moonslav59

On the surface, it looks like the high ranking our farm has is the result of Chapman and Whitlock carrying the numbers to those heights. While it's true they have made a big impact (1.97 ERA in 110 IP, before tonight's game,) the rest of the pen has been very respectable. Of course, not everyone, but the rest of the pen, combined is at a 3.85 ERA in 357 IP. That's better than our SP'er ERA of 3.92!!! Now, consider that 9 of our RP'ers (Kelly, Hicks, Hendriks, IC, Moran, Fulmer, Stock, Buehler and Toro) let up 58 ERs in 69.2 IP for a 7.50 ERA, the others not named Whitlock & Chapman have done very well, as no-names, mostly. The "others" have pitched 287 IP at a 3.05 ERA mark, and I included these guys in that sample: 5.06 Criswell in 11 IP 4.15 Guerrero in 17 IP 3.86 Winckowski in 12 IP and a few others over 3.05 (Bello, Slaten, Newcomb, Dobbins & Alcala) Hats off to the pen.

I'm sure MN wants a really good young pitcher from our pitcher-heavy farm, but I'd avoid giving up Tolle. Would they take Duran Mayer or Campbell Clarke or Early Sandlin or Mullins (Maybe add Castro, Bleis or Cespedes- Romero, if they insisted) for Joe Ryan and Kody Clemens? We'd have our #2 SP'er and longtime 2Bman. Bring back Bregman & Chapman and call it a winter.

May the kingdom, the power and the glory be yours- now and forever.

Players rarely lose a lot of value over a couple months of play, especially the first few weeks of a fast-tracked player starting in the bigs. I'm not saying I want to trade KC, but his lack of a clear position other than DH or in an already double-stacked OF makes me wonder where he fits. I guess 1B could be an option, but not trying him there, this summer is kinda telling.

Houck would probably be great from the pen, but unlike Whitlock, he actually had some great success as a SP'er. He was our ace for more than half od 2024, and had some good stretches in other seasons as a RP'er and SP'er. Injuries have messed him up, several times. We do seem to be pretty deep at SP'er, especially if we add a big name to replace Buehler. Houck wont be back until 2027, anyway, so ...

Just the idea of catch framing being a skill should be enough to convince everyone for ROBO UMPS

I've been a Story fan since the signing, because I love defense at key spots. I'm sure our staff appreciates Story at SS.

It's better without the "R" like wRong to Wong. Wright to right or White. Too bad Barry White never pitched.

Whitlock has been overshadowed by Chapman, but man-o-man, he's been great!

Sweet win.

If loving Connor is Wong, I don't wanna be white.

Wow, that's pretty good. I thought it would be less. Amazingly, we have not lost any games 12-10. We are 20-0 in double digit scoring games. we are 51-60 in all others.

I would not have projected even 2.0, but we did know he was great on defense, and I did mention he had decent stats in the minors. .371 OBP in AAA with 21 HRs in 627 ABs. .364 OBP in the minors with about 15-16 HRs per 650.

I figured we still had a decent farm after all the graduations, but I was kind of surprised how highly other ranking services ranked us. We graduated Anthony, Mayer, Campbell, Narvaez, Dobbins, Fitts & Guerrero. In 2024, we graduated Abreu, Rafaela, Slaten & DHam. 2023: Casas, Murphy, Bernardino & Kelly 2022: Duran, Bello, Crawford, Wong & Wink 2021: Houck & Whitlock

I used soxprospects.com's current rankings, and Tolle is #1. I have Gonzales & Valera higher, too.

Evena after losing last night, we still have the 9th best record in all of MLB. That's top tier (if you go by 3 tiers.) There are 7 teams within 3 games of us and 13 teams with 6 games of us, so our ranking could go way up or down due to one good or bad streak. Only 4 teams have a better run differential and two of them are ahead by one run (PHI & NYY.) We could be called the worst of the best.

They have one tough stretch to start September: 3 @ HOU, 3 v TOR, 3 V DET & 3 @BOS The rest looks pretty easy, but BAL is playing better than their record: 7 v BAL 7 v CWS 3 v WSH 3 @ MN

So, after the get rid of playing your own division so much, we start mopping up?

Yup, and... TOR is 1-11 v TBR, NYM & HOU (They'd be behind us without just 2 of those teams.) NYY is 5-15 v BOS & TOR (They'd be at .500 w/o those two teams) SEA is 1-11 vs 3 teams... and on and on...

I agree. He needed the rest and may still need more. Let's make sure he's okay, and in the meantime, let's watch Wong improve on O and keep playing much better defense than he ever has, before.

It's all a mirage- like the Moon landing.

If the Yanks did not play the Sox, this year, they'd be in the driver's seat and contending for the AL East crown. Take away the 8-2 record by the Sox over the Yanks, and we are on the outside looking in on the WC race. I know many teams can say the same about a certain team (or two,) but the fact that the Sox have done so well vs the Yanks, makes this season even more enjoyable.

With Lowe having one arb year left ($10-12M?) I think we will go another winter without touching the 1B depth chart. Second base will probably follow the same plan. We will roll the dice on Mayer, or hope a DHam-Romy platoon will be enough. (I doubt KC will get another shot at 2B, but I've been wrong enough to never say never.) I think we have 3 MAJOR AREAS of NEED: 1. Bregman simply has to be brought back. I think he likes Boston, but that does not mean he takes a discount. Just get a deal done. No more than 4 years is ideal. 2. Chapman needs to return or be replaced by a top closer. The fact that we've never won a ring without a top closer is telling. I think we offer him a 1 year deal with a second year option and $2-3M buyout that essentially adds $2-3M to his one year deal, if he retires. 3. A solid #2 SP'er. We need to replace Buehler with a #2 type, not another #4/5 type with hopes and dreams of doing better. Even if Gio returns, we need a SP'ers who is close to ace material. (Joe Ryan would be a great target. Keller might be who we get, and while nobody confuses him with an ace, he's pretty damn good.) I think Minnesota would accept Abreu, Clarke, Early & Romero for Ryan. Maybe I'm naive and will insist on Tolle or Arias and Valera, but I think they'd take close to my suggested offer. Secondary Needs: Pen help. Rightside infield help. Maybe catcher depth. Dump Yoshida. Assume Refsnyder retires. We should not count too much on players returning from season-ending injuries, but the sheer number of them makes me think 1 or 2 could provided a huge boost to an already solid core of players, assuming we have Bregman, Chapman & Ryan in the fold. 1. Duran/Campbell DH 2. Anthony RF 3. Story SS 4. Bregman 3B 5. Lowe/Romy 1B 6. Garcia LF 7. Mayer 2B 8. Narvaez C 9. Rafaela CF Bench: Wong, Romy, Campbell, Casas or DHam SP: Crochet, Ryan, Bello, Giolito, Sandoval/Dobbins/Crawford/Harrison/Fitts/Tolle/Perales/Early/Uberstine RP: Chapman, Slaten, Whitlock, __FA__, Weissert, Bernardino, Criswell, Hicks/Winck/Moran/Kelly/Guerrero/Mullins/Sandlin/Song

Are we still babying Narvaez by resting him so much? I'm not against the idea, and Wong has actually done better on O, recently.

This situation does make me doubt the defensive metrics. Is Bregman stealing plays from him, or something?