moonslav59

You said, "so often, he wastes him for one batter." and said "finally" like he is just starting to use him for more than 1 batter. That has happened 2 times in the last 16 games. 3-6 batters in 14 of the last 16 games.

Not all 0.1 IP and 0.2 IP are 1-2 batters. Wilson since May 7th 1 IP/ 5 batters 0.2/ 4 batters 1.0/ 4 batters (over 2 seperate innings) 0.1/ 1 batter (rescued Bello to end the 5th inning) 1.0/ 4 batters (the day after the 1 batter game above) 1.0/ 5 batters (over 2 seperate innings) 0.2/ 3 batters (taken out after a BB) 0.1/ 4 batters (allowed 2 singles and a BB before being removed) 1.0/ 4 batters 1.1/ 4 batters (2 batters in 2 seperate innings) 0.1/ 1 batter (finished the 5th for Gio.) 1.0/ 3 batters (1-2-3) 1.0/ 6 batters (rough game vs Yanks) 1.0/ 4 batters (vs Yanks, the next day) 0.1/ 3 batters (yanked after a 1B and HBP) 1.1/ 4 batters (actually for 5 outs as a runner was caught stealing) I'm not trying to nitpick you, but the word "finally more than 1-2 batters" is just not true. It's been over a month, and he's had 2 games of one batter and none with just 2. This is not some new strategy by Cora. He's been using our second best RP'er more and more and more than before.

No. Last 16 games: 1.1 or more 3 times 1.0 IP 7 times less than 1.0: just 6 times (less than 38%) Less than 1 IP in 2 of his last 8 games pitched (25%)

Yes, I noticed that a while ago. I was talking about how I felt before the season started. Goldschmidt at 1.6 is more than double where I thought he'd be. He was at 1.1 in 154 games in 2024. Austin Wells had a real good season in '24 (3.4,) so 1.7 should not be surprising, but I wasn't so sure he'd be on pace to improve on '24, as he is now. Grisham is on pace for over 3, and his career high was 2.5 back in '21. I'm not the only one surprised by his 1.4. (He was at 1.8 and 1.7 the last 2 seasons, so he's not blowing that away and already has more PAs than '24.) Chisholm and Bellinger were somewhat speculative, as was Volpe, but none are surprisingly higher than expectations. Judge is Judge plus. On the Sox vs expectations: Story: I may not have expected 1.2 or 1.3, but I would have expected more than 0.2, if I'd known he'd play 68 games and have 282 PAs in mid June. Wong: Regression was expected and Narvaez more than took up the slack as a much better than expected player. DHam: I did not expect him to repeat 1.7, but with more PAs, I thought 1.3 was in range, or that Campbell or Mayer could be at 1.3, if they played FT to mid June. Once again, 2B has been a mess. Ref is at just 0.8, because he doesn't play enough. That's not a cop-out. He's not a 3+ fWAR guy over a full season. Period. Toro+Romy are at 0.6 combined. They will not catch Goldy, but they are doing fine. I'm more surprised by Yankee pitching, especially in light of Deveon Williams sucking up the place.

Agreed, plus no warm up pitches to start the next inning.

How does demoting Campbell get Abreu into the lineup? What OF'er plays 2B? Rafaela? Our best defensive CF? We can try some shuffle- mix it up plan, maybe starting by platooning Duran, but there is not enough ABs for those who deserve them in the OF. To me, the untouchable is the Abreu-Ref platoon. Second is Duran vs RHPs. Next is Rafaela in CF and Anthony as close to FT as possible being tied. So, Duran in LF vs most R and CF vs some R. Rafaela in CF v L and most R. Anthony in LF v all L and some R. Is that enough? Do we play Rafaela or Duran even less, so Roman plays more? The Bregman return would put that spotlight on Campbell, not the Abreu return, IMO.

Good points. Flip them.

I'm fully prepared to admit I was wrong about the Yankees not being much better than the rest of the AL, but I agree. They look very unbalanced. Hell, they looked unbalanced, to me last year, even with Sosa. I felt losing Sosa and Cole would be too much to overcome. Let's see how the dog days of summer affects this Yankee team.

I'm done counting on returning pitchers from injury. If they do, so be it. We need to plan on zero IP from Houck, Crawford & Sandoval and go from there. I do expect Bregman back, but I'd add 2-4 weeks to whatever time table we have.

Maybe he felt he was pushing his luck. Wilson was very successful for 1 or 2 batters. BTW, Wilson has pitched 1 or more innings in 17 of 29 appearnces.and 5 of his last 7, so the "finally" word doesn't really fit. He's gone over 1 IP in 3 of his last 15 games.

It's nice to see us help DET pass NYY for the best AL record.

A longer struggle than I had in mind! LOL! Hey, we made it! We are down 1 in the WC race to two teams at 35-33 for that 6th slot. TOR & TBR are 3 up on us.

Not much to watch at Woo, these days, except Jh Garcia and some pitchers. Jordan went 2-4 w BB and JhG went 1-4 w BB. Uberstine pitched another good game (2.67 ERA.) Murphy got lit up, but Mata did okay in relief. Wehunt pitched a gem for POR: 7IP 4H, 1 ER 13K 1BB. Castro homered and is showing signs of life. Alcantara 3-4 w BB. GRE lost 1-0, as Ed Rivera pitched very well: 6.2 1H, 0ER 2BB & 7K. Jo Garcia went 2-4 as did Brannon. SAL lost 9-6. Our A-, FCL and DSL teams are not doing well.

That was a long struggle to get back to .500.

Yup: Dobbins Wilson Chapman Narvaez Toro-Romy

Wilson has sure proved me wrong. (Chapman, too.)

Painter is the top 1-3 nationally ranked pitcher on some lists, but they probably would want Abreu, Campbell & Painter. Giving up Duran for Painters would leave two slots in the OF, and then 2B would be open, again (Story?) 2026 C Narvaez 1B/DH Casas/Devers/Yoshida (all lefties) 2B Story SS Mayer 3B Bregman LF Jh Garcia/Refsnyder CF Rafaela RF Anthony

Larry, is something like this what you had in mind? To PIT: Andrew Painter (from PHI) Richard Fitts, David Sandlin, Miguel Bleis & Mikey Romero (from BOS) To PHI: Jarren Duran, David Hamilton & Hayden Mullins (from BOS) To BOS: Paul Skenes (pre-Arb) & David Bednar ($5.9M + 1 Arb) from PIT

That would be buying.

If we want to use fWAR to identify our best and worst positions, here is a look... MLB Rank 1st 3B (Getting close to 2nd w Bregman out.) T3 Pen (boosted by so many IP) 4th DH (Devers forevers.) T6 RF (proving platoons can and do work) T6 LF (not bad for an "off year" by Duran.) T7 Catcher (Thank you, Narvaez.) T9 CF (Rafaela doing it all.) 19th SP (Not going to get us to the dance.) T24 SS (Story is the story, here.) T25 1B (Toro & Romy helping, recently.) 28th 2B (We can't seem to ever get this position right.) I gotta think a SP'er and solid RP'er are 1-2 on our list of needs, despite this rankings list. We aren't spending on 2B or SS. Perhaps, we make an addition at 1B, but only if the Toro-Romy experiment is going south at the end of July.

Tonight looked like it might be yet one more hard luck late loss. We've been here, before. Maybe this time, we can get on a roll- for real. YES!!! One at a time!

As Frank Zappa said, "I figure the odds be 50-50."

Bleis has been dealing with injury, so his sample size has not had long enough stretches to make any real determinations on "stagnation," progress or decline. Arias has always been a great defensive player. He's not "breaking out" on D. People are just watching him more closely, now. Aso, while Greenville might be the "low minors," it's not the "very low" minors, and for a 19 year old, it's actually "very" high. Cespedes has had injury issues, as well, else he might be at GRE with Arias. All 3 of these guys have more to prove to make a jump into where our big 3 have been, but IMO, all 3 are young enough and have shown glimpses of top skills to be on the radar of national rankings. Jh Garcia might pass 'em all, and don't count out his brother, either. Justin Gonzalez looks intriguing. The pitching is much harder and fluid to have any idea of how high any of our pitching prospects might rise. Even if Perales never got hurt, it's hard to know how high he'd be at, right now. To me, Tolle, Clarke and Valera have some very high upside potential, but I'm not sure how high their floors are. Dobbins and Fitts have more identifiable floors, but their ceiling look limited. Early & Sandlin may be the wild cards.

Good post, Hitch. I'm pretty sure Sox management would be thrilled to see Narvaez, Campbell, Mayer and Anthony finish 1-2-3-4 in ROY voting, because it would mean they all did very well, and we'd probably be in the playoffs. No, they would not like losing the year of control, but to me, that is secondary.

I like that Cora has moved Duran out of the 1 slot vs LHPs. He did again, today. Romy batting 3rd is an interesting move, that was done yesterday, too. 1. R Refsnyder RF 2. L Devers DH 3. R Romy 1B 4. R Narvaez C 5. L Duran LF 6. R Story SS 7. R Rafaela CF 8. L Mayer 3B 9. R Campbell 2B