Starting Pitchers - Early Happenings

[longgame]

Fred, he screwed up routine fly balls.  Great arm, if he got the ball. And he took care of business at the plate.  But the Sox are chock full of flawed players so adding another one to the mix isn't the answer. 

[Sea Dog 23]

Bloom looking in the weeds today.  Signed a former Mets reliever, lefty Joely Rodriquez. Was a NYY in 2021, fwiw we need a LH in the pen.  For $2mil ($1.5 on the books) and a recent injury bug, probably just a depth piece in the middle innings.  Maybe Sox are not sure about Josh Taylor’s health,


The #RedSox today signed LHP Joely Rodríguez to a one-year contract for the 2023 season, with a club option for 2024.  $2ml, option for 2024

2022 50.1 IP, 4.43era, 1.35 WHIP
He only has three years of service time, so he can stay through 2025, as we have his arb rights.
He had a shoulder injury at the end of last year , and the Mets non-tendered him, so that's a little worrisome.

[SeaBeachFred]

Fred, he screwed up routine fly balls.  Great arm, if he got the ball. And he took care of business at the plate.  But the Sox are chock full of flawed players so adding another one to the mix isn't the answer.

Right you are on that Ted and I knew you or someone would call me on it.  Flawed he might be but he is a power hitting RF who produces at the plate and compared to what we had this past season he would have been more of an asset than a drag since he has the power we needed so badly.  Now what do we do for that power hitter we need?   What about this Joely Rodriguez character?  Know anything about him as a reliever.  He was at 4.47 at a reliever for the Mets this season in 50+ innings.  Hope he is not one of those dumpster dumps we usually get s tuck with, and when are we going to start signing some real ballplayers.  I've heard rumors that we're going to spend a lot of money this off season but pardon me if  I'm a mite skeptical.  Hopefully we will.

BTW, in case I may forget, may you and your family have a wonderful  Thanksgiving Day tomorrow.

[MongoLikeSox]

Holy Crap! This is such a typical Bloom signing. Pathetic. 4.42 this season, 4.66 in '21. Yeah, that's not a BP arm we need. We have depth. We need impact BP. Crap depth is Feb/March minor league contracts. Who cares if we have control over a 4.xx ERA guy? It's absurd.

Renfroe would have made a mighty fine extra OF/DH player. One could do worse for an extra OF'er unless we needed a glove for late innings.

Back to our lefty signee. He's no better than what we had last season before they threw Austin Davis under the bus with a lot of late runs before being jetissoned. And he's a roster spot for a team chock full of needs.

[Sea Dog 23]

It would be hysterical if it wasn’t so pathetic.  In addition to Rodriguez on Wed. Sox traded with Pirates for an INF/OF Hoy Park. hit .212 for Pitt in 2022, in 23 games 51 PA ( former NYY minor leaguer). Takes a 40 man slot. Boston traded a pitcher named Lobo in the Dominican SL.

Then Sox signed a FA named Crook (I kid you not) for AAA depth to play OF.  In the Cubs organization last year.

Signing out for now. Hope you guys have a pleasant Thanksgiving day.

[elktonnick]

One must conclude that Bloom is making these moves just to look busy.

[MongoLikeSox]

It would be hysterical if it wasn’t so pathetic.  In addition to Rodriguez on Wed. Sox traded with Pirates for an INF/OF Hoy Park. hit .212 for Pitt in 2022, in 23 games 51 PA ( former NYY minor leaguer). Takes a 40 man slot. Boston traded a pitcher named Lobo in the Dominican SL.

Then Sox signed a FA named Crook (I kid you not) for AAA depth to play OF.  In the Cubs organization last year.

Signing out for now. Hope you guys have a pleasant Thanksgiving day.

Holy crap!!! That guy hit .225 in AAA with - get this - 99 K's in 316 AB's. Ouch!!! He did draw a boat load of walks and he's got some pop. That pop will be wasted because he's a not very big LH batter.

It's obvious now what they're doing. Kids got some pop. He's a 2b'man. He walks a lot. They retained Abreau instead of leaving him unprotected. They're rededicating themselves to on base percentage. This might be part of our XB replacement therapy.

[SeaBeachFred]

Let's just call it what it is----a disgusting and sickening display of malfeasance by and incompetent buffoon who not only is a crappy judge of talent but who thinks he can put together a solid team by taking the garbage off of other teams and pretending that a new venue is all the need to perform feats of daring and greatness.  Is Bloom as useless as I believe or is John Henry holding the puppet strings behind the wall?

[longgame]

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving, thanks for the holiday wishes, Fred.

Bloom better have some hidden tricks up his sleeve because it gets uglier by the day.  My buddy the Mets fan called me yesterday to wish me a happy Thanksgiving and then said "Joely Rodriguez" and started laughing hysterically.  It's a sad day when Mets fans can laugh at Red Sox fans. 

What do you guys think of Bellinger.  I think he has lots of upside, it's only one year, but the downside is the Sox can't afford another swing and miss.  He could be the answer or just another anchor.  Still wonder what they plan to do with Hosmer as he could possibly give some lift but seems a shell of the player he was in KC.  The Sox are in a tough position, they need to hit on every move or risk being run out of town with pitchforks. 

I hope this "Crook" guy can at least steal bases! 

[Sea Dog 23]

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving, thanks for the holiday wishes, Fred.

Bloom better have some hidden tricks up his sleeve because it gets uglier by the day.  My buddy the Mets fan called me yesterday to wish me a happy Thanksgiving and then said "Joely Rodriguez" and started laughing hysterically.  It's a sad day when Mets fans can laugh at Red Sox fans. 

What do you guys think of Bellinger.  I think he has lots of upside, it's only one year, but the downside is the Sox can't afford another swing and miss.  He could be the answer or just another anchor.  Still wonder what they plan to do with Hosmer as he could possibly give some lift but seems a shell of the player he was in KC.  The Sox are in a tough position, they need to hit on every move or risk being run out of town with pitchforks. 

I hope this "Crook" guy can at least steal bases!

Ted, I’ve seen some plausible explanations for two of the low end signings.  “They are housecleaning moves to address filling the Worcester roster, which was reduced by several DFAs.” 

However the Rodriguez guy was signed to a $2 mil deal.  That displays a downward trend for the bullpen â€" in 2021 Ottavino at $10m, in 2022 Deekman and Straub at $7 and $3.  Now that looks like bargain hunting, and that’s bad if you’re having to play Rays/Jays, not to mention the buzz saws in NY and Houston.

[SeaBeachFred]

One must conclude that Bloom is making these moves just to look busy.

I think most of us thing of it that way Elk, but how can any of us be fooled.  He has signed three duds pure and simple, not of whom look able to help us positive in any way---dumpster diving at its best.  Either Bloom is even dumber and more worthless than even we think or Henry is once again holding up the flow of money for either a pleasant surprise that will make him look good or is going to tell us this is a bridge season.  If this is true the only bridge worth seeing is the one he and Bloom jump off.

[Sea Dog 23]

Ah-ha, the “interest” mode this weekend. In another year I would say Kenley Jansen would be a big jump from the Rodriguez types.  But he is now 36 yo, and he seemed to not be a high leverage choice out of the pen for Atlanta in the NLDS.


Boston Strong
@BostonStrong_34
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Per source, the Red Sox are showing interest in closer Kenley Jansen. They also showed interest last season before he signed with the Braves.



For Braves in ‘22 a 3.38 era off of a 2.22 at LA in ‘21.

[MongoLikeSox]

Well, Jansen would be an improvement in that there would be SOME successful save bids. 7 blown with 41 saves. 3.38 ERA, though. Some of them gonna get hairy.

[MongoLikeSox]

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving, thanks for the holiday wishes, Fred.

Bloom better have some hidden tricks up his sleeve because it gets uglier by the day.  My buddy the Mets fan called me yesterday to wish me a happy Thanksgiving and then said "Joely Rodriguez" and started laughing hysterically.  It's a sad day when Mets fans can laugh at Red Sox fans. 

What do you guys think of Bellinger.  I think he has lots of upside, it's only one year, but the downside is the Sox can't afford another swing and miss.  He could be the answer or just another anchor.  Still wonder what they plan to do with Hosmer as he could possibly give some lift but seems a shell of the player he was in KC.  The Sox are in a tough position, they need to hit on every move or risk being run out of town with pitchforks. 

I hope this "Crook" guy can at least steal bases!

I've been thinking of this Bellinger situation a bit. Everybody knows his game. He came onto the scene with that massive swing and hit big as in MVP big. He lost it and looked downright silly at the plate with 150K's in 144 games. I saw him against playoff caliber pitching this past post season and was in awe at how bad he sold out on breaking balls. Then it all made sense. GG caliber glove and no bat. JBJ. We been down that road. 

If XB flies the coop and we overpay for this reclamation project per our current MO, would Bellinger use Fenway as JBJ did this past season? The next question will apply to every lefty out there. How much of his batting average will come back with the shift being gone? Adding a hit a week with last season's numbers and he's a .260 hitter. Two hits a month turns into .235. Do the strikeouts go down because he knows he can get some base hits now? IF he uses the Monster to make up for the bigger Right Field, he could easily be a 20HR, .240 hitter with strong CF defense.

Now we add him to the lineup of big swingers. In no particular order and assuming 1b/DH sporting our 1b tandem most of the time, he would join Verdugo, Story, Devers, Hosmer, Casas and Kike. (LF and C still TBD in that scenario)  That's a lot of big huge swings and high strike out rates in there so far. Modern baseball. ugh!

[SeaBeachFred]

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving, thanks for the holiday wishes, Fred.

Bloom better have some hidden tricks up his sleeve because it gets uglier by the day.  My buddy the Mets fan called me yesterday to wish me a happy Thanksgiving and then said "Joely Rodriguez" and started laughing hysterically.  It's a sad day when Mets fans can laugh at Red Sox fans. 

What do you guys think of Bellinger.  I think he has lots of upside, it's only one year, but the downside is the Sox can't afford another swing and miss.  He could be the answer or just another anchor.  Still wonder what they plan to do with Hosmer as he could possibly give some lift but seems a shell of the player he was in KC.  The Sox are in a tough position, they need to hit on every move or risk being run out of town with pitchforks. 

I hope this "Crook" guy can at least steal bases!

I've been thinking of this Bellinger situation a bit. Everybody knows his game. He came onto the scene with that massive swing and hit big as in MVP big. He lost it and looked downright silly at the plate with 150K's in 144 games. I saw him against playoff caliber pitching this past post season and was in awe at how bad he sold out on breaking balls. Then it all made sense. GG caliber glove and no bat. JBJ. We been down that road. 

If XB flies the coop and we overpay for this reclamation project per our current MO, would Bellinger use Fenway as JBJ did this past season? The next question will apply to every lefty out there. How much of his batting average will come back with the shift being gone? Adding a hit a week with last season's numbers and he's a .260 hitter. Two hits a month turns into .235. Do the strikeouts go down because he knows he can get some base hits now? IF he uses the Monster to make up for the bigger Right Field, he could easily be a 20HR, .240 hitter with strong CF defense.

Now we add him to the lineup of big swingers. In no particular order and assuming 1b/DH sporting our 1b tandem most of the time, he would join Verdugo, Story, Devers, Hosmer, Casas and Kike. (LF and C still TBD in that scenario)  That's a lot of big huge swings and high strike out rates in there so far. Modern baseball. ugh!

And too damn left handed for my money.  We need some RH power for the short porch over in Green Monster territory.