moonslav59

I'm not one for change just for change sake, but you gott look at some of these numbers and ask "Why?" or "How can we change this?" Our 3rd highest PA player is hitting .591 (Story.) If you can't bring yourself to replace him, then bat him 8th or 9th. It's good to see we finally demoted KC in the lineup. He's 6th in PAs and batting .658. The Houck situation kinda took care of itself, as he is on the IL. He's tied for second in GS and while out has fallen to 5th in IP with his 8.04 ERA. However, our 5th leading GS pitcher and 5th in IP among players on the current 26 man roster is Giolito at 6.42. I gotta say, the plug needs to be pulled, if not now, then after his next disastrous start, which will likely be, next week. OPS Against by SP'ers: .920 Houck (203 PAs against is second most) .884 Giolito (150 PAs against is 6th, just behind Dobbins) .836 Newcomb is gone. .758 to .766 are the next 4: Fitts, Bello, Buehler & Dobbins.) .569 Crochet stands alone. I don't see any major issue with the pen order of most batters faced: 113 Whitlock is the long man .641 114 Weissert might be questionable at #2, but he's at .620. 103 Bernardino has done very well at .496 99 Chapman has been awesome .498. 90 Slaten at .465 lead the pen in OPS Against and missed some time 85 Newcomb at .791 is gone 81 Wilson at .584 has been fantastic. 59 Hendriks at .692 is on the IL. 57 Kelly at .739 has struggled. 52 Wink at .622 seems to still be in the Cora doghouse. 35 Guerrero at .362 should see more action. 33 Criswell at .830 needs to start. 21 Burdi at .649 may get a longer look. Surprisingly, the pen OPSA numbers look decent to downright good. I know some here poo-poo platoons and basing who plays on L-R splits, but here are the numbers: vs RHPs (PAs) .954 Devers (193 is #3 in PAs) .915 Bregman (168) on IL .875 Refsnyder (24) .847 Abreu (198 is #1 in PAs) .809 Narvaez (127) .800 Toro (55) .799 Romy (40) .785 Duran (198 is #1) .702 KC (166) .678 Rafaela (155) .561 Sogard (34) .552 Story (190) .548 DHam (78) .545 Mayer (29) .477 Casas (100) on IL .358 Wong (55) Some RHBs are doing well vs RHPs. Vs LHPs: 1.409 Casas (12) Out for season 1.000 Bregman (58) what we got him for is now on IL .962 Refsnyder is a god vs lefties (47) .842 Devers (99) forevers #1 in PAs .819 Narvaez balanced batter, so far (50) .786 Wong (10) .782 Rafaela (63) bucking his career reverse splits .727 Story (56) maybe needs to be platooned. .684 Sogard (9) .674 Romy (30) This was his strong area in '24. .672 Duran (99 is #1) .641 Toro (15) .569 Abreu (30) doing nothing to move towards a non platoon .524 KC (60) maybe needs to sit vs lefties. .533 DHam (6), .333 Mayer (6) I'd start Criswell over Gio. I'd platoon Story with Mayer (Mayer plays 3B vs LHPs, but I'm not sure who plays 3B vs RHPs. Toro?) I'd give Guerrero more innings in the pen. I still think an Anthony call-up would help, but not at Rafaela's expense. The Abreu-Ref platoon makes our RF one of the best in MLB, and Duran has done better, recently (.920 since May 16th.) The only way he can play, without sitting an OF'er is to DH and move Devers to 1B, but I won't opine on that, right now, except to present my plan: 1. L Duran LF 2. L Abreu/ R Refsnyder RF 3. R Narvaez C 4. L Devers 1B 5. L Mayer SS/3B 6. S Toro 3B/R Story SS 7. L Anthony DH 8. R Rafaela CF 9. L DHam/ R Campbell 2B Rotation: Crochet, Buehler, Dobbins, Bello, Fitts/Criswell Pen: Chapman, Slaten, Wilson, Whitlock, Bernardino, Guerrero, Weissert, Fitts> Criswell, then: Wink>Burdi>Kelly (Maybe Fitts ends up taking Dobbins' or Criswell's slot in the rotation, after some time.)

All true, but how would DD have handled the massive rebuild that included massive budget cuts. The budget cuts and rebuild plan were the culprits. Keeping DD for the rebuild would not have worked out, either, IMO. In fact, he may have ended up quitting being asked what was asked of Bloom.

You knew the other guy personally?

Not that much, but better than the next tier, I think. The Greek has them at 1 less win. Here is one major difference between them and the Sox: We have some top hitters that are platoon or have small sample sizes. The Tigers have all 5 of their top batters by most PAs over .773. 8 of their top 9 are over .728. Conversely, our #3 batter in PAs (Story) is at .591. Our #5 (Campbell) is at .658, and our #7 (Rafaela) is at .707. Our #1 OPS guy (Bregman) is on the IL, while our #2 OPS guy (Refsnyder) is 11th in PAs. Toro, at .803, is #12 in PAs. They also have 5 SP'ers w 9+ GS and all but one have an ERA below 3.72. Their 5th one (Jobe) is at a respectable 4.22. Skubal, Flaherty & Olson are all under 2.96! They have 2 RP'ers with 8+ saves and ERAs under 1.80 plus their pen leader in IP at 1.72. Maybe to start the year, they did not look all this good, on paper, but they do, now.

LMAO! How about looking at the rosters of all the other AL teams not named the Tigers and Yankees? What makes anyone think enough can't go 14 games under .500?

Bad throws are "infantile?"

That's how I see it, too. Kinda like Devers was extended because Betts and Bogey were not.

To be honest and fair, I thought it was a decent to good deal, even if Sale missed a full season. The fact that he missed part or most of every season was the knife in the heart. He signed for $145M/5. Had Sale been Sale for just 4 years, a $145M/4 deal would have been fine, especially as the prices for top quality pitching went through the roof, after 2019. (Remember, his extension was from 2020-2024.) Had he been Cy Young Sale, $36M x 4 would be expensive but worth it. Had he signed Betts, instead of Sale and the Boget extension, we'd have been better off.

I loved DD and have defended him on the "emptying the farm" thing for years. I'm not sure where you are getting this from. My position is that he probably is not the best GM to have on a team looking to gut their budget. His biggest strength seemed to be signing the right big ticket players, something not many GM are that good at. NHe also did a great job knowing which prospects to trade and which to keep- another very difficult aspect of being a great GM. His "empty farm" still kept Devers, Houck, Crawford, Bello, Duran, Rafaela and others. I have great respect for DD, but don't see him as a proven low budget GM. I also don't think he'd want to stick around after not only being forced to trade the face of the franchise, Betts, but also not being allowed to replace him with anything more than $5-10M deals scattered over a few years, until the Story signing. That's not DD bashing. I wouldn't have blamed him for being pissed at JH and Co.

True. Bregman was, until the injury. Devers, Crochet and maybe Ref & Toro to a smaller sample lesser extent.

LOL. Good one!

The book was "all glove- no hit," but I pointed out how he had a decent OBP and ISO in the minors, and it should not be assumed it can't translate, but I never expected this.

All the bigger ones, for sure, except maybe the Devers extension- made out of necessity to keep their heads from being removed by angry fans. DD didn't help with the Sale extension and failure to lock up Betts earlier, but two parties are involved in those decisions. When the team stops making mega deals, you kinda have to hit on the mid-level ones. We are 0 for 3. Bregman looked like a winner, and now he's on the IL.

Good to see Rafaela get the game winning homer. I keep thinking, maybe this will ignite the spark. I've been wrong, so many times, I'm losing hope. Gotta take to the Yanks, next!

Narvaez is one of the very few bright spots to the Sox season and roster.

How much longer can Gio's leash be? Man, what another horrible signing! Our three largest FA contracts given since JD's $110M/5 in 2018, not counting the Nate re-signing in 2019 at $68M/4: $140M/6 Story $90M/5 Yoshida (not counting posting fee) $39M/2 Giolito (The two signings, Jansen & Martin at about $70M, were better than all of these top 3 deals combined.) We all know how big contracts often fail to meet expectations, and these deals were not even close to the biggest deals in MLB over the last 6-7 years, but these 3 major strike outs are one of the main reasons we keep sucking.

Yes, I agreed with this at the time and still do. It was a bit surprising to hear he came close to trading Betts in 2019.

Counting this season, it's been 7 years since that magical 2018 season, actually, not so magical, when you consider all the planning and spending that went into constructing that team. 2021 seems like an outlier based on the remnants of the 2018 season along with the confluence of good seasons from just enough players. 1 in 7 years is not what Sox fans got used to, and when you look at the budget rankings of most of those teams it's hard to accept our placements in the years' standings. Without a doubt, the management and leadership had to be a major component in the lack of success, as was underperforming players, aging talent, too many key injuries and other factors. While the farm seemed worse than we thought back in 2018, it was the one area that did improve and seems to still be perhaps our biggest asset, right now. We appear to have some good, young talent under team control at relatively low cost, as well as some well paid vets that have talent. Sure, we have sunken costs that rival other top sunken cost teams with Story, Yoshida & Giolito holding over $60M in AAV, this year. Seven years is a long time to go with the farm still being our biggest pride area, next to maybe Crochet. I'm not optimistic about 2025, anymore. It's been one huge letdown, to put it mildly. There is still about 60% of the season to go, but there does not seem to be anything to feel hopeful about. I'm tired of "wait til next year." I'm tired of watching key injuries occur, then hoping against hope that returning players from the IL will somehow revive our team. It never happens. Sure, we all expected some regression from guys like Houck, Duran and maybe a few others, but this has been extreme. Hardly anyone is doing better than expected, and just a few are doing close to what we expected. We have too many key players on the IL or just off it and not looking in form. Our team can't hit, pitch or field, and even our baserunning has been stumbling and bumbling. I'm not sure there is a clear solution. We probably need at least 5-6 things to happen, and it's unrealistic to think they all will happen, together. I've not lost all hope, but I'm down to a thread.

Yes. The choice to cut spending was the main issue. DD was not the GM for the type of slashing JH had in mind. I doubt we'd have done much better with DD and the budgets JH provided. DD's departure was just a sidebar to the slash and burn philosophy enacted by JH. I'm not even sure DD would have agreed to stick around under the conditions imposed on Bloom.

How about 28 year old "prospect" Brian Van Belle? He went 7 innings of 5 hit, one run ball, walking none in this morning's game. His ERA is down to 2.29 and has a .687 OPS Against. Jordan homered and went 2-4. Hickey hit his 9th dinger, and Grissom homered as well. Jh Garcia doubled and kept his OPS above 1.000 with Woo. Anthony K'd 3 times in an oh for 4 morning.

It's interesting to see the difference between the AL and NL, one being... In the AL, there are two clear top teams (DET & NYY) and then 10 teams within 6 games of each other (-6 to -11.5 from DET at the top.) There are just 3 teams over 15 games behind DET (BAL, OAK and CWS.) In the NL, there are 5 pretty clear front runners bunched up by a 2.5 game differential. (CHC, NYM, PHI, LAD, SDP) There are 7 teams bunched in the middle and within 6 games of each other- led by the surprising Cards at 33-27. Like the AL, there are 3 teams pretty much out of it (MIA, PIT and COL.) 5 of the top 7 teams are in the NL. 10 of 17 middle of the pack teams are in the AL. Only 6 teams look dead in the water, and the Braves and Sox are the two teams closest to those 6. The Sox are 8 games behind the top tier or 7 teams and 4 games ahead of the bottom tier of 6.

You are still selling the Kool-Aid. Which is worse? (You must still think being contenders is "realistic.")

You blame me for getting fans hopes up.

I laugh when I here people say, "All the manager needs to do is sit down with ____ and tell him he needs to... go the other way with the pitch. take more pitches focus more not swing at balls in the dirt only swing at strikes..." Like it's that simple. That being said, managers can and do make a difference. They make many key decisions that are subjective and may not be made by most or some other managers, including who plays out of the 26 players he is given, where they play and bat in the line-up. They make in game choices that can make or break a game and a team, but many of the chocies are judged in hindsight, without the casual or even maniacal fan knowing all the information needed to make those chocies. It's hard to know if this team's issue is a lack of motivation. It's hard to know how much a manager can force his players to be more focused. Hard to know when the right time is to make a major change to a slot on the playing roster or line-up. We've seen countless times where fans are screaming, "Why do you keep playing this bum?" or "Why don't you demote Devers in the line-up?" Then, BAM! Ooooopsie... We like to assign blame. I guess that's natural.

Aren't you the guy talking people off the ledge, just a couple days ago?