moonslav59

Too bad no chance at playoff roster.

I'd like to see 11 pitchers, but we have only 2 positions where we might need defensive replacements, and both positions have no defensive depth. Nunez or Holt for Kinsler? Nope. Nunez or Holt for Devers? Meh...maybe. (Devers for Nunez? Nope.) The only bench we need is the Moreland-Pearce platoon at 1B, some depth at 2B/3B and a PH'er for our catcher(s).

If we carry 2 or 3 long men, we'd probably be alright in extra innings. (2 or 3 from Wright, Eovaldi, Pom, Johnson, Velazquez). When everyone was healthy, we carried 3 catcher. We also carried 12-13 pitchers. To me, this is the most important decision. I'm okay with 12 pitchers, but I want Leon to catch Sale and Porcello and Vaz to catch Price & ERod. Swihart has not caught one inning with any of those 4 guys all year.

I'm all for Wright, if he shows life this September. Bringing in Wright after Sale would be tantalizing.

Swihart or Lin might be our best bench runners next to Wright, of course.

Sandy "blows" on offense, but he's our starting catcher game one with Sale. Vaz probably catches Price in game 2, although Leon did very well with Price in limited action this year. Vaz has been ERod's caddy-pretty much, but he did great with Leon in limited time this year. Leon is the only guy who has caught Porcello this year. If Cora was going to play Swihart at catcher in the playoffs, wouldn't he have at least 1 inning with our top 4 starters this year under his belt, especially when you figure Vaz was out for weeks and weeks? Zero innings caught by Swihart with all 4 of our top starters. It's obvious he ain't starting a playoff game.

Good points, but I'm expecting our strong starting pitching to go deeper than 5 2/3 innings, and even if they don't, I think just about every pen arm could pitch in all 5 games without experiencing fatigue, unless one game goes 16 innings. I doubt Poyner makes the roster. He was held down in AAA while many of our current RP'ers were struggling. If we go with 12 pitchers, I'm guessing it's a long man like Wright, Pom, Johnson of Velazquez, so we can handle a 16 inning game or a couple games where the starter exits early. If we're using 10 pitchers in back-to-back games, chances are it doesn't matter who our 25th man is.

I'm for all 3. I am having my doubts about Vaz's defense as well, but I think he handles the pitchers better than Swihart.

1) Swihart can do more than catch. 2) Not using 3 catchers is not a good guide to evaluating the value of having 3 catchers. managers often do not PH for their catcher out of fear that the back-up might get hurt during the game. Having 3 catchers makes the first PH opportunity much more palatable for a manager. 3) Our catcher OPS is .554. It is pretty significant PH'ing someone like Moreland (.813) vs a RHP or Pearce (1.285) vs a LHP, even if it just for 1 AB.

Other debates... 12 man staff vs 11 man staff 2 catchers vs 3 catchers How many long RP'ers should we carry? (Wright, Pom, Eovaldi, Johnson, Velazquez) Last short guy (or one more long man) Thornburg, Workman or Poyner?

You mean, fiddee?

You JINXED THEM!

AL Team WAR Leaders Everyday Players 25.9 BOS 25.4 NYY 25.1 OAK 22.6 CLE 22.3 HOU 20.3 LAA 18.0 TBR AL Rank by Position: 1st RF 8.5 1st DH 6.2 2nd LF 4.4 5th SS 3.8 6th 1B 1.8 7th CF 2.4 13th 3B 0.4 14th 2B 0.2 15th C (-1.5) Pitching 26.6 HOU (SP: 19.5) 22.0 NYY (SP: 13.6) 19.4 BOS (SP: 14.5) 18.8 CLE (SP: 19.5) 14.8 TBR (SP: 9.7) Defense by UZR/150 8.2 BOS 6.7 CLE 4.3 KCR 3.9 LAA 3.8 NYY 14.6 SEA 12.1 OAK

Sox OPS Update: 1.053 Betts 1.048 JDM .953 Pearce (w/Sox) .864 Bogey .855 Beni .781 Moreland .757 Kinsler (w/Sox) .721 Devers .710 Holt .709 JBJ .667 Nunez .576 Swihart .553 Leon .545 Vaz

The Rays would be 1/2 game behind the division leader, the Rockies in the NL West. They'd be 1 behind the Braves and 3 behind the Guardians.

Soxprospects.com has this for next year's rosters: http://soxprospects.com/2019.htm Dalbec, Houck, D Hernandez & Feltman starting with Portland Lakins as the AAA closer. Mata in Salem. Not many surprises that I see.

My guess on tomorrow's line-up vs the RHP: 1. Holt RF 2. Beni CF 3. Moreland 1B 4. Bogey SS 5. Pearce LF 6. Nunez 3B 7. Devers DH 8. Kinsler 2B 9. Swihart C

I almost put Thornburg on the bubble. I have no beef with anyone who puts him there. I know I said "at this moment", and Devers hasn't shown anything since coming back, but the kid can hit. He also has shown he can hit in the clutch in big games. 2018 ISO .180 Devers .171 JBJ .128 Nunez .108 Kinsler .102 Holt 2017-2018 ISO .308 JD .236 Betts .200 Moreland .187 Devers .175 HRam .174 Bogey .172 Beni .164 JBJ .152 Nunez .082 Holt

Defense and pitch calling is not all there is to a catcher-pitcher relationship, but yes, it's a heck of a lot more important than offense. The pitcher-catcher combo goes up against 30-40 opponent PAs per game, sometimes more. Our catcher gets up 3-5 times a game on offense.

What largest? Season? .576 Swihart .565 Leon .545 Vaz That's the sample size that shows Swihart should start, or play more, or make the playoff roster over Vaz? I thought it was all about "once he started playing more." 2017-2018 combined is larger than 2018... .660 Vaz .608 Leon .579 Swihart How about career? .672 Swihart .643 Leon .637 Vaz 35 OPS points is worth upending SP'er comfort, success and preferences?

Here's how I see the playoff roster at this moment in time, assuming Sale and Price look healthy upon return: 17 Locks for ALDS SP: Sale, Price, ERod, Porcello RP: Kimbrel, Barnes, Brasier C: Leon 1B: Moreland & Pearce 2B: Kinsler SS: Bogaerts 3B: Nunez LF: Beni CF: JBJ RF: Betts DH: JD 7 Probable SP/Long Relief: Wright RP: Kelly, Hembree, Thornburg C: Vazquez 2B: Holt 3B: Devers That's 24: 11 Pitchers, 2 Catchers, 2 1B, 2 2B, 1 SS, 2 3B, 3 OF, 1 DH Bubble: 12th Pitcher: Pomeranz, Johnson, Velazquez, Workman, Poyner C/Utility: Swihart Outside chance: Lin I'd choose Swihart over Pom with maybe Workman having the best chance of overtaking both for the 25th slot.

...and K'in hitters....

Another view... From April 1st to July 20th, Swihart only caught 3 times. 99 PAs .513 OPS After starting to catch more often, he's... 89 PAs .719 OPS Since Vaz went on the DL (July 30th)... Here's his chance to prove to the world... 45 PAs .472 One could argue he really began playing more on June 3rd. Ops since then... .632. There are all sorts of sample size we can choose. The best recent sample size I can find is July 6 to now... .746 in 76 PAs (I'm not sure why that date should be chosen.) Is that really a number that screams to play him despite the obvious problems he has with our SP'ers?

...and I'm the cherry-picker.

I never use most recent small sample sizes to place value or future projections om. I do occasionally use a recent sample size to counter someone else's recent or small sample size. I've admitted I think Swihart is a better hitter and has more upside on offense, despite no evidence supporting Swihart, except his last 60-80 PAs, or to be more precise an even shorter tiny sample size back in July that has fuelded this whole debate about him being some offensive god or something. Yes, it's hard to put up good numbers, when you hardly play steady at all. That has nothing to do with this debate. Swihart has played sparingly all year. He's actually barely played more after Vaz's injury than from April 20th to Vaz's injury. Vaz does have bad defensive metrics this year, and he started off awful on offense while playing way more than Swihart. So what? That doesn't make me forget 2017 or his previous 60-70 PAs before getting hurt. That sample size is way, way bigger than any Swihart sample size of doing well. Looking at just the numbers, any numbers, except your cherry-picked numbers based on some apparent big turning point where Swihart went from 27 PAs a month to 35 and suddenly is apparently no used sparingly anymore, whicj is what caused him to apparently start hitting like he always could/would have had he been played a lot all along. The guy was super white hot 38 PAs streak way back in July. He's been at .470 in the 41 PAs since then as he has been "apparently" playing more. If we are talking recent sample sizes, why not look most recent? Why can't I look at Vaz's most recent sample size, before his injury? Why can't I look at all of 2017's numbers? Why can't we compare all 2018 numbers or 2017-2018 combined? I'm supposed to get all gah gah over 38 PAs in July, and if I don't, I'm called a cherry-picker. I haven't even brought up defense or catcher-pitcher relationships, which is clearly the main reason Swihart hardly catches when Leon & Vaz are healthy. Again, I;m in agreement that Swihart is likely to hit better than Vaz going forwards, even though I do not see the data I usually use to support it. I don't want him catching hardly anyone on our rotation pitchers. He could hit .800 and Vaz .600 over 500 PAs, and I'd still take Vaz. (I doubt Swi is 200 better than Vaz.)