moonslav59

Yoshida to DH basically dooms Casas to the bench, AAA or a platoon at 1B with Turner with Turner being benched vs RHPs. I seriously doubt that happens, especially since Casas has been doing much better in May than April. I think Duran might be the "odd man out," and shifting players around would not work to platoon Casas and Duran, since both bat lefty. We are not going to platoon Turner, Yoshida and most likely not Duvall, either, especially since the RHB'ers are the short end of a platoon. It seems CF, LF, DH and 1B are the positions of interest... Red appear to be FT batters and not platoon material RHBs Duvall is best in LF with CF as an option (some might prefer he platoons. Not me, for now.) Turner is best at 1B or 3B with DH an option Refsnyder is a platoon player with the best wRC+ of any Sox player from 2022-2023, including Devers, Bogey, JD and Yoshida LHBs Yoshida is best at DH with LF an option Casas is a 1B only player (Turner is better at 3B, and Casas fields 1B well.) Duran is playing very good D in CF, but he has been slumping or returning to his norm, whichever you prefer to call it. Tapia looks like the odd man out and has no options. (We could demote Duran to keep him around longer.) As you can see, I have 3 guys (Yoshida, Turner & Duvall) in red for 4 positions. Shifting players around can allow one from Casas, Duran and Refsnyder to play everyday, so it might look like this: vs RHP CF Duran LF Duvall 1B Turner DH Yoshida or CF Duvall LF Yoshida 1B Casas DH Turner vs LHPs CF Duvall LF Refsnyder 1B Turner DH Yoshida I could see us making a trade to make this choice easier, and when Story returns, we'll have a new set of choices to make with kike now added to the CF mix as a RHB, assuming he is hitting better.

It's been a major flaw in our system since Lester, and even he was just one in 2 decades. What is the difference, though, if we trade Mayer for a young ace vs just drafting and developing an ace on our own? (I'm not arguing to trade Mayer.)

Fine, but I made it clear I was not talking about just the arm.

Using Wink and Craw, last night might have messed up our chance at winning tonight and tomorrow. Using one might have worked, but maybe waiting until the 6th or 7th to use one made more sense, and in hindsight, the 7th was what killed us.

Of course 4 innings by a SP'er is not sufficient, but it beats the SP'ers who keep getting lit up in the 5th. Our pen is strong enough to handle a 4 IP game here and there- just not always. It let us down, last night, but that doesn't change the fact that they have saved our asses way more times than not. With Kluber and Pivetta out of the rotation, and Brasier off the roster, I'm hopeful we can see better with their replacements and more IP from guys who have been on the IL or babied to start their seasons. All of our SP'ers should now be set up to go 5-6 IP minimum, moving forward. Whether they do or not depends on their performance levels. We have 4 long men in the pen, now: Wink, Craw, Klub and Piv. If that is not enough to keep the short 4 guys (jansen, Martint, Schreiber, when he returns and I assume Joely) fresh, then we are doomed.

I don't look at one game to determine where a team's biggest weaknesses are. Kike ha ssucked at SS on D, and SS defence is vital to a run prevention. That wasn't his only meaningful error on the season. Yes, the pen was a major reason we lost, last night, but so was the D. The pen has carried this team for much of the year, so to me, one game does not change how I feel about it. The pen is a strength, until they prove otherwise. One game is not proof, to me.

I'm not so sure. To me... Plan A: Duvall plays CF and Duran or Ref is OF4 Plan B: Duvall plays LF, Yoshida DH and Turner plays 1B v LHPs and vs RHPs, Casas plays 1B v RHps, Turner DHs, Yoshida plays LF and Duval/Duran plays CF. Plan C: When Story returns, Kike may crowd the OF situation, assuming he is not still hitting .650. Someone will likely be traded, and Dalbec is atop the list. Kike may be second. Arroyo or Duvall are also possible trade candidates.

I'm not sure. He's had a +1.0 fWAR from 2021-2022, but that was not considered very good, despite that placing 73rd among all RP'ers with 80+ IP in those 2 years.

I get that, but the high K rate was okay from 2020-2021, when his OPS was .819. 195 Ks in 497 ABs and 545 PAs. I'm not saying he can or will ever return to that, but there is still some hope he can.

Yes, I know the talk was about arm strength. That's why I said "overall" to indicate a change in direction of the conversation.

I have not seen a FA SP'er I felt was "the guy" in a long time. Some of the older pitchers on shorter deals looked okay, but I still think trading for a young pitcher and extending him seems like the best chance at acquiring an ace, but trading way top prospects undermines a big part of the "plan."

Sox OPS leaders on the farm (100+ PAs): 1.037 Dalbec (11 HRs) .933 Hickey (.380 OBP) .907 Fitzy (another hot spring) .890 Mayer (just promoted to AA) .887 Alfaro (21 XBHs) .887 Yorke (.407 OBP) .886 Meidrioth (.470 OBP! and 33 BB/25K) .879 Scott (.374 OBP) .875 Abreu (.386 OBP) .875 Bonaci (.380 OBP) .866 Jordan (.313 BA) .864 Kavadas (8 May Hrs and .396 OBP) .839 Hamilton (11 HRs and 26 SB) .799 Palka (AAAA bound) .790 Rosier (22 SB)

Does Dalbec's surge in the minors mean he gets another shot with the big club, or is he paving his own way to a trade? I still have a gut feeling this guy may become a decent player in MLB, even if just as a platoon DH/1Bman. In 130 ABs in AAA, he is hitting .300 11 31 (19 XBHs) with a 1.037 OPS.

WAR is largely a function of IP. Wink and Craw have more IP than most RP'ers, so far. Martin and Scheiber have been buttah.

Sounds about right. Overall, he will likely finish 20-25th in DRS and UZR/150. If he plays some at DH, that will help keep his DRS lower, but it doesn't change his skill level. We can get by with a low level defender in LF. We've done it many times, before.

Agreed. Having 3 SSs on the IL and the one we thought would be okay on D sucking has been a big problem, for sure. Bloom did try to make a move by adding Chang, but he got hurt. There may not be any options but to ride it out. Apparently, Hamilton is not an option.

But, who here wishes he was the guy we chose to go large on?

Chang passed Kike, this year, until he was injured, but he did not start the year ahead of him. From April 12 to April 24, he started at SS 11 times.

I think some were worried about Max's state of mind. (I'm not sure how to better wordsmith that.) Price had a great record when signed and no hint of injury or decline.

Agreed, so it's hard for me to bash Bloom senseless over not signing deGrom or the like. I will say, Price looked like as good a signing as Scherzer at the time of the signings. Not many SP'er had the record Price and Scherzer had when signed.

We'd have to pay just about all of his remaining salary for someone to even think about wanting him. Maybe some team sees a tweak than could be tried to turn him around, but I'm not sure a tweak can improve velo.

The sample size is too small to think the defensive metrics are definitive, but the eye test shows me that Yoshida is not a plus on D. Good thing Fenway can hide minus D for half our games. It is interesting to note that fangraphs shows him at a +0.1 on range. Usually Fenway penalizes range due to the fact that the wall prevents many hit balls from being easy fly ball outs. He is -0.4 arm and 0.0 with errors for a net -1.6 UZR/150, which is not horrific. He has a -3 DRS, which is pretty bad for just 242 innings in LF. He has one error charged to him, but a few misplayed balls not considered errors. He has 2 assists.

We should get Duvall back, soon. He's not going to keep hitting 1.500, but he should help the offense. Story is farther away, and his arm strength is being questioned. (His accuracy may take some time to materialize, as well.) Mondesi has lost my faith, but could become a helpful piece. We need the rest of the team to stay healthy, and that is an "IF," but maybe it's not unreasonable to think we could do okay with the IL. Run prevention is limited by our defense, and the return of Story has to be a boost over Kike at SS. Duvall over Duran is not a plus for CF, but if Duvall plays LF and Yoshida DH, the D would be better. Kike at 2B or CF is better than SS and better than Valdez at 2B. The best way to improve our run prevention has to be solidifying the rotation. It took us 50 games just to identify who our starters should be, but only Sale and Bello have really shown they own a slot. I think our pen is a plus.

It was not a clear or easy choice, last year, and what my gut was telling me does not matter one bit to team management of to the fanbase as a whole. In hindsight, we should have cleaned house, especially Bogey, JD, Wacha, Hill and Strahm. We did get a comp pick for Nate, but maybe him, too. Some of us can claim it wasn't hindsight, but that does not matter. We did do well in the Vaz and Diekman trades, and maybe the Groome trade will work out, too. Bloom seems to do well with deadline trades. Maybe the more would have been merrier.

I think this team is very "entertaining" and exciting to watch. There are many subplots going on, where just about every game has some kind of, "I can't wait to see how ____ pitches, today," or "I'm looking forward to seeing if _____ can continue to show growth as a rookie or newly acquire vet." I don't think this team will end up between 80-84 wins, but it would not surprise me. I still think we are better than this, and hopefully the returning players will give us a boost. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I'm going to repeat: the other teams are not as good as some think they are. Look at their rosters and numbers- most have huge weaknesses, like we do. There is no reason to think some of the teams ahead of us are clearly better than us. A lot will come down to health, and some of those teams have returning players, too.