moonslav59

4 Games at BAL then home for 3 v PIT and 3 v CLE (No days off) TOR: 3 v MN, off day, 3 v MIL and 3@CIN NYY: 3 v WSH, 4@CWS and 3@HOU (No days off) SEA: 3 v SDP, offday, 3@CLE and 3@TBR HOU: off day, 3 v COL, 4 v LAA and 3 v NYY (all home games) I'd say TOR and SEA have the toughest next 9-days. The rest are pretty close.

Nobody really got "Story right." When we got him, we knew he was a great defensive SS with massive home and away splits. I remember saying we should count on him reaching his away norm numbers, until he starts aging. From 2016 to 2021, his away numbers were this per 650 .241 27 72 w 24 SBs (.310/.442/.752) His 2025 season adjusted to 650: .260 25 104 w 28 SBs (.307/.427/.735) This is who we paid for and should have expected. Those damn injuries did him in for most of his first 3 seasons. Here are his numbers from '22-'23. Note: his PAs were about a full season at 670. .232 21 90 w 29 SBs (.296/.397/.693) These numbers are not too far off from that "norm" I spoke of, earlier, and you have to figure he was shaking off some rust in many of those PAs. His career w BOS per 650 .244 22 90 w 28 SBs (.301/.411/.711) almost exactly his road numbers w COL!!!

We don't face Trevor Rogers, so let's win this series!

No need to waste time. The Robo Ump sends the call to the home plate umpire: Ball or Strike, and the Umps calls it out- just like does now. Nobody notices a thing, except that the calls are consistent and correct. This helps the batters and pitchers know how to do their jobs, without studying up on what tendencies each ump skews towards. No Brainer.

Yup. ROBO-NOW!

Those two are easy. I'm not a Cole fan, either but he's out. I kinda like the Yankee players who suck, and Boone and Cashman are the Sox best friends.

This team swings at so many bad pitches. I guess bad umpires can cause batters to wonder, but man-o-man!

There is the Buehler we know.

Oh, I hate em as much as ever, but I don't really identify with individual players, so much, this year.

We've seen bottom of the order magic, before, but this does not have the feel of a comeback win. I guess going 3-1, on the road is very nice, but I was really hoping for a sweep and passing HOU in the AL standings. It's gotta hurt being a Yankee fan, knowing you singlehandedly put the Sox ahead of you and in the top WC seat in the playoff hunt.

I had doubts until the last out.

When you're 8-1 vs a team, it's kinda hard to build up a big dislike for anybody.

Words we doubted we'd hear.

I had a feeling we should have saved some Saturday runs for Sunday.

All three pitches looked like balls. He really should be a strict platoon, and even vs lefties, he's been struggling. Too many Sox batters are hitting a rough patch, at the same time. Hopefully, it's just that- a patch, because we need a group effort over the next 6+ weeks. Last 28 Days, before tonight: .503 Narvaez (but .868 in last 14 days) .518 Rafaela (.422 in last 14) .677 Yoshida (.520) .694 Wong (but .778 in last 14) Last 14: .456 Romy .608 Duran

Woo won 8-5. Murphy pitched the first 3 and only walked one. (2H 0ER) Slaten pitched a scoreless IP- oH, oBB, oKs. Campbell, Romero and Sikes homered. Campbell & Sogard had 2 hits. POR last 12-10 as Wehunt and others got lit up. Miller & Brannon homered. Miller had 3 hits & Bleis 2. GRE lost 9-8. I'm not sure what happened to Ehrlicher but he started and went 0.0 IP w no hits or BBs. Arias went 1-3 w 2BBs and 3 runs scored (.703) Taylor has 2 hits & BB. Martin 1-2 w 3BB. SAL won 3-2 as Fajardo (2.84 ERA) continues to impress. 6IP 2H 0ER 0BB 8K. J Bello pitched poorly. Nunez had 2 hits, including a 2B. J Gonzales went 0-4.

Okay, but you also said more than half our players "suck," and we easily have more than 13 above average players, even if you don't count defense and runnings as highly as I do or bWAR/fWAR do. While Romy & Ref fall short of the 250 cutoff for the top 270 players in MLB by playing time, both are way above average in hitting. They are even top 30 vs LHPs. Of the 9 guys above 250 PAs, 6 are above ,735. Rafaela is at .714 and Toro & Campbell ar not on the 26 anymore. The Lowe/Romy and Abreu/Ref platoons are clearly way above average, as are Bregman, Story, Duran and Narvaez. That's 6 slost better than average and Rafaela above for me but not you. I can't see anyone saying "He sucks." That leaves maybe 2 slots out of 9 that could be called "Suck" DH and 2B. Our bench has carried us, including Romy, Ref, Anthony and others. #135 in fWAR is at 1.5. The bottom 1/3 would be at 0.8 and lower. The Sox have 7 guys over 2.0 with Romy at 1.1 and Ref at 0.8. The pitching side has more players that could be called bottom 1/3 or close to it, but we do have 5 guys at 1.0 fWAR or more. #135 among pitchers is about 1.0 to 1.1. The bottom 1/3 starts at about 0.6 or 0.7 and below. We have 6 above that, but one is Dobbins. We also have Bernardino and Weissert at 0.5 and 0.3, but one can say with merit, they are both below average, I guess. I see these guys as easily above average: Crochet, Chapman, Bello, Giolito Whitlock with Weissert & Bernardino as not "sucking." That's 5-7 pitchers out of 13 and not counting Dobbins and other injured players. Bregman, Duran, Story, Rafaela, Abreu, Narvaez, Anthony, Refsnyder & Romy with Mayer as "not sucking". That's 9-10 out of 13. Combined, I see 14 minimum as being above average and 17-18 out of 26 as clearly not sucking... maybe more.

Well, there you go. Once in what 15 seasons?

I admit. I still treasure my sports memories more than anything else- even family and travel adventures. (Just don't tell my current wife I said this!) LOL

I was a very aggressive player who always went all out. I was a bit of a hothead, at times, but the weed mellowed me out. I was a little overweight in HS, but dropped 30 pounds my freshman year and somehow I got way better at everything. I'm not trying to brag, but I figured I was pretty good when I once asked to be subbed out in that championship b-ball game and the guy on the bench said, "Are you crazy? I'm not going in for YOU!"

The glove was really beat up and looked useless, but I hate defending her. She knew it had sentimental value and I'd never have done anything like that to her.

I'm not sure there has ever been a team with above average offense at all 9 positions, but I can see wanting that as a goal. I think SS, Catcher and CF are positions where defense matters so much, that average or slightly below average is not a bad thing, if the D is near GG quality. Baserunning can add some value, too. To me, Story, Narvaez and Rafaela all fit the near GG label. Story and Rafaela are plus base runners, so being near average or even a little worse is fine, as long as the other slots have no black holes, To me, a black hole is below .650 for a below average defender and .600 for an average one. .700 is no longer a black hole. This season the cut off for 270 players (9 players x 30 teams) is 250 PAs. Number 135 is at .733, and this excludes att subs and replacement level players that play a lot. The 5th best player (4 better and 4 worse on each team) ranges from .720 to .740, but of course there are positional variances. The 6th best batter's range is .702 to .720. 7th best:.677 to .702 8th best: .649 to .677 9th best is .542 to .648 with 10 under .600. Maybe our differences are based on semantics. What "sucks" for you is an average player. For me, it's a bottom 1/3 or 1/4th batter- relative to others.

My ex threw out my glove, but it's not like I was ever going to play again, at that point.

I improved a lot after high school, but going to Notre Dame made it impossible to ever come close to making a team. They did have a very competitive interhall league, including football with pads and basketball that included all state players left and right, including some foot ball players. My hall won the Football championship my freshman year (I played WR and DB) and my senior year (I was the QB.) We won the B-ball championship my freshman year and I led the team in scoring in the championship game. (The highlight of my sports career.) At baseball, we were not good. My only shining moments were on defense. I remember making an ungodly throw to home plate in the bottom of the ninth (1 run game), just in time to nail the runner, but the catcher dropped it. Such is life. Another time, I was in CF and a ball wa s*** over my head and to my right. I turned and ran to the exact spot and turned just in time to see the ball like right next to me, and I stabbed my glove out in a downward motion and somehow caught it on the down swoop. I'm still not sure how that was humanly possible. I played a lot of basketball and baseball after college, but after I blew out my knee, it was softball only. I used to watch all sports and dabbled in fantasy football, but now I watch only baseball, a lot.

I sucked at hitting but was very good on D and baserunning. I walked enough to help me stay a starter. I've always loved defense, so maybe I'm biased.