September 15, 2022
This story is taken from Ian Browne’s Red Sox Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter click here. and SUBSCRIBE Get it in your inbox regularly .
When the Yankees This week’s two-game series when the team came to Fenway Park was put on the calendar as soon as the schedule came out, a reminder to many Red Sox fans.
Of course, these games will be against the Eastern Conference or at least wild card points list has an impact.
Sadly for the Red Sox, this season’s The performance was well below expectations, and the series only made sense for one team in the standings.
As Chief Baseball Officer Chaim Bloom in the previous bat Standing on the court during ball practice during Tuesday night’s game against the Yankees, he took some time to share with me his current thoughts on the club where he’s underperforming.
MLB.com: What does it feel like to know the last 19 games are not over? What does it mean?
Bloom:
It doesn’t feel good, nor when you open your eyes in the morning and wake up It’s a good feeling to come and know this and have the rankings flood your mind. But at the same time, I like the way our club continues to compete. There is a lot of value in doing this. Alex [Cora] and the staff make them play hard every day, and I’d be shocked if we don’t see that every day.
I believe you would rather look forward than backward right now. But looking back, is there anything that stands out to you, in terms of approach, that may have been off-target going into the 2022 season?
every season has classes. I think when you have a good season, sometimes it’s hard to learn the lesson. Obviously it’s easier when you don’t. I think the most important thing is to differentiate between injury, bad luck, the gods of baseball without your support, which does happen, and the different things we might have done. We’re definitely going to see things, and as we break them down more, [we’ll] feel like we should do it differently. Every season is like this. But they stand out when you’re not where you want to be.
The one you get criticized the most is the bullpen. The prevailing feeling is that not enough work was done to upgrade the “pen” before the season and no action was taken to increase the reliever ahead of the Aug. 2 trade deadline, and criticism from fans and the media has grown. Is this fair?
I think they are fair questions. Obviously, you look at the results, and I think they’re pretty fair questions. In some cases, there are fewer proven aspects of your team that can go either way. In this case, a lot of things are not going our way.
We have to see why this is happening and what else we can do What to get more out of these guys. I do think that, with the people we have in that group, there is an ability to achieve better results than what we got. Not everyone is able to achieve these results and we have to look at what we are doing as an employee, as an organization, to help our players be in a better position to be successful.
What do you think of the last 19 games?
You may see players deploy slightly differently. Just being realistic about the physical condition of the players and where we are in the standings, but the hard work, energy and competition every day in the majors is precious. It’s something you can really talk to people on this team, talk to Alex and his staff. There is value in bringing everything we have into the game every day. That’s the first thing I was looking for.
I’m sure we’ll see that. Other than that, I’m happy that there are a lot of players at the club who really have a lot to prove and they want to make a statement next year and they’ll have the opportunity to do that.
As far as we know over the years, along with Dustin Pedroia and other players, it would be foolish to evaluate top prospects based on their first month or two of stats in the majors. That said, when you watch Triston Casas get his feet wet, what are you looking for?
One of the things we expect to see and want to see is the quality of his shots. The other day, I heard Tony [Massarotti] call him Full-Count Casas on the radio. This is the hitter we know. The ability to play has always been there. You never know if this will translate to the highest level, and so far it has. If that’s the case, I think we’re going to see some really good things from this kid in the future.
We spent a lot of time last winter discussing what roles the club would use Tannerhawk and Garrett Whitlock in. They have been used as starters and backups at various times this season. It seems that this question remains unanswered, and it will be the talk of the winter again. Is that right?
Obviously, both of them have injury issues that wrinkle what we need to get our arms up first. We’ll see where this takes us. The good news is that we know these two guys will be major contributors to future wins, and we’re glad they’re in our foxholes.
We’ve all heard of “commitment” by now. Kikai Hernandez told the media after re-signing him earlier this month that you “promised” him the team would be better next season. Is there anything to add?
It’s all about making us build a really good team and have a really good season next season. I am very confident that we will do it.
