moonslav59

...and sometimes an organization trades prospects the do highly regard out of the perception of a greater need.

JBJ is the best defensive Sox CF'er I have ever seen. Lynn was great. Rick Miller was, too. JBJ is the best, IMO. Best ever on any team? I saw Paul Blair for a few years. He played very shallow and dared hitters to hit it past him. They rarely succeeded. He was probably the best I saw. Evans and Betts in RF are the best I've seen there. Clemente was maybe better, but I didn't see him enough. Yaz was great in LF, but I'm not sure he was the best ever.

2B OPS .717 Kinsler .710 Moncada .705 Holt .663 Nunez 2B UZR/150 9.6 Kinsler 1.0 Holt -1.5 Nunez -13.0 Moncada

soxprospects.com moved Dalbec up to #6 and Reyes up to #28.

Speaking of WAR we have 4 offensive players in the top 18: 3. Betts 6.5 8. JD M 4.3 (despite an -11.1 on defense) 12. Beni 3.7 18. Bogey 3.1 We have 3 in the top 22 pitching WAR leaders: 1. C Sale 5.6 15. Porcello 2.4 22. D Price 1.6 We have 2 in the top 9 RP'ers by WAR: 5. Barnes 1.6 9. Kimbrel 1.2

Great point about speed affecting the game more than just the SBs. My childhood baseball hero (from my days living in the shadow of County Stadium in Milwaukee) was Tommy Harper. He was not all that fast, but he used his smarts and took one of the largest leads in the history of MLB. Obviously, the Sox have done their homework of pitchers wind-up and motions. We're stealing on pitchers not catchers-- the way it should be.

What gets me is that this is the same team many were bashing or questioning a month or so ago. Some expect the team to look sharp and championship caliber every game or every series. We will likely have another down stretch at some point, hopefully not in October, and maybe some naysayers will come out again, but this team has always looked very good to great on paper, and they are showing that greatness now, just as they did to start the season. The additions of Pearce, Eovaldi and Kinsler have helped a lot, as was the addition by subtraction of HRam, but our opening day roster was pretty tight. Several of us projected 100+ wins, something the Sox have done just once (1946) in over 100 years! This team is special. Our new manager is a big part of that. The addition of JD is another big part. The return to norms of many of our players, something several posters here doubted, has been a big part, if not the biggest part, of our improvement. This is fun watching. Bring us a ring!

OPS by age groups .762 25 or under (1411 PAs) .838 26-30 (2116 PAs) .681 31-35 (694 PAs) Looks like the youth has outhit the "experience".

First off, in his two "terrible years" he had WAR numbers of 1.6 (2015) and 2.0 (2017). I'm calling his 2017 season "okay"- maybe not for a $20M pitcher, but an ERA+ of 99 (BR) and an ERA- of 102 (fangraphs) is okay, to me. If I had to revise my statement, I might say 2015 was closer to okay than "terrible", but maybe we have different views on what terrible means. Yes, 2015 was "pretty bad", but that's not terrible. 2017 could be called "pretty bad" too, especially for a guy making $20M, but overall, Porcello has earned his money. He's got an 11.1 WAR in his 3.7 years with the Sox. ERA+ 97 with Detroit 109 with Boston

I'd say we have to get Pearce into the line up somehow- someway.

As far as I know, it's still 5 games. There's a day off before the play-in WC game. Non WC teams get 3-4 days off before their first playoff game.

When is Barnes going to get the props he deserves? He's only got one more IP than Kimbrel but has a 1.6 fWAR to Kimbrel's 1.2 fWAR. His 1.6 WAR is tied for 9th in MLB. Yes, the Yankess have 5 RP'ers in the top 40 by fWAR, and that's not even counting Britton, but I like our 1-2 punch of Kimbrel and Barnes. If Kelly can get to the top of his game by October, our 1-2-3 punch might be all we need to win us another ring. Look at these numbers: fWAR from 2017-2018 4.5 Kimbrel 3.7 Treinen 3.7 E Diaz 3.5 Osuna 3.5 Chapman 3.3 C Green 3.0 Soria 2.9 Robertson 2.7 K Giles 2.6 M Barnes 2.6 Y Petit 2.5 A Miller

I would never spend $18-21M a year on a closer. We may end up letting Thornburg & Smith fight it out with Barnes having an outside shot. Some has mentioned Feltman being fast-tracked, but I would not plan the 2019 roster with him holding a key role. I could see us signing a lower cost closer type to throw in the mix, but I would never go with a "closer by committee" plan. If we let Kimbrel go and gain a draft pick via a QO declined, do we keep Kelly or just start over?

Yes, and I wish we had gotten Cole, but I'm not sure we had what it took to get him, and things worked out well with Wright, Johnson, Velazquez and Eovaldi.

Funny but true.

Our SB rate is above the line where SBs help more than the CS'ings hurt, but when you're only over the line by 10-15%, it's not a major impact. What doesn't get mentioned in the metrics or data is how a threat runner on 1B bothers the pitcher and defenders to the point where the batter has a better chance of getting a hit. (I'm glad we don't hardly ever bunt.)

Bring 'em on! The Yanks with Severino starting only game 3 of a 5 game series do not scare me.

He'll be hurt by then.

He was close to "terrible" in one year. He was okay one year. He was Cy Young one year. He is doing very well, so far, this year. It was a very good extension then and still is now.

Plus, having the best record insures we face the play-in game winner who has presumably exhausted a start from one of their best starters.

Some people just look at BA, OPS or WAR, which is okay in some cases, but with catchers, handling the pitchers is often ignored or not prioritized highly enough. It's not just about pitch-calling, either. It's not just about pitch-framing and blocking WPs. To me, it's more about the comfort level a pitcher feels with certain catchers over others. It's not something that can be captured in stats or metrics, and even CERA numbers can be deceiving or misused. Leon helps out pitchers do better. Vazquez does, too- maybe to a lesser extent with several pitchers. For argument's sake, let's assume a great "pitcher handler" like Leon can shave a half a run off a pitcher's ERA. The guy could hit .100, and still be a huge plus to the team. Yet, we'd still hear a lot of bitching about "holes in the line-up" and "fat catchers dragging us down" from some. I love our catchers and how they get the most out of our staff. Look at our pen: we have Kimbrel and a bunch of nobodies, yet we have had the second best RP'er WAR since 2017. People still call it our weakness. I have called it one of our "weakest areas," but that is only because we are so strong just about everywhere else. It's nice to see Leon get some props.

One plus about the end of our season schedule is that we have a day of rest before each of our two 3 games series with the Yanks (9/17 & 9/27). The Yanks have the 17th off but not the 27th. The Yanks play everyday this month, except 8/20 and 8/23, but they have a double header on the 25th. Their first day off in September is the 6th. They then have the 13th and 17th off before ending the season with 13 games in 13 days- the last 7 on the road.

Let's finish these guys off with a sweep. (I'm not saying a sweep clinches the division, but it would put the Yanks on their heels.) We have some days off this month, so keeping our starters fresh should be easy. Here's how the month might look.... 8/5 NYY Price 8/6 Off 8/7 @ TOR Pom (+1 day rest) 8/8 @ TOR Johnson (+1) 8/9 @ TOR Porcello (+1) 8/10 @BAL Eovaldi (+1) 8/11 @BAL Price (+1) 8/11 @BAL Sale (off DL) 8/12 @BAL Pom 8/13 Off 8/14 @ PHI Johnson (+1) 8/15 @ PHI Porcello (+1) 8/16 Off 8/17 TBR Eovaldi (+2) 8/18 TBR Price (+2) 8/19 TBR Sale (+2) 8/20 CLE Pom (+3) or Johnson (+1) 8/21 CLE Porcello (+1) 8/22 CLE Eovaldi 8/23 CLE Price 8/24 @ TBR Sale 8/25 @ TBR Pom/Johnson 8/26 @ TBR Porcello 8/27 Off 8/28 MIA Eovaldi (+1) 8/29 MIA Price (+1) 8/30 @CWS Sale (+1) 8/31 @CWS Pom/Johnson (+1) 9/1 @ CWS Porcello (+1) 9/2 @ CWS (Maybe ERod) Price 9/3 @ ATL Sale 9/4 @ ATL Pom/Johnson 9/5 @ ATL Porcello 9/6 Off (We also have September 17th and 27th off.)

Me three (on "that other site")

I've often made lists of all the largest and longest deals in MLB and how so many of them were failures or near failures- some even from day 1. However, I feel Mookie is different, and I don't think it's because of homerism or bias. He'll be younger than most free agents, and his skillset looks like it will age well. He'll turn 28 right before his FA winter. A 10 year deal would give us 6 years before he turns 34 and 4 years from ages 34 to 37. It's not like Pujols.