Red Sox's Chaim Bloom Fleeced Multiple Teams At Last Season's Trade Deadline

[MongoLikeSox]

Bloom trades Greg Allen to Yanks in exchange for cash and pitcher Diego Hernandez from the Dominican Summer League.  DHern was 48-14 Ks to BBs, 2.10 era. 18 yo. He's a few years away from any impact in the minor leagues.

The second Red Sox / Yankees trade takes on a whole new level of surprising and interesting news. This is all because the Yankees DFA'd Aaron Hicks. They're eating about $25M to do so, too. This is the same Yankees club that waited forever for Ellsbury to never recover. Hard times for Hicks.

[Sea Dog 23]

Sox make some more moves for pitching.  Whitlock will be activated as a starter in time to pitch in the weekend series at Arizona.  Kluber is headed to the bullpen to join Pivetta and the others.  Houck will keep his spot in the rotation.  In 9 starts he has a brutal 6.26 era and a 1,89 K to BB ratio.

[MongoLikeSox]

Sox make some more moves for pitching.  Whitlock will be activated as a starter in time to pitch in the weekend series at Arizona.  Kluber is headed to the bullpen to join Pivetta and the others.  Houck will keep his spot in the rotation.  In 9 starts he has a brutal 6.26 era and a 1,89 K to BB ratio.

And some Pitcher's arm killing. This is from Yesterday on Bleier. "Bleier, who has struggled in his first season with the Red Sox, has been battling some discomfort in his shoulder since throwing 44 pitches in an outing against the Mariners on May 15. The Red Sox hope that shutting him down for a couple of weeks will fix the issue. " I remember that game. I thought he was getting DFA'd. Nope. Just taking one for the team.

[Sea Dog 23]

Sox have promoted their #1 prospect (#3 in MLB) to AA  Portland.  Starts there on Tuesday.
He got off to a rough start in first month of A ball. Since 4/15 he's at .365/.434/.595, a 171 wRC+, with a 18% K rate and 10% BB rate. 

The gurus show him prospected to MLB by 2025.

[MongoLikeSox]

I can't imagine this promotion happening in a silo. Portland is a mess of prospect management happening as we speak. Lugo has gotten screwed with to no end. Koss is about to see the same unless something happens.  Lugo has just turned 22 and was our #13 prospect. What? He didn't take to an out of position part time role? Well, gooollllll-leeeeeee!

The Mayer promotion may have happened when he was hot, but he hurt his shoulder something like a day after an article on the Red Sox MLB site and missed a week after that. It took a few more days to get back on track once he got back.

Some players have smashed into a wall offensively after getting promoted to Portland. I hope this does not happen for Mayer for obvious reasons. Kavadas and Binelas K-rates are sitting just a hair below 50%. This is all with some current history of screwing with other prospects' swings going straight up to Yoshida in Boston. 

So, Rafaela, York, Kavadas, Hickey and now Mayer on the same team. That's your middle of the field defense and Casas insurance/DH for 6+ years if their plans work out. They've been playing their primary positions almost exclusively this season. Rafaela getting a small handful of games at SS.

And why do they promote a pitcher after his first bad start of the year? That's what happened to Drohan this month. He has BOMBED in AAA, and now joins two other lefties who have bombed going to AAA. Hmmmmm, maybe the pitching coach or organizational approach, or does Portland have a gawd-awful batter's eye?

[MongoLikeSox]

I watched some of that Portland game last night before the Red Sox came on. My first time seeing Meidroth field. He was very smooth and definitive with a strong arm on a semi-charging play at 3B. Also hit the cover off the ball on a loud out. Half the team hit the ball hard last night despite only 3 runs.

Binelas needs something different - anything. He whiffed on 92-94 MPH cheese in the zone. Kavadas had another bad night with 3K's too, but it didn't look as bad as Binelas did at the plate.

So this is the AA team if they are all starting tonight.
C - Hickey
1B - Kavadas
2B - Yorke
SS - Mayer
3B - Meidroth
LF - Sikes
CF - Rafaela
RF - Rosier
DH - Binelas

By my count, that's our top prospect at the C, 1B, 2B, SS and CF positions. I suspect Meidroth will leap frog Blaze Jordan for top 3B rank status. The corners are doing OK, too. At least at the plate. Sikes is only hitting .243, but has 20 SB already. Rosier recovered from being tinkered with by the Sox Player Development staff and is now hitting 302 with 22 SB. This does not include our #13 prospect, Mathew Lugo, who's getting shafted big time this season.

MiLB TV is free for MLB subscribers. It's a fun team to watch when the big club is off.

 
 

[Sea Dog 23]

The Sox have reached a tipping point.  In the rotation Sale is on the shelf - - again.  Pivetta and Kluber are out in the pen.  There are a few incremental pieces left for picking.

One is Matt Dermody, who is being called up from WooBall to pitch Thursday.  I can't remember if he is the blacksmith or the plumber in a former life.   Interesting times for Sox and Sox fan faithful.

[MongoLikeSox]

As a baseball fan, I cannot help but root for Demody. He turns 33 next month and has been AL, NL, all the Minor League levels, NCAA, Cape Cod, Dominican Winter, Korean, Japan and Independent League ball. Keeping it going.

It gets more interesting. He was a Starter in college. Went to the Pen part time for 2 years and then full time for 7 years. That wasn't going so well, so off to Korea he goes and becomes a Starter. That didn't go all that well, but he finds himself back in AAA splitting time between the pen and rotation for the Cubs. Made it back to MLB last year for 1 inning in which he gave up two solo HRs.

And now we got him. 4.54 ERA. Opponents batting .284. Throws 68% strikes. What he does do is throw Quality Starts. 6 of his 8 starts this year have been QS's. His most recent start stunk to high hell, but the one before notched 11 strikeouts.

It may not be pretty, but I'm rooting for him. 

[Sea Dog 23]

Dermody up for a cup of coffee and then DFA'd.  He's making way for Adam Duvall, who is being activated.  Not sure if he will play this weekend in NY.

More desperate moves --  The Red Sox are poised to select the contract of left-hander reliever Joe Jacques from AAA prior to this evening’s game against the Yankees, per Joel Sherman of the New York Post. The club will need to clear space on both the active and 40-man rosters to accommodate Jacques.

While it had previously been reported that the club plans to designate Matt Dermody for assignment today, that 40-man and active roster spot appears set to go to outfielder Adam Duvall, meaning an additional move will be needed to make room for Jacques. Alex Speier of the Boston Globe speculated last night that right-hander Bryan Mata, who has been on the injured list in Triple-A for the past month and does not appear close to a return, could be transferred to the 60-Day IL to clear a 40-man roster spot for another pitcher, though it certainly remains possible the Red Sox decide to go a different route in clearing space for Jacques.

[MongoLikeSox]

Yeah, we all kind of held our breath on that one to no avail. Sale got the 60-day spot. friggin' groovy. Not surprising, but just friggin groovy.

I think Dermody could have filled that #6-#7 starter role very easily coming in and out of Worcester as needed. I hate we could not make that work. Too many dumpster projects, which is what Dermody was part of anyhow. I guess they think Kluber or Pivetta will regain their - ah hell, I can't even think of the word. It ain't prominence.

Valdez down to Worcester where he belongs. If they had coaches and player development staff to help kids with learning fielding, perhaps they should show clips of Wade Boggs progression at 3B over the years. At least let the kid know it's possible to be a good fielder despite looking like he has brick hands. He turned his hitting around and he's still a young man.

[Sea Dog 23]

With Sale out until at least August, there are rumblings that a team with the looks of a Boston team missing the playoffs , will be sellers at the deadline.  Reports of players who would be offered --- Turner, Kike', Paxton, and Jansen. For one  Mets and Phillies are in dire need of bullpen help.

[longgame]

They keep throwing stuff like it will stick and it doesn’t matter whether it does or not.  Not sure why they gave up on Dermody and then pull in another pitcher.
Of those names you mention, Tuner, Jansen and Kike would be a hell of an admission by Bloom.  Paxton has shown good upside, but if he recovers then he wouldn’t fit the profile of get-someone-cheap-while-injured “strategy”.

[MongoLikeSox]

I, too, was confused on the Dermody thing. It looked like his outings in AAA were consistent and usually 6 innings. He'll give up some hits, but limited damage. We've had worse depth starters.
 

[Sea Dog 23]

I, too, was confused on the Dermody thing. It looked like his outings in AAA were consistent and usually 6 innings. He'll give up some hits, but limited damage. We've had worse depth starters.

Well, the feedback on Dermody from the Boston press and fanbase was not pretty.  The embarrasing Tweet from two years ago just did him in, and the Sox threw him under the bus.  That's just my opionin

[MongoLikeSox]

I, too, was confused on the Dermody thing. It looked like his outings in AAA were consistent and usually 6 innings. He'll give up some hits, but limited damage. We've had worse depth starters.

Well, the feedback on Dermody from the Boston press and fanbase was not pretty.  The embarrasing Tweet from two years ago just did him in, and the Sox threw him under the bus.  That's just my opionin

Oh, my!  Always something with this team. I googled it to find out what the scoop was. I see Toronto cut a pitcher for something similar.

Edit: After all that, nobody claims him and he stays with the organization for a trip back down to Worcester. Tapia also given his release. I can't believe nobody wanted Tapia. He should land somewhere.