Hugh2

Oh I'm not going to argue if it was a good deal or not, but when he was healthy he was a really good pitcher.

Lackey also had that one AWFUL year pulling his total line down. His last 1.5 years in Boston he was pretty good.

Bloom overpaid. The media man said so so I have to believe it.

Casas hasn't been that bad lately. In the month of May, he is hitting. .250/.355/.442 That's a .797 OPS. He will also continue to just be 23 all year and conceivably is learning to adjust to MLB pitching. He should get better. Duran has cooled down substantially as well, but he still looks a shade better than he did during his first couple stints in Boston. If Ohtani was a RHB, he'd be the perfect fit for this team next year. A Right-handed bat and an ACE. But there will be other options for pitchers such as Urias, Nola, Yamamoto, and Giolito will headline a pretty nice class of pitchers headed by Ohtani. The position player side of things isn't exactly exciting, especially considering we would like a RHB. The best options for a RHB might be Teoscar Hernandez, and Matt CHapman, but we don't need a 3B or a corner outfielder right now, unless you consider trading Devers or Verdugo. The later seems more likely than the other but not likely. I think the team will either have to trade for a RHB, is there a MLB team out there that is the right-handed hitting equivalent of Boston? or we will have to fill in the roster with a few platoon bats that can really mash LHP, like we have this year with Refsynyder. Of course, if Trevor Story can ever get healthy, he could end up being a big RHB in the lineup.

Especially when the team isn't good. Imagine adding Chris Sale to this team, what has it done for us this year? Sure, if we pull it together he's going to look nice at the top of the rotations and hopefully he's still "back" next year. But why strike when the Iron is cold? FWIW, next years FA class looks pretty good for pitchers. There's some intriguing names.

I think he does too, and that could end up paying huge dividends for this team....or just put added pressure on the bullpen for a longer period of time. We will see.

expecting a full bill of health is a lot these days, but for the time being, let's do so. At some point things will work themselves out, the rotation could get much stronger by subtracting guys like Kluber from it. Sale/Paxton/Bello at the top might be really really good, and I think there are still multiple outcomes for what type of a season Houck/whitlock can give us. The pitching has actually been really good lately, and almost feels like it's starting to come together.....except now the team doesn't want to hit all of a sudden. Baseball is a funny sport, we just had an 8 game winnings streak and then went right back to being a sucky team. The pitching looks like it's trending towards a good place right now, but that could reverse course as well....or not.

Can't count your fortunes if you don't acknowledge the misfortunes. That would have been Blooms rotation too, largely.

It was obvious the Sox wanted to keep Nate, but they obviously had a price they thought he was worth and it wasn't enough to entice him to stay and go elsewhere.

To think we could have a rotation of Sale Paxton Bello Eovaldi Wacha Whitlock That would look good now, but it would have looked like a disaster waiting to happen this offseason. It still could be by seasons end (the one listed here and the one we have now). \ baseball is a funny game.

I was chastiszed around here for suggesting the Sox even offer Nate (and Wacha too) a Q.O. Wacha probably would have accepted though, which....given the cap space and the Kluber situation would look pretty damn good right about now. No one wanted Nate around here last year. His arm looked like it was falling off. Bloom would have been chastized all winter if he resigned Nate to that contract.

Yeah, I don't think this is one of those situations where we can get upset at the Sox for being too "thrifty" for Nathan Eovaldi.

They're really high on Anthony, and love the underlying data on him. But I can see him jumping Walter and sneaking into the top 10 right before he graduates. Remember, the defense is below average and he has yet to get ONE hit vs. LHP. He's doing GREAT for what they're asking of him, but it's a small sample size and to date he looks exactly as advertised, sub standard defense at 2nd and can hit righties.

Played 3B and 1B in college as well as catcher. If he can hit, they can get him in at 1B/3B/LF/DH....not the sexiest profile, but if he can hit and field a few of those positions there can be a home for him. it's not like a guy never came up as a catcher, sucked as a catcher, and learned to play elsewhere because he can hit. Maybe he can be our Schwarber. I remember there was a lot of talk about him getting 1 million dollar signing bonus. Some people thought that money could have gone to Jud Fabian, or that perhaps they had it for Hickey because they couldn't sign Jud.

Oh I was actually just about to look up the details of his contract because I didn't know if his 2025 option was a club option or a player option. I mean.......lets just say hypothetically Sale pitches like this for the remainder of the year and next year. You have to pick that option up?

Agreed, I imagine them being flexible with the staff in this scenario.

Kluber would have been fine as a #3 #4 starter if he could have given us what he did last year. Hey, some guys just fall off a cliff, and that's what it looks like with Kluber......I don't think the Sox can wait on him much longer.

Actually, Sale just might end up pitching his way into a QO as well. One good season is one thing, but how much better off will he be (and the Sox) if he comes back strong for two seasons? The way the pitching market is now a days someone will give him a high AAV for 3 years even at 36. I don't expect it to be Boston but I'll take that draft pick.

It would be pretty cool if Paxton pitches his way into being offered a QO.

Your personal feelings toward a player have no merit here. His record stands for itself. Now it could very well end up that he's done and quickly deteriorates here, he should lose his job VERY quickly if that were to happen. But throwing your closer back out there after one bad performance (in which he was dominant before hand) is not only not unprecedented, but rather normal.

I also wouldn't mind the Sox getting creative and using more guys as a piggyback. Like, give Houck the ball for 4 then Crawford/Wink for 3. Let Pivetta/Whitlock go for 7-8 combined. Might have some Merit if both Pivetta and Kluber could be effective in shorters stints out of the bullpen (2-3 innings at a time). The good news is you'd retain all your starting pitching depth, but you'd probably end up having to DFA one guy at some point. Bleier might be on the chopping block next, would be nice if we could even get something for him (don't need salary relief).

I'm not sure how much longer they can live with Kluber starts, it feels like he should be the odd man out next time they need a spot. What concerns me is the fact that they invested in him as a starter so they hold off a bit longer. I also don't think Kluber would pitch as well out of the pen as Houck/Whitlock/Crawford either but I might want any one of those guys in the rotation OVER Kluber at this point. At least he didn't hurt the team last night. Even if he pitched well we would not have won with the performance the offense put up last night.

It's not like he just started throwing on 4/9. He had bullpen sessions and has been training and conditioning for a while now during his rehab. Physically, he should be able to throw 100 pitches and not blow out his elbow. I think the bigger concern should be his total innings pitched this year. If he is throwing 100 pitches + every time out that could build up by the end of the year. But who knows, hopefully the rest of the rotation and bullpen settles so you are more comfortable taking him out after 5 or 6.

This is 100% accurate. Although to be fair, we probably misuse the word "instincts" a lot when referring to a player's abilities.

There's a lot of things that make Bloom look foolish. Not trading Ceddanne in the 2022/23 offseason is not one of them.