moonslav59

That's less than our top 5 salary players.

A walk is about the best we can expect from Narvaez. Wong should start 4 of 5 games.

Looks like Tracy was right in valuing Monasterio (6 slot) over Duran (7 slot,) but maybe Duran needs to bat 9th or ride the bench.

The first round and Comp A picks are in (picks 1-40.) The Sox next pick at #67 (Comp B pick) and #96. That's it for today, as we lost our #2 round and #4 round picks by signing QO pitcher Raner Suarez.

I meant Teel helped us get Crochet and we drafted Early in 2023, so the draft was very helpful. Sorry for wording that wrongly.

Maybe some falls into our laps at overslot money. That seems to be our M.O.

He's killed us in every slot. fangraph's projected aOPS (400+ PAs) .803 Anthony .788 Abreu .785 Contreras .762 Duran .746 Durbin (not even close to #4.) .725 Rafaela (not close) .713 Story (not close) When I said "we" I was speaking to the general feeling, and I'm not nor ever have been "big on" Duran. His speed made him a top 3-4 offensive player. He's 50 points below his projected OBP, and it made sense to see how he did batting first, once Anthony was no longer available. I do blame Cora for sticking with him for so long, but not for trying him there. Look, I wanted to trade him. I just don't see everything as black & white. The argument that we shouldn't trade one of our projected top offensive players made some sense... just as it made some sense at the time to trade away a pitcher like Sale who was hurt all the time. I suggested we trade Duran for Paredes, Janek and a RP'er, and many here felt that was an overpay. From what I hear, HOU didn't even want Duran one for one, so I'm really not sure what was offered for him last DEC-JAN. I wish we'd have traded him after 2024, but hell, I was for trading him before 2024, so I'm no fortune teller either.

You may be right, and it wouldn't be the first time a pitcher with nasty stuff had issues and was bounced from MLB. He does have nasty stuff though, but so did DHern.

Yes, I should have gone farther back, but I was trying to stick to the Brez era.

22K and 4 BB in 18.2 IP at WOO shows he may be improving in that area. BB% in MLB the last 3 seasons: 9.1% in 2024 8.4% in 2025 8.5% in 2026

It could be we are looking to draft an overslot bonus guy later. In 2024, we paid higher bonuses to Conrad Cason and slightly more for Tolle. In 2025, we paid double slot money for Eyanson & Barrett Morgan. I'm not sure this is a good plan or idea. I was hoping we drafted Ace Reese or Bo Lowrance- both 3Bmen. (LHBs too)

I actually feel worse about making that trade as I felt last winter. He seems to be declining, and the AAV is recalculated after a trade, so his budget hit is worse than I thought. In hindsight, trading for BLowe was the best move. Trading for Paredes would have been cheaper ($ and return players) and better than KMarte.

Jake Schaffner SS from NC (LHB)

Yes, and exactly 15th since 2021. Under Brez, it's 13th- just 2 wins from 12th, 3 from 11th and 5 from 10th (top tier) Hell, if we play like this for the rest of 2026, we may be ranked 8th from 2024-2026. (We are 8 GB SEA- the team in 8th place.)

Our farm has not been worst. Some of our last few picks have been... 2023: Teel got us Crochet & Early. Don't write off KC yet, either. 2024: Montgomery got us Crochet & Tolle has been solid. Clarke and Aita helped us get Gray & Contreras. Futrell, Hudson White and others look real good. 2025: Eyanson, Godbout, Witherspoon, Brown and others look very promising. We didn't trade our #2 and #5 round picks: we lost them by signing Suarez. We added a Comp pick that is not too far from where that #2 pick would have been. I'm excited about this draft.

The fact that we don't have the depth to replace Duran and improve doesn't take him off the hook. His bat has killed us, this year- not single-handedly, but more than anyone else, because he's 3rd in PAs and was so bad in the one slot for way too long. (That's more on Cora than him, but it is what it is: a .269 OBP in the one slot.) Abreu and Contreras might have 10-15 mor RBIs, had he just declined to a .325 OBP from .345>.335 the years before.

To me, he seems worse than his .617 OPS indicates, for a few reasons: 1. His OBP is 70 points lower than 2025. 2. His .269 OBP in the one slot killed us. 3. Seemingly more baserunning blunders. 4. We avoided trading him with the expectation he'd be a top 3-4 offensive weapon on the team. His 76 OPS+ is 5th out of 5 batters with 300+ PAs. It's 6th out of 7 batters with 190+ PAs. (6th out of our top 9 batters by PAs, but Wong will likely pass Narvaez in the top 9 and someone might pass Mayer & Story, who are below Duran, right now in OPS.

Of course he faced 1-2-3-4 more as a SP'er, but he did not face 7-8-9 batters as much as you implied as the second inning pitcher. Yes, it helped, but it looks like that was not the main issue.

The draft has begun (NBC for the first few picks.) 1. Roch Cholowsky SS UCLA (CWS) Ranked 2nd on MLB list 2. Grady Emerson SS HS (TBR) Ranked 1st 3. Vahn Lackey C GA Tech (MIN) 3rd 4. Jackson Flora SP UC-SB (SFG) 4th 5. Derek Curiel OF LSU (PIT) 12th 6. Zion Rose OF Louisville (KCR) 30th 7. Eric Booth OF HS (BAL) 6th 8. Drew Burress GA Tech (OAK) 7th 9. AJ Gracia OF VA (ATL) 19th 10. Tyler Bell SS KY (COL) 10th 11. Chris Hacopian 2B TX A&M (WSH) 14th 12. Jared Grindlinger OF HS (LAA) 16th 13. Trevor Condon OF HS (STL) 13th 14. Jacob Lombard SS HS (MIA) 5th 15. Ryder Helfrick C ARK (AZ) 11th 16. Gio Rojas LHP HS (TEX) 8th 17. Logan Hughes OF TX Tech (HOU) 42nd 18. Justin Lebron SS ALA (CIN) 19. Liam Peterson P FLA (CLE) 20. Jake Schaffner SS NC BOS LHB #75 Maybe we took an under slot player with the idea of taking an overslot player, later. Top ranked remaining prospects we might have taken: 15. Cameron Flukey RHP Coastal Carolina 17. Hunter Dietz LHP ARK 18. Ace Reese 3B MISS St 21. Bo Lowrance 3B HS

7-8-9? In the second inning? 1st game after an opener, he faced 9-1-2 (got all out), and the next inning 3-4-5-6 and let up one ground ball single. Game 2 after an opener: he faced the 5-6-7-8-9-1 batters and did struggle but did get the #1 batter out to end the inning with just 1 run allowed. Game 3 (after getting a GS in between) Here he did face the 7-8-9 and a CS helped him not face the #1 batter, He did struggle the next inning with the 1>6 batters, but allowed no runs. Game 4: Samaniego faced 9 batters in the first, so Bello started the second inning vs the 1-2-3 batters. He let up 1 single, got a K and two groundouts. This allows me to say, "Yes, I'm sure." Yes, as a SP'er his 1.357 OPS Against in the first inning could be related to facing the 1-2-3-4 batters, but he obviously did better vs those 1-2-3-4 batters over the full game than the first inning, so that kind of deflates the "against good batters" argument. .708 v 1 slot 1.037 v 2 slot (better than 1.357) 1.071 v 3 slot (better as well) .715 v 4 slot The fact is, he started off way more slowly when starting the first inning rather than the second inning, and it was not related to facing the 7-8-9 batters in the second, as the batting slots seemed about equal between the two sample sizes.

The thing is, using an opener was against his habit & routine, and it worked.

I'm fine with that idea, even if we don't use an opener. I'm just giving the facts on how it seems like a mental/emotional issue and not physical and not likely mechanical, unless his head messes with his mechanics. Since are using an opener, today, having Bello come into the second inning and maybe going 5-6 innings would be fine by me. To add Rivera and Bello, we'd have to cut loose Watson or IL him. Okay by me.

Nope in '25, and the sample sizes were wide. v LHPs Duran .664 in '24 in 208 PAs(His career year) .600 in '25 in 209 PAs (in 3 X the PAs as Abreu, who was better.) Abreu .532 in 67 PAs in '24 (Yes, he was worse.) .676 in 68 PAs in '25

When he started a game in the second inning, he did not need an inning to get up to speed.

Since June 24th, the Sxo are 11th in Runs scored (4th in AL), 18th in HRs (7th in AL) and 13th in OPS (5th in AL.) 11th in fWAR (4th in AL.) Pitching fWAR: 1st at 3.5 - a full 0.8 ahead of TEX!