moonslav59

If we sweep DET, it's relevant. We'd be 3-3 vs them. The way DET is playing, they may be passed, even if CLE goes 5-4.

Yeh, well we had an 8-2 record against NYY before our last 3 games home series with them. How did that work out?

They have the Sox at 82.7% chance of making the playoffs- likely aided by us having the tie breaker over CLE, and the fact that DET and TOR are in bigger offensive slumps than we are.

This team has looked like this several times, this year, and then BAM, they come out swinging and winning. I'm not saying they have one more of those in them, but it has been their trend, all year long. It seems that many get rapped up in trends and tend to think a team that is slumping is doomed to continue slumping. I ask why ignore the season long trend of this team's ups and downs? We've has very few prolonged down stretches. This one if losing 5 of 7, although we are still 8 and 8 in our last 16. We felt pretty down after losing 3 in a row in early Sept, then won 3 in a row. We felt pretty down after losing 3 in a row and 7 of 10 in mid August, then won 7 of 8. We felt pretty down after losing 5 of 7 near the end of July, then we won 9 of 10. We felt pretty down after losing 6 in a row and 7 of 8, then won 11 of 12 in early July. We felt pretty down after losing 9 of 12 at the end of May, then we won 8 of 9. We lost 4 of 5 to start May, then won 4 of 5. We started the season off winning opening day, then losing 4 straight, followed by winning 5 straight. later in April, we lost 6 of 8, then won 4 in a row and 6 of 7. Almost every losing stretch was followed by a longer or more impressive winning stretch. Maybe we win 7 or 8 of 9 and win the division!!! or not.

The reason they give HOU and SEA greater odds to make and advance in the playoffs is that one has to win the ALW. It's a lock one makes it to the dance. There is no lock for the Sox to even make the dance. If all three teams make it, let's re-look at the odds after 162 games. That being said, fangraphs gives the Sox 3.5% chance to win the WS. HOU gets a 3.9% chance. When you figure their easier chances to make the playoffs, I think they think the Sox are better than HOU. They give Div leader DET a 6.4% chance, and they have a 97% shot to make the playoffs to BOS's 82%.

1. Duran 2. Story 3. Bregman 4. Yoshida 5. Romy 6. Eaton 7. Lowe 8. Narvaez 9. Rafaela

Making the playoffs would be nice, but I kinda feel the same as MVP. We need to play well at least for one round to give me a sense we have really gotten significantly better. Being better "on paper" is one thing. Improving from one year to the next and then the next is better than going backwards, but the wait has been long enough. Time to show it.

I agree that the OF was already very good, and the DH slot was full (Devers) even beyond the Casas injury at 1B. I do think Anthony was the guy that could have and should have been called up earlier. The fact that we used many rookies, this year does not change that point. This is not some hindsight observation, either on my behalf and others here who felt the same way and still do. If that choice kept us from winning even 1 game, that could be the difference.

Agreed. I do think Romy has been doing well enough vs RHPs to get more playing time. Maybe he's just a late developer and not the journeyman profile he was for years and years. I'm not sure Ref will ever really earn the slot vs RHPs, although he has had some seasons where he was okay at it. Of course, it would be better to have a big beast of a bat vs RHPs that is better than R & R, better than DHam & Sogard, and better than Lowe and others. Our recent line-ups have looked pretty sad near the bottom, and our bottom of the line-up has been a relatively speaking asset to the team over most of the season. Losing Anthony, Casas and long periods of Bregman and Abreu have been too much to overcome, especially in light of the team choosing to trade away our best offensive player in early June.

True, but he kinda earned his way out of the platoon-only role, and not so much due to injuries making him the best choice of evils. In the last 28 days, Story, Bregman, Rafaela and Duran are the only players with 18 or more start. DHam has 9 and Sogard 7. Ref has 10, along with Wong (Narvaez 16.) Eaton has 13 and Lowe 16. I'm thinking, add up Eaton, DHam and Sogard and it's 29 Games started in 25 games played. It's about 1.2 per game. If you count Romy and Ref, it's 56 over 25 or 2.2 per game.

Agreed, and Devers at DH took away the chance for a 4th OF'er to be cycled through the DH slot.

I think we rightfully focused our efforts on building up the pitching staff and pitching depth. We are pretty deep, despite missing 4-6 of our top 10 SP'ers for most or all of 2025. We look deep, next year, despite losing Gio, Buehler, May and Priester- plus Houck out until 2027. I do agree we need a couple big bats, but I'd still like to see a proven and solid #2 SP'er added, this winter. The starter depth can help fill in some pen slots, assuming we don't lose 6 of out top 12 SP'ers, next year.

Yes, many wanted an upgrade over Toro, including me. Names were naylor, Hearns, Hoskins... not beast bats.

MLB loves this. Sad but true.

That seems about right. The othe rthing is to assume that teams today are carrying on the tradition or that is something deeply imbedded in our system. Like we have a knack for acquiring chokers and or developing players into chokers through about a dozen managers and GMs.

Agreed. How many said we need a beast of a bat?

Nope: we choked and are floppers. That 1978 team dictates who the 2025 is and will be. (This should be in green.)

IMO, they planned for it better than all or 95% of all teams. We had 12 decent names as rotation choices, last winter, and that's not even counting Tolle or early- Whitlock or Wink. We traded Priester and added Harrison & May.

I listed that as one example of trolling or I guess "troll-like" behavior. I think he enjoys stirring the pot with his extreme negativism. I view that as a form of trolling. I could be wrong. I'm giving my opinion on him just as he opines or implies that I am unbalanced. I guess if I worded it by saying what he was doing was trolling and not called him a troll, then it wouldn't be "name-calling." I welcome Guardian fans to this site. I'm glad he, at least, admitted it.

I have agreed Brez should have done way more at the deadline. I was focused more on pitching, since I did not forsee the Anthony & Abreu injuries, as well as the prolonged slumps by Bregman and others. I admit I was wrong, but it's hard for me to bash Brez over not doing something I wasn't calling for at the time. I did mention getting a better 1Bman, at the time, but it was not my top priority or criticism, at the time.

Most of us were more upset he did not get a much better SP'er at the deadline. I do think we should have done more than rely on Anthony, Mayer and late Lowe to help make up for handing Devers away. That is on Brez. I know many everyday players had question marks going into 2025, including Bregman, who had his OPS+ go from 142 ('16-'20) to 126 ('21-'22) to 119 ('23-'24,) but these were probably our best ranked offensive players going into 2025: 1. Devers- traded in early June 2. Bregman- despite the down trend (missed significant time w injury) 3. Duran- coming off a career year and good '23 season 4. Casas- had an OPS over .820 from '23-'24 (missed 5 months) 5. Abreu-Ref platoon (missed key time, recently) 6. Anthony- promoted too late, then injured. 7. Campbell- demoted & Mayer -injured 8. Story- stayed healthy After Devers, 4 of the next 5 guys missed significant time due to injuries. It's hard to plan for that, and one could argue our depth is what kept us in the race this long.

Hid biggest beef seems to be how little Brez did at the deadline, then say "GO Guardians" - the team that was sellers at the deadline and says "They deserve it."

No doubt the Sox have been in a pretty long slump- maybe dating back to the Anthony or Abreu injuries, but we are not alone. Team OPS in last 7, 14 and 28 Days: .684/.694/.734 BOS (year .747) .548/.659/.709 DET (year .735) .657/.658/.762 TOR (year .762) .717/.707/.798 TBR (year .717) Only the Rays are hitting better than they did earlier in the season, out of teams we are going to face to end the 2025 season. HOU is worse than the Sox in the 14 day (.688) and 28 day sample (,718) but are better over the last 7 days (.743.) CLE is worse in the 28 day (.648) but better in 14 (.730) and 7 day (.736) samples. NYY & SEA are better in all 3 samples.

A lot of these FA SP'ers have some serious questions arising due to their sharp drop offs in 2025. I'm not sure any are worth 3 year deals. I'm for signing a couple big bats and trading for a top 30-45 SP'er.

The line-up was not "salvaged." He helped it be less putrid.