moonslav59

Yanks back up 5-4.

Yanks now down 4-3 in 5th. HOU over CWS 7-0 in 6th.

Constant injuries and maybe never a chance to get into a long groove. The 2 times he had over 601 PAs before going to NY, he led the league in HRs with 37 and 59.

Forget any factors about getting up with men on base or not, the #1 guy getting up to 150 more PAs than the #9 guy has to be significant. If we batted our 4 best hitters 6-9 and our worst 4 hitters 1-2-3-4, we're talking about swinging over 500 PAs from our best (.800-1.000) to our worst (.480-.680).

Sometimes it's also about which 9 to play.

They hardly ever even get into or finish 6, anymore. That being said, our starters rank 8th in IP, this year with 360.1 in 69 games. That's about 5 and a third per start, so I guess we've gone into the 6th quite often- just not lately.

Here are some example of players the Rays have acquired over the years, who end up having a career year or more with them. Please feel free to add more names. An equally long list could be complied of very good Rays players that were traded, sometimes in or before their prime, who went on to stink for their new teams, including Carl Crawford, Archer, Kazmir, Cobb, Odorizzi and now, apparently Blake Snell. Carlos Pena .789 in 7 seasons prior to TB 1.037 in 2007 (a year after playing for the Sox at .776) .871 in 2008 .893 in 2009 He dropped off after those 3 seasons (.723) with some being with the Rays. Jason Bartlett .702 with MN in 5 seasons (only one over .700) .879 the second year with the Rays in 2009 (.752 in 3 years.) .591 with the Padres after being traded to them for 4 prospects in 2010. Rafael Soriano 2.92/1.037 WHIP in 8 good seasons before TB 1.73/0.802 in one season with TB (2010) 2.94/1.215 in 2 years with the Yanks 3.15/1.181 in 2 yrs with WSH after NYY 3.13/1.206 total after leaving TB Steve Pearce .756 from 2007-2015 .729 w BAL in 2016 .908 w TB in 2016 .768 after leaving the Rays, although he did very well in 2018 TOR/BOS Logan Morrison (L0ts of 1Bmen do well in TB) .742 pre TB .813 w TBR '16-'17 .636 after TBR Tommy Pham .828 w STL pre TB .870 w TBR '18-'19 .695 after TB CJ Cron .756 LAA .816 TBR '18 .789 after Travis d'Arnaud .707 in 7 years with the Mets .783 in 2019 w Rays .813 w ATL after Last but not least, another ex Sox... Casey Kotchman .717 pre TB, including .572 w BOS in 2009 .800 w TBR in 2011 .589 after and out of baseball in 3 years after leaving (only age 30).

I'm rooting for your guys! Don't jinx this!

The guy with the .357 minor league OBP, which reminds me of Alew Hassan and his .383 minor league OBP that earned him 9 MLB PAs.

With 2 days off in the next 5 days, our starters can get some extra rest, or we can skip a start by someone and or allow Eovaldi to jump someone else's start. I'm not sure how much longer we can stick with some of these guys. At least we still get 4 or more IP for all but Perez's starts ... In reverse order: IP Runs (not ER) Pitcher 4.0 -6 Richards 4.0 -4 ERod 6.2 -0 Eovaldi 1.1 -5 Perez 5.0 -6 Pivetta 5.1 -4 Richards 4.2 -6 ERod 5.2 -5 Eovaldi 2.0 -6 Perez

I wasn't thinking of using either as an "opener" or a pitcher going after an "opener," but you are right about Gonsalves not being shelled recently.

I agree, and maybe we have some prospects that will blast their way into the top 100 or 150 in the next year or two- maybe even someone we wouldn't expect to do so. One reason we don't have many recently drafted and mostly untested draft picks in the top 100 rankings is because we have not drafted in the top 10 since Beni in 2015. Getting Casas at #26 in 2018 looks real good (props to DD for that.) We also got Duran in the 7th round, that year (#220). We got Houck at #24 in 2017, and he has not disappointed, but nobody else from that draft looks too promising, although there is still time for a surprise or two. Back 5 years ago, 2016, we had the 12th pick, which is not bad, and we took Groome. We traded our 3rd pick, Shaun Anderson) for Nunez. We drafted Dalbec in the 4th (#118), Shawaryn #148 and Nogosek #178. Back far enough to be able to at least partially judge: 2015: 7 Beni, 111 Matheny, 171 Lakins, 201 Ben Taylor, 231 Logan Allen 2014: 26 Chavis, 33 Kopeck (Ellsbury comp pick), 67 Sam Travis, 164 Ockimey The 2013 disaster: 7 T Ball, 45 Stanki, 81 Denney + nothing 2012: 24 Marrero, 31 Johnson, 37 Light, 151 Buttrey The Theo years: 2011: 19 Barnes, 26 Swihart, 36 Owens, 40 JBJ, 143 Noe Ramirez, 172 Betts 2010: 20 Vitek, 36 Brentz, 39 Ranaudo, 57 Workman,110 Coyle 2009: 28 Fuentes, 77 Alex Wilson 2008: 30 Kelly (traded with Rizzo for AGon), 45 B Price, 85 Fife, 108 Weiland, Westmoreland and Lava taken in 5th & 6th rounds, Vaz taken in 9th round. 2007: 55 Hagadone, 5th rd Middlebrooks, 6th Rizzo 2006: nothing until Masterson at #71 2005: 23 Ellsbury, 26 Hansen, 42 Buchholz, 45 Lowrie, 47 Bowden 2004: 2nd rd Pedey, 6th Meredith 2003: 1st David Murphy, 4th Papelbon Pre Theo 2002: 2nd Lester 2001: 2nd Shoppach

We have very little knowledge on who Leiter is as a person.

We really may end up needing a SP'er more than a new RP'er. Houck is not ready. Whitlock was never "stretched out." Seabold is on the IL. Ward & Mata had TJS. Gossett & Gonsalves are not on the 40 and have been shelled, recently. We could maybe get 2-3 innings from Whitlock, Sawamura, DHern and Andriese in some sort of pen or "opener" style game, but no long term fix, as of now. One has to think ERod is one big shelling away from an IL assignment- phantom or otherwise. OPS Against last 2 weeks: 1.129 Perez (.946 last 28 days) 1.123 Pivetta (.909 last 28 days) .978 Richards (.891 last 28 days) .849 ERod (.897 last 28) .793 Eovaldi (.744 in 28)

...and be noticed.

Yes, Taylor is a keeper, but he's also an example of a pitcher who struggled through 2020 and the start of his 2021 season and turned it around. I doubt Workman does what Taylor just did, but he has a good history and may not be any longer of a shot than Brennan or Ort. I wish we had Brasier ready for a look-see. What's up with Bazardo?

I guess I had bad pitching on my mind. Yes, last in BB's, 3rd in BA and T9th in OBP at .317. 3rd in SLG T3rd in OPS 3rd in runs scored

How many more clowns can we fit on that ship? I have a few more names.

The exact kind of thing the Rays are good at. Have they just been lucky, or do they see tweaks to a player's approach that can be made that the other teams don't see?

But, ironically, doesn't he kind of have to demand top bonus money from Pit and others to maybe fall to the Sox?

According to soxprospects.com, Rios has 1 option remaining. BTW, despite Dalbec's 3 hapless K's, last night, he has actually begun to show some signs of snapping out of his funk, a little bit. .767 OPS in his last 11 games (3 HR, 1 2B, 1 3B and 7 rbi) I think Cora may see that as deserving a longer look, but I'd like to see Chavis get a few chances in the next few games. I'm usually a long sample size kinda guy, but I'm done with Santana. I hope he proves me wrong, but I'm done. Workman is not looking too good, but his history may indicate he needs a longer look. He does have a better WHIP than these "keepers:" 1.714 Andriese 1.667 Brennan 1.614 Richards 1.571 DHern 1.500 Worman 1.470 ERod 1.457 Taylor 1.452 Houck 1.427 Perez Have you ever seen so many pathetic WHIP on a Sox staff? Oh yeah, I already forgot about 2020. LOL!

MLB.com just released its updated Top Draft Prospect Rankings 2021 (not a mock draft) 1. Mayer (HS SS) 2. Lawlar (HS SS) 3. Leiter (Vandy SP) 4. Watson (WF SS) 5. Davis (Louisville C) 6. Rocker (Vandy SP) 7. House (HS SS) 8. Jobe (HS SP) 9. Madden (Texas SP) 10. Cowser (Sam Houston OF) 11. Frelick (Boston College OF) 12. McLain (UCLA SS)

I'm not arguing against all these points, but would you rather have untested prospects in the top 100 or not? Even top 150?

No doubt. Maybe 3-4 years to have a pretty good idea and 5 or even more to know enough.

Our top prospects by age groupings: 20 or under 4. Jimenez 8. Aldo Ramirez 10. Yorke 15. Lugo 16.Bonaci 18. Jordan 19. Freddy Valdez (PTBNL) 27. Blalock 47. Luis de la Rosa (PTBNL) 21-22 1. Casas 2. Downs 9. Bello 11. Mata (TJS) 14. Groome 20. Rosario 22. Arauz 23. Potts 25. Winckoski 35. Howlett 23-24 3. Duran 4. Houck 7. Ward (just had TJS) 12.Song 13. Ronaldo Hernandez 30. Grant Gambrell (PTBNL) 36.Marcus Wilson 60. Tyreque Reed (Rule 5) 25 or older 6. Seabold (on IL) 17. Wong 21. Bazardo 43. Kaleb Ort Major Leaguers younger than some on this list: 24 DHern 24 Devers 25 Whitlock (just turned 25 a few days ago) 25 Verdugo (turned 25 in May) 26 Dalbec & Arroyo