moonslav59

I doubt he would have sustained his super high BAbip in single A, as well. Give him time at AA. He almost certainly will not reach teh same numbers as single A, but his speed might help him continue to rise up in the system and prospect rankings. BTW, here are soxprospects.com current rankings (+/- from last ranking): Remember, Chavis is no longer a prospect, so everyone should have gone up 1. 1. Casas +2 2. Dalbec +2 3. Duran +10 4. DHern -2 5. Groome -1 6. Chatham +2 7. Houck-2 8. Flores -1 9. Mata -1 10. Feltman -1 11. Howlett even 12. Decker even 13. Shawaryn +2 14. Scherff +4 15. DDiaz -1 Other notable rises and falls: ?? M Wilson (unranked > 26) ?? K Hart (unranked to 35) +28 Fitzgerald (56>28) +16 TWard (38>22) +15 EBazardo (51>36) +9 Ockimey (27>18) +8 Crawford (29>21) +7 Joan Martinez (36>29) +6 J Taylor (31>25) +4 Lakins -4 DReyes (19>23) -5 Castellanos (22>27) -6 Netzer (24>30) -7 Y Aybar (26>33) -7 Thompson (33>40) -10 J Diaz (32>42) -12 Schellenger (20>32)

On the flip side, I doubt other GMs now love JBJ more after just 3 weeks of hot hitting. To me, the lesson to be learned is that a 7 weeks sample size is not all that big, if just a 3 week hot streak can bring your OPS up from .443 to .688. Players should never be valued at JUST what they have done in the last 4-8 weeks. Some here, seem to place permanent value on just 1-3 weeks, or the .688 number only. Plus, it's not like JBJ was some 35 year old player in a long slump that could possibly signal the steep downswing associated with age. JBJ has slumped many times in the past, and he always snapped out of it, at times with white hot stretches. I'll never understand why some people always get fooled by the same thing over and over. When JBJ slumps again, and he almost certainly will, we'll here the same calls for DFA.

I'm not complaining. I'd offer Porcello a QO, but I hope it doesn't turn him into the next Keuchel. Maybe he'll take the QO our of that fear.

We did spend money and resources on second base, despite still having Pedey's contract on the books: $11M on Nunez $3.6M on Holt Traded Buttrey for Kinsler Brought up Chavis, maybe earlier than planned We did spend money at 1B, too, just not all in one basket: $18.5M on Moreland (2 contracts) $6.25M on Pearce While that only comes to just over $8M a year over the last 3 years, we are spending almost $13M this year.

Tonight on the Farm... AAA Castillo 3-4 (OPS up to .730) Ockimey 1-4 w a 2B GHernandez 1-5 Hart 7 IP 2 ER (5H 0BB 5Ks) Quietly been solid AA Wade 7 IP 1ER 7H 2BB 2K Feltman 2 IP 0ER 0H 2BB 2K A Gm1 Mata 6 IP 0 ER 3H 0BB 5K Acosta 3-3 GM2 Thompson 6 IP 2ER 6H 2BB 2K Fitzgerald 2-1 w 2 RBI & 1 BB

I'm glad we are playing the teams we need to pass. We don't need to win any more than we have been over the last 4-6 weeks to win the WC slot. Yes, winning the division is not going to be easy.

You are correct, but we still spent a lot. Our 2012 budget broke our previous record by over $7M and was $12M more than 2011. Yes, we dipped into the mid $250's in 2013 and 2014, but even those numbers dwarfed 2007 ($143M) and 2004 ($127M). Amazingly, we were at $99.9M in 2003. 2015 broke the 2012 record by $9M when we spent $184.3M. That's almost double our 2003 budget and $40M higher than 2007 and $57M more than 2004. Yes, salaries inflated those years, but not by that much. This does not refute your claim, however. We did spend more but not on "elite," big-priced free agents, but rather several mid-ranged ones. One coudl argue we bombed out on most of those, too. Even the Victorino and Napoli deal only looked good for 1 year. A look back at the signings those years: before 2012: Cody Ross, Aaron Cook (Traded for Melancon, Bailey & Mortenson) before 2013: Kojo Uehara, S Victorino, Mike Napoli & Jonny Gomes (Cash for M Carp) before 2014: Pierzynski, Mujica, Napoli (again) & Sizemore before 2015: Pablo & HRam (not elite- but close to elite contracts) Traded Cespedes for Porcello and signed Masterson, too.

We're 1 behind Texas for the last WC slot, right now. We're 5.5 behind TB. We're 6 behind the Yanks (5.5, if the Yanks lose).

.688!

The only starter to not get on base two or more times, tonight, is Beni, and he has 2 RBIs.

Two trends crossing in the night!

Preachin' to the choir, my man!

Jackie Bradley Junior!

The earlier pitch was outside, too.

Robo UMPS, YESTERDAY already!!!

Yes, and his cold streaks are always longer than his hot ones. Many of his hot streaks are white hot, so the final numbers look decent to good year after year. His career started very slowly. Here's a look at some selected time frames: .548 over his first 530 PAs (2013-2014) 2015: .384 over his first 59 PAs (May to Aug) .962 over his last 196 PAs 2016: .586 over his first 59 PAs 1.082 middle 228 PAs .669 over last 249 PAs 2017: .637 over the first 112 PAs 1.014 over his middle 164 PAs .589 over his last 265 PAs 2018: .502 over his first 142 PAs (to May 20th) .793 over the last 393 PAs plus the nutty playoffs. 2019: .421 over his first 145 PAs (to May 20th) 1.056 over his most recent 87 PAs (JBJ's longest hot streak 8/6/15-10/2/16 was 832 PAs long at an .865 OPS.) In a way his career has been like some seasons: .548 the first 2 years (months) and .772 the last 4 years (months). Actually, here are the Sox OPS from 8/6/15 to 7/4-17( almost 2 full seasons): 1.050 Papi .895 Betts .864 JBJ .829 Beni .826 HRam .819 Moreland .814 Pedey .809 Bogey .805 Young

Yes, and although his last 2 years of the deal were spent in LA, we had Jay Bay in his place via the trade. (BTW, we got Workman as comp for losing JBay.)

Exactly. The list of failures is about as long as the successes: Offerman, Lugo, Dice-K, the Penny/Smoltz combo, Crawford, Masterson, the 2nd Napoli signing, Pablo, HRam. Some might say JD Drew, Dempster, Jenks ($6M), and some even called the Price signing a disaster.

You are right, but with so many other players starting off slow, it was hard to blame JBJ. Many players slump almost every year- not like JBJ, for the most part-- but when you slump to start the season, that OPS jumps out at you every time you look at the stats. If a player started out at 1.000 after 6 weeks and decline to .659, he wouldn't be getting as much attention as the guy who started out in the .300s and .400s before rising to .669. Personally, I'd rather have a plyer that gets hot at the end of the year, and JBJ's heroics in last year's playoffs were memorable, than someone who fizzles out at season's end. I've been a big JBJ defender, no doubt, but his start was putrid. It certainly cost us more than one game. It is not my intention to sugar coat his slumps or get us to forget them: they are horrible, too long and too often. He's my favorite Sox player, but I would not be crushed, if the traded him this coming winter.

It's been hit and miss. No rings without Manny, Papi, Victorino, Napoli, Foulke, Damon, Price or JD

JBJ is now over .650 after being under .450 in mud May. This shows how just a small sample size can change everything. It also shows how small the sample size was by May 20th. Nobody will argue that .450 is acceptable or that 6 weeks is not a long slump, but JBJ is helping us now- in many ways.

What an exhausting game to watch. We let up 9 hits, 9 walks and 3 HBPs, but we somehow held on. A win is a win, but it's hard to get too pumped up after this one.

Casas and Duran are ranked highly.

Weber got shelled in AAA 1.1 IP 6 ER (6H & 2 BB) Wright: 3 IP 0 ER (2H & 0 BB) Thornburg 1.2 IP 1 ER (0H & 3 BB) De la Guerra with a grand slam (5th HR) Gorkys Hernandez 2 for 4 & a BB Rusney 4 for 4 with a 2B ________________________ In AA Houck 6 IP 1 ER (6H & 0 BB and 6Ks) Duran 1 for 3 with a BB Dalbec 0-2 with an rbi _____________________ A Shugart 5.2 IP 0 ER (4H & 0 BB and 6 Ks) 1.64 ERA Tendler 5h tater

Maybe Shawaryn can surprise us. Feltman has been disappointing. It would be an immense boost if one from Chatham, Chavis, Dalbec or Ockimey do better than just "decent" next year.