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moonslav59

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Everything posted by moonslav59

  1. moonslav59
    Too funny!
  2. moonslav59
    We have to take one game at a time, but when you look ahead to the trade deadline (July 31st) you can see we have a real tough stretch sandwiched around that date: Starting July 18: 3 @ CHC 3 @ PHI 3 LAD 3 @ MN (Deadline OFF) 3 HOU 3 KCR 3 @ SDP 3 @ HOU No real breather in that stretch of 8 straight series. For a team under .500, it's hard to call any stretch easy, but when you look at our games on the schedule before the All Star Break and that brutal 8 series stretch, I have to think we better be over .500 by the time we get to July 18th, and maybe a few games over. Here are the series between now and July 18th: 9 series Off Thursday 3 NYY 3 @ SEA Day Off 3 @ SFG 3 @ LAA (This is no easy 4 series stretch, from any viewpoint- maybe hop for 6 and 6?) Day Off 3 TOR 3 CIN Off 3 @ WSH 3 COL 4 TBR All Star Break (4 days off) These 16 games may make or break us. We may need to go 10-6 or better to expect to be possible buyers at the deadline.
  3. moonslav59
    The options for various roster constructions are near limitless, due to the flexibility of so many players. Top 14 w DHam to AAA: CF, 2B, SS, RF Rafaela LF, CF Duran LF, RF Anthony & Refsnyder RF, LF Abreu (CF) 2B, CF Campbell SS, 2B Story SS, 3B Mayer 3B, 2B Bregman 1B, SS, 2B Romy (AAA: DHam 2B) 1B, 3B Toro C Narvaez & Wong (1B) DH Devers (1B? & emergency 3B) With 14, Toro or Romy goes to AAA, or we trade a vet/demote a kid.
  4. moonslav59
    10 teams better than us, by record, in the AL, yet we are just 3 down in the WC race. Weird season! We have the 6th best run differential in the AL at +18. That's 68 better than LAA, who is ahead of us. 38 better than KCR and 32 better than CLE and SEA. Very weird season!
  5. moonslav59
    Gotta say, it was great seeing two bombs by Mayer. With Campbell starting to shake off the slump, maybe- just maybe- the kids can give us a big enough shot in the arm to bump us over the hump. What we do when Abreu returns will be interesting. With everyone healthy and Gregman back, I gotta think we make a trade at the deadline: maybe one as a "seller" (Abreu or Duran) and perhaps 1-3 deals as "buyers," if we are near the playoffs as July comes to an end. Ideally, Story goes on a tear, and we can find a taker for him, without paying 60-70% of his contract. Maybe linking Story with Abreu could cut down the money going out, while brining us a nice young pitcher. Then trade for a vet pitcher. 1. L Duran/R Rafaela CF 2. R Bregman 3B 3. L Anthony LF 4. L Devers DH 5. L Mayer SS 6 R Narvaez C 7. L Abreu/R Refsnyder RF 8. R Campbell 2B 9. S Toro, R Romy 1B Wow, 3 platoons, Red should love this one! Crochet, __Vet pitcher__, Buehler, Bello, Dobbins>Sandoval (Houck/Crawford?) Chapman, Whitlock, Slaten, Wilson, __trade__, Weissert, Bernardino, (converted SP)
  6. moonslav59
    ...and you don't need an injury to call up Mayer or Anthony. You have an opening at DH. Better roster construction with Anthony in LF and Duran at DH. Then, you could play KC in CF and bring up Mayer without benching or trading Duran or Abreu. Okay, it's a narrative some of us like, but that doesn't mean it's meritless. Sure, keeping Devers at 1B had and has merit. Once they told him he'd play 1B & only 1B, I was and still am against playing him at 1B in 2025, but I cans till see the pluses of trying to get him there sooner, rather than later (if ever.)
  7. moonslav59
    Max is a cool guy, but he can't get over an understandable trade that happened to backfire in every way possible: Sale wins CYA, Grissom sucks and the money saved was used on GIO. Those 3 aspects of those 2 events outshadow all the good Brez has done, according to Max. Brez was fleeced, because everyone knew Sale was poised to win the CYA, except him.
  8. moonslav59
    JhG is for real! If Toro is this good, maybe eaton and Thompson can do the same? LOL
  9. moonslav59
    Very nice win. Good pitching and big HRs.
  10. moonslav59
    True dat. I don't mind Duran in CF and Anthony in LF. Abreu-Ref in RF is one of the best platoons in MLB. Rafaela as the back-up OF'er makes for the best 5 deep OF in MLB, IMO. If we end up trading Abreu, we could see a Rafaela-Ref platoon in RF, but maybe we keep Rafaela in CF and use Anthony in RF v RHPs and LF v LHPs. Maybe that's too much musical chairs. We could have a logjam in the IF, once Bregman comes back. Unless KC (not Bregamn) plays 1B, we'll have... 3B Bregman FT SS Mayer or Story 2B Story or KC 1B Toro/Romy platoon Another option would be to trade Duran and... LF: Anthony (Refsnyder) CF: Campbell (Rafaela) RF: Abreu-Refsnyder (Anthony) 3B Bregman (Mayer) SS Mayer (Story) 2B Story (Campbell) 1B Toro-Romy
  11. moonslav59
    Story?
  12. moonslav59
    I'm feeling better about his chances at settling in at a more reasonable offensive production level, than we saw before this June and during much of his sporadic playing time since the signing. The guy was a decent hitter, before the injury, and even if you look at just his road splits with COL, he was not bad. (.752 Away '16-'21) I know, that seems so long ago, but the league average OPS was between .713 and .749, those seasons. The guy was 4th in OPS for a SS over those 6 years! (Top 30 overall) Nobody expects anywhere near that, now, but he's still just 32, and certainly not overworked the last few years. I'd be okay with .700 to .725 the rest of the way, with improved defense (maybe at 2B.) I'll not be surprised, if he can bat .750 the rest of the way, but I would not bet on that. He sharp drop on D is most worrisome, to me. Mayer at SS and Story at 2B makes more sense, but with KC and Anthony on the 26, where would KC play?
  13. moonslav59
    Yes, and poor pitcher D makes it hard to feel sorry for them, when they need to get more outs due to their own fielding mistake(s.) Of course Offense and pitching are more important, as the variance between teams who make the most makeable plays and those who make the least is not as stark as the best vs worst hitting and pitching teams. The amount of plays that show a difference are way less on defense. I just cringe when I see a dumb play on D, or a botched easy play- more so than when a batter chases a ball way out of the K zone, of a pitcher walking the weakest batter.
  14. moonslav59
    There are quite a few examples of guys like Toro & Romy, who are just plain late bloomers. Refsnyder is one such example. I'm not saying I have complete faith in a Toro-Romy 1B platoon, but I think we maye see a.775 to .800+ combined OPS from them by the end of '25. That's not far from what we expected Casas to give us, this year.
  15. moonslav59
    It makes it easier with better D, but not impossible.
  16. moonslav59
    Are denying you held that position on Devers for a long time? (I don't expect an answer to the actual question.)
  17. moonslav59
    I think you can win by being great at the top 2 and bad on D, but we aren't.
  18. moonslav59
    I will say that they really tried, this year, to do something. The Bregman signing, alone should have addressed a significant problem with 3B defense. I had initial hopes that we'd give Devers a try at 1B, and since we had the worst defensive 1Bman in MLB (Casas) there was some hope we could do a little better, on my part. I think the 2B defense looked better on paper with KC & DHam over E Valdez & Co. Trading for Narvaez not only looked good on paper, it has looked good, for real. Making Rafaela the FT CF was certainly a move to improve defense, and it was such a high priority, we kept Anthony on the farm to make it happen. The return of Story as not "something they did" about the $100M question, but on paper, we thought we'd do better on D, as long as he stayed healthy. I think we tried. I'm still not sure why we failed, this badly. It wasn't from lack of trying, IMO>
  19. moonslav59
    Top Sox OPS .938 Bregman .919 Devers .905 Refsnyder .891 Toro .831 Romy .814 Narvaez .792 Abreu .746 Duran .695 Rafaela, .675 Campbell, .670 Mayer, .639 Story .608 Sogard, .580 Casas, .516 DHam, .472 Roman, .418 Wong, .355 Sabol
  20. moonslav59
    With the budget Bloom was handed the bottom 10+ players on the 40 were often DFA level players. Looking at that 2020 roster is a joke. Even by 2021, there were some real dregs at the bottom of the barrell. By the time Bloom left, the bottom of the 40 (and into the farm) was not really our weakness, in comparison to other teams: it was the lack of top talent.
  21. moonslav59
    I may have to start believing in Blaze.
  22. moonslav59
    What is sometimes overlooked is how much bad defense taxes a pitching staff and can destroy team moral, even if just for a single game. I loved the game of baseball and played it a lot. My issue was hitting, but at the risk of sounding braggadocious, I was real good on D (and baserunning, when I did get on base.) Defense has always been my bias. I admit it.
  23. moonslav59
    To me, the D has been the biggest miss on my expectations. We were so bad in 2024, that it was easy to improve, but it looks just about as bad. The pen has been one of the biggest surprise, but my expectations were very low. Of course, guys like Narvaez, Toro & Romy have shocked.
  24. moonslav59
    That was a wicked slice. Not easy.
  25. moonslav59
    Oh, we know all to well, you reserve the right to not follow along and divert the conversation, when exposed.
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