moonslav59

The poster who wanted him the most always disses "last year."

Some still wish we signed Schwarber, right?

Interesting how TOR won 6 of 7 before being swept by the Sox, and they just won the first 2 vs a hot PIT team. The Yanks beat TBR and BAL is losing by one to ATL, late.

Haven't heard much lamenting for DD, recently. I wonder why.

He's pretty close to what our DH gave us, last year. I hope he continues his second half tradition.

Kluber seems to be doing just enough to keep getting another look. Plus, it's not like we have anyone to replace him, right now.

I fully agree, and sometimes that sort of play and attitude rubs off on others.

Walter still looks far from ML ready. Woo did get the win in game 1, despite Walter going: 5 IP 8 Hits 4 ER 2 BB 6 K Abreu 2-4 w HR and 3 rbi RHern 2-4 w HR and 4 rbi Hamilton 1-2 w 2 BB and his 20th SB

He waits until a play is white hot and then rests him.

We can get pretty close to that with everyday players, but the staff will take a long time, if ever. I'm not sure we have ever had a successful pitching staff with even half homegrown pitchers.

Makes sense. There was someone else arguing Arroyo was clearly better than Kike, I would not be so surprised to see Kike back, next year. Cora really likes him. It is Duvall's last year, but if Story will play 2B, and Duran wins the FT CF job, maybe not. If he does not hit well, this year, Kike may not make $10M in 2024.

It's too early to draw definitive judgments. Only 1/5th of the season has been played. It is interesting to break down the leaders into groups: TBR (28th in spending): the quintessential spread the meager wealth out as evenly as possible. Strong farm, strong player development, great scouts that find under the radar ML talent at lower costs. BAL (29th in spending): spent years going cheap and stockpiling high draft picks on the farm. Those kids are maturing before our eyes, ATL (8th in spending): locks up their talent early at discount rates. Strong farm. Loses top talent, often. PIT (27th in spending): the real shocker, here. May not keep this up. BOS (14th): accused of going small market.

I'm not egttinng how a 3 game hot streak by Arroyo jumps him over Kike at 2B, or are you putting Mondesi over Kike?

It's hard to know if a 100% healthy Paxton is equal to the Paxton from several years ago. We can only hope.

Like I said before, you have been a beacon of light about the Sox since I have known you.

You do seem more hopeful about the rotation than I do, right now, but I have been more hopeful and optimistic about improvement than just about everyone else. On McGuire and Wong, I don't go by small sample sizes, and Wong's is tiny. I like Wong. He was supposed to have issues with defense, but he has looked fine, so far- even better than McGuire is a few areas, including pop times and controlling the running game. It looks like McGuire will start 2 of our starters or 2 of every 5 games, so it's not like Bloom & Cora have given up on him. Why do I seem to like McGuire more than some on this site? 1, What's not to like about his .843 OPS since joining the Sox, and that sample size is over double the size of Wong's 2023 OPS of .804. OPS w SOX .843 McGuie in 164 PAs .732 Wong in 148 PAs over 2+ Years 2. McGuire was known for his defense. It hasn't looked great, this year, but it should even out. (He may also be playing hurt, now.) 3. L/R splits don't really matter once the binky tandems are set up, but both have reverse splits, this year. Wong is better vs RHPs, while McGuire is better vs LHPs. Career Wong: .854 v R (94 PAs)/.535 v L (54 PAs) McGuire: .729 v R (585)/ .534 v L (145) It's always nice to have 2 strong catchers. I was one of the few posters who felt the catcher position was not one of our highest winter need areas. I felt like McGuire and Wong could match or exceed what Vaz & Plawecki gave us, with better D and maybe close to the same O. So far, the O has been better, but it is early.

Good point on the DFA then trade aspect of dumping Barnes. I like Barnes, but he imploded very quickly and thoroughly. I'm not thrilled seeing Bleier come in, but I do feel better than when Brasiort comes in.

I was always high on Valdez. The guy hit very well for two years in the minors, and kills RHPs. I knew he was not good on D, but figured he could platoon 2B, DH or maybe 1B/LF, someday. I didn't expect us to be praising him in May. I was higher on Wink than others, before this year, but that doesn't matter. Crawford surprised me.

Yes, if your glass is half full. Chang stopped the bleeding at SS, and filled an important need. He started 13 games and we went 7-6 in those starts.

The health of several pitchers just adds to an already very questionable rotation. If all were healthy I might say our best starters would be: 1. Sale 2. Houck 3. Whitlock 4. Bello 5. Crawford 6. Pivetta 7. Kluber/Paxton (Drahan, Mata, Walter, Murphy) (I might rank Wink in the top 5, but we need to not mess him up.

He was doing well, and did help the D get back to near respectability, but I'm not sure "major" contributor fits. His bat was very bad.

Today, the Sox sit all alone with the 5th best record in all of MLB. We are just 1/2 game behind the Pirates and 3 behind the O's for the second best record in MLB.

It looks like the 3+ years it took Bloom to build up the bottom of 40 man roster depth to respectability, while many of us, myself included, lamented the neglect of the top of the 40, particularly getting us an ace, has finally begun to show some results. We saw some spatterings of success, along the way (Whitlock, Renfroe, Arroyo, Schreiber, Refsnyder, the '21 Kike and a few others,) but not like this. I'd add McGuire to your list.

We might have to call him up quickly, just to say we got at least 1 IP from him, here.

And, they have/ had... Betts JD Pillar Hembree Price Kelly