moonslav59

I feel the same, but the worry is growing to a point where I do think some changes might be called for. Sitting a player for 1-2 games is not drastic, unless it's Devers. I'd give it a few more games, then I might temporarily sit Casas with Duran's leash getting shorter. Rafaela's D has been so good, I'm not sure I'm ready to sit him, but I do like the idea of an Anthony promotion once he reaches extra year time.

Casas moved to 7th. Campbell up to 6th.

We do have quite a few younger players, so it was hard to know for sure if further improvement was possible, or not. Devers is Devers, and I honestly hope we don't try to change his approach. Casas looked like a decent batter, until the injury, early in '24. I'm not sure about his future. His sample size, at that time, was about what dalbec's was, when he imploded, so... Story was a big unknown, due to so little playing time over the last 3 seasons. Refsnyder was a ho-hum journeyman, until he struck gold vs LHPs, starting 3 years ago. Duran attempted to reinvent his approach, so many times, it was hard to know what sort of batter he was, is and will be. He did have a pretty damn good last 1.5 seasons and seemed to find the right approach. I'm not sure, if this is just a slump, or if pitchers have found his weakness and he needs further adjustments to get good, again. The rest are young and open books. Abreu still need to prove he can hit lefties to ever play FT. Rafaela has been discussed enough, already. Wong, Narvaez, Campbell and others are pretty much TBD'd.

Yup. I'm almost certain Devers can be no worse than Casas on D at 1B, after just a few weeks of learning the new position.

Well... .856 in 2023 (502 PAs) .857 in 2024, before the injury (90 PAs) That's over 600 PAs of .857 batting. 37 HRs and 31 2B+3B. At 650, that's over 40 HRs and 75 XBHs and an OBP at about .360. His D is worse than awful, but I can understand the "love" or hop with the bat

For sure, and we are far outpacing the league's K increases. The lowering OBP and lack of power worries me more.

Some OPS numbers from the farm: 30+ PAs 1.060 F Encarnacion .987 Arias .885 Anthony .850 Toro .810 Anderson .799 Grissom .798 Eaton .567 Mayer, .479 Sogard Under 30 PAs notables .944 Y Rodriguez (Priester trade) .905 Nunez .857 Rosier .846 N Taylor .826 Alcantara .770 Zanetello .702 Romero .583 Bleis, .533 Jh Garcia _______________ OPS Against 6+ IP .297 Burdi .416 Aita .438 Mills .457 Stock .517 Mullins .521 Drohan .539 Sandlin .584 Fulmer .625 Sansone .633 Giolito .716 Bello, .774 Mata, .985 Wink, 1.059 Dobbins

You have made some good points, but it's hard to look at the 2023 to 2024 numbers, when he played just 63 games last year, and most of them were after his return from a very serious injury. It's hard to gauge where he is headed, but he is off to a horrific start- something we all agree on.

So far, yes, but I'm not writing hi off, yet.

Anthony would replace Rafaela, as Duran moves to CF. The choice would be: who platoons with Abreu? Rafaela or Refsnyder?

The sample size is nearly legit.

Hopefully, a hefty return. MAYBE SOME JAD MOJO IS ALL WE NEED!

It's sure looking like trading Casas would have been a good winter move.

How low can this team get? It's kind of amazing we are just 8-10 and 2 GB the division lead.

I like Slaten, too, although he's off to a rough start.

Story is our highest ranked "Oppo" guy at 33%. Next are... 31% Duran 27% Rafaela 26% Casas 25% Narvaez 24% Abreu ____________ 23.3% League ___________ 23% Devers 20% Romy & KC 13% Bregman & Wong

I'm thrilled at how quickly Brez & Co moved the focus to pitching, built up the rotation, rotation depth and even made a dent on the farm system acquisition and (hopeful) development. I know guys like Gio, Fitts, Criswell, Dobbins and eventually Sandoval may not thrill many posters, but the depth list is about the best I've ever seen on a Sox team. (I'm sure someone will remind me of the team back in 19__... Crochet, Houck and Buehler should be fine. Bello & Crawford are decent 4-5's. On the farm, we still lack many highly ranked pitchers. Perales is ranked #4 on soxprospects, but look hos many are poised to make a move up... 7. Valera 8. Sandlin 10. Early, 11. Fitts, 12. Dobbins 13. Tolle, 16. Paez, 19. Clarke 22. Reyes, 23, Cason, 25. Wehunt 28. Monegro, 29. Mullins, 30. Delzine Tygart, Ingrassia, Aita, Fajardo Then, there are Guerrero, Penrod, Mta, Drohan and Dean Most of these guys may never see the bigs or even reach AAA, but the quantity is high and the quality seems to be improving. The Delzine IFA signing looks nice. We spent more on signing bonuses for pitchers in the last draft than I don't know when. 12 of the top 16 picks were pitchers. When has that happened before? (2 of top 3 and 4 of top 6, too.) Besides the FA signings, Brez has added these pitchers via trade and Rule 5: Fitts, (Priester has since been traded for an OF'er) Slaten, Sandlin, Weissert, Fajardo and Judice . At least on paper, things look better.

I agree. It's still early in the season, and his arm has not pitched a lot of innings in a season.... ever. To have any chance, this year, he has to be healthy, all year.

The contract was absurd, and I'd rather we spent that on Betts, but he seemed like the "last straw."

I'm expecting him to do well.

Nobody said count them all as doubles. Not sure where you got that from. I've seen 5-6 plays that hardly anybody else makes. You chose to bring up Duran. Currently Rafaela is +2 OAA and Duran is -2, so a difference of 4 is not far from 4-5. Add 4 hits to Rafaela and he's 15 for 50, not 11 for 50. That's .220 to .300. All singles.

No, he hasn't saved 5-6 hits?

RAF has saved 5-6 hits, already.... some maybe 2Bs. Add those to his offense, and he looks fine.

I'm not all that worried about pitching match-ups, but surely Vegas looks at the SP'er when setting the odds, so it does count for something. It seems like the Sox go against expectations, too often to think it matters all that much. Just my opinion.

Maybe he felt he could back up 1B, too, but Romy looks like a nice platoon guy for Casas (for now, anyway.) I think Grandal will take Sabol's place on the 40 and 26, soon. Sabol will be DFA'd.