moonslav59

Nobody has claimed it's all about the defense or that defense is equal or close to the value of pitching or batting. Nobody. Just because we talk about it does not mean we think it matters most. The vast majority of statements are about our need to improve our rotation and then getting a RH'd bat. Nobody is talking about benching Devers or Casas over their D, or even Yoshida. Nobody. We will likely have an opening at DH, so either we spend on one, or we move someone there. It's a worthy point of discussion.

I also wonder, if all the later reports were just relaying the Merloni report, or if a separate source(s) were found.

He falls to the middle of the pack in Away OBP and SLG (78th and 79th out of 153 with 150+ PAs Away.) He's 26th and 40th at Home. Home + Away He is 69th in xwOBA and 61st in wRC+ He has a 110 OPS+ I'm not saying he's been great, but in some areas, he seems to be better than I thought, in terms of comps to the rest of the league. He had a lot of adjusting to do. I think he deserves another season to determine more about him, but I do agree that this year was a disappointment.

All game long, teams don't know when a blitz is coming or what sort of coverage might be switched to, then, poof: they know everything about the D for the last few seconds or minutes.

Out of 96 players in the AL with 400+ PAs, Yoshi placed... 36th in OBP, before tonight 43rd in SLG 151 players have 300+ PAs Yoshi is 44th in OBP and 60th in SLG Maybe since the Sox have 5 in the top 44, we don't realize how his ranking isn't as bad as it seems. He's 5th best on the Sox, but averages about 3rd best on AL teams. (44 divided by 15 teams)

Granted, these are just players that qualify, so many have higher OBPs but not quite enough PAs, but still, yes, I was shocked, too. It's also just the AL not MLB. Still, top 25 in OBP and SLG surprised me.

No INTs and 14 TDs on the season is impressive.

Young Player Current OPS .862 Abreu 24 .857 Casas 23 .851 Devers 26 .828 Duran 26 .762 EValdez 24 .746 Dugo 27 .698 Urias 26 .682 Rafaela 22 .680 Wong 27 Young Pitcher ERAs 2.98 Winckowski 25 3.86 Kelly 28 4.04 Crawford 27 4.24 Bello 24 4.91 Murphy 25 5.15 Whitlock 27 5.31 Houck 27 6.26 Walter 26 6.55 Robertson 24

In the olden days, we'd be celebrating Yoshida finishing 5h in the AL in BA, although .288 is not usually a 5th best BA. Turner is currently 9th at .277. Devers is 17th at .271. 24. Casas .263 25. Dugo .263 OBP Leaders: .412 Ohtani .410 Diaz 7. Casas .367 13. Devers .350 16. Turner .347 20. Yoshida .338 (I didn't realize .338 was so highly ranked.) SLG .654 Ohtani .628 Seager 7. Devers .501 10. Casas .490 21. Turner .458 24. Yoshida .446 (I would have never guessed he was top 25 in the AL in SLG.) OPS 5. Casas .857 7. Devers .851 18. Turner .805 26. Yoshida .784 33. Dugo .746 (Note: Beni is 8th worst at .682)

ND beat Duke 21-14 at Duke. Good win.

How would you compare Abreu's defense to these guys: Dugo in RF Duvall in RF Duvall in CF Duran in CF Duran in LF Duvall in LF Refsnyder in LF Yoshida in LF I'd say he's worse than Dugo in RF, maybe equal to Duvall in RF. Better than anyone else in CF, except Rafaela. Better than anyone in LF I listed.

We've beaten this horse. I doubt any GM would give a PTBNL for Dalbec or claim him off waivers, but all it takes is one, and Dalbec has shown he can hit in the bigs for pretty long stretches- just not recently. He raked in AAA, this year, but has not shown any improvement on defense or in limiting his K's. Again, he will likely not have any GM calling us, but it's not impossible, IMO. Obviously, it is to you. I get it. You are likely right.

I know every team ends up using scrub pitchers during the long season, and some end up doing okay. Some like Brasier suck for one team, then do well for another. I just wish we could limit how many and how often we end up using these guys. We used 30 pitchers, this year (plus Reyes.) I wouldn't call these 14 scrubs: Bello, Pivetta, Crawford, Sale, Houck, Paxton, Wink, Whitlock, Kluber, Martin, Schreiber, Jansen, Kelly and Joely. They were expected to pitch. Bleier 5.28 in 31 IP and Brasier 7.29 in 21 IP were both thought of as scrubs by most of us before the season started. That leaves 16.. Scrubs that did okay: 1 Bernardino 3.26 in 50 IP Scrubs that showed a little promise (at times): 1 Murphy 4.91 in 48 IP Scrubs who might deserve another look: 3 Robertson 6.55 in 11 IP Walter 6.26 in 23 Weiss 2.08 in 9 Scrubs I don't want to see pitch for us, again: 11 Llovera 5.46 in 30 Jacques 5.06 in 27 K Ort 6.26 in 23 Garza 7.36 in 18 Barraclough 12.91 in 8 Sherriff 2.70 in 7 Dermody 6.75 in 4 T Scott 4.91 in 4 Littell 9.00 in 3 Faria 22.50 in 2 Lamet 13.5 in 2 That's almost 130 IP from the scrubs of the scrubs- these last 11.

Llovera trae lluvia.

Bello has been over 5.20 for his last 14 starts.

I would not have been against the idea. Maybe they felt Dalbec could get hot and get a slightly better PTBNL.

Some metrics show this is not true. Devers has shown signs of improvement and then relapsed, at least twice. DRS -9 in '23 -6 in '22 (improved from '21) -13 in '21 -5 in '19 (improved from '18) -11 in '18 -5 in '17 UZR/150 -11.5 -5.2 +2,4 -10'6 -5.8 -1.9 -2.2 OAA shows he's worse... -9 in '23 worst in MLB -9 in '22 2nd worst -14 in '21 worst +17 in '19 2nd best -4 in '18 was 28th out of 38 -9 in '17 was 4th worst

He's not going anywhere.

We get 3 hits in an inning and don't score. They get 3 hits all game and score.

Yes, the AL with 9 DRS to 7 by Ad. Garcia. Weird how Tatis has 29 in the NL with the next NL RF'er with 2! OAA shows a different story: 11 Tatis 5 four players 4 three players 3 two players 2 seven players 1 twelve players, including Duvall and Dugo Dugo leads the AL in UZR/150 at 10.5 (5th in MLB).

Abreu and Rafaela will be given a chance. I don't see anyone saying otherwise. Should they both be handed separate FT jobs for 2024, right now? That is a debate. I think letting the two fight for one slot: CF, while giving Abreu the back up RF and maybe LF job, when not playing CF should give both plenty of opportunity to play enough to both earn a FT job during 2024. If Dugo and Duran are playing so well, there is a squeeze, then trade Dugo or Duran (and/or Ref.)

It would make sense to have Devers learn 1B during the winter. IMO.

Duran is better than Yoshida in LF, and that is not an assumption. The only reason I am talking about improving the D, is because our D is crappy, and there is a way to do it, significantly for free. My position is all about pitching, and allowing our pitchers to do better by improving the D without spending a cent or trading anyone. I'm not saying Casas will get better, but he has one year in the bigs. Yoshida not only sucked on D, he also looked like he ran out of steam on O, too. DH'ing may improve our LF D and his offense. I'm all for letting Devers play 1B, when Casas sits, but I'll never be for signing Chapman over a SP. It's not a bad position to hold.

All he needs is MLB to change the rule to force teams to play a reverse shift.

Actually, not all teams do play the same brutal schedule as the Sox. Yes, same amount of games in about the same amount of days, but not the same brutal schedule, no.