moonslav59

Pivetta was nearly our ace, until last night. I'm not sure how one bad night "proves" he's a number 5. Now, his career has shown he looks like a 5- maybe worse, but he seems to have turned things around, somewhat, this year. Maybe he's just a late bloomer. It's strange that he's doing so well despite his worse BB/9 (5.6) of his career- by far, but his FIP is 3.34- thanks to his super low H/9 (6.2) and HR/9 (0.3). FIP by Sox starters: 2.13 Eovaldi 3.34 Pivetta 3.54 ERod 3.59 Perez 4.02 Richards

Dalbec did hit .903 v RHPs, least year in pretty close to the same sample size as this year. Hitting .607 career vs RHPs is concerning, no doubt, but I'm not ready to call for a platoon at 1B, just yet. We also might want Marwin to platoon with Renfroe not Dalbec. Maybe switch off between the two. Then, there's the pending call-up of switch-hitting Danny Santana, who hits righties better.

We can see what just 3 games can do to Renfroe's OPS. He's nearly caught Kike & Arroyo. This season is way too early to get super critical over .579, especially when the whole league is down, offensively.

Yanks won. Toronto down 4-0.

Just goes to show you: players can change, even after seemingly proving they can or cannot do something well. There's still a long season ahead. Who knows? Maybe at some point, we are roasting Barnes and Praising Ottavino as our new closer.

Duran oh for 4. Houck: 3 IP and 8 hits (3 ERs). Not much good. Munoz 2 for 4 (both dbls). Chavis and Wong with a double each. Weber 3 IP 0 H & ER. At Portland, Casas and Rosario both had 2 doubles. Not much else good.

Where would we be without Barnes? (This is the same guy most felt could never, ever, ever be a closer.)

I did say Houck or Bazardo.

It's one month. He had a good month, last year. Let's see what May brings. I'm not even close to writing Dalbec off.

Do they not belong there?

They must have told him they were limiting his innings, this year, so if the demotion hurts his ego, I'm worried. It could just be he had a bad game. It happens to the very best. There doesn't have to be a pyschological reason for every bad outing.

Even with a broken finger.

Renfroe is proven vs LHPs. He's never shown he can hit righties well for long stretches. We need to use him in ways that sets him up for success. Cordero's history was too scattered and incomplete to know much of anything. It's understandable they gave him a pretty long look. It's about time to send him down, but I wouldn't be surprised, if he gets another look, at some point this year- assuming he earns it by looking good at AAA. I'd platoon Marwin & Renfroe, until Santana is ready for a call-up. Demote Cordero. DFA Brice. Call up Bazardo or Houck.

Can this please be the last night we see Brice on the Sox mound?

Maybe Renfroe is an example of why you don't give up on a player after 4 bad weeks.

I think we use all of our remaining tax line budget space for a pitcher or two. Our other weakest positions have multiple options: OF: Verdugo, Kike, Renfroe, Santana, Marwin, Duran, Cordero (2nd look), Chavis (OF???) 2B: Arroyo, Kike, Marwin, Arauz, Downs, Santana (2B???) 1B: Dalbec, Marwin, Kike, Santana, Casas

I seriously doubt we part with any of our top prospects. We may trade someone like Chavis, or a prospect we don't think shows promise but another GM might, but those are rare. IMO, our deadline deals will be contract dumps that require very little in return- maybe a single A prospect or two.

Duran did get to play some actual games, though.

I doubt he is high on Bloom's seek and acquire list.

I have Duran listed as a possible addition. He has the best chance on that list to earn a slot on the team, this summer. Franchy has options and team control. He'll stay at AAA until he proves he should get another look or is traded or DFA'd. Renfroe will not be traded. One of our weaknesses is OF depth, and he has a history of killing lefties. Might a Duran-Renfroe platoon develop? Maybe, but Duran will play CF, once he shows he's ready and the need is still there. Maybe Santana does great, and Kike, too. With Verdugo FT, Renfroe vs LHPs and Marwin on the bench, there is no hurry on Duran.

Now that AAA games have begun, we should start seeing some movement. We may wait until some players we want to call up to get a few lives games under their belts before being thrown into a live MLB game. I've been on the 13 pitcher bandwagon since day one, and nothing has changed, but I'm not sure Sox brass thinks the same way. I think this is what happens: As soon as Santana is ready and has some games played at AAA, he'll be called up as Cordero is demoted to AAA to try and work things out. Despite Josh Taylor doing oka in his last 2 outings, I think he's the odd man out. Brice is out of options, and others are doing too well to be demoted. Who takes Taylor's place? I'd say Houck, but Maybe Bazardo gets a second look. They may want to keep Houck's innings for later in the season while also gaining another year of control from him. It could be times up for Brice. Maybe Taylor & Brice are both demoted or DFA'd. Best case scenario, could this be the 26 man roster,later this summer? Sale, ERod, Eovaldi, Richards, Pivetta Barnes, Ottavino, Brasier, Andriese, Sawamura, DHern, Whitlock, Perez, Houck Vazquez, Plawecki Dalbec Arroyo Marwin Devers Bogaerts Verdugo Hernandez Renfroe Santana Martinez Brice- DFA'd Cordero, Valdez & Taylor- Demoted Most likely additions beyond the 26 plus 4 listed above: CF: Duran RP: Bazardo SP: Seabold 1B/2B: Chavis UT: Munoz/Arauz/Downs If we went with 13 pitchers, the most likely move would be Duran for maybe Brasier.

These are also facts: Since trade: .887 Betts (355 PAs) 1 ring .840 Verdugo (332 PAs) 0 rings (I'm not saying I think the trade was bad. I like the trade.)

Not Franchy

He might very well need 400-500 PAs to right the ship, but he ain’t getting ‘em here- at least in one long stretch at a .400 clip.

If Beni had started as poorly with the Sox as he did this year with the Royals, he’d have never made it to this 8 game stretch.