moonslav59

I'm so glad we don't have to worry about the Astros this year. The have no closer of any worth, as evidenced by today's meltdown with the Yanks.

Great. He's in for that bum Beni, who can't hit and can't field. You forgot his base running.

I hated the deal at the time, and not because of any dislike for Kimbrel. At the time, Kimbrel was making near FA money, so I felt we shouldn't have had to pay FA money AND prospects. Since the deal, closer costs have sky-rocketed and only Margot has shown ML readiness. At the time, I suggested Kimbrel should stay a top 3-5 closer for the remainder of his control time, and he has.

Margot> Chris Young & Swihart/Holt/Nunez/Lin in the OF

from soxprospects.com... A big acquisition before the 2017 season, Tyler Thornburg looks like he is almost ready to contribute in Boston. He started his rehab appearance on Monday and struck out the side while allowing one hit for the PawSox. Kevin Dillon of MassLive.com wrote about Thornburg's difficult recovery from thoracic outlet syndrome surgery.

The face of the franchise.

Our last 24 games (all 3 game series): ATL 1st place HOU 1st place TOR 3rd place in toughest division NYM 2nd place NYY 2nd place CLE 1st place BAL last place NYY 2nd place That's 21 of our last 24 vs currently very good to excellent teams. We better have a nice record before the last 24. The Yanks' last 22 games (all 3 games, except TBR's 4): @SEA 3rd in tough division @MN 3rd in easy division TOR 3rd in toughest division BOS 1st BAL last pleace @TBR 4th place @BOS 1st place (13 of 22 on the road) Only 12 of their last 22 games are against .500+ teams.

1.274 Betts 1.041 Bogey .984 Moreland .984 JMart .920 Holt .836 HRam .756 Devers .737 Beni .676 Nunez .567 JBJ .544 Lin .476 Vaz .390 Swihart .261 Leon We are just under 20% of the season being completed. Here are our current RBI totals times 5: 120 JMart 105 Devers 105 Betts 85 HRam 75 Bogey (missed time) 75 Beni 70 Moreland HRs x 5 55 Betts 30 JMart 20 Devers & Moreland 15 HRam, Bogey & Nunez 10 JBJ

8 out of the remaining 14 AL teams (not counting ourselves) have losing or tied records. That's 57%. Our schedules should look "easier" at times. The NL has only 5 of 16 teams with a losing record.

10 blown saves in 3 years before 2018.

Team HR Leaders 44 NYY (30 games) 42 TOR (30) 42 LAA (30) 40 CLE (29) 38 BOS (30) 38 SEA 38 TEX 37 COL 37 WSH 37 STL 36 MIL 36 AZ Big difference from last year.

It will. These guys are not this bad.

We accept that players slump at times- JBJ more than most.

Gold Glove defense. Power Hitting for average Very good base runner Nice arm Having a RF like Fenway's makes Mookie is indespensable.

Are you hinting at ;ine-up construction issues?

Save percentage is not the best criteria to use for valuing closers, but here's a look at MLB's recent best closers: 2017 saves/chances Closer 47/53 Colome 41/45 Holland 41/42 Jansen 39/45 Knebel 39/49 Osuna 39/45 Rodney 35/39 Kimbrel 34/39 Diaz 34/38 Giles 32/33 Davis 30/34 Allen Others: 28/30 Iglesias 27/30 Ramos 26/29 Neris 24/26 Doolittle 21/23 Vazquez _________________________________ 2016 (Notice all the different names): 51/56 Familia 47/47 Britton 47/53 Jansen 47/51 Melancon 44/49 F Rod 40/43 Ramos 38/43 Dyson 37/40 Colome 37/43 Gomez 37/44 Robertson 36/39 Chapman 36/42 osuna 32/35Allen 31/33 Kimbrel 27/28 Jeffress ___________________________ 2015 51/53 Melancon 48/51 Rosenthal 43/48Familia 41/47 Boxberger 40/45 Street 39/43 Kimbrel 38/40 F Rod 38/44 Casilla 36/38 Jansen 35/37 Tolleson 33/36 Chapman 32/35 Perkins 30/32 Ziegler Look how many RP'ers are 1-2 blown saves away from being even or better than others.

I've always felt WAR is n0t a good measure for RP'ers. Before today's game, fangraphs had barnes with a higher WAR thaan Kimbrel. Weird since Kimbrel has more IP. Kimbrel was ranked 36th in MLB WAR for RP'ers in 2018. Combine 2017 & 2018: 3.6 Kimbrel 3.4 Osuna 3.4 Jansen 3.1 C Green 2,8 Miller 2.7 A Bailey 2.7 Knebel 2.5 Neshek 2.4 F Vazquez 2.3 Robertson 2.3 Madson 2.3 Chapman

We're 7-2 vs NYY, LAA & TOR NYY are 9-6 vs BOS, LAA & TOR

Sox and their opponents 4-2 vs TBR .333 - .478 TBR vs others 11-12 3-0 vs BAL .000 - .308 BAL vs others 8-18 3-0 vs LAA .000 - .654 LAA vs others 17-9 2-1 vs NYY .333 - .692 NYY vs others 18-8 2-1 vs TOR .333 - .593 TOR vs others 16-11 2-1 vs KCR .333 - .259 KCR vs others 7-20 2-0 vs MIA .000 - .407 MIA vs others 11-16 1-2 vs OAK .333 - .461 OAK vs others 12-14 Differential: .654 LAA .407 MIA .359 NYY .308 BAL .260 TOR .145 TBR -.074 KCR -.074 OAK As you can see, the teams we beat by more than their record against others are the better teams like the NYY and LAA. Let's now look at the NYY: 5-4 vs TOR .444 - .619 vs others 13-8 4-0 vs MN .000 - .456 vs others 10-12 3-0 vs LAA .000 - .654 vs others 17-9 2-0 vs TBR .000 - .481 vs other 13-14 1-0 vs DET .000 - .464 vs others 13-15 1-1 vs MIA .500 - .370 vs other 10-17 1-1 vs HOU.500 - .655 vs others 19-10 1-2 vs BOS .667- .778 vs others 21-6 1-3 vs BAL .750 - .200 vs others 5-20 Differential .654 LAA .481 TBR .464 DET .456 MN .155 HOU .111 BOS -.130 MIA -.550 BAL Being undefeated vs 4 teams (including 1-0 vs DET) makes the yanks look better than the Sox in these comps, but look at the 2 teams that did better vs NYY than the rest of MLB.

Ever think that part of the reason the teams we played have a worse record is because we beat them by more than the teams the Yankess beat?

If moonslav reads this, I would like his thoughts on CERA with respect to Leon and Vazquez. I liked our staff before the season started. We've had many pitcher injuries and still we are 3rd in pitcher WAR and ERA-. I give some credit to Vaz & Leon for that. It's not something easily quantifiable. I often catch grief for only dealing with numbers and data, but there are many opinions I hold based on just my beliefs. This is one.

True, but the cost will be astronomical for a closer (IMO).

I agree. At least we get some compensation along with some budget space.

soxprospects.com on D Hernandez and others.... http://news.soxprospects.com/2018/05/notes-from-field-darwinzon-hernandez.html