moonslav59

Note the ages. Houck AAA 3.86/1.464 in just 28 IP (age 23-25) AA 4.25/1.427 in 83 IP (age 23) A+ 4.24/1.429 in 119 IP (age 22) A- 3.63/1.299 in 22 IP (age 21) Total: 4.14/1.421 (252 IP) Garcia AAA 5.34/1.509 in just 56 IP (age20-22) AA 3.53/1,210 (age 20) A+ 1.96/1.065 (age 19) A 3.76/1.008 (age 19) Total: 3.46/ 1.184 (309 IP)

Garcia did "show he can" in a larger MLB sample size than Houck - twice as large as Houck's 2020 sample size. 2020 34 IP 1.194 WHIP 5.50 K/BB 4.15 FIP Yes, the 4.98 ERA does not help his case, but he outpitched Houck in the minors at levels where he was 2 years young all along the way. Are we really looking at Houck's 17 IP sample size in 2020 as the over-riding factoid?. If yes, why are we ignoring his 10 inning 2021 numbers? 1.452 WHIP 4.35 ERA

A lot of pitching is about timing. Ben had Porcello for a 7-15 4.92 season. Later, he won the Cy Young. Ben had Wade Miley. Wish we had him, now. Ben picked up Rich Hill for peanuts, but he failed to keep him around. Ben not only had ERod, he got him for us for 2 months of Andrew Miller. Yes, he swung and missed on Joe Kelly, and Buch fell apart at the seams, but I'm convinced he was poised to make a big splash trade (like the Chris Sale one) had he stuck around. He also had Kopech and Espinoza on the farm, plus a bunch of top non-pitching prospects as trade bait.

There is plenty of time for ERod to turn it around by the time Sale is ready. There is also time for someone doing well, now, to start struggling. We've reached the third point of the season. Is it time to start thinking Perez & Pivetta are not flukes? Richards is back? Eovaldi can pitch a full season? ERod can get his strength back? Sale can return to anywhere near his previous form? Barnes is the man? Ottavino can bring his BB/9 rate down? The rest of the pen can cobble together enough good performances to not drag us down? Yes, the plot thickens!

Dan Duquette had a lot to do with Theo's early success, too. Port was at the helm for one year, at least in theory.

Richards and Pivetta have been solid, too. The recent numbers actually point to ERod being the odd man out. OPS against last 28 days: .622 Perez .651 Eovaldi .727 Pivetta .752 Richards .957 ERod ERA 2.60 Pérez 3.20 Richards 4.50 Eovaldi 4.82 Pivetta 6.39 ERod K/BB 3.8 Pivetta 3.7 Eovaldi 3.3 Pérez 2.9 ERod 1.5 Richards

Their histories do not support that position, even without factoring in that Garcia was younger at every level along the way.

All our GMs did some good and bad, but they all got us a ring. Period.

Nobody can. You also were comparing Garcia with Houck- giving the nod to Houck.

We may even start with Sale in the pen.

Jacko is usually pretty level-headed, but the absurdity of that statement has homer rivalry written all over it. We know the Sox are going to stay near the tax line and we’re shedding some dead weight contract long before 2025, so even if we took a longer time rebuilding the farm, we’d still have been competitive by 2022 or 2023.

I’m rooting for the Rays, too. I do think they will come down to earth, too, but will end up very near the top of the AL in winning %. The Yanks are still the team to beat, unless or until another major injury occurs, and they stand pat at the deadline— again,

The kid has had 2 starts and 8 IP, so no definitive judgments can be made this soon. I think it looks worse because all of the low scoring, this year. He deserves a longer look.

He also had Bobby Valentine thrust on him, so really, he had 3 years and had just reached the point where the farm was about to be a big influence. Yes, I am certain he would have traded some prospects.

The chances no starter gets hurt by the time Sale comes back are rather high. There is even a chance we’ll need Sale and another starter at some point. That being said, if Sale we’re ready, right now, and looking like he can start, I’d put Eovaldi as the top set up man to Barnes. I doubt Cora and Bloom agree. My guess is they’d move Perez to long relief.

I trust Bloom.

Massive potential!

Worcester won 2-0 Franchy with his 2nd dinger since joining the AAA team. (1.378 OPS) Gonsalves went 5 strong innings for the win. (3 H, 3 BB, 9 K) Portland won 5-0 Meneses, G Williams & R Hernandez got 2 hits each. Ole D Reyes went 5 strong (4H, 1BB, 2K) Greenville lost 7-6 Esplin & Brannen had 3 hits Salem lost 2 (4-0 and 8-4)

Speaking of Franchy. He homered tonight (2nd HR). He went 2 for 3 to bring his OPS up to 1,378. When do we call him back up?

2020 Rule 5 Draft: Whitlock- 1.85 ERA in 24.1 IP at ML level (1.027 WHIP) Kaleb Ort- 0.00 ERA at AAA in 10 IP (5 saves & 0.497 WHIP) Tyreque Reed- 1.094 OPS at Greenville Bloom is re-writing the history of Rule 5.

No matter who we take, our ranking should jump a few slots overnight. The way some of our top prospects are playing, we maybe jump more than just a few slots.

Perfect time to trade Groome- maybe with Chavis for a pen arm.

He'll be 29, this winter but has only pitched over 180 innings twice- never over 200. He's got some great numbers, but his health is a major concern.

Here's a look at our top prospects according to soxprospects.com at some key moments in the last 2 decades: Spring 2003 (Theo took over in winter of 2002) 1. Freddie Sanchez 2. Hanley Ramirez 3. Jordge de la Rosa 4. Youkilis 5. Dumatrait 6. Shoppach 7. Lester 8. Spann 9. D Murphey 10. A Martinez 11. J Stevens 12. de Vries 13. C Leon 14. A Mateo 15. C Zink 16. J Gamble 17. A Santos 18. K Gabbard 19. Billy Simon 20 M Delcarmen Fall 2011 (Ben Cherington took over) 1. Middlebrooks 2. Kalish 3. Ranaudo 4. Bogaerts 5. Iglesias 6. Lavarnway 7. Barnes 8. Brentz 9. Jacobs 10. Swihart 11. Coyle 12. Cecchini 13. Weiland 14. Doubront 15. A Wilson 16. D Britton 17. Vitek 18. Head 19. Pimentel 20 O Tejada Summer 2015 (just before Dave Dombrowski became GM) 1.ERod 2. Moncada 3. Devers 4. Margot 5. B Johnson 6. H Owebs 7.Benintendi 8. Kopech 9. J Guerra 10. Marrero 11. Espinoza 12. T Ball 13. Chavis 14. P Light 15. S Travis 16. Travis Shaw 17. Ty Buttrey 18. M Dubon 19. Stankiewicz 20. W Rijo Fall 2019 (Bloom took over) 1. Casas 2. Mata 3. Groome 4. Jimenez 5. Dalbec 6. Duran 7. Houck 8. Song 9. Chatham 10. Ward 11. Zeferjahn 12. A Ramirez 13. M Lugo 14. C Murphy 15. N Decker 16. C Cannon 17. B Bello 18. A Flores 19. C Rafaela 20. M Wilson (Only Chatham was traded away.) May 2021 1. Casas 2. Downs 3. Duran 4. Whitlock 5. Houck 6. Jimenez 7. Seabold 8. Ward 9. A Ramirez 10. Yorke 11. Mata 12. Song 13. Groome 14. Ro Hernandez 15. M Lugo 16. B Bonaci 17. B Jordan 18. C Wong 19. Bazardo 20. J Rosario 21. Potts 22. Arauz 23. Murphy 24. Bello 25. Decker 26. German 27. Winckowski 28. Wallace 29. J Rodriguez 30. D Feltman

The PTBNLs will be named next month, I think.