moonslav59

Agreed, and sometimes you even catch a bad to average pitcher having a great night. Also, playing certain teams when they are doing well or poorly, have new injuries or just catching them when their 3-4-5 starters are scheduled to pitch. You figure the randomness evens it all out, but it never can perfectly. As you know, I live outside Houston, and for some reason, we always play the Astros in August- home and away about a week apart. Every year. It seems it should be mixed up from year to year and H & A series should be more spread out.

Wong is hitting a mighty .703 in his last 10 games! Extend him, now!

We have Criswell coming off a nice start, Harrison as an option, Fitts probably not as a starter option, right now and the two current starters: Buehler, who did not look too bad, last night and May, who looked good a couple nights ago. I'm not sure Cora boots Buehler or May from the rotation, so these others may just be pen options for 2025.

We just went through the toughest part of the schedule and did not show another August collapse. Although there is still time for that to happen, I see a fight in this team that wasn't apparent in previous seasons. We just went 17-11 against no bad teams 4 TBR, 3@CHC, 3@PHI, 3 LAD, 3@MIN, 3 HOU & KCR and 3@SDP & HOU. Miami is no push-over. They were one of baseball's hottest teams, recently. BAL is playing better that the first half of the season. We still have some tough teams to face, including teams trying to pass us for a playoff berth. One game at a time, guy! Let's do this!

It seems that way, but... .755 season OPS .766 RISP .771 Men on Base But then again... .705 RISP w 2 outs .730 High Leverage .669 Late & Close Losing 2 series in a row sucks. Outscoring the Astros and Padres in each series does not change anything. It's timely hitting and spreading out the hits & homers that seems to be the issue with out offense. That's not really a skill set. It's not something you can fix or even trade for. I'm not sure what can be done. I've suggested some line-up tweaks, but I'm not sure how that addresses these two issues.

He homered after one ribbing, so I'm sticking with it.

Still Yoshida 5th and Abreu 7th. I'm leaving soon for the game.

Arias hit a 3 run blast, last night to lead GRE to a win and possible/likely playoff slot. Drohan returned from a long IL stint. KC had 3 hits in the Woo win.

Ref may not retire. Jh Garcia might get a shot, if we make a trade, or if someone plays another position.

There are a few posters who are happy, or very happy like me, with Breslow's total body of work- from the 26 to the 40 and the farm upgrades.

Does Toro have a permanent rib issue?

I guess we are not alone with this situation. Maybe Story will be our FT 2Bman for the next two year- maybe Mayer. I doubt KC gets ober 550 at 2B.

I might not even put MIL as my second choice in the NL. 1. LAD 2. PHI (very close to LAD) T3. MIL & SDP

It's funny how KC was "ML Ready" the first two weeks of the season, then "wasn't" the next 2 months. Brez and Cora were geniuses in mid April, and now, it was a "mistake." Players have rough stretches all the time, and for various reasons. Sometimes, we never know the reason, but in this case, some seem to think they know KC failed because "He wasn't ready." Maybe they are right: maybe not. Nobody really knows. They called Dobbins up with a 5.09 ERA with Woo. Was he ready? Oh, I guess so, since he did well. Is it really as simple as hindsight evaluation?

Our 2B has been so far from perfect, it's pathetic. Of the 24 players that have 30+ PAs at 2B, only 7 have an fWAR at 0.2 or better. 2.5 Story in just 94 games 2.1 Kike in 72 games 1.8 Holt 112 1.6 Arroyo 151 0.5 Iggy in 16 gms & Chavis in 68 0.4 Romy 40 We have had 13 players with -0.2 or worse. 3 were between -0.1 and +0.1

One interesting tidbit on Romy's splits in 2025: .698 v R (104 PAs, almost equal sample size as v R) 1.081 v L (108 PAs) However, he has started 18 games vs RHPs and 28 vs LHPs, and here are the splits on those games started: v R .892 v L .889 Almost identical! Should we try him FT?

I shoulda gone to last night's game- not tonight's!

The Sox are tied for 5th in ERA-. No AL team, ahead of us, has a better ERA-. We are at 88 and HOU is at 94, DET 96 & TOR 105. Rotation: 91 DET 94 BOS 96 NYY 97 HOU 102 SEA 109 TOR Pen: 79 BOS 88 HOU 95 SEA 100 TOR 103 DET 105 NYY If these numbers stay relatively even, our chances look very good. On offense: wRC+ 115 NYY .776 OPS (1st in MLB) 114 TOR .769 OPS (3rd in MLB) 109 SEA .730 (13th) 107 DET .742 (9th) 105 BOS .756 (6th but has Fenway helping) 104 HOU .731 (11th) On paper, our pitching looks the best or top 3, and our batting looks to be near the worst of the top 5-6 teams contending for the AL playoffs, We are 3rd best by OPS in the AL. We rank 3rd in the AL in everyday player fWAR: 25 TOR 24 NYY 20 BOS 19 DET 18 SEA 17 HOU Pitching fWAR, we still look top 3, if we don't count TEX & KCR as contenders: 16 HOU 15 TEX 14 KCR & MIN 13 BOS 11 DET 10 NYY & SEA

I'm talking combined 7+ seasons: 2018 to 2015. Not one player has more than 550 PAs as a 2Bman with the Sox. That highlights the circus merry-go-round we have seen there for way too long.

Agreed, but to have no player with more than 550 PAs at 2B over an 8 year span, is rare, IMO.

I agree with your opinion.

Our history of 2B failure is longstanding and puzzling. DHam does two things most of our past 2Bman did not do well: 2B defense Baserunning Unfortunately, his batting has sucked, except for a moderately long stretch in 2024. Even if used a s a strict platoon 2Bman, his .635 OPS vs RHPs is too lame to sustain that role. He'd have to get better to keep a slot on the 40, and he's running out of time, as the Sox roster crunch will start putting the squeeze on him. Maybe Grissom gets traded before him, but even without Grissom, his days might be numbered. This might blow you away: we are going on year 8, since 2018, and we have no player with more than 550 PAs at 2B, combining years! Here is the list by PAs w OPS at 2B: 544 Arroyo .739 412 Holt .763 396 Story .737 375 Nunez .615 350 EValdez .651 304 Kike .901 (Kike & Story each gave us nice half seasons at 2B. That's bout it) 254 Chavis .711 233 Hamilton .522 227 KC .658 141 Kinsler .598 131 Marco H .584 119 Marwin .511 115 Romy .849 109 Grissom .487 100 Reyes .627 Others: Arauz, Peraza, Urias, Rafaela, Iggy, Sogard (50-99 PAs) 20-49 PAs: Y Sanchez, Westbrook, Lin, Owings, Pedey, Turner, Downs & Mayer 13 others had some time at 2B

I totally get it. I love watching Duran play. He adds a dimension rarely seen by Sox fans. He's not bad on D, either. Maybe we trade Abreu, instead. His 2 more years of control and excellent defense may net a better return, despite his issues vs LHPs. Note: Duran had a lower OPS Against LHPs at the same point in his first few PAs, so I think Wilyer will be a FT OF'er, soon- maybe for another team. It does not look like we will make any of our 4 OF'ers a 1Bman, and it kills me to see our best defensive OF'er playing 2B, so to me, a trade makes the most sense.

It can also get a team a draft pick, if their rookie wins ROY or places top 3 in MVP.