moonslav59

Good to see the Rays lose to a losing team, although it took extra innings. The Sox have a 100 games to go. That's a little over 60% of the season left to play. We all knew the month of June's schedule was challenging, and July's is not much easier. Sweeping the Yanks was great, but now we are streaking in the wrong direction, again. It seems like we should expect it. This team was built to maybe contend for a WC slot as we bridged our way to an almost brand new roster by 2022 and 2023. The farm has been greatly improved- much more quickly than this poster imagined. Yes, it took trading Betts and some short term contracts at least year's deadline, but we have come a long way and now look at a high position in every round of the upcoming draft. The 40 man roster depth reached new lows, last summer, but now, instead of 14-16 names of players that could be DFA'd and nobody would blink an eye, we have 4-6. We have that many rule 5 players to protect, next winter, so the roster depth improvement should be very significant. The final piece is free agency. While nobody knows the spending limits that will be placed on Bloom, this coming winter, it's not a stretch to think he may be given the green light to surpass the tax line and maybe even nudge up close to the $20M second line. That would give Bloom an enormous winter wallet, and only a few roster spots to fill and replace our own free agents-to-be. Maybe, we even will have to make a 3 for 1 deal to make room for some of these free agents, a far cry from the 1 for 5 Beni deal. Some of our own free agents will be very difficult to replace, but we have looked pretty good, despite having Sale on the IL and ERod struggling more often than not. This past winter, it looked like replacing ERod with someone better would be very hard. It doesn't really change the fact that we need another top SP'er, just because losing ERod does not look like such a big deal anymore, but it is a little encouraging to see our 3, 4 & 5 starters show a lot of promise for 2022. Barnes will be hard to replace. Ottavino to a lesser extent. Marwin and Santana may end up being additions by subtractions, or at the very worst, easy to replace or re-sign. The team option years on Richards, Perez and Vaz look like no-brainer, team friendly choices to make. Andriese's option may not be taken. Whitlock, Renfroe, Kike and Sawamura will be back. JD has an opt out. Some big questions remain, and we have some big needs in 2022. One good thing is that 3 of our biggest needs have near ML ready, top 100 prospects waiting in the wings: CF: Duran 1B: Casas 2B: Downs We may also get help from Houck, Seabold and others from the farm. This leaves these big holes to be filled by FAs: SP Closer Solid Set-up 2nd Tier: OF 2B 1B Pitching depth C of the future

That doesn't make them any bigger. Was the sample size a good indicator of JD's decline in skill sets?

I get it. I often wonder, if it's worth a shot, too. As a teen, I sometimes wondered why Dwight Evans was called up at an earlier age than Lynn and Rice. I wondered what 1974 might have looked like had we called the two up and traded away Tommy Harper and Juan Beniquez (not Bernie Carbo) for pitching.

Weren't you a strong advocate on not drafting by need or what positions you already have well-stocked in your system?

Do these stats point to just how bad our defense is? 1st BAbip against at .324 (next team at .308) We have the 4th lowest Hard Hit% against in MLB. 4th FIP- at 86 (1st in AL in FIP) 3rd best HR/FB at 9.7% Maybe it's more about our defense than our pitching, this year.

Small sample size?

I'm no draft expert, but I say college: Rocker. I'm now hoping we get Leiter or Davis. (That wish might change in the next hour.)

I don't see him making it to 4, but I'd be dumbfounded, if we pass on him.

Fast arrival is hardly even the norm for the best of the very best. None of our prospects are even near that category.

Betting on baseball has to be one of the most absurd things to do.

A team without Verlander!

Before tonight's game our pitching was... ALL MLB T 8th in ERA- at 90 4th FIP- at 86 (1st in AL in FIP) 3rd best HR/FB at 9.7% 1st BAbip at .324 (next team at .308)- nice D, huh? (We have the 4th lowest Hard Hit% against in MLB, yet the highest BAbip.) 22nd in WHIP (11th in AL in WHIP at 1.35.) -fangraphs

Need Erod to be the stopper. I'm not feeling very confident.

This team is going all streaky, now. Jekyll & Hyde.

The Astros pen has been giving away games all year. I guess no gift to us.

Lots of line outs by Devers over the last few days. Really could have used a hit, there.

On the farm, tonight... Worcester 12-5 Cordero & Chavis both 3 for 4. Chavis with a HR/Cordero a 2B. Wilson 2 for 5 with his 8th HR. Mieses with a HR. Portland 5-4 Meneses with a 2-run 2B Duran 0-3

It wouldn't surprise me, if teams were still stealing signs. The Astros lost 2 draft picks, so maybe they are not one of them.

We've scored 3 runs in 4 innings. How is Odorizzi "mowing us down?"

Hunter the man.

Devers has been hitting the ball damn hard- even his outs.

It’s not like Bogey is a great defensive SS, and he has an opt out after 2022, so keeping Downs at SS makes a lot of sense, for now.

Agreed. I don’t see us having any serious roster crunch or Losing anyone special to rule 5, this winter.

soxprospects.com projects the newbies to be at these levels in 2022: MLB Franchy Cordero (4 OF) AAA Josh Winckowski (SP) AA Grant Gambrell (SP) A- Freddy Valdez (RF) A- Luis de la Rosa (SP) They also project Downs in MLB, on the bench, Duran starting in CF, Whitlock as one of our 6 starters and Houck in the pen. Casas in AAA with Rosario, Arauz, Pott, Wong and Wilson. They go out of their way to say this is just speculation.

Arroyo>Santana