moonslav59

Great post. I started having serious doubts about JH being all in, ever again, but I think he sees a pretty wide open window, right now. We have a healthy mix of kids & vets. We have many key players under control for a long time, and those that are not seem like they can be replaced without a need to spend more money than the cost, now. The Sp'er depth behind Crochet is about as deep as I have ever seen since I started following the Sox in the early 70's. We may not have the best 3 or 4 or even 5 in the past 50 years, but they look pretty good. I mentioned the lack of spending on SP'ing and notin pointed out the lack of trades for top ones overlapped the low spending. The Crochet trade and extension is the centerpiece of the turnaround, but it is not the whole story. The Gio signing was the biggest contract handed out to a SP'er by the Sox, since the Sale extension and Nate re-signing in 2019. While he may not turn out to be a plus, it was a significant investment marker. The Buehler $21M AAV was the biggest since Sale (until Crochet's topped it.) The trades for Fitts, Priester and Sandlin were further signs of a renewed focus on obtaining young pitchers to make up for the lack of them in our farm system. The Criswell, Fulmer, Slaten, Weissert, I Campbell and other moves shows the desire to deepen the depth of the rotation and pen. Some of the names on the list I am about to show are longshots, and some will not make it as plus pitchers for the big club. Some may argue having a deep quantity of mediocrity is not a winning strategy, but I will argue that mediocrity in depth is better than crappy depth, and we look pretty good, in terms of quality with out top 6-8 SP'ers and 4-5 RP'ers. SP: Crochet, Houck, Buehler, Bello, Giolito, Crawford ML Ready: Fitts, Newcomb, Priester, Criswell, Fulmer, Winckowski, Dobbins, Drohan, Stock Prospects: Perales, Valera, Sandlin, Early, Tolle, Paez, Clarke, D Reyes, Cason, Wehunt, Monegro, Aita,, Mullins, Delzine, Tygart, Ingrassia RP: Chapman, Whitlock, Slaten, Hendriks, Wilson Bernardino, Kelly, Weissert, (SP'ers from above) Guerrero, I Campbell, Penrod 2nd tier: Mata, Moore, Harris, Adanes, Burdi, Adams, de Leon Prospects: Fajardo, Y Cruz, Hoppe, Olds (SP'ers)

Dobbins promoted as the 27th man in today's day-night doubleheader.

Jh Garcia continued the BB brigade (1-3 w 2 BB.) Ravelo went 2-5. Sandlin got the win (5IP , 3H, 2ER, 3BB, 3K.) SAL won 4-2, as Arias stayed hot, going 3-4. Cespedes and Encarnacion both went 2-4. Tygardt & Ehrlicher split the first 5 innings, allowing just 1 H and 0 ER (3BB/6K) Sansone finished the game, going 3.1 with 1 ER allowed. WOO lost 10-6. Fulmer K'd 8 of the 10 outs he got but walked 3. A Grissom error added 2 UNER to the 2 ERs he allowed. Webb got drilled. Mayer went 2-5 and Eaton homered (2-3 w BB.) GRE scored 2 in the 1st off 4 hits, then were no hit the rest of the game in a 3-2 loss. Valrea went 3.2 w 3H, 2ER, 3BB and 7Ks. Ingrassia went 4.1, 2H, 1ER, 0BB & 8Ks, for an excellent day. The staff K'd 17 batters.

He failed with his biggest bat additions, so the risk of failing on signing bigger FA pitchers doesn't really help his case. Jansen, Martin, Wacha, Whitlock and Wink is about it for pitching- the last two were by trade or Rule 5. I'm not so sure it was a lack of guts, but it could have been. I think the upper brass did not want him trading any top prospects for anybody. In 4 years, the highest prospect traded was #9 Aldo Ramirez for Schwarber- another DH type, and to boot, just 2 months of control. I agree, that trading for pitching is the best method, and when all you draft and sign as IFAs are everyday players, then trading some for pitching should have happened more often with Bloom. We agree on that. It's not like he spent nothing on pitching: he spent more on Jansen than any 2 SP'ers combined. He spent more on Jansen, Martin and the Barnes extension than all his top SP'er signings, combined: 10 Richards, 10 Kluber, 10 Paxton, 7 Wacha, 6 Perez I, 5 Perez II & Hill. The money spent on bats, not even counting the Devers extension blew the money spent on SP'ers away, and yes, the lack of any major trade for an ace doomed us to last place for too many seasons.

Fansided says likely 7 pm start time.

Tiny Sample Size on WOO OPS leaders: 1.029 Anthony .825 Grissom .810 Eaton .776 Mayer .703 Sabol OPS Against (3+ IP): .000 Guerrero (3 IP) .243 Drohan (6.0) .380 Stock (8.1) .385 Fulmer (4.0) .722 Priester (4.0) .820 Mata (3.2)

No doubt. The Rice injury was huge. To me, the pitching staff was too overmatched by later teams to make it the very best of the best. Back in '75, the road to the WS championship was very difficult. The A's were still a great team (98 wins.) However, there were only 2 teams to beat. Taking the 108 win Reds to 7 was amazing without Rice. The 2004 team had to beat the 92 win Angels (swept them), the 101 win Yankees (4-3) maybe as good a team as the '75 A's and then a 105 win Cards team, who we swept. The 2007 team swept a 94 win Angels team, then beat a 96 win Indians team in 7 before sweeping the hottest team in perhaps MLB history- the Rockies. The 2018 team started off beating the 101 win Yankees 3 games to 1, then beat a 103 win Astros team that was near the start of a long stretch of AL dominance, 4 games to 1. The 2018 Dodgers (92-71) fell easily to the Sox in the WS 4 to 1 games. All 4 teams were great.

The mistake was not Turner. We needed corner IF depth, but with the ideA that Yoshida was a LF'er not a DH. I do agree with your point, although not known at the time. We signed 2 players better suited to DH. (Even then, Devers was better suited for DH, as well- Casas, too.)

We have the ESPN game on Sunday Night, so likely a day-night doubleheader. Pallante will be the 8th RH'd SP'er we have faced, this season. Mikolas, tomorrow night will make it 9 out of 10 games.

Drohan tossed a one hitter over 4 IP, as WOO won 7-1. Mata K'd 6 of his 8 outs, but walked 2 and allowed 4 hits in 2.2 IP. Grissom went 2-5. Mayer K'd 3 times but got on base 2 of 5 PAs. Anthony 1-4 w BB POR won 14-3. Uberstine was shaky. Romero homered while going 2 for 4. but he also made 2 errors. Jh Garcia walked 3 times (1-3) and Ferguson went 3-4 w 2 BB GRE won 9-3 as Mullins pitched 4 shut out innings. Taylor homered while going 2-4 with a BB. Brannon went 3-5 and Zanetello walked 3 times and going 1 for 2. SAL completed the complete Sox system undefeated day winning 12-1. Aita did not allow a hit and walked just 1 in 5 IP. Arias went 3-5, Encarnacion 3-5 w HR and Musett & Anderson had 2 hits. SAL had 12 hits and 6 walks. Clean sweep!

I'd say that '75 team had the best everyday line-up I've seen. While Tiant, Lee & Wise were a very nice top 3 SP'er core, none were under a 3.95 ERA, that year. Roger Moret has an amazing season, but Reggie Cleveland and Dick Pole helped to knock them down in my rankings. The pen was far from a top Sox pen over the last 50 years or so. Dick Drago (15 svs), Willoughby (8), Seguie (6) and Jim Burton. In my heart, they will always be #1. My brain says 2018, 2004 and 2007 were better.

We haven't even got through the rotation twice, and 3-4 of our expected rotation pitchers are on the IL: Bello, Gio, Crawford & Sandoval. I'm not defending the results: they are worrisome, but to me, our rotation consists of our depth chart #1, #2, #3/4, #8 and #9. (Newcomb had jumped in the chart over Fitts , Criswell & Priester, and might have been #1.1 or 12 at the start of ST'ing.) I'm cutting the rotation a lot of slack as I await the return of pitchers on the IL. My depth list: 1. Crochet 2. Houck (may drop with continued struggles) 3./4. Bello (IL) & Buehler 5. Dandoval (60 Day IL) 6. Giolito 7. Crawford 8. Fitts 9. Newcomb 10. Criswell 11. Priester 12. Fulmer 13. Drohan or Dobbins?

Youk held the bat almost horizontally over he head.

I'm liking how Narvaez has looked at the plate over a very small and early sample size. I was worried about his decent minor league OBP transfering over to the bigs, but so far, he seems to be working the count, very well. I hope he keeps it up. In other early numbers, Wong is placed very highly on the fangraphs defense page.

Chump change when compared to their risky deals of late.

Here is how many times each batting slot got on base, today: 1: 2 times (Duran) w SB 2: 4 times (Devers) brought OPS up to 5.24 3: 3 times (Bregman) w 2B 4: 2 times (Casas) w 2B 5: 2 times (Story) w HR & 3 RBI 6: 3 times (Abreu) w HR 7: 3 times (Campbell)w SF, SB and 3 runs scored 8: 4 times (Narvaez) w 2B & 2 RBI 9: 2 times (Rafaela)

Pretty amazing how Devers is the only everyday starter from the 2021 team still on the 26 man roster. Duran and Wong played some, but were not starters. Houck pitched in 18 games, starting 13, and of course Whitlock had a very nice season in '21. Kutter got in one game. That's it: 6 players with 3 of them later season players.

I'm doubting Story can ever have a season like he had (several) with COL, but I'll take near GG defense at SS and maybe a .775 OPS. (I'd be fine with .725, but I also think he could go over .800.)

I want a name: who was he poster going on and on about us needing a lockdown closer? 😜

Top 3 OPS in MLB, as of right now... 1.691 Abreu 1.603 Judge 1.308 Campbell It's interesting to see Nolan Arenado at 1.062.

Batting.... First 7 games: 75 Ks and 5 BB Today, so far: 2 Ks and 5 BB

Good to see Storyland's genre changing from "Horror" stories and "Fantasy" towards a "Thriller."

I see those articles, all the time on social media. I stopped clicking on the clickbait.

The only "good" he did with farm pitching was NOT trading Houck, Bello & Crawford. Adding Whitlock & Wink was nice, too, but in 4 years, geeesh!

Jansen & Martin were "good gets," too. Wink has been okay. Robles did well after the summer trade, but the next season, not good.