5GoldGlovesOF,75
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Everything posted by 5GoldGlovesOF,75
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It may seem hard to get a post through on this forum, with members always positioned to toggle statistical sites to stifle any interpretation of opinionated facts or fact-based opinions. But beginning next season, some big league boards will ban all present progressive conjugated verbs. There will be no response clock, but analytical members will be required to keep one foot on either fangraphs or baseball-reference before leaping to prove that a poster's personal thoughts are wrong. Apple may also be supplying bigger keyboards to generate more offenses.
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Boras probably insisted on the opt out clause for Bogey to sign his team-friendly, but its existence -- for a guy who has always wanted to stay in Boston -- made '22 the most stressful year of his career.
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Sale = disaster. Eovaldi debatable: also missed time with injuries, but made the All-Star team and beat the Yankees in the Wild Card game (the $17 million AAV turned out below market value, but the total contract...). Pearce -- long gone, not a huge cost. Bogaerts? It's only mismanagement in light of 2022, when the opt out issue possibly disrupted clubhouse harmony... The real mismanagement took place before 2018, when the front office tried to tie up Betts several times but always at numbers just below what top of the industry talents were commanding.
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Yep, the 70s Yankees brawled with each other as much as they fought the Red Sox. And New York won pennants and World Series -- but the latter only came after they spent big to recruit Catfish Hunter and Reggie Jackson as the highest paid pitcher and position player of all time at the time... they were the primetimers from the Oakland clubs who hated their owner/GM so much that they won three rings in a row just to spite him.
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This is totally on the GM for not spending on translators who can sing in every language to lead in the chorus of "Kumbaya." No more bargain basement translators!
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Someone traded for Chavis, so someone will trade for Dalbec...
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A Realistic View at 2023: Part I
5GoldGlovesOF,75 replied to moonslav59's topic in Boston Red Sox Talk
That point pretty much sums up what Tomase wrote and said yesterday. Eovaldi also lamented the loss of other good teammates, Renfroe and Schwarber (but did not invoke the name of the CBO responsible). The Hawk circling above Fenway is all a-squawking: "He gone!" How much is a disqualifying offer worth? -
Most of the 13 can grab onto bubbles and float off into the firmament. But you know Tampa will snag a few of the pitchers and convert them into openers and high lev no-hitter hurlers.
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A Realistic View at 2022: Part III
5GoldGlovesOF,75 replied to mvp 78's topic in Boston Red Sox Talk
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. -
A Realistic View at 2022: Part III
5GoldGlovesOF,75 replied to mvp 78's topic in Boston Red Sox Talk
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."
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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).
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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.
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A Realistic View at 2022: Part III
5GoldGlovesOF,75 replied to mvp 78's topic in Boston Red Sox Talk
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.
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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!
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Distract/disrupt/deny/project/research -- allatonce!
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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...
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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.
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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?
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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.
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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!
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9/14 Yankems @ SOX 7:10PM ET
5GoldGlovesOF,75 replied to SPLENDIDSPLINTER's topic in Mike Grace Memorial Game Thread Forum
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.
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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.
