2:54PM: The Sox officially reinstated Wacha from the IL. Left-hander Darwinzon Hernandez was optioned to Triple-A to create roster space.
9:05AM: The Red Sox will activate right-hander Michael Wacha from the 15-day injured list today, manager Alex Cora told reporters (including Julian McWilliams of The Boston Globe). Wacha will get the start for tonight’s game against the Yankees.
Right shoulder inflammation sent Wacha to the IL on July 5, so between this absence and a previous 15-day stint in May due to left intercostal irritation, Wacha has missed a good chunk of his first season with the Red Sox. When he has been able to pitch, the righty has been arguably Boston’s best hurler, with a 2.69 ERA over 70 1/3 innings.
This performance is tempered by a 4.56 SIERA, a .240 BABIP and a slate of unimpressive Statcast metrics, so some regression seems almost inevitable. However, in terms of pure bottom-line numbers, 2022 represents a very nice bounce-back for Wacha after he posted a 5.11 ERA in 285 1/3 innings in 2019-21. The Sox have already gotten a decent return on their one-year, $7MM investment in Wacha during the offseason, and if he can continue to defy the metrics, he could be a key arm for the Red Sox down the stretch.
The starting rotation has been a question mark for the Sox virtually all season, with injuries and/or inconsistency plaguing just about every pitcher on the roster. Chris Sale’s season-ending wrist surgery means that Boston won’t ever truly have its first-choice starting five all going at the same time, but Wacha’s return at least represents one more piece of the puzzle. Wacha joins Nathan Eovaldi, Nick Pivetta, Rich Hill, and Kutter Crawford in the rotation, with Josh Winckowski likely to return to bullpen work, and James Paxton tentatively set to make a September return after undergoing Tommy John surgery in April 2021.
Actually, I believe Hill is going to the bullpen and Winckowski will continue to start, although Bello or Paxton could take his spot soon. I’ve also seen that Darlosezon Hernandez is the roster causality.
I agree. Winckowski has been doing ‘okay”, and we need another lefty in the BP.. Hill has been shaky, but he still good splits against lefties. And Hernandez has to be demoted.
A lot of people think he should go to the bullpen, but I like him and Crawford as starters more than Seabold and Bello so far. Obviously small sample sizes, but still.
IMHO-
Crawford stays as an SP
Winckowski probably as an SP
Bello out of the BP until next year, The difference being he has BP velocity, and probably issues too many walks to get deep into games. Another multi-inning guy could be useful.
Seabold still looks like a project.
Good call Joe
Wacha has been, when healthy, the Sox’s best starting pitcher with an outstanding ERA over 70+ innings yet that’s not good enough for the author because of some idiotic, meaningless geek statistics.
25 years ago his numbers are awesome. Today they are alarming. I don’t get it.
Because he gives up line drives nearly 30% of the time with opponents having an exit velocity over 89 MPH. Line drives usually fall for for hit 60%+ of the time. Do you really think a guy with an opponent batted ball profile that more closely resembles 2015 Andrew Cashner is going to keep up a 2.70 ERA? Sorry the author wants to read more in-depth to Wacha than what his baseball card says.
Andrew Cashner in 2015, why? Did you have to go back 8 years to find a crappy pitcher with similar peripheral numbers?
Wacha’s exit velocity is 89.1. — 4 other pitchers have the same exact exit velocity, heres the names and ERAs.
Wacha——2.69
Valdez——2.73
Chavez—–2.92
Payamps—3.32
Jefferies—-5.72
Seems that Exit Velocity as a gauge of a pitchers ability isn’t very accuate, or Wacha is slightly above average. Which ever way you look at it, he’s not far from being in line with the numbers.
Since number of runs determine the winners and losers of a game, I’ll take that stat over some random complex stat. And I didn’t have to go back to 2015 to find a random pitcher that matched my opinion.
I’m just taking one of the players baseball savant lists as having a similar batted ball profile.
And yet, three of those five pitchers you mentioned have a groundball rate of 47% or higher. I’ll admit, 2015 Andrew Cashener isn’t a prime example and not the example I wanted to use, but it was the first one that came up on baseball savant and I’m doing all of thos through my phone.
So hard hit line drives = high exit velo = bad pitcher BUT hard hit line drives = high BABIP = good pitcher with bad luck. What moronic nonlogical crap THAT nonsense is why baseball has been losing popularity.
Baseball is losing popularity because of old dinosaurs yelling that batting average and wins for SP pitchers are important.
If you people who think you know anything about baseball put together a team against someone who has never watched baseball but has a math degree and understands analytics, the math geeks team would absolutely destroy your team. It’s embarrassing you people are even allowed to comment anymore.
Don’t economists also all have math degrees? When is the last time one them wasn’t shocked when the market or economy crashes? We all see them coming and yet the guys with math degrees are always like, “Nobody saw that coming!”
Some of the new metrics are fine. But honestly, some are just useless junk.
I’m not going to argue with some antisocial ageist autist who doesn’t understand logic if it hit him in the face. You didn’t explain the reasoning between exit velo and BABIP because you’re incapable of doing so. All you’re capable of is looking up meaningless and misused stats from Fangraphs. Again it’s idiotic to assume a pitcher is merely unlucky because of a high BABIP just like its idiotic to think there’s no such thing as clutch. I’m not surprised you advocate censoring those who are intellectually superior to you and your robotic tunnelvision approach to a game you don’t understand. Go crawl into your safe space if you can’t handle multi dimensional discussions.
You love ERA huh. Well funny stuff. Let’s look at Wacha’s ERA the past few years. In brackets is his xERA.
2019: 4.76 (5.77)
2020: 6.62 (4.54)
2021: 5.05 (5.51)
2022: 2.69 (4.77)
Every year both traditional stats and sabermetrics have agreed that Wacha is bad. Now sabermetrics says Wacha is still bad, but lucky. If I were to take Occam’s Razor to this situation I know the answer I’d come up with.
But let’s look at a couple other pitchers. Marcus Stroman had a 3.02 ERA last year. Pretty good. But his xERA was 4.30. His ERA this season is 4.20.
Yu Darvish had a 4.22 ERA last year. He must be losing it! His xERA thought differently though, coming in at 3.32. His ERA right now, you ask? 3.40. Have to love that xERA. Predictive goodness.
Anyways, now that you see the magic in action you don’t have to fear it. The camera won’t steal your soul. The numbers won’t make you like baseball less. Cheers.
I never said that. Imo, if you have a LD% above 25% and hard hit rate above 38%, you shouldn’t be surprised if a player’s BABip is high. Line drives natrually have the highest chance to fall for a hit. Since batted ball rates have been tracked in 2002, the lowest single-season league average for line drives is .680. The lowest single-season league average for hard hit live drives is .592. The average BAbip for pitchers who have thrown 100+ innings in a season and have put up an LD% above 25% is .311. So yes, having a high line drive rate is natrually going to lead to a poor BAbip.
Imo, BAbip is reliant on hard hit rate and batted ball type and hard hit rate. Ground balls are hits more often than flyballs, but both fall for hits far less than line drives. If I see a high ground ball pitcher with relatively average hard hit rates, but his BAbip is .340, yeah I’m going to assume some bad luck is playing a hand here. But if I see a guy with a 26% line drive rate and in the bottom 30th percentile of hard hit rate, and his BAbip is .350? That’s not bad luck. That’s him giving up the most productive batted ball result a lot more often than league average.
Yeah, you’re right, his ERA is now 2.44, not 2.70. Thanks for the hot take.
Baseball is losing popularity because it’s boring to watch. It has nothing to do with a refusal of fans to accept stupid statistics that geeks make up to pretend they are smarter than everyone else.
If Billy Beane is so smart how come his analytics have never resulted in any championship teams?
ANYTHING can happen in baseball. That is why it is NOT boring to watch and also why Billy Beane has not won a championship. The best team does not always win.
Every year both traditional stats and sabermetrics have agreed that Wacha is bad. The numbers won’t make you like baseball less.
=======================================
Thank you very much for your second sentence. I grew up with 3 yards and a cloud of dust football. I kept up with nickel backs and dime backs, but they have pretty much lost me by now. But I accept that.
I’m on the edge in BB. They’re starting to lose me, but trying to keep up is fun.
That said, Wacha has had good stretches. A bit like Pivetta. That shows ability, but not consistency. And Wacha ended last year with 6 really good starts. It’s entirely possible that Wacha is better than his career numbers.
How much did you really expect to get out of Wacha? He was a reliever last year.
Wacha has been good, but the foundation of his ERA was built on the San Andreas Fault.
Based on what? How many Earn Runs you give up is the most important stats there is for a starting pitcher.
It can be heavily influenced by how good or bad a team’s defense is. Not saying it is important, but I like taking other measurements into account too.
Every stat has its flaws. But, ERA doesn’t take into account errors. So that wipes out many bad plays. Otherwise the Red Sox are pretty average defensively this year. Wacha shouldn’t be affected greatly one way or the other.
There are a lot of bad plays that aren’t errors. A bad route taken to a ball isn’t an error. A slow outfielder not being fast enough to track down a flyball isn’t an error. A weak armed infielder not being able to make deep throws isn’t an error. Charlie Blackmon had a .997 fielding percentage in 2019 and had -20 DRS in CF. Aaron Judge and Byron Buxton both have a 100% FP this season. Judge might not be a bad CF, but Buxton has a massive defensive edge of him.
1) I said not counting runs scored via errors “wipes out MANY bad plays” I didnt say all plays.
2) Red Sox defense is average, so it should (not saying always) average out over a season, to net zero affect to an ERA.
3) Again, your sighting people who arent on the Red Sox, and have nothing to do with Wacha. Should I list every player that plays average defense in the League?
The bigger issue is the left on base rate and batting average on balls in play. Wacha sits t 80.7% and .240. Jacob deGrom didn’t even have that good of numbers, and he held opponents to an even lower BA against, ground ball rate, exit velocity, fewer walks, more k’S when he won B2B CyA.
ERA is also affected by Ballparks too. Shouldn’t pitching at Fenway be inflating his ERA? His ERA+ is 158. I guess you wanted to avoid that point.
Left on Base Rate is flawed because it negates a pitcher’s ability to pitch out of jams. Some guys turn it on when runners on are base.
BABIP is flawed too. For many reasons.
Robbie Ray and Max Scherzer both won CY Youngs with higher ERAs. So Wacha’s ERA can still fall quite a bit and still be considered very good. See I can randomly insert players into the conversation, who make my point, too.
Imo, there’s nearly as many bad plays not called errors because of a lack of range, lack of reaction/instinct, or lack of arm than there are plays that are called errors because if errant throws, and simple defensive miscues. It’s easy to remember the errors, its hard to remember all the Tim’s a below average runner couldn’t track down down flyball.
The Cy Young awards have nothing to do with it. I was only using DeGrom’s 2 seasons when he did win it as an example of how ERA is reliant on multiple factors. I used Judge and Buxton and Blackmon as examples of why errors don’t always show good/bad fielding. I’m just using it as an example.
That’s because wacha is better than deGrom this guy probably.
English much? No understand.
Intelligent rebuttal
What were you saying. Thats not a sentence.
AL347 hours ago
How much did you really expect to get out of Wacha? He was a reliever last year.
=================================
He had 23 starts last year. That ranked hin #41 in the league in the number of starts. If you need some help looking this stuff up, just just on the link above.
Or continue looking like the village idiot.
Yeah you are right, I’m a village idiot. You are an arrogant imbecile. When Bloom signed this guy did you think, Oh my God, Wacha is great? He is not a number 1 guy, neither is Hill. We needed better starters not bargain basement guys like him. He and Hill missed a lot of time this year.
Story’s struggles early along with depending on Dalbac along with Jackie Bradley Jr. killed this team early on.
The moves that our Attempted GM made were bad this year instead of getting dependable players. I am tired of the bargain basement desks this guy makes
What are you talking about “When Bloom signed this guy did you think Wacha is great, . . . . number 1 guy”? Wacha and Hill never were planned to be “number 1 guys”. Youre just trying to create an extreme narrative to justify your bad take on the situation.
The rotation plan before the season was:
1) Eovoldi
2) Sale
3) Pivetta
4) Wacha
5) Hill, as much mileage as you can get
6) Whitlock
7) Paxton, planned for August
8) Seabold, Winchowski, Murphy, Crawford, Groome
But you never know who’s going to overachieve, underachieve or get injured. Bloom went with depth, due to a lack of rock solid starters. In that case, you take what you get. And right now, after watching Wacha last night, he is DEFINITELY a “Number 1 Guy”.
Did you really expect Sale to be what he was in 2017-2018 ? He has not been the same pitcher since then. Bloom needed to do better than Wacha and Hill. They are maybe 4 and 5s They needed something between Eovaldi and Pivetta. Wacha has missed almost two months of the season at this point. Yeah he pitched great last night but the season is over for us right now.
I stand by the village idiot statement. You said “He was a reliever last year”. He was obviously a starter, with 23 starts. You either knew that, and lied. Or you didn’t know it, and were too lazy to look it up. But even laziness is not an excuse. If you didn’t know any of Wacha’s numbers, then you didn’t know enough to comment on him.
Sorry, but everyone is entitled to an opinion, but not their own set of facts. If you don’t want me to react negatively, then put a little effort into your posts.
“Did you really expect Sale to be what he was in 2017-2018”
Who expect that? I listed him as the #2 Starter. ’17 and ’18 he was one of the best pitchers in the game, Did you think he was a #2 in those year?
“season is over for us right now”
Only a quitter or hater would say that, which are you?
Hey Joe How do you like the way the season sent this year? Impressed with Bloom’s moves? Like the pitching? Wacha has not had an ERA below 4.00 aside from this year since 2018. You are right I confused him with another pitcher on Tampa. You could not count on the guy who has not gone over 126 innings since 2017. What did he give us 80 this year? Not what this team needed with him missing close to two months. You trust Bloom to fix this mess next year?
I’m fine with the season. The plan was absolutely correct. Except for losing four SPs at the same time, we’d be chasing the Yankees right now. We’ve had 42 starts out of a possible 116 made by relief pitchers or minor leaguers. If you lose your #5 and replace him with your #6, you lose nothing. When you are replacing 27 starts by Sale/Eovaldi, unless you are the Dodgers, you can’t survive.
And the two biggest disappointments are easily JD & Eovaldi, combining for a 1.6 bWAR, and they were already under contract.
And yes, I do trust Bloom to fix it. Most of his moves have added value, just more long-term than short-term. But if you are looking for quick fixes, that is unlikely. And I am fine with that. I want success over a 10-20 year period, even if it has to come at the expense of one year.
That said, the more emotional part of me would like to sign DeGrom or Verlander. I’d also like to extend Bogaerts, but his decline this year is somewhat worrisome, and his positional fit could be problematic. He no longer looks like a SS.
Joe
The season was a failure. None of the rookies that Bloom holds so dearly did earth shattering things. Bloom needed relief help, not the garbage he picked up, needed a dedicated closer, to sign Schwarber who wanted to stay or even Sign Rizzo not depend on Dalbac, not trade Hunter Renfroe for Jackie Bradley Jr, not insult Boggarts with a lowball offer. Story is a National League Coors Field hitter.
I love the Red Sox and was in Baghdad when Grady Little left Pedro in too long in Game 7 in 2003. When we blew that game I kicked 3 sandbags into the Euphrates River. I was watching in 1975 when Carlton Fisk was interfered by Ambrister. Clearly a bad umpiring call.
You have your opinions and I have mine, that’s what makes our country great. My guess is that you are a lot younger than me. This team needs a lot of work next year. As a matter of fact it needs a full rebuild and Bloom ain’t the guy to do it. Prospects take a while to develop and many never develop. Give me an established ball player anytime over prospects.
AL34
Joe
The season was a failure. None of the rookies that Bloom holds so dearly did earth shattering things. Prospects take a while to develop
===================================
You seem conflicted about Bloom’s prospects and the fact that prospects take time to develop.
Past that, Winckowki has done okay, and Crawford has done well. Winckowski has had three bad games, one mediocre, and 7 positive starts. Crawford has been excellent with a 3.70 in 9 starts.
Past that, if you were expecting to see help from the guys that Bloom drafted, you’re begging to be disappointed. We had no #1 in 2019, our top 2 picks in 2020 were HS kids, and our #1 in 2021 was in HS. Let’s see what happens in another two years.
And past even that, if you time in Iraq was military, thank you for your service.
Joe
I’ve seen the vaunted rookies of the 1970s and 1980s Sam Bown, Allen Ripley, Joel Finch, Winn Remerswaal, Marc Sullivan Chico Walker, Pat Dodson, Eddie Jurak, Jeff Ledbette, Jeff Sellers, Rob Woodward, Dave Shoppee, Rockford, Brian Denman, Jim Burt, Tom Mitchell, John Leister and their are others. These guys were all praised and going to be the future of the Red Sox. Recognize any of them?
We are not Tampa Bay where they do not draw fans. That franchise should have been moved out of that city. They need an influx of talent through the minori leagues because of the budget constraints. Putting this philosophy on Boston although admirable is not something the fans are going to be patient with. Boston is a Major Market Baseball City.
Yes I was in the Army in Iraq earning a Bronze Star and Combat Action Badge. Thank you.
Again, you make it seem like, if all prospects don’t make, then something is wrong. Everyone knows not everyone makes it. I took a quick look at a few guys.
Allen Ripley-Amateur FA, never ranked.
Lesiter the same thing
A lot of them I don’t even see in Baseball Reference. I don’t any ranked guys. To have a discussion about prospects, they need to be either highly-ranked or a high draft pick. Most minor leaguers are around so they have enough guys to play the games.
But more importantly, are you career military or something else. I use to work with a guy that was former military (forward spotter maybe?), but still on reserve status(?). When I asked him if he was happy he didn’t get called for Iraq, he just shook his head and said he really wanted to go. He had spent two weeks training in some desert in CA, and was grumbling about the waste of time, if they weren’t going to call him.
I was pretty impressed with the response.
Joe
A lot of them do not. Ripely was 3-1 in 1979. I saw him pitch okay, not great. Bobby Sprowl was another back in 1978 that the Sox brought up against the Yankees and he was torched. I remember Chuck Rainey and Jim Wright highly regarded. They had brief success then dropped off the face of the earth. I do not remember rankings back then, just organizational guides of the minor leagues which were Pawtucket AAA, Bristol AA, Carolina League A which I cannot recall. Joe, give me an established player anytime. The Yankees use to build up the publicity on their players years ago so teams traded established players for their rookies, Bsm Bam Mullins, Kevin Mass, Paul Mirabrlla, Sam Mitello, Rupert Jones, Henry Cotto,
I was a reserve officer on alert as a Lieutenant in the first Gulf War and then it was over. Never made it out of Fort Dix, NJ
Iraqi Freedom I was put on alert in 2002 December and called up. I was a Major with the Military Police on the invasion force into Iraq. We lost 4 KIA and 30 wounded including myself. Major back surgery and shoulder replacement because the cartilage was shredded from a mortar round. I went through 9 surgeries and I am blessed. A lot of soldiers a lot worse off than me.
Translation: I like this easy number but those bigger numbers are scary and confusing.
ERA is the simplest form to net result of a Starting Pitcher. Of course there are flaws with it. As I’ve shown above Exit Velocity is completely flaw, as are all those “bigger numbers”.
Statistics without context are frequently used for manipulation.
Until you can provide a flawless number, ERA is the best stat to judge a Starting Pitcher by.
Maybe for current production. But if I’m being asked if I think he’ll continue Being good, my answer is no. I’m looking at more than just SIERA, or exit velocity. I’m considering that despite having relatively average batted ball rates and a below average exit velocity/hard hit rate, Wacha still has a .240 BAbip over a small sample size. A few things can lower a BAbip over a long period of time for a pitcher: lots of soft contact, really good defense. You already told me the Red sox have average defense. He isn’t a ground ballachine and doesn’t induce a bunch of soft contact.. he has a good walk rate, but poor K% and pretty average HR/9.What reasons do I have that Wacha’s current production is sustainable if he’s pretty average in every other regard except for ERA?
Wacha is a control pitcher, not a power pitcher, nor a sinker ball pitcher. Control pitchers don’t give up many walks, they also dont strikeout that many. High groundball rates are usually associated with Sinker ball pitchers. Groundballs are great, but there have been plenty of successful flyball pitchers. Wacha survives by soft contact due to keeping the hitter off balance. Think pedestrain Greg Maddux. (See I did that name thing again).
BABIP – Wacha avoids heavy contact by pinpoint accuracy and keeping hitter off balance. The number is low because he’s good, not due to luck.
Exit Velocity – Isnt that bad, considering his 89.1 is the same as Framber Valdez.
GrBR- He’s not a groundball pitcher (sinker), he also doesnt give up that many HRs.
I think coming back from injury Wacha will probably have a few rough outings to lead off. But, theres no way a pitcher would have that ERA in mid August without being pretty good. There’s only 1.5 months left. If he’s gonna go south as you think, it better happen fast and stay bad.
Wacha: “I brought my smoke and mirrors to the ballpark today. Hope they work.”
If Pivetta is your 2nd best SP than you are in trouble.
It’s going to be a very interesting off-season for the Red Sox. Safe to say this winter will define Bloom’s competence as a GM.
@ Craven…. providing he isn’t financially hamstrung.
Yeah Wacha will put us over the top. He has been inconsistent the last two years and yet Bloom gave him 8 Million ? Hill was 44 years old, really how much did Bloom figure to get out of him?
The pitching staff is a mess for next year. Paxton (11 million to rehab) has a glass elbow, Sale cannot be counted on, Pivetta is way too inconsistent, Eovaldi, Wacha, and Hill are all free agents. The only good free agent pitcher available is DeGromme and he cannot be depended on for a full year.
There is no direction on the club and Duran is a second baseman way out of position. The bullpen is the 3rd worst in the AL.
Does anyone think that Bloom can honestly fix this mess? Bloom is a disaster and needs to be fired. Henry needs a Major Market GM not Small Market GM Bloom. This team is in major trouble next year.
Nobody in their right mind could have thought that Bloom, with zero championships under his belt, could make Boston a serious contender. He is, without question, the most overrated and clueless GM out there.
When the Rays are making the playoffs and winning the AL East while spending $50M on player payroll, you might want to hire a guy from the Rays and give him a larger budget and see what he can do. However, he will need some time to implement his philosophies into the new organization. The Dodgers hired a guy from the Rays and it is working out pretty well.
“nobody in their right mind” “without question” “most overrated” “clueless”
Lot of Gaslighting phrases there.
AL34 you post this exact same crap every single week. We know your opinion.. ad nauseam… Give it a rest.
Wacha returns throws a no hitter and the Sox win out the remaining season. Greatest comeback ever.
You weren’t far off
Also, they like Oneil Cruz but not Jorge Mateo. Both SS’s.
What’s great about Cruz is that he hits and throws the ball over 100 MPH! The guy needed to be called up and play every day. Unfortunately, he doesn’t hit well, run well, and is not a good defender. But he’s a star in the making (while Mateo is a 27 year-old failure).
Now Mateo has a bit over double the PA’s that Ellis does. So I look at Fangraphs as they add in defensive stats and other things. As of today Ellis has moved over the zero line on fWar and is up to 0.2. Meanwhile, Mateo with around 110% more plate appearances has an fWar of 2.2.
And Mateo hits and throws the ball over 100 MPH.
LOL
There is no hope left for Samuel.
They lost my luggage on my flight from New York to Rome today so I’m not in the mood for anyone’s problems.
Can I borrow $20? Im out of gas and I need to drive to Walmart for my shift.
My people will be in touch
Thank you kindly, Jimmy. Someone has to stock the shelves of cat food and I make a difference in my community.
Stupid question: Rome, Italy, or Rome, Georgia?
It’s not as stupid as wondering if thumbs count as fingers. I mean do humans have 8 fingers and two thumbs or are we just lumping thumbs into the finger category and saying we have 10? If that’s the case then what about pinkies? See, life isn’t all that easy to answer
Red Sox are going economy class. Period. What better way to do that than with a Tampa Ray clone? Enter Chaim Bloom
Red Sox are over the Salary Threshold. That is plainly wrong.
It worries me that people can sign onto MLB-R and think the RS are a small market team.
Joe;
Great reading your comments.
Unfortunately most Red Sox fans have Large Market Team disease – along with many in NYC, LA, Bay Area, Chicago, Philly. They think everything is about spending money, and that their teams should contend each year.
That accounts for 10 teams – 1/3’rd of those in MLB. The other 2/3’rds are not sitting on their behinds. Many of their Owners / FO’s are very bright and they’ll always make up the majority of contenders each year.
I don’t mind spending money, but even with a $230M budget, you still need to be judicious. I’d like to go big-game hunting next year with guys like DeGrom, Verlander, etc. But unless we generate some decent+ prospects, and a couple of good trades, we’ll never be able to afford these top-tier guys.
No way Bloom will pick up DeGrom. Verlander he should have traded for or Dombroski should years before. None of our “Prospects” did anything earth shattering this year that teams are going to want or trade good players for.
Dombroski traded away our prospects. Theres a big void of prospects, because he gutted the system. Look up Jalen Beeks, Michael Kopech or Manuel Margot. Just because you forgot the names, doesnt mean everyone has.
Kopesch is a reliever, not starting. Do you really think Beeks is that great? He has only had two years where his ERA is below 4.00. He is nothing earth shattering. Was Margot ours?
Give me an established player any time
Kopech is a fulltime starter (21 out of 21). He had been put in the BP while recovering from TJS.
And yes, Margot was ours. I don’t bemoan all the guys we traded. DD seems to have chosen well, and we weren’t getting good players without surrendering talent.
But having guys like Margot, Kopech and Moncada means that 3 of your key 15 positions are filled.
Moncado is struggling. Isn’t Kopesch still in the Chicago Bullpen ? I would take Sale any day for those two guys
@ Stavin### I’m aware of the payroll situation. They will get under it for 23 or Bloom will in fact be gone. John Henry wants to operate this club perpetually under the CBT going forward. He’s publicly stated that fact. Draft and develop is what we will see going forward. Players not willing to sign team friendly contracts will be deemed expendable. Story was signed to a perceived reasonable contract to replace Bogaerts who wants to seek his market value. Devers rejected team friendly terms as well.Owners want to be competitive without breaking the bank and selling off the farm every couple of years.
“John Henry wants to operate this club perpetually under the CBT going forward”
-Except, he hasn’t since he’s been in Boston. History does not agree with you.
“He’s publicly stated that fact.”
-Where, when, under what context? The system has changed. By todays rules, staying perpetually OVER the cap is a slow death. Every team including the Yankees have realized this. You can’t constantly be losing Draft Picks and Signing Bonus Money, plus Paying Excessive (50%) Taxes on signings. Its a new era.
-Everything else, you must have a crystal ball. They have loads of room under the Threshold. They could easily let Bogaerts walk and sign Trea Turner, which would be a huge improvement. I don’t know whats next, but if you do, please give me this weekends MegaBucks numbers.
-Huge difference between straddling the Threshold Line and becoming the “economy class” “Tampa Bay clone” you described in your first comment.
@Starvin. ### He publicly stated the fact when he fired DD. “we’veknown for a while that we needed to be under the CBT>”
How do you get “economy class” and “Tampa Bay clone”? You do remember saying that right? Its in your first comment. Did he say that?
Thats a huge leap from your second comment of “Owners want to be competitive without breaking the bank and selling off the farm every couple of years.” —- Those two comments are not the same thing considering TB’s payroll is 66Million.
Bobby smac92 hours ago
@ Stavin### I’m aware of the payroll situation.
============================
But you did write: “Red Sox are going economy class. Period.”.
So what is it? Do you think going over the cap is going “economy class”? Or was it just an unsupportable random insult?
This is what gets you and KD and AL34 in trouble. When the NYY traded Monty, I didn’t like it and wrote that I thought it left the NYY short of starting pitching. I didn’t feel the need to write stupid schitt like the “Yankees are going economu class”. That would just sound stupid.
I’m in reference to 23, not this year. My thinking is this. Why be over the tax if you’ve got a last place team? Unless they reload on the fly, they can field a team that will give their prospects a chance to play next year at a fraction of the present cost. How realistic is it for them to be relevant next season? They would have to spend to do it. I just don’t see them going in that direction. Heck, I hope I’m wrong here.
Bobby smac91 min ago
I’m in reference to 23, not this year.
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Again, that’s ridiculous. Henry spends to the limit, or above, every year. Maybe the NYY, NYM, and LAD will suddenly trade off all their high-salaried players and go “economy class”.
But it is so unlikely to happen, that it is silly to conjecture about it.
You seem smart enough, and not nearly as crazy as some of the others in here. So you have to know you are pretty likely to be wrong.
Perhaps
Solid.
what a hell of an outing tonight! funny how tampas 3rd best pitcher is now our ‘ace’
One outing does not make an ace. He’s our number five starter.., or six. It makes sense though that you think one outing and a guy is the team’s ace. Lines right up.
“One outing does not make an ace. He’s our number five starter or six.”
Clearly, you don’t watch games, or even look at statistics. This wasn’t out of nowhere.
Clearly.
“one outing does not make an ace.”
For ‘clearity’ sake, which “outing” are we talking about:
4.1Inn—1 Run
5.0Inn—0 Runs
5.0Inn—2 Runs
6.0Inn—0 Runs
5.2Inn—0 Runs
4.2Inn—2 Runs
5.2 Inn—0 Runs
9.0 Inn—0 Runs (Wow)
5.1 Inn—1 Run
6 .0 Inn—2 Runs
7.0 Inn—0 Runs
What team are you talking about that has a “5th or 6th starter” doing that?
The Red Sox.
If you had the Red Sox slating Michael Wacha as the number one or number two guy in spring training then that’s great. I had him as the number five starter but then he got hurt so he’s our number six starter and hopefully comes back. Great pick up on a one-year deal. Love it.
But I thought he was the number five starter coming out of spring training. I’m wrong for that?
His era on the year is 2.44. So with all those amazing starts that you list above he must have had quite a few stinkers mixed in?
The problem with the Red Sox is that they depended on an often injured Sale, inconsistent Pivetta, Wacha who gave you 70 innings this year and a 43 year old Hill. Eovaldi pitched good this year but he is off. None of the rookie pitchers made an impact to help this team.
i dont get why jurran duran wasnt the corresponding move, why is he on a major league baseball roster?
Speed youth high ranking Prospect for the team, have to see if he’s legit.., or not. There’s an opening in center field, throw him out there.
Amanda5 hours ago
i dont get why jurran duran wasnt the corresponding move,
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1-With Kiki on the IL, we have a lack of outfielders. Right now, Jaylin Davis is our #4 OF, and he doesn’t play CF.
2-Duran has improved. I’m not a fan of Duran, and never was. But he has a .645 OPS over his last 15 games, despite a .219 BABIP. Basically, 2 HRs in 47 ABs with a 13/4 K/W. Not good, but not terrible.
Duran is a second baseman clearly out of position who. We’d more time in the minors to learn the position that he might never ever learn. Benintendi would have been a better Centerfielder with his glove than Duran had not Bloom traded him.
AL34
Duran is a second baseman clearly out of position who
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Duran played 20 games at 2nd back in 2018 in low-A ball.
Needs more Minor League Time for both maturity but he is playing out of position. I believe he is a 2nd baseman that was offered more playing time and switched to the outfield
joe-
ive wanted verlander to be on this team for 11 years, i love him and would legite trade half the farm for him
He’ll be a FA after this season. I trust Bloom to not do anything stupid, but I would certainly look at the price tag from him and DeGrom. The NYMs paid a crazy price for Scherzer, and he is 8-2 despite missing a decent amount of games.