moonslav59

Not really.

It's been 4 years since we've been alive in mid August.

We are owed a break, right? LOL

You think the games we win would reflect good things, but they don't.

I'm still glad I missed out. We were fortunate others lost, too, but it was also an opportunity lost. It shows just how much the AL lacks a break-away team.

I can guess how bad they were.

Horrible game to watch. Very painful.

The injuries on this team are piling up.

Why no Abreu? Is it a Cora scheduled day off, when the guy sits vs all LH'd SP'ers, anyway? Is Abreu hurt?

The problem is, Brez & Co. may not agree. Our 1B and 2B play and depth has been atrocious for many years. I must admit, I did like the idea of Campbell and Mayer in the 2B mix to start, this year, and DHam was coming off a decent second half of '24, so I can't roast Brez, too much, but 1B is another story (on depth.) Now, we know Campbell will not likely ever play 2B, again. (OF and 1B or DH?) Mayer cannot be counted as a FT anything. DHam is nontender fodder, as is Grissom- or traded. Arias is too far away to push Story to 2B. My guess is we add no 2Bman, this winter. We may not add a 1Bman, either.

Brez could help in that area.

Yup, no one players wins or loses a ton of games for their team.

The Sox may end up over the tax line, so they would have paid a tax on the $2M or so, had the claimed him off waivers.

Got it. To make room on the 26, they had to demote someone. Both Toro and Sanchez are out of options, so it made sense to just DFA one: having 3 catchers was always going to be temporary and insurance w Marvaez being banged up and tired, so he was let go. We still have the Mayer to the 60 Day IL as a way to add someone else to the 40, and we'll have Sept call-ups, soon, to add two more to the 26. JH Garcia just played a game at 1B, so maybe he will be a call-up. Campbell could be another one, but 1B seemed like his best shot, and now Lowe is here and out of options, too. It looked like they were preparing Sandlin for a 40 addition (Rule 5 in DEC) so maybe they could call him up as a RP'er, but he has kinda sucked, recently in that role.

Id bet my left you-know-what that Mayer will be more than twice the defender Campbell ever can be as an infielder. He may be better on D at SS than Story is, and I love Story's D. Maybe by 2026 or 2027, Story will be at 2B and Mayer at SS. Mayer needs to play 145+ games. Period. It's very hard to win a job playing even 100 games.

I think I mistakenly set him off, by assuming he was following my line of discussion, when he was going in his own direction.

Like CERA, now it's 1BERA and even DHERA... LOL!

Unless Bernardino is injured, I'm not understanding why he's still in Woo, now. Some said he needed rest: well, he got some. Maybe OPS Against is not the best stat to use for RP'ers, but to me, it beats ERA and WHIP, which counts singles the same as HRs and BBs the same, too. We have 5 RP'ers who have faced 135+ batters (95+, too.) OPSA: .393 Chapman is mind-boggling and blows even Uehara's numbers away. (161 PAs) .566 Bernardino, yes, better than Whitlock and all others, except Slaten at .465 in 90 PAs Against! .568 Whitlock in 235 PAs- most on the team, by far- many in high leverage and Late & Close situations. Then, big drop to... .670 Weissert in 215 PAs (2nd most) is actually pretty decent. .679 Wilson at 157 PAs (5th of the top 5.) IMO, even if Slaten wins back his top 3 role, Bernardino is my #5 or 6 guy, not 8th. All healthy: 1. Chapman 2. Slaten 3. Whitlock T4. Weissert & Bernardino 6. Wilson 7. Moran, until he shows me he's not better than the rest. 8. Matz > Hicks (both with no options, so Brez would demote Moran, IMO.) 9. Criswell (better than Hicks) 10. Murphy (better than Hicks) 11. Harrison 12. I Campbell (on the 26, now!) 13. Fitts or Kelly

Mayer's injury further worries team management and fans on what the future holds. He also has yet to prove or even show great promise in his short time in the bigs. His defense looked pretty good, and his ability to play decent 3B and 2B is encouraging, but we learned we just cannot count on him as a FT, MLB player, until he shows us he can do it. It's too bad. He had a wide opening at 2B screaming for his taking, and he missed the 2025 window. I don't think the team can count on him for 2026, either, except as possible, sporadic depth.

Getting him back and in true form could be huge. I just hate waiting and waiting, and this rarely happens.

Mayer going to the 60 should open up 1. Toro is out of options, so I see him getting DFA'd.

Manny young players with just 1-2 seasons under their belt do improve on their career numbers, especially the ones who show they have improved from year 1 to 2 and from 2 to 3, like Rafaela has in K rate, BB rate and OPS (so far in year 3.) I don't know if he'll improve, but I question why anyone would expect him not to improve and focus with pinpoint accuracy every time he slumps or falters, as if that is the norm, but when he's doing well, you explain how it will go back down, again. You do realize that every time it goes down, it's after going up, right? He's down and UP. The up parts should be just as predictable as the downs, right? We only hear about the one part, over and over. We are all tired of mediocrity and "wait until next year," and it wasn't me who wanted us to dump at the deadline for "wait till next year." I can see the reasoning for making the biggest deals in winter and not grossly overpaying at the TDL. I wish we'd done more, but I get it. Now that we decided to do just about nothing, our chances look pretty good to make the playoffs and not all that bad to win the AL, as no AL team looks dominant, right now. We have played well vs some of the best teams in MLB, even the NL ones. There is reason to be at least cautiously optimistic. There is less reason to be morbidly pessimistic. This is not the 2022, 2023 or even the 2023 team.

15-5 in 10 games?

Oh, so 30 days for OPS but whole season for record. 90 is not mediocre. It's pretty close. 88 is top end of mediocre, and yes I'm greatly upset with mediocrity. I think this team has taken a significant step forward, and the future looks even brighter. I'm not a Pollyanna. There are strong reasons to see verifiable improvements in several areas. You chose to narrow the focus to set sample sizes to highlight how bad things are. You give fact, but only selected ones that vary in timeframe to suit your point. When Rafaela was doing well for a month, it meant little to you- now it takes on great meaning.

I've never disputed Rafaela's streakiness and lack of discipline. He has improved on his K rate and on his BB rate. K rate: 27.1 first 2 seasons 19.2 in 2025 BB rate: 2.9 first 2 seasons 4.7 this year Can he keep improving? Maybe. Can he stay over .725 with a 20 K rate and 5 BB rate? Not an easy thing to do, for sure.