moonslav59

Our 2B has been so far from perfect, it's pathetic. Of the 24 players that have 30+ PAs at 2B, only 7 have an fWAR at 0.2 or better. 2.5 Story in just 94 games 2.1 Kike in 72 games 1.8 Holt 112 1.6 Arroyo 151 0.5 Iggy in 16 gms & Chavis in 68 0.4 Romy 40 We have had 13 players with -0.2 or worse. 3 were between -0.1 and +0.1

One interesting tidbit on Romy's splits in 2025: .698 v R (104 PAs, almost equal sample size as v R) 1.081 v L (108 PAs) However, he has started 18 games vs RHPs and 28 vs LHPs, and here are the splits on those games started: v R .892 v L .889 Almost identical! Should we try him FT?

I shoulda gone to last night's game- not tonight's!

The Sox are tied for 5th in ERA-. No AL team, ahead of us, has a better ERA-. We are at 88 and HOU is at 94, DET 96 & TOR 105. Rotation: 91 DET 94 BOS 96 NYY 97 HOU 102 SEA 109 TOR Pen: 79 BOS 88 HOU 95 SEA 100 TOR 103 DET 105 NYY If these numbers stay relatively even, our chances look very good. On offense: wRC+ 115 NYY .776 OPS (1st in MLB) 114 TOR .769 OPS (3rd in MLB) 109 SEA .730 (13th) 107 DET .742 (9th) 105 BOS .756 (6th but has Fenway helping) 104 HOU .731 (11th) On paper, our pitching looks the best or top 3, and our batting looks to be near the worst of the top 5-6 teams contending for the AL playoffs, We are 3rd best by OPS in the AL. We rank 3rd in the AL in everyday player fWAR: 25 TOR 24 NYY 20 BOS 19 DET 18 SEA 17 HOU Pitching fWAR, we still look top 3, if we don't count TEX & KCR as contenders: 16 HOU 15 TEX 14 KCR & MIN 13 BOS 11 DET 10 NYY & SEA

I'm talking combined 7+ seasons: 2018 to 2015. Not one player has more than 550 PAs as a 2Bman with the Sox. That highlights the circus merry-go-round we have seen there for way too long.

Agreed, but to have no player with more than 550 PAs at 2B over an 8 year span, is rare, IMO.

I agree with your opinion.

Our history of 2B failure is longstanding and puzzling. DHam does two things most of our past 2Bman did not do well: 2B defense Baserunning Unfortunately, his batting has sucked, except for a moderately long stretch in 2024. Even if used a s a strict platoon 2Bman, his .635 OPS vs RHPs is too lame to sustain that role. He'd have to get better to keep a slot on the 40, and he's running out of time, as the Sox roster crunch will start putting the squeeze on him. Maybe Grissom gets traded before him, but even without Grissom, his days might be numbered. This might blow you away: we are going on year 8, since 2018, and we have no player with more than 550 PAs at 2B, combining years! Here is the list by PAs w OPS at 2B: 544 Arroyo .739 412 Holt .763 396 Story .737 375 Nunez .615 350 EValdez .651 304 Kike .901 (Kike & Story each gave us nice half seasons at 2B. That's bout it) 254 Chavis .711 233 Hamilton .522 227 KC .658 141 Kinsler .598 131 Marco H .584 119 Marwin .511 115 Romy .849 109 Grissom .487 100 Reyes .627 Others: Arauz, Peraza, Urias, Rafaela, Iggy, Sogard (50-99 PAs) 20-49 PAs: Y Sanchez, Westbrook, Lin, Owings, Pedey, Turner, Downs & Mayer 13 others had some time at 2B

I totally get it. I love watching Duran play. He adds a dimension rarely seen by Sox fans. He's not bad on D, either. Maybe we trade Abreu, instead. His 2 more years of control and excellent defense may net a better return, despite his issues vs LHPs. Note: Duran had a lower OPS Against LHPs at the same point in his first few PAs, so I think Wilyer will be a FT OF'er, soon- maybe for another team. It does not look like we will make any of our 4 OF'ers a 1Bman, and it kills me to see our best defensive OF'er playing 2B, so to me, a trade makes the most sense.

It can also get a team a draft pick, if their rookie wins ROY or places top 3 in MVP.

What a great game! I watched it at a friends house, and we are going to tonight's game. If we lose, I may never go to another one, again. I'm the opposite of Thunder magic.

Yoshida and Toro have hit ahead of Abreu several times, recently- not everyday.

I maintain that one of the biggest plusses of our ring year rotations was the lack of major injuries. 2004: All 5 SP'ers had 29-33 starts and 178+ IP. The ERAs were not impressive, but they showed up, every 5th day. 2007: 3 SP'ers had 30-32 GS, Schilling had 24, Tavarez 23 and Lester 12. Again, no really great ERAs and some pretty bad ones, but 6 starters had 152 GS. 2013: 4 SP'ers had 27-33 GS. Buch (16 GS) got hurt and the deadline addition, Peavy got 10 GS. 2018: 3 SP'ers had 27-33 GS, but wow: Sale, Price & Porcello. ERod had 23 and we picked up Nate at the deadline to add 11 more. (Johnson & PomPom had 24, combined.) This year, 4 of our top 7-8 SP'er have missed all or almost all of 2025: Houck, Crawford, Sandoval & Dobbins. We do have 18-24 GS from 4 SP'ers, and 3 have ERAs between 2.48 & 3.77. I think that beats all other ring season top 3 SP'er combined ERAs by the top 3. Dobbins had 11, Houck 9 & Newcomb 5.

Mighta won ROY, had he been called up much earlier.

Don't change a thing, Roman!

In 2024: .728 when swung at 1st pitch (1895 PAs) 31% .746 took 1st pitch (4297 PAs) 69% 2025: .747 when swung (1453) 31% .759 when took (3197) 69%

Opinions not facts.

I think the hope is you need about 3.5 SP'ers for the playoff format, and we may get by with just 3. We gotta get there, first, and that's where we need to cobble together a decent 4-5 combo from Buehler, May, Criswell, Harrison & Fitts. Not all of these 5 will get starts, unless there are injuries or abject failures.

In some ways the May trade was like the Paxton trade: same team, same injury MO, same chances at success (and failure.) Paxton lasted 2+ starts, before renewing what he did best: going on the IL. James did not pitch all that poorly in those 2+ starts, but he failed to give us what we needed. Maybe, this one time, we will get some return on trade. (Luis Garcia and Lucas Sims looked better to me than Matz did, at the time of those trades, but let's hope we do better, this time on this one, too.)

The position player situation is more known. I hesitate to use the word "certain," but we have so many key players locked up for 3+ years, along with depth at several positions. Bregman and Refsnyder are the only one year control guys, but I really think Bregman loves Boston and will return. He's the key, IMO. 1B is open, but to me, it's one of the easier positions to fill, and we still have Casas and maybe Campbell of some converted other position player to step in. Romy looks damn good, too. Yoshida is the next guy w 2 yrs, and that's better he's not 3+. For once, we have the catcher position locked up. Mayer's health is the next big key, as it could finally solve our 2B issue (Mayer or Story at 2B.) Duran 3 years and Story 2-3 years. Romy, Wong & Casas, too Abreu 4 years! DHam, too 5 years Narvaez & Mayer 6 years Rafaela 8 years Campbell 9 Anthony That's a solid 9-10 not counting Bregman or Ref, now Yoshida & Toro. Arias, Garcia, Gonzales, Taylor & Soto look very promising. That's not the same as 20 pitchers, but the MLB core looks stronger and has longer control. There is also Romero, Bleis, Cespedes, Azocar & Gadbout, plus more about to jump the rankings. I'm very pleased.

Maybe. We'll never know. I used to wonder what might have happened if we called up Lynn & Rice earlier. Anthony and Mayer looked ready, day one. KC was debatable, but it's hard to get these things right, and just because a player does very well or badly, doesn't mean it was the right or wrong call- it could just be luck.

The hindsight crowd is gonna love this thread.

Too bad you don't get it.

IMO, all 3 should have started day one, even if we had to make winter trades to allow for it. After a couple weeks, Brez looked like a genius, then the wheels came off the KC wagon. It's not an exact science. There is an element of a dice roll in many choices mades, including the Sale trade. Brez rolled the dice that Sale would do what he did for 5 straight years, but he is apparently an idiot for not knowing Sale was about to about face. I'm not one to put much into ST'ing numbers. Duran and Abreu had lower ST numbers than KC, so there is that. I'm not gonna roast Brez for giving KC a look. He doesn't deserve a trophy for it, but I'm glad to see our GM trying some new stuff, including the novel idea of trying to build pitchers from your own system! Wowza!