moonslav59

We may have a chance at gaining on some ALE teams, tonight. LAD 5- BAL 1 in 4th SDP 4- TOR 1 in 4th TBR @ TEX (One has to lose.) NYY @ LAA (Yanks in a tailspin) (HOU is at COL and should win.) GO SOX!!!!

Maybe- maybe not. It depends who plays who in the first round or two, and who wins. The way things are going, the O's might win the division and the best AL record.

Houck and Whitlock have been great in the pen. Just because they have not done, well as starters doesn't mean we should trade them. Plus, why trade them when their stock has fallen, a little. Sale should not be traded. I'm with you on never counting on him to pitch, again, but he did prove to me, that he can still pitch very well, when he DOES pitch. I wasn't so sure about that aspect in March. That is why I do not pay to see him pitch for another team. Pivetta has not proven he can do what he has done from the pen, as a SP'er, this year. He's had spurts of doing well in 2021 and 2022, some 12-16 games long, but he's not been great as a SP'er. He has to prove he can start for me to start thinking of trading Houck and Whitlock. Numbers as SP'ers: 2023 5.05 Houck (.695 OPSA) 5.23 Whitlock (.841) 6.30 Pivetta (.885) 2022 4.15 Whitlock (.723) 4.32 Houck (.663) 4.56 Pivetta (.753) 2021 3.68 Houck (.627) n/a Whitlock 4.56 Pivetta (.735) I've been a big Pivetta supporter over the last 3 years and wanted to let him try starting again, a few weeks ago, but he has yet to prove he can do it better than Houck and Whitlock. Crawford has started to show he belongs in the rotation, for good, but he needs a few more good starts to win a slot, outright, once everyone returns (assuming they all do at some point together.) I'd start Pivetta in 5 days- no doubts. If he sucks, no doubt some will claim we ruined him by breaking something that didn't need fixing. IMO, Houck, Whitlock, Pivetta and Crawford would be better from the pen (in long roles,) but we need 3 starters (2 if Sale returns.) It's not an easy call on who should start. It's no slight on one guy by picking another. They all look better in the pen.

2 month rentals don't get the returns they used to get. Look at the BTV values for the rentals: 9.7 Giolito CWS 8.8 Montgomery STL 8.5 Snell SDP 6.1 Stroman CHC 5.7 ERod DET 2.1 W Miley MIL Now look at some of our player values: 9 Alcantara & Romero 6 Paulino 5 Drohan 4 Perales, Wikelman, EValdez & Walter 3 Meidroth & E R-C 2.5 Hickey & Brannon 2.4 Abreu, DHam, Cespedes, Jordan & Monegro 2.2 Bastrado, Mata & Murphy 2.1 Encarnacion 2.0 Guerrero, Castro, Bonaci, Fernandez, Blalock & Lugo These might be some trades the other teams might make: Giolito or Montgomery for Romero or Perales & Paulino Snell for Drohan & Walter or Perales & Wikelman Stroman or ERod for Paulino or Walter & Jordan Miley for Bonaci or Lugo

BTV has these values: 2 month Rentals 9.7 Giolito CWS 8.8 Montgomery STL 8.5 Snell SDP 6.1 Stroman CHC 5.7 ERod DET 2.1 W Miley MIL Longer Term (Years) 56.0 Keller (2.3) PIT 51.4 Cease (2.3) CWS 40.7 Burnes (1.3) MIL 36.8 Musgrove (4.3) SDP 35.1 Sandoval (3.3) LAA 27.4 Senga (1.3) NYM 26.6 S Gray (4.3) WSH 24.1 Canning (2.3) LAA 22.4 Sears (5.3) OAK 21.9 Lynch (4.3) KCR 20.0 Singer (3.3) KCR 10.7 Blackburn (2.3) OAK 4.4 S Lugo (1.3) SDP 2.7 Houser (1.3) MIL -34.5 Verlander (2.3) NYM Sox Values 63 Mayer 51 Duran 49 Bello 42 Casas 35 Devers 32 Houck 28 Bleis & Anthony 20 Crawford & Yoshida 19 Yorke & Verdugo 17 Whitlock 13 Rafaela 9 Alcantara, Schreiber & Romero 6 Paxton & Paulino 5 Drohan 4 Wong, Perales, Wikelman, EValdez & Walter 3 Meidroth, Pivetta & E R-C 2.5 Hickey & Brannon 2.4 Abreu, DHam, Cespedes, Jordan, Wink & Monegro 2.2 Bastrado, Mata & Murphy 2.1 Encarnacion 2.0 Guerrero, Castro, Refsnyder, Bonaci, Fernandez, Blalock & Lugo

I’ve mentioned a few times how almost all the other teams in contention have serious issues, too. Some are being exposed, now. Ours were exposed, earlier and may show up again, but I’m confident our returning IL players will help us avoid anymore prolonged funks.

I was hoping we'd jump the gun on adding a SP'er, so we could lessen these pen games. We can't count on last night's example to keep repeating itself.

The only plus run diff in the NLC!

Being more aggressive has helped him enormously.

Agreed. Maybe some hot hitting team might have managed a couple bloop hits and maybe a hard hit, but his location and pitch movement were fantastic, last night. He's put together a couple 2 month or more stretches with us in the past 2 years. Maybe this one will be his third and longest.

I’m not a believer in the whole playoff/crapshoot thing, but we are on the move, and good players are soon to be returning from the IL. I’m starting to feel like I did two games before the end of the 2021 season!

Rear view mirror! I love the sound of that!

That’s always a worry, for us and the other teams, too. Funks have run rampant, this year. Hell, the O’s have almost caught the Rays! I might be blinded by our recent success, but this team looks like a winning team. I know it sounds hypocritical, as I blasted those who said, “This is who we are- a .500 team,” after a couple of our funks. Winning like this with just 2 legit SPers makes me start to think the sky might be the limit, if we ever get healthy or trade for a legit starter. Call me biased, if you wish. I won’t deny it.

The Rays are not the same Rays. The O’s look tougher. I’m beginning to think if 2 out Whit, Houck and Sale return, and we add a guy like Stroman, our pen could be a massive plus, maybe enough to make us a top 3-4 contender in the AL. Is that enough to move us into the strong contender category? I’m not sure, but I’m moving in that direction.

It seemed like others were making more defensive mistakes, before. (I don’t want to use the word “error” anymore, because so many mistakes are not called errors.)

I’d prefer it be by 10 games with the Yanks ending the season at or below .500. They are going through a stretch like we did- finding different ways to lose.

Read the post before his. I think he was responding to it.

Here are some eye-opening numbers: Out of all the significant players on the 2023 Sox to date, only 2 had over 300 PAs with the Sox in 2022 (Dugo w 644 & Devers w 614.) One could add Kike at 402 to make it 3, but even that number is amazing. 644 Dugo 614 Devers 402 Kike 396 Story (0PAs in '23, so far) 353 Dalbec 300 Arroyo 223 Duran 177 Refsnyder 108 McGuire 95 Casas 56 Wong 26 Chang On the pitching side... Before Pivetta's resurgence, one could have argued we have no significant pitchers on the 2023 roster that had more than 79 IP on the ''22 Sox: 180 Pivetta 78 Whitlock 77 Crawford 70 Wink 65 Schreiber 60 Houck 57 Bello 6 Sale

I'm starting to think TEX, BAL and TBR are within our sights, now, too.

Yanks, O's and Rays lost, tonight. We are no longer in last place. Nice to see it's the Yanks! (An added bonus) ALE -- TBR -1.0 BAL -5.5 TOR -8.0 BOS -9.0 NYY WC +5.5 BAL +1.0 TOR 0.0 HOU (did not play, tonight) -1.5 BOS -2.5 NYY -4.5 SEA -5.5 LAA -6.0 CLE (-1.5 from MIN in ALC) We got back into this thing, very quickly!

Like Houck, he struggles a lot the third time through, but with our pen, maybe we can handle that.

I think we just rediscovered our 4th starter. If Sale ever comes back, we can move 2 from Whitlock, Houck or Crawford back to the pen. Some posters is predicting Kluber rejoins the rotation and thrives. If that happens, we may have the best and or deepest Sox pen, ever! Jansen Martin Schreiber Houck (or Pivetta) Whitlcok Winckowski Crawford Bernardino

I think his 8th straight Ks was a Sox record in relief, as well.

Pretty amazing pen game highlights the depth on this team. We may be closer to top contenders than anyone expected. The players seem to believe. The D is way better with Chang back. Story can help, too. I don’t want to jinx our guy at 1B, but compared to our April 1Bman, he looks okay. The pen is solid and can get even better, when our starters return or we trade for one. For once, we have no holes on offense. With a healthy Chang, I don’t see the D losing many more games for us. Maybe I’m blinded by the recency affect.

Depends on the return cost, but I’d love to see him join the rotation and kick one of our pretend starters back to the pen where he belongs!