moonslav59

It would be nice to not have his first game back be in the playoffs, but if that's what it takes, so be it.

14 Ks for the staff today. Seems like we K 10+ every game. Nice job all around.

Runs are often scored in bunches. I'm not sure it's so unpredictable. We've hit well towards the ends of games, especially extra inning games.

Betts and Devers may need to carry this whole offense through the playoffs.

They planned on trading him when the contract got too high, and they will. What's to "understand?"

Yes, the luxury tax implications are much lower than the actual yearly cost going forward. That does make a big difference to any team straddling the luxury tax limit from year to year. It's not known if the Marlins will offer to pay a portion of his deal, and by doing so, they could get better returns. I've suggested trying to get the Marlins to take HRam or Castillo to offset part of his massive remaining money owed, but it's doubtful they'd go for it. Of course, other young players or prospects would also be included. Here's a couple ideas: Trade HRam, Bogey, Shawaryn and Beeks (then sign Cozart to play SS). The Marlins could trade Bogey later, if his arbs get too high. Trade Castillo, Groome, Chavis, Beeks and Shawaryn (then maybe sign Morrison, Duda or Alonso to play 1B)

I was being facetious. I am certain several teams would have taken GS for nothing but his contract, but they didn't make a claim because they knew the marlins will and should want something in return.

Last year vs this year, we were... Runs scored ....2016 vs 2017 1-2: 5-27 v 4-24 3-4: 10-21 v 11-27 5: 20-4 v 14-5 6: 13-3 v 16-2 Runs allowed ....2016 v 2017 1-2: 40-8 v 34-5 3-4: 29-22 v 28-21 5: 8-9 v 8-9 6: 2-4 v 4-5 7+ 9-26 v 5-24

Yes, pitching and defense. If only our left side infield defense could improve, our D would be great. 2016 vs 2017 Defensive Numbers: UZR/150 6.7 LAA '16 5.5 CLE '16 5.2 SEA '17 4.5 KCT '16 4.3 BOS '16 3.8 HOU '16 3.5 CLE '17 3.4 BOS '17 DRS (projected 2017) 61 TBR '17 51 HOU '16 48 BOS '16 42 BOS '17 It doesn't look like our overall defense has improved between 2016 and 2017.

1) You can't assume Shaw would have done this well with the Sox, although it's pretty certain he'd have done better than Pablito. 2) Shaw probably would have played 1B with us not 3B, or he'd have prevented the rise of Devers to the ML level. 3) Thornburg's injury was unfortunate. Yes, the trade looks horrible, and you should be commended for being so dead against the deal when it happened, but Shaw's massive improvement in 2017, particularly when compared to his second half of 2016 and his minor league career numbers was very hard to project or expect. It would have been great to have had Shaw on the Sox, but as everyone knows, without Papi here to protect him, he'd have sucked just like everyone else.

I thought my statement was being optimistic.

We're on pace to score about 90 runs less than 2016 and let up 45 less runs. Unless we lose 5 out of our next 8, we'll have a better record than last year. This one case shows that allowing less runs is more important than a better run differential.

So, we're on pace to score about 90 less runs than last year while allowing 45 less runs than last year. We have the exact same record as last year, and last year's team lost 5 of their last 8. If this doesn't show how much more good pitching matters, I don't know what does. We're on pace to have a differential of 45 runs worse than 2016, but because we have better pitching, it doesn't' matter.

Runs allowed 2016 and 2017 (projected): 573 CLE '17 651 BOS '17 665 NYY '17 666 TOR '16 676 CLE '16 694 BOS '16 701 HOU '16 702 NYY '16 707 SEA '16 707 HOU '17 707 LAA '17 708 TBR '17 712 KCR '16 713 TBR '16 715 CWS '16 715 BAL '16 721 DET '16 727 LAA '16 757 TEX '16 761 OAK '16 777 SEA '17 What's interesting here is that not only the Sox are allowing less runs than anyone less last year, despite the run scoring increase league-wide.

You're right. I swear, when I checked yesterday we were at 754 on fangraphs, and I added 5 after yesterday's win. Even at 129. my point is still valid, if we still led the league in runs scored as our number is on pace to have done against 2016's totals, we'd have to have a run differential of over 200. That very well might have had us up by 15 right by season's end. The issue is two fold: 1) We scored about a hundred less runs this year (but also will let up much less). 2) The rest of the league has scored way more runs than last year (mostly as a result of much more HRs). Here's a look at the top scoring teams (700 or more runs scored or projected to score) from 2016 and (projected) 2017 teams: (I added 5% to all 2017 teams.) 878 BOS '16 871 HOU '17 857 NYY '17 824 CLE '17 819 MIN '17 814 TEX '17 787 BOS '17 777 CLE '16 768 SEA '16 765 TEX '16 763 BAL '17 759 TOR '16 753 SEA '17 751 DET '17 750 DET '16 744 BAL '16 740 OAK '17 724 HOU '16 722 MIN '16 717 LAA '16 714 KCR '17 710 CWS '17 701 LAA '17

We obviously rely on our pitching and defense, but what is concerning is that the other top 3 teams in our league appear to have just as many top starting pitchers as we do. All of the top 4 teams have 4 starters in the top 20. Our pen might be better than others, but Cleveland has a strong and deep pen. Our lack of hitting could certainly be our downfall.

Pythagorean Standings 102-53 CLE 95-59 HOU 95-59 NYY 90-64 BOS

Yes, he'd be a big boost to the team.

American League Pitchers with 120+ IP ERA Leaders 1 Kluber 2.35 2 Sale 2.75 3 Keuchel 2.96 4 Peacock 2.98 6 Severino 3.01 8 Pomeranz 3.15 10 Verlander 3.38 11 S Gray 3.38 13 Carrasco 3.48 17 Morton 3.75 19 CC Sab 3.81 21 ERod 3.91 Houston has 4 under 4.00 NYY and Boston have 3. CLE has 2. How about by WAR? 1 Sale 8.2 2 Kluber 6.9 3 Severino 5.5 4 Carrasco 4.8 7 Verlander 4.0 10 Peacock 3.4 12 Pomeranz 3.1 13 S Gray 3.1 14 T Bauer 3.0 15 Morton 3.0 23 Keuchel 2.4 24 Montgomery 2.3 26 Tanaka 2.2 28 ERod 2.1 29 Porcello 2.0 30 Tomlin 2.0 Sox have 4 over 2.0 WAR. CLE has 4. NYY has 4. HOU has 4. 16 out of the top 30 are on 4 out of the 15 AL teams. Not surprising that these are the teams that are in the playoffs. (The Twins have 2.)

I'd love to see the Twins bomb the Yanks out of it. I'd also love to see us face the scumbags, but anytime the Yanks lose, it's a good day.

We have the exact same record as last year, without having scored a hundred more runs than any other MLB team. Last year's team went 3 and 5 in their last 8-- 3 and 8, if you count the CLE playoff series.

We've been winning a lot, and we have a lot of players who have just returned from injuries or will be returning soon. Price Smith Barnes Pedey HRam Nunez I feel we will be stronger than we've looked this year.

It's hard to know the reason for all the slumps our hitters have been in this year. Certainly blaming that manager and hitting coach can become a popular response. I've done some myself. Some blame much of it on the loss of Papi. I kept thinking this team's offense was going to get in stride at some point. It hasn't really happened. I'm not sure there's any one reason, but I'm hoping we can hit just enough to cover our staff.

I'm impressed. With all these top prospects and a team contending right now, you gotta like your outlook.

Duda has 27+ Hrs in 3 of his last 4 years and the one without, he was hurt. I'd say at age 32, he's a better gamble than HRam, but he's not high on my list of wants. He's a bum vs lefties (.661 career).