moonslav59

Urias has a history, but Reyes shocked all of us. Hell, he sold to us by the A's for peanuts!

Agreed. We also might benefit by letting Story bat more and find his groove.

...and we came so close! That 2004 team beat some great teams along the way, too. And, the playoffs were longer. We beat a 92 win Angels, a 101 win Yankee team and then that 105 win Cardinals team.

Certainly, that was true for me. I've never felt closer to any Sox teams since the 70's, but I would not say those guys were better than some subsequent teams. The improvement in pitching has been the most notable major improvement from the teams from the 70's to the Clemens era and then the Pedro era and beyond.

We got worse in 2019, way worse in 2020, better in 2021, worse in 2022, but still better than 2020, and then better in 2023. I think we will be even better in 2024, because we have less major need areas, and the farm infusions are making an impact, finally!

LOL! I still think the 2018 Sox team beats any team from the 70's, 80's, 90's and maybe even the 2003 and 2004 teams.

I think being younger mad the game more enjoyable, but I wouldn't say the quality of players was better then.

Maybe it took a couple weeks to set in.

Indeed! cots shows the same. Good for us!

Turner is no fluke. 2023: .845 OPS 1.095 High Leverage 1.070 Late & Close 2022: .788 OPS .861 High Leverage .956 Late & Close Career: .833 .854 High Leverage .801 Late & Close Just don't get me to admit it's a "sustainable skill."

I couldn't make it through 30 seconds.

It's like the second Ref signed that extension, he fell off a cliff. I do still like Schreiber, despite his recent meltdown.

The past was not all that great until 2004, in terms of the Sox meeting up with the Promise Land- too bad the league was waterdown by then.

He did well with the Dodgers in the playoffs. He also has a higher career OPS in high leverage than not. (.854 high)

Just like that, our 2B slot seems to be okay for 2024 with Urias and Reyes. Hardly cost much at all, although urias may make more than $4M, next year, on his final arb year.

This list of ow cost additions that have failed or failed badly is a long one under Bloom's tenure with the Sox. It was an area he was supposed to be good at, but even the best have plenty of failures. Here are some lower cost players who did okay or better for us, considering the money or cost in acquiring them being rather low. Pillar (FA) Arroyo (Waivers) Munoz & Puello (FAs) Pivetta (trade) Whitlock (Rule 5) Renfroe (FA) Ottavino (basically for nothing) Y Rios (for cash) Schwarber (A Ramirez trade) Robles (trade) T Shaw (Waivers) Iggy (SEPT FA) Robles Schreiber (Waivers) Refsnyder (FA) Wacha ($7M bargain) R Hill ($5M bargain) Strahm (FA) McGuire (and dumped Diekman) Tapia Bernardino (Waivers) Reyes (for cash) Urias (trade) Players Bloom acquired who struggled with us, but then improved after leaving: Springs Perez TBD Z Kelly (FA) W Abreu/ E Valdez (Vaz trade) C Rosier & M Ferguson (Groome trade) W Mills (trade) Nick Robertson (Kike trade) Barraclough (MiFA) Jacques (MiRule 5) I'm sure I missed some. I'm sure some feel a name or two don't belong on this "Okay to good" list.

All the TOR-BOS series ave been sweeps (2 by BOS & 1 by TOR.) If we sweep them, the next time, we may get in by going 4-3 or even 3-4 v HOU, but yes, beating HOU, badly, would bring us right into the mix.

Kinda like Schreiber and Refsnyder?

The Astros play more "easier" series than we do, but they still have some tough series to go... 7 v BOS 3 @ TEX 3 v BAL They end the season with 3@SEA 3@ARI

But this is my favorite cover of that great song by The Cure...

Speaking of dinosaurs...

We covered this... Quote Originally Posted by moonslav59 View Post Other Philly trades: (I have not heard of many of these guys.) Hao-Yu Lee for Lorenzen Billy Sullivan for Cristian Pache Vierling, Maton & Sands for Kody Clemens and Gregory Soto Moniak & J Sanchez for Syndergaard Ben Brown for David Robertson Logan O'Hoppe for Brandon Marsh (I know O'Hoppe was a highly regarded catching prospect.) JoJo Romero for Edmundo Sosa Picardo for Norwood Haseley for M Moore Toffey for L Williams Joel Valdez for N Nelson & D Sands Spencer Howard, Gessner & K Gowdy for Crouse, Ian Kennedy and K Gibson This what I found since the 2021 deadline. MVP responded.... Top prospects traded per the above: Lee O'Hoppe Vierling Brown Romero The rest were outside their top 20 on the rankings I looked at (FanGraphs and Baseball America).

We may not need SEA to lose, if we pass HOU and TOR- the teams we play head-to-head.

I'm fine with streakiness, as long as the end result is over .850. Sometimes, a team needs one hot player to carry them all by himself. The other thing about his "slumps:" usually his worst stretches he hits around .700. Others have long stretches of .600 or even .500-.550 ball.