moonslav59

Top AL starters over the last 30 days by WAR: 1) 1.6 Price & Kluber 3) 1.4 Paxton 4) 1.3 Sale 5) 1.2 Darvish 6) 1.1 Severino 7) 1.0 Pomeranz & Tanaka 9) 0.9 Carrasco, Fulmer, Manae 13) 0.8 Peacock, S Gray, Verlander 14) 0.7 Hamels 15) 0.6 Porcello Pretty impressive to have 3 in the top 7 and 4 in the top 15 out of 15 AL teams!

Our top 4 rotation has been stronger than we've seen in a long time. Hopefully, ERod will get back to form soon.

We have a deep pen, but after Kimbrel, we don't really have a great RP'er: Kimbrel Kelly (DL) Smith (DL) Thornburg (Out for season) R Ross (DL) Barnes Hembree Workman Abad Boyer Scott Taylor Maddox Martin N Ramirez Plus, maybe... Johnson Fister Velazquez Olmos Beeks

I'd still like to have a lights out set-up man with a K rate above 10.0. Kelly has done a great job, so far and hopefully can continue doing so when he returns, but he's not a high K reliever. We can't count on C Smith for anything. Workman, Barnes and Hembree are nice complimentary RP'ers, but none look like solid 8th inning guys or occasional closer types.

I'd do this: 1. Demote a pitcher (Martin or Taylor). 2. Call up Travis to start vs LHPs at 1B. 3. DL Moreland or at least move him to the 7th slot. 4. If HRam can't play 1B vs RHPs, then find a cheap 1Bman in trade. (We might even wait until the waiver wire to find one, once we know moer about Moreland's injury and ability to return.) 5. Begin a Beni-Young platoon in LF (or call up Brentz to start in LF vs LHPs). 6. Stop rewarding guys for things they did 6 weeks ago and back (Moreland).

Mata is now 6th on the soxprospects rankings list: 1 Devers 2 Groome 3 Travis 4 Chavis 5 Houck 6 Mata 7 Flores 8 Ockimey 9 Chatham 10 Dalbec 11 Beeks 12 Lakins 13 Johnson 14 Brannen 15 Scherff 16 Shawaryn 17 Anderson 18 Thompson 19 D Hernandez 20 Callahan 21 Raudes 22 D Diaz 23 Taylor 24 Buttrey 25 Nogosek 26 A Maddox 27 T-W Lin

Harrison would be a nice upgrade at 3B and would offer depth at 2B, but he will cost way too much to be worth it. I'm not sure Lowrie is much of an upgrade over Holt-Marrero (Devers-Lin). Smae with Nunez, Flores & Rivera.

Some splits to ponder... Last 28 Days: .939 HRam (still getting grief from some posters) .910 Pedey (coming on strong) .827 Betts (waiting for a hot streak) .785 Beni (see splits vs RHPs below) .757 JBJ (not the streaky guy some think he is) .739 Lin (down on the farm, now) .703 Leon (holding tough) .698 Young (needs to start hitting lefties better) .644 Marrero (see splits vs LHPs) .565 Moreland (slumping in the 4 slot for too long) .528 Bogey (scary) .495 Vaz (hope he bounces back) vs RHPs .828 Betts (pretty balanced) .813 Beni (looks like a platoon player for now) .803 Bogey (way better than vs LHPs) .790 Moreland (numbers crashing hard) .768 HRam (on the rise, here) .766 Young (weird reverse splits this year) .755 JBJ (should improve here) .703 Lin .652 Leon (starter vs most RHPs?) .621 Vaz (starter vs all LHPs?) .405 Marrero .353 Holt (our starter at 3B vs RHPs, for now) .276 Travis vs LHPs 1.044 Pedey (bat 4th vs LHPs?) 1.003 Travis (might end up being a straight platoon player) .995 JBJ (wild reverse splits this year) .991 Marrero (3B starter vs LHPs, for now) .907 HRam (solid) .860 Betts (balanced) .796 Vaz (starter vs LHPs?) .700 Bogey (concerning) .697 Leon (sit vs lefties) .660 Young (needs to start hitting here) .590 Beni (should platoon until he shows he can hit LHPs) .577 Moreland (does not start vs LHPs) It looks like this team has 4 positions platooned or that should be platooned: 1B: Moreland- Travis (if he was here)-Young otherwise LF: Beni - Young (see above) 3B: Holt-Marrero C: Leon-Vaz Since Young can only platoon at one position, we are being force to play Beeni vs LHPs (.590 OPS). I think we should send a pitcher down and call-up Travis. Despite his struggles at the plate, he's probably better than Beni. We could also call up Brentz to start vs LHPs at DH or LF. I wonder how long we will stick with Holt at 3B vs RHPs. It's not like Lin was killing righties (.703) though.

I've never been a big JF fan, but keeping Moreland 4th is inexcusable.

He can just sign Miller again.

One more step upwards.

It will be nice to not have to see him anymore. The Pablito posts will lessen. He may never be forgotten, but at least he's not hogging (pun intended) a roster spot anymore.

He's been in MLB since 2011 and never has had a better second half OPS. I'll bet that trend continues.

Bunts hardly ever increase the chances of scoring (even 1 run), and they kill the chances for crooked numbers.

The fit was better for you guys. Robertson's salary would crunch us too much this year and maybe next. I would have liked to have gotten 2 good RP'ers though. We still might.

I did mention him as an option last summer, but then I found out about hoe bad he was on defense. He might be better than Moreland over the second half, but I'd rather not get him.

I'm not sure he's for real. If he can continue as he has done this year, the deal will be much better than I originally thought, but TK had a WHIP over 1.500 for two straight years. Maybe 2017 isn't a fluke, but I wouldn't cringe, if the Yanks bring him in to face Betts in the playoffs. I'm looking through the eyes of a Sox fan, and I think this deal would not have been good for us, IMO. It might end up helping the Yanks a lot, or it could barely make a difference this year but hurt your future.

Good to see you here, Carpin. I hope you stick around. I shouldn't have called it an overpay, but I'm glad we didn't try to match or better the offer.

Yes, I understand. I could come up with a lot of stuff on why Robertson was the wrong idea, too, but he has at least shown strength in the second half of recent seasons. His K rate, BB rate and WHIP are all better than his career norms this year. Maybe it wasn't as big an "overpay" as I implied, but Robertson & Frazier would have put us over the luxury tax. Maybe they'd have taken Pablo (and cash) like they took on Clippard. I still wanted no part of Frazier. I'd wish you luck, but you know why I can't.

I left him out on purpose. I don't want to read about anyone wanting us to trade for him.

Glad you spelled his name right.

I wouldn't cut Moreland, but I do think at worst, he needs to go on the DL, and at best, he needs to be demoted to 7th in the line-up. NOW!

Pitching often trumps hitting, especially come playoff times. I've witnessed too many great hitting Sox teams fall short once we face 3 man playoff rotations. When Vegas sets the odds for each playoff game, they know what to do: they look first at who the starting pitchers are not the 9 batter line-ups. I would like to see us improve our offense, but I wouldn't overpay for the likes of Frazier.

I'm not against making an offensive upgrade, but not like such a an overpay for a guy like Frazier who always has a worse second half of the season.

Todd Frazier has been worse in the second half every single season in his career. That seems like it can not be a fluke. He's off to a bad start, career wise, so one should expect he might have his worst second half of his career this year. I'm glad the Yanks overpaid for him, not us. Frazier's 1st half/2nd half splits: Career: .825/.718 '17 .779/.321 (13 PAs) '16 .782/.749 '15 .922/.664 '14 .873/.717 '13 .730/.708 '12 .901/.775 '11 n/a/ .733 I'm glad he's on the Yanks and not here, especially at that high price.