moonslav59

My thoughts are that I don''t blame the manager for being handed weak and highly flawed rosters for 6 seasons (2019 to 2024.) Yes, 2021's roster was flawed, too, but we put everything together and made a solid run. I think the 2025 roster is good enough to be a playoff team, and I have said Cora can be partially responsible for the letdown. We did lose a big chunk of the rotation, started the season with an awful pen on paper (pun intended) and then lost Bregman and Casas. The total implosion by Houck is not Cora's fault. (Giving him 9 starts might be.) No, it's not all about rosters, but with the rosters Cora was handed for those 6 years, coming withing a few outs of a trip to the WS in 1 season is about the best I could expect. Maybe 2 playoff trips could have been expected, and Cora got one. I'm not hanging him for that. I understand the criticism, and many feel wins is the bottom line on everything. I guess the Rockies would be a playoff team with a great manager.

He can play SS and maybe 3B. I think they tried him in the OF, but we have 10 guys ahead of him, there. You don't have to be a great defender to be "utility," but it does help, I agree. Our past utility infielders were often worse on D than DHam. His ability to be a PR is a value, too. He has some pop, but not much. He's down past the top 5 players to be DFA'd on my list. Besides, he'd be traded and not DFA'd.

So was the roster he was handed, until this season.

DHam is a slow starter and has hit .708 after his first 13 games, this year. He has 10 SBs in those 24 games and plays better 2B defense than KC and others. He is a decent utility player, except for his poor SS defense. If it wasn't for out 1B situation, Toro, Romy and eaton would all be ahead of DHam on the next-to-be-DFA list. I'd DFA Noda or Sogard or one of the 3 I just mentioned before DHam. I'd rather have DHam playing than Story, too. (Mayer at SS, DHam at 2B v R and Story/Campbell at 2B v L, but that ain't happening.)

Criswell has been a better starter than reliever and in larger sample sizes than Toro and Mayer. I'd replace Gio with Criswell, but that still leaves his starting over one of Fitts & Dobbins, so point well taken. (Unless Bello to the pen... LOL) I'd still rather have a healthy Casas than Toro & Romy atg 1B. I'm not one who thinks Casas would have stayed that cold, all year.

There are a lot of current FT or near FT Sox players that have not been earning their slots. If Cora is one thing as a manager, he's loyal to those he thinks are better. All of these guys have numbers that, at best, hint at a benching, demotion or a rest: Story: We used to say, "Well, he's still a GG-type SS," and we'd hope he could hit over .750. Now, he's not the same defender and is on a really bad cold streak. How long is long enough? How Soon Is Now? The guy has hit .403 (OPS not a Ted Williams BA) in his last 153 PAs! Campbell: The elephant in the room. His meager numbers are boosted by his first 8 games in the bigs. He's hit .553 in his last 193 PAs. That's about 1/3 of a season. It's at .490 in his last 135 PAs and .368 his last 107 PAs. The Sox have a long history of sticking with struggling rookies, JBJ & Pedey to name a couple, but this is looking really bad. Now, one could have made the same argument about Rafaela, and some were. His OPS was pretty low, all year and for most of 2024. He's over .700, now, but just 9 games ago, he was coming off a .272 stretch of 11 games (34 PAs.) Some were arguing Devers should be demoted in the line-up in mid April, so many times, patience is a virtue. With pitchers, it's a little harder to judge, but Houck did get 9 starts before the plug was pulled, and Gio is up to 7 starts, now, and he has a 6.42 ERA and a 1.634 WHIP. When is enough enough?

Good read. We have to consider Rafaela as a "streaky hitter" like Abreu, but with many more cold stretches. Right now, he's over .700, and we are all thrilled to see this. .700 for a GG caliber CF'er is fine, but Abreu has been around .800 with an actual GG to his name. (Rafaela is better on D.) Thanks for this.

Average WAR (FWAR, bWAR) 2.8 Bregman 2.5, 3.0 (Out for a while) 2.2 Devers 2.0, 2.3 (Like last season, on pace for career year) 2.1 Rafaela 1.7, 2.4 (Nobody doubts his FT status, anymore) 2.0 Narvaez 2.0, 1.9 (Biggest Sox surprise) 1.6 Abreu 1.4, 1.8 (Had a great start to the season) 1.3 Duran 1.2, 1.3 (Regressed from 2024, but heating up) 0.7 Refsnyder 0.6, 0.7 (in 1/3 ro 1/4 the playing time) 0.3 Romy 0.2, 0.3 (missed some time) 0.2 DHam 0.1, 0.3 (Decent utility player) 0.1 Toro 0.0, 0.1 (Should have has better depth) 0.0 Wong 0.0, -0.1 (No longer the FT'er) 0.0 Mayer 0.0, 0.0 (Seems to be a plus, so far) 0.0 Story -0.3, 0.3 (Big differential between f & b) -0.2 Sogard -0.3, -0.2 (Surprised he has over 50 PA) -0.3 Campbell -0.1, -0.5 (Needs to turn it around) -0.7 Casas -0.6, -0.9 (Out for season) Pitchers: 2.6 Crochet 2.4, 2.7 (All we hoped he'd be and leads the league in IP) 1.0 Chapman 0.8, 1.2 (Has kept us somewhat relevant) 0.6 Dobbins 0.8, 0.3 (Better than we expected) 0.6 Wilson 0.6, 0.6 (Surprise of the staff) 0.5 Whitlock 0.5, 0.4 (We need him to be on) 0.5 Weissert 0.3, 0.6 (Quietly gets the job done) 0.3 Bernardino 0.3, 0.3 (Nice to see him regain) 0.3 Buehler 0.3, 0.2 (We need better from our $20M man) 0.3 Bello 0.1, 0.4 (fWAR slights him) 0.2 Slaten 0.4, 0.0 (bWAR slights him) 0.2 Burdi 0.1, 0.2 (On IL) 0.2 Newcomb 0.6, -0.2 (GONE) 0.1 Winkowski 0.2, -0.1 (Still in Cora's doghouse?) -0,2 Fitts -0.2, -0.2 (Seems like better than this) -0.2 Criswell -0,1, -0.3 (Should be a starter) -0.2 Hendricks 0.0, -0.3 (Close to a DFA) -0.3 Giolito 0.1, -0.6 (Big differential) -0.4 Kelly 0.1, -0.8 (Even bigger differential) -0.1 Houck -0.4, -1.6 (Killed us)

Rubbish.

2026 is before some of these guys can even dream of being near ML ready. (Not that Perales will be pitching in MLB in '26.)

So, then MAYBE 5.

Small "b" and "f" do not count as grades.

They had the same record as the Sox, a day or two ago.

We really want 6 1bmen?

We talk about Clarke, Tolle & Valera, but what about Perales? I say we have 4 in a tier by themselves. The second tier might include: Early (top tier?) Fitts, Guerrero & Dobbins (will graduate soon) Sandlin, Paez & Reyes (3rd tier?) Wehunt, Monegro, Mullins & Drohan (Third Tier) Delzine: TBD Did I miss anyone?

Being conservative as we are ranked 7TH AND 13TH. Maybe top 10 or 11?

Where did the others rank?

I guess I'm a blind squirrel running up a broken clock.

Grandal has a higher OPS and could catch in a pinch. I like notin's idea of giving Jh Garcia a 1Bman's mitt.

fWAR vs bWAR is up for debate. I'm not sure which is better, and they are pretty close on most players- just not Rafaela. I hope he can keep hitting over .700.

The Sox rank T13th in FWAR Pitching 4th RP (lots of innings help) 17th SP We are... 7th in everyday player fWAR (which includes O & D) This should make us a top 15 team. By position: 1st 3B (Tied w CLE and will end up lower due to Bregman injury) 3rd Devers (no more talk of a line-up demotion or his "las 80 games.") 4th RF (Who says platoons suck?) 6th Catcher (Wowza!) 9th LF (not bad) 10th Rafaela, errr... I mean CF 24th 1B (Thought it would be worse) 26th SS (That's the Story.) 28th 2B (We just can't seem to ever fix 2B) 3rd best OF in MLB with the top prospect an OF'er.

fWAR differs... 2.5 Bregman 2.4 Crochet 2.0 Narvaez (just 47 games) 2.0 Devers 1.7 Rafaela 1.4 Duran 1.2 Abreu I'm not dissing Ceddanne. He's one of my faves.

Me, too, but when your number one is a plus defender and can maybe hit .800, I'm not sure how much we need to invest on a better back-up than Wong, especially when we have greater priorities. Maybe Wong's .758 OPS, last year was a fluke, but a .700 back-up catcher is not too bad. it's his D I worry about. He's 29. VTek got better around 29-30, so maybe he can, too.

I totally agree. I'm talking about building the farm to a top 3-5 ranking. Bloom was the major factor (Anthony, Mayer, Campbell, Arias, Romero, Valera, early & more.) I like Brez way more.

Fine. I still think Bloom, even without Brez, was responsible for getting us to top 5 (after he was gone.) Brez got us to top 3-5. Is that better wording?