moonslav59

Woo won 7-6 in 11. Walter did not do well 5.1, 6H, 4ER, 3BB, 5K) 3-5 Alfaro w 3B & SF 2-5 Abreu w BB 1-5 Hamilton w BB & 2 SB 1-4 R Hern w 2B & BB 2-3 Allen w BB & SF Portland continued winning (11-10 in 10) Sharp came down to earth (3.1, 9H, 5ER, 2BB, 4K) 3-5 McDonough w 2B and 3 rbi 2-5 Rosier w HR 2-5 Scott w HR & 2B 2-5 Sikes, Yorke, Binelas and Koss 7 of the 9 batters had 2+ hits. (Rafaela 1-5, Dearden 0-4 w BB) Salem lost game one 5-3 Perales looked better (5.0, 4, 1, 4, 2) Ravelo had the team's only hit. The team had 7 BBs (Chacon & Coffey w 2) Greenville up 13-3 early. 4-4 Paulino 3-3 w BB Meidroth 1-4 Mayer

All I can say on Ort is, "What took it so long?" One Brasier, "Please be soon!"

You gotta use your 12 and 13 slots in games like, today. It's Bloom's fault for these guys still being on the 26.

That pretty much sums it up, well.

OBP Leaders .514 Duvall .429 Duran .369 Turner .367 Yoshida .364 Dalbec .363 Verdugo .353 Refsnyder .340 McGuire .333 Tapia .318 Kike .313 Valdez .300 Wong .296 Devers .283 Casas .262 Arroyo .174 Chang SLG 1.030 Duvall .659 Duran .578 Devers .452 Yoshida .451 Verdugo .438 Valdez .400 McGuire .398 Kike .385 Tapia .375 Turner .341 Chang .310 Ref .296 Wong .293 Casas .274 Arroyo .222 Dalbec

Well, the bad news is, he used to throw 95-97 pretty often. I'll give him more time to improve his control, but we can't count on him pitching like an ace, again. We need to plan on adding an ace or two solid #2's, like yesterday. If he ends up pitching like an ace again, then great, but should never have been the plan- not that I think it was. I think Sox brass hoped he could pitch like a solid #3, along with Kluber, and that Whitlock and Bello could pitch like solid #2's. We'd have a lot more wins, if all these guys just pitched like #4's and maybe even 5's, instead of #8's.

Imagine this lineup: 1. L Verdugo RF 2. L Devers 3B 3. R Duvall R CF 4. L Yoshida LF 5. R Story SS 6. R Turner 1B/DH 7. L Valdez /L Duran /R Refsnyder DH/L Casas 1B 8. R Kike 2B 9. L McGuire C/R Wong C

The guy can hit. Minor League OPS Leaders in 2022 (515 PAs+) 2. Kavadas .990 (A, A+, AA) 14. E Valdez .918 (AA, AAA) Only 2 batters had more PAs and a higher OPS than Valdez in 2022. He hit .860 in 2021 (A+, AA).

It's never fair to definitively judge any player over tiny sample sizes. We can argue about what "tiny" or "small sample sizes" are, but 2 starts, especially after pretty much missing ST'ing is tiny. It may take Bello a while to improve his command, but he's got enough nasty stuff to be pretty good as soon as now. I hate to pin so much of our hopes on this kid, but who besides Houck and Crawford have shown better hope in our rotation, so far this year? I know- I know, that's not saying much, and guys like jacko will probably bust my balls for saying that about a pitcher with a 6.57 ERA, right now, but it's how my gut feels right now. Maybe, I'm just hungry.

Well, the pen has saved our asses a few times, too, so as long as both keep pulling their weight we can stay near .500. Waiting for the rotation to get its act together may be futile, but maybe Bello and Houck can string something together, and the others can just suck less.

My thought was starting with 2 good games in a row and then maybe repeating that a few more times, afterwards while avoiding two bad ones in a row, along the way. You gotta start somewhere, and I'm not sure anyone has done even that, yet.

What are this pen's numbers minus Brasier & Ort?

None of us are experts at this game, but what is the blind spot on Brasier and Ort? I get that every team has mop-up men in the 12-13 slots on their staff, but this is beyond absurd.

Good to see Wong and Arroyo go over the Mendoza line.

...and E Valdez, too.

I can see why so many don't feel any or feel very little hope. We've shown a little bit of fight in some comeback wins, and the offense and pen have looked encouraging, but the rotation is killing any glimmer of light, so far. There is nothing to say about the rotation that can look optimistic, but I just feel like there is just no way these guys are this bad and will continue being this bad over the next 5 months. Yes, we have 5 months to go. If I end up being wrong, it won't be the first time, but I just can't see it. The Whitlock injury scares the bejesus out of me. To me, he was my main hope. The Mata-Walter-Murphy brigade is looking like just a fairytale. To think Crawford and Wink are doing this well, and we still have a staff looking this badly, says a lot about rest of the pitchers able to go 2+ innings. Nobody seems to be grabbing the stopper role. I'm not sure any starter has put together two straight good starts, let alone two great ones. We need a few starters to begin doing that, and real soon, or else this season will quickly slip away, like 2022.

We are turning Cleveland into a .500+ team. We've last 3 in a row (to PIT) and 4 in a row (to TBR,) but have yet to win more than 3 in a row (done twice.) 2 more v CLE 4 w TOR 3 @ PHI 2 @ ATL 3 v STL 3 v SEA 3 @ SDP then... 3 @ LAA 3 @ AZ 3 v CIN then back to tough opps... 4 v TBR 3@ CLE 3@ NYY Our schedule is not looking much easier, coming up:

This was the winter the wallet was opened, but I guess the context included losing the salaries of Boegy, Nate, JD and others. I expected more spent on the rotation-either money or via trade, but it looks like they placed all their beans on offense, the pen and hopes that 4 of the 6 or 7 SP'ers would come through. The extreme high prices for the best of the best FAs hampered our haul, to some extent, but Bloom was given enough to make a difference. He chose to spend just $14M on the rotation- Kluber and Paxton taking his option. That's on him. It's unfortunate we lost Duvall. The loss of Story was more predictable, but still a shame. He seemed to miscalculate Mondesi's recovery time and Kike's defensive skills at SS. Despite the injuries to Martin, Joely and Mills, he seems to have done well on constructing a reliable pen. He's been all over the map on choosing D over O, then O over D- each to an extreme. That is puzzling, to say the least. It's still only April. Kike seems to be waking up. Duran has been a pleasant surprise, and his new approach seems to indicate this may not be a fluke. (Sure, he will come down to earth, but maybe not .650. Turner and Yoshida are looking like good signings, and Verdugo is looking as good as he has ever looked. Again, these are all offense, except for the pen. McGuire and Wong seem to be handling the catcher slot well, unless you want to blame them (McGuire, mainly) for the rotation's woes. The 1B, 2B and SS positions have been major issues, so far, but all is not lost at those 3 slots. I certainly don't feel as optimistic about our chances as I did in March or after winning the first series of the season, but I am pretty far from giving up all hope. Our schedule will get easier. We will get some injured players back and move some low performing players off the 26 by attrition. Maybe some more get hurt, but maybe not. These other teams ahead of us have some major issues, too.

Kike has his .857 since April 11th and had the 27th off. (.874 last 10 games) Is he hurt, of is this just Cora doing his over-resting thingy?

No, we cannot win with a 6.44 rotation, but I'm not convinced, after just 27 starts, that will continue. None of our starters have been this bad over their whole careers. Many have not had 4 start bad stretches, like this, of if they have, maybe once or twice, before bouncing back. I can understand thinking things won't change. We seem to have found a groove of win one-lose one that we can't get out of. I'm feeling gloomy, too. It's still April, though. Thinking like this in May is pushing it. I thought I was bad giving up on the 2022 Sox in early July.

I find it hard to think it can get uglier than 6.44, but I suppose it can. I've not given up hope that 2-3 from Kluber, Sale, Whitlock and yes even Paxton can improve enough to join Houck, Pivetta and maybe Bello/Crawford to get the rotation to a 4.50 ERA from May 1 to the end. If we do that, we should make the playoffs with this offense, and the promises of comebacks by Story, Duvall and Mondesi, to a lesser extent.

He struggled in his first few starts, last year, too, which is understandable for any young pitcher. 10.55 ERA after first 3 starts of 2022 (12 IP) 3.18 ERA over last 10 games (including 8 starts) 45.1 IP We don't know if history will repeat itself, but the kid deserves a look. We should also remember, he missed almost all of ST'ing and part of the April.

After watching the bumblings at 1B, last year, I do appreciate a 1Bman that can actually catch the ball and filed a routine grounder, too. I may have been one of the first to start questioning whether Casas needs to be platooned or sent down to "work things out" (not to learn anything else,) but it is still very early in the season. Here just a few recent examples of why giving up so early is a SUSPECT strategy: Renfroe (had worse numbers than Casas has now, and the same guy suspecting Casas has still not stopped crying about us trading Renroe away.) .485 on April 30th (19 games and 68 PAs) .859 May 1st>>> (504 PAs) Kike 2021 (remember everyone screaming about him leading off?) .650 over first 222 PAs .874 last 363 PAs, including a .372 OBP and then a one man show playoffs Dalbec 2021: .656 first 314 PAs 1.114 over his last 139 PAs (Also, .558 after 108 PAs and then .867 over last 345 PAs) Casas 2022: .582 over his first 16 games (53 PAs) 1.008 over his last 11 games (42 PAs) It's a good think Cora doesn't listen to me and others, here.

That swap would be very suspect, too.

I do not have the faith in Dalbec I once had. His career stats are front-end loaded. I've not given up on him, either, but no, I do not see him as a current and viable option for the Sox at 1B, should Casas earn a demotion. Since virtually no trades are made in May and early June, our best option is Turner at 1B and some sort of platoon at DH- maybe Valdez/Dalbec or Valdez/Refsnyder. Some tiny sample sizes here: v R 1.000 Valdez (has hit righties very well in the minors) v L 1.167 Dalbec (.755 in 2022) .808 Refsnyder (1.005 in 2022) This looks way more promising than Casas, so far.