moonslav59

And, this happens over and over during a season. Rinse and repeat.

It's interesting that the bats and pen picked up the starters for most of the first 38 games of so, and now that the rotation seems to be getting their act together, the other areas show signs of cracking. I hope it is just temporary. I gotta think, if our SP'ers find a sustained groove, the rest will fall into place, and we'll be fine.

Out of the WC, now- by a half game. Too bad, it's the Yanks. +1.5 TOR +0.5 NYY -0.5 BOS -1.5 LAA -2.0 HOU & SEA These two loses hurt. Too many what ifs to list. We need to make sure this doesn't set a trend that cannot be overcome. Just win, baby- one game at a time!

I feel safe saying that Sale is back. I'm not talking about freakin' Chris Sale: I'm talking... Chris Freakin' Sale!

Kluber still scares me, and we have a few more starts to see from Paxton, before we have a better sense of what we can expect, but the three of them have had some very nice seasons. Kluber has had 2 good starts, 2 okay starts and 3 bad starts. He has a 3,86 ERA his last 3 starts, but the 5.25 FIP makes me worry. I'm more hopeful with Bello, and even Crawford than Kluber, right now, but I'm not giving up hope he can reinvent himself into a plus pitcher.

Players have fielding slumps, too. Kike should still be a plus on D, in CF, if he ever gets to play there, again, and he's been much better at SS, since those first 8 games. He hasn't looked real good since the end of 2021, and my patience is wearing thin, too, but I am far from wanting to even bench him, let alone can him. He's still our best SS, who is healthy.

Maybe some people may have forgotten just how good these two guys were a few years back. (Kluber, too, but he has lost the velo that made him a great one.)

One big key is the first pitch strike. I'm really liking what I've been seeing from Sale for a few starts. What a big difference he can make.

Kavadas had 3 BBs. He seems to be finding his BB groove, again.

Team OPS by Position 1.033 CF (Duvall & Duran) .843 RF (Dugo) .837 3B (Devers) .823 DH (Turner) .818 LF (Yoshida) .769 C (Wong/McGuire) .690 1B (Casas) .659 2B (Arroyo/Valdez/Kike) .632 SS (Kike/Chang) By Batting Slot .889 5th .872 2nd .841 8th .816 6th .808 1st (.353 OBP) .780 4th .715 3rd (kinda proves how the 3 slot is over-rated) .700 7th .687 9th Pretty balanced line-up with no slots below .687 and the 7-9 slots pulling a .743 OPS. A look at the ALE and batting slots: 1-2 .971 TBR .839 BOS .822 BAL .767 TOR .739 NYY 3-6 .839 TBR .806 TOR .800 BOS .782 NYY .736 BAL 7-9 .797 TBR .743 BOS .732 BAL .639 TOR .581 NYY NYY is bottom 2 in all 3 areas and TOR is bottom 2 in two of the 3 areas.

It makes sense to us, but I am pretty certain we keep one from Brasier or Bleier- somehow- someway. It would make sense to keep the elfty, Bleier, but we have seen how Braiser has 999 lives. Maybe someone goes on the IL, even if phantom. Trades are usually not made in May, unless minor ones, like Brasier for a far away prospect or "cash considerations," not sure which side gets the cash. A DFA makes the most sense, and maybe someone grabs him and saves us some on the budget. I mean, the White Sox not only took Diekman and his 1.3 years of salary remaining, but they gave us McGuire, too! Stranger things have happened.

They must really have a solid block on Hamilton, which begs the question: why protect him on Rule 5?

It's the watered down league. It can't possibly be because we have outplayed our opponents, while playing the toughest schedule to date.

He's not really that good on D, although probably better than Valdez. I'm thinking Kike is better on D at SS, despite that first 8 game start. I'm not sure when Arroyo is due back, but I don't see us demoting Valdez. Hamilton also bats lefty. Worst DRS in 2013 -4 Casas 1B -3 McGuire C -3 Valdez 2B -2 Kike SS -2 Yoshida LF -2 Jansen P -1 Arroyo 2B, Kike 2B, Tapia RF, Arroyo SS, Duvall CF Many zeroes Only 4 pluses: +5 Wong C +4 Verdugo RF +3 Chang SS +1 Tapia UZR/150 -42 Duvall CF -25 Kike CF -22 Tapia LF -15 Kike SS -10 Yoshida LF -9.5 Tapia RF -7.6 Valdez 2B -5.1 Tapia CF -1.3 Kike 2B Plus 0.2 Casas 1B 2.1 Turner 1B (in 1/5th the time) 2.3 Arroyo SS 4.3 Arroyo 2B 4.3 Ref LF 4.7 Devers 3B 7.9 Dugo RF 12 Chang SS (just 91 innings) 30 Duran CF 68 Ref CF 9just 16 innings)

My "list of 13."

The Yanks have closed the gap on us to a half game (loss column.) In a way, 2 of the 3 teams just behind us worry me more than the 2 ahead of us: 25-13 BAL 22-16 TOR 22-17 BOS___ 22-18 NYY -0.5 21-18 LAA -1.0 20-18 HOU -1.5 19-19 SEA (worries me more than LAA) We currently have the 7th best record in MLB and are... 3.5 games from #2 (ATL/BAL) 2.0 games from #4 (LAD) 1.5 games from #5 (TEX) 0.5 games from #7 (TOR) but also... 0.5 from #8 and missing the WC slot (NYY & MIL) 1.0 from 4 teams at 21-18 (MIN, LAA, PIT, AZ) 1.5 from #15 (HOU) 2.5 from the bottom half (CHC, PHI, SEA) at .500 3.0 from #19, 20, 21 (MIA, NYM, SDP) at 19-20 We are basically a 3 or 4 game winning or losing streak away from a major ranking shift.

Well said. I will add that the Duran and Casas sample sizes of success in MLB are pretty small. They both deserve longer looks/leashes, for sure.

My ordered 13 list from SP'ers, through long men, set up men and then the closer listed as #13 would be: 1. Sale 2. Bello 3. Kluber 4. Paxton 5. Houck 6. Pivetta 7. Whitlock 8. Crawford 9. Winckowski 10. Rodriguez 11. Schreiber 12. Martin 13. Jansen 14. Bernardino to AAA 15. Bleier trade/DFA 16. Brasier trade/DFA

With 13 slots and 16 names, here one has good reason to think Brasier will not make the 13. It's a bit amazing to think a day may arise where we have no top 16 pitcher on the IL. There is still a few days, so something could go wrong, but it's an interesting topic of discussion. Most teams and GM like to keep as many "options on the table" as possible, because they know injuries are likely, and they seem to value their own and "the known" more than trying to find a journeyman pitcher that pitches like Bernardino has since we added him. There are probably 5 or 10 failures for everyone that works out okay, or better. We have all seen better pitchers demoted to AAA to allow more options to "stay on the table," but with our staff is such a high need of continued improvement, keeping the best 12 or 13 on the 13 man staff seems urgently needed. Here are the pitchers with options remaining, according to soxprospects.com: Sure bets on 13: Houck (The only question with him being on the 13 is pen or rotation?) Whitlock (same as Houck)c Should almost certainly be on the 13: Winckowski (Has been a very consistent top performer, all year) Crawford (Was one of our top 3-4 performing pitchers before his injury.) Bello (Might be our 2nd or 3rd best SP, and our rotation is a big weak area.) Schreiber (Seems to have earned a slot after 2022 and the start of 2023: 2.23 ERA) Bernardino (Will certainly be demoted, despite doing pretty well for the Sox.) So, demoting Bernardino brings us to 15. Looking at just the numbers: Worst ERA (ERA+) 6.75 Brasier 69 6.37 Sale 73 6.29 Kluber 74 6.23 Pivetta 74 6.19 Whitlock 76 5.51 Bleier 85 5.26 Houck 88 5.01 Bello 93 OPS Against .960 Whitlock .882 Bello .865 Pivetta .842 Kluber .815 Sale .755 Bleier (Worst RP'er on list) .735 Brasier (2nd worst) .723 Jansen .689 Schreiber .688 Houck .646 Martin .629 Crawford (.619 Bernardino) .618 Paxton .606 Winckowski Maybe more important is to look at just Brasier, Bleier and the 3 pitchers with options (Crawford, Wink, Bello) not named Schreiber, Houck or Whitlock and recent performance levels: Last 28 Days: .882 Bello .820 Brasier .697 Wink .625 Bleier .351 Crawford Last 14 Days .833 Wink (thanks to last night) .777 Bello .773 Bleier .725 Brasier .533 Crawford How much do these numbers help? It's hard to know. I'd DFA or trade Brasier and Bleier, since I think we can find their equals on the waiver wire, if we cut them, and then someone gets hurt. It won't shock me, if they demote Bello to keep the lefty Bleier, but Brasier should be next, after Bernardino's demotion.

Woo gets the win Abreu stays hot: 2-5 w HR Hamilton with 2 BBs and his 21st SB POR wins Hickey is liking the promotion: 1-5 w HR Kavadas 1-3 w HR and 2BB Meidroth 2-4 w BB Scott 2-4 w HR and BB Dearden 2-3 w HR and 2BB Koss 3-5 Sikes 2-4 w 2B GRE lost 2-4 Bonaci w 2B 2-3 Rosario w 2B 0-1 Meredith w 2BB SAL won with my sleeper pitcher, Luis de la Rosa going 3 IP: 0H 0ER 3BB 6K Ravelo 2-3 w 2B and 2BB Liendo 3-4 w 3B and 2 SB Lira 3-3 w 2B & BB Anthony 0-3 w 2BB

Maybe it's better they both had a bad game, together, and we lost just one game, instead of two.

I guess we were due for a Wink or Jansen implosion, and if it was just one, we probably win.

"If it isn't one thing, it's another..."

Our pen has been a big plus just about all year, and now "we need a pen?" I'm not saying we don't need help, there. Maybe Paxton pushing Pivetta to the pen will help. Maybe Joely giving us another LH'd option will help. Hopefully, the return of Crawford and Whitlock will lock things up. Pitchers will settle into their more comfortable roles, and the team goes on a rampage.

"did did?" Does a double positive make a negative in Red's book? Makes total sense. LOL!