moonslav59

OPS Leaders on the Farm: .976 Rafaela (13 HRs and 38 XBHs in 238 ABs) .974 Kavadas (10 & 26 in 174) .952 Refsnyder (6 & 20 in 147) .910 Duran (6 & 23 in 177) .899 Lugo (9 & 31 in 218) .892 Mayer (4 & 19 in 122) .864 Northcut (21 & 28 in 210) .864 Granberg (1 & 15 in 140) .856 Hickey (4 & 14 in 121) .834 Sikes (3 & 19 in 133) .818 Binelas (12 & 20 in 194) .817 Paulino (5 & 30 in 226) .817 Sanchez (7 & 18 in 194) .816 Casas (6 & 15 in 129) .810 Fitzy (11 & 24 in 222) .765 Jordan (4 & 23 in 217 .762 Castellanos (8 & 24 in 219) .749 McDonough (7 & 20 in 225) .748 Koss (6 & 16 in 205) Some early numbers from the DSL & FCL (small samples of 15+ ABs) 1.256 Sierra 1.250 Garcia 1.218 Liriano 1.156 Noria 1.128 Mendez 1.060 Asencio 1.050 James 1.045 Rojas 1.014 Mieses w WOR (went on IL)

I forgot to put two players that have already been DFA'd, this year on the 2022 list: Arauz and Shaw.

Papelbon had some long stretches of near complete dominance and little drama, but I agree: Koji was put us all at ease. His OPS Against numbers for that year or two were better than Mo.

It was one game- a real bad one for Houck. We are lucky we still got the win. I'm still hopeful Houck is the man to close, but the deadline may be too far away, if he doesn't work out in the closer role. Trades do happen in June and early July. It may need to happen, here, but not based on one game.

I'm mad at Houck for not taking one (a VAX) for the team.

They may end up with more wins than the 2018 Red Sox, but without a ring, I have to think Yankee fans will be greatly disappointed.

Agreed. I know Bloom has taken a lot of grief for not having a better contingency plan for a 6th starter, and the criticism has merit, but there was only so much to spend and a bunch of holes to fill. We might have a lot more wins, if Sale has been healthy and pitching well.

That would be me, and I still think he might be our best choice. (I think Whitlock would have been, too, but maybe in a more unconventional sense, where he could go more than 1 IP more often than is the norm for traditional closers.)

Actually, he wanted Whitlock as the closer.

Schreiber and Strahm did fine.

So, now the idea of Houck as the closer is in question.

WOW! Simply, Wow!

Don't let Goldschmidt or Arenado get up.

The Sox have 299 RBI on the season. Devers and Story account for 86 of them. Almost 30% in 21% of the PAs!

For 3 seasons, these guys out hit Papi & Manny's best 3 year stretch: 1948 .369 25 126 Williams (1.112 OPS) .269 29 137 Stephens (.821) (Note: Doerr was .285 27 11 and .891 for the 2nd place Sox) 1949 .343 43 159 Williams (1.141) .290 39 159 Stephens (.930) (Doerr: .309 18 109 & .890) 1950 .317 28 97 Williams in 89 games 1.099 .295 30 144 Stephens (Dropo: .322 34 144 & Doe .872rr .294 27 120)

Ruth & Gehrig

The no-hitter and 3-hitter by the Dean brothers in a DH is right up there, too.

True, but we have a lot of those lesser pitchers, and we might only need 1-2 to stick as a capable 5th starter or pen arm, where one can get by a little easier on one "plus pitch."

The mighty O's shut out the Rays, today.

Story Land = RBI Land

I did. my point was, however, that the bottom of the 40 man roster is now at a point where it seems the choices are much harder. The players are much less "crummy," but you'd never know that reading the game threads. (My top 3 were Brasier, Diekman and Plawecki or Sawamura- only because we have 4 catchers on the 40.) At the risk of upsetting anyone who hates my lists, I think these are very eye-opening and place great emphasis on just how bad the bottom of the 40 was after 2019. Granted, many were chosen by Bloom at or near the min wage, but when you are forced to cut salary, it is what it is. Some of the many players who populated the bottom of the 40 in 2020, and remember, if the season had been 162 games not 60, we might have seen more names: Listed in order of most PAs or IP (I guess some would have to be called top 15 or 20 out of 40, at some point... Chavis Pillar Peraza Plawecki Arauz Lin Munoz Puello Grullon Lucroy Perez (#1 in IP) Weber (#3) Valdez 4 Mazza 5 (was crummy for us) Godley 6 Brewer 7 Brasier 8 Springs 10 (was crummy for us) pro-rated to 50 IP!!! Brice 11 (pro-rated to 50 IP) Osich 13 Covey 14 Kickham 15 Stock 16 (Pro-rated to 35 IP) Walden 17 (same) Hart 18 (to 26 IP) Hembree 20 M Hall 21 DHern 22 Triggs 23 Lever 26 Tapia 27 That's 31 names. Maybe discount 2-3 as not worthy for a crummy label, and we're still at 28-29 names cycling through the bottom 20-25 slots over the season. To me, this is STUNNINGLY HORRIFIC! (THis is where some context is needed when remembering just what the starting point was for Bloom. Then, factor in no Betts, no Price, no sale, no ERod and just a quarter season from Beni and three-quarters for Nate. (Note, I only listed players who played and not guys like Jeff Bandy & CJ Chatham.) Now, we will see a marked improvement in 2021, and instead of 20-25 slots where replacement level or worse players were recycled, we see about 8-12 somewhat "crummy" labeled players in the bottom of the 40. Again, listed in order of PAs or IP: Marwin (8th in PAs & was DFA'd) Plawecki 11 Cordero 13 (sucked back then) Santana 14 (127 PAs!) Chavis 16 (Is playing better for PIT, now) Arauz 17 DFA'd this season Lopez Wong Munoz Motter Richards 4th 137 IP (Not really bottom 10-20. Perez 5th 114 IP (same) Ottavino 8th (same) Sawamura 10 DHern 13th 40 IP Valdez (same) Andriese 15th 37 IP was DFA'd Workman (acquired) Brice 20th 12 IP Brasier 21 Weber 22 Peacock 23 Feliz, Gonsalves, Bazardo, Seabold, Brennan, Espinal, Crawford, Brewer, Ort I got a little loose here, so let's say 25 names cycling through the bottom 10-15 slots. Now, 2020's worst players on the 40: (In order of 40 man roster seniority) Brasier DHern Valdez (Arroyo?) Groome Wong Seabold Sawamura RHern Crawford Downs Winckowski Diekman Robles (Some on this list do not deserve to be associated with the word "cummy," and to me, this list shows a vast improvement from 2020 and even 2021. is it just me?

Both Jordan and Curry have that sparkle in their eye and a likeable smile. That, and being great.

Maybe Duran's ceiling is an injured Sizemore.

DFA'ing Plawecki and calling up Wong does not help the 13 pitcher rule, either, so it ain't happening, but the list of crummy players at the bottom of the 40 is shorter and not as bad as it was, even just 2-4 months ago. Bloom has done a pretty good job finding role players and promising prospects that don't scream out "DFA ME!" I know that's a low bar to set, but it does show progress in that area.

I thought so. I guess it’s a good sign to finally get to the place where choosing someone to DFA is getting a little more difficult. My DFA lists used to be 5-7 players long. Now, I’m looking at Plawecki, Brasier or even Diekman or Sawamura.