moonslav59

Hickey has been red hot. He's homered 2 times, today. He's Rule 5, this winter. Any chance of giving him a shot, this month?

Harrison pitched the first inning and was yanked. Anyone know why?

True, but we have 12 pitchers in the top 20 to 6 in 2005, so yes on being deeper. Anyone know any other pitchers from the Sox farm in 2005 that made the majors? (Note: none from this year might come true, as well.)

He was hitting the ball pretty hard for outs for a while. I'm not sure about "Checking out," as some players just have slumps that are not related to being disinterested or checking out. The injury may be a factor, but he should be over it by now. Unless he starts hitting, we may not have much hope.

Holobetz might turn into something, eventually, too. I'm not so sure about YRod, but he's still only 19. Between these two and Phillips, the jury is still out, but Priester's 2025 season is setting the bar pretty high.

So true. There is so much luck involved in baseball, and that is one reason they play 162 games. We need to turn this around, and quickly.

Here is another guy- not traded, but who had a 5.84 ERA with the Sox, last year in 25 IP (1.622 WHIP.) He signed with the Cubs, this winter, and now has an 0.978 WHIP and 2.20 ERA in 61 relief innings... Brad Keller.

But Brez traded for him, too. LOL

It's like all the air was let out of the tire.

Yanks won 3-1. They scored 2 unearned runs on a Vladdy error.

That's what I figured. He has never begun a game as the leadoff hitter.

I assume you meant pitching prospects. Our prospect list was better last year. In terms of pitching, although some of the past pitchers were more highly regarded than they turned out. (The same could happen to many of today's pitching prospects.) Here is a comp of some selected rankings lists of pitchers: Today: 1 Tolle, 3 Perales, 4 Witherspoon, 6 Clarke, 7 Valera, 8 Early, 9 Sandlin 14 Phillips, 15 Eyanson, 17 Paez, 18 Fajardo, 20 Uberstine 22 Mullins, 25 Delzine, 26 Wehunt, 27 Cason, 29 Rivera, 30 Monegro 31 Holobetz, 33 Aita, 35 McShane, 38 Travieso, 40 Drohan, 41 Ingrassia, 42 Bello, 44 Foutch, 48 Morgan, 49 Tygart, 50 Neely, 51 D Reyes, 52 Patton OCT 2019 2 Mata, 3 Groome, 7 Houck, 8 Song, 10 Ward, 11 Zeferjahn, A Ramirez, 13 Murphy, 17 B Bello OCT 2016 4 Groome, 5 Kopech, 8 B Johnson, 16 R Raudes, 17 TBall, 19 Shawaryn, 20 K Martin (2015 had Espinosa 3rd) OCT 2014: 2 Owens, 5 ERod (via trade) 6 B Johnson, 7 Barnes, 9 Ranaudo, 11 TBall, 14 Kopech, 19 Stankie OCT 2012 2 Barnes, 4 Webster, 8 Owens, 10 Britton, 11 Workman, 13 B Johnson, 14 Alex Wilson, 15 Ranaudo, 19 Pimental, 20 Light OCT 2010 1. C Kelly, 6 Doubront, 7 Ransudo, 9 Pimental, 10 Britton, 18 Weiland, 19 Workman, 20 Bowden OCT 2007 1 Buchholz, 3 Bowden, 4 Masterson, 7 Hagadone, 14 Bates OCT 2005 1. Papelbon, 2 Lester, 3 A Sanchez, 5 C Hansen, 6 Delcarmen, 17 Buchholz This 2005 one looks nice but not as deep.

Yoshida has batted in the 1 slot just twice. My guess is they was as a PH'er or after coming into a game, later. I'm not sure anyone else jumps out as being more deserving, and other options are mostly RHBs, so it is what it is. Hottest hitters last 2 weeks: 1.031 DHam (not playing vs the RHP) .995 Narvaez (rest did him some good) .980 Refsnyder (welcome back) .964 Anthony (on IL) .927 Lowe (righty killer) .913 Story (back in a groove) .900 Jh Garcia (5 PAs) .838 Romy (becoming the real deal) .793 Duran (pretty steady) .743 Wong (better than before) 1.171 last week .696 Rafaela (been kinda steady between .700-.720) .686 Yoshida (not sure he'd be playing w Anthony & Abreu) .962 last 7. .594 Eaton (better than Jh Garcia?) .366 Bregman (lots of hard hit outs)

Rather shocking. The Yorke trade looked good, at the time (PLus for Brez.) Then we flipped Priester, when we felt we had a deep enough rotation depth. Then, we end up trading for May and forcing pen games. That part alone is bad enough. Priester's enormous success, although maybe not worthy of being undefeated, really hurts. It's like the Sale trade, where Sale went on to shock the baseball world, while Grissom sucked. The money "saved" being used to help sign Gio looked even worse. The return on the Priester trade is still TBD, but they have a lot to produce to even out this deal. IMO, Brez has made way more good deals than bad ones.

Nor should we justify the worst batter in MLB vs LHPs in the line-up based on one AB and a triple.

An all-healthy 2026 roster-minus Houck, who is out until 2026 and assuming Bregman & Gio return- yes big assumptions: (AAA and on 40) SP: Crochet, Bello, Giolito, Sandoval, Crawford, Dobbins (Tolle, Fitts, Harrison, Criswell, Perales) RP: Chapman, Whitlock, Slaten, Weissert, Bernardino, Winckowski, Hicks (Guerrero, Kelly, Murphy, Moran, Sandlin-R5) C: Narvaez, Wong 1B: Lowe, Romy (Casas) 2B: Mayer, DHam (Grissom) SS: Story (Sogard) 3B: Bregman LF: Anthony/Duran (Campbell) CF: Rafaela/Duran RF: Abreu/Anthony DH: Duran/Garcia (Yoshida) To 60 Day IL on opening Day: Houck Not returning: Wilson, Hendriks, May, I Campbell, Matz, Refsnyder, Eaton, A Sanchez)

Fangraphs Odds: Make Playoffs: 99.5 to 100% TOR, DET, NYY 96% BOS 90% HOU 68% SEA 19 TEX, 16 KCR, 7 TBR, 5 CLE Win World Series: 11.3 NYY 10.5 TOR 9.3 DET 5.4 SEA & HOU 3.3 BOS NL: 15.3 LAD, 12.0 PHI, 9.3 MIL, 9.1 NYM, 4.2 CHC, 3.5 SDP We are 12th in odds of winning the WS.

Chances for a ring. I do not see TOR as having a much higher chance at making the WS than the Sox, DET or NYY. Nobody looks dominating in the AL. If Anthony and Abreu come back, I think our chances become much better. hence less "Qs" about our chances. To me, we have the best 1-2-3 SP & 1-2 RP quintet in the AL and maybe even MLB. Our defense is playing better. Our baserunning is better than average. Our line-up is questionable without A & A. Even with them, it may not be strong enough, but my whole point- all year- is that all AL teams have major issues with their O or pitching (or both.)

Arizona has some real good hitters, but today's 5-9 slots in today's lineup has these OPS: 5. .648 6. .700 7. .658 8. .527 9. .568

Just win, and it will be fun. Losing both Anthony and Abreu, at the same time hurts as much as Mayer & Anthony, IMO. Every team has injuries, so I hate crying about it, but these 3 hurt. Losing Casas and Devers before made staying healthy even more important. Losing so many SP'ers has forced us to go 12-13 deep and have pen games.

Had he said 7.5 games seperate the #3-10 teams in the AL, then okay, but yes. 5 teams are within reach of the best record in the AL: TOR DET -1.5 NYY -4.0 BOS -4.5 HOU -5.5 Assuming DET wins the ALC, HOU/SEA wins the ALW and TOR, NYY or BOS wind the ALE, then 7 teams are in the WC race 78-63 NYY (TOR could end up as a WC team or DNQ) 78-64 BOS 73-68 SEA (HOU could end up as a WC team or DNQ) 73-69 TEX -0.5 (-5.0 from BOS) 72-69 KCR -1.0 71-70 TBR -2.0 70-70 CLE -2.5 CLE is 6-4 in last 10 but lost 9 of 10 before that. TBR has won 7 of 8 and 10 of 13 to get back in the race, but they were one of the AL's worst teams before that- going 14-31 from the end of June until Aug 12th. KCR seems to be doing their best to fall out of the WC race, recently. They are 6-7 in their last 13 games, but were doing well before that. TEX has gotten back into the race, despite losing Nate for the season. Maybe MVP will have the last laugh on me. Despite losing 2 of the last 3, TEX has won 10 of their last 13. SEA seemed to do all the right things at the deadline, but they are 15-16 since AUG 1st and 16-18 since July 29th. They've lost 4 in a row and 6 of 7. As bad as HOU has been doing, they are gaining ground on SEA. HOU went 24-8 from June 1st to July 6th, but are 53-57 the rest of the season, including 22-30 since July 7th. They are 5-5 in their last 10. They have had Yordan Alvarez and some pitchers come off the IL, recently. NYY looked like they were headed for a possible losing record and missed playoffs just a few short weeks ago. They were 25-34 from June 30th to August 5th, but have gone 18-9 since then and 9-3 in their last 12. They play TOR, DET & BOS in their next 8 games, before easing of their schedule, so how they do in the next 8 days might define their season. They end the season w 3 at MN, 4 at BAL, 3 v CWS and 3 v BAL. BOS has one of the best records since June 7th at 48-29. Some key injuries have throw a big Q in their chances. They've lost 2 straight and 4 of 7, but were doing very well right before these last 7 games. They've gone 10-5 and 13-9, recently. TOR has gone 9-8 in their last 17 games. They play NYY for 2 more then HOU for 3. Later, they play BOS for 3 and at KCR for 3. 7 v TBR and 3 v BAL round out their last remaining games. They are 5-11 vs those two div foes, so far. DET has lost 3 of 4 and 8 of 11, but they have a comfortable lead in their division. Their schedule is rather tough. It includes 3 at NYY and BOS plus 6 vs CLE. (3 at MIA and 3 v ATL are their other 6 games remaining.) I guess you could say anyone could miss the playoffs, but I think DET is near a lock for the DIV and TOR should win the ALE or make the WC. NYY & BOS have nice odds and HOU or SEA (or TEX) has to win the ALW.

10 guys on the 60 Day and 6 on the shorter ILs. 60 Day: Houck, Crawford, Sandoval, Dobbins, Winckowski, Hendriks, Perales, Guerrero, Casas & Mayer. (Guerrero is rehabbing: the rest are done.) 10-15 Day: Anthony, Abreu, Fitts, Criswell, Hicks & Grissom. We have just 5 healthy players, not counting Guerrero, on the 40 and in the minors: Harrison, Jh Garcia, K Campbell, Moran & I Campbell. Possible players that could be added by DFA'ing someone or moving an injured player to the 60 Day (like Grissom, Criswell or Hicks): SP: Early, Uberstine (Rule 5) RP: Sandlin (Rule 5 but doing poorly) Burdi 1B/3B Toro 2B/3B Romero DH Hickey (Rule 5 and on a hot streak)

I think the next time we need a SP'er, we should call up Harrison and see what he can do for us. (Demote Murphy- the BB King. Like that one?) These opener games have gone okay for us, this year, but we were pushing our luck and burning out the pen. I'd also call up Jh Garcia and demote Eaton.

I've been for bringing Jh Garcia since Sept 1st. It was painful seeing last night's game chances (at least at the time) come down to needing a big hit from Eaton. LF: Duran CF: Rafaela RF: Jh Garcia (if and when Abreu returns: Abreu v R and Jh Garcia v L w Ref at DH v L)

I'm not sure he gets a significant raise after being released by the Nats. Maybe he gets $10.5 to 11.5M. (I'm not sure the Sox can afford that, if we bring Bregman back and add other salary, elsewhere. Please: no "JH can afford it" argument.)