moonslav59

MLB.com ranks the Sox staff 7th best (3rd in the AL behind SEA & DET.) https://www.mlb.com/news/ranking-best-mlb-pitching-staffs-in-2025

Yes, it's a 10 day IL, now, for everyday players, but 15 days for pitchers. My bad.

Hard to believe almost everything you read, these days.

I'm just not sure early struggles are all a result of lack of confidence. It could be, but it's hard to know.

Assigning "blame" for what he said is not what I'd do, but I can see how others might. It was pretty tame. He never threatened to sit out. I heard his words in Spanish, and I know Spanish. I did not take what he said the way many did. It's they way some cultures talk. "I'm the 3Bman." was not a lie.

If Devers is on the IL, no, but with Devers at DH and Abreu on the IL, this very well could come true. I certainly see Ref in LF vs LHPs, no matter what else happens, as long as DH is filled by Devers. It's not ideal, but with no Abreu, I'd rather go with them than Thompson. Anthony is another case, altogether. I'm fine with him as our starting RF'er day 1, but I'm not sure Brez & Co. agree.

When did I say any of the 3 were not ready? I said I think we may very well decide to keep all 3 off the 40 on opening day. I don't make the choices.

That's what I've been saying for months. When Abreu is healthy, it could be Abreu-Rafaela in a RF platoon, with Rafaela playing CF v RHPs. Duran plays CF v LHPs, and Resnyder plays LF vs lefties.

I may be one of the few who is okay with DHam's defense at 2B, and with his speed, he's fine on offense vs RHPs, only. I'm not sold on Romy's improvement being for real, but he's so-so on defense and has shown he can hit lefties, really well- something we need. I wish we had better, but starting the season with a DHam-Romy 2B platoon should be okay. In 2024, these two had these splits: .729 DHam v R (+3 OAA on D at 2B) .879 Romy v L (-3 OAA on D at 2B)

Yup, and a few people, especially the media ran with it. One even suggested we trade him.

They are not on the 40, but they can be added and called up as quickly as anyone on the 40 and at AAA. I agree that Campbell and Mayer are "not likely" going to make the 40 (and 26) on opening day. I doubt Anthony does, even if Abreu is on the 10 day I, but I still see all 3 as ML ready depth, where management would not hesitate to add and activate them, if they felt they were a much better option than Grissom or Thompson, if those two were needed in a near FT capacity. As long as DHam-Romy are healthy, Grissom will not be needed near FT. (Nor will Campbell & Mayer, unless Story gets hurt.) Anthony can be kept down, while we play Ref & Yoshida in LF as a platoon, if needed.

I like the depth trio of Fitts, Priester & Criswell. We'll soon find out, if my opinion was a good one, or not. So far, none of the 3 starters out to start the season look lost for 60 days or more. Some might be just for 10-20 days.

He has not pitched much, at the big level, so maybe this is not really a known weakness. I nice first start or two might be all he needs.

He's so bad on D, that DH'ing him 10-15 games a year could be all the "rest" he needs. The problem is, who plays 1B, when he does not? I had hoped it might be Devers- someday, but that has not seemed to be an idea anyone in the Sox organization holds as even an option. That leaves Romy, Wong or longshot Refsnyder. That's a major step down and assumes Devers moves from DH to 3B on those days, if not 1B. Cora did play Duran 160 games for 735 PAs in 2024.

We won't get anything very good for Grissom, so I think maybe waiting, in hope he can build up his stock may be the best call. He may have to do it at AAA. Even with Bregman playing 3B FT, I have Grissom 5th on the 2B depth chart: Campbell Mayer or Story (whoever is not at SS) DHam-Romy platoon Grissom (Maybe he can beat our Romy for a platoon role with DHam, but Romy plays better D and can play SS, 1B and 3B.) If we come up to a 40 man roster crunch, maybe we'll need to trade Grissom.

The Kids Are Allright.

Yes, great elbow extension!

People keep pointing to the loss of O'Neall but neglect to mention others lost: .847 O'Neall (473 PAs) .706 D Smith (278) .633 E Valdez (223) Just Smith + Valdez= more PAs than O'Neill. .575 McGuire (158), .623 Jansen (96), .410 Dalbec (93), .455 Cooper (75). .451 Reyes (64), .584 Westbrook (48) & Gasper .217 (23) All these guys total more PAs than O'Neal. We are losing almost 1500 PAs from players no longer on the Sox. Who gets those PAs is key. You gotta figure Narvaez might get 200-250, and he may hit as badly as McGuire & Jansen, combined. Casas could get 400 more. Bregman might get 600. That leaves 250 or so for Story, the kids or maybe more from DHam, Romy, Yoshi or others. According to fangraphs, the Sox offense ranked in the AL: 5th in Off fWAR at 30.7 (11th on D at -40.5) 5th in wRC+ at 104 T3rd in wOBA at .321 3rd in OPS at .741 I think our offense improved, while NYY's got worse. HOU's got worse. Did BAL get better? They did lose Santander, but all we hear is that they added O'Neall.

I guess we will find out just how good our rotation depth is.

He did not start in 11 of those games, and some were late inning entries. He also did not finish 11 games he started. If he bats 3rd for 160 games, he'll easily reach 650. Last year, our 3 slot had 727 PAs. I don't see it as high pacing. It might be wishful thinking on his health.

Agreed. In terms of good deals vs bad deals, not counting scrub signings, I think he might be near 50%. It's just the bad were really bad and more hurtful. Bad: Sale & Gio Good: O"Neal & Slaten (Criswell & Romy could be viewed as a scrub signings that worked- maybe 2 out of 10 or 15.) TBD: Fitts & Weissert, Sandlin, I Campbell.

I think our 7-9 SP'er depth might be more promising than almost all other teams. Let's roll with it. Fitts, Priester & Criswell Hopefully, we won't need 2 at any given time, but if Gio, Crawford and Bello start the season on the IL or bench, we might see it happen,

There is something to be said to have 2 of your highest OBP guys up 1-2 and your big RBI guy up 4th. It's hard to pinpoint who our best OBP guys are, since none have been consistently great. 2022-2024 .367 Refsnyder .357 Casas .354 Devers .349 Bregman .343 Yoshida .333 Duran & Abreu 2024 only .359 Ref .354 Devers .349 Yoshida .342 Duran .333 Wong .322 Abreu .315 Bregman I think the idea of Duran at #1 makes a ton of sense, and his 2024 OBP supports the idea. The next best OBP guys are Refsnyder (vs LHPs only) Devers, Casas or Bregman, although Bregman slipped to .315 in '24. I like Devers as our RBI guy (4th) but worry that Story behind him is not enough "protection." That being said, my top 5 would be... 1. Duran 2. Bregman 3. Casas 4. Devers 5. Story One coudl argue a Yoshida (.351 v R) and Refsnyder (.410 v L) should bat 2nd, based on their numbers and splits. 1. Duran 2. Yoshida-Ref 3. Bregman 4. Devers 5. Casas 6. Story This gives Devers better protection and lengthens the line-up.

I would flip the Abreu-Ref platoon for Wong in the 7 slot, or maybe even bat them 6th and push Yoshida down to 7, but the line-up looks solid, to me. I do NOT want Bregman at 2B, though Another alternative might be: 1. L Duran CF 2. R Bregman 3B 3. L Casas 1B 4. L Devers DH 5. R Story SS 6. L Yoshida- R Refsnyder LF 7. L Abreu -R Rafaela RF 8. R Campbell 2B (or a L DHam- R Romy platoon to start the season) 9. R Wong C

Casas needs a 650 PA season. Period. I still think, at some point, Devers should grab a 1Bman's mitt, practice 1B, some, and see how it goes, and how he likes it. (Wong and Ref might be viewed as emergency depth at 1B, too.)