oldtimer

Vaz put us ahead.

They call 2 seam fastballs sinkers down where the splitter is thrown with a different grip and just dives when it gets to the plate.

I'd say Rafie didn't run his pop up out. What's with the lazy baserunning? So far, it probably didn't cost them but it could.

Good hit by Bogie. Tie game. Another base running error at the end.

They called a strike on Bogie that was 2 inches low.

Both Renfroe and Schwaber were guilty of poor base running.

Our catching situation looks questionable for 2022 and on with Vaz having an off year and no solid options in our minors. Is this the time to look for a FA and if so who: Catchers who qualify as 2022 FA's Alex Avila (35) Tucker Barnhart (31) — $7.5MM club option ($500K buyout) Robinson Chirinos (37) Travis d’Arnaud (33) Yan Gomes (34) Sandy Leon (33) Martin Maldonado (35) Jeff Mathis (39) Yadier Molina (39) Roberto Perez (33) — $7MM club option ($450K buyout) Manny Pina (34) Buster Posey (35) — $22MM club option ($3MM buyout) Wilson Ramos (34) Austin Romine (33) Kurt Suzuki (38) Christian Vazquez (31) — $7MM club option ($250K buyout) Mike Zunino (31) – $4MM club option ($1MM buyout)

Wong is defense only guy and is being sent down even when we are relatively weak at catcher. It doesn't look like we have any other prospects that are likely to make the club at catcher either this year or next.

Now he is on the active roster and Cordero is sent down. That should tell us what they think of Cordero.

I hope he can keep his strikeout rate down. He has power but has to make contact against good pitching.

The corner he turned may well have been Baltimore pitching. Lets see how he fares against the Yankees.

I don't see Shaw at all unless we have an injury. I wouldn't demote anyone except Cordero and Arauz when we are back at full strength and that leaves no room for Shaw. Maybe when we move to 28 players but even then I would take Munoz over Shaw.

I haven't commented on the entire team makeup at this point for 2022 other than I would like to see quality players at all field positions and up to 3 utility players that can sub in without substantially weakening the team. That wasn't the case this year. The idea of having one quality DH (fairly highly paid) in my view is to allow us to retain other quality position players while spending primarily on pitching. Neither JDM of Schwaber are either fast or particularly good defensive players. They would be there for both bat and senior leadership qualities. One could argue thee point that the Yankees are carrying a couple of players which are more like DH's and they fit it into their payroll but on the other hand, I don't favor the Yankee approach.

We will have decisions to make relative to who will DH for the Sox next year. Both JDM and Schwaber are excellent candidates. JDM is having a very good year and may get a 2 or more year offer from another club or the $19 mil we are set to give him may be adequate for him. So, we have a choice to make. 1. Offer JDM a 2 year at around his current salary and keep him while letting Schwaber walk 2. Don't offer an extension to JDM and try to sign Schwaber to a 4 or 5 year contract. If JDM stays eat the cost and keep both. 3. Don't offer an extension to JDM and try to sign Schwaber to a 4 or 5 year contract and if JDM leaves we have one DH/PT left fielder. 4. I doubt we do this but the option is still on the table if neither JDM or Schwaber can be signed, find another FA quality DH.

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.