moonslav59

It does help that being 2 games over .500 makes you 1 game behind the 9th best record in MLB, but I'm with you. We have a chance. To me, this team is showing heart and soul, along with good old fashioned grit.

Staff ERAs in order of most IP 1.94 Houck (10 starts) 2.17 Crawford (10 starts) 4.04 Bello (I hope he can move towards 3.25) 2.86 Criswell (Will match Bello's 8 starts next game) 3.04 Pivetta (5 GS) 3.12 Slaten (17 games, almost all of them good) 3.33 Wink (In AAA getting his act together) 4.98 Anderson (Had one really bad game) 0.89 Bernardino (Proving he was no 2023 fluke) 2.21 Weissert (Looking like a nice addition) 3.26 Martin (Really in a groove, now.) 1.96 Whitlock (On the shelf, again) 3.71 Booser (Storybook history) 3.24 Jansen (17 IP and not overtaxed) 1.98 Kelly (10 BBs in 14 IP needs fixing) Not counting Whitlock, that's a pretty nice group of 14 pitchers, going forward.

Something about watching this game really made me happy. It was more than just watching 8 runs score, and Bello getting his act together, after a bad pitch. It was more than just watching an errorless games that also had some very nice defensive plays made by an improving defense. It was more than just watching our pen come through, despite not seeming to have their best stuff. It was watching a full team effort, situational hitting and going with the pitch, and players coming through when we needed it. It wasn't just one guy out there. It was a TEAM! Now, if we could just bottled this up and open it up, every game, going forward.

The Cora-Bailey-Breslow combo seems to have gelled, nicely. We still have a ways to go, but the future looks brighter to those who allow some light to come in.

Certainly, developing our own pitchers, especially starters is a great way to build up a staff. We can see the boost Crawford, Houck and Bello have given this team and its future. We also acquired Pivetta, Wink and Whitlock, along with others, who have helps, but are not ace-types. You set the bar at 1.5 years, and examples were given for 2 year guys being traded just months ago. Trades for proven, young or younger pitchers followed by extensions are numerous, as well. It is still a viable way to add a solid SP'er to a staff; it's just not been the Sox way since Nate (.5 yrs and re-signed,) Porcello (1 yr and extended 4 more,) and Sale (3 years and extended for 5 more.) Sometimes, trade & extensions come in below FA market value, which might be something JH would prefer over another David Price situation. There are several ways to add pitching. DD and Bloom ended up providing a better staff than many of us imagined possible, of course with the help of Bailey and Brez. No doubt, our farm still looks pretty weak, when it comes to pitching, but we are strong enough and deep enough, there, to provide players and prospects to trade. Others have done it. It has gotten harder, as you have pointed out, but it is not impossible, and it is still happening, every winter.

We have a pretty nice foundation or young and or controllable players at every position, along with strong or promising depth at most. Our staff has some key pitchers on their last year, and we will need to add there to take the next step forward, but the core looks very promising, to me.

Hey, we clawed back to within a half game of MIN for the last WC slot. (Cue: It's too early...) -5.5 from KCR -4.5 from BAL -0.5 from MIN Whodathunk we'd see 3 ALC teams in the top 6. We have the 12th best record in MLB and are 1 game behind a tie for 9th best. The Yanks now have the best ERA in MLB, but we are still under 3.00: 2.92 NYY 2.99 BOS 3.17 PHI 3.23 LAD 3.28 CLE 3.32 BAL 3.33 ATL 3.40 KCR We are 12th in runs scored (1 behind TEX and 4 behind BAL for top 10.) Out of the top teams in least amount of earned runs allowed, here are the differentials between ERs and Runs allowed: 37 BOS 23 PHI 20 NYY & BAL 16 ATL 15 CLE 14 LAD 6 KCR All I can say is "WOW!"

The Price deal might have been a failure, but it did lead to a ring in 2018. Maybe we win without him- maybe not. I'm not saying it was a good deal, but the time did come after we spent.

Lopez pitched 5 seasons with MIA before being traded with 2 years remaining, which is more than the 1.5 you set. Cease pitched 5 seasons with the CWS and was traded with 2 years remaining. It's not as rare as it might seem. There are also many examples of trading for an established and somewhat young SP'er and extending them- sometimes at a little less than FA market money, which might someday appeal to JH & Co. The Sox have a long history of trading for an ace and extending them. Every ring we have this century was shortly after acquiring an ace-type pitcher or two. It could happen, again, but I am not going to predict or expect it.

Big sweep. Group effort.

Luis Tiant was the greatest baserunner the Sox have ever had.

I love speed, but oppo hits and HRs with men on base is pretty damn good, too!

Lopez had 2 full seasons on arbs. Cease had 2 seasons left Castillo had 1.3 seasons left. It does happen, as do extensions. We traded for Pedro & extended. Schilling and extended. Beckett and extended. Sale & extended. Porcello & extended. Nate & extended.

Even our outs look nice.

Ref is killing RH'ers, this year. He's earned a FT job. (DH and LF when Rafaela plays SS)

How about Luis Castillo, Pablo Lopez, Dylan Cease and Burnes?

They can't even all get together and agree on the same lies.

We paid $17M and got a bum in Grissom, so what would be expected by paying the full contract?

Within 8 years or so, we also got Sale, ERod, Nate, Kimbrell & Porcello by trade. And, lessers like Kelly, Ottavino, Pom, Wright & Hembree.

The FO said a lot of things.

The best rotation ERA- since at least 1967: 64 BOS 2024 and PHI 2024 (in progress) 70 LAD 2022 71 CHC '16, CLE '20 72 LAD '21 73 ATL '98, LAD '19, CIN '20, ATL '97 SOX Best 2024 (64) 2002 (77) Pedro 2.26, Lowe 2.58, Wake 2.81, Burkett 4.53, Castillo 5.07, Fossum 3.46 1990 (81) Clemens 1.93, Boddicker 3.36, 3.38 Bolton, 3.97 Kiecker, 4.00 Harris 1999 (82) Pedro 2.07, Saberhagen 2.95, 4.12 Rapp, Rose 4.87, Portugal 5.51 1993 (84) Sele 2.74, 3.26 Darwin, 3.14 Viola, 4.46 Clemens, Dopson 4.97, Quantrill 3.91 2018 (85) Sale 2.11, Price 3.58, ERod 3.82, Nate 3.33, Porcello 4.28, Johnson 4.17 1986 (86) Clemens 2.48, Hurst 2.99, 3.78 Boyd, 3.80 Seaver, Nipper 5.38 1978 (87) Eckersley 2.99, Tiant 3.31, Lee 3.46, Wright 3.57, Torrez 3.96 (notin has a good point) 1992 (88) 2017, 1979, 2008 (89) 1973, 2000, 2007 (90) 2004, 1995 (91) 2013, 1998, 1994 (92) I like the 2002 and 1986 rotations, a lot. To me, 2018 was the best. The 2004 one was great, but Wake was at 4.87 that year, and Lowe was at 5.42. Best fWAR rotations: 1990 (20.6) 2002 (19.9) 1999 (19.7) 2004 (18.2) 1992 (18.1) 2003 (17.7)

Nothing but players...LOL.

There was a good chance Grissom would have more value in 2024 than Sale. While I do think the trade was more about 5 years tan 2024, there was a significant chance Grissom would out fWAR Sale in '24... maybe even 50-50.

Grissom is your McGuire for 2024.

There was also concern that even if he was able to stay healthy for a full season, how close could he come to the great Sale of 2018 and before? He had 25 starts in 2019 and 20 in 2023. Between, he had 11 in 3 total seasons. That's 56 in 5 seasons, or about 11 per season. 2019-2023: 4.16 ERA (114 ERA+) 3.56 FIP/1.14 WHIP This is pretty good, but not close to vintage Sale. 2010-2018: 2.89 ERA (144 ERA+) 2.86 FIP/1.03 WHIP Even better from 2014-2018: 2.89 (145 ERA+) 2.69/0.99 Surely, I'd take the 2019-2023 Sale for 28-33 starts in 2024, if I knew he'd have given us even that. I'm not sure I'd take that over the promise of 5 years of Grissom, but it was a close call, even assuming he'd go 28-33 starts. The fact that he is doing great, and Grissom is sucking doesn't change the ideas of the past winter. It was a tough trade to make. I disliked it, at first. I like it less now, than I did on opening day, but this deal's grade is still in the solid "incomplete" category.