Fan_since_Boggs

I'm one of Cashman's biggest critics, but the results are the results and he made some shrewd deadline moves that will probably get the Yankees into the playoffs. I agree with those who gave the Yankees an "A" grade at the deadline and the Red Sox a "C" grade at the deadline and that seemed to be the majority opinion among commentators and sports writers. I like Schwarber, but the Red Sox could have added more depth to the offense. They should have been working on that instead of acquiring relievers who aren't much of an upgrade over AAA relief pitchers. There were years where Dombrowski got the "A" grade and Cashman blew it, but Cashman kicked ass this time and Bloom needs to get better at this. We could toss stones at some of Bloom's acquisitions, whether it is Downs, a broken hitter, or Wong, a broken hitter, or Cordero, who was broken the minute he crawled out of the womb, or the soon-to-be 24 year old F.German, who sucks at pitching. Rosario and Potts are nothing great, but I guess we can't expect much in return for M.Moreland. The Gonzalez signing was a waste of 3 mil. I'll give Bloom a pass on Richards, since he was a cheater and the Red Sox couldn't have known it. Looking back on some positives: Verdugo is a good player and I really like J.Winckowski. Whitlock was a genius move. The Phillies trade was awesome. The Yorke & Blaze Jordan draft looks pretty sweet. The Schwarber trade was awesome, assuming the Red Sox sign him a multi-year deal. I suspect the Red Sox plan to do that--they need his bat going forward. So far it has been a mixed bag for Bloom, definitely not flawless decision-making but I guess that kind of perfection isn't realistic. Overall, more positives than negatives--the organization seems to be headed in the right direction.

It is not clear that the two relievers the Red Sox acquired were even needed--the Red Sox have a few guys in AAA who might be just as good but aren't getting an opportunity in the major leagues. I can understand that the cost for starting pitching upgrades was too expensive. I also realize that there were only a few upgrades on the market. Nevertheless, I still think the Red Sox could have made some depth moves to replace brutally terrible hitters like Dalbec (73 OPS+), Cordero (47 OPS+), and Gonzalez (56 OPS+). The fact that these guys are still in the lineup speaks to the fact that there is something not quite right with the Red Sox front office and maybe blame should extend to Cora as well. Cora bitches and moans after every loss (lately) and then he turns around and puts the same garbage in the batting order the next day and then wonders why the offense is slumping.

I'm not sure about Berrios but Rizzo came out and said the Red Sox were never serious players for Scherzer. The Red Sox pursuit of Scherzer may have been a media fabricated story, who knows where it came from.

Interesting idea: Two sensible moves: (1) release loser Gonzalez and promote Munoz. (2) Demote Dalbec and promote Wong. Plawecki is Cordero's platoon partner until Schwarber is ready.

I wonder if this is true, Bloom punted on the season: Perhaps the Schwarber acquisition was really all about 2022 as well. The Red Sox traded for him to put the organization in a better position to sign him to a multi-year deal.

Another 0 for 4 night from the 1b position (Cordero 0 for 2, Dalbec 0 for 2). This Cordero-Dalbec platoon is going swimmingly.

OK, but not exceptional. He was recently promoted to AAA. When he was drafted, we were hoping he would develop into a future closer. At this point, he looks more like a middle inning reliever, a decent relief pitcher, but not great. I don't think he will be protected on the 40 man roster next year. Maybe the Phillies will take him in the Rule 5 draft, they need relief arms and Dombrowski drafted Feltman.

A big game from Seabold, 6 IP, 1 walk, 10 strikeouts, 0 runs, 1 hit. Could Seabold get a spot start at some point with the Red Sox this year? If he follows this game up with another solid performance, he will probably be on the Red Sox's radar. In fact, it might make sense to move on from G.Richards (move him to the bullpen to see if he can be an effective 1 inning reliever), not only will Sale be returning soon, but Houck and now Seabold provide excellent depth, sufficient depth that they can proceed without using Richards in the rotation. Downs continues to be out-of-whack (BA is now .195) with another 0 for 4 game with 3 strikeouts. A solid Double A start from Murphy: 6 IP, 2 ER, 1 walk, 8 strikeouts.

I would promote Munoz and release M.Gonzalez. I don't know why they don't promote him, they could use his versatility and contact skills.

If E-Rod could get on a roll, the Red Sox could have a really good postseason rotation. E-Rod (pitches games 1 and 5) Eovaldi (pitches games 2 and 6) Sale (pitches games 3 and 7) Houck (pitches game 4, available from the bullpen in game 7)

He was never great in the minors but (1) he never had an opportunity to excel in AAA in 2020. (2) He always averaged a K per inning throughout his minor league career and thus demonstrated the ability to miss bats and thus did profile as a guy with a high ceiling. (3) During one of his minor league seasons, he was instructed to use the 4-seamer almost exclusively and that was (and continues to be) his weakest pitch. The Red Sox wanted him to improve the effectiveness of that pitch so that it would complement his already impressive 2-seamer and slider. (4) To some extent, the Red Sox may have forced Houck to work on and develop his changeup, a pitch that never really worked out for him and I believe he has now abandoned it.

There is this belief that Houck has two pitches, a fastball and slider. But I don't know, he throws a 4-seamer, a 2-seamer (a sinker) and a slider. Accordingly, doesn't that equal three pitches or does that equal two pitches because of two fastball variations (4-seamer and 2-seamer) to go along with the slider? He throws a splitter too, but not very often, like 5% of the time.

Interesting, JD Martinez has a 37 O-Swing % (the percentage of pitches the batter swings at outside the strikezone) and this is the highest of his career. Bogaerts has a 35.6 O-Swing %, tied for the highest in his career. In contrast, Kyle Schwarber has an impressive 24.1 O-Swing %. Bobby Dalbec has a 33.4 O-Swing %, pretty lousy, but not as terrible as Martinez and Bogaerts' percentages. The problems with Dalbec are deeper, though. Not only does he chase too many pitches, but he often can't do anything with pitches in the zone. Darbec = 71.6% contact with pitches in the zone, whereas JD is 82.1% and Bogaerts is 86%. To put this another way: when Dalbec swings at a pitch in the zone, he will swing through the pitch and miss it roughly 30% of the time.

OK, but the Red Sox do lead the league in swinging at pitches out of the zone. Some on this forum have suggested that pitchers are aware of this and are throwing even less strikes to the Red Sox's batters, knowing they will chase. Some believe that this might explain the Red Sox's recent slump. And we also know that Cora has been preaching the message of patience lately. That is to say, the Red Sox have determined that this is a problem.

That was a troubling inning. I missed the Devers' at bat, but saw Bogaerts and JD. They both struck out swinging at pitches that were out of the zone. Cora will need to keep preaching patience at the plate and you would expect the better hitters to eventually respond. I also like the idea of improving things at the margins, dump the secondary players like Dalbec and Gonzalez who swing at every pitch under the sun. If it is indeed true that the league is adjusting to the Red Sox by throwing more pitches out of the zone and getting them to chase, the Red Sox in turn must adjust to the league by demonstrating greater patience at the plate. If the Red Sox do that, this team can get back on track especially if Sale and Houck can make positive contributions to the starting staff.

The first move I would make right now: promote Munoz and release Gonzalez. Munoz is striking out 13% of the time in AAA this year. This is all about getting rid of players who expand the zone and aren't responding to Cora's calls for more patience at the plate. Why did the Red Sox even bother with Gonzalez when they had Munoz? Dumb, and a total waste of 3 million. I would also demote Dalbec but have not yet figured out the corresponding move. I would go with a Cordero/Munoz platoon at 1b until Schwarber is ready.

I'm assuming that the Red Sox's owners didn't want Bloom to go over the luxury tax threshold and that took Hamels off the table. Still, Bloom made a number of bad decisions this year that put the Red Sox in a situation where they couldn't do more: paying Gonzalez 3 mil, paying Richards 8.5 mil, and paying Ottavino 8 million. Such moves were arguably a poor use of resources, totaling almost 20 mil dollars. While Ottavino was really good in the first half of the season, he is a set-up reliever with a recent history of late season struggles. Maybe the Red Sox should have searched for a more frugal alternative. And the prospect the Red Sox obtained from the Yankees to take on Ottavino's contract--F.German--looks pretty lousy at this point.

I agree with 5GoldGlove--a quality pitching prospect would have been nice, but a better return overall would have been the goal, assuming that the downward trend continues for these players. But the David Price point is a good one: his inclusion reduced the quality of prospects that the Red Sox could expect for Betts.

As others have mentioned, I do wonder if the AL is catching up to the Red Sox's tendencies, and this might explain the recent hitting slump. The Red Sox swing at more pitches out of the zone than any other team, and pitchers seem to be exploiting that tendency more than ever before. Pitchers don't need to throw this offense strikes, the offense continuously expands the zone, even the better hitters expand more than they should, and of course pieces of garbage like Dalbec and Gonzalez expand beyond the fringes of normalcy. The offense needs to take a more disciplined approach, take the walk and let the next guy do the damage. It sounds like Cora has been preaching this message but the players have not yet responded. Schwarber will help as he is generally a patient hitter who understands the value of swinging at strikes. At some point, the Red Sox might want to reward plate discipline: demote Dalbec, release Gonzalez, and play the guys who don't swing at pitches in the dirt or the high fastball. Of course, the Red Sox could have done more at the trade deadline as well in terms of acquiring disciplined hitters. Schwarber was a nice start but probably not enough. M.Gonzalez's versatility is a nice thing but the Red Sox are paying him 3 mil and he has an OPS+ of 56. Can Bloom do a better job building a bench? Will Cora ever ask for changes? Gonzalez is a complete zero when it comes to offensive production and thus his versatility is largely meaningless. Releasing Gonzalez makes a lot of sense--it would be nice to see the Red Sox operate with more urgency. It is also worth noting that the Red Sox have given Gonzalez 223 at bats this year. That's too much playing time for a 56 OPS+.

Perhaps the problem was not that the Red Sox traded Mookie, that was the smart move all along. Perhaps the problem concerns Bloom's evaluation of the players the Red Sox acquired for Mookie. At this point, the return seems rather light from a Dodgers farm system that was loaded with talent. Obviously, this can change and we will need a few more years to properly assess the players the Red Sox acquired. At present, Verdugo isn't performing as he was expected to perform with a 101 OPS+, a league average offensive player. Downs has been horrible in AAA this year, striking out 30% of the time and hitting around the .200 mark. And Wong, the least promising player in the trade, has lived up to his low expectations by not hitting at all. Was Bloom fleeced in this trade and if he was what does that say about Bloom's ability to judge and evaluate young players? I realize it is too early to draw any definitive conclusions one way or the other, but the players the Red Sox acquired for Mookie have all trended in the wrong direction.

OK, I have thoroughly analyzed the situation and it appears that Garrett Cole caught Covid-19 through an infected jar of sticky stuff. This guy just can't leave the sticky stuff alone, what a shame.

A pretty good summary of the winners and losers from SI:

I was looking over the free agent list for 1b. They would need to sign a 1b for one year and that guy isn't easy to find, i.e., a player who would accept a one year contract. It would need to be one year because Casas should be ready in 2023. Moreland is a free agent, but he isn't much better than a piece of garbage like Dalbec (he currently has an 88 OPS+) and will be one year older in 2022. Moreland might be done. If JD doesn't opt out, the decision is made for the Red Sox: JD is the DH and hopefully Kyle S. can settle in at 1b. In that scenario, Dalbec might get deactivated if the Red Sox need the roster space. The Red Sox seem to like Dalbec, though, more than you would expect and he can play some 3b, increasing his versatility. I think the Red Sox would try to keep Dalbec on the 40 man and have him play in AAA next year. If Dalbec could learn how to work counts and get walks, he could revive his career. Unfortunately, Doofy Dalbec walked once in the entire month of July (not an exaggeration). If JD Martinez opts out and the Red Sox decide Kyle S. doesn't belong at 1b and move him to DH instead, the Red Sox would need to find a starting 1b for one year. They could try to make a trade for J.Anguiliar who is signed through 2022. A move like that would make a ton of sense.

M.Wilson claimed by the Mariners. I don't remember what that means--can the Red Sox pull him back and trade him or do the Mariners automatically get him? I thought Wilson had a role here, a right handed bat who could get some playing time against lefties to help out Verdugo and Duran. I see him as a 4th OF who can contribute, but the Red Sox must not like him very much. The Red Sox deactivated Wilson over scrubs like Dalbec, Cordero, Potts, and Rosario and so the Red Sox probably don't even see Wilson as a quality 4th outfielder.

I don't know, it could go either way at this point. If he finishes strong, that increases the chances that he opts out. If he continues to slump, teams will be concerned about signing him beyond a one year contract. In that scenario, I could see JD staying with the Red Sox and collecting his 20 mil. No one will pay him 20 mil annually anymore and so it is a payday he might not turn down.