moonslav59

.709 in 2024 is mediocre, but a 3.4 bWAR is pretty good. fangraphs agrees (1.8 fWAR in '24 is 18th to 20th best) It was a big gamble by Brez. Mead was too. Brez is certainly no paralyzed with indecisiveness Bloom.

He'd need to be stretched out, and it's September. He's been used in relief and as an opener, this year, but he does have a career as a starter. In 2025, he started 19 of 19 games in Korea (3.58) and 2 of 8 games at AAA(4.19) In 2024, he started 12 of 22 games (3.30) In 2023, he started just 3 of 37 games at AA/AAA (3.66)

Granted that catchers rarely play 150-155+ games, but here is his GS totals: 146 2023 is career high (110 C/ 46 DH) 141 2024 (103 C/45 DH) 84 2025 (73 C/ 18 DH) 61 2026 (49 C/12 DH)

I don't see the reason to try Bello starting again, this season. Using an opener does not tax the pen anymore than using the RP'er after a Bello start. The way Bello has started, we'd need more RP'ers than going the opener route. Our depth options are near nil for the September rotation. If we could set up the playoff rotation as we wish, I'd go.... 1. Tolle (IP total is worrisome) 2. Bennett (IP total is worrisome) 3. Gray (but going with the vet Gray first makes sense, too. That's assuming he looks good after this missed start.) My ranked Sept rotation would look like this: 1. Tolle 2. Bennett 3. Gray 4. Opener> Bello 5. Sandoval/ Suarez (looking scary questionable) 7>>>. Draw straws among Burgos, Paez and non 40 guys Wehunt, Ziehl & Holobetz

Gotta agree. The pitching at higher levels have not been eye-opening, except for the guy we traded away- Eyanson. The OPS Against leaders of our remaining farm arms: 65+ IP .623 Gilman (A->A+) .625 Brown (A->A+) .641 Mullins (AA>AAA) MLB RP'er, at best .687 Mayers (A->A+) .699 Wehunt (AA>AAA) Might be our best near future hope. .699 Futrell (A->A+>AA) Considering "juiced balls," maybe these numbers are better than they appear. 50-64 IP .465 B Morgan A->A+ .524 Delzine FCL>A- .571 E Walker FCL>A- .594 Ed Rivera AA>AAA> IL .657 Paez AA>AAA .674 Tygart FCL>A->A+ .692 Wm Rodriguez A- Nobody jumps out, except Delzine, who is years away from knowing more. Valera is on the IL and might be our best bet. Phillips has not impressed. Monegro & I Coffey? Meh. When Holobetz, Wehunt and Phillips are your 2-3-4 ranked pitchers, it's not looking too good. Lucky we have 14 decent pitchers locked up for 2+ seasons. Bastardo (RP) Paez and Ed, Rivera are the 5-6-7 ranked farm pitchers. Then... Mullins, Brown & Monegro LaFavor, Ziehl & Finley Morgan, Cason & Mayers Montero, Futrell & B Ortiz Jakson Gamboa, Rogers & Gilman are near 60th on soxprospects,com.

I hope they end this type of signings. They did not make one, last winter. Had Sandoval returned and pitched last Aug and or Sept, maybe he'd be in better shape now, but this speculative type deals never seem to work for us. Richards, Kluber, Paxton, Hendrik & Sandoval Add all this money up, and we coulda got one decent pitcher on a 2-4 year deal.

Some numbers from promoted players: Arias .994 AA>> .828 AAA (Decent) Gonzales .854 A+> .988 AA (WOW!) Primera: 1.267 FCL>> .957 A- (Nice!) Godbout .851 A-> .902 A+ > .779 AA (Good) Tucker .874 A->.590 A+> 1.387 AA (SSS) Cespedes .786 A+>.527 AA (Ummm...) Winnay .892 A+> .804 AA (Good) M White .886 A+> .667 AA (TBD) Heyman .803 A-> .813 A+ (Good) A Guzman .853 A- >.734 A+ (Okay) Zanetello 1.305 FCL> .810 A+ (good) M Martin 1.142 FCL> .605 A+ (TBD) Andujar 1.214 FCL> .777 A- (TBD) and how about Azocar? .875 A- > .885 A+ > .986 BAL A+

When you add a #2 and #3, you push back your 2 and 3 to 4 and 5, and your 5 and 6 take the place of Harrison and Drohan. No, that's not repackaging either. Before the winter, our depth chart was maybe: 5: Crochet, Houck (IL)> Early, Bello, Crawford, Oviedo Depth: Tolle, Sandoval, Fitts, Dobbins, Harrison, Drohan, Perales, Uberstine/Sikkema/Anderson Did I miss anyone, or am I off somewhere? By the end of winter, some pitcher's ended up on the IL, but it was not known in December/January, and many were expected back by mid season at the earliest, except for Houck. The rotation and depth was supposed to be and was planned as maybe this: 5: Crochet, Suarez, Gray, Bello, Early (for Houck) Depth: Crawford, Oviedo, Tolle, Sandoval, Bennett, Houck by Aug/Sept, Uberstine/Sikkema/Anderson/Burgos/Ziehl Which 6-12 looks better to you, or explain where my presentation went wrong. I am not arguing that Brez was okay not adding a SP'er at the deadline, but only that we started the season with a much better starting 5 and a stronger and deeper 6-12 SP'er depth chart. Too many injuries to depth guys and our ace caused an epic collapse to the chart. We saw it happen before the deadline, and we knew Tolle & Bennett could reach their limits. Instead, Brez took the Fred add bats outlook and failed at that one, too.

I agree that he hasn't shown he has near the same stuff as 2021-2023, and while this is his first real season back from the surgery, his surgery was in June of 2024, I believe. That's over 2 years ago. He did pitch some in 2025 in practice, but kept having setbacks and never pitched an inning of rehab work. I know that doesn't count as the "first year back," but I think the setbacks were not TJS related. Correct me if I'm wrong, and maybe that doesn't matter anyway. I'm probably more wishful thinking than trying to present a case he's ready to bust out, but this staff is running out of options to hope on. Gray is missing a start. Suarez is struggling and cant go over 5 IP. Tolle and Bennett are already over their projected IP limits. Bello cannot be trusted to start a game, and after his last game, might not be trusted to do well after the next "opener" game. We are down to 5. I get the point that Brez is ultimately to blame for this. He shoulda have added a starter at the deadline. I agree. He put all his in-season eggs into the Mead/Rutschman basket, and that has backfired almost as much as the Sale-Grissom trade. To me, I felt he did a very good job upgrading the quality of our rotation and depth. We had 11-12 pitchers that were expected to be pitch in 2026. Those 11-12 were better than the 11-12 from 2024 and 2025, and IMO, the 6-11 pitchers might have looked stronger than any other Sox team I have seen (since 1972.) I find it hard to say he dropped the ball in this context, except he knew we needed someone at the deadline and had very few trading chips left over after the Mead & Rut deals.

I'm not repackaging anything. You mentioned last 12 months of trading away the SP'er depth, and I provided the list of all pitchers traded and added in 12 months. I guess this mean you like Harrison, Drohan and Dobbins better than Gray, Bennett and Suarez, or you view Fitts, Perales, Uberstine and a guy on the IL (Early) as the kind of depth we need right now. Which one is it? Maybe we'd be better in 2026 had we signed Bregman and kept Harrison & Drohan. No Durbin, Suarez, Monasterio & Seigler- maybe not, but that would have "helped" the SP'er depth. To me, the Gray and Bennett trades outweigh all the "depth" we traded away. Maybe down the line, Clarke, Fajardo or Tarvieso will make us sorry we traded them, but none are 2026 depth. I doubt Early comes back, but he could be 2026 depth later on in SEPT, I guess. It sucks we never gave Harrison a real chance and he exploded for MIL, but I like Durbin and still think Suarez will out fWAR Bregman over 5 years.

Big game for Sandoval, who has been back long enough to start showing he can move towards the type of pitcher he was a few years back. Take away his first two season with LAA (both under 40 IP) and his last one in 2024, when he may have been pitching injured, he was a more-than-decent SP'er from 2021-2023. Yes, I know that was a very long time ago, but from 2024 to today, he has been recovering from a major injury and surgery. Let's hope the "rehab" is over, and he starts to become more like this.... 2021-2023 Patrick Sandoval: 122 ERA+ (3.53 ERA was 38th out of 147 pitchers with 250+ IP) 84 ERA- (placed 27 in MLB among pitchers with 350+ IP) 32 out of 104 with 300+ IP and 35 out of 147 with 250+. That's a solid #2 pitcher by just ERA- and FIP. 3.72 FIP (45th/107) 7.5 FWAR in 380 IP (5.7 bWAR) I'm not predicting today or any day will be his revival day, but I do think there is hope he can regain what he once had.

Like you said earlier, Eyanson and Witherspoon were not 2026 depth. Early is still on the IL, so nix him from the 2026 SP'er depth traded away. A look at last winter's moves does show more possible SP'ers traded away than added, but not by much, and the quality comp is a plus for the Sox: Added: Gray Bennett Suarez Oviedo (Sandoval was added the previous winter but essentially for 2026) Paez was lost and gained back via Rule 5 Ziehl is borderline 2026 depth. Subtracted: Harrison (We can count on him as an earlier add, then subtraction- same as Priester in 2024) Drohan Dobbins Fitts (0 IP in 20260 Uberstine (2.2 IP in 2026 3.38 ERA) Perales (3 IP and 21.00 ERA in 2026) Not 2026 SP'er depth: Clarke, Fajardo, Travieso, Aita So, basically you are saying trading away Harrison, Drohan & Dobbins while adding Gray, Bennett, Suarez hurt our SP'er depth and is a reason we are now stuggling?

Many of these sample sizes range from tiny to small, but this is rather remarkable: AUGUST OPS (Team .791) 1.671 Gasper (42 PAs- was demoted then promoted in AUG.) 1.556 Anthony (9- just came off the 60 IL) 1.389 Rogers (9- was DFA'd) 1.284 Jones (25- can't buy more playing time.) 1.259 Story (8- just came of 60 IL) .971 Abreu (126- maybe the first player expected to be top 5ish) .892 Yoshida (50- on IL and likely out until '27) .802 Sogard (113- How can we not start this guy FT?) .789 Duran (103- shutting up the naysayers, myself included) .772 Seigler (44- demoted) 9 of the top 10 are rather surprising- as bench players or players on the IL we thought might not comeback in '26.) ________________________ .726 Durbin (120- in a downturn) .715 Contreras (98- on IL) .712 Rafaela (131- been steady almost all season long) _________________________ .603 Wong (51- reverting back) .578 Monasterio (105- It was nice while it lasted- JULY) .500 Rutschman (59- been a huge letdown) .499 White (33- has 2 arbs left) .331 Narvaez (3- traded away)

Ziehl pitched very well with WOO last night. That doesn't mean he'd have done better, but I do wonder if he was even considered over Paez. (I doubt Holobetz got more than a peep.)

Again, I don't disagree. Brez gambled on his health. Brez gambled he could hit .790+. So far, the .790 looks like a pipe dream. His .500 OPS is 35 points below Narvaez's .535 w BOS! OUCH! Thehre is still a TBD aspect to the trade, but like the Mead deal, it's hard to imagine more horrific starts to the balance sheet.

Agreed, but very few even came close to a "wire to wire" decent 2Bman. The ones that did okay for half or shorter seasons sometimes were not good on D or O. Many teams have used 2B as a mix position, but even the 2018 team saw Nunez start just 70 games at 2B (Holt 44, Kinsler 31 and others 5.) 2017 was the last season we had a decent 2Bman play over 95 games (Pedey.) This pretty much says it all: in the last 9 seasons COMBINED, nobody has even played in more than 151 games at 2B. Only 3 have played over 99. 151 Arroyo (1.6 fWAR) 112 Holt (1.8) 105 Valdez (-0.6) 99 Nunez (-0.9) 94 Story (2.5 came closest to Pedey and the last good half season.) 86 DHam (0.6) 72 Kike (2.1 was also a good near alf season.) 68 Chavis (0.5) 68 Romy (0.9 is not a bad fWAR/Gm) 57 KC (-0.1) 50 Sogard (1.5 is very good fWAR/Gm) 49 Mayer (0.2) 44 Seigler (0.6) 38 Marco (-0.2) 36 Kinsler (0.1) 35 Reyes (-0.2) 34 Marwin (-0.4) 32 Raf (-1.0) 30 Grissom (-0.5) 29 Arauz (-1.0) 25 IKF (0.1) 25 Urias (0.2 on a deadline stab in the dark) 23 Peraza (-0.2) 10-16 gms: Iggy (0.6 is outstanding) -0.3 Westbrook & Yolmer, -0.4 Lin, -0.1 Monasterio & J Turner 16 other players played 1-8 games: 62 games total (-1.0) Basically, we've seen two good alf seasons from Story and Kike (166 gms and 4.6 fWAR) and pretty good play from Arroyo & Holt (263/3.4 WAR) We can cobble together 3-4 other shorter-term 2Bman and come up with a decent season, but overall we've seen 9 seasons of failure after failure. Once Bogey bolted, we could say the same for SS. These two areas seem poised to be much improved, and the depth is actually absurdly deep. 2027>> 2B: Mead, (Story & Sogard,) IKF, Seigler, Monasterio, Romy, (Cheng) Rodgers, Romero SS: Arias, Story, Sogard (IKF, Monasterio) Cheng, Godbout

I think Paez is the 55th player to play for the Sox this year. 25 Batters 30 Pitchers (not counting Monasterio as a picther) We currently have 7 players on the 60 and 5 on smaller ones.

Shoulda added and called up Ziehl.

Perhaps calling Ziehl up over Paez could've been better... 6.2 IP 4 1ER 0BB 4K Romy continues doing well at WOO (2-5 w dinger). Romero woke up and went 4-4. Arias 2-4 w BB Godbout omered in POR's loss. GRE won 13-11 as YRod homered, had two 2Bs and a BB. Schaffner homered (2-6) and others did well. SAL scored 2 in the 10th to win 8-7. Shelar went 2-5

Sox fWAR (OPS) at 2B 2.0 (15th) 2B (.708) .667 from '19-'25

Sox fWAR (OPS) at 2B 2.0 (15th) 2B (.708) It was .667 from '19-'25 7 different 2Bman in 2026 .956 Sogard .760 Romy .747 Seigler .714 Monasterio .564 Mayer and .541 IKF (.500 Mead in 2 PA)

I could see that happening.

No. They musta expected .790+

I don't disagree. I don't think they expected even .701, but that would still have beaten Narv by 150 points. That would be the same us upgrading the .650 Duran with an .800 bat.

Well, we know Paez is no Tolle or Bennett and probably no Eyanson, either.