moonslav59

As long as no Mansieres are on that table, okay.

The two worst batters vs LHPs, this year (150+ PAs) .509 Lowe .590 Duran (7th in MLB in PAs vs LHPs.) One could argue both should platoon. (Abreu is at .721 in 64 PAs but was worse, last year and career.) 2023-2025 vs LHPs: .527 DHam (68 PAs) .607 Abreu (141 PAs) .641 Duran (457 PAs) Worst MLB OPS vs LHPs since 2023 (400+ PAs) .611 de la Cruz .620 A Gimenez .624 Cronenworth .630 B Donovan .638 McMahon .641 Duran (only 2 players have more PAs vs lefties and a lower OPS than Duran.) If Abreu is an issue due to platooning needs, then so is Duran. Just because Cora does not platoon Duran does not change the data.

I think he played a game there for Woo. Maybe, someday, but I'm not sure he should play his second career game at 1B on the MLB club. Someday, maybe. BTW, he's supposed to to be a plus defender at corner OF and maybe okay in CF, but so are our current OF'er, for the most part.

KC may become an athletic DH, someday, which pressure even more from the bat.

An interesting thing is, I was being called out for defending/supporting Fred, because I said he was right about the team flopping for so many years. I'm not sure about the 2-3 players thing, as he apparently believes more than half this team sucks- even a guy with a 3.1 fWAR.

So just call him "nickname pending?"

Good pull! I doubt May becomes Nate, but he's doing very well, so far.

I'm 100% in on Jh Garcia. I agree. He will make trading Duran much easier. (We could trade Abreu, but I think it will be Duran.) This is not about not valuing Duran. I do. I think he will help land us Ryan. Garcia is a RHB with power. Adding the LHB Lowe helps, too.

That's a good one, too. I think "Password" should go. Do we mostly agree on that?

That bat flip/Mic drop was a classic. This kid has it.

Thanks. I'm not disputing anyone's fandom, although I have sounded like I have in the past. I do think Fred loves the Sox, and I can remember feeling a lot of the same type of negativity towards the Sox for several decades, but it was never all-consuming, like it appears to be with him. I get that the heat of the moment anger and frustration makes people say some things they really don't believe, but Fred doubles down on it and I think he actually thinks more than "half our team sucks," Cora and Brez are "idiots" and we will "flop again, this year, because it's who we are." (I paraphrased the last one.) I know there are extreme views on just about everything, and to me, this is overboard. I said he was "trolling" and maybe that was a step, too far, but it does seem like he enjoys getting under posters' skin. He really does not bother me as much as he seems to bother others. We have been "flops," and many of us have been very angry about that and the apparent and actual factual willingness of our management team to allow it to happen. I just don't see why what a near totally different team did 2, 3, 4 or 5 years ago means this team will do the same. I see that as a flaw in logic and call it out as such. Hell, this team is even way different from the 2024 team! 3 of the 5 opening day SP'ers are gone or out for the season (Pivetta, Crawford and Houck) and one is in the pen, now (Whitlock,) where most of us felt he belonged from day one. Our 1-2 RP'er are gone (Jansen & Martin) along with Wink, Joely, and Chase. I Campbell was just demoted. That's 6 of 8 RP'ers changed out. While Story started the 2024 season at SS, he was out for most of the year. The entire rest of the infield is new: Casas> Lowe, EValdez/Reyes> Romy/Dham and Devers>Bregman. We swapped out O'Neill for Anthony and have had a revolving DH, instead of Yoshida FT. Then, Narvaez> McGuire/Jansen. Way more than half this team was not a major part of the 2024 team. Okay: same manager and same CBO, but some different coaches and farm guys.

Approx HRs per 650... 35 Abreu 30 Bregman 25 Story 24 Refsnyder 23 Rafaela 21 Romy 20 Mayer 18 Narvaez 14 Duran 13 Anthony

I like "SCRABBLE" as his nickname.

I've been high on both of these brothers for a while, perhaps unjustified. So far, both have put up some good numbers. Do you think Jo Garcia can stick at catcher?

How about, "Hey YOU!?"

"Alphabet Soup" is too long. How about just "Alphabet?"

DET will have clinched it's division and may be resting their starters. Maybe, TOR might, too, but not 4-6 days before the final day.

Our deense should be doing better than the results showing more unearned runs allowed than anyone else. Our baserunning is above average, before you factor in bonehead blunders running into outs. Our SP'ers are above average and maybe top 5 in the AL. If we make the playoffs, our top 3-4 SP'er match up pretty well with just about anyone. Our pen looks like top 2-3 by many numbers, but it feels more like top 5-7 in MLB and top 2-3 in the AL. Our offense has struggled, lately but is still top 3-4 in the AL. That should be enough to make the playoffs, and as we saw last night, other AL contenders, like the Yanks, make the same or more mistakes than we do, very often. The Yanks have played well, over the past week or two, but have been under .500 over a long stretch and look more like "flops" than we do. I guess we'll find out, soon. I like our chances. I like watching this team. They have spunk, spark and grit. I may be more optimistic about our extended future than this year, but the AL has no clear great teams. Roll the dice and think, "Yes, we can!"

Or, "Change your password to 000000!"

Jay-Gee is too hard to say.

Toro was a serious drag on the team for way too long, but it looks better, now. Next up: 2B.

We cannot forget our passwords!

LMAO!

Back to baseball: here is one way of viewing how good are players are in comparison to others in MLB. There are 30 teams and 13 everyday players per team. That's 390 players, and to get to that sample size, the cut off is 120 PAs for 2025. The 195th player (the median) in MLB is a 0.9 fWAR. That makes a 1.0 fWAR "above the median." The Sox have 8 players above 1.0: 3.4 Bregman (top 30) 3.1 Duran (top 45) 3.1 Rafaela (top 45) 2.7 Abreu (nearly top 60) 2.5 Narvaez (top 70) 2.4 Story (top 80) 2.3 Anthony (top 90 in just 59 games!) 1.2 Romy (top 160 in just 69 gms) _______ 0.8 Refsnyder (just 157 PAs!) The median pitcher is at about 0.7, and we have 6 pitchers above that... 5.0 Crochet (3rd best in MLB) 1.9 Chapman (best closer in the AL) 1.4 Whitlock (best 1-2 punch in the AL) 1.3 Bello (65th best SP in MLB) 1.2 Giolito (77th best) 0.9 Dobbins (IL) 0.8 Wilson 0.5 Bernardino 0.2 Weissert & Fitts

It might have helped had we paid a little more to get him earlier, but this timing may work out well for us, as he kinda sucked for the month or so, prior to the addition.