5GoldGlovesOF,75

Bloom definitely gets bashed by fans for acquiring crappy players, but the only ones bashing him for cutting them are teammates (and maybe their pals in the media). The latter is certainly interesting to fans, when we get to hear or read players' opinions about the state of the organization. If players think team chemistry is disrupted by front office moves, it literally shouldn't affect their own performances in a sport based on the sum deeds of isolated individuals. But thoughts can be powerfully hard to ignore...or forget. I always thought Vazquez was overrated as a catcher, and stated it in a few posts the past few years (along with Moon). But it was still disconcerting that players and coaches were so disconcerted when Bloom traded him in the middle of a wild card race.

There were quotes by Eovaldi and Hill about how much more Plawecki meant to the club and clubhouse than just stats. Their candor and vocal disappointment sounded like two guys who know they're also not coming back. Fans could probably care less about Plawecki, whose bat and arm were obviously not returning in 2023. But more than one media member (Bradford, Youk) tried to point out yesterday how personality and chemistry actually mean something going forward, even if it's the last two weeks of a lost season. Instead of, say, keeping a guy around like Almonte, instead...

... for two, maybe three whole months of Bogaerts? Oh, the horrors -- trading a prospect who might never make it for an All-Star who may help you win a World Series. You're not seriously talking about a minor leaguer who you'd control for six years, and who may make the majors... and even be a regular... for a guy only leading all MLB shortstops in WAR? And you think a team might've parted with two prospects? That would be like getting 12 years of control for a pair of players that no one has any idea would even be big leaguers!!! I just remember what someone posted here when the new Chief Baseball Officer took over in 2019: "Chaim Bloom never loses a trade."

I have watched just about every game on TV, and remember more Bogie ground ball hits poked to the right side -- vacated by the shift -- then pulled through the left side. The league is basically offering X the batting crown, and now that the Sox are out of the race he has no reason to drive the ball and try to plate any baserunners. Gotta wonder if the shift ban hurts Xander's batting average next year -- but probably not his attraction to potential suitors during free agency. Chances are, he adjusts and regains his power (if healthy).

Pham has been a negative dWAR in the field and a 30% K-rate at the plate for the Sox; we can do better. DH will be a platoon with Arroyo and the regulars he subs for on their days off. Not sure how Dalbec as a bench piece can improve and make contributions without regular at bats... We all know not to count on Sale or Houck (it's not automatic to assume a pitcher will immediately bounce back to 100% after back surgery), so the starting rotation needs three acquisitions. It's unlikely Boston will pay Wacha what someone else will on the open market.

There is going to be an arms race for catchers with bazookas for next year's new rules. Pick-off limits will make for bigger leads, better jumps and more base-stealing attempts. And bigger bags are 4 1/2 inches closer for sliding thieves!

The Sox should settle on roles for Whitlock and Houck in or before Spring Training. Though both pitchers had many similar stats in '21 and '22, neither looked as consistent this year. Injuries were certainly factors, but trying to convert Whitlock into a starter, and Houck into a reliever, wasn't a total success for either. If Houck is still on the team, he should return to the starting rotation. It's ok if he misses a start in Toronto, or if Boston has to rearrange its probables for a week. But the Red Sox can't pretend for another second that they're serious about being a contender in 2023 with a closer who chooses to be unavailable for entire series in a division rival's city all season. The front office needs to rectify this in the offseason, for fans still contemplating investing their time and money -- and for the coaching staff and teammates caught in the middle.

Don't forget, bigger bases next year means the distance between bases will no longer be 90 feet. The new distance between first and second, and second and third, will now be 89 feet, 7 1/2 inches. Pitchers will also be limited to two pick-off attempts per batter; a third attempt is allowed, but a balk is called if the baserunner isn't picked off (so call it two... but mainly it will be one -- since a second failed pick will be basically giving the runner a free base). Smart organizations are probably already schooling speedsters to taunt and tempt pitchers to throw over with huge leads, cocky clapping, and jangling jewelry. Base-stealing -- and I'm coining this right now, base-taking -- will once again be at a premium. Bloom acquired a lot of prospects with speed in the past year. With that big, high green wall in the way of dead ball batters -- not to mention ghost runners who always seem to spook our extra-inning hitters from even touching the ball -- get ready for a new style of Red Sox run production!

Distract/disrupt/deny/project/research -- allatonce!

You just cracked Bloom's Da Grinchy Code! Now we know why he's been recruiting and stockpiling all those speed demons down on the farm. Your new strategy in effect eliminates the modern conversion of big load corner infielders into second baseman stationed in short right field for half of every game. Shaw and Moustakas may never turn one again. MLB has a Need for Speed. Trevor Story might be the AL MVP next year. Runner-up could be Jarren Duran, not for stealing first, but for creating a new metric: blurring the concentration of batters' eyes by flashing back and forth behind pitchers' release points. Imagine Duran and Franchy, criss-crossing and doing calisthenics on the grass behind the keystone sack every pitch...

Pessimist. First the simple math: the Sox may be five games below .500, but play six more teams. It's at least possible Boston can win one each against those six remaining opponents. But they're big leaguers learning to play big leaguers learning to play big league baseball. So any club can win on any given day that ends in a why. If the Sox win all of them, they'll finish with 85 Ws... but we have to be realistic. Since this is a year they always seem to fall short, they'll most likely drop a few.

Red Sox are stashing fast guys like Duran and Franchy in Woo right now, in anticipation of this industry adjustment. Wait... when they shift in the outfield, do they just get in the way, or do they have to stop the ball, too?

Nobody shot down my positive stat, so I'll keep celebrating: With McGuire's home run vs NY, the Red Sox now have even more pitchers with four-baggers than Ohtani's Angels! 2022 Boston pitchers with HRs: McGuire, Plawecki, Bradley, 1 each. 2022 Angels pitchers with HRs: Jack Mayfield 1, Ohtani 34.

Im sure plenty of Yankee fans were laughing. I know a few Red Sox fans who were disgusted, though you wouldn't know it on a forum called talksox, because the members who are pissed are either done with the hangers wearing this laundry, watching football, or know better than to vent anything perceived as negative, lest Sam Kennedy's interns pounce on every single word or phrase in defense of a last-place organization. Many Sox fans do know Brock Holt made the AL All-Star team as a utility man, Ben Cherington was replaced by Dave Dombrowski in charge, Xander Bogaerts was promoted at age 20 because his offense was good enough to finish second to Big Papi in '13 postseason OPS, and that Adrian Gonzalez was acquired to be the longterm, middle-order Gold Glove first baseman. But what's really cool about the '22 Sox is that they had four different position players so versatile they were able to pitch -- Yolmer, JBJ, Plawecki and McGuire -- which ties a team record this century... with last year's squad (Arauz, Arroyo, Marwin, Pla). Hey, there's still almost three weeks left to set a new mark!

And there's a good chance Bello will adjust to their adjustments. Rich Hill taught him his curveball two days ago...

I haven't forgotten, though I don't remember anyone ever saying he was still learning to play baseball, once he made the majors. And I know you get my point. What I mostly remember is when the pre-Bloom John Henry Red Sox sought to fill positions in need, they went out and signed or traded for established players: this third baseman is our new third baseman, this rightfielder is our new rightfielder -- not: this guy wears lots of gloves, and we're going to see if one can fit on his foot, and maybe he can wear another for a hat. The only other GM who tried to contrive was Cherington, the year he signed Hanley to be a leftfielder. And he basically got canned for that offseason.

I'm personally locked in a time warp, when big league teams carried one or two utility men who could actually play, like a Brock Holt, who could hit for the cycle in a playoff game, or a Rick Miller, who was as good or better an outfielder as any of the regulars. I really don't need Kike AND Marwin, just because they both play everywhere, or Franchy, who can't play anywhere, or Arroyo, who can hit righthanded, so let's make him a rightfielder and a first baseman, where he can give up more runs than he drives in.

No stats or data here, just quotes. Whenever someone makes another Little League error for the Red Sox, Cora defends the guy -- Franchy, Duran, Arroyo, etc. -- as "still learning"... at the big league level. To some fans, depending on how much time and money they have invested in spectating, such a statement could be chilling, outrageous and unacceptable (and rightly so). Cora's go-to comment could also show his patience as a manager, while at the same time indicting his general manager for acquiring/promoting not-ready-for-primetime players. But after last night's game, Cora said: “We are where we are because we’re short in certain areas." That's not implicit; that's just blatant. How else to explain continually putting people in the best positions to fail? Unless it's all part of a conspiracy of tanking...

I'd be happy if Bloom just signs the Tampa coach -- or analytic -- who in two years converted Jeffrey Springs from a Red Sox pitcher with a 7.08 ERA to a full-time Rays' starter with a 2.41.

Boston leads in one stat befitting a cellar dweller: 10 extra-inning losses, most in the league. Every other AL East team has a winning record in extras. Of course, in the ghost-runner era, many factors contribute to the ineptitude, including Red Sox poltergeists swinging spectral bats that pass right through pitched baseballs... like apparitions walking through the greenish monsters of our nightmares.

For those who watched til the end last night, be honest: who were you thinking you'd rather see on the mound in the 10th? At the time, I was hoping for Connor Wong. Verdugo may have been too amped.

Nor should it. Next year, it better get better. Bullpen acquisitions have almost always been low-budget, bargain-basement abject failures in the Bloom Era. Besides exceptions like Strahm and Schreiber -- and not counting Whitlock, who was obviously signed longterm to be a starter -- a few weeks of success doesn't cancel out months of suckitude for the Robles of the world.

Lamo, why all the vitriol for the Sox brainthrust? Where would we be without sly relief pick-ups Whitlock, Schreiber and Strahm? 7th place? 8th? The difference between the clubs in last night's game and the entire second half is that NY's one true star repeatedly came through more times than the Sox' three All-Stars combined. It's probably good for fans that Boston chose to pitch to a guy trying to break a league record, but anyone who doesn't pitch around him in the postseason should be fired...

The worser team lost.

The greatest team in the history of this season's first half went from winning three out of every four games to below .500 in the second half. Since June 14, three months ago, the Yankees have gone 40-40... only 3 1/2 games better than the miserable Red Sox. New York soared early when every pitcher looked headed for a career year before inevitable injuries, regression, and one dumb trade got in the way. A main reason for the improvement is the Yanks upgraded defense at the two most important positions -- catcher and shortstop -- and finally stopped pretending they could contend with lead hands there instead. They're still an all-or-nothing offense, and are trying to become the first AL club since '05 to win a World Series with team hit totals below the league average. Red Sox fans can at least hope that the Twins don't make the playoffs, so NY won't have any automatic postseason wins. The only guarantee is that the next time Boston has a great start, I'll never waste my time joining a Yankees forum just to taunt regular posters who love baseball so much they watch, talk about and type about their favorite team all year, good or bad.