moonslav59

If our players quit because management didn't add strength to the team at the deadline, we had the wrong guys, anyway.

If Cora became available, this winter, there would be a long line of teams interviewing him.

Get it over with.

Most GMs take SSs. They are often the best player on the team and move off SS in the minors, many times. Pitchers are more risky, especially after the top 5 picks, but even top 5's have a worse track record than everyday players. Why insist on taking riskier players? Just trade for pitching. Now that Bloom is not here....

We have discussed how 6-7 are even worse. I would not be surprised, if he is in the first batch. I doubt anyone would trade for him, but maybe someone sees a tweak that might help. Of course, the most we might get is a far-away prospect with dubious hopes. It's his first arb year, right?

The team has stopped getting on base, so it's a real possibility. Currently, Devers ranks 17th in MLB RBIs at 98. It's interesting to note 3 ahead of him: 6. Betts 106 13. Schwarber 101 15. JD M 100 (Turner is at #21 with 96.)

I'm thinking Dalbec makes it through the first round of DFAs, as we add the Rule 5 guys, but once we get to signing FAs, he'll be DFA'd or part of a trade, if anyone wants him. He does seem like the typical AAAA player who will put up good to great numbers at AAA but never do well enough to stick with a big club. His defense is the final straw. Some might say it's the K's.

If the guy could just play half decent D, he might have gotten more or longer looks. The K's don't help. He certainly got some long looks, though. He's had some pretty long stretches of hitting well, but some long ones were bad, too. Seriously, though, if I told you a player started his career with 941 PAs and these numbers, in a vacuum, you might think he deserves another chance: per 650 PAs: .233 30 85 The .300 OBP sucks. The .453 SLG is pretty good. .752 is not good for a 1Bman, true, but many 1Bmen started with worse numbers and were given another chance. (Many did not, as well.) That being said, I can't see how the Sox can afford to give him another long look. Long stretches: .959 first 92 PAs of career (2020) .507 first 92 PAs of 2021 .866 last 361 PAs of 2021 (including 1.153 in 140 PAs) .550 first 147 PAs of 2022 .724 last 206 PAs of 2022 (including .765 in 125 PAs)

Here is an interesting comp: Remember when there was a lot of talk about having a "blackhole" or two in the line-up was a killer. Have a gander at this... 2018 .684 6 slot .667 7 slot .607 8 slot .704 9 slot 2023 Only one slot below .711... .712 6 slot .711 7 slot .718 8 slot .675 9 slot Not great numbers but better than 2018. Those first 5 slots sure made a big difference, along with better pitching and defense.

We'll still take a SS, even if he does.

Maybe the best Sox relief season since Uehara.

Dalbec has no trade value, if not, very little. With Yoshi at DH, Duvall departing and Dugo one year from free agency, I think Rosier can win a job, if he does well enough. Duran is no lock. Ref's numbers slipped. Rafaela and Abreu have not earned a FT slot, yet. Yes, there is a chance by mid season 2024, we see Rosier is squeezed, but we'll still need a 4th OF'er for 2025. (Castro is farther away.) I wonder how much trade value Hickey, Meidroth and I'll add guys like Jordan, Paulino and DHam. Probably, not much, as many teams are trying to make room for Rule 5's and promoted prospects of free agents to be.

I think you meant "Tim," but yes, cancer is a bitch.

...anyway, I think there is a bigger chance Cora gets promoted than fired.

Claiming every post ever made has been "perfect," then doubling down on the claim, kinda fits the definition, to me. Just the opinion of an "old fart."

Total PAs Against and OPS .566 Martin (199) .569 Weiss (33) .689 Crawford (508-3rd) .693 Jansen (188) .699 Llovera (132) .703 Pivetta (506 -2nd) .713 Sale (408-6th) .723 Bernardino (212) .730 Winckowski (355- 7th) .740 Murphy (212) .744 Schreiber (199) .765 Paxton (411-5th) .767 Houck (441-4th) .777 Bello (668-1st) .839 Whitlock (297-8th)

Conversely, our pen took great strides, this year. IP/ERA as RP, only: 81/2.90 Winckowski 56/3.07 Pivetta 51/1.05 Martin 48/4.91 Murphy 45/3.63 Jansen 44/3.92 Schreiber 40/3.57 Bernardino 31/5.28 Bleier 29/4.71 Llovera 25/4.26 Jacques 23/6.26 Walter 22/1.66 Crawford 21/7.29 Brasier 19/6.27 Ort 18/5.50 Whitlock OPS Against .471 Crawford .566 Martin .569 Weiss (33 PAs Against) .571 Pivetta .693 Jansen .699 Llovera .734 Winckowski .740 Murphy .741 Schreiber .746 Kelly (37) .749 Jacques .750 Sheriff .751 Bernardino .783 Garza .785 Brasier Others: .831 Whitlock .867 Walter .887 Ort .912 Robertson

The starting Pitching has been widely agreed upon as our major weakness, this year and going into next year. Only having one pitcher with over 102 IP as a SP'er is alarming, and Crawford ended up second in GS and IP as a SP. Sale and Paxton both started 19 games, which might be more than many expected. (I did not expect 38 GS and 194 IP from the two, combined.) IP/ERA as SP'er only 157/4.24 Bello (28 GS) 102/4.78 Crawford (22) 100/5.31 Houck (20) 98/4.42 Sale (19) 96/4.50 Paxton (19) 80/5.06 Pivetta (15) 52/5.23 Whitlock (10) 42/9 Kluber (9GS) We had 16 starts by "openers" or spot starts. (25 IP/ 5.47 ERA) Total: 750 IP (4.75 IP/GS) 4.82 ERA 1.315 WHIP Best OPS Against by SP: .713 Sale .732 Crawford .765 Paxton .767 Houck .777 Bello .789 Pivetta .841 Whitlock .881 Kluber We need at least 3 SP'er for 2024, but I know two is probably wishful thinking.

We'll find one.

Sox OPS have been tumbling: .941 Abreu (just 73 PAs) .857 Devers .856 Casas .844 Duvall (342 PAs) .828 Duran (362) .799 Turner .781 Yoshida .775 EValdez (140) .756 Rafaela (77) .755 Dugo .710 Reyes (177) .710 Dalbec (43) .698 Urias (109) .686 Wong (393) .679 McGuire (200_ .678 Refsnyder (238) .544 Story (152) .438 DHam (39) Team OPS by Position: 2023 Position (2022/2021) .852 1B (.683/.761) .838 CF (.671/.678) .822 3B (.856/.909) .804 LF (.694/.695) .757 DH (.763/.906) .737 RF (.661/.803) .683 C (.694/.686) .665 2B (.724/.777) .632 SS (.815/.822)

One site's best picks: 2024 MLB Draft mock WWW.MLB.COM Sure, the dust has barely settled from the 2023 Draft, but there’s no rest for the weary. It’s time to start digging into the Class of 2024. If the scouting industry can do it, so can we! After all, many of these players are already out and being seen by One site has this for best college players: https://razzball.com/way-too-early-top-25-college-prospects-for-the-2024-mlb-draft/ 1. Jac Caglianone | 1B/LHP | Florida 2. Brody Brecht | RHP | Iowa 3. JJ Weatherholt | INF | West Virginia 4. Chase Burns | RHP | Tennessee 5. Charlie Condon | 1B/OF | Georgia 6. Vance Honeycutt | OF | North Carolina 7. Nick Kurtz | 1B | Wake Forest 8. Tommy White | 1B/3B | LSU 9. Travis Bazzana | 2B | Oregon State 10. Hagen Smith | LHP | Arkansas 11. Braden Montgomery | OF/RHP | Stanford 12. Carter Holton | LHP | Vanderbilt 13. Michael Massey | RHP | Wake Forest 14. Drew Beam | RHP | Tennessee

Our school mantra is, "We own what we do, and grit gets us through."

BINGO! These guys all know their weaknesses. They have been worked with for years to try and fix their weak areas. There is not much a manager can do in a few short months. Is there an expert manager or coach that gets all his players to improve focus and attention for every (needed) minute of every game? I will guess that some might do better than others, but these players need to start taking responsibility for their short-comings. I'm in the education business, and the shirking of responsibility and blaming everyone and everything but themselves is a major problem with recent generations. Where do you think they get this from? This board, obviously! (LOL)

Funny how you see this as me starting the name-calling, and you so gracefully and vallantly not escalating it. I guess calling us "old farts" is better than me calling you "pompous."

It's hard to know, for sure, his bat cannot improve enough to be a DH. He put up some pretty good numbers on the farm. Of course, not all farm numbers transfer over to the bigs, but he does have some good batting skills. In 2022, only 2 players, in all of minor league baseball , had more PAs and an OPS higher than his .918 OPS. (Both were at lower levels.) Soxprospects.com, basically says he's an "up and down," platoon utility guy. Not a resounding endorsement, but his bat could improve. I do think an EValdez/Refsnyder platoon would yield an .800+ OPS, but we can't afford to use 2 of the 26 roster slots on DHs, when we already have Yoshi. Refsnyder is marginally better in LF as a back-up than Yoshi, and EValdez could be an emergency 2Bman, but their "depth added" would be limited. This just doesn't look right: DH: Yoshi LF: Duran v RHPs/ Ref v LHP 2B: EValdez v RHPs/ Reyes v LHPs The D at 2B would be awful.