moonslav59

How much practice time during ST'ing and the season do most teams spend on teaching or reinforcing the basic fundamentals of this great game of baseball? My guess is, there is not a wide differential between team to team. Maybe some teams present it in better ways, so their players learn it better or it stays in their mind enough to improve the outcomes during the season? In little league and high school, yes, maybe it makes a significant difference how much effort you put into this. Also, remember, there is only a finite amount of time you have with these guys, so when they are working on fundamentals, they are not working on conditioning, batting, pitching and improving other skills. I agree, These guys have played a lot of baseball over their lifetimes. If they don't know what to do rounding 2nd base with 2 outs in a very crucial game, where one out ends our hopes for a win, there is nobody to blame but the player.

A lot of people were turned off by Wacha's underlying numbers. Only his ERA showed he was doing great. I thought Kluber was a better gamble than Richards was, and I wasn't high on the Wacha/Hill signings before 2022, either, but they worked out well. When you spend $5M-10M on one year deals for SP'ers, you get what you pay for: a long shot gamble. You et what you pay for. In hindsight: we should have non-tendered Brasier, not taken on Mondesi's contract and not extended Kike, last summer. That money, plus the money we left on the table (under the tax line) could have allowed us to go bigger at SP'er. I will point out that many of the higher-priced SP'ers signed, last winter, bombed out or went on the IL, after decent starts to the season. Had we signed Eflin and Wacha, we'd be sitting pretty, but that's expecting a GM to be close to 100% on his additions, many of which were relatively low budget, like Turner, Duvall, Martin, Reyes, Bernardino and Urias. I think the team got better. The farm got better. The budget is set up for JH to take the plunge, next winter. We can bitch about Kluber, and it's all fair game, but to me, I like our direction, even if we come up just short, this fall.

Yes. Maybe we will see Abreu PH early and stay in the game. Duvall and Turner should start and stay in every game until the last one.

Glad to see you finally agreed that Rodon was injury prone. You have a lot of deadwood contracts still in play, but it's almost impossible to dump them. You'd have to pay down big chunks and or add prospects to entice a team to take one. Stanton and LeMahieu jump out at me, but even guys like Torres just don't seem like winners, to me. Other than Judge and Cole, who is really a rock solid young talent you know for sure, you can build around? Maybe Volpe steps up, but he is no sure bet, now. Michael King? Many of the promising young pitchers you had, last year, took steps backwards: 4.97 Cortes 4.52 Schmidt 4.58 Abreu 4.56 German Even 3.00 Holmes Looking at the roster, objectively, your team needs a total make-over. Like the Sox, that is almost impossible to imagine. Now, in all honesty, which team, the Sox or the Yanks have a brighter outlook, going forward, assuming neither GM becomes the next Cohen.

I think we have to hope one team, like SEA kills TEX and HOU. If they split, it makes it harder, IMO. We go 6-4, they go 6-4 ot 5-5. We need to pass 2 not 3 or 4.

The Kluber signing was a killer. The plan to keep spending just $10M/1 (or less) on SP'ers is doomed to fail. I agree. However, to me, it's on the players. We've had a lot go right, but many key players really s*** the bed, this season: Kike, Houck, Whitlock, to name a few. Bloom made some very nice additions, last winter (Turner, Duvall, Martin and Jansen) and during the year (Reyes, Urias, Bernardino and sticking with Duran.) It's hard for me to place blame on one person, and the overall improvement of this team from last year, despite losing Bogey, JD, Nate, Wacha, Hill and Strahm can also be attributed mainly to Bloom, so if I had to name one guy, it would not be Bloom.

They've dug a lot of holes over the season, so far, and they might have another one of two to go, but they keep filling those holes back in, just when we are near ready to totally pack it in. (It seems some, like Fred Lynn have already packed it in. Others seem to have.)

If the 6 games won are all vs HOU and TOR, then going 6-4 in those 10 games might be enough, but your point is well-taken. Another chance we have is when our closest opps play each other, If we go 6-4 and one beats up on the other, so one goes 3-7, we can gain a lot of ground.

We also have Refsnyder in the OF mix, so I agree. My concern is that if Abreu and Rafaela struggle, we'll have lost our two best defensive OF'ers from 2023: Duvall & Dugo, at a time when we sorely need to improve our D.

LA named LHP Caleb Ferguson as their SP'er vs Houck. That likely means no start from Abreu for 3 straight games. I wonder where Cora will bat Refsnyder. Reyes probably gets the day off. Jansen should be ready to pitch, but the set up men might be tough to cobble together.Martin and Bernardino just went 1/3, but Wink, Whitlock, Schreiber and Pivetta might be unavailable. That leaves Llover as a probable pitcher, unless we make a roster move.

Since the All Star Break, here are the Sox leaders in ERA, listed in order of most IP" 4.47 Bello 46 IP 4.02 Pivetta 40 2.95 Crawford 40 5.82 Paxton 39 4.91 Murphy 22 2.45 Wink 18 0.61 Martin 15 5.65 Schreiber 14 5.14 Sale 14 2.62 Bernardino 14 1.64 Jansen 11 7.27 Whitlock 9 5.40 Houck 5 August 0.00 Martin 10 IP 1.23 Jansen 7.1 2.84 Bernardino 6.1 3.00 Crawford 24 3.26 Bello 30.1 3.17 Wink 11

Pretty amazing that the Yanks, Mets and Padres are among the bottom 12 teams in MLB. Here is the reverse standings from the worst team in MLB. 38-92 OAK 41-90 KCR 48-81 COL 51-79 CWS 56-74 STL 58-72 PIT 59-71 NYM 59-70 DET 61-69 WSH 61-69 SDP 61-69 CLE 62-67 NYY (-1.5 from 9th worst and -3.0 from f8th worst) Realistically, the Yanks could end up with the 5th worst record, but more likely 6th to 10th worst.

Maybe they are peaking, too early, but it sure seems like you are right. They do end the season with 3 @ TEX, 3 HOU and 3 TEX, so they could play spoiler, if they run away with the AL West. TEX ends with 3 v BOS, 3 v SEA, 3 @LAA and 4 @SEA HOU ends with 3 v BAL, 3 v KCR, 3 @SEA and 3 @ AZ TOR ends with 6 v NYY and 6 V TBR, but the Yanks are now a pushover. The two series before their last 12 may be their test (4 TEX and 3 BOS)

My projection for SP's next rankings list: (previous rank) 1, Mayer (1) 2. Anthony (2) 3. Teel (5) 4. Rafaela (4) 5. Bleis (3) 6. Yorke (6) 7. Wikelman (8) 8. Perales (7) 9. Zanetello (9) 10. Cespedes (15) 11. Romero (10) 12. Bonaci (12) 13. Walter (13) 14. Castro (20) 15. Abreu (23) 16. Monegro (29) 17. Hickey (18) 18. Meidroth (16) 19. Gambrell (43) 20. EValdez (17) 21. Drohan (11) 22. Joh Garcia (14) 23. Rosier (56) 24. Mata (21) 25. Jordan (19) 26. Anderson (26) 27. E R-C (25) 28. S Scott (41) 29. Yuten (44) 30. Guerrero (31) Dropped from top 30: Paulino, DHam, Fernandez, Alcantara, C Coffey

One less day to make up ground. 32 games left for the Sox and 5 teams are within 4.5 games of each other for the last 2 WC slots. SEA & TEX tied for the WC 2 & WC 3 slots, but one will win the division (or HOU) -1.0 HOU WC3 as of now -2.5 TOR (-1.5 from WC3) -4.5 BOS (-3.5 from WC3 and -2.0 from TOR) Schedule remaining: BOS: 3HOU, 3@KCR, 3@TBR, 3BAL, 3NYY, 3@TOR, 3@TEX, 3CWS, 2TBR, 4@BAL TOR: 3WSH, 3@COL, 3@OAK, 3KCR, 4TEX, 3BOS, 3@NYY, 3@TBR, 3NYY, 3TBR HOU: 3@BOS, 3NYY, 3@TEX, 3SDP, 3OAK, 3@KCR, 3BAL, 3KCR, 3@SEA, 3@ARI TEX: 3@NYM, 3MIN, 3HOU, 3OAK, 4@TOR, 3!CLE, 3BOS, 3SEA, 3@LAA, 4@SEA SEA: 3OAK, 3@NYM, 3@CIN, 4@TBR, 3LAA, 3LAD, 3@OAK, 3@TEX, 3HOU, 3TEX

I'd rather watch them in a strip club. LOL

What's not to like about consistent balls and strike calls?

Gambrell with a nice start for WOO. How high will he rise in the next rankings? 5.2 IP, 2H, 0ER, 4BB, 5K 3-5 Rafaela w two 2Bs 2-3 Kavadas w HR & BB 2-4 Chang 1-4 EValdez w 2B & BB POR won big. Coffey went 7.0 IP, 5H, 2ER, 2BB, 9K 1-4 Jordan w HR 2 hits by Bonaci, Yorke, Meidroth, Hickey (tw 2Bs), Dearden & McDonough. GRE lost 4-3 Perales 5IP, 2H, 0ER, 3BB, 5K Paulino & Ferguson homered. SAL won 5-0 2-4 Salazar and Yuten

Robo UMPS- 2024! Please!

Okay, pay Richards $10M/1 and $10M/1 Kluber of $22.5M/4 Wacha.

I'm thinking, more and more, one of the two teams we might pass is going to be Texas- not TOR, HOU or SEA.

They usually only pitch super high leverage innings and throw all out for the short term. Guys like Martin and Jansen don't go multiple innings. Here are the RP PAs Against- and OPS Against 289 Winckowski .765 201 Pivetta .561 172 Jansen .657 172 Murphy .724 168 Martin .576 135 Bernardino .667 119 Schreiber .716

...and now he says he always wanted to stay in Boston. Boo- Hoo.

The 4 year deal is not all that expensive. Wacha got $4M/1 with this.... Team option at $16M x 1, so it would be $20M/2. or Player option at $18.5M/3, so it would be $22.5M/4.

We play 3 v TOR and 3 v HOU, so in that way, our future can be in our own hands.