moonslav59

Hendriks activated and joins the Sox. Dobbins optioned to WOO, again. Brayan Bello is set to be promoted, and who gets sent down is a mystery: Weissert, Kelly or Wink?

I've said what I'd do, but will again: Vs RHP: Anthony LF, Duran CF, Abreu RF Vs LHPs: Duran LF, Rafaela CF, Anthony RF Rafaela can be the #1 back-up at SS, 2B and maybe 3B. He can PR and come in as a defensive replacement, late in games. He will get enough chances to be a meaningful player with the chance to increase playing time, if he shows he can improve his offense. I like Rafaela, a lot. This is not about disliking his plus input as a player. It's about thinking Anthony can do much more. Anthony is a decent defender and should hit much better than Rafaela and maybe hit better than all our FT OF'ers.

A look at MLB experience on our current roster: Seasons (including 2025) /Games 10: Bregman 1131, Story 929, Refsnyder 479 9: Devers 1001 5: Duran 373, Wong 294, Romy 183 4: Casas 240 3: Rafaela 198, Abreu 180, DHam 123, Sabol 125 2: Narvaez 20 1: Campbell 19 Pitching: 16: Chapman 805 13: Wilson 595 9: Newcomb 179 8: Buehler 135, Fulmer 263 6: Houck 108 5: Crochet 108, Whitlock 110, Criswell 41, Stock 56 4: Wink 120, Bernardino 121, Weissert 100, Kelly 76 2: Slaten 52, Fitts 7 1: Dobbins 2

Getting the extra year of control does not preclude an extension. It make it easier to do one, and a little less expensive. Also, Anthony is DH'ing, now, due to a sore shoulder, so now is not the time to call him up, anyway.

ERA Leaders International League 0.55 Stock & Chris Flexen 1.23 Drohan Eastern League: 17. Sandlin 3.00 South Atlantic League: 10. Mullins 1.38 Carolina League: 9. Vogatsky 2.53, 10. Sansone 2.92, 12. Aita 3.29

International League OPS Leaders 1.251 Cam Devanney 1.109 Toro 8. Grissom 1.023 9. Anthony 1.000 45. Hickey .802 81. Eaton .716 84. Thompson .702 116. Mayer .583 135. Sogard .480 (Next DFA candidate?) (144 Qualifying players) Eastern League 11. Liendo .920 19. Romero .850 24. Jh Garcia .809 South Atlantic League 4. Y Rod 1.094 9. Alcantara .950 Carolina League 9. Arias .940 18. Anderson .881 33. Asencio .792 34. Encarnacion .786

While true, I'd rather be 2 up in the WC than tied, at any given moment in the season.

Duran's start has been pretty bad, but he has a lot of line-outs, IMO, He had several ups and downs over his early career, and seemed to reinvent his stance or approach almost monthly, but I believe he has found the right approach. He also got himself into pretty damn good shape and improved his defense. In short, I'm not too worries about Duran. I'm more worried about Casas and having two black holes in the line-up (our catchers and CF.) I'm ready for the Anthony promotion, but understand waiting for that extra control year on a 20 year old is worth the wait. I think we'll trade Refsnyder and play Rafaela vs LHPs, as Abreu sits and then try to give Rafaela as much playing time as a super utility man as possible. He could still get 350-400 PAs and some late inning defensive time over a season. The way Story and Campbell are playing, and with recent struggles in AAA, Mayer looks like one that waits the longest, barring injury, of course.

My guess is other teams have their numb ers skewed by 2-3 games, too.

LD% 2023-2025 24% Refsndyer 21% Rafaela, Casas & Wong 20% Duran, Abreu, Devers & Yoshida Hard Hit% is just about flipped: 42% Devers 36% Abreu 35% Casas 34% Duran 31% Yoshida 30% Refsnyder & Wong 25% Rafaela

I'm not sure he ends up playing more than Narvaez, even when fully healthy.

We are 7th in runs scored and 10tth in OPS at .723. (12th in HRs , 4th in SBs and 1st in Ks) We are 16th in ERA but 29th in runs allowed (16 unearned leads the league.) 17 HRs allowed is 7th best.

Nothing like a big night to bump up some OPS numbers: .959 Abreu .910 Bregman .876 Story .870 Campbell .694 Devers .632 Duran .568 Rafaela .509 Casas Not Qualified: .914 Romy .831 Refsnyder .623 Narvaez .328 DHam .310 Sabol .279 Wong

It's way to early to make definitive judgments, but so far our rotation depth has kept us in this thing. So far, we've seen SP'ers ranked no higher than 7th on the all healthy depth chart, and likely something like 8th or 9th to 10th or 11th do better than those ranked 1-6, other than Crochet, of course. #1 Crochet 1.38 - 4GS #2 Houck 9.16 -4GS #3 Buehler 5.23- 4 GS (#4-7 on IL: Bello, Crawford, Giolito, Sandoval) #8 Fitts 3.18- 3 GS (now on IL) #9 Newcomb 3.63- 4 GS #10 Dobbins 2.45- 2 GS This is pretty eye opening: SP 1-3: 4.83 ERA in 12 GS (65.1 IP 63H, 22 BB, 56Ks 35 ER) SP 8-10: 3.18 ERA in 9 GS (45.1 IP, 49H, 16 BB, 43Ks, 16 ER) When Bello, Gio and Crawford return, it might be difficult for them to match the 3.18 ERA of those ranked lower than they were.

The Never Ending Story!

He's been basically a full platoon guy, so far- like Refsnyder, who also saw his OPS jump to respectability. Good to see some long ball action. Keep the jad mojo going!

Indeed, as well as the Never Ending Story.

I get how people get upset and say things out of anger and frustration, many times over tiny sample sizes, but I'd like to think there are not many true Sox fans that want a tear down- start over plan put in place. We may still have many questions to be answered and young players that have shown promise, recently but are struggling to start 2025, but the season is 162 games for a reason. Okay, so Devers is overpaid, and contracts like Yoshida's look awful, but to me, our roster construction has been steadily improving, along with the farm system. We have a lot of young, pre-prime and early prime players with many years of team control, at relatively low cost. We have ML ready top prospects and some damn good looking ones that are 2-3 years away. We seemed to have turned the corner on pitching acquisition and development, but admittedly, that has yet to be proven. I'd rather see us look better on paper than worse on paper. The depth we have seems strong enough to offer hope, in case some of our current players don't pan out or get hurt. On the everyday side of things, only the catching position looks weak and shallow. 1B depth looks sketchy, unless we can get Devers to pick up a 1Bman's mitt. Everywhere else, has ML depth and or top prospect talent waiting in the wings. If Rafaela becomes the most expensive utility man in MLB- he starts making over $5.5M in 2029- it wouldn't be a bad thing. I really like our roster. The pitching side is a bit more speculative and many come off the books this winter or next, but longer term deals for pitchers often backfire, so this is not a bad thing, as longs as JH keeps spending, where and when needed. I'm optimistic, and I don't think it's because my expectations were lower over the last 5 years. I think we have a good shot at winning the AL pennant. Call me a homer or a dreamer, if you wish.

He has options remaining, so AAA is an option. We are not squeezed on the 40 man, as we just DFA'd Fulmer, and Sogard is no wonder player. We could probably 60 Day IL Crawford or Wong, or DFA Sabol to add Grandal. Once we hit the wall on other options, we will keep Yoshida in AAA. That day might not even come, this year.

The 5 slot has high value in modern line-up theory. I'd be okay with Devers up 5th, but I might flip him and Bregman vs RHP and LHPs.

He's the same Ceddanne. The question is, will he have a 90 game good hitting stretch in 2025? The guy is a great defensive CF'er. He has the 5th best fWAR (+0.2) on the team. He's 5th best in bWAR (+0.4.) he's not our biggest early season problem.

Devers has been our best offensive player since Betts was traded. If you believe in clutch, and often complain about the Sox lack of timely hitting, then consider this... Devers has a career .852 OPS. .859 High Leverage .868 Men on Base .879 2 outs RISP .891 RISP He was on pace for a career high OPS in 2024- yes, way back 9 months ago, before an injury set him back. I'm not against trading anybody for a better return, but I would not single him out as the guy I'm kicking tires on. Listen to offers, sure, but I'm not going out of my way to find a way to get rid of our best hitter.

We all heard of the Casas for Castillo trade, and apparently wanting SEA to take Yoshida held up the deal, but I also wonder what other Casas deals were discussed. I am far from giving up on Tristan. The guy can hit, and I think he will again. His defense looks permanently flawed, but 1B can be easy to hide, if the rest of the D is good.

The thing is, how much does Yoshida's trade value rise, if he's hitting .950 in AAA for 6-8 weeks? Unless someone gets hurt, he won't get a real look on the big team, IMO. Keeping him as DH insurance does have some value, but DH is the easiest position to fill or refill. Ref, Casas and Romy could be about as good a DH as Yoshi, anyway.

You can probably count on one hand how many catchers there are that are plus defenders and hit over .775 or .800. To get one via trade would be costly. We traded away a hopeful, in Teel, but to get an ace, it was worth the gamble. notin suggested a Story for Murphy trade that looks pretty good, to me. I'd even throw in some cash and a moderate prospect, but I'm not sure ATL is up to the idea. It would also mean promoting the sub .600 Mayer or try Campbell at SS (DHam/Romy/Grissom at 2B) or go back to Rafaela at SS and call up Anthony. I think OAA had Murphy at zero. Not good- not bad.