moonslav59

All but Valantine won a ring. (Roenike doesn't count, right?)

What a difference 3 games can make. 83-65 NYY 81-68 BOS -2.5 80-68 SEA & HOU (ALW & WC) 79-70 TEX -1.5 (-2.0 from BOS)

Perales pitched an inning today! (0H, 1BB, 0K) Holobetz pitched 6 (3H, 1ER, 1BB, 7K) He has a 2.39 ERA. POR lost 2-1. Arias had 2 hits (.702.)

I fully expect us to not add a 1Bman. I'm not even sure we bring Lowe back. We may run with just Casas, Campbell & Romy. I think we bring Bregman back or make a deal for someone like Marte. If we trade for Marte, we may sign a SP'er. If we sign Bregman, I think we trade for Joe Ryan. Not someone like Joe Ryan, but Joe himself. I think they will view the return of Anthony, Mayer and all those SP'ers will be enough- along with subbing Ryan for Buehler.

Narvaez has hit .854 since August 12th. I think losing Anthony was the last straw. Abreu just drove home the dagger. When you look at the team to start the season, it looked like our top 4 batters were going to be Devers, Bregman, Abreu and Duran. Casas was maybe 5th or 6th. Anthony, Campbell and Mayer offered big hopes, if given a shot. We lost Devers for all but 2 months, Bregman for over a month, and Abreu for about a month. We lost Casas for all but a month, and when Anthony showed us he was for real and a top 1-2 batter on the team, we lost him, too. This coupled with so many SP'ers lost seems to be to much to overcome. I still think we can make the playoffs, and that is a testament to the depth and no give up attitude, but it will be hard to overcome losing Devers, Anthony. Mayer, Casas, Abreu, Houck, Crawford, Dobbins, Sandoval and others for all or most of the season. Yes, other teams had big injuries and or many of them. I thought we had better depth than most teams, but it may not be enough.

The last time we lost 3 in a row (less than a week ago) we won 3 in a row, afterwards (all on the road.) We lost 3 in a row in mid August, then won 3 in a row and 7 of 8. We lost 3 in a row in early AUG, then won 3 of 4. We lost 4 of 5 in mid July, then won 10 of 13. We lost 6 in a row near the end of June, then won 13 of 15. We lost 3 of 4 in early June, then won 8 of 9. The last time we had a losing streak and did not follow it up with something good was late May. We lost 5 in a row, then 4 of 7. In April we lost 3 in a row and then won 3 in a row. We lost 4 in a row after our opening day win, then won 5 in a row, then lost 3 in a row, followed by winning 6 of 9. Maybe this trend ends with this losing streak, but I'm not sure why some seem to have given up on any chance of a turn around. Turn arounds has been our strength, this year.

Like clockwork

We needed Bello to step it up. The 10 hits was a nice sign for the offense, but two solo homers didn't help like they could have with men on. Kinda like a broken record. Now, it's up to Crochet to stop the bleeding. Glad it's him, tomorrow.

good laydown. my guess is Duran ph.

Romy has earned the FT role. He is hitting RHPs pretty well, and better than many LHBs on the team. We really need Abreu back, and ASAP. We also need better from these guys: Lowe: .991 in first 14 games w Sox/.258 last 6 gms. Rafaela: .899 in previous 55 games/.487 last 35 gms/.403 last 12 gms (But hey, he has 3 BB and 6 Ks in his last 15 PAs! Are we glad he's made "adjustments?") DHam: .778 in previous 6 gms/.369 last 10 gms Duran: .949 in previous 9 gms/.550 last 7 gms Bregman: .858 after return from injury to 16 games ago /.452 last 15 gms Last 14 Days: 1.045 Narvaez (.833 last 7 days) 1.010 Ref (platoon) 1.500 last 7 days .988 Romy (near FT) 1.167 last 7 .967 Eaton (1.049 lasy 7) .945 Story (.925 last 7) .748 Wong .742 Duran Sogard .769 last 7 days

Well, Devers never took questionable "days off" from work, twice in his career. He kept playing and producing through all the drama. He played while injured several times in his career, which brought down his career numbers. That being said, Marte does not have the salary Devers has, and he can play defense better than Devers can even dream of playing. We might get him for Harrison, Hicks (partial salary offset) J Bello plus Campbell and Clarke.

Why do you assume an .830 batter over 840 PAs in his career was going to stay at .580, all year? He has a s***** month, as did Story over almost 2 months. All the times you cite how someone has been doing over a short and recent sample size, only to be surprised they did not continue as before should help you realize players have ups and downs. Casas was coming back from an injury and played just 29 games, this year. Maybe the injury was career altering, but I still think the guy is an .800 hitter, and we could certainly use one. We have 1 .800 batter with 400+ PAs. We have 3 more between 300 and 399 PAs. We have 2 between 180 and 290 PAs. Our 1B OPS by PAs: .647 in 2010 PAs Toro .843 in 165 PAs Romy (mostly as a platoon) .624 in 55 PAs Lowe .563 in 37 PAs Sogard The loss of Casas was very significant, unless you convince yourself he had morphed into a .580-.640 batter.

xFIP Leaders on the Farm (80+ IP) 2.53 Tolle 2.80 Anderson 2.96 Early 3.23 Holobetz 3.34 E Rivera 3.45 Mullins 3.52 Rogers 3.55 Sansone 3.59 Sprague 3.61 Aita 3.97 Sandlin 4.13 Stock 4.16 Uberstine ______________ 40-79 IP 2.33 McShane 2.53 Wu-Yelland 3.01 M Medina 3.15 Fajardo 3.15 C Adams 3.16 Travieso 3.34 Brand 3.37 Ruiz

The talk of the downturn in everyday talent on the farm after players like Anthony, Narvaez, Mayer and Campbell graduated is supported by the data. Here is a look at the top farm OPS in 2025 (200+ PAs) : .814 Jh Garcia AA-AAA .796 Ehrhard A+/AA .765 G Rodriguez FCL-A- .759 Romero AA-AAA .753 Castro AA .753 Gonzales 3 teams .752 Fermin FCL-A- .749 Rosier AA-AAA .737 Hickey AAA .737 Encarnacion A-/A+ .724 Yuten A .723 Arias 3 teams (most PAs on the farm) .704 Taylor A+ ________________ 100-350 PAs 1.102 J Brito DSL 1.003 Danville DSL .975 Andujar DSL .895 Primera DSL .863 Welch DSL .860 Ogando DSL .853 Alvarado DSL .831 Kolozsvary AA-AAA .827 H Ramos .793 Hidalgo DSL .790 Soto DSL .777 Rivas DSL .758 A Lugo A+ .752 Maximus A-/A+ ______________ Notables under 100 PAs .950 Godbout (55 PAs) .836 Mambel (53) .827 Winnay (61) .768 J Rodriguez (92) Who are the sleepers on this list?

Maybe his search ends with Cora. The next question would be, who do Cora & Brez hire as the next Manager?

I have no issues with Duran. He's been one of our most consistent hitters, all year, despite getting worse vs LHPs over the last 2-3 years. (BTW, his OPS vs LHPs was the same overall OPS as Casas in 2025.) 2025: .865/.581 2024: .910/.665 2023: .841/.749 Duran has stayed healthy, all year, and for this team, that's a big plus. That is also part of the reason he leads the team in some cumulative stats. Lets look at these stats per PA: TB .472 Romy .465 Anthony (IL) .446 Refsnyder .433 Abreu (IL) .415 Bregman .410 Story & Devers (traded) .392 Duran .380 Rafaela (I'm surprised he's so close.) This is not intended to slight Duran in any way. He plays everyday. We need that, as we can see, now.

Casas had an OPS over .800 for a pretty large sample size, before the tiny sample size in 2024 you keep using to define him. He was at .580 after 29 games. Story, the guy you are praising and the poster boy for players missing time due to injury was at .581 after 54 games, THIS YEAR! I think you need to cut Casas some slack or stop praising Story. (I's choose the former.) The Casas injury also forced the whole Devers blow up. It was a major injury to this team. I'm not sure why you assume Casas would be at .580 after 500 PAs, had he stayed healthy. The same as not assuming Story would stay at .581 all year.

fWAR per IP .045 Chapman .029 Crochet .028 Whitlock .026 Wilson .016 Dobbins (IL) .014 Bello & Giolito

Current Sox fWAR Leaders: 5.4 Crochet 3.4 Duran 3.2 Bregman (was on IL for a while) 3.1 Story (leader since June) 2.9 Rafaela 2.8 Narvaez 2.7 Anthony (IL) 2.7 Abreu (IL) 2.5 Chapman 2.1 Bello 2.0 Devers (Traded) 1.9 Giolito 1.8 Whitlock 1.5 Romy (290 PAs) 1.2 Wilson 1.1 Ref (184 PAs) 1.0 Dobbins (IL in 64 IP) fWAR per PA .0089 Anthony (IL) .0073 Bregman .0069 Narvaez .0068 Abreu (IL) .0060 Devers (as a DH- traded) .0060 Refsnyder .0055 Rafaela .0053 Duran .0052 Story .0052 Romy We are missing 3 of our top 5 on this list.

Why assume TEX is going to keep winning? They play the next 5 on the road at NYM and then HOU. If they sweep HOU, we'll stay ahead of HOU for the WC slot. Don't look now, but the real "choke" is HOU, and we're already ahead of them. They are... 5-8 in their last 13 games (We are 6-7) 20-25 in their last 45 (We are 27-18) 28-34 since July 3rd (We are 38-22.) SEA is 13-15 in their last 28 but have played better more recently.

It's "stopper" time, for sure!

You've stuck with this all year, and maybe you do end up being right, but all year we have bounced back from these 2-3 game losing streaks. It does hurt to see Eaton, DHam and Yoshida sandwiched between slumping players. I take issue with the Duran comment. While he's been worse than 2024, he's at .773, now. He was at .774 8/30. He was at .784 8/15. He was at .767 7/28 He was at .756 7/9 He was between .708 and .753 all June. He was between .715 and .762 from 5/18 to .5/31. Before that the sample sizes were smaller and more volatile as he ranged from the .500's to mid .700's. He's been one of our most steady hitters all year. He's at .550 in the last 7 games. He, as well as most hitters have streaks like that, several times a year. He's at .752 the last 16 games and .875 since June 29th. The O has gone into a fink, since Anthony's injury. The loss of Abreu did not help. The line-up has lost 4 of their best batters, this year (Casas, Devers, Anthony and Abreu.) We also basically replaced out FT catcher from 2024, who was a decent bat, last year. Call it a choke all you want, and keep predicting doom & gloom, as you have all year- game by game, week by week. It's been working real well, right? The Sox have the 4th best record in the AL- just 4,5 GB the best AL record. While it's true that we are also 4.5 GA of being the 8th ranked team (bottom tier,) we have one of the best records in MLB since the end of June. Some choke! June 30> 43-21 MIL 40-23 BOS (63 games is a significant sample size.) 40-24 TOR 39-25 PHI 37-27 TEX 37-28 SEA 36-29 CLE Okay, looking at the worst stretches I can find, we are... 6-7 since AUG 29th... epic choke!!! Or is it the 0-2 run we are on?

It seems like the loss of Anthony was ten times worse than losing Devers. On paper, it's likely not true, but it feels that way, now. I will say, this team has gotten us feeling this way several times, this year, then BAM! They reel off 3 in a row or 4 of 6. Now, would be a good time for that.

It looks like hopes of winning the ALE are fading away, unless we go 5-0 vs NYY & TOR and keep winning vs others (unlikely.) SEA is still playing. TEX is hot. We are 1.5 behind NYY and 1.5 ahead of SEA pending their result. One of HOU (80-68) /SEA (79-68) /TEX (78-70) will win the ALW. One will almost certainly be a WC winner, while the other could catch the Sox. 14 games to go.

He hasn't played yet at WOO, so I'm not all that hopeful. Maybe he gives us 7-10 games.