moonslav59

It's early, but here are some small sample size numbers from the rookie leagues: DSL Red .940 Frank Aastacio (68 ABs) .857 Axel james (85) .855 Ronny Ramirez (67) .734 Freili Encarnacion (121- 3 HRs) DSL Blue 1.146 Anger Romero (12 ABs- love the name!) .889 Amando Sierra (171- 5 HRs) .791 Jose Mendez (115) .776 Kelvin Diaz (5 HRs) FCL (Overall) .959 Lyonell James (90) .896 Miguel Bleis (153- 5 HRs leads team) .880 Johnfrank Salazar (101) .838 Daniel McElveny (64) .804 Alan Castro (99- 3HRs)

Good suggestions. Just stating something, without prefacing it with "I think..." often comes across as a statement of fact rather than opinion.

So, this might be okay? LF: Pham/Duran platoon CF: Nimmo RF: Verdugo 4th/5th OF'er: Refsnyder Since none are suited to DH, do we really want to carry 5 OF'ers out of our 13 positional players? 2 catchers 2 1B/DH Hosmer & Casas or Dalbec 2B SS 3B That leaves just 1 utility IF slot and our back-up 1Bman at DH. I'm still thinking one of our LF is their best position OF'ers should be traded, and it should not be a RH'd one like Pham or Refsnyder. I guess we can stash Duran or Ref at AA to prolong the choice, but why look for better options?

Yes. There are a few 17 & 18 year olds in the Rookie leagues, but when Devers was hitting .773 in A_ and .779 in A+ ball, he was mostly facing 20-23 year olds- some even older, none younger. Here are some comps, I pulled up... Devers Age 17: .858 Gulf .984 DOSL Age 18: .773 GRE A- (.689 in winter ball) Age 19: .779 at SAL A+ (.579 winter ball) Bogaerts 17 .819 DOSL Rk 18 .834 A- 19 .883 A+ .948 AA 20 .909 AA .822 AAA 50 PAs in BOS in 2013 (.684) Moncada 17 .762 Cuban League 18 .771 Cuban League 19 none 20 .817 A- 21 .923 A+ .910 AA (.829 Fall league) 20 PAs in BOS .513 Traded 22 .823 AAA .750 MLB 22 Bleis .751 DOSL in 136 PAs .896 in FCL in 167 PAs, so far

He did do very well in the rookie leagues at 17, but then he did not do all that great at A and A+ ball when 18 & 19. He busted out at age 20 at AA (.944) and AAA (1.047) before joing the Sox later in the 2017 season, where he hit .820. Age 17: .858 Gulf .984 DOSL Age 18: .773 GRE A- (.689 in winter ball) Age 19: .779 at SAL A+ (.579 winter ball) We've had plenty of players with much better numbers than these, but not so many at these ages.

There are probably several other smart baseball people who think Whitlock should remain in the pen as a long man, and maybe a few that want him as a 1 inning closer. IMO, more people see him as being best used as a starter, since that is where the best pitchers, capable of going long innings, are going to give the most value, due mostly to getting 80-100 more IP than a traditional closer gets and maybe 40-80 over most long man RP'ers. Eck is a smart guy, and I like him, and he is a fair point to bring up, but my guess is, the vast majority of GMs and managers would try to put Whitlock in the rotation, based on his ability to go long innings and a skillset that is conducive to starting (and relieving).

Even wins and losses in games started can be deceiving, but here's a look: 10-4 Wacha 5-4 Whitlock 6-5 Wink 9-9 Eovaldi 2-2 Houck 11-12 Pivetta 4-5 Crawford 1-2 Davis 0-2 Sale 0-3 Davis

...Or, had he had better starter depth, Houck and Whitlock could have remained in the pen, all year. The pen has been doing fine, since both joined it. -Had Crawford pitched this well, the first time up, and been used as a SP'er- not RP'er early on, maybe we would not have needed Houck and Whitlock in the pen, so much. -Had Wink been called up before Seabold... -Had Wacha, Hill and Nate all gotten hurt at the same time... -Has Sale or Paxton actually helped, late season,... It took a lot to go wrong, for this mess to have occured. Add to this the fact that every single returning vet, except Houck, who stayed about even, declined from 2021 to 2022. That's awfully hard to overcome.

There are many very knowledgeable baseball people who think Whitlock would be best used as a SP'er. Many of the best baseball minds disagree on a few things.

Better put than I tried to say. Trades are made, every year. We lost a good player in Vaz, but like you said, we got better, overall. If players were hanging their heads over the Vaz loss, maybe we need bigger changes than I imagine we do.

He's a FA, so we'll have to outbid the other teams or offer hima QO, which would probably take.

Yes, and to add to this, the Yanks made a few high profile moves at the deadline to give the team the impression they cared. I thought thatw as supposed to motivate a team. LOL.

Agreed. I was going to bring up the "I'm the shortstop" thing again, but I caught so much grief over it, that I chose not to do it. It did seem like Bogey stepped up his defensive game, this year, and I'm not attributing that to the Story acquisition, but his offense certainly took a hit, particularly with his power and hitting when it counted most. The whole "team leadership" thing is hard to quantify, but I do think it is real, but my point has been, recently, that if someone is to be praised as a team leader, and his team seems to be lacking focus, making mental mistakes over and over and seemingly just going through the motions, shouldn't those leadership skills be called into question just like a slumping player's offensive skills are questioned? When Vaz was traded, where were Bogey and JD taking up the slack and directing the team to stay focused and concentrate on the improvements made to the team, and the fact that the WC was still in reach? Maybe they tried their best. Who knows what was said and done. I don't trust media reporting, but teh team did lose focus. That's not only on Cora, but it's also on the clubhouse leaders, too.

Indeed, and again, I'm not against the idea.

True, but the late Story signing took the heat off needing a big RH'd bat. It was only the injury to our only RH'd OF bat, Kike, that exposed the weak link. Ref ended up filling in very well, after he was called up and until he got hurt, but yes, nobody saw him as a viable OF option back in March.

I also think the plan is to have him start, next season, perhaps with no innings restrictions. I'm not against the idea, but he's been so great in the multiple inning, high leverage relief role. If Houck comes back and looks assuring as the closer, I'd be more inclined to support moving Whitlock to the rotation. As of now, I'd like to see us add a solid #1/2 type, give Wacha a QO for the #2 slot, hope Sale or Paxton are healthy (not both) for the 3 slot, and then hand the #4 slot to Pivetta. The 5 slot can be filled by the best of Crawford, Winckowski, Bello, Mata and others. (The others add depth to the farm or pen.)

Like we have with Story- the actual RH'd bat we did sign that likely convinced Bloom that Kike was the only RH'd bat we needed in the OF to start the season off. Also, why no love (or credit) for Refsnyder?

soxprospects says "late 2024," but I think earlier is entirely possible.

I'm all for this plan!

Sale wasn't even on my list. Barnes was from before DD, but Bloom extended him, so he counts as a Bloomer.

3 out of our top 30 prospects, of which 10 are pitchers, so maybe 3 out of 20? Bleis might be plus. Casas is close to avg/plus. Wong looks good. Maybe that number is closer to 5 or 6 out of 20. I heard Enmanuel Valdez is a whiz on defense at DH.

A couple more games like this, and it's a lock. Too bad Bloom gave Diekman the 2 year deal, not Wacha. BTW, has anyone figured out how Bloom actually got something decent in return for DFAiekman?

Like Ort (minor league Rule 5)? LOL. (just kidding)

Jimenez, too, but he may never sniff a ML bench. Mayer appears to be a plus.

We hear a lot about how long we have to wait to start seeing the fruits of farm building. Here is soxprospects.com's estimated times of arrival for our top and notable prospects: 2022 3. Bello 9. Winckowski 12. Seabold 17. Wong 2023 2. Casas 6. Mata 7. Walter 11. Murphy 16. E Valdez 30. F German 2024 1. Mayer 4. Yorke 8. Rafaela 15. Ward 21. Lugo 26. W Abreu 28. Binelas 29. Jimenez 2025> 5. Bleis 10. Romero 13. Paulino 14. Anthony 18, Jordan 19. Gonzalez 20. Coffey 22. Hickey 25. Kavadas 24. Perales 27. Bonaci The list looks nicely balanced, assuming our top prospects amount to something special, and we have a lot of interesting talent becoming ML ready by the end of 2023. We also have some very talented players about to be added to the 40 for Rule 5. 10 players- should be ready by 2023 or were already called up. Plus, there is no Noah Song or RHern on this top 30 list- both might contribute, someday.