moonslav59

DHam cranked one, tonight, with Woo. Call him back up!!!

I've said they are better on defense but have been playing about average, this year. We lead MLB in unearned runs allowed. That can't make us above avg in the play on the field.

Dinger time with Woo. 5 homers: KC, Jh Garcia, DHam, Eaton & Thompson. Password is up to .941.

330 pitchers have pitched 40+ IP, this year (11 per team) Here are the ERA- rankings for MLB: 1. Chapman 28 32. Crochet 58 55. Whitlock 65 58. Weissert 67 85. Bernardino 73 104. Bello 77 160, Giolito 89 190. Dobbins 97 251. Fitts 114 288. Buehler 128 330. Houck 189 We have the best and the worst! ________________________________ SP rankings 50+ IP (150 pitchers or 5 per 30 teams) 10. Crochet (a solid #1) 39. Bello (upper end #2) 63. Giolito (upper end #3) 87. Dobbins (lower end #3) 131. Buehler (mid #5) 150. Houck (bottom #5) ______________________ Out of 90 SP'ers with 100+ IP: 6. Crochet 23. Bello 37. Giolito 84. Buehler

The Sox are 6th in team OPS, just .001 behind the Cubs. They have done this with no qualified batter in the top 42. (Abreu is 43rd at .814.) This is a sign of a balanced offense and a lot of players with not enough PAs to qualify doing very well. When you lower the PA limit to 150 PAs and a sample size of 350 batter (about 11 per team) here are our rankings: 10 Bregman .921 15 Romy .893 35. Anthony .840 47. Refsnyder .827 63. Abreu .814 87. Duran .787 139. Narvaez .737 145. Rafaela .736 164. Story .720 (9 above the halfway cutoff and 2 below) 227. Toro .689 253. Campbell .664

POR won to get to 2 games below .500. Holobetz, a Devers trade piece, went 6.2 IP, 4H, 2ER, 1BB, 4K (4.26) Cruz went 2.1, 0H, 0ER, 3BB, 3K. POR scored 3 runs on 4 hits & 5BB. SAL won the suspended game as Tygart went 2.2 nice IP. Gonzales ended up with the 3 hits he had before the game stopped. Yuten & Cespedes had 2, each. DSL Red won 10-0. (Montero & Perez pitched well.) DSL Blue won 7-0. 3 more games just getting started: Woo, Por and Gre.

Here are the run totals of all the series we lost: 11-13 (lost 3 of 4 to TEX) Kinda bad luck 6-17 (lost 3 of 4 to TOR) 16-15 (lost 2 of 3 to SEA) Outscored them 18-13 (lost 2 of 3 to TOR) Two series in a row outscored them. 13-10 (lost 2 of 3 to MIN) 3 in a row! ---3 game totals: 47-38 but went 3-6.--- 16-30 (swept by DET 3-0) 13-20 (lost 2 of 3 to ATL) 8-14 (lost all 3 to MIL) 20-20 (lost 2 of 3 to LAA) 14-17 (lost 2 of 3 to SFG) 9-17 (sept by LAA in 3.) 18-15 (lost 2 of 3 to TOR) 7-11 (lost 2 of 3 to CHC) 12-15 (lost 2 of 3 to PHI) 16-13 (lost 2 of 3 to SDP) 21-12 (lost 2 of 3 to HOU) Two in a row and the largest run diff in series loss. Of the 16 series lost, we outscored our opps in 6 of them and tied in another. Split series: 27-17 (2-2 w BAL) 22-18 (2-2 w CWS) The Rays outscored the Sox 20-8, but we took 2 of 3. SEA outscored us 9-5 and lost 2 of 3. We tied the NYM 6-6 and took 2 of 3- same w LAD 10-10 and we won 2 of 3. Looks very unbalanced, to me.

I took it as sarcasm, but don't call me Surely.

They have a better chance at making the playoffs, because they are neck and neck with HOU for the Div win. That increases their odds of winning the WS, too. They also improved themselves at the deadline by much more than we did... on paper, and that's all this is: paper.

That's Greek, to me!

They should have named him the Greek God of Walks.

I wish we did better than M & M at the deadline, especially if it was a move for a longer controlled player, like Ryan or maybe Keller, but we don't know what was needed in return. I think Brez made a lot of moves, this past winter, with the idea or plan that little would be done at the deadline, when prices are usually grossly exaggerated. Like it or not, I think that was a specific strategy. They value their top prospects highly. They value their young and controlled 26 and 40 man roster players highly. Perhaps they place too much value, but I do think we could have worked to better balance the roster. In a gross overpay period of time, we could have had someone grossly overpay for one of our OF'er than just break even vy grossly overpaying for a pitcher, 1Bman and or 2Bman. We end up with the same talent and team control as before, but with no or fewer bottlenecks. It's easy to say this in theory, but I'm not going to bash Brez over not making this become a reality. I wish he did more, but I'm thrilled with what he did, last winter, so I'm happy with out chances, this season and probably happier about the future than if we had traded away Campbell, Arias, Jh Garcia or whoever for a rental.

We have to start spreading out the offense. We bunch it up, too much and then go lean for whole games. This is not a skill set or something that can be coached or changed, as far as I know. I think we have to just hope the random nature of baseball will create a more spread out run production over the last 1/4 of the season. What can be done by Cora or Brez? "Tell the players to be more consistent and timely with their hitting." LOL!

I did. I understood your point, fully. And, why jump around in your stats/metrics of choice. Were you correct in saying... They aren't top 3 in many metrics I could find. Even if we go by the full AL: 3rd in everyday player fWAR 3rd in OPS (T4th in wRC+ is close enough to look at fWAR, OPS and wRC+ and say top 3 combined.) 2nd DRS (4th OAA) call it 3rd. I can mishmash pitching metrics, too: 2nd in RP fWAR (1st ERA-) 4th in SP ERA- (pretty dam close to 3rd. If you go by top 3 SP'ers as I mentioned, I think we are top 3 in the AL.)

2024 to2025: Defense: OAA: -17> projected +4 49 DRS> projected 47 Everyday Players: 21.3 fWAR> projected 25.3 (wRC+ the same at 105, but OPS up 14 points as the league avg has fallen.) Offense 41>41 Baserunning: 4.5>6.6 Pitching: 15.4 fWAR> projected 17.2

You don't think we improved on defense?

Try reading my words. I said "top 3 out of the 6-8 contenders." According to fangraphs, we are: 3rd in all AL in fWAR for everyday players. Funny how you use fWAR for pitch9ing but wRC+ for everyday players. We are also 3rd in AL OPs, and yes, tied for 4th in wRC+. (Ooooo, missed by 1 slot.) 5th in fWAR pitching, but behind 3 teams that are NOT CONTENDERS! We are 3rd in the AL in ERA- (a valid metric, and we'd be 1st, if you dont count TEX & KCR as contenders) 4th in SP ERA-, but 2nd if no TEX & KCR. 1st in RP ERA- in all of AL. Yes, T2nd in fWAR oen, but once again, MIN is NOT a contender. I said among contenders. Yes, 8th in SP fWAR in AL, but 6th among contenders. Again, among the contenders we are top 3 in everyday players, rotation and pen. We are about avg on D, Why not call me out on this one? We are T2nd in AL DRS (your fave D metric)- behind the team you suggested was about to "get hot," Texas. I was wrong there, but on the low side. Of course, on could argue TEX and KCR are still contenders, and that has merit, but I did write, "the top 6-8 contenders," which leaves out 1-2 teams from CLE, TEX & KC. For the king nitpicker, you miss a lot.

You crack me up, and the funniest part is, you're not even trying to.

Well, the conversation was about the Sox making a "tweak" and it improving his production. While improving from horrific to just plain bad might not earn a ML rotation slot, it is still an improvement. Nobody said 9 BBs in 15 IP was worthy of praise.

It was the best Sox trade since Sale, and might end up being better than that one.

The remaining schedule looks easier than the last few weeks looked, but nothing can be taken for granted. We also play several teams in contention, so those head-to-head games create double whammy effects for the winning team. Game remaining: (current record vs team) 7 NYY (5-1) 6 BAL (4-3) 6 ATH (n/a) 3 TOR (3-7) & TBR (8-2) 3 DET (0-3), ARI (n/a) & CLE (2-1) 3 MIA (n/a), PIT (n/a) If we can go 4-3 v NYY, 7-5 v BAL & ATH, 3-3 v TOR & TBR, 5-4 v DET, AZ & CLE and 4-2 v PIT & MIA, we should make the dance. We need to take these games one at a time, of course.

As much as we thought Meidroth could have been our 1B solution (and 3B when Bregman was out,) he's just batting .650, now. He has just 15 XBHs in 350 PAs. Teel could end up being a great catcher, but so many top catching prospects have floundered. To me, Montgomery will end up being the prize of the trade for the CWS, someday. Who know who we might have been able to sub out for Teel and or Meidroth. Maybe they did not want Mayer or Abreu/Duran. I'm glad they did not insist on Anthony.

It's not a great result, but has he improved over his first 2 starts?

We've certainly improved in many areas over last year, and despite losing Devers via trade, it looks like we are a better team now than at the start of 2025. Gio, Bello, Chapman, Anthony, Narvaez and others have exceeded expectations. Our D looks better in theory, but has not always shown it on the field. That is one area we can do better over the last 25% of the season. Our pen has been way better than anyone expected. Just keeping pace would be great. Our top 3 rotation guys have saved the season and need to keep doing well. The 4-5 slots have been a struggle, and injuries have caused us to cycle through a few arms. I'm not expecting greatness, but if just one guy steps up, he could be the difference-maker. The offense has been fine, except for too much bunching up on production in just a few games, and then having too many near do-nothing games. More consistency is needed, but it's not really a skill set, so it's hard to know how to improve upon this weakness. In the AL, among the top 6-8 contenders, I think we have a... top 3 rotation top 3 pen top 3 offense average defense better than average base running That should make us a top 3-4 team with a chance to be top 2, if we put it all together. I doubt we fall to 7 or 8th, but our history has not been kind over the last 40 games in recent years. This team has enough new faces to believe things will be better, this year.

We also started the year with rookies Narvaez, who ended up wining the FT catcher role before Mayer and Anthony were even called up. We also saw Dobbins win a rotation slot, before going on the IL. That's 6 rookies who all look like keepers, to me. The one wo got the first shot, Campbell, might have the least shot at winning a FT role, right now. (Fitts is also a rookie, and he showed a little promise before being demoted.)