moonslav59

Most good teams. Not all. NYY has Judge, who kinda counts as 2 and Bellinger, but he's a FA. Stanton is old. I guess Chisholm w 30 dingers counts. Counts as 2+. TOR has Springer at #4 & Vladdy at #16 in OPS: check. Bichette is a FA. SEA has Raleigh, but Suarez is a FA. Just 1 HOU has an injured Y Alvarez. Just 1. CLE has Ramirez and nada. Just 1. DET has zero batters over .810. ZERO. The NL???. LAD have 3-4 PHI might lose Schwarber then Turner at .815 is left- **** zero. NYM has Soto and FA to be Alonso. The Cubs have FA to be Tucker and Bush Does SDP count with Tatis & Machado near .800? The Sox have 3-4 of those.

I have agreed we lack the starpower, but I do think Anthony is one. Bregman is close but not with the power we need, and he may not be back. The lost contract should help us 'move on." I think our larger-than-norm second tier batters may make up for the "lack," but I will say I think we need one beast of a bat and hopes we stay healthy in 2026. Two improves the odds much better. I'm talking Alonso, Schwarber or Suarez. If we got Tucker, I suppose we could trade 2 OF'ers for an ace or another big bat for 1B, 2B or DH. Duran, Abreu, Story, Casas and maybe Mayer could all be very nice "next tier" bats to go along with 2 big one. I trust Anthony is one, but I get the wish to have two proven ones.

Big win tonight. HOU & DET are looking for an exit ramp. CLE is playing like highway paved in gold. What a crazy traffic pattern going on. NYY could even catch TOR (-2.0) BOS is -2.0 from NYY and -1.0 from SEA for the #3 slot. 87-68 NYY 86-69 SEA 85-70 BOS & DET 84-71 CLE & HOU Only 5 of these 6 make it. CLE has the tiebreaker w HOU, so count them as +1 on them. BOS has the tie breaker w CLE, so in a sense we are +2 on CLE. Three way tie: BOS, CLE & HOU, we are 8-4. If DET is part of the three way, uh-oh.

Yes, we need 2 bats, unless we stay 95% healthy on O, or Anthony contends for MVP. Most teams have worse hitting catchers than Narvaez.The MLB Catcher OPS is .700, which is about 20 below the league OPS overall. Even the very good teams often have 2 batters at .700 or less and many have 3.

Yes, like most players, he has a cool stretch, but then he warmed back up. Yes, it was cherry-picked.

Narvaez: ,784 last 21 games is not "tailing off." The sky was yellow and the sun was blue.

DET lost to ATL and CLE beat up on Joe Ryan and the Twins, Going into tonight, CLE is just 1.5 behind DET and 1 behind BOS & HOU. BOS has the tiebreaker vs CLE, so it's really like 2 GB them, but CLE has the tiebreaker with HOU, so a tie with them is as good as a win. A BOS win, tonight, ties them with DET and helps us either keep pace or gain a game on CLE, depending on hos they do tonight.

We need more crooked number innings on offense. That 6 was nice, last night.

But, Max, in 2024 we sued 9 guys at 1B and 11 at 2B, and that is no exaggeration. We sued 6 1Bmen for more than 64 innings each, including Wong. We used 10 2Bmen for more than 18 innings each, including Wong & Gasper. 9 were used for more than 30 innings and 6 for more than 99 innings This year, Wong has been used for 1 inning at 1B and zero at 2B. We basically started with Casas, replaced him with Toro upon injury and then transitions to a Lowe/Romy platoon with Sogard getting 94 innings over the season. At 2B, we stuck with Campbell for 59 games (472 innings) then transitioned to DHam/Romy and used Rafaela for a stretch when DHam sucked and Romy was needed at 1B, when Toro moved to 3B for the Breggie injury. Mayer would have played more than 57 innings had he not gotten hurt. Sogard has 56 innings. 4 guys have played 1265 out of 1378 innings at 2B. That is light years better than 2024, in terms of merry-go-roundness. In 2023, we had more stability at 1B, since Turner was the Casas back-up. Casas (1037) Turner (289) and Dalbec (98) got all but 6 innings at 1B filled. 2B was a complete mess is in 2023, with Arroyo 442, Valdez 357, Urais 208, Reyes 196, Kike 131 and even Turner playing 49 innings at 2B! Chang, Rafaela, DHam and Wong combined for 46+ innings and Dalbec played 1 inning at 2B. 1B and 2B still remain major issues for this team, but we've lessened the merry-go-round aspect of the positions, this year.

For those who think trends keep repeating themselves, I wonder why they cling to our recent trend of playing poorly will continue, while our season long trend of following poor stretches with even longer good stretches carries so little weight. I'm not predicting a 6 of 8 or 7 of 8 winning stretch to end the regular season, but our season long M. O. seems to indicate there is a decent chance we pull one off. There are very few examples, this year, where we lost something like 5 of our last 8 games (like now) and followed that with losing another 4 or 5 of 8. In fact, we've followed more losing stretches with some very nice winning stretches and even long winning streaks. Here is what I found for losing stretches back-to back: Lost 5 of 6 to start May, tehn won 4 of 5, but followed that with losing 5 of 6. This doesn't really fit the model of back to back bad 8 games stretches. We did follow that losing 5 of 6 stretch in mid May with a losing 6 of 10 stretch. Then, a 3 of 5 stretch, so there was a long stretch in May that showed we have done it. In June we lost 6 in a row, but that was sandwiched between two of our best stretches of the season: winning 8 of 9 beforehand and 13 of 15 afterwards. The only other time we've come close to back to back 8+ game stretches is recently, but neither stretch was horrific. We lost 5 of 8 from Aug 29 to Sept 6th, then followed that with losing 5 of 11, which isn;'t even a losing stretch by definition. It was actually losing 5 of 8, winning 3 in a row, tehn losing 5 of 8. Simply put, it is just not our habit to have back to back bad 7-8 game stretches. In fact it is quite the opposite, yet a few doom and gloomers feel certain this is a flop year and we will break our season long mold in the next 8 games.

Max, how many times have you based your opinion on what has happened in the last few days or weeks, only to see it all change in a moment? I do believe in trends as indicating probabilities of what will happen, next, but sometimes you seem to really lock into them.

Of course, had we kept Sale and he won the Cy Young w BOS, they would not have viewed it as luck. Had Priester sucked w MIL, they'd have just said, "Meh." Had Buehler pitched well, they'd have said "About time." Was Matz really a better trade than the Luis Garcia or Lucas Sims trades? Or was some luck involved? When Brez made a good signing, like Bregman, they said, "He fell into his lap." The Crochet trade was a "no brainer." They Anthony, Mayer and Campbell drafts were, too. Very little mention of the Narvaez, Slaten or Fitts/Weisert trades by the Brez Gloomers. Maybe they see those deals as being lucky. How about the O'Neill trade and non re-sign? Probably just lucky, right? We sure heard about dumping Renfroe by Bloom.

We have a tough schedule, but playing 3 vs DET puts us squarely in the hunt for the #4 slot. Even if we did not play DET, we are 2 games behind the #2 slot and 1 game behind the #3 and #4 slots. This team has been so up and down, and we are due for an "up." Over the season we have seen not only some "ups," but extended ones. Almost all of them were after some tough stretches where many of us felt serious doubt about the Sox chances ate being playoff contenders. April: won 5 in a row and later won 6 of 7 and a 3 straight win stretch. May: won 4 of 5 twice in a bad month. June: won 6 straight and expanded to 8 or 9 and 10 of 12. July: won 10 straight (12 orf 13.) Later, we won 9 of 10 into August, including... AUG: won 7 straight (july 29-Aug 5) Later, we won 7 of 8 vs NYY & BAL. SEP: we won 3 straight, twice. Are we due for a 6 of 8 stretch?

They want lucky CBOs.

How I see the current system depth chart in terms of being MLB ready or nearest to being ML ready for 2026 and beyond: SP: Crochet, Bello, Giolito (mutual option) Sandoval, Crawford, Dobbins, Early, Fitts, Tolle, Harrison, Perales, Criswell, Uberstine, Drohan, Holobetz, Paez, Clarke, Aita, I Coffey, Wehunt (maybe 2 yrs away: Witherspoon, Fajardo, Valera, Phillips, Eyanson) Houck (out until 2027) RP: Chapman, Whitlock, Slaten, Weissert, Bernardino, Winckowski, Guerrero, Kelly, Hicks (no options) Moran, Murphy, Mullins, Sandlin, Song, Hoppe, Dean, Rogers C: Narvaez, Wong, Rosario (2 yrs? Jo Garcia, Salazar) 1B: Casas, Lowe (last arb/non tender) Romy, Campbell, Brannon 2B: Romy, Mayer, (Story) Sogard, DHam, Sogard, Romero, Grissom (2 yrs? M White) SS: Story, Mayer, Sogard, Romy, Arias (2 yrs? Godbout) 3B: Bregman (opt out) Mayer, (Story) Eaton, Romy, Sogard, Romero LF: Anthony, Duran, Campbell, Yoshida, Jh Garcia (2 yrs: Gonzales/Y Rod) CF: Anthony, Rafaela, Duran, Jh Garcia, Campbell, N Taylor RF: Anthony, Abreu, Rafaela, Jh Garcia, Campbell, Bleis DH: Casas/Yoshida, Romy/Campbell. Duran, Hickey

I think we trade DHam, but he does have defensive value at 2B and PR'ing skills. I'm not sure those two narrow skillsets is enough to keep him over Sogard and Eaton. The only reason to keep Grissom is if you believe his upside potential outweighs his rock-bottom trade value, and 2B is still a big sore spot on our roster. I can't see us having four 40man roster slots on opening day for Eaton, Sogard, DHam & Grissom, and if we add a real 2Bman, there will certainly not be enough room for these 4. (We also have Romy in the 2B mix, but I doubt we view KC as a 2B option, anymore.)

There was some logic to the trade, even if you disagreed with it on day one. 2B had been and still is a big issue on this team. Grissom looked like the best option we had, at the time. The Sale injury history has been well documented and has continued in ATL. Yes, paying $17M sucked, but we should look at the budget JH established and figure the $10M "saved" was used toward paying for part of Gio's deal or some other contract we added, like Tyler O'Neill. When you look at the sheer volume of additions and subtractions Brez has made in just over 2 years, one should expect at least a couple mistakes. The Sale trade was a doozy, in hindsight, and hats off to those who thought it was on day one. The Buehler signing was another one, and at a cost of the Kluber and Richards signings combined. I guess we could call the Hendriks' signing a bust, too, but $10M can only be viewed in a lesser spotlight. Some point to the non-deadline deals as major blunders or just plain bad choices. IMO, the 2024 moves were all that was called for, and all but Jansen came through with any value. This year, I do agree we should have done more than M & M and later Lowe, but some of the massive overpays made at the deadline have looked pretty bad, so far. Of course we could cherry-pick Josh Naylor and wonder, "What if," but his .800 OPS with SEA is not a great deal better than Lowe's .784. (The HRs and RBIs are, though.) The Priester deal ha sucked, but how many of us really thought we let one slip away, when the deal was made? I feel like the Brez plan was to build rotation depth over the winter to point where no deadline deals would be needed and the excess could be used to fill the pen needs most of us felt was our biggest weakness going into 2025. It was not a big bat or another ace starter. Brez met one major need with the Bregman signing- actually two (a RHB and 3B D.) That was shocking after many of us felt the Soto run was just for show. He quietly filled our great need at back-up catcher by acquiring a FT catcher for a AA arm. His 2024 Gio signing finally came through. Romy off waivers was the type of deal we hired Bloom to make, but saw so little of. The guy is now 8th in team PAs and should pass Devers by year's end. He is no longer a journeyman/platoon profile. He's a FT'er who can play 1B, 2B and maybe 3B/SS. The Chapman signing was the big kicker, and many of us, including me felt that neglecting the pen was his biggest winter mistake. You don't hear as much hindsight judging on that move as we do for Sale, Buehler and the non deadline moves, do we? The Wilson signing looked like a near joke. Deals made the year(s) before for Slaten, Fitts, Weissert and a few others helped, this year, although the Slaten injury hurt. Even scrub deals like Toro and Eaton have helped. Perhaps most important of all was the Crochet trade. No discussion is needed on this deal. To me, other than the Crochet and Chapman deals, his work transforming the farm pitching has been a huge plus that will pay dividends for years to come. IMO, Brez has been a big overall plus. Our pitching looks strong and deep and most are controlled for years to come. Our D is greatly improved. While our offense lacks the big bopper, like Devers, it is deep and pretty strong. No other team has had a better bottom of the order than us, and that is not easy, when you figure we lost an .820+ hitting 1Bman for 5 months, our best batter (Devers) for 4 months, Bregman & Abreu for over a month and Anthony and Mayer for most of the season. I'm not blaming injuries and the Devers trade, but rather pointing out that this team still excelled in the batting slots 5-9, despite all these losses. The everyday player team control years is the envy of every MLB team- only Bregman & Refsnyder lose or may lose team control, this winter, on the line-up side of the roster. Again, we lack the superstar or two that our past ring teams always had, but we have a lot of players who are expected to be pretty good to very good players, going forward: Anthony, Mayer, Narvaez and maybe Campbell. Duran, Story, Abreu and maybe Rafaela. Role players like Romy, Eaton, Sogard, Wong and maybe a resurgence by Yoshida or Casas. We have a few farm hands looking to make an impact in 2026 or maybe 2027: Jh Garcia, Arias and maybe Romero or Jo Garcia. I like the way our future is lining up. I thank Brez for much of that.

As for the lineup, he has started 43 different guys at 1b, 36 at 2d base (including his fantastic CF, Rafaela), and a whole bunch in the outfield (Duran, Abreu, Rafaela, Anthony, Yoshida, Ref, Eaton, Garcia, and Campbell). Of the 9 players in last night's lineup, just 4 were in the opening day lineup. Are these typos? 6 players have played 1B and 6 have played 2B.

Exactly. Zero chance.; Not even 0.00001% chance.

YES! We play 3 vs TOR. We are also just 2 games from #2 (NYY, where we have the tiebreaker) and 1 game from #3 (SEA) or 4. DET is one of the two teams a game ahead of us, and we play 3 vs them.

Good Holt comp. I'm hoping we go into 2026 with Eaton and Sogard ahead of DHam and Grissom on the "Who We Keep List" or depth chart.

We do not have a day after night game, this series and have Monday off, so maybe Narvaez starts the next two games. We also have 3 catchers on the roster, so this might be the time we use it. We could PH or replace Narvaez at some point in the next two games.

I agree, but after 8 more games, maybe DET is hot, hot, hot and the M's are chilly cold.

Then, they ended up playing Rafaela at 2B, later. While that is not the solution I like, getting Anthony in the line-up outweighs the negative aspects. I get why they made the choice, but yes, many of us wanted Anthony up day one. I thought another reason was to gain a year of control. Did they get that?

CLE plays a day-night doubleheader today, and they face two of MIN's best pitchers, although Ober is having a down year: 2:10 PM Cecconi 4.39 at Ryan 3.35 7:10 PM Allen 4.36 at OBer 5.12 1:10 PM ATL (Wentz 5.56) at DET (Montero 4.32) 7:05 PM NYY (Rodon 3.11) at BAL (Sugano 4.39) 7:10 PM SEA (Kirby 4.46) at HOU (Valdez 3.59) 7:10 PM TOR (Bieber 3.72) at KCR Cameron (2.98) 7:10 PM BOS (Harrison 4.05) at TBR (Houser 3.11)