He was an 850 OPS guy over a full season. If he can get over this injury and back to 100%, he could get back there at some point. I don't think many of us saw '23 as a highwater mark.
Conrad Cason had TJS
Current prospects out due to TJS:
Luis Perales
Alvaro Mejias
Matt Donlan
Cade Feeney
Matt Duffy
Cole Tolbert
Yordanny Monegro
Nicholas Judice
Trennor O'Donnell
Zach Fogell
Conrad Cason
🦾
Some evaluators really, really like him. Some are unimpressed. He's had an up and down year so far. He's young and holding his own in High A. He has a clear path to be some sort of MLBer.
Sox will typically be 6th - 12th place just because of the size of Fenway. If they are 6 or 7, it's because attendance at larger ballparks is down. Even when they were really packing it in, they were still 8th or 9th almost every season. Attendance has been a little slow to rebound since COVID and that's due to high prices combined with mediocre baseball and lack of recognizable players to the general public. Maybe it also just won't get back to the highs of 04-19 again?
That's what I was getting at with the last few lines and comparing him to Buehler. Sox should hit him around tonight. I think people see his name and remember the pitcher than he used to be, not what he is.
Why compare it to 2018? Attendance is up from last season's 32,839. The is on track to be the highest attended season since 2019 when they averaged 35,994. This year's attendance is close to 2003's, but is dwarfed by every year from 04-19.
Can't really put much stock into road attendance numbers as other teams fluctuate significantly year to year and the Sox visit different NL parks each season.
Sandy Alcantara isn't very good anymore. He walks too many guys and can't strike anybody out anymore. He gives up a lot of loud contact and doesn't miss bats. With how well the Sox play at home, they should beat the Marlins up pretty good today. He's basically the Marlins' version of Buehler at this point. He could throw a gem, but most likely it's a little ugly.