moonslav59

Damn straight! Dalbec has looked pretty good on D for the last 2-3 games!

How about Lavarnway with a .965 OPS from 2018-2021 (before today)? (52 PAs total, spread out over 4 seasons.)

Yes, but he's still about 30 plays like that away from breaking even on the year.

Houck IP/pitches per start: 5.0/85 4.1/58 Missed time 4.2/87 4.0/75 3.2/74 5.0/89 4.0/58 4.2/90 5.1/90 Today: 5.0/68 Is it the third time through deal?

Has anyone from the organizational system explained the Houck issue that is preventing him from easing up his pitch count as the season progresses? I know he was probably already not scheduled to get 180 IP, this year before he got hurt, but what's the situation?

Bobby Dee time

Cause we save our best for when we face the best.

That hurts!

Schwarbs is just a plain ole great hitter.

BAL up 3-0 over NYY in the 7th. (BAL left the bases loaded with 1 out in the seventh after scoring 2.) The Yanks have yet to reach 1B via a batter ball, if you know what I mean. TOR up on OAK 2-0 in the 3rd. MIN @ TBR begins, soon.

For argument's sake, let's assume we bring back Schwarber and JD does NOT opt out, and no everyday player is traded away. We might see these 13 players on the 26 man roster most of the season, not counting injuries. Vaz & Plawecki C Dalbeck 1B, 3B, DH Arroyo 2B, SS, 3B Devers 3B (1B?) Bogey SS Verdugo LF, CF, RF Kike CF, 2B (utlity) Renfroe RF, CF, LF JD DH, LF/RF (shortest) Schwarber LF/RF (shortest), DH, 1B? Duran LF/RF, CF, PR Arauz 2B, SS, 3B Now, the playing time issues. I'm going to go off or a 16 game cycle, about 1/10th of a season and assume everybody gets 10 days of rest (1 out of 16 off). Here is how I could see us maximizing the playing time of our best players: 15/16 Players Devers Bogey Schwarber Kike JD 14/16 Players Renfroe Verdugo 13/16 Players Arroyo 12/16 Players Dalbec 11/16 Players Vazquez By Position: 3B: Devers 15/ Dalbec 1 SS: Bogey 15/ Arroyo 1 DH: JD 15/ Schwarber 1 RF: Renfroe 14/ Verdugo 2 C: Vaz 11/ Plawecki 5 LF: Schwarber 9/ Verdugo 7 1B: Dalbec 11/ Schwarber 5 CF: Kike 11/ Verdugo 5 2B: Arroyo 12/ Kike 4 It looks like maybe Dalbec and Arroyo deserve to play more than 75% of the games (12 or 13 out of 16 games), but with injuries expected, they probably can and will. Some might argue Renfroe and/or Verdugo should play 15 out of 16 games, and they can by lessening games from Arroyo (Kike to 2B) or Dalbec (Schwarber to 1B). This also assumes no games for Duran and Arauz, unless someone is injured. It looks like it can be done.

No doubt, our system could do better, but it's not like we've produced absolutely nothing. The worst thing about these lists is that most of the names are from over 5-10 years ago, since they were in our farm system- some even 15-20+ years ago.

When we start getting some guys back, it may even add to the feeling of "YES, We CAN!" If Bogey's wrist was able to improve by this "rest," maybe in the long run, we might end up better off. I'm still waiting for the day we can use our best line-ups: 1. Schwarber LF 2. Devers 3B 3. JD DH 4. Bogey SS 5. Renfroe RF 6. Kike 2B 7. Verdugo CF 8. Dalbec 1B 9. Vaz/Plawecki C or 1. Kike 2B 2. Schwarber LF 3. Devers 3B 4. Bogey SS 5. JD DH 6. Renfroe RF 7. Verdugo CF 8. Dalbec 1B 9. Vaz/Plawecki C or The better fielding team... 1. Kike CF 2. Schwarber 1B 3. Devers 3B 4. Bogey SS 5. JD DH 6. Renfroe RF 7. Verdugo LF 8. Arroyo 2B 9. Vaz/Plawecki C

The Schwarber- Devers one-two slot punch has to be one of the Sox best ever, right? I know Boggs, alone, at lead off was pretty hard to beat, but didn't we usually bat slap hitters in the two slot behind him?

He may- he may not. He has been better than this over his career, but that is no guarantee.

Good point. We also had a few highly regarded pitching prospects we traded for high quality players, like Casey Fossum, Casey Kelly and Anderson Espinoza, but none really amounted to much. We also traded away some decent to fine pitching: Tony Armas Jr, Carl Pavano, Jorge de la Rosa, Anibal Sanchez, Frankie Montas, Justin Masterson & Michael Kopech along with some so-so pitchers.

I'd really like to see Houck get a chance, and it's too bad we can't afford to try him there, now. As of now, I see our open slots for 2022 like this: #1 or solid #2 SP'er #3/4 SP'er (to replace ​or re-sign ERod) Closer or solid set-up man I think we end up getting 2 of these 3 needs and use Whitlock and/or Houck to fill the other- most likely the closer and/or 3 slot SP'er roles. If they fill 2 of the roles, we'd need depth signings, which I hate, as compared to improving from the top. Sale _____ Eovaldi Whitlock Pivetta Seabold Houck Barnes _____ _____ Taylor DHern Sawamura Valdez/Rios/Brasier/Davis/Bazardo I like this better: Sale ______ (Solid #2) ______ (Solid #3) Eovaldi Whitlock Pivetta ______ (Closer like R Iglesias) Houck Barnes Taylor DHern Seabold Sawamura Valdez/Rios/Brasier/Davis/Bazardo

We really need 6+ IP or someone in the pen, not doing well, recently, to show up.

Don't you have to do well to do any balancing?

Agreed, but he was acquired by losing Betts, so...

He hasn't proven "ace" just yet, but yes, high upside.

No doubt, but we've really only had one guy, Jon Lester be a top ace on a ring team. We have shown we can win by building a strong farm of everyday players and using some in trade to get aces, along with some pitching prospects (Sale, Beckett, Schilling, Pedro) or just sign them (Price, Lackey) to build rotations good enough to win. Of course, developing our own has to be a preferred method, but it may not be essential. I can also see not counting Whitlock as a home grown pitching talent, but he serves the same purpose and very well could become our next ace. Houck may become a very solid SP'er or our next lights out closer. I know the jury is still out, but our young pitching looks better, now, than in a long long time.

Is he going to get a hefty SP'er offer from anyone, this winter? The way even set-up men are getting paid, these days, that might be the best offer he gets, and will have to settle on whatever that is, and it will end up having to be "worth his while." He may take a one year deal to try and prove he can do it as a closer, assuming he works his way up to that with some team needing a closer for 2022. That begs the question: who is the 2022 closer for the Sox?

It's not "unsupported." They now have advanced systems that track the angle and flight time of fly balls and the distance an OF'er has to go in a certain amount of time needed to get there. They compare the numbers between other OF'ers on similar plays. With Duran's plus speed, one can easily conclude he's getting late breaks or taking wrong routes, if he is not getting to balls that most OF'er are getting to. They probably also can track the routes OF'ers take. How quickly an OF'er gets started is probably a much harder thing to measure.

I do think we have a very good chance of getting something very useful from 1 or 2 of this group: Seabold 2022 Bello end of '22 to 2023 Groome end of '22 to 2023 Plus some longer shots: Mata 2023-2024 Song ??? Winckowski 2022-2023 We should also note that we just added Houck & Whitlock, two pitchers with a lot of promise and high expectations for filling key roles in 2022 and beyond. I'm not sure things are as bad as some might think they are on the pitching front.