moonslav59

Best ERAs Rotation 0.87 Early 2.69 Crochet 3.34 Bello 3.46 Giolito 4.13 Dobbins Pen 1.23 Chapman 1.86 Matz 2.35 Whitlock 2.74 Wilson 2.97 Weissert 3.14 Bernardino 3.64 Murphy 4.50 Slaten (others are better)

Imagine at full health: by Best Splits vs RHPs/ vs LHPs C: .724 Narvaez/,743 Narvaez 1B: .861 Lowe/985 Romy (Casas) 2B: .740 Mayer/.857 Sogard 3B: .816 Bregman/.862 Bregman SS: .759 Story/.738 Story LF: .903 Anthony/.770 Anthony CF: .910 Eaton/ .688 Rafaela RF: .828 Abreu/.721 Abreu DH: .871 Duran//974 Refsnyder (Casas)

The Sox now have 8 batters above ,780 and 9 above .750. If you include a catcher and make it 10, we have 10 over .730. Of course, some are small sample sizes, platoon unbalanced or guys on the IL, but it's still pretty impressive. .859 Anthony (leads team in OPS) .858 Refsnyder (leads team in SLG) .830 Bregman (leads team in BB/K) .815 Romy (leads team in OPS v LHPs) .811 Abreu (leads team in ISO) .787 Duran (leads team in XBHs & TB) .784 Lowe (leads team in 1B defense) .781 Eaton (leads team in OPS v RHPs) .753 Story (leads team in HRs, RBI and SB) .730 Narvaez (leads team in GIDP) .693 Rafaela (leads team in SAC) Looks like a bunch of leaders, to me.

Games remaining: BOS: at TBR, at TBR, OFF, at TOR, at TOR, at TOR, DET, DET, DET HOU: SEA, SEA, OFF, atATH, atATH, atATH, a LAA, atLAA, atLAA CLE: atMN x 2, at MN, OFF, DET, DET, DET, TEX, TEX, TEX DET: ATL, ATL, OFF, at CLE, at CLE, at CLE, at BOS, atBOS, atBOS SEA: at HOU, at HOU, OFF, COL, COL, COL, LAD, LAD, LAD NYY: at BAL, at BAL, OFF, CHW, CHW, CHW, BAL, BAL, BAL It looks like the Yanks have the easiest road, with HOU next easiest, but it seems like these games never play out like you'd expect. CLE plays a doubleheader tomorrow, and we will see where they stand in the loss column, tomorrow night. They have a rough last 9 games in 9 days. SEA might luck out, if the LAD don't need to win in their last series. DET might be about to have an epic choke year. They have a rough final 8 games, especially the last 6. BOS has no easy schedule and could end up passing DET in the final series, as CLE sneaks into the playoffs. I left TOR out, but a losing streak could put them back in the talks.

After the Paxton, Hendriks and others I can't even remember, I should give up on Sandoval. I kinda liked the signing, back when. I think he is pretty good, if healthy. Maybe, just once, we'll get one of those type signings right.

Every team we needed to lose lost, except CLE- the bastahds! 5 AL teams are bunched between a 2 game spread, and 6 AL teams are bunched between a 3.5 games spread. 86-68 NYY 85-69 DET & SEA 84-70 BOS & HOU ___________ 82-71 CLE -1.5 (1 in loss column) Note: CLE has tiebreaker with HOU! (NOT BOS)

winning %: .620 w Anthony .727 in Dobbins's starts (.615 counting his 2 RP games.)

Campbell went 0-4 w 4 Ks. He did walk once, which is better than Romero's 0-5 night. The Wooster's lost 8-7 in 10. Their record is now 74-73.

If we sweep DET, it's relevant. We'd be 3-3 vs them. The way DET is playing, they may be passed, even if CLE goes 5-4.

Yeh, well we had an 8-2 record against NYY before our last 3 games home series with them. How did that work out?

They have the Sox at 82.7% chance of making the playoffs- likely aided by us having the tie breaker over CLE, and the fact that DET and TOR are in bigger offensive slumps than we are.

This team has looked like this several times, this year, and then BAM, they come out swinging and winning. I'm not saying they have one more of those in them, but it has been their trend, all year long. It seems that many get rapped up in trends and tend to think a team that is slumping is doomed to continue slumping. I ask why ignore the season long trend of this team's ups and downs? We've has very few prolonged down stretches. This one if losing 5 of 7, although we are still 8 and 8 in our last 16. We felt pretty down after losing 3 in a row in early Sept, then won 3 in a row. We felt pretty down after losing 3 in a row and 7 of 10 in mid August, then won 7 of 8. We felt pretty down after losing 5 of 7 near the end of July, then we won 9 of 10. We felt pretty down after losing 6 in a row and 7 of 8, then won 11 of 12 in early July. We felt pretty down after losing 9 of 12 at the end of May, then we won 8 of 9. We lost 4 of 5 to start May, then won 4 of 5. We started the season off winning opening day, then losing 4 straight, followed by winning 5 straight. later in April, we lost 6 of 8, then won 4 in a row and 6 of 7. Almost every losing stretch was followed by a longer or more impressive winning stretch. Maybe we win 7 or 8 of 9 and win the division!!! or not.

The reason they give HOU and SEA greater odds to make and advance in the playoffs is that one has to win the ALW. It's a lock one makes it to the dance. There is no lock for the Sox to even make the dance. If all three teams make it, let's re-look at the odds after 162 games. That being said, fangraphs gives the Sox 3.5% chance to win the WS. HOU gets a 3.9% chance. When you figure their easier chances to make the playoffs, I think they think the Sox are better than HOU. They give Div leader DET a 6.4% chance, and they have a 97% shot to make the playoffs to BOS's 82%.

1. Duran 2. Story 3. Bregman 4. Yoshida 5. Romy 6. Eaton 7. Lowe 8. Narvaez 9. Rafaela

Making the playoffs would be nice, but I kinda feel the same as MVP. We need to play well at least for one round to give me a sense we have really gotten significantly better. Being better "on paper" is one thing. Improving from one year to the next and then the next is better than going backwards, but the wait has been long enough. Time to show it.

I agree that the OF was already very good, and the DH slot was full (Devers) even beyond the Casas injury at 1B. I do think Anthony was the guy that could have and should have been called up earlier. The fact that we used many rookies, this year does not change that point. This is not some hindsight observation, either on my behalf and others here who felt the same way and still do. If that choice kept us from winning even 1 game, that could be the difference.

Agreed. I do think Romy has been doing well enough vs RHPs to get more playing time. Maybe he's just a late developer and not the journeyman profile he was for years and years. I'm not sure Ref will ever really earn the slot vs RHPs, although he has had some seasons where he was okay at it. Of course, it would be better to have a big beast of a bat vs RHPs that is better than R & R, better than DHam & Sogard, and better than Lowe and others. Our recent line-ups have looked pretty sad near the bottom, and our bottom of the line-up has been a relatively speaking asset to the team over most of the season. Losing Anthony, Casas and long periods of Bregman and Abreu have been too much to overcome, especially in light of the team choosing to trade away our best offensive player in early June.

True, but he kinda earned his way out of the platoon-only role, and not so much due to injuries making him the best choice of evils. In the last 28 days, Story, Bregman, Rafaela and Duran are the only players with 18 or more start. DHam has 9 and Sogard 7. Ref has 10, along with Wong (Narvaez 16.) Eaton has 13 and Lowe 16. I'm thinking, add up Eaton, DHam and Sogard and it's 29 Games started in 25 games played. It's about 1.2 per game. If you count Romy and Ref, it's 56 over 25 or 2.2 per game.

Agreed, and Devers at DH took away the chance for a 4th OF'er to be cycled through the DH slot.

I think we rightfully focused our efforts on building up the pitching staff and pitching depth. We are pretty deep, despite missing 4-6 of our top 10 SP'ers for most or all of 2025. We look deep, next year, despite losing Gio, Buehler, May and Priester- plus Houck out until 2027. I do agree we need a couple big bats, but I'd still like to see a proven and solid #2 SP'er added, this winter. The starter depth can help fill in some pen slots, assuming we don't lose 6 of out top 12 SP'ers, next year.

Yes, many wanted an upgrade over Toro, including me. Names were naylor, Hearns, Hoskins... not beast bats.

MLB loves this. Sad but true.

That seems about right. The othe rthing is to assume that teams today are carrying on the tradition or that is something deeply imbedded in our system. Like we have a knack for acquiring chokers and or developing players into chokers through about a dozen managers and GMs.

Agreed. How many said we need a beast of a bat?

Nope: we choked and are floppers. That 1978 team dictates who the 2025 is and will be. (This should be in green.)