moonslav59

He does look good- better than I expected, and quicker to the bigs than anyone but him& his Momma dreamed of. SP'ers: 5-6 more seasons: Crochet (5 + Option) Top pitching prospects w no MLB experience: 3 Eyanson, 4 Witherspoon, 5 Phillips. 6 Bennett, 8 Valera, 11 Holobetz, 14 Uberstine Pre-arb: Early, Tolle & Bennett 4 more seasons: Suarez & Bello (3 + option) 2 more seasons: Crawford 1 more season: Gray ($30M option & SG can opt out) Oviedo & Houck Bye-bye: Sandoval

Speaking of prospect graduations, Early's recent one broke 5 straight everyday player trend by the Sox (Sogard>Narvaez>Campbell>Anthony>Mayer.) Slaten graduated in JUN 24, and there were 7 out of 8 everyday between Kelly in May '23 and Early in May '26. From DEC '22, it was 9 out of 11. The current top prospects list shows the flip that has taken place under Brez's watch: 5 of top 6 are pitchers (Arias is #2.) 14 of top 23 and 17 of 27.

It's great seeing Eyanson jump to #3 from #6. Of course Early's graduation helped for 1 slot, but he also jumped Witherspoon & Valera. Tolle may graduate soon.

Sogard also doubled as did KC and Eaton. Bastardo struggles while Song did well and got the win. Brannon jumped to 1.152 with those two dingers. Mason White with 7 dingers-wow! Futrell finally had a bad game, but still had 5Ks in 4 IP with no BBs. For the season: 28Ks to 5BB in 27.1 IP

The Sox are now 0.5 GB the middle tier of the AL (middle 5 teams.) 1 GB the 6th best AL record. 2 GB the 5th best record (19-20 SEA) What a cluster league. 3 of the top 5 teams may not end up there: TBR, ATH & CLE. It's gonna be a long season.

I liked Donovan and BLowe as secondary options (pun intended) and never thought about Durbin till it happened. Then again, I also thought about Polanco and ESuarez who is barely better on D than Devers. I'm just glad it wasn't Bichette. I liked Breggie but at no where near the offers we and the Cubs made.

Just finished watching. Big game by Early, plus some long ball action. We need to put together something long term.

If Casas wasn't about the worst defensive 1Bman in baseball, I could see moving Devers to DH, but I can't see keeping him at 3B for one more minute. Just my opiunion.

It would be sideways for him to suck, but I suppose he could give up 20 runs in 3 IP.

Think pay 80-90% of their contract or throw in a mid level prospect? IKF might be wanted by someone for half his remaining $2M (end of July) Gray might be the biggest prize. The 1.5 to 2.5 year players may be in question and more sought after. Chapman might bring back a nice return. (He has a 2027 option.) Contreras has 1 more year plus an option for 2028. Yoshida will have one more year left ($18M + $6M owed for '26) Houck has little value until he proves he's back (one more year) Whitlock has 2 options left, but is not looking good, so far. Duran, Crawford, Casas, Romy & Wong have 2 arbs left, but the value might not be there for any of them.

Only one direction to go!

soxprospects.com still takes a dim view of our catching prospects despite Brez adding several in recent months. 30. Gerald Rodrigues A+ (IFA Jan '23) Potential up-and-down depth catcher. Ceiling of a second division regular who contributes on both sides of the ball. Intriguing skillset for a catcher. Has upside at the plate if he can refine his approach and continue on his current defensive trajectory. 31. Luke Heyman A- (Alex Hoppe trade) Powerful right-handed hitter with a chance to stay at catcher. Wide-range of outcomes still, but has intriguing impact ability and a strong arm to build on. If he can stay at catcher, he could bring an intriguing offensive skillset to the position, but might have enough offensive upside to profile at first base if he can’t stick behind the plate. 33. Franklin Primera FCL (IFA SEP '24) Young catching prospect with considerable defensive upside. Development will largely turn on how his bat develops, as his defense is advanced for his age. Needs to get stronger, but shows some intriguing offensive traits. 44. Johanfran Garcia AA (IFA JAN '22) Potential minor league depth player. Projection is fluid and depends on how much further he comes back from knee surgery, which is a significant question given his physical profile and need to work on maintaining his physique. Prior to his injury, showed an advanced bat for his age and the ability to impact the baseball, but has not shown the same impact ability and loud tools since he returned. If he can improve his conditioning, that impact could return some, but that remains to be seen. 45. Adonys Guzman A+ (Part of Jh Garcia-Oviedo trade) Intriguing catching prospect with a defense first profile. Has the type of defensive ability that could carry him to the high minors in short order. Upside will be determined by how much he hits. 56. Brooks Brannaon AA (listed as 1B now- drafted in 2022) High-variance prospect who has struggled to stay healthy in his pro career and faces significant questions defensively, but shows at least one very intriguing tool that could play at the MLB level. Has upside if he can stick behind the plate due to his power, which is among the best in the system, but questions regarding his hit tool and defense cloud his projection. If he is unable to stick at catcher, which currently seems likely, would be limited to first base or designated hitter, putting far more pressure on his hit tool to improve and allow him to tap into his impressive power. Needs to make more contact and chase less in order to allow his power to play to its potential.

1.

Pitchers OPS Against in last 14 days: .300 Suarez .357 Chapman .376 Tolle (.207 last 7 days) .427 Crochet .505 Samaniego .578 Gray .679 Kelly .736 Bennett .843 Early (1.097 last 7 days0 .894 Moran .940 Whitlock .947 Watson 1.038 Bello (.367 last 7 days!) 1.092 Weissert

The team has a .669 OPS .717 RISP (surprisingly better than without RISP) .693 Men On Base (also better but still bad.) .638 Late & Close (very bad) .612 High Leverage (the killer)

How about our non 1B infield bats? .528 3B .544 SS .591 2B (Our hyped OF & DH? .663 LF, .666 CF and .849 RF. DH is .664.) Our .643 Catcher position beats 3 positions and is just 20 points from LF, 21 from DH and 23 from CF. Our 7-8-9 slots beat the 1-2, 4 and 6 slots! .579 6th .594 2nd .610 4th .623 8th and .625 1st .657 7th .673 9th .747 3rd (Thanks to Contreras) .910 5th (Thanks to Abreu)

I still watch every pitch of every game, even the year I "bailed." Contreras has been fun to watch. Rafaela has stayed pretty steady for 5-6 weeks, now. Suarez and the rookie starters have been exciting to watch. I'm hoping Samaniego & Moran can step up to fill some pen voids.

I do like Yoshida over Story for the 4 slot and would even put Rafaela 5th over Story, so watch Story blow up, tonight. LOL. I'm not sure the last 14 day sample size means more than other time frames, but here it is: 40+ PAs unless noted .938 Contreras (Nice get.) .923 Abreu (Off to a nice start in '26) .850 Yoshida (21 PAs) .804 Rafaela (Can he stay steady, for once?) .738 Monasterio (25) .708 Mayer (.700 is the new .750) .691 Durbin (rub your eyes) .644 Anthony (to the IL) .612 Duran (better than his season OPS) .587 Narvaez (hopes of coming around might prove false) .583 Wong (back to 2025 levels) .558 Story (stuck in a rut) .545 IKF (actually upticking)

Also, Bennet from 10 to 6 is kinda notable. Lesser risers... Holobetz 14>11 Azocar 15>12 I still think Jo Garcia should be ranked higher, but we'll see. They did give hi a little boost.

Stanley Tucker from GRE to SAL. (Austin Ehrlicher was activated from IL.) Cade Feeney from POR to Woo. (Brendan Rodgers to full season IL.) Erik Rivera from Woo to POR. (Sox signed Raymond Burgos to minor league deal and placed w Woo.) Gasper from WOO to BOS. (Anthony to 10 Day IL.)

If we do any trading, it is more likely it is FOR prospects.

Apparently Devers thought he was good on defense, but that is probably common among even the worst of the worst. I know we had Casas at 1B, before we knew he couldn't stay healthy, but we also knew he was better as a DH. This brings us back to the cog in the wheel: Yoshida at DH and only DH and at $18M per.

Picking the owner is not a democracy. JH has upticked the spending recently. Brez has wasted some of it. 6th in AAV budget is still $40M from 5th.

"Reverse Panda" is a good one.

This was the reason we hired Bloom- literally the guy who wrote the book on the Rays.