moonslav59

I agree with your points. I thought Brez met all this criteria and then some, over the winter. Although Houck had questions over his drop-off in 2024, I still saw him as a viable back--up ace to Crochet and a decent or better #2 SP'er in MLB. I think Bello and Crawford looked like the "2 good pitchers to get to 4." The next "3 to get to 6" looked as good as or better than most other teams have for their 5-7 slots: Buehler, Giolito with Sandoval due back in AUG. Where I really like what Brez did was have another 4-5 SP'ers as depth that was designed to not have to trade for a Dustin May at the deadline: Dobbins, Fitts, Priester, Winckowski and later came Newcomb. I did not foresee Tolle or Early as options, and Brez traded away Priester, but there was still that extended group of 4-6 pitchers as fall-back #5's. (Brez later traded for Harrison.) I expected we'd use some in the pen, and felt maybe that was why Brez supposedly neglecting the pen by adding "just" Chapman and Wilson. Hardly any SP'ers gave us pen help, and the amount of SP'ers to the IL was shocking, this year. That's no excuse for not doing better than D May at the deadline, but I have to admit it was a decent strategy to begin with. Why overpay on deadline deals: just make them in the winter at lower costs- not that Crochet came cheap, but Brez did well to get Priester, Fitts & Gio last year, too.

How many times do I have to admit I was wrong labeling slumping players as crappy batters? I was wrong on that. (I do think Bogey has established he is no longer an elite batter, but he is not really crappy, yet.) I made a point about some of the teams you listed as NOT having 2 crappy batters that I felt actually do. I was wrong on some, but you will not respond to the point for teams I was right about. I ask for a response, and you just repeat the mistakes I made and have already agreed I made. Can you answer? Does HOU have 2-3 crappy batters in their line-up every day? (Maybe 2, now that Yordan is back,) Is Iggy, Clement and Volpe crappy hitters? I know some can field very well, as does Rafaela, who Fred calls worse than crappy as a batter, even when he was hovering around the league norm OPS of about .720. Do some of the team you listed have 2 crappy hitters or not? Last chance to actually answer. I'll stop here.

Campbell had 3 hits, too. He's up to .828. Guerrero may be nearing a call-up. Arias is up to .757, now. I think he holds his national ranking.

Yes, and when did I disagree with that. I get your point and agree. My response to one part of your point, and I admitted some of the guys I suggested were crappy, were not. They were just having a bad year or two. I was only responding to this exchange: (Yes, I went and reread it) Yes. Dodgers, Padres, Yankees, Blue Jays, Tigers, Astros

I was just responding to one comment you made about several teams not having 2 or more "crappy batters." Why not tell me how the Astros don't have 2 crappy hitters? Yes, Ref is a role player, but he's been a top batter vs LHPs since he came to BOS. He's legit. This is year 4. He's a top 20 OPS guy vs LHPs. He's a bench player due to be a RHB, but not a crappy batter. I like Lowe, but if 70% of pitchers were lefty, you'd be saying Ref squashes Lowe's resume. Since we've seen Anthony and Abreu go down, and this after losing Casas then Devers, we do have 2 or more crappy batters in every line-up. My point was so do other teams. I was not disputing your point about us having 2+, now. I am not disputing your entire point. I actually agree with most of it. Why not respond to my point about some of the teams that do have 2+ crappy batters. You mentioned SDP, and it was a good point. Arraez and Bogey are not known crappy batters: they are just having a bad year or maybe starting to be somewhat crappy, but answer about the other teams I mentioned. Is Volpe crappy? Does HOU not have 2-3 crappy batters? Clement is a .671 career batter. Straw is .631. Are they good batters just having a bad year? Hell, Ref and Romy can hit .631 v RHPs- off handed.

Good point.

I'm not sure how much trade value Grissom & Sogard have, especially for winter trades where most teams are not looking to add more players to their 40. I'd add Eaton and Toro to the list of trade guys or non tenders. Lowe is a tough call. We may try to non tender then re-sign at lower than than the arb estimate. We may just choose to roll the dice and not protect Sandlin, but I think he has trade value. If we end up making some sort of 3 for 1 trade for Ryan or Keller, where all 3 are 40 man roster players, we should have room to add Sandlin to the 40, plus a couple or three signings. (Maybe Sandlin will be part of that trade.)

I actually thought we went 11-12 deep in the rotation, last winter, and I was not counting Newcomb, who won a slot in ST'ing plus Tolle and Early. Crochet Houck (our 2024 ace) Bello Buehler Giolito Crawford (IP leader in '24) Criswell (was good in '24- 2nd best SP ERA) Fitts Dobbins Winckowski Sandoval (Expected AUG) Whitlock was expected to be FT pen, but he was a consideration for the rotation Murphy I was more worried about top pen arms and too much mediocre depth, there. I expected some of those on the list above to be used from the pen. Hardly any were, except Whitlock.

So, Alonso at 1B, Suarez (gasp) at 3B and Mayer at 2B. Okay with me, as long as we trade for Joe Ryan. Alonso or Suarez at 1B, Marte at 2B and Mayer/Story at 3B is fine, too.

TOR is up 5-0 on HOU in the 8th. It looks like they might be too far ahead to catch, unless we sweep them. HOU is doing their very best to let SEA win the ALW and TEX get back in the race. They play 3 v SEA and 3 V TEX, next week.

I guess at KCR and at HOU is not as tough as it looked a couple months ago. The Dodgers is a tough series. COL is horrible.

I'm moving that way, too. Or signing a big bopper 1Bman (Alonso or move Suarez to 1B and play Story/Mayer at 3B.)

I'm not so sure Rafaela is a lock, but it does seem like the trade talk is more about Duran vs Abreu.

I worry a lot about Ceddanne's offense- just don't tell Fred, but this encourages me: Last 3 years hard hit %: 18%>25%>32% K%: 24%>23%>22% BB%: 3.9%>4.2%> 4.4% BB/K: 0.16>0.18>0.20 (Maybe not a fast enough improvement, but steady in all of these areas.) CF Defense: '22+'23> '24 DRS: 12>18 and OAA: 7>17

Selected feel good cherry-picked stats: 1.127 Refsnyder since his return (27 PAs) 1.038 Romy in last 41 PAs(many vs RHPs) .797 '24-'25 in 506 PAs (The new Ref!) .989 Narvaez in last 48 PAs (got some rest after a long slump- .503 in previous 94 PAs) .956 Eaton in last 10 PAs .890 Duran since June 29th (253 PAs) Way better than 2024! .862 Story since June 1st (359 PAs) 28 SBs and 0 CS (record is 30/30) .785 Bregman in last 3 games (15 PAs) .748 Wong in last 13 PAs .706 and 5 gm hit streak in SEPT Sogard (17 PAs)

Fred makes up for all the Rafaela bad offense talk, and then some. The rest of us shy away from encouraging Fred. To me, .690-.740 is likely his range, and GG type CF makes that fine with me. .675 is acceptable. .650ish starts raising my eyebrow. The thing is, I'd always be thinking he was just about to have a hot streak, when I'd suggest we bench him. Right now, he's at... .508 in last 86 PAs (23 gms) .479 in last 124 PAs (33 gms) but... .708 in last 259 PAs (thanks to an .801 47 game stretch at the start.)

Here are some questions that might be answered this winter or next spring: 1. Who gets protected for Rule 5? (Sandlin? Mullins? Bleis? Nobody?) 2. With Perales pitching in winter ball, will he be a MLB option in 2026? 3. Assuming Witherspoon, Phillips and Eyanson start the year at GRE, how soon might the be promoted to POR? 4. With so many pitchers drafted, signed as IFAs and traded for, who gets moved to the pen? (sp.com has Mullins in the AAA pen, Dean & Rogers in the AA pen and Foutch, Finley, Futrell, Cohen & Brooks in the A+ pen.) 5. Assuming Gio bolts and Sandoval is a healthy starter with Bello and Crochet, who gets the next 2 slots? Crawford, Dobbins or Harrison? Fitts, Tolle or Early? (Sleeper picks: Criswell, Perales or Uberstine.) 6. Does Campbell, Jh Garcia or Mayer begin the season at WOO? 7. Who will the top 20 prospects be, this winter? 1. Tolle 2. Arias 3. Early 4. Perales 5. Witherspoon 6. Jh Garcia 7. Clarke 8. Valera 9. Gonzales 10. Fajardo 11. Soto 12. Romero 13. Phillips 14. Eyanson 15. Taylor 16. Godbout 17. Uberstine 18. Paez 19. Mullins 20. Delzine/Cason/Holobetz Others: Cespedes, Ramos, Rivas, Bleis, Sandlin,

LMAO! "Hey, Breggie: you gotta hit over .300 or Toro is taking your place!"

Wong kinda stopped being the black hole on offense, too. He's been at .700 since AUG 5th & .736 since AUG 11th. (.764 since AUG 17.) The blame pie is an interesting idea and probably just as American as apple pie. We have one poster who might say the failures at the deadline is over 50% of the reason. Others disagree on the bigger culprits. It's interesting that our season OPS is .749 and our 14 days OPS is .750. However, we are at .704 for 7 days and .722 for 28 days. Cheery-picked good: .775 last 9 games .763 last 18 games .754 last 20 games and 42 games. The bad: .704 last 6 games .731 last 17 games I think the main reasons our offense has not been that good, this year as a whole (diverging from the topic) is... 1. The Devers trade 2. The Anthony injury 3. The Bregman injury 4. The 2B (.648 OPS) merry-go-round: KC> DHam> Mayer & injury> Rafaela> DHam/Sogard (see below) 5. The Bregman "slump" where he has still hit the ball hard, at times. 6. Duran's regression from 2024 7. The Casas injury 8. The Abreu injury Back to 2B: The interesting thing about 2B, is that Campbell will end the season with the most innings played there: 472 Campbell .658 OPS at 2B (actually better than what came afterwards!) 375 DHam .590 OPS at 2B 207 Romy (needed too much at 1B- see Casas injury) .899 OPS 165 Rafaela .309 when playing 2B 57 Mayer (needed at 3B- see Bregman injury) .826 at 2B 39 Sogard .871 at 2B

Ref is not a crappy hitter, so I'm not sure why you mentioned him. Yes, Eaton, Sogard and DHam are all crappy. Usually only 2 play at once, due to the injuries to Anthony & Abreu. I do think some of the hitters I listed are "crappy." What has Volpe done to prove he's even average? Tell me why Iggy and the Padres catchers aren't 2 crappy hitters. Clement and Straw are crappy. HOU has 3-4 crappy batters. It's not even close, there.

They've discussed the goal for the next 15 games with Breggie? Hmmm....

Romy has been okay vs RHPs, this year, and he's better off-handed than many other Sox and league players, this year, too. The teams you listed as not having 2 crappy hitters is debatable: NYY: Volpe .661 (3rd on team in PAs) + Catchers Wells .715 & Escarra .629 LAD: Conforto .621 (6th in PAs) & Edman .675 (9th) 10th and below suck. SDP: Arraez is at .702 (3rd), Bogey .717 (4th), Iggy .563 (8th) and Diaz .600 (9th) His back-up is at .572. TOR: Clement .715 (3rd) Gimenez .609 (8th) Sraw .676 (9th) DET: You have a point with them (Baez .682 and 8th) It's bad 10-13th. HOU: has 5 batters in their top 8 below .740, 4 below .710 and 2 below .675. Our bottom of the order is one of the best in MLB. While injuries have forced more bad batters into our line-up, other teams have injuries, too. Team rank by batting slot: 9th: 2nd at .740 (.644) +96 8th: 25th at .615 (.657) -42 7th: 6th at .731 (.684) +47 6th: 6th at .746 (.694) +52 5th: 4th at .782 (.722) +60 4th: 30th at .668 (Our biggest slot weakness) .762 MLB (-94) 3rd: 6th at .835 (.784) +51 2nd: 10th at .794 (.763) +31 1st: 4th at .813 (.753) +60 In terms of rankings, our bottom 4 outperform our top 4.

True, but the Yanks do have some 2025 history of bad stretches: 2-7 to start AUG, including losing 5 in a row. 3-7 mid July 0-6 June 30-July 5 0-6 mid June 6-16 (two June stretches combined with some in-between) 2-6 end of April One stretch like these, and TEX is right back in it.

Starting Skubal game 1 of the playoffs is a big advantage, but getting that first round bye pretty much sets that up, anyway, so yes, there is no need to sit Skubal vs the Sox. The first round playoff teams are the ones looking at their rotation set-up going into the playoffs. (Worst div team + 3 WC teams) The worst division team will probably be SEA or HOU.

Agreed, and SEA playing the LAD in the final 3 games might not see their best team.