moonslav59

It's easy to pick out the worst of every game. It wasn't a good night for Davis, but the team picked him up, except for that 2B. I get the feeling had Barnes blown the game, you wouldn't have called it a "good move," right?

C: McGuire, Plawecki (Wong, RHern, Cottam, Hickey) 1B: Hosmer, Dalbec (Casas) 2B: Story, Arroyo (EValdez, Paulino) 3B: Devers (Jordan, Fitzy, Binelas) SS: Bogey, Downs (Mayer) LF: Pham, Duran (Abreu) CF: Kike (Rafaela, Bleis) RF: Verdugo, Refsnyder (Almonte) DH: JD, Cordero (Kavadas) SP1: Sale/Paxton SP2: Eovaldi (Bello) SP3: Wacha (Crawford) SP4: Pivetta (Winckowski) SP5: Hill (Murphy/Mata/Seabold/Song) Closer: Houck (German) RP2: Whitlock (Ward) RP3: Schreiber (Wallace) RP4: Strahm/Taylor RP5: Barnes (Thompson) RP5: Brasier/Danish (Santos) RP6: Sawamura (Feltman) RP7: Davis/Familia/Ort/DHern (Uberstine)

Pham the Man!

All around good effort.

They have a nice park. That's about it.

That's understandable, but it was not really Bloom's choice to cut the budget by so much, he was forced to trade big salary.

Wong went 3 for 4. Strahm went an inning- no hits or BBs- 1 K. Ward went 4.1 w POR. (6H 2ER 1BB 6K)

He's currently 4 for 4.

With Kike and Refsnyder now on the 26, Wacha and others back, Hosmer, Pham and McGuire added, we look like a different team than a couple weeks ago. Others still out hurt: Story: will apparently travel with Sox to Pittsburgh. Houck: receiving treatment for back Strahm: begins rehab, this week. Danish: begins rehab Wednesday Bello: will have a rehab start on Sunday Paxton: should begin rehab assignment, soon. Taylor: rehab shut down Sale: toast If Story, Houck and Strahm join the 26 man roster, soon, I'm assuming Duran or Dalbec get sent down for Story and Wink and Familia (DFA?) for Houck & Strahm. This would leave this line-up: 1. Pham LF 2. Devers 3B 3. JD DH 4. Bogey SS 5. Story 2B 6. Verdugo RF 7. Kike CF 8. Hosmer 1B 9. Plawecki/McGuire C Bench: Arroyo, Refsnyder, McGuire/Plawecki, Dalbec or Duran SP1 Wacha SP2 Nate SP3 Pivetta SP4 Crawford SP5 Hill Closer: Houck RP2: Whitlock RP3: Schreiber RP4: Brasier RP5: Strahm RP6: Sawamura RP7: Davis RP8: Barnes/Winckowski/Familia

Yolmer Sanchez DFA'd. (He can reject a transfer to the minors.) Kike and Refsnyder were activated.

Actually, it was 7 out of 8, counting Pedey who played 2B in 2017. He's gone, too.

You named 6 and said "They are gone." That implies all of them. DD traded away about 20 prospects that were once ranked in the top 20 on soxprospects.com. I'm not complaining. I loved winning the division 3 years in a row and watching the great 2018 season, but those trades that helped us win, are part of the reason Bloom was hired to rebuild the farm as a higher priority than winning in 2020, 2021 and to some extent 2022.

We've heard some good news about some hitters in the rookie leagues. Now, here are some pitching numbers. OPS Against FCL .393 Luis Perales (25 IP) #24 soxprospects.com .428 Henry Nunezn(27 IP) .510 Railin Perez (19 IP) .579 Jedisxon Paez (50 IP) #37 sp .613 Elmer Rodriguez-Cruz (28) #34sp .630 Luis Talavera (41) DSL .368 Simon Pacheco (29) .416 Alvaro Mejias (29) .500 Luis Cohen (41) .531 Eybersson Polanco (40) .537 Cristian Nunez (26) .556 Starlin Santos (30) .567 Stiwar Adames (34) .570 Royman Blanco (32) .601 Wandy Abreu (34)

How about Roman Anthony going 3 for 3? (He's 7 for 15, this year with 2 BBs 7 just 2 Ks.) BTW, 2 of Brannon's 3 hits were triples.

Devers and Bogey are gone? Did I miss something? BTW, I really liked DD but part of the reason we got where we are today was the depletion of the farm by 2019. Should Bloom have emptied the farm to win now? BRW

Even AA & AAA. I can see avoiding signing a player, long term, to play a position where you have a blue-chipper in AA or AAA, but even then, a position change or trade is always available, if there is a bottleneck.

I agree, those losses hurt more, and may have lasting affects on team morale and confidence. I also think losing on a late error or base-running blunder hurts like hell, too. That big error by Story with 2 outs and the lead, followed by a BB and a dinger was a horrible loss, and could be partially blamed for setting the tone. The games where the offense goes flat and is the main reason for a loss, don't seem to have such a lasting affect, unless the slump continues onwards.

His defense has really declined, in recent years.

Just because there was one series, where our pen sucked, but did not blow any games, doesn't mean a closer is not important or very important. Maybe others are blowing the closer impact out of proportion does not mean undervaluing the role is the right position to hold.

Isn't going from bad to worse kind of like a double negative that turns it into a positive? Am I reaching with Murphy? When things can't get any worse or chaotic, isn't there just one way to go? If anything, Murphy preaches there is not constants.

With all due respect, I think you guys have beaten this horse to death several times, already. I do the same thing, too, at times, so I'm not trying to sound holier than thou, but nothing new is being added to this debate. I will add that the team is 50-5 when ahead after 7 innings and 52-4 when ahead after 8. The numbers when tied are troubling: 8-8 after 6 5-9 after 7 4-10 after 8 7-7 after 9 One has to expect, even the teams with good closer would have lost some of these games, too, so how many "extra loses" are we talking about, here? Sure, even 2-3 would make a big difference in the WC standings, but so would just having decent 1B defense, better offense, better SP'ing, better set up men and less blunders on the basepaths or on defense. Closer has been a weak spot on this team. There is no doubt about that. It does matter. How much is debatable, and how much moving Whitlock or Houck to closer earlier would have hurt another area should be considered, too. You both have logical positions. It's time to let it go, IMO.

I was big on trying to get Stallings. He's apparently very good with the staff, too. I must have suggested 2 dozen trades with PIT to get him- sometimes with others included. I do think that was a clear sign the Sox had concerns about Vaz's intangibles on defense. His trade is more evidence that they wanted to move on from what he brought to the team, clubhouse leadership and all. I don't know enough about McGuire to comment on his intangibles, but my guess is, he falls into the Stallings, Plawecki, Leon category of working well with pitchers and doing the unmeasurable very well. I hope they know what they are doing, here. Stallings took a huge nosedive on offense in 2022. (.701 career before 2022 to .576 in '22, which looks like Plawecki material. The team is 37-42 in his starts, however, and 14-23 in games he did not start. The staff has a .690 OPSA with him catching and .738 with Fortes catching/.752 with Henry catching. The 2 years of McGuire's team control far outweighed Vaz's 2 months, IMO.

I'm not sure why you keep bringing up our record since the Vaz trade. We added Pham, McGuire and Hosmer, so the team's change goes way beyond changing our regular catcher. BTW, Vaz has started 5 of the Astros 13 games since the trade and is hitting .571 OPS. McGuire has started 5 games for the Sox and has a 1.056 OPS, so far. The sample sizes are so small, I consider them near meaningless. The team got better by the trades- both now and likely going forward, too. We got Wacha back, and maybe Kike and others will join the team, soon. I think things look brighter after the deadline.

No doubt. It was also fun as all hell to watch the low cost Uehara mow down batter after batter like no Sox RP'er had ever done before. It won't be easy finding someone even close to Koji, but I think that is the type of initial closer profile we are seeking.

Yes, I took it that way. I was just emphasizing the scope of what Bloom & Cora faced in July and early August. We did get to see some good or promising things from our farm, and some not so great, but it looks like some pieces are falling back into place, and not so coincidentally, we are starting to win again- and vs good opps, to boot.