moonslav59

I wasn't sure anyone would catch that. I shoulda known you would!

I loved the first season and am looking forward to seeing season two. I wouldn't put it on the same pedestal as Breaking Bad, but it is very good. I'm hooked on Merli, now and will watch it once I'm done. I'm also watching Better Call Saul.

After these last two wins, you are a lock for the WC and are close to locking up home field for that game.

soxprospects.com updated their rankings: http://soxprospects.com/index.html Red= up 4 or more slots Blue= down 4 or more slots Player age 1. Chavis 23 2. Mata 19 3. Houck 22 4. Groome 20 5. Casas 18 (unrated before) 6. Dalbec 23 (up 4 slots) 7. Chatham 23 (up 10 slots) 8. D Hernandez 21 9. Shawaryn 23 10. Feltman 21 (unrated before) 11. Ockimey 22 12. Decker 18 (unrated before) 13. Lakins 24 (up 6 slots) 14. Flores 17 (up 8 slots) 15. D Diaz 17 16. Scherff 20 (down 8 slots) 17. Howlett 18 (unrated before) 18. Northcut 19 (unrated before) 19. Duran 21 (unrated before) 20. Lin 23 21. Travis 25 (down 16 slots) 22. Crawford (up 37 slots) 23. Poyner 25 24. D Reyes 21 (unrated before) 25. Netzer 22 26. Thompson 23 (down 11 slots) 27. Raudes 20 (down 16 slots) 28. J Diaz 21 (up 7 slots)

I know some might consider this blasphemy, but has anybody else noticed Lester ain't the same Lester he was the first two years with the Cubs? 2015-2016 30-17 2.89 (3.19 FIP/ 1.07 WHIP) 2017-2018 27-13 4.03 (4.41 FIP/ 1.32 WHIP) I still wish we kept him, and the whole contract offer fiasco was Ben's lowest hour, but as the contract has played out, worries about long term deals seem to be carrying some weight. (Note: the Lester of 2017-2018 is still pretty damn good.)

18 Ks tonight!

I'd like to see him up 6th or 7th, but being up in front of Betts helps, too.

Yanks squeak by again. Had they lost these last two, one would seriously have to have worried about their playoff chances. Now, 2 wins in a row and injured players returning, trade pick-ups and September call-ups have you guys looking good for home field in the WC game.

While our pitching has looked suspect, having Sale, ERod & Wright out, and Pom being totally unreliable pretty much all year, we've done very well. 18-9 in August. With ERod & Sale returning and possibly Wright, too, and even Pom showing faint signs of recovering from whatever messed him up, we might see our pitching return to top 3 form. Our pen will be strengthened by an infusion of arms from the rotation and farm call-ups. I'm hopeful our staff just had a hiccup (perhaps at maybe the best time we could ask for) and will now come through when it counts.

The big difference here is that he hit .706 between those two 17 game stretches not .450. No matter how you spin it, this has been one of JBJ's longest, decent stretch of his career.

Just got caught up live. Lovin' what I see with ERod!!!! Just what the doctor ordered. If Sale can come back strong again, I'm lovin' our chances this October. Just lovin; it!

You can probably find this sort of micro picking with many players... granted, JBJ more than others.

I'm with you on JBJ. I supported him through his super rough start in MLB. I always believed in him. I've never felt he needed be all that good offensively, but I find myself continually defending his offense to the point where many feel I think he needs to be good offensively to be a plus value. I don't. I've always felt like anything over about a .600 OPS is a plus, and he's almost always ended up significantly above that mark by the time each season ends. Sure, he's streaky, but that doesn't bother me as much as it seems to bother others. I think his arb cost will not go up a whole lot, thanks to his early season slump. That's one good thing coming out of this.

The Red Sox have called up five players: first base/outfielder Sam Travis, left-handers Bobby Poyner and Robby Scott, right-hander William Cuevas and infielder Tzu-Wei Lin. When players come off rehab, our September roster might look like this... 19 Pitchers Sale Price Porcello ERod Eovaldi Johnson Wright Velazquez Kimbrel Barnes Kelly Hembree Brasier Pomeranz Workman Thornburg Poyner Scott Cuevas 16 Position Players Leon Vaz Swihart Moreland Pearce Travis Kinsler Holt Bogaerts Lin Devers Nunez Benintendi Bradley Betts Martinez Possible further call-ups Haley Shepherd Walden Renda Not on 40 man roster: Shawaryn Lakins Gorst Butler Phillips

I'm pretty sure some of the poorer teams see that even when they win, the money does not go up enough to pay more for better players needed to win. I remember when the Celtics did not even sell out in some big games. The Pirates did not sell out their WS games.

In August... Our staff ERA jumps to 4.18 after being under 3.36 in 3 of the previous 4 months. It is 3.61 on the season, which includes August. Our staff WHIP jumps to 1.305 (season: 1.229). Our staff OPS against jumps to .753 (season: .689). Yet, we still go 18-9- pretty close to our yearly winning percentage. Our bats came alive, mostly in short bursts as we are finding ways to do what we need to do to wrap up the division title and secure home field advantage. Home vs Away RPG 5.8 H 5.0 A OPS .836 H .758 A RPG Against 3.8 H 3.9 A OPS Against .689 H .690A Both our offense and our pitching/defense do better at home in all 4 major categories. Winning % .727 H .643 A

Your point highlights the way CERA should be used. One can not just blindly look at each catcher's CERA on a team, you have to look at the pitcher by pitcher comps. Of course some comps will have wildly different sample size innings pitched that make some comps unreliable. Here's a look at 2018 OPS against by pitcher: (Only pitchers with 80+ PAs against listed) Porcello .700 w Leon (714 PAs) N/A w Vazquez N/A w Swihart No Comp: Porcello has only been caught by Leon. Price .562 w Leon (232) .780 w Vaz (394) N/A w Swihart Leon is the clear better choice w Price. Sale .497 w Leon (406) .572 w Vaz (160) N/A w Swihart Leon is the better choice with Sale. Rodriguez .408 w Leon (43) .687 w Vaz (401) N/A w Swihart Leon is the better choice, but the sample size differential is large. Johnson .683 w Leon (105) .843 w Vaz (128) .731 w Swihart (144) Leon is slightly better than Swihart. Sample sizes all close to even. Velazquez .761 w Leon (83) .738 w Vaz (134) .818 w Swihart (83) Vaz is slightly better than Leon. Sample sizes pretty close. Pomeranz .961 w Leon (93) .948 w Vaz (127) .723 w Swihart (72) Swihart clearly does better with Pom. Barnes .591 w Leon (96) .493 w Vaz (113) 1.049 w Swihart (33) Vaz does better with Barnes. Kelly .886 w Leon (91) .429 w Vaz (108) .531 w Swihart (36) Vaz does way better with Kelly than Leon. Swihart does well, too. Hembree .635 w Leon (84) .748 w Vaz (107) .657 w Swihart (34) Leon does better than Vaz. Swihart does well. Kimbrel .587 w Leon (107) .610 w Vaz (98) (Just 6 PAs with Swihart .750) Leon does slightly better than Vaz. Wright .396 w Leon (16) .645 w Vaz (145) (Just 4 PAs with Swihart 1.167) Leon does better, but with way less PAs against. Eovaldi .703 w Leon (131) N/A w Vaz N/A w Swihart No Comp Workman .856 w Leon (64) .454 w Vaz (35) .465 w Swihart (22) Vaz does better. Swihart does well. Thornburg .744 w Leon (72) N/A w Vaz 1.230 w Swihart (18) Leon does better, but sample sizes are small. Brasier .480 w Leon (55) N/A w Vaz .358 w Swihart (23) Swihart does better, but the sample sizes are small. Overall, it looks like Leon does way better with our top 4 starters by PAs against with Porcello only using Leon as well. 8 pitchers do better with Leon 4 do better with Vaz 2 do better with Swihart 2 only are caught by Leon For what it's worth, here are the overall CERA numbers: 3.27 w Leon 3.76 w Vaz 4.42 w Swihart 5.40 w Butler

It seems like everyone's pens are imploding recently.

It depends on the trade value. Also, these 3B/1B prospects are not ranked very highly nationally. The chances that just one out of Dalbec, Chavis and Ockimey give us plus value at 3B or 1B is not all that great. We may want to keep all 3 to increase the chances that one succeeds. They all could turn out to be like Sam Travis or Wil Middlebrooks. I doubt we make any major changes involving 3B or 1B this winter. We have Moreland for one more year and Devers with enormous potential to be a big plus at 3B or 1B (or DH). I think our depth at the corner IF positions is not all that great. It certainly is better than our OF prospect depth and maybe middle IF and catcher depth, but that doesn't mean we're so overloaded we can afford to trade one. 1B is a huge offensive position in MLB. We've come up a bit short at 1B for a few too many years of late, so I'm for holding onto all or them, unless someone gives us something better (maybe in a two-for-one type deal), but our farm is not our strength right now. In general, I'd like to hold onto the few with promise.

I'm not sure there's a place to find it. Someone would have to do it by hand. The team ERA was 4.18 in August. Leon caught most of that. Pitcher by Pitcher August ERA listed in order of most IP for the month: 5.11 Porcello 2.10 Price 5.27 Johnson 5.67 Eovaldi 3.15 Pomeranz 5.28 Velazquez 1.88 Workman 1.42 Kelly 1.50 Brasier 5.40 Thornburg 9.64 Barnes 6.48 Hembree 4.50 Kimbrel 0.00 Sale

Nah, let's save it for another late inning large crooked number.

It was a joke. Here's a better one: Vaz, Pedey & Hembree and enough money to keep you under the tax limit.

Nope Their pen is still on the clock.

The fix is in.

I was hoping the Yanks got him.