moonslav59

I agree on Duran being deserving of a gamble of playing FT (namely vs all lefties.) My point is more about Duvall and maybe Kike being deserving of playing vs all LHPs, too- and Yoshida, Dugo and Duvall, too. Someone once pointed out, to me, that Yaz was a career .693 batter vs LHPs and was never platooned. Great point, but when you look at those rosters, .693 was better than the other options, and Yaz played plus D. Duvall is a professional hitman. He's slumping, now, but he is way more proven than Duran. I'm not trying to slight Duran. I wish we could find a way to play them all- maybe not so much Kike v LHPs, but he does have an .800+ OPS vs them, career. To me, the odd man out is Duvall. We still have depth issues at middle infield, even with Chang's return and the pending Story return. Story may need to DH, at first. I think we keep Kike for all around depth, and he won't bring back what Duvall might bring back. Also, Refsnyder makes it 5 capable OF'ers and has been one of MLB's best hitters vs LHPs from 2022 to 2023- a way bigger sample size than Duran's. That's one of MLB's best hitters- not just the Sox. What's the "fair" or "right thing" to do with him?

JD's "monster season" was more like a monster April.

...and providing context does not equate to full-fledged support.

Yes, I agreed with that after someone pointed that out, the first time I said we may have failed to have a firesale due to the fear of the massive amounts of crybaby fans in Sox Nation. I cry about crybaby fans, a lot.

Not so fast. We may be buyers at the deadline, and that added $4M could land us a $12M player (who is owed $4M for the last 2 months.) It could be added to what we have to spend, now and land an even bigger fish or two.

I agree that trading Paxton is giving up on 2023, no matter who we trade for in other deals. I do wish we had traded everyone not nailed down, last season, so I can see the reasoning, if someone thinks we have no shot, this year, and maybe we all might feel that way by August 1st. As far as the fans go, I look back at 2022 and how totally happy everyone was when we did not trade away any big stars. I'm not sure any GM can ever make the majority of Sox fans happy, so maybe just doing what you think most helps the team, by balancing the here and now with teh future and extended future is what is best for the team. Imagine, if we had traded Duran and Bello for a good pitcher, last year. Maybe we throw in Casas and get Castillo. Many fans would have been happy. Is that all that should matter? Sox Nation has too many crybaby fans to ever make them happy.

Too many Cora apologists who think he can do now wrong. (Don't ask me to name names.)

Managers make thousands of decisions every season. If I disagree with a few, it doesn't mean I think Cora was wrong. The world is not black and white, to me. there is a lot of gray. In fact, it's mostly gray. If one disagrees with Cora on 5 or 10 things out of thousands, it's entirely possible to think he's still very good or even great. Here is my biggest disagreement: too much resting of players and not synching the days off ve wrong-handed pitchers. It bugs me, but I never think "I am right, and Cora is wrong." I know Cora knows a ton more than me, and may have information that would lead me to agree with the choice he made. I'm not sure I have ever criticized a singular game move by Cora. (I even defended the choice of leaving Pedro in the game, so long ago as having some merit.) If I were manager, we'd have a losing record, and I would not rest players as much. I'm not claiming I'm "right" or anyone is wrong. Having differing opinions need not be reduced to insisting the other guy is wrong for disagreeing with my opinion.

He has yet to prove he's an overall plus catcher, for sure, but it's hard to find even adequate catchers. He apparently had already proven he was a good defensive catcher, and I get the CERA concerns. I'm concerned, too, but I do think there should be a learning curve in that area. We have seen Wong improve greatly with our staff after the first 3-5 weeks. McGuire has not played nearly as much as Wong (for good reason and due to injury,) but he should improve there, too, if he ever plays with us, again. If he never does, I still like the $5M salary dump.

Well, I disliked the signing from day one, and although saving $5M is no big deal, I really like McGuire as one of our catchers. I like the Vaz trade better, but Abreu and EValdez have yet to prove anything.

Indeed. I'm not for benching Duran vs all LHPs, but I'm also not for benching Kike (in CF or 2B) or Duvall (in LF or CF) vs LHPs either. Cora has a tough call to make. To play them all, he'd have to bench Yoshida, Dugo or Turner. I don't think anyone likes that idea, either. One easy way to fix the "problem" is to trade Duvall (or Kike.) There would still be a squeeze, but not nearly as bad. If Kike keeps sucking at the plate, the choice will be easier. BTW, the wonder of small sample sizes, that HR by Duran brought his 2023 OPS v LHPs to .708, which is now higher than Kike's in '23 (.668) but not as high as Kike's career mark or Duvall's 2023 or career mark. A couple more HRs would change that! Nice "problem" to have.

I'm a huge Cora fan, too. It seems some people think just because a choice failed, it was a mistake. It's just not true. That's not to say he's never made mistakes, but I see a guy who can lead a group of vets to the best season in Sox history (2018), as well as a highly flawed team to within 2 games of the WS (2021). He's done a lot with what he was given. Many blamed him for poor pen management, lst year, when we had very few good choices. Has he suddenly learned how to manage a pen, this year? LOL. Some blame him for using Whitlock and Houck as SP'ers. What other options were there? As it was, even the other starters were mostly worse (Richards, Kluber, Perez and a hodgepodge of wannabes. I've had my differences of opinion on some things he does, but I'll never say he was wrong in those choices. He knows way more than I do.

Lefty righty spilt are not “metrics,” and they were around for decades. I’d love to see Duran play everyday and prove he can hit lefties better than he has. I’d also love to see Duvall hit lefties, and maybe Kike, too. Duran does bring more to the game than meets the eyes, and by the way, WAR has captured that very well, but he has sucked vs lefties and has to earn a FT role. Kike is a very good defensive CFer, too, and Duvall is not bad. They both have earned the right to play vs lefties- just not Kike at SS. It’s not an easy call. I’d be fine with any of the 3 vs LHPs. I can see why Cora wants to keep his whole team sharp. I can see why Duran should get a chance, too. Im just not sure now is the time to run the experiment.

The highest ranked prospects that were not rated in April: 32. Monegro 36. Dobbins 37. Blalock 46. Arias 47. Jacques 49. Lira 50. Yuten 52. Liu 55. Gambrell 56. I Coffey 57. J Ramirez 59. Sogard 60. Fitzy

Had someone said we'd be 4 games up on the Mets and 5 up on the Padres on July 8th, most of us would have thought we'd be having a very good year We are on pace to go 85-77 (very close to 84-78, too.)

Who would have thought BAL and AZ would be top 4 MLB teams. MIA and CIN top 8 teams. The Sox have the 15th best record. 14 better/15 worse. We are -1 from #14 MIL -1.5 from #13 SFG -2.0 from #10 TOR, NYY & PHI -3.0 from #8 HOU & CIN -4.0 from #7 LAD -4.5 from #6 MIA -5.0 from #4 AZ & TEX That being said, we are 5 games ahead of the 9th worst teams in MLB (SDP & CHC at 41-47.)

The salary should not matter, as we can pay down all or most of any salary to improve the return, if needed.

soxprospects.com updated their rankings on July 6th: https://www.soxprospects.com/index.html (Casas graduated and was #2 April 5th) +/- not counting Casas graduating 1. Mayer 2. Bleis 3. Rafaela 4. Anthony +6 5. Yorke 6. Drohan +6 7. Perales 8. Romero -2 9. Wikelman +3 10. EValdez +4 11. Walter -3 12. Bonaci +10 13. Murphy +2 14. Meidroth +14 15. Jordan +2 16. Joh Garcia (not in top 30 in April) 17. Paulino -8 18. Mata -14 19. E R-C -4 20. Abreu +3 21. Hickey -3 (not sure why) 22. D Ham +3 23. Cespedes 24. Castro 25. Guerrero Other movers: +16 A Bastardo +11 Rogers +5 R Fernandez +4 Ravelo -5 C Coffey -8 Alcantara -14 Kavadas -11 F Encarnacion -15 Koss -22 Lugo

Actually, they do. Choice 1: Give Duran a chance to show he can hit LHPs and play FT in CF. Choice 2: Bat the .800+ career OPS vs LHPs Kike v LHPs and sit Duvall. Choice 3: Trade Duvall.

BAL is tied with TBR in the loss column, but have 4 less wins. (2 GB) MIN is now 0.5 behind the 45-44 Guardians. HOU is now 2 GB TEX. ATL is 9.5 up on MIA CIN up 2 on MIL AZ up 1 on LAD and 3.5 on SFG Some NL surprises: NYM 42-46 (18 GB) SDP 41-47 (10 GB) STL 37-52 (12.5 GB) PHI 48-40 is not bad but 12 GB ATL and 2.5 GB MIA for 2nd place.

HOU ended up beating SEA. Wild Card Standings +5.0 BAL +1.0 HOU --- NYY --- TOR -2.0 BOS -4.0 LAA -4.0 MIN (CLE is now in 1st) -4.0 SEA

He does, and yes wrist injuries can destroy seasons. His leash should be short, but I feel he does deserve a chance to find his groove. That early season glimpse was a nice tease.

Yup. Good thing I and Sox management don't believe that most recent small sample sizes rule over all decisions. If that was so, Duran would not be playing on the big club. How about the 894 PA sample size from 2019-2021? .236 64 165 (led league in RBI way back in '21.) That comes to this over 650 PAs: .236 46 122 I realize he may never hit like this again, but I do think he deserves a chance.

Woo won 8-4 Bleier 1.2 IP, 1H, 0ER, 0BB, 2K Abreu 2-3 w HR DHam 2-4 w 2B, BB (Throwing error) Raff 2-5 w 2B POR won 4-2 Gambrel went 8: 9H, 2ER, 1BB, 7K (3.75 ERA) Rosier 2-4 w 2B Binelas homered, again. GRE won 7-2 Rogers 4.2y, 4H, 2ER, 3BB, 3K Anthony continues raking AA ball (3-5 w HR) SAL completes the whole system sweep, today by winning 11-1. Perales 5IP, 1H, 0ER, 4BB, 4K Brannon 2-5 w HR (1.095 OPS at A Ball) DSL teams won 2 of 3 games.

OPS since May 1st .872 Yoshida .868 Turner .831 Refsnyder .806 Duran .803 Devers .782 Casas ,778 Verdugo .717 Wong .702 Reyes .701 Arroyo ERA since May 1st 1.31 Martin 1.98 Murphy 2.39 Bello 2.42 Sale 2.70 Paxton 3.04 Bernardino 3.12 Walter 4.29 Jansen 4.30 Wink 4.38 Crawford 4.67 Pivetta 4.79 Whitlock 5.40 Houck