moonslav59

This is the kind of "eye test" evidence red usually thrives on.

Show me it's not. I already went over the OBP numbers that have been ahead of Devers. It's absurd to think they'd be lower had he batted 4th, despite the fact that his 400+ OBP would, of course, not be batting ahead of him, Simply put, Bregman and whoever we batted 3rd would have been ahead of him, instead our our 8-9 hitters. It's not rocket science. You do the math. I'm not going through every game log to work it out. It is you who doubts my claim, so it's on you to prove I'm wrong. Studies show the 4 slot gets the most rbi chances. Common sense, not nonsense shows that THIS YEAR, YES, THESE SOX, who bat ahead of Devers have had pretty poor OBPs, so far, When you look at how often Devers has walked, it's amazing he has so many rbis, but that does not prove he could not have had more, especially with more chances. Again, these are the facts- the 4 slots up before the 2 vs 4 slots- THIS YEAR: OBP by slot: .328 7th .298 8th .288 9th .331 1st These are the OBPs of batters who likely would have batted 2nd and third, since was can leave the 8-9-1 batters the same. .288 9th .331 1st .385 Bregman (2nd) .371 Refsnyder v L and .336 Abreu vs R (3rd) Of course, who is up after these guys matters, and we can't assume all these numbers would be the same, had they batter in different slots, but the differential is so great that it's absurd to think Devers would not have more rbi opportunities batting 4th vs 2nd. It's downright silly. Forget the stats, as you love to do: go by your famous eye test: This year's line-ups: 8th: Narvaez (83 PAs) DHam (53) Wong (39) Rafaela (17) 9th: Rafaela (175) Narvaez (37) 1st: Duran (273) vs 1st: Duran (273) 2nd: Bregman 3rd: Abreu & Refsnyder Tell me your eye test prefers the first group. I dare you

1. We have played more games than every other team in MLB, including 4 more than 2 teams, 3 more than 7 teams and 2 more than 13 teams. That alone, may jump us in front of several teams in the league, if we were an average scoring team. 2. We play in a hitter's park, which inflates our runs scored and makes our runs allowed seem higher than it would be, elsewhere. (Our ERA- is always better than our ERA.) 3. When you look at ERA, many of our earned runs allowed were a result of poor defense that was not counted as an error. Our ERA is 4.12 (21st,) but out SIERA is 3.96 (15th- exactly in the middle.) Our ERA- is 98, when the average is set at 100. Our xFIP is 3.79 and ranked 8th. I'm not downplaying the fact that our rotation has let us down. They have taxed the pen and been wildly inconsistent, but our offense, defense and baserunning have let us down, too.

Yet, they basically brought the same team back in 2021, continued to dismantle the team after that, and you expected our manager to do better than he did. Got it.

You act like leading the league means he could not have had more. You're right: that's not funny. It's silly.

Although our pen is 4th in IP, we have played more games than almost everyone else and have more days off, going forward. We are also just 15 IP ahead of the average pen use. We have already used 16 pitchers in relief, not counting Toro, and could still see Penrod, I Campbell or a converted SP in the pen, before too long. We have yo-yo'd several pitchers to maximize IP use without overusing any particular pitchers. What pen arm has been overused? Chapman is on pace for about 65 games, which is high (maybe 55-60 IP.) Whitlock is on pace for about 75-80 IP, which seems high, but he was a SP'er for a long time. Weissert is on pace for 65-70 games and as many IP, like Whitlock. Slaten missed some time. Bernardino and Wilson might get 60-65 appearances. Kelly, Guerrero, Hendriks and Criswell have pitched some, but none have wow'd anyone. Maybe we'll see Fitts, Dobbins, Gio, Crawford or Sandoval in the pen, at some point- maybe even Houck.

Said it better than I. Again, moving Devers to 4 when we had Bregman might have made more sense, but the move would not make a significant impact. Almost all the studies show it does not matter all that much, but yes, it is very likely it never happens, especially with Bregman on the IL. Cora is clearly a "nerdy geek" who has bought into the modern line-up philosophy where your best hitter bats 2nd. It's funny watching the traditionalist defending him batting 2nd, when the old school would bat him 3rd (not even 4th.) LOL.

I see a lot of promise in our rotation, especially when healthy or mostly healthy. I think it's better than our ERA ranking indicates, and some metrics show this to be true. Crochet is a top 5 or 6 starter in just about every meaningful stat and metric (not winning%, so some must think he's a loser.) Houck is the big issue. He went from our ace to a huge question mark, and is currently on the IL until the end of June or July. Without something from him, going forward, it puts a lot of strain on the others to pitch like a starter a slot ahead of them. Buehler is the guy I think we can hope becomes the solid #2, again, if he can stay healthy. He has looked pretty good, so far, and I don't think it's a stretch to think he will improve. Bello has always been sort of up and down on how we view his future. He certainly has the ability to be a solid #3 or really good #4, and maybe has #2 potential, but he's been kinda lucky, this year and still has not done all that great. Crawford may not be back until August, and even if he does return, what will he pitch like. He is a good starter, but I'm counting on nothing from him in 2025. Sandoval is the in the same boat as Crawford. He's probably our 3rd or 4th best pitcher, when totally healthy, but he is not healthy. Giolito was a damn good pitcher, quite a few years ago. He's showed flashes of that, here and there, but gives no indication he can do it for a 4 month stretch, which is what we need. Dobbins and Fitts give us good promise, but it is hard to really know how good they are and can be. Batters will adjust to their pitches, and they may need to do just that to continue to look as good as they have been in their small sample sizes of 2025. Criswell, Wink and Penrod are on the 40 and could start. I don't want to mention Whitlock, because I hope his starting days are over. Wink and Penrod seem better in the pen. Criswell has recently shown he's better as a starter. Maybe he could give us a spark. All-in-all, I see 8-10 starters that all offer some level of hope and have already shown they can be good pitchers for certain periods of times. In today's game, where pitchers get TJS on a weekly basis, this is a big plus and could give us an edge over other teams, when their starters start dropping like flies. I've always valued Quality over quantity, but quantity is important, and many of those 8-10 starts have shown they can be quality pitchers.

Talk about nonsense, and BTW imitation is the highest form of flattery.

Jo Garcia is off to a nice start w the FCL Sox (over 1.000.)

Has Criswell earned a shot at a slot on the rotation? Tonight he went 5 scoreless for Woo- 2 hits, 2 BBs and 6 Ks. His ERA is down to 1.52. Jg Garcia had 2 more hits and Grandal had 3. GRE swept 2, scoring 6 in both games. Sansone went 6 IP allowing 1 ER, while Brannon had 2 hits. Carlson got roughed up in the other game, but White homered twice, while Bleis and Arias both had 2 hits. SAL lost 8-7, as Encarnacion homered, again (his 10th.) He also 2B'd and walked. Early was pitching well, when the POR game got suspended.

By the time Arias is ML ready, Mayer might be the 3Bman (or 2Bman.) Arias is so good on D, that we can handle being kinda light, and who knows: we heard Narvaez was all glove and no bat. I like Arias, a lot. I've also been higher than I probably should have been on Jh Garcia (and his brother.) I'm really liking what I see, so far this year. It's great to see that our farm might still pretty decent after KC, Mayer and Anthony graduate. The pitching side has made big strides, too- more quantity than top quality, as of now, but I expect a few to make enough improvements to move into the top quality category.

I need a larger sample size to drink the Jordan Kool-Aid.

I agree, and I have to admit, questioning the manager is valid, for this reason.

It's construction paper. So far the team on paper is not coming close to the team on the field, in terms of offense and defense. The pitching was always suspect, but the added depth was supposed to help. On paper, the line-up looks pretty solid and or hopeful for many years to come. Only Bregman and Refsnyder have short team control. That's not insignificant, but with the money we are paying Bregman, it's not going to cost much more to keep him (and Ref.) With Anthony, Jh Garcia, Arias, Romero & Co moving up on the farm and in the rankings, we look pretty set, "roster construction" wise outside of the pitching. Nick asked me to breakdown the pitching, and I have to respectfully decline. It's nearly impossible to know what any of these guys will do, going forward, except maybe Crochet. We know what some "can do," but again, it looks more like construction paper than solid flesh and bones pitchers.

I have to agree, but when you see our offense struggle, half the games, and implode one a big bat goes down, trading a top 3 offensive player on the team seems extremely risky. I get that Abreu is an offensive threat, too, and we often talk about him being a platoon, but Duran has sucked against lefties way more often than not. vs LHPs .600 in '25 .665 in '24 .749 in '23 .449 in '22 and .438 in '21 (about 80 PAs combined) We'd be banking on Anthony matching or exceeding Duran's 2023-2025 numbers (.817 OPS w 71 SBs or about 35 per 162.) Of course, one of the OF'ers could DH, if we could get Devers to play 1B with some effort to try and be a close-to-average one.

Good projection.

Sounds like you are. I like Cora and disagree with him on some minor things, like this. That's something you never grasp. Call that what you want, but it's you.

Aren't you breaking down who you think we are and how we think? I'm glad you are the one who decides what reality is... NOT!

Nobody thinks it's a top 500 problem. Can you try to think outside the box? A major problem is the #4 slot- the #1 RBI slot in the line-up. Bregman could have done fine in the slot. He had the .407 OBP Bregman ahead of him and has one more RBI than the leadoff guy, Duran. (35 to 34.) And again, I've said over and over, this barely makes a difference, and you act like I'm saying it's a top problem. Can you, just for once, understand someone else's point for what it is and not what you imagine it to be? You crack me up with all the nonsense, then act like others are the clowns.

What is "sounds like to you" makes your ear test as wrong as your eye test. It doesn't take a geeky nerd to see the truth. OBP by Sox .294 #8 .284 #9 .337 #1 Depending on who the bat instead of Devers #2 slot (maybe Bregman, then who bats 3rd?) .337 #1 ___ #2 (Maybe Ref .383 & Abreu .336) .375 #3 (mostly Bregman .385) This isn't some complex calculus problem. Most simple-minded people could work it out.

You know how many rbi opps will be in the 2 and 4 slots for the Sox the remainder of the year? Do you even know how many there have been for each slot, so far? Maybe your eye test has a count. LMAO

Well, I'd expect the best guy to be one of how ever many we do end up calling up.

Not if he's called up, too. This about the IF, unless Anthony wants to move to 1B...

The 4 slot has even more rbi opportunities. Hey, Magic Johnson played one of the best games of his career as a center. I guess they should have kept him there.