 while Mayer may be 2024. I don't see Downs making an impact as he doesn't hit minor league pitching As far as pitching is concerned we have Seabold with Ward, Winkowski (sp)and Bello possible Mata is out with TJ and Groome has been unimpressive Thats not a lot of talent so Bloom has to try to keep existing quality talent while looking to the FA market for 2022. Let us hope the purse strings open up a bit. We don't get rid of Price's contract until next year.

There probably do need to be exceptions but they should be applied with great care.

I think of Pedey's contract as having been driven by sentimentality. Some would disagree with me on that, but we took a long term contract on a guy with declining skills because he was a hero. We were also unlucky, in that he got hurt and couldn't play at all. This is the last year of paying the salary, which has hampered us to some degree.

When Arroyo gets back we will be strong at every field position except catcher and in that we can be good part of the time unless Vaz can get it back together. I am for being as strong with depth as we can, including the bench so would bring Munoz up as well. Cordero can go down.

At least in Boston, he started with the mess DD left and is still trying to repair our minors and get rid of dead money contracts. In TB he had a very low budget team. While I was disappointed witth the trade deadline, it is still not clear if he could compete for people we needed.

Could also be a starter. He is learning right now and if he works on command to keep his pitch count down, he could easily do 5 superior innings. That's as much as many starters do these days.

Great to see the bottom of the order produce. Triple and HR.

They are hitting Sale fairly hard. I expect him to go 5 today. Our offense needs to score a few more to keep Baltimore behind us. Still nice to see Sale out there.

Some folks feel confident in naming alternatives for the 2022 team and back it up with stats. That’s one approach. I prefer to state some general concepts (however trite) that perhaps Bloom will follow in constructing the team before I also dive into naming players. 1. I prefer a team of 13 field players and 13 pitchers from ST on. Cora went with 12 field players and 14 pitchers in 2021. Whatever he goes with is what we live with. 2. We see teams like the Rays being successful year to year with small payrolls and the opposite with the Dodgers spending big. To be most effective, a team needs to rid itself of the dead money issues incurred through bad contracts and then try to go forward by getting the most value from the contracts they do sign. No more sentimentality. 3. I advocate thinking in terms of a salary pyramid in which the stars (usually up the middle players and front line pitchers) get paid. Money is distributed down accordingly . I would try to stay below the CBT except where there is a real chance of competing in the WS. Long term loss of prospects is an important issue to me. It is wise to keep some money available for trade deadline action. 4. The maximum length of contracts given can be a real bugaboo for a team if it wishes to be consistently competitive. I’d rather lose a player than offering him extra long contracts. I would separate pitchers from field players because of wear and tear. For pitches in their early 30’s maybe 3 years in the mid 30’s 2 years. For pitchers in their 20’s up to 5 years. For field players in their early to mid 20’s up to 8 years, mid 20s to early 30’s 5 years. Mid 30’s 2 years. I would grant very few exceptions and stick with the plans. 5. To have an effective team you need some stars, veteran journeymen and rookies or near rookies to fill in the roster. It’s important to avoid negative and disruptive personality types and great if leader types emerge. Rookies will need time to contribute at a high level so should be brought along with that in mind. The idea of rookies and journey men is to keep the payroll within bounds. 6. Player flexibility is also important. Almost certainly there will be needs to substitute during the long season. Pitchers are fragile. Let’s hope the Covid issue doesn’t continue in 2022 but if a player does not get shots I would think the risk factor would have to be weighed in against potential value to the team. Injuries, sickness, paternity and bereavement leaves. There are lots of reasons to need players who can fill in both on the active roster and on the 40 man. 7. I would want at least 4 active roster field players to hit from the left side. It’s hard to find quality switch hitters but they are of value. Speed would be a plus when evaluating as would defensive capability. On the offensive side I would want high on base percentage guys with superior plate discipline. If a guy has power but a high strikeout rate and a low walk rate that would rule in the evaluation. 8. Pitching comes down to demonstrated reliability. The ability to command and throw strikes is a primary. Velocity helps but it is command that separates pitchers today. Starters need an assortment of pitches since the hitter may see them 3 times around. For 2022, I would look at each player against these general thoughts and drive the team in a direction based on an agenda like this one. Bloom is smart and he no doubt has his own detailed approach. He may also have a budget that informs his plans.

Cordero is showing very little promise. Get him off the 40 man ASAP.

Dalbec was the star last night. Schwaber showed good plate discipline as he shakes off some rust.

The bottom of the order has driven in 5 of the 7 runs. It's nice to see for a change.

Six runs feels good. Pivetta goes how many? 6 or 7? Who relieves, Richards?

Facing AAA pitching helps, but the meat of the order doesn't think so.

Desperate times require desperate measures. Notice he is DHing. They probably do not want to risk a recurrence of the leg injury by stretching at 1st.

You are right. Add in the name. Marwin was DFA'd this time but it could have been Franchy or Robles or Andriese or Santana. I doubt they DFA Dalbec, instead they might send him back to AAA to try to straighten out his plate approach. Still no Munoz. I am wondering if it about the CBT. He certainly has hit well enough and is flexible enough to be on this team for a try. But he isn't currently on the 40 man which might be his curse.

It would be reasonable to talk about plans and suggestions for 2022 under a separate string where those comments could be collected together while 2021 comments made under this string.

Maybe Bloom should look at our recent results. They represent thee real world.

Brasier is unlikely to return until early Sept.

But why didn't he at least go partway?

You are talking about next year, probably because we haven't just stumbled but are in a free fall this season. We are there because we have had little movement by management to try and correct issues that were obvious with this team. Maybe it did make sense to stay below the CBT this year and there has been a salary drag with Price, Pedey and a little of Beni's dead money and a big slice of Sale's contract going into 6 weeks remaining of limited use. But you can also see that we have gone far too long with Gonzalez, Cordero, Dalbec and Santana. We have also found bad replacement pitching to fill a lack of depth with Robles and Austin. Cora speaks of shaking things up but nothing much happens. Perez and Richards have been worse than expected and Vaz isn't hitting. So, we are in a position of trying to compete for a wild card spot this year and are bring Verdugo and Schwaber in soon and Arroyo when he finally heals. Sale will finally make a start this weekend. Surely Munoz should have been brought up earlier and still should be. Even so, we at best are struggling for a wild card spot. Maybe you are right to start to talk about 2022, but unless Bloom and Cora get their acts together, what makes you think we can make a splash then?

Cora was faced with an issue with Houck, who has trouble going more than 2 times through the lineup at this point in his career. He didn't make a pitching move early enough because he had little to go to. On the other hand, there are now and have been complete dead spots in the lineup. Losing Arroyo by trying to solve our 1st base issue and losing Verdugo for paternity leave left little room to spark the offense. Munoz remains in Worcester as perhaps the only other contact hitter they might turn to. For some reason, despite talking roster shakeup, Cora and Bloom have not attempted to fight for these games against the Rays. We were fortunate to get one when the Rays pitching was horrible. The Rays and perhaps the Yankees and Jays are just better than us now. We will get Schwaber and Verdugo back soon. Arroyo may be back in a week. apparently Munoz will not be brought up or he would have been by now. Maybe we can compete with those players. I have my doubts. Bloom's trade deadline performance was poor and Cora has seemed indecisive. Don't know the underlying reasons for what has happened but clearly our big lead has evaporated in 2 weeks and that is a fact.

Munoz has been a hitting machine in Worcester. Why not try him, at least he puts the bat on the ball. It's like the Sox are indecisive here.

Maybe speaking Spanish is worth points.