moonslav59

Gotta stop this slide, or it will be too late, early, this year.

Woo rained out. POR won 2-1 Penrod 6IP, 1H, 1 ER, 3BB, 10K Anthony 1-2 w 2BB GRE lost 6-3 Mata pitched 2 innings (4H + 1BB + 0K) K Campbell 2-4

Back to square one. Full circle.

I'm all for riding the hot hands, in times like these. He's got speed, too. His D is worse than Rafaela and Romy at SS, though.

HRs by Devers in 2024 1 put the Sox ahead 2-0 (man on) v SEA in 6-4 win on opening day. Useless? No. 2 Sox ahead 1-0, he hit a solo homer in a 12-2 win v LAA. Useless? It did not seem so, at teh time. 3 Sox up 2-0 v CLE, he hits a solo HR in 8-0 win. Useless? Maybe? Probably? 4 Up 7-2 v, MIN Devers hits a nrea meaningless HR. Sox win 9-2. 4 in last 4 games... 5 Down 4-2 v TBR, he jacks a solo blast in the 6th to make it down 4-3, we lost. To me, not useless. 6 Down 1-0 to TBR, his solo homer tied it 1-1. We lost 7-5. Not really a useless homer, despite losing by 2. 7 Down 3-2, his solo homer tied it. We ended up losing 10-6. 8 Today's homer tied it. Sure, we wish he homered more often with men on base, but most of his homers were not useless or meaningless, when hit.

Another useless solo homer. It tied the game, but Devers really sucks when we need it.

Bring us some Thunder luck!!!

He is 1 run from being 3rd in runs scored on the team. Somebody has to be on base for others to get RBIs. No doubt, Devers is lagging on producing runs, so far this year. There is no denying it. I just don't buy into the idea that anyone should be defined by what they've done in a 34 game stretch, where he was playing hurt for part of it. (Again, not an excuse- he has sucked at producing runs.) RBI + Runs- HRs: 42 Duran (speed helps w runs scored) 37 Rafaela 32 O'Neill 31 Abreu (horrible in HL) 30 Devers 22 Wong 17 McGuire

A well thought out post. We also have to consider that Devers is doing this with very little support around him in the line-up. Teams are thinking, "Let anyone else beat us but Devers." I know that is not an excuse. He has sucked, when it counts, this year, and he's not being walked all that often in high leverage PAs. (2 BBs in 31 PAs) Also, only 31 PAs in HL is not a lot, nor a proper sample size to make definitive judgments about anyone. In 2023, he hit .941 in high leverage (21 BBs in 122 PAs) 6 HRs and 30 RBI. 30% of his RBI came in HL. Only 18.5% of his PAs were HL! How is this being a choke? (Not that anyone called him that.) The whole team is crappying out on O. Only 3 hitters are doing well in HL PAs. Devers is not one of them. (He is 4th best, but far behind them. Let's see how he does from PA # 32 to over 90 in HL situations, this year. I like having Devrs up in clutch situations, despite his poor 31 PAs, this year.

As of now, the ALE teams place like this: 1. NYY 2. BAL 7. TBR 10, BOS T11 TOR (BOS & TOR flirting with being in the bottom 5) Last year (nobody below #9): 1. BAL 2. TBR 5. TOR 8, NYY 9. BOS 2022 (Nobody below #9) 2. NYY 4. TOR 6. TBR 7. BAL 9. BOS 2021 (just 1 below #5) 1. TBR 4. BOS 4. NYY 5. TOR 15. BAL

I don't think losing the DH by having to move Wong from DH to C, late in a game, is such a big deal. If the RP'er comes to bat, we can PH Cooper or Smith then, and let them "get going" that way. Wong and Ref are hot: play them everyday.

Hindsight is making them look wrong, and not just with injuries. Look at performances in both roles: The sample sizes by IP is pretty close (133 as RP/109 as SP) 2.65 ERA RP (.763 OPS Against) 4.29 ERA SP (.632 OPS Against) To be fair, most pitchers have better numbers in relief, even some good starters. Crawford career: 3.35 RP (.592) 4.39 SP (.716) Nobody wants him in the pen, anymore. Same with Houck: 2.68 RP (.570) 3.72 SP (.649) Pivetta 4.19 RP (.707) 4.90 SP (.773)

When we acquired Smith and Cooper, did we really think they'd both be starting in nearly every game? With Wong and Ref hitting so well, why not DH them, when they are not playing catcher or LF? Ref is even reversing his splits, this year. 1.139 v R (.637 career) .747 v L (.756 career) He has DH'd twice, this year. Wong has a significant career reverse split: .775 v R .599 v L Wong in 2024 .904 v R 1.005 v L Wong has DH'd twice, this year. Cooper has started 4 games at DH. Smith has started 4 games at DH.

Certainly, the Rays, Sox and Jays don't instill much fear in their opponents, anymore. The ALE is more top heavy than solid from 1 to 4 or 5..

You don't have a .955 OPS in the playoffs by not being clutch. Devers has 8 playoff HRs in 102 PAs (89 ABs) That is like hitting 50 HRs in 650 PAs with over 160 RBIs. Very short memories for some.

Agreed, but this has nothing to do with how good Devers is. This guy has had some mammoth hits for the Sox, some as clutch as they get. He has not been clutch in his 34 games, this year, and it seems this is what defines him, to some.

Our rotation is starting to look human, just as the bats seem to be waking up in the last 2 days. The rotation still has a 2,76 ERA, despite allowing so many runs, recently. They are still being plagued by too many unearned runs, but that is what it is. ERAs as SP/Opener Only: 0.00 Bernardino (2GS/3IP) 1.69 Wink (3GS/10.2 IP) 1.96 Whitlock (4 GS/18.1 IP) 3.48 Pivetta (4/20.2) 27.00 Anderson (1/1.2) The more or less regulars: 2.17 Houck (9/58) 2.24 Crawford (9/52.1) 2.67 Criswell (6/27). 3.96 Bello (7/36.1)

Certainly, Criswell could easily have just been a flash in the pan for a few starts. I hope he isn't, but we all know he might be. Whitlock gave us two very nice seasons- both with over 73 IP, mostly in relief. 2.73 ERA 3.07 FIP 1.06 WHIP He started off this season, very well. 1.96 ERA in 4 starts (3.29 FIP/1.15 WHIP) He had one bad season (2023) and has battled injuries since being made a starter. I know you are not writing him off, and in many ways, a pitcher is only as good as he is right now, and right now, he's not pitching at all, but this guy has nasty stuff. He's a good pitcher, who just can't stay healthy. Sounds like a typical Sox pitcher, of late.

15 HRs with Men on Base (777 PAs) 0 Grand Slams 3 Three Run HRs 12 Two runs HRs 31 Solo shots (944 paS) .391 SLG Men on Base .411 SLG bases empty (pretty close) The team has a .718 OPS .702 Men on Base .678 RISP, but .777 RISP w 2 outs Here has been the killer: .515 Late & Close .532 High Leverage On High Leverage: it's feast or famine even within that .532 number: .889 Duran .875 O'Neill (a guy who is now starting to be bashed) .862 Refsnyder Then... .635 Devers (100 points higher than the team aaverage) .595 Valdez (in AAA) .567 McGuire .483 Wong (the biggest differential between overall and High Leverage) .469 Rafaela (most PAs in High Leverage) .095 Abreu (not a typo!) 6th in PAs in HL Others not in the top 9 in PAs in HL: .808 Smith .500 DHam .462 Yoshida .382 Cooper .333 Romy .277 Casas .000 Grissom

The Rays were not playing very well, when we faced them. Neither were the Cards. There is no saying "We lost to some good teams" on these recent losses. These are games we needed to win. These are games we need to win. Tonight is a game we need to win.

Devers has had a ton of big and clutch hits over his career. Memories are short, for some. He has not been "clutch," so far this year, but even some of his solo shots have tied game, or got us within striking range. They were not all useless. Here are the large sample size numbers: career 3,765 PAs for the 27 year old, who has just reached prime: .855 Career overall OPS (.842 home/.892 away shows that Fenway has not helped him.) .870 Men on Base (better than overall) .850 bases loaded (about the same) .905 RISP (better than overall) .892 RISP w 2 outs (better than overall) .876 High Leverage (Better than overall) .795 Low Leverage Can we stop with the "not clutch" talk? Is someone really being judge by a 34 game sample size? Is someone really being judged more harshly, because we didn't keep Betts, 4 years ago? It looks like the answer is yes, for some. Not me. Sure, I wish we kept Betts. I suggested we offer him $400M/14, if that's what it took. Sure, I wish we extended Bogey way before that last season with us. Sure, I wanted us to lock up Devers "forevers," and I'm still glad we did. We'd be much worse off without him, and we all know we could not have counted on JH to spend his money on others.

I just don't get the dislike for Devers. He's like a big teddy bear who loves playing the game. Like Manny without all the drama.

Falling below .500 sucks, bigtime. It's been a while, and hopefully tomorrow we get back to .500. We are still 2 up on TOR, but that offers very little solace, to me. We are 2.5 from the last WC slot, but we'd have to pass 4 teams to be in that seat.. 24-24-20 MIN (3rd slot) 24-22 TBR -1.0 (We had a shot at keeping them in the mirror and blew it.) 23-23 TEX -2.0 (Could be harder to pass than MIN & TBR) 22-22 DET -2.0 (Might be the only team we can pass by season's end.) 22-23 BOS -2.5 20-25 HOU -4.5 (Won 5 in a row, before tonight's loss.) 19-24 TOR -4.5 (I'm thinking they finish 5th in the ALE.)

Agreed. Many very good players go through stretches where they look horrible vs breaking balls, especially after missing time. I'm not saying I am not concerned, but this sample size is still small.

Crawford needs to stop the bleeding. The bats seem to be waking up, a little as the staff falters a bit. We need to put it all together. Go SOX!