moonslav59

As bad as things look, the AL is in pretty poor shape, these days. A team as bad as we are is just 2 games from the middle of the pack (mid 5 teams) and 3.5 games from being a top 5 AL team by record. More interesting is the fact that 3 of those top 5 teams are the Rays, Athletics and Guardians. Hell the CWS are 6th best!

Whitlock has not looked the same. Chapman, too. Nobody looks ready to step up and take up some slack in the pen. We've already run out of starters that might have been able to help. Pitching was supposed to be the strength that carried the worsened offense and then some. With half the staff on the IL, there is little hope for a near term winning stretch, and even treading water for at least a week or two seems too difficult.

Durbin has been horrific, and I'm not sure that's even a strong enough word. I think the idea was that Contreras would do better than Toro, Lowe & Co at 1B to make up for the drop off from 2/3 of a Bregman season to a full Durbin season. Maybe they forgot about the loss of Devers.

If you post where we're ranked, it means the other teams matter.

I'd like to say, "Learn your lesson well," but we all know this winter will bring the next one.

It looked like another loss all along, then some imposter team showed up for the 7th inning.

By soxprospects.com... https://news.soxprospects.com/2026/05/april-players-of-month-franklin-arias.html

Gumby might be a better pitcher.

I have no idea who is better, but... OPS Against with WOO: .945 Gamboa (15K-5BB in 13 IP) .511 Guerrero (13K-4BB in 12 IP) .636 Kahnle (8K-4BB in 9.1 IP)

Crochet & Suarez, too.

It was not intended, and I don't think player leadership is over-rated.

Cason homered twice in FCL's first game.

Maybe Story ends up having the same fate as Devers, except some money will have to be included in the dump. (How many teams want Story? Hint: the number is very rounded.)

How about the Pirates? 18-16 and in last place. 7 batters over .710 6 batters over .750, 5 over .770 and 4 over .815 Their two top batters were under-the-radar winter additions: .895 B Lowe .888 O'Hearn Remind me who is their baseball operations guy? ---------------------------------- How about those 20-13 Cardinals, wo traded away much of their veteran leaders (Contreras, Gray, Arenado & Donovan)? Who is the guy in charge there? ---------------------------------- Note: this is not meant as a wish we still have Ben or Chaim in charge. This is just a public service announcement.

We have limited options, but yes, we keep playing the cold bats and on top of that, they bat in the top 3 slots almost exclusively. How long is the leash? Yoshida is at .321 OPS since April 21st. Maybe an extreme line-up shake-up could send a message, but I'm not sure Yoshida deserves to play more. Bat Duran 9th maybe? Move Anthony to the 5 slot? Who bats 1-2-3-4 besides Contreras and Abreu? Maybe try Mayer & Rafaela? Hell, .650 and .700 beats .550 by a lot.

There are some obvious reasons why some our worst performers have gotten more playing time than others doing better, but I do wonder sometimes if sticking with these guys is the best philosophy. (Also moving them down in the line-up or trying them in the pen is another option over benching.) OPS listed in order of most PAs: OPS Against in order of most PAs against: SP'ers .723 Early (151 PAs Against- his control issues need to be fixed) .818 Crochet (138- to have any chance, we need him back and in form) 1.074 Bello (133- may be demoted to pem AAA or IL when Gray returns) .553 Suarez (132- is now our "ace.") .743 Gray (99- may come off IL on Wednesday) .532 Tolle (42- looks to own a rotation slot, now) .794 Bennett (20- deserves another start or two?) 1.378 Oviedo (18- on 60 Day IL) --------------------------- RP'ers .851 Watson (96- much as mop up) .573 Moran (76- surprising as #2 in IP) .857 Weissert (56-sucked early on) .685 Whitlock (51- mostly high leverage) .549 Kelly (46- surprisingly low OPSA) .515 Samaniego (41- might pitch more going forward) .573 Chapman (37- still getting the job done) .736 Coulombe (36- meh) .713 Anderson (32- yo-yo w Woo) .452 Slaten (14- can't stay healthy) 1.064 Uberstine (11- on IL) .200 Eduardo Rivera (10- may get another look-see) _______________________ The Offense: .545 Story (139 PAs- this needed to change) .846 Contreras (137- Mr. Steady) .849 Abreu (135- as been moved up in the line-up) .683 Anthony (124- not really any better options) .520 Durbin (118- do we have a better 3Bman?) .517 Duran (117- has batted very high in line-up when playing) .703 Rafaela (112- should play more and maybe bat higher?) .661 Mayer (92- no better option) .609 Narvaez (70- mix w Wong) .727 Yoshida (60- maybe play over Duran?) .678 Monasterio (48- play over Durbin/Story more?) .692 Wong (47- mix w Narvaez) .499 IKF (37- has not played much)

Yes, it was. GG is a great poster and offers unique and sometimes funny and entertaining insights. I don't always agree, but he makes sense and offers supporting ideas when challenged.

No Story today. Duran LF .394 last 7 days/.513 last 14 days Contreras 1B 1.021 last 7 days/.798 last 14 days Anthony DH .675 last 7/ .658 last 14 days Abreu RF .900 last 7/ .815 last 14 days Monasterio SS .286 last 7/ .656 last 14 days Mayer 2B .666 last 7/ .846 last 14 days Rafaela CF .684 last 7/ .654 last 14 days Narvaez C .644 last 7/ .933 last 14 days Durbin 3B .473 last 7/ .656 last 14 days

I agree with Fred a lot.

So, it's impossible that your winter moves were a plus, but the team still plays worse? It's not obvious. We agree, he left a gaping hole on a power bat, but you'd have been fine with his winter moves had he signed Alonso and all his actual moves, right? We coulda signed Alonso & Bregman plus not changed any other moves except the Durbin trade, and you'd have been thrilled. (We might have one more win.) Would it have been "obvious" he was a failure had this happened, too? If yes, then your ideas were failures, too.

Is one year clearly better than the other? 2025: The Crochet deal & Chapman signing were fantastic- the rest is TBD or bad Traded for: Crochet (Teel, Montgomery, Meidroth, Wikelman) Narvaez (ER-C) Fajardo (Booser) Moran (Gasper) Signed: Buehler ($21M) Sandoval ($19M) Chapman ($11M) Wilson(2.3M) _______________________________ 2026:: Left a big hole on a power bat but fortified the pitching (on paper) Traded for: Gray (Fitts & Clarke) Contreras (Dobbins, Fajardo & Aita) Oviedo, Guzman & Samaniego (JhGarcia & Travieso) Bennett (Perales) Durbin, Monasterio, Comp pick & Seigler (Harrison, DHam & Drohan) Ziehl (Hicks, Sandlin) TGray, RHern,Ward, Heyman & Jackson (Bernardino, Murphy, LGuerrero, Hoppe, Grissom) Signed: Suarez ($26M) Chapman ($13M) _____________________________ Much is still TBD, and I did not count in season trades from 2025, like Priester & Newcomb and Matz & DMay.

Wow! What a race! Last to first, and it looked like Golden Tempo was 7 or 8 lengths back heading into the final stretch. Shazam!

Since the 1932 season, when the Sox went 43-111 (.279) here are the worst losing percentages: .394 2026 .400 2020 .422 1960 .438 2014 .444 1966 .447 1943 .448 1954 .451 1992

Everyone agrees, except maybe notin. We don't agree Bregman filled the big bat need. He made some very bad adds in 2025 and left holes then, too. With a limited budget that happens, a lot.

Breg is an all star: I agree. He's not an all star bat based on two good half years in 4 seasons.