moonslav59

BAL canned their manager, today. A lot of teams ahead of us lost, today, so the win was very helpful. We are 2 down in the WC race, with 2 teams to leapfrog for a slot. That's pretty telling, when you consider how badly we have played. The AL final WC slot is just about anybody's, except maybe the CWS, with BAL trying hard to fall out of contention, early. The NL had 4 teams 7 or more games back from the final WC slot.

I never got any sense of his selfishness, until this year. He's kinda been a quiet, calm and happy-go-lucky kinda guy, to me. I'm not happy with what has happened this year, but I don't usually make harsh judgments about someone over a couple incidents.

Finally, a nice win. Good to see that enormous Devers' smile.

Assuming teams continue playing like they have over a 42-44 game sample size, yes. No argument on that.

No doubt, and rarely a DP on a K, too.

This roster is significantly different from last year's, so I'm not sure I'd count that. all that much.

Anthony and Mayer both had 2 hits, while Hickey was walked all 4 ABs. Jh Garcia homered for POR (.779.) All Sox minor league teams lost or are losing.

I'm curious as to how many balls put into play for outs actually advance runners. Then, how many times that advancement led to a run being scored. It surely happens, but perhaps it's not as often as we think.

You can have a pitcher get a win by allowing 10 runs in 1 IP. But, hey, you are right.

I'm still not sold that the Yanks are for real, but they have played well, so far, and look way better than the rest of the division, so far.

Armchair psychoanalysis of people you don't even know is bound to miss the mark. Downplaying team wins in favor of pitching wins is short-sighted and just plain wrong. Who is downplaying saves? Some are pointing out the arbitrariness of the rules that establish what a save is, but everyone knows keeping late leads is an extremely essential part of what makes a team good or great. So are SP'ers who put their team in a position to win more often than not.

To make as many plays as humanly possible, and the biggest plus is to make plays nobody else can make or that most don't make- same as a batter tries to hit better than the opps do, and pitchers try to pitch better than the opps do, so your team has a better chance at winnings. Making less errors is important, and that is factored into fielding metrics, too. There is no way you can ever convince me that Jeter, making 20 less errors than a guy who made 140 more plays in less innings, is the better defender. Jeter beat most other fielders by 2-3% in flg %, but made 10-20% less plays than almost every other SS with a large sample size. To me, it's not even close. I used to play 2B, next to a guy who was a magician on defense at SS. I saw first hand, how superb plays make a huge difference in games. He may have made an equal share of errors, but he was a tremendous difference make on our team.

I agree. I was asking how we can call up Anthony and Mayer to play FT and still play Rafaela FT. I suggested one option that kinda makes the point, we cannot do it.

True, and others aren't helping either. Our two week leader in PAs is Duran, and he's hitting at a .568 OPS. KC is 6th in PA and at .276, which is barely a good BA, Story is 7th and at .367. Those two OPS are terrible, but the sample size is 10-12 games. Last 28 days (listed by most PAs) .749 Duran (not bad) .994 Devers (had a hot streak) 1.015 Bregman (da man) .405 Story (trying hard to get Mayer promoted) .884 Abreu (steady) .606 Campbell (working himself out of ROY consideration) .741 Rafaela (keeping Anthony in AAA) .865 Narvaez (keeping Wong the #2 catcher) .777 DHam (making a case to stay on the 26)

I'm confused about the whole service time thing. It seems we are way past the the days needed to cross the line. Is this quote outdated? In Major League Baseball, a player gains a year of service time by being on the Major League roster or injured list for at least 172 days of a typical 187-day season. To gain an extra year of service time, a player must be on the roster for less than 172 days in a given season. Teams can potentially gain an extra year of control over a player by strategically delaying their call-up to the Major League roster for 16 or more days at the beginning of the season.

Thanks in part to the Sox, the Tigers are looking better than all other AL teams at 30-15. I'm doubting they can play to that level, all year, but they do have some exciting players and a true ace. The Yanks, M's, Guardians, Twins and Royals make up the rest of the current playoff slot holders with the Royals at 25-21. That's one game better than HOU and TEX. It's strange to see just one ALE team in the top 9, as the A's are #9, right now at 22-23. The Sox, Jays and Rays are bunched up at #10, #10 and #11: -3 BOS 22-24 and TOR 21-23 -4 TBR 20-24 As bad as we have looked, minus three is a gift from so many other teams not playing great baseball. It's hard to be optimistic at a time like this. Losing 4 in a row is hard to spin into anything hopeful. It doesn't make it any easier to see we have a plau 13 run differential, and in fact, I think it makes it even harder to swallow. This sucks, and there is no doubting that. The good thing about baseball is that the season is 162 games long, and we have 116 left to play and more days off coming than just about everyone else. We need to get Buehler and Fitts back and pitching well. Maybe it will help by moving a SP'er or two to the pen. Maybe not. Our D has looked a little better, but we keep making dumb errors. We are still making our share of dumb base running errors, too. One day, the starter looks good and the pen implodes, then the reverse. One day our bats look great, then kaput. We can't seem to get it all working, at the same time, for any extended stretch. I can see why fans are throwing blame at Cora, and the roster construction issue has remained at or near front and center since the Mookie trade. Games are not won on paper, but I still look at our players and those on other teams, and I think we should be a top 6 team in the AL.

You think how errors are subjectively called is accuracy? You think only errors and Flg % matter? There is very little in baseball philosophy I disagree with more. To me, range matters way more, and simple basic numbers support my position. Let's take 2009-2010: Jeter was third in Flg% at .982- just .004 from #1. He played SS for 1260 innings. 13 other SSs played within 100 or so innings as he did. Here are the amount of plays each made: 689 Tejada 21 Errors 686 OCab 25 E 668 Y Escobar (less innings than Jeter) 13 E 648 Tulo 9 E 630 A Ramirez 20 E 617 Theriot 15 E 618 E Aybar (less innings) 11 E 616 Furcal 20 E 611 Scutaro 10 E 601 Rollins 6 E 570 HanRam 10 E 552 Betancourt (100 less innings) 18 E 546 Jeter 8 ERRORS! Yup, he's the best! There are serious flaws in this argument, I know, just as there is with any single measurement or metric, but seriously: Jeter made between 1- 20 less errors than everyone on this list, but he also made way fewer plays than everyone, and the differentials were staggering with some others 140 less plays than the leader! 20 less errors trumps 140 more plays? This is absurd! He made 120 less plays than a guy who played less innings than him! Making plays is what defense is about. Jeter made 98% of the ones he got to, which was 2-3% better than most others. Y Escobar made 20% more plays in less innings! These are not metrics or anything fancy. It's plays made and erros. That's as basic as defense ratings gets.

How? Mayer at SS, Rafaela at 2B, Campbell at 1B, Anthony in LF and Duran in CF? Bench: Story, Ref/Abreu platoon, Wong and DHam (To AAA: Sogard.) I thought I was the master position shuffler. You got me beat.

That is a sign, too. Correct. You seemingly enjoy being here more when we lose. That's true, too, right?

I do feel we have a window, for at least as long as Crochet is here, so the way some people seem to feel, the time will never be right to call up Mayer or Anthony, unless we are 15 GB or we have a major injury at middle IF or the OF. "We can't afford to ride through the adjustments and struggles they will likely face." We have been riding through the struggles of Rafaela, Wong, Casas and vets for years. These three seem better suited for success, to me. We just had a major injury and slot opening. It's not one that Anthony or Mayer play, but we can shuffle and make room. I'm all for doing it, knowing fully well, whoever we call up may not work out. This isn't just throwing things at a wall. Anthony and Mayer are projected by many experts to be very good and maybe great players, someday. To me, the wait should be over. We have a way to call up Mayer, now. The Anthony promotion is more complex and problematic, so his call-up could wait a little longer. I really like Rafaela, and he's not the reason we are losing: I get that, but Anthony has an enormous ceiling, especially on offense over Rafaela and maybe even Duran. He also has shown he can hit lefties better than Abreu did on the farm.

Unless someone gets hurt or traded, when is the right time? There will be 4+ established OF'ers and 4+ established IF'ers. Only Bregman is not under strict team control beyond 2025. Are you waiting for someone to suck, so badly, he gets yanked? Is it about how long the leashes are on Story and maybe Rafaela? Are you expecting them to lose their jobs? Then, you are adding Yoshida onto your should play list. Do you demote Campbell to make that happen?

You know things are going badly for the Sox, when MADSTORK shows up, and Red's posts quadruple in number.

Who, me? No. Saying 3 prospects can be called up at the same time, as an example, is not saying these three are or will be as good.

If he's not better than Mayer or Anthony, it doesn't matter. Hell, he may end up being a DH platoon with Refsnyder, but only if we can get Devers to pick up a 1Bman's mitt. He should not play the OF, despite the hold up being his throwing arm. He's not better than Duran, Rafaela, Abreu/Refsnyder, and IMO, I'd bet on Anthony being better. (Even Campbell in CF is a better option.) I guess we trade him for pennies on the dollar or just DFA him, if nobody wants him at $1M-5M a year. You'd play him over who I just mentioned?

I don't see how waiting and staggering the kids matters, when we have a guy like Sogard playing FT. Yoshida is a huge dice roll. I'm glad they didn't stagger Lynn, Rice & Cooper.