moonslav59

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.

I noticed, after, I forgot to add the Peraza signing. That was not a good one. A bunch of the pitchers we threw out there last year we not good, but none were expected to be good. Springs is good, now, with the Rays. LOL, of course!

He may not be saying we will keep getting worse and worse before getting better, anymore. That was his mantra.

We are positioned well. Bloom only signed one player to more than 1 year, and that was Hernandez to just 2 years. Richards and Perez have option years, Renfroe has arb years left and we lose a lot of salary, this winter, with only ERod and Barnes tough to replace (or re-sign). Our highest need areas line up with our highest ranked prospects: OF: Duran (Jimenez) 1B: Casas 2B: Downs (Yorke) SP: Whitlock, Houck, Seabold, Ward (Mata & A Ramirez)

A look back at Bloom's major moves: 5 Years of Verdugo, Jeter Downs (#2 prospect) & Connor Wong($18) for Betts, Price and cash 4+ Years of Nick Pivetta and Connor Seabold (#7 prospect) for Workman, Hembree and cash Signed Garrett Richards (#4)- 1 year plus team option Re-signed Martin Perez- 1 year plus team option Signed Kike Hernandez- 2 years Signed Hunter Renfroe- 1 year contract (2 arb years left) Garrett Whitlock Rule 5 ('20) from Yankees Christian Arroyo off waivers from CLE (3 more arb years) Phillips Valdez off waivers from SEA Signed Hirokazu Sawamura- 2 years plus team option Adam Ottavino & Frank German (#26) for cash Josh Winckowski (#27), Franchy Cordero and 3 PTBNL for Benintendi & cash Signed Marwin Gonzalez- 1 year Jonathan Arauz Rule 5 ('19) Signed Matt Andriese- 1 year plus team option Signed Danny Santana (minor league w Major League or opt out) Signed Kevin Plawecki (one more arb year) Rolando Hernandez (#14) for Springs & Mazza Jeisson Rosario (#20) & Hudson Potts (#21) for M Moreland Jacob Wallace (#29) for Kevin Pillar Brandon Brennan off Waivers from SEA Christian Koss (#41) for Yoan Aybar Zach Bryant for Josh Osich PTBNL for CJ Chatham Tyreque Reed & Kaleb Ort Minor League Rule 5 Draft: #10 Nick Yorke #17 Blaze Jordan #32 Shane Drohan IFA #35 Miguel Bleis

The buck stops with Boone and Cashman. Firing coaches is just for show.

Rays by Age in 2021: OPS 26-30 .718 (1294) 31-35 .755 (262) 35+ n/a (1) ERA 25-30 3.47 (267) 31-35 3.68 (81) 36+ 3.63 (52) Some bright news... SOX OPS 26-30 .716 (1109) 31-35 .803 (379) 36+ n/a (0) ERA 26-30 4.33 (199) 31-35 3.72 (203) 36+ n/a

Hopefully, Bloom will get us to a point like the Rays are at, now. We’ve started building the farm up, and hopefully this draft and IFA cycle will give us a big boost. I think we’ll see our first major free agent additions, this winter, so maybe by next June, we can look at our total system- top to bottom- and smile.

Rays are 15-1 in their last 16!

[/b] Sweeping Toronto in Canada was not easy, but the Mets, O’s and Royals were on the light side. Let’s see what they do in the next few weeks: 4 @ NYY 3 @ TX 5 with WSH & BAL at home, then... 3@ CWS 4@ SEA 3 v BOS

Not me. I hope the Rays sweep or take 3 of 4. A split would be nice for the short term.

Toronto won game 1. Yanks still down 6-0 to the Tigers. Phillies have cut the Rays lead in half (4-2). Go Phillies & Tigers!

Back on that old website, I once started a thread about the Rays, in response to an annoying poster who kept claiming they "wilt in the dog days of summer." They never did. Here we are, again. After trading away Snell, and a key injuries to Yonny Chirinos (4th starter) and Nick Anderson (closer), many felt the Rays would be lucky to finish over .500 in 2021, let alone compete for a playoff slot, yet here we are. They also traded away their starting SS a few weeks ago, Wlly Adames. It can't be smoke and mirrors, since these guys do it nearly every year. They play solid defense, run the bases well, and do all the things stats don't capture very well. They have a strong manager, coaching staff and GM. They develop young pitchers very well, and seem to have a knack for knowing just the right time to trade some of their best players right before the decline or even fall off the face of the earth. They also seem to know who to acquire right before they go on to have career years or resurgences. If you look at the traditional ways we look at player stats, you'll see they have a deep and solid pen, this year, and their starters have done very well. Their hitting does not look all that great, but the whole league is in a funk over this new ball crap. Here's a look at the Rays' numbers: OPS (in order of most PAs, this season and 85+): .778 Arozarena .836 Meadows .697 B Lowe .686 Y Diaz .662 Margot .894 Wendle .625 WAdams (traded) .851 Zunino .642 Phillips .593 Brousseau .545 Kiermaier .750 Mejia .462 Tsutsugo As you can see, there is nothing here that looks like a first place team. 3 guys over .800 and just 2 others over .700. They don't have as many sub .600 players as some other teams, but nothing jumps out here. Now, the pitching, which does look like a first place team's numbers: (Listed by most IP and 10+ IP) ERA- Pitcher- WHIP 2.57 Glasnow 0.929 4.26 Yarrough 1.211 3.63 Rich Hill 1.019 2.88 Fleming 1.057 4.59 M Wacha 1.200 3.29 McClanahan 1.134 3.47 J Springs 1.029 2.31 Thompson 1.029 1.17 Kittredge 0.826 3.20 D Castillo 1.119 1.69 Stickland 1.250 4.02 C McHugh 1.404 3.60 L Patino 1.067 (10 day IL) 4.50 T Richards 1.000 8.49 C Mazza 1.714 (Cady Reed, Chris Archer, Caz Roe are on the 60 day IL with Chirionos) Team numbers and rankings: Offense Runs: 264 (4th) BOS is 2nd with 267 OBP: .318 (10th) BOS is 7th at .321 SLG: .398 (13th) BOS is first at .447 OPS: .717 (12th) BOS is first at .769 Fielding: DEF (fangraphs): 2.1 (11th) BOS is 15h at -0.1) UZR/150: 4.7 (9th) BOS is 7th at 5.2 DRS: 28 (2nd in MLB) BOS is 20th at +3. Pitching: WAR: 5.5 (10th) BOS is 4th at 8.0 ERA-: 88 (7th) BOS is 8th at 90 xFIP-: 92 (7th) BOS is 10th at 95 WHIP: 1.12 (4th) BOS is 20th at 1.32 Saves: 16 (8 BS) tied with BOS at 4th. BOS has 7 BS All-in-all, it looks like the Rays are here to stay. How much depth do they have? Can they handle another major injury? We will be facing them, soon, and we better bring our A game.

6-0 Tigers. King knocked our of game.

I usually go to 2 games with 2 sets of friends and wives, but since the wives are sitting out this series, I’m combing groups for one game. I hope it doesn’t turn into the sienfield episode of mixing the two worlds.

Detroit up 2-0 already!

Not this year, no, but both had resumes to project as 6/7 starters before the year began, and if had to choose one, I’d have taken Garcia based mostly on age and past numbers at levels with younger age comps to Houck.

JD with ANOTHER game off? I’m also not sure going with two Cfers and no 2Bman is a great plan.