moonslav59

3 top RP'ers already traded! All to NL clubs.

I think the Jays will come back to earth, at some point. Maybe, they are as we speak, losing 4 of the last 5. They play KCR next and go to LAD, soon afterwards, then the Cubs & TEX. NO AL TEAM IS DOMINATING. Out of TOR's top 11 batters by PAs, 5 are below .700: .577 Santander (talk about a bad result on a FA signing) .622 Gimenez .634 Wagner (replaced by Suarez) .638 M Straw .698 Clement (404 PAs) Their top batters are: .897 Suarez (w AZ in NL) .889 Springer .865 Vladdy .824 Barger .782 Bichette .775 Kirk .749 Lukes The Sox have: .922 Bregman .830 Anthony .807 Abreu + .885 Refsnyder .793 Duran .752 Rafaela .751 Narvaez .710 Toro + .885 Romy .708 Story (.877 since June 7th) The Jays pitching has done okay, at best, so far, but they are 22nd in fWAR, as a team. They are 24th in ERA- and 15th in xFIP. ERAs by pitchers with most IP: 3.84 Berrios 4.24 Bassitt 3.82 Gausman (nice top 3 SP'ers, but our top 3 have better numbers) 2.68 Lauer 6.05 Francis (They added Bieber) 2.53 Y Rod 2.61 Little 4.76 Hoffman (another bad signing, but he does have 25 saves, somehow.) 5.56 Green 4.81 M Flaherty 4.89 Scherzer These guys can be beat, even with the addition of Bieber.

Alcala has really struggled and is a typical journeyman pitcher/waiver wire type guy. It makes no sense to me to demote a much better pitcher, in Murphy. (Also, Criswell will be the first to be demoted.) Alcala has a 4.67 ERA since 2023 with a 4.82 FIP and 1.30 WHIP. He did well over his first 5 games with us, and hasn't been terrible since, but his FIP over his last 12 games is 4.63. It's 7.35 in his last 7 games & 10.59 in his last 4. We can pick up guys like him off the waiver wire. We also have Fitts, Harrison & I Campbell on the active 40 and maybe Houck, Kelly or Guerrero coming off the IL.

So, the biggest trades, so far... (not in any order) E Suarez to SEA Jh Duran to PHI Bieber to TOR R Hesley to NYM Littell to CIN Tyler Rogers to NYM J Naylor to SEA Moderates: Paddock to DET D Jansen to MIL Kittredge to CHC Soroka to CHC R McMahon to NYY Matz to BOS A Vaughn to MIL Ke'Bryan to CIN S Dominguez to TOR Armed Rosario to NYY Sewald to DET R Urias to HOU The tracker link: https://www.mlb.com/news/mlb-trade-deadline-2025-transaction-tracker?t=trade-talk-and-rumors Looking at the top AL contenders (SO FAR!) : 1. SEA: Suarez, Naylor & C Ferguson 2. TOR: Bieber & Dominguez 3. DET: Paddock, Sewald, R Montero & R Dobnak 4. NYY: McMahon, Amed Rosario & A Slater 5. KCR: R Grichuk & A Frazier 6. BOS/LAA? HOU & TEX has done very little. CLE & TBR has sold.

This year, yes, and I guess I did short-change him a bit. I use OPS a lot- maybe too much. His .669 OPS beats a lot of Sox RP'ers- to the point where he would be top 3-4. Some ahead of him are out of the picture or not likely to be given high leverage innings the remained of the season. Our pen, as a whole, has an amazing .641 OPS Against. Of course, Chapman's .432 brings it down, by himself, but these guys have better OPSA than Matz- as RP'er only: .465 Slaten (IL and may not come back) .530 Guerrero (IL) .552 Whitlock (our #2 IMO) .566 Bernardino (LH'd, like Matz) .622 Wink (IL) .625 Murphy (more and more higher leverage of late) .649 Burdi (60 Day IL) .665 Hicks (hard to believe) Close to .669 .674 Weissert .685 Wilson I might order our pen like this- by high leverage trust: 1. Chapman 2. Whitlock 3. Wilson 4. Weissert 5/6. Matz/Hicks 7. Bernardino 8. Murphy (Alcala is out of options, so maybe Murphy gets demoted, but I'd just trade or DFA Alcala. If we trade for a pitcher, Criswell will be demoted, IMO.)

Dobbins to 60 Day IL to make room for Matz. Gotta wonder what is next.

I think Brez is going to surprise many posters.

Casas will be back. Campbell is not a 2Bman. (OF or 1B is about it.) Romy can platoon at 1B in 2026. I just think they knew Jordan was never going to be good enough.

Matz has zero BBs in his last 7 IP. (6BB & 0 HBP in last 36 IP w 34 Ks, also a 3,15 FIP) Season: 2.88 FIP and 3.44 ERA. A .669 OPS Against for the 34 year old in 2025. That's better than Wilson, Weissert, Murphy & Alcala. Maybe we do better with Matz than Lucas Sims and Luis Garcia. (He cost less.)

Yes, he will approve. Book it.

Cubs get Andrew Kittredge.

Seeing some late night flurries in July! Littell to CIN Suarez to SEA Matz to BOS Ramon Urias to HOU Earlier.... Jh Duran to PHI Helsley to NYM Tyler Rogers to NYM Soroka to CHC R Montero to DET Caleb Ferguson to SEA

SEA just made a major addition: Eugenio Suarez: 36 HRs and league leading 87 RBI .898 OPS Zack Littell to CIN. If we stand pat, we lose ground.

Jordan is Rule 5 eligible, this winter, and we were likely going to trade him at some point. Matz might be a decent 7th or 8th man in our pen.

He might be better than our 7th or 8th RP'ers, so maybe it will help, but we better do better.

Sorry, I did not notice someone else posted the trade.

Blaze Jordan to STL. LH's RP'er. Not what I was hoping for, but as one small piece of a bigger plan, maybe okay... https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/07/red-sox-close-to-acquiring-steven-matz.html

To me, Joe Ryan might be the best non rental available, but his availability is in question. The extra years of control carry a lot of value. He is NOT a one year wonder. In 2024, he had a .657 OPS Against and a 3.44 FIP. Combine 2024 & 2025: 3.23 ERA (131 ERA+) 3.32 FIP & 0.956 WHIP. My next choice might be Mitch Keller due to the years of control. He has a .668 OPSA, this year. He's been pretty mediocre for years, though.

To BOS: Joe Ryan & D Coulombe To PHI: Abreu. Refsnyder & Early To MIN: Painter, Arias & Sandlin ___________________ To BOS: Mitch Keller, David Bednar & Spencer Horwitz To PIT: K Campbell, Clarke, Casas, Bleis & DHam

Helsley to Mets. At least both RPers went to NL teams.

The focus should be on pitching, but a platoon 1B rental should not cost much at all. I think we'll trade for a SP (likely Keller, but I'm hoping for Ryan) and a LHB first baseman (rental,) plus a RP'er.

Big win. Good to see Bello doing well with Wong, again. Nice to see Wong wake up his bat from a long slumber. The way Duran is playing, it would be very hard to trade him. Without knowing more about Mayer (and the need for Rafaela at 2B or not) trading an OF'er might not happen.

That's my worry, too, but he was hitting well enough before getting hurt.

Mets get Helsley & Tyler Rogers. Phillies get Jhoan Duran for Abel & a catching prospect.

What AL team is significantly better than the Sox? Records since June 30th: 17-7 BOS 18-8 TOR 15-8 TEX (losing tonight) 14-10 SEA (losing tonight) & KCR 14-11 BAL 13-12 CLE 12-11 OAK DET, HOU, NYY & TBR all with losing records.