Hugh2

Red, effectively every single pitcher to ever play the game is better in the pen. When you don't have to see the same batter 3 times. When you can scale back your arsenal to 2 pitches and focus on being better at just those two. When you only have to throw one inning and can reach back and throw harder. When you can be used specifically at certain times where match up favor you. Your stats get better. I guarantee you if we took every single starter in the league and put them in the bullpen for a season 99.99% of them are going to be better. To me, the best argument against Putting Garrett in the bullpen is his apparent inability to stay healthy in a rotation. So I'm with ya....just for the right reasons.

Dear god I hope you're wrong, but FWIW Whitlock has probably looked better in the pen for longer than Joba ever did.

Good, we mine as well tank and go for the #1 pick now. Cora is a genius

Remember there is also a lottery, so technically if the season ended today we would have a greater than 1% chance of getting the #1 overall pick. Wouldn't that be something?

I'm not sure anyone can lead an injured brigade of mediocrity to greatness, I'm not sure even Pedey could have helped this team.

I don't think comparing Bard to Whitlock is very fair at all. Whitlock, unlike Bard had more than just a 1-2 pitch mix, Whitlock is also built more like a starter. Also, Bard started to fall apart at the end of the year before he was converted. Whitlock was also developed as a starter and only moved to the pen to be kept on the roster as a rule 5 guy who was coming back from injury. Apples to Oranges and unfair comparison. Also, Whi

Whitlock has the prototypical starters build and was developed as a starter. Only being selected as a rule 5 guy put him in the pen. Of all the things to hate Bloom for, this is probably last on the list. I don't think there is a GM or CBO out there who would not of made that same exact decision.

Which is precisely why I said 2-3 and not 3 will move to the pen, also I think a third starter is signed, although I don't expect him to be in the Snell/Yama/Nola tier.

Per my predictions, this is precisely why Bloom was let go. They're going to be making moves this offseason. Whatever price the Sox have to pay to either sign or trade for a TOTRS, I guarantee a certain percentage of people in Sox Nation and on this board will highly criticize it. I'll say the same thing to them then that I will now. The price of anything is worth exactly what someone is willing to pay, if you're not willing to spend a dollar more than every other team, or at least lets say 28 of the teams.....you're never going to sign said player.

SP1 Free agent SP2 Free agent/trade SP3 Chris Sale SP4 Brayan Bello SP5 (one of Pivetta/Crawford/Houk/Whitlock) I say 2-3 of those guys in the pen because it wouldn't be unsurprising if one of the 1-4 guys in unavailable in camp. I also wouldn't mind them signing a 3rd starting pitcher in addition to two aces. Someone who fits the mold of a Corey Kluber signing. I know I know, I know, just saying that hurts the ears. Sometimes signings like that work out great, and sometimes they do not. Blooms blunder was relying on Kluber, signing a guy to that profile ON TOP of signing two legit arms is fine however. Anyways, those 4 are all much better in the Pen: ERA/WHIP/SO9/ G.W. ERA 2.69 WHIP 1.056 SO9 10.1 T.H. ERA 2.69 WHIP 1.13 SO9 9.6 K.C. ERA 3.35 WHIP 1.08 SO9 9.6 N.P. ERA 4.19 WHIP 1.193 SO9 11.8 Throw 3 of those guys with Jansen/Martin/Winc and the pen looks stacked.

I have never been wrong. I thought I was wrong once, but I was only mistaken.

I would make the argument that acquiring two top-of-the-rotation starters makes the team even stronger in that the Sum will be much greater than the parts. This is the case because three of Crawford/Houck/Whitlock/Pivetta are getting moved to the pen if you add two premium starters. All of those guys have been and can be absolutely dominant in a shorter burst out of the bullpen. Adding two premium starters gives us a legit rotation and a shut-down bullpen.

I don't disagree with any of this, but I just think someone like Nola or Snell taking 5 probably isn't practical unless you're dishing out 50 million per year. Yamamoto might be a risk, but I'm not sure it's as big as a "Daisuke" risk, Dice-K was a Boston guy, but there have been a lot of other players coming over from Asia since him with a much better track record. I also don't think there's as much uncertainty about how a guy's talent will translate to MLB hitters. Particularly pitchers. I don't care if you're pitching against high schoolers or MLB players, spin rate is spin rate, velocity is velocity, and control is control. The baseballs are more similar now than they were when Daisuke played in the Japan Pacific League. Also, Yamamoto is just 25, and will be for 1/2 of next season as well. You will just never get that in FA here. Yes, the bidding for Yama will be high, as it will be for Nola and Snell, but the perfect price point for the perfect pitcher will NEVER exist. Everyone places a value on a guy, and so does every other GM, 30 people. All it takes is one person willing to be a little less rational than you to win the bidding. This was ultimately BLOOMS biggest weakness, if you're the most rational guy in the room every time you will get outbid every time. We don't need one pitcher, we need arguably 3 and at least 2 this offseason. You can't trade for 3 premium pitchers, probably not even two without completely depleting your farm. At some point, you're going to have to be able to get out of your comfort zone to build a winning team. No risk, no reward. This may, or may not be why Bloom was fired; he may have been let go to bring someone in who has the conviction to bring in premium talent.

The Sox are obviously not good enough as composed right now. For some time they were fairly competitive this year and looked like an average to decent club, they had a .500 record for a lot of the season. I think the future is bright, and that may be hard to see the way they have played lately, but I think there has been a sense of "it's over" for a while now. They're 7-16 this September, that's pretty awful. Flip that record around for this month of September and they'd be sitting 85-72 and .5 games out of a wild card. It's kind of crazy to think that just one good hot streak this year, could have made things look very different. Perspective matters. Look at the young core, the ones here now and coming soon. Really makes me believe that if they make the right moves, improve the D and add some premium pitching in the offseason, they can be a lot better. Meaningless baseball in late September isn't fun. Hopefully, a change of the guard brings us some hope. Onto the Bruins/Celtics/Patriots.

It's a nice catchy phrase, but I find it to not be 100% true, people do change.

Casas has turned into one of the best hitters in all of baseball the last 3-4 months. I get what you're saying, that at that point in time Abreu looks as good stat-wise, but if that's the bar for Abreu then people should be prepared to be severely disappointed. We don't know how he will look when the scouting book comes out on him, what type of adjustments he can or can't make. At the end of the day he just doesn't have the raw talent Casas has, and while he still might shatter expectations he could just another guy who comes up and looks good for a few months and falls off a cliff. There are way more Will Middlebrooks, and Blake Swiharts (and those guys were top prospects) than Tristan Casas out there. I like Abreu, I think he's something in between. There's a MLBer in there, but I'm not convinced he's a first-division starter in Boston.

We get it, you don’t like him. Some of us do. End story.

Yea this. Even with his helium I wouldn’t pencil him in as a possible everyday player until 2025. But if I was a betting man, I might be inclined to wager he’s up in Boston by next August. Who knows, he might even contribute in October

Cora can only manage the players he’s got. He’s proved when he has talent to work with he’s a very very good manager. That’s all there really is to it.

The ones who say they’d be millionaires, I question their math skills. Dude, you didn’t hear something 20 million times, you’d have maybe like $5

I know this is a joke, but if the farm starts churning out pitchers or even position players at a much higher rate doesn’t he get partial credit for that?

The analytics department don’t make decisions.

A little? A lotta. On top of what you said. He was just mandated with slashing payroll so he couldnt sign free agent pitchers, despite losing Porcello to free agency and Sale to Injury and was mandated with trading Price. He couldn’t trade for a guy because he had the worse farm and was just asked to build it not spend it. Can’t develop a pitcher in a month. Then EROD opted out of the season. Dude lost 4/5 of a rotation. Sports aside, 2020 should just be stricken from the history books and never talked about again

Not sure what else he could have done In 2020, that was his first team, and it wasn’t his team. He was also operating under the directive that came with the position. While that may be an excuse for some people, I think the criticism of Blooms inability to build a pitching staff becomes a little more justified the closer we get to present day. But that just proves how desperate he was with what was given to him. First year on the job; he couldn’t sign anyone, and he couldn’t trade for anyone. Although he did get Piveta for a bag of balls.

Perales is the top ranked pitcher in the Sox system according to Baseball America (7) Soxprospects (7) pipeline has him as the 2nd best pitcher behind Gonzalez at 10. He’s a consensus top 2 pitcher, and considered by some to be the top pitcher in the system. You must be seeing him on bad days. Will be interesting to see if the scouting reports on hi. Change.