Official Boston Red Sox Thread - 2023 | Page 2 | The Boneyard

Official Boston Red Sox Thread - 2023

HuskyHawk said:
He's been quite good. Fantastic defensive catcher too. The Betts trade is looking a little better.
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I just read that Red Sox catchers (Connor Wong and Reese McGuire) lead the majors in batting average. Nice surprise to me anyway. Of course, you want power from catchers as well.
 
Both have been more successful than I would have imagined before the season started. Hopefully they can figure out a way to get the staff rolling. Offense as a whole has been an A so far, but the pitching has been a C- or worse thus far. The division is beyond ridiculous to contend in this year though.
 
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Sox can hit, I’m jealous if these kids continue to hit they play baseball offensively the way it’s supposed to be. The Japanese dude can rake too you guys should be a little excited.
 
mauconnfan said:
Sox can hit, I’m jealous if these kids continue to hit they play baseball offensively the way it’s supposed to be. The Japanese dude can rake too you guys should be a little excited.
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I thought they made some decent moves based on the new rules. Speed, contact, lefty batters that hit the ball hard (no shift). Verdugo seems to have finally matched his promise....so far. We've seen this before in spurts.

The big one though is Duran. Been waiting on him for 3 years now, he was supposed to replace Benintendi. He was so bad, Kike had to play CF. Fast, nice swing, couldn't hit consistently and couldn't read the ball of the bat on defense. Worked and worked on those things and it shows. Connor Wong is the other kid who made the leap. We expected Casas would be good, and he hasn't been.

Story will be back, and that will help.
 
mauconnfan said:
Sox can hit, I’m jealous if these kids continue to hit they play baseball offensively the way it’s supposed to be. The Japanese dude can rake too you guys should be a little excited.
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Pitching continues to be heald together by Scotch tape and spit...and Scotch.

The bullpen seems to be coming around, and the Top 2 (Sale & Kluber) seem to be settling down a (a very) little, but their ERA is still in the 6.30 range over 14 starts and 70 innings. I.e. only 5IP/game.

On the other hand, Boston has faced among the toughest schedules so far and offense ebbs and flows. So while it may be enough to get the Sox into a Wild Card over 162 games, pitching carries the day in October.
 
Husky25 said:
Pitching continues to be heald together by Scotch tape and spit...and Scotch.

The bullpen seems to be coming around, and the Top 2 (Sale & Kluber) seem to be settling down a (a very) little, but their ERA is still in the 6.30 range over 14 starts and 70 innings. I.e. only 5IP/game.

On the other hand, Boston has faced among the toughest schedules so far and offense ebbs and flows. So while it may be enough to get the Sox into a Wild Card over 162 games, pitching carries the day in October.
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I agree. I would love for the Sox to win a WS every year but that is unrealistic. At a minimum I want to follow a competitive team throughout the entire season. And Paxton should be joining the team by next week as well. Things are not as gloomy as they seemed a month ago.
 
HCCForever said:
I agree. I would love for the Sox to win a WS every year but that is unrealistic. At a minimum I want to follow a competitive team throughout the entire season. And Paxton should be joining the team by next week as well. Things are not as gloomy as they seemed a month ago.
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In addition to the 8 game win streak, which should please any Sox fan, the pitch clock has made watching baseball more enjoyable.

I'm tempering my expectations with 34 YO Paxton. He's pitched a total of 21.2 innings since 2019 and none in over 2 full calendar years. OTOH, the farm seems to be offering some help.
 
HCCForever said:
I agree. I would love for the Sox to win a WS every year but that is unrealistic. At a minimum I want to follow a competitive team throughout the entire season. And Paxton should be joining the team by next week as well. Things are not as gloomy as they seemed a month ago.
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The Yanks despite not having as many WS of late as the Sox have been more consistently "competitive" as you say basically every season. But the reality is if you watch and know baseball you know going into the playoffs your team is not designed for a run to win, but were designed just to get there. You guys don't have the goods for a WS run it's simple with the pitching staff unless a trade or a couple guys become Superman. But you are building in the right direction while Cashman is doing the same ol things with the same OLD guys who are now actually getting worst both at the plate and with injuries. Again, much better outlook for you guys I'm afraid.
 
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mauconnfan said:
The Yanks despite not having as many WS of late as the Sox have been more consistently "competitive" as you say basically every season. But the reality is if you watch and know baseball you know going into the playoffs your team is not designed for a run to win, but were designed just to get there. You guys don't have the goods for a WS run it's simple with the pitching staff unless a trade or a couple guys become Superman. But you are building in the right direction while Cashman is doing the same ol things with the same OLD guys who are now actually getting worst both at the plate and with injuries. Again, much better outlook for you guys I'm afraid.
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Completely agree with this assessment. The vision of hiring Bloom was always "Tampa with the ability to keep/sign some expensive players". So Mookie goes (as is the Tampa model). Bogaerts walks (huge mistake, Tampa would have traded him the year before) and Devers resigns. It won't be fully functional until the old big contracts like Sale are gone.

I have long believed that the MLB contract structure (unlike the NFL) means that there are ton of guys on rosters who are not as good as guys in the minors. The best teams seem to have a blend of young cheap talent, a few high priced stars, and good role players.

Teams carrying huge star contracts long after guys stop living up to them creates a vicious cycle. Yankees are always going to be good, because you can't run out a team with that many stars and that payroll and not be good.
 
HuskyHawk said:
Completely agree with this assessment. The vision of hiring Bloom was always "Tampa with the ability to keep/sign some expensive players". So Mookie goes (as is the Tampa model). Bogaerts walks (huge mistake, Tampa would have traded him the year before) and Devers resigns. It won't be fully functional until the old big contracts like Sale are gone.

I have long believed that the MLB contract structure (unlike the NFL) means that there are ton of guys on rosters who are not as good as guys in the minors. The best teams seem to have a blend of young cheap talent, a few high priced stars, and good role players.

Teams carrying huge star contracts long after guys stop living up to them creates a vicious cycle. Yankees are always going to be good, because you can't run out a team with that many stars and that payroll and not be good.
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The problem with this is number 1, you can run out a team and not be good. They are proof of that as we speak. And number 2 is their payroll has lessened in respect to the economy over the past few years and the money they spend is on crappy players. They don't spend enough smart money any more and have missed on the likes of Olsen at first base because of these reasons. Instead they spend on a good guy, decent player in Rizzo but not in the prime of his career at all. Olsen would be an absolute stud if they had made the right move there, he would kill it at The Stadium. They didn't get a SS when they could have, hopefully Volpe is the guy but I think its way too early he shouldn't even be up yet. The signing of Hicks was one of the many bad moves Cash has made and Donaldson is right there with that one. Blow up time, management and team. Trade some of those so-called studs people want and get someth9ing back of impact. He's a dreadful GM, and the owner if fine with that because he's not his dad!~
 
Sox suddenly struggling. Blowing saves. Not scoring. It’s a long season.
 
I was front few rows at that game. It was awful seeing that ending on Saturday. All of the free balls with Jansen starting his motion before batter was in the box was wild. Definitely a new thing to witness. Great to take my dad to the game though, with great seats on a beautiful day.
 

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HuskyHawk said:
Completely agree with this assessment. The vision of hiring Bloom was always "Tampa with the ability to keep/sign some expensive players". So Mookie goes (as is the Tampa model). Bogaerts walks (huge mistake, Tampa would have traded him the year before) and Devers resigns. It won't be fully functional until the old big contracts like Sale are gone.
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Lucky guy that gets 7 years and multiple last place finishes to implement his "vision". And as a reminder, Tampa has yet to win anything. Pretty much the entire 80's and 90's the Sox did what Tampa is doing now. Consistant winning years, several playoff appearances with one losing WS appeareance. That entire time the Sox were considered losers.
 
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Waquoit said:
Lucky guy that gets 7 years and multiple last place finishes to implement his "vision". And as a reminder, Tampa has yet to win anything. Pretty much the entire 80's and 90's the Sox did what Tampa is doing now. Consistant winning years, several playoff appearances with one losing WS appeareance. That entire time the Sox were considered losers.
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I wouldn't consider them losers then. I'm not sure Chaim is the guy, but this is about the first year I'd say we are playing with his team.

There's no one way to do this. Big payroll teams win it all occasionally. But mostly it's the upper 1/3 or so that do. Even the Royals in 2015 were 12th. I wasn't suggesting being Tampa. Boston will always have a top 10 payroll. But if you are smarter about trading stars for prospects, you can improve the talent and avoid some dead weight contracts. If you look at the end of the list you see the change, top payroll teams used to win consistently.

www.baseballamerica.com

World Series Champion Opening Day Payroll Ranks In The Wild Card Era

Spending money doesn't guarantee a World Series ring, but 24 of the last 25 champions all crossed one particular payroll threshold.
www.baseballamerica.com www.baseballamerica.com
 
I don't want Job 1 to be avoiding dead weight contracts, I want Job 1 to be winning. The Sox could use a decent starter right about now. Like that guy on Texas.
 
Eovaldi is 33 and threw 100 innings last year with a fastball that was losing velocity as the season went on. I think he was topping out at 95 at the end.
And the Texas rangers gave him up to 51 mil for 3 years. The rangers also threw insane money at DeGrom and that’s blowing up in their face.
I don’t blame bloom for not handing out that type of contract as much as I loved Nate when he was here.
he’s off to a great start but who knows how long that will last.
 
The Viking said:
Eovaldi is 33 and threw 100 innings last year with a fastball that was losing velocity as the season went on. I think he was topping out at 95 at the end.
And the Texas rangers gave him up to 51 mil for 3 years. The rangers also threw insane money at DeGrom and that’s blowing up in their face.
I don’t blame bloom for not handing out that type of contract as much as I loved Nate when he was here.
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$51M for 3 years is not insane money. It's cheap, especially for a top starter. He would be the Sox' ace. But of course you don't blame Bloom, he can do no wrong in the eyes of the Bloominati. He's such a chess player they needed the new untility infielder to close the game the other day. Meanwhile, still another last place finish awaits.
 
Waquoit said:
$51M for 3 years is not insane money. It's cheap, especially for a top starter. He would be the Sox' ace. But of course you don't blame Bloom, he can do no wrong in the eyes of the Bloominati. He's such a chess player they needed the new untility infielder to close the game the other day. Meanwhile, still another last place finish awaits.
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He was not trending as a top starter and had rarely pitched enough innings in a year to be deemed one anyway.

Don’t give up on the team. We are only 1.5 Out of the playoffs, will add Duvall and Story in June/July and let see how Whitlock and Paxton look over the next month to get a better snapshot of our rotation.

We also have good young players hitting the majors now, have more in the pipeline in the next 1-2 years at AA and AAA and have a lot of payroll flexibility if we see the right free agent to splurge on.

Blooms goal is not to be Tampa, it’s to be the Dodgers where you constantly bring up good young talent every year which allows Bloom (or ownership) the ability to spend big for the right players.

The world is not ending at Fenway Park.
 
The Viking said:
He was not trending as a top starter and had rarely pitched enough innings in a year to be deemed one anyway.

Don’t give up on the team. We are only 1.5 Out of the playoffs, will add Duvall and Story in June/July and let see how Whitlock and Paxton look over the next month to get a better snapshot of our rotation.

We also have good young players hitting the majors now, have more in the pipeline in the next 1-2 years at AA and AAA and have a lot of payroll flexibility if we see the right free agent to splurge on.

Blooms goal is not to be Tampa, it’s to be the Dodgers where you constantly bring up good young talent every year which allows Bloom (or ownership) the ability to spend big for the right players.

The world is not ending at Fenway Park.
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Agreed. It was just disappointing to see the Sox get swept by the Cards and Jansen failure to close out games.
 
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Sox are 24-20, which (in the early going) is good enough for:

1st in the ALC,
3rd in the ALW (1/2 out of 2nd)
2nd in the NLE
2nd in the NLC (1/2 out of 1st)
3rd in the NLW

Boston sits last in the AL East.
 
Husky25 said:
Sox are 24-20, which (in the early going) is good enough for:

1st in the ALC,
3rd in the ALW (1/2 out of 2nd)
2nd in the NLE
2nd in the NLC (1/2 out of 1st)
3rd in the NLW

Boston sits last in the AL East.
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The new more balanced schedule bringing a dose of reality. AL East teams were always disadvantaged. I'd love to see the divisions go away altogether. Put the top 6 teams in AL and NL in the playoffs.
 
HuskyHawk said:
The new more balanced schedule bringing a dose of reality. AL East teams were always disadvantaged. I'd love to see the divisions go away altogether. Put the top 6 teams in AL and NL in the playoffs.
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Boston is still a game out of the Wild Card and 1/2 behind Houston, but all 3 WCs come out of the East. ATM.
 
So, sweep the Yankees and win five in a row and you're still in last place. Brutal division. At least they ae playing better baseball.
 
HuskyHawk said:
So, sweep the Yankees and win five in a row and you're still in last place. Brutal division. At least they ae playing better baseball.
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At 1.5 games out of the Wild Card, they've only lost .5 game of ground in the last calendar month...and to think that other than the 8 gamer earlier in the season and the current 5 game stretch, they are 10 games under .500.

Story is could back in about 3 weeks and should at least provide offense, but probably won't be field ready until August. Sale is eligible to return in early August but later in the month is more likely. OTOH, who knows what to expect from him. The Sox have the 12 easiest schedule the rest of the way and easiest in the AL East.
 
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