moonslav59

I was the worst on how Brez neglected the pen. Many of the guys I wanted him to sign have sucked. It's another example of how these guys know more than we do. Had we not lost 4 of our top 7 or 8 SP'ers (Crawford, Houck, Sandoval & Dobbins- 5 if you count trading away Priester) we'd have been able to use some in the pen and not even needed Matz. Brez has made some mistakes, most easier said in hindsight, but he's really done a nice job building up the team and farm. Keeping Cora and adding Bailey has worked well, too. This team is fun to watch, and the farm is still looking nice, despite many graduations (Anthony, Mayer, Narvaez, Campbell & Dobbins, plus Fitts & Guerrero.) That's quite a class of rookies. Last year, we graduated Rafaela, Abreu & Slaten! The rebuilding era is over, but we need not empty the farm to fill the few holes we will have, this winter. We'll have Devers & Buhler money plus more. We only need to add a SP, closer and maybe a 1Bman, if Campbell does not win the job by then. Maybe another SP and Wilson replacement would help. That's not much for the money we should have. (Assuming Bregman returns.)

He and others.

I messed up. They demoted Criswell and Bernardino for Matz and May. They moved Houck, Dobbins & Guerrero to the 60, recently. Burdi came off the 60, so 3 for 3, and no other moves are needed, That being said, I'd DFA Alcala, next. It's crunch time. The best pitchers need to stay on the 26.

Guerrero moved to 60 Day IL. Burdi reinstated and optioned to Woo. Kelly off the IL and sent to Woo. May is activated. (Bernardino was demoted for Matz.) MLB 13 man Staff: Crochet, Giolito, Bello, May, Buehler Chapman, Whitlock, Wilson, Weissert, Matz, Hicks, Murphy, Alcala ________________ Everyday 13: Narvaez, Wong Toro DHam, Romy Story Bregman Duran Rafaela Abreu, Anthony Yoshida, Refsnyder ________________ 15 Day IL: Mayer ________________ AAA: Harrison, Fitts, Early, Sandlin, Uberstine Bernardino, Burdi, Kelly, ICampbell, Moran, Mata, Hoppe, De Leon Zavala, Tromp Campbell Grissom Sogard Romero Rosier, McDonough Jh Garcia, Sikes Eaton, Thompson Hickey

Good point- and Brez, too.

POR won 4-1. Tolle 4 IP, 1H, 0ER 2BB 6K Clarke got lit up: 0.2 2H 3ER 3BB 1K. Taylor homered. SAL up 6-0, late. Fajardo is poised to jump in the rankings: 5.2 1H 0ER 0BB 8K. Ju Gonzales 3-4 w HR & 2B & BB.

Yes, his spreadsheet said all offers were net negatives.

Our pen pitched well, again, today. It is currently ranked 5th in fWAR, 2nd in ERA- and 5th in FIP. When the season began, just about all of us felt the pen was our weakest area. Many of us questioned signing an 80 year old closer and adding only Justin Wilson to help. Can we give some props to Cora for managing this pen to such a high level of production? PAs against (OPS Against) 210 Whitlock .540 195 Weissert .663 184 Bernardino .566 163 Chapman .423 143 Wilson .682 103 Kelly .788 (IL) 90 Slaten .465 (IL) 85 Newcomb .791 (IP as RP only) 72 Guerrero .530 (IL) 69 Alcala .719 68 Murphy .625 (coming off a long time off) 59 Hendriks .692 53 Criswell .828 as RP 52 Wink .622 (IL)

Of course. Bringing in Chapman was the right call, but Alcala forced the choice.

AL Records 65-47 DET & TOR 62-49 HOU -2.5 from best record 61-51 BOS -4.0 (1.4 behind HOU for #3 slot) 60-51 NYY -4.5 59-52 SEA -5.5 (Tied w TEX in 11th inning, right now) 57-54 TEX -7.5 (just 2.5games from being 9th) 56-54 CLE -8.0 55-56 KCR -9.5 55-57 TBR -10.0

5-1 v NYY 2-0 v HOU 2-1 v LAD, NYM & CIN 3-3 v ATL, SEA 1-2 v PHI, CHC, 3-4 v TEX 3-7 v TOR 0-3 v DET, MIL

Another sweet win! Can we now put to rest we "can't beat good teams" mantra?

MVP prefers demoting Murphy over DFA'ing Alcala.

I don't disagree, but I'm not sure that was a major factor in not replacing Toro on the 26. His spreadsheet told him all offers were negative.

Me may be DFA'd when we activate May.

Woulda been nice to save Chapman for tomorrow.

Actually, he commented on Rafaela's swing at a bad pitch. The kid is at .752 in August with no signs of declining. GG defense and plus baserunning.

Not counting today: records since June 7th: 30-16 BOS 30-18 TOR 28-19 TEX 27-20 HOU 27-22 SEA 25-23 BAL 24-24 LAA 24-23 ATH 22-24 DET & KCR 22-25 CLE 21-27 NYY 20-26 CWS 20-28 TBR 17-29 MIN

Check out these team OPS w Men on Base (before today.) 1.131 Romy .947 Anthony .923 Bregman .875 Duran .846 Ref (a hit today with man on) .814 Story (HR and 2B w man on, today) .798 Rafaela .771 Abreu .739 Narvaez (BB w man on)

So adding a good LHB at 1B and demoting Toro would have hurt the team's morale by more than a better bat would have helped? Adding someone better than Matz or May would have hurt morale, if no 26 man was included?

No, why ask? The topic was hard balls hits off pitchers. I'm a huge Whitlock fan.

Sox RBI Leaders 68 Story (123 PAS RISP) 60 Duran (118) 58 Abreu (99) and Devers (105) 49 Rafaela (115) 44 Bregman (81) 36 Romy (54) 33 Narvaez (5)

Hard Hit% 26 Wilson 27 Bernardino 28 Weissert 29 Bello 30 Buehler League Avg 31.5 32 Chapman & Crochet 33 Whitlock 35 Gio Line Drive % 17 Wilson & Crochet 18 Bernardino & Whitlock 19 Chapman League Avg: 19.1% 20 Weissert 21 Buehler 23 Gio

Being at .747 this late in the season, maybe?

Romy could have passed Bregman for the team OPS leader had he just walked that AB! He's been a great help, this year!