moonslav59

So, from what I can see, our draftees have been placed as such: GRE (A+) Schaffner SS, Owen Hull LF SAL (A-) none FCL: Kide Adetuyi, Lucas Davenport, Kaleb LaFavor, Lanman, Kranzler, Volmerding, Luis Calderon, Lei, Evangelista, VanDeHatert P and Shelar OF, plus Mataczynski, Webster, Wills Maginnis & Colton Coates Infield Non-draftees Castro C and Revay P were placed in FCL- a roster with 23 pitchers, 4 catchers, 11 infielders and 6 OF'ers.

The Sox sent Jojo Ingrassia to DET as the PTBNL for Jahmai Jones. Ingrassia had shown some flash before his injury, namely 193 Ks and only 78 Hits in 119 IP, but the 46 BBs is the issue.

I really hate putting too much value on one game or even one series, but this game came about as close as ever in convincing me a team is damn good.

Why is you saying "he sucked last year" not "whining?" Out of all the Sox players to rant about sucking, you choose the guy who finished 2025 with the 42nd highest fWAR (2nd on the Sox.) I know you count offense as 99% of all team value, and granted Rafaela was below the average in most batting categories, but just barely and certainly not worthy of a "sucks" label. 171 out of 277 batter with 300+ PAs in OPS (62nd percentile) 124th in HRs (44th percentile) and 113th in RBI (40th percentile) The question is, out of 13 everyday players on the roster and 9 starters, you chose Rafaela to badmouth more than everyone else combined. Sure, 3-4 years ago there was plenty of reasons to do so. You chose him then, and rather than be fair and balanced, you kept bashing him rather in some vain attempt at saving face rather than just moving on to someone else. Throwing tidbits of praise periodically, often followed by absurd points, such as Ceddanne losing a game (that we ended up winning) because he failed to move a runner over is but one case. Even now, you claim he "sucked in 2025." That is neither fair nor balanced. Getting over yourself might be a good starting point, but we all know you enjoy that attention and troll for it.

We had some great internal options, many of which have moved into the rotation after opening day. (Maybe Bello moves back in, but why mess with a great 3-5 IP RP'er?) We do have some possible internal options, but I've come to convince myself never to ever count on returning IL starters ever again. We have some on the IL that have significant histories of pitching very well to great: Crochet, Houck and Crawford. Oviedo had some hopes. You are right to say we have no internal options. We need to add an innings eater who is pitching well. No more hoping on a turnaround guy, a change or scenery guy or some 44 year old future CY Young guy. We need a pitcher who has been doing well for a month or two and has a history of doing well for extended stretches. It's more important than a bat, but I'm not saying we can do without adding a significant (LH'd) bat.

The thought has to be 2B for him, and you are right about trying to get him while keeping Arias. It would certainly mean starting the offer with Eyanson, Witherspoon and probably Valera, too, so that would be a big chunk out of our pitching future, especially after just trading Early for Mead (a second baseman,) but WTH, we need a big bat and Mead can play DH or eventually 1B/LF if we have to get creative. I kinda see Abram the same way, except he's a better bat, right now. They are both just 25 years old. That's the balance tipper, to me.

While our 26 man roster looks very different from the opening day roster, almost everyone was in the system when the season began. In that sense, this is the same team that was hovering near the worst team in the AL over the first two months of the season. This team is a prime example for showing that Wins and Losses are not always the best indicator of how good or bad a team actually is. Many and mostly W-Ls are pretty close to it, but not always. That is one reason I always try to make the distinction between saying ... "This team sucks!" vs "We are playing like crap." Same with players: "He sucks" vs "He's playing really badly." Teams and players slump and streak for good and bad. There were times I wondered if the 2025 was a fluke, since I felt like we improved upon that team over the winter- on paper. I fully realize how "on paper" does not always translate to wins, and the game is played on the field not on paper, but the team looked pretty damn good to me, despite the lack of a second or even third really good hitter with power. I've always felt that most winning teams have really good pitching, especially at the top of the rotation and a closer + set up man. We had that. We also had the pitching depth that was probably the best this team ever had. (Maybe 2025 was second.) That depth has basically carried this team all year, along with a pen that quite frankly has stunned the whole league. While the rotation has rightfully gotten a lot of attention, the pen ranks 2nd in MLB in fWAR, and the starters 8th. What makes that 2nd place ranking even more remarkable is that fWAR is greatly influenced by IP, and our pen ranks 18th in IP. That is unreal! It also shows how deep our starters have gone, despite using openers in many games. ERA- has our pen 1st and our starters 7th. The starter rankings would be much higher had we not started the season with Crochet & Bello stinking up the place. They deserve to be counted, but if you look at the May 1st to now numbers, our starters rank 2nd in fWAR and 3rd in ERA-. The point about our pen was not meant to disparage the rotation. They have been nothing short of amazing. I won't get into the defense, but it has been steady all year and at nearly every position. Of course the major turnaround was mostly generated by the major batting turnaround. I'll just submit one set of numbers here: OPS by month ranking 28th MAR/APR (Team record: 12-19) 8th May (13-14 is perhaps the most puzzling month) 24th June (12-14) 5th July (21-4- compare this to May) I gotta say this team has pulled together nicely. There is still a couple months to go, and have we have seen, a team can turn on a dime, so nothing can or should be taken for granted, but this season has a magical quality to it- kinda like 2013. I'm not predicting a ring in 2026, but we have arrived as a top MLB contender- not just a top AL contender. I'm hoping Brez makes a couple significant moves to improve a couple weaker areas, but I'm also aware that this team was being built for long term success. The amount of younger players with 3+ years of control is very high, and despite the farm graduating so many key players in the past 2-3 seasons, it still looks pretty strong from the DSL/FCL to SAL & GRE to POR & WOO. The pitching issue we've had for decades looks as strong as ever, and all we might lose is Gray and Sandoval. That's not peanuts, but we have so many SP'ers on the IL, that counting on 2 to take their place is not a huge ask. The everyday player outlook is even more longer term set-up. We only lose IKF, this year and Story & Yoshida next year. None of these 3 are major components of our success. Duran leaves after 2027, and many want him gone, now. That's it! I'm trying to temper my enthusiasm, but what the HELL! Why? This team is for real, so why not expect we go far?

We've won 8 straight series and 9 out of 10. That's not easy to do, especially when you figure we beat some good teams: 4/4 v TBR #1 AL 4/4 v NYY #2 AL 2/2 v LAD #2 MLB, but was #1 when we beat them 3/3 v CWS #4 AL but were #3 when we beat them 2/3 v BAL & TOR who were in the race when we beat them 3/3 v NYM & LAA who have not been good all year.

BTV accepts: Arias & Eyanson for Neto, Soriano & Adell but also... Arias, Witherspoon, Duran, Phillips and Holobetz for the same 3 guys. We exchange Duran for the RHB Adell (16 HRs), a 3.29 ERA guy in Soriano plus a throw-in named Neto with 19 HRs and a league leading 151 Ks.

Well, maybe only if we fail to land Abram for Arias plus.

The Sox are 27-5 since June 25th, when we swept the Yanks in 4. It's nice to think the Yanks helped us break from our funk. The Yanks are also next in line. (2.5 game difference.) This is historic. Not just the 15 game streak. We've gone 12-5 sandwiching the streak.

The Sox have the 3rd best record in the AL, joining two other ALE teams. They are 7th best in all MLB with the Yanks as the closest team. -6 GB TBR -2.5 NYY +1.0 CWS +3.0 HOU +4.0 MIN & CLE (T3rd WC team) +4.5 TEX ____________________ Sox OPS Leaders: .943 Willson .798 Ceddanne .773 Andruw .747 Wilyer .708 Connor & Masataka .705 Caleb & Isiah .701 Anthony as in Seigler _______________________ ERA Starters: 2.74 Bennett 2.93 Gray 3.15 Suarez 3.30 Suarez 3.31 Sandoval ERA RP'ers 1.67 Chapman 2.03 Whitlock 2.08 Gamboa (in AAA) & Guerrero 2.66 Samaniego (In AAA, now) 2.84 Moran

Hey Larry, LOOK! Schaffner: 2-3 w 2BB and a DBL. Hull: 2-5 w 3rbi and a BB (Azocar homered in the game & went 306. Zanetello went 4-6 as GRE had 19 hits and 7 BBs in the win.) Brown went 6.1, 3H, 1ER, 1BB, 9K ______________________ Primera is a beast. 3-4 w BB in SAL's loss _____________________ POR won as Jo Garcia went 2-3 (.825) and Sansone pitched great in 4 relief IP. ________________________ Gamboa pitched well for WOO (4.2 IP, 4H, 1ER, 1BB, 4K) Eaton homered in the win.

LOL. Bello was once "proven." We coulda given DET Bello, Houck & Crawford!

After August 1, 2015, Rafaela hit... .720 from 8/2 to 8/11 .910 from 8/26 to 9/2 1.109 in his last 9 games He did not suck the whole last two months of the year. He had some ups and downs, like all players do, but for some reason, Fred is hypersensitive to Ceddane slumps. Probably because he had no faith in him getting any better from day one, when the guy was historically bad with his K:BB ratio. Want some bigger sample sizes? .776 over his last 17 games- hardly "ending the season sucking." Why choose AUG 1st? He hit .730 in his last 85 games (June 20>>>) .756 in his last 105 games. We all know why he chose AUG 1st. It's the date that gives him the worst look he could find. He actively seeks out anything and everything he can to make Ceddanne look bad. H convinces himself he is fair and balanced by saying "nice hit" when he does well. What other Sox player has he sought so much negative fodder than Ceddanne. It's neither "fair" nor "balanced." No doubt, Ceddanne still shows signs of swinging at more bad pitches than most players, but he also hit bad pitches better than most, and his overall numbers look good and have been improving from season to season for 3 straight seasons. His defense is outstanding. fWAR 2025-2026: 7.5 Ceddanne 4.4 Abreu 3.9 Duran The kid has arrived. We should celebrate it and not pick him apart.

What about Detmers 4.03 ERA/3.35 FIP or Jose Soriano 3.29/3.79? Apparently the Angels are taking calls. Wacha at 3.51/3.93 (leads the AL in IP)? Gausman 4.51/3.57? (Package with Springer?) Trevor Rogers 4.27/3.56? Robbie Ray 3.08/4.36 or Logan Webb 3.93/3.43?

i'm glad Skubal went to the NL, and when we beat the Dodgers it will be even sweeter.

Bowling if for what Duran calls certain fans.

The talk on Lugo needed some context. His contract and down numbers mean the return package should be near nil. It's not saying he's a better pitcher than Singer and others mentioned. I don't think anyone sees Lugo as our #1 target.

The trade will make beating the L. A. Skubals... errrr... I mean ... Dodgers that much more satisfying.

Just got back to Texas after 2 weeks at Sebago Lake. Nice to see a big win, and the guy who "swings at too many bad pitches" with 2 dingers.

But she ISN’T!!!

But, but, but I can find a sample size where he sucked! Thevfunny thing about Fred trying to use thr cherry/picked end of 2025 sample size to show Ceddanne is not steadily improving is that he ended the season bating .927 over the final 12 games.

Where did I say Gray was not a free agent? You guys overanalyze everything! The guys from my gym say you guys are nuts and I am always right. - from my out of body nightmare

There is a Planet Claire, though.