moonslav59

Not all.

last 7 starts by Crawford: 6 with 3 or less ERs allowed, but never less than 2. (6 HRs, but none today.)

Blinded by the light Revved up like a deuce You know the Romy in the night

Hate is a strong word, especially to the owner who led us to 4 rings.

No doubt, there is a strong correlation. Yes, we notice there are not many players with high K rates, who also hit well, as in also have high OPS. I'm just saying I look for players who have high OPS and like them. I look at those with low OPS and usually dislike them, unless their D outweighs their poor O. I just don't look at K's, first. I'd rather have a .780 batter with 150 Ks than a .740 batter with 75 Ks (same amount of PAs.)

No circumstance? Anthony for Miller and Woo? You'd say no? Montgomery for either one? No?

Casas added over 60 points to his OPS in one game. He's over .800, now. I can't help but feel like we will lose game 2 by 1-0 or 2-1 score.

K's never bothered me, if the guys are hitting and or getting on base and scoring runs. We've fallen off a cliff. I'm not sure what the issue is.

Last Day of the minor league regular season

One can overlook a 29% K rate of the guy hist .820 and plays near GG defense.

It is very likely an Astros pitchers is traded this winter. Much might depend on their choice to keep Bregman and or Tucker, and at what cost. If they keep both, Framber may be on the block. They had so many pitchers on the IL and a few who did well in their place, that when everyone is expected to be healthy to start 2025, someone has to go. Verlander will be a FA, so we could assume he goes, especially if it comes down to only being able to keep him or Framber. The Astros are known for letting big stars walk (Springer, Correa, Cole...) Here is a look at who they have going into 2025: Framber: 1 arb left (made $12.1M in '24) 27 GS 2.85 ERA McCullers: 2 x $17.7M ($17M AAV) always injured and certainly trade bait. (28 GS in '21 w 3.16 ERA, 8 GS since.) Javier: 3 years left on deal at $43M/3 and $12.8M AAV ('22-'23: 56 GS and 3.59 ERA/112 ERA+) Urquidy- 1 arb left ($3.8M in '24) '21-'22: 48 GS 3.81 ERA Luis Garcia (The other one) has 2 arbs left (career 63 GS 3.61 ERA/113 ERA+ at age 26) Hunter Brown: pre-arb (29 GS 3.57) Ronel Blanco: pre-arb (28 GS 2.88) Spender Arrighetti: pre-arb (27 GS 4.68) JP France: pre-arb (23 GS in '23 at 3.83 ERA) That's 8 SP'ers- 7 if you want to throw out McCullers.

CBS Sports has ND ranked 15th, after yesterday's games, saying their defense is the main reason. They have Louisville 16th, so I guess we will find out, if we are ranked too highly, as we play them this weekend. These ranking need to be taken with a few grains of salt. I don't see any of the 14th to 19th ranked teams as being easily identified as better than the others. 14 LSU, 15 ND, 16 Louisville, 17 IA St, 18 Clemson, 19 Illinois, 20 OK. I do think #10 Penn St, 11 Michigan, 12 Utah and 13 USC all look more deserving than ND at being top 15 or making the top 12 list by season's end, but in college football, a lot can happen over a season, including major injuries to teams above you or a change in QB or QB performance level. I'm not predicting a great season from ND or even a playoff berth, but I'm not so sure that by season's end, ND might be pretty close to the #12 team in the nation. It's not an impossible situation to develop. Just beating Louisville might get us to 12th or 13th, already. That's not to say we can't lose to another bad team, or get blown out by USC, but there is some hope we can improve. As is, we are not a top 12 team, now. Top 15 is maybe too high- maybe not.

Not in a personal sense, but nobody spoke of disliking him, when the rings were piling up.

While I toally agree that trading away Betts was unacceptable, unforgiveable or even worse, it's not the first time JH & Co. let some big stars walk or traded them away. Okay, none were as great as Betts, but many were great. The difference is, we kept winning after they left. Nomar Manny Pedro AGon Lester Beckett To a lesser extent: D Lowe, Ellsbury, Damon, Papelbon, Beltre, Mueller, Youk and Lackey The harsh reality is that not only did we fail to come close in replacing Betts, but we also never replaced Kimbrell, Porcello, Price, and later ERod, Nate, JD, Bogey and others. Nobody can replace Betts, but a team can try to improve 2-3 positions to try and make up for the loss. Dugo and Wont (Downs) fell way short, and we never even tried to significantly upgrade elsewhere to make up for those shortcomings. While I am not on the dump JH bandwagon, yet, I fully understand those that are. To me, a few of us saw the writing on the wall back in 2018. We expected great difficulties in maintaining a great team with so many stars all reaching free agency in a 2-3 year window, and a farm that seemed like it was not nearly good enough to replenish enough slots that were sure to open up. I never bought the argument that it would be simple to replenish the farm, quickly, while also expecting JH to greatly expand the payroll from the point of already being #1 or 2 almost every year. I never expected teams like the Mets and Padres, along with the Dodgers and others to go this nutty with their spending, but even if they did not, things were bound to get very difficult for any GM the Sox chose, or even if they kept DD under the same budget constraints and farm situation Bloom was handed. I fully believe DD would have traded Betts, too. He nearly did in 2019. Of course, JH has the money to match some of these nutty spenders, but honestly, I never expected him to do that. This is not letting him off the hook, because he could have spent more to keep us competitive and chose not to do so. The redeeming value in this 6 year lull (or 5 of 6 years, if you count 2021 as a reprieve) is that our farm is now light years better than it was in 2018. Of course, that value is all speculative, but when a team has so many top prospects, it's almost impossible for all to fail. I'm giving JH another year. This is not saying I expect him to be listening to me or the (up)roar from Sox nation that he is at a make or break point, in terms of watching the dump JH bandwagon become an 80%+ Sox nation wide wagon, but I do think we are much closer to being a top contender than many here seem to be. The question is, do we take the steps necessary to get to that point, of does JH choose to punt to 2026 or worse- never take the plunge, again. I simply cannot believe we go 2 more years without making a big splash trade of everyday players for a top pitcher. That seems like too much of a no-brainer to not happen. I'm afraid JH might think 2026 is a better time for that splash, but maybe he realizes the fanbase is already over their limits of patience. (maybe not.) Some seem to think he is likely not reading the room or is reading it but cares very little for that. The budget seems to get all or most of the attention, but to me, the willingn ess to allow a big splash trade or two is equally important. If we make one big splash trade, without a swing and miss, I could imagine is not spending much more than 2024 and being able to fill the other holes to a point where we can compete in 2025. If JH agrees to spend up to but below the line, I think it would be very possible to build a winner, again assuming a big splash trade, too. Maybe my pink glasses are overpowering.

It's a Catch 22 situation. We are doomed, if we don't improve our pitching. Anthony is the one guy who could be traded to greatly improve our pitching. Do not trade Anthony at any cost. BTW, I do think Fitts and Priester plus maybe Dobbins are MLB ready. It is their skill level that is in doubt- not their readiness. What I'm afraid of is that JH & Co. views one of these three as our 5th starter on opening day, instead of being the much needed minor league rotation depth than are viewed as the 7th through 9th starters on the depth chart, or possibly 6th through 8th, if we add an ace.

Yes, I realize that, and now that they are closer to being a contender than we are, the notion seems very far-fetched. Plus, I would not trade 5 years of Anthony straight up for Skubal, unless he agreed to a decent extension, but it would also take more than just Anthony to get him. Talking Skubal seems like a foolish thing to do. I agree.

The scary thing is we basically HAVE TO count on both to play 145+ games. Our back-up plans are questionable, at best. 1B: Wong or Romy? LOL (who catches?) Devers to 1B and Campbell/Meidroth at 3B (or Story/Mayer at 3B?) SS: No way can we use Dham at SS, again. Make Rafaela the FT SS and let him learn on the fly? Mayer, a guy who seems to be injured as much as Story? Campbell or Meidroth? It's not pretty, if either goes down, again.

I'd love to have Soto, but I agree. The only way I see this happening is if we trade Anthony for a top pitcher who costs just arb money. Even then...

You can always find a comp that exposes the downside of having hopes in a top prospect, and it's not a bad point to be made. None of our prospects should be annointed as a "savior." I think in Campbell's case, some of us may feel he can or likely will be "that guy," simply because we NEED HIM TO BE THAT GUY, which is not a logical thing to think. We are so bad vs LHPs, and look to be losing O'Neill, this winter, that we instinctively look at who offers the best hope, and Campbell jumps to the front of a mangy pack of wannabees. Story offers some hope. Wong could improve on O, but is never going to carry a team on offense vs lefties. Rafaela may never repeat even this year's offensive numbers. Refsnyder has been great vs LHPs, but is talking about retiring. At most, we have one more year of him. All this being said, I still have a lot fo faith in Campbell and more than I do in Mayer or Teel. I'm also pretty sure a Grissom-DHam platoon at 2B would not be bad, and should be better than what we've seen at 2B for over 5 years. (Stories health is crucial, as well.) I think we simply have to count on Campbell + Grissom/DHam to take care of 2B in 2025 and beyond. We can't spend resources on trying to fix 2B. Choosing to trade Campbell, instead of Anthony, Mayer or Teel might end up being the best choice, and maybe this is what you are getting at, but I have Campbell second only to Anthony on my avoid trading list. (I have no list for no-trade players and never have.)

We do have many players that look real good, on paper, but have a serious flaw that keeps them from being seen as a "star." Even our one everyday star, Devers sucks on D. (He may be okay or even a plus at 1B, though.) I would argue Duran has the full package to be called a star- right now. Plus-plus offense, Plus speed. Plus defense. I wouldn't say he's not a star because of a weak arm, especially if he plays LF, only. He's an overall plus on D in CF, too. Casas can be a great hitter but sucks on D. I'm not seeing any signs of getting better on D, either. Maybe 1B D is not such a big deal, but he does have one big glaring weakness. Abreu might win the GG and bat .820. What's wrong with that, one might ask? It's his first full year, and the sky could be the limit. Well, his L-R splits are atrocious. As of now, he cannot be viewed as a FT RF'er. His OPS is .860 vs RHPs- an allstar level with GG-type D, but the .479 OPS vs LHPs is horrific. One could claim a 71 PA sample size is not definitive, but there is a good reason it is so low: he sucks vs LHPs. Rafaela is a tremendous defensive CF and could maybe be a plus defensive SS, if given the time to develop there, but his plate discipline is atrocious. It is highly doubtful he can every become a plus offensive players. Even being average might be out of reach. Story used to hit well enough to be thought of as a 5 tool player: Good bat with power, too, great glove and range, good arm (before the injury) and decent speed and base stealing abilities. It's hard to know if he can get his O back to anywhere near what it was 3-4 years ago. Wong looks like he might be one of MLB's best offensive catchers, but his D ranks near or at the bottom. DHam is a great base runner, who showed some decent pop and offense, this year. He's also okay on D at 2B, but sucks at SS. He rates to be a decent 2Bman or utility guy, who can never reach "star" status. Our top 4 prospects do offer hopes of being a "star," someday, but nothing is a given with any of them. I do think, even players flawed in just one area have a lot of trade value. Maybe more than you think.

You make some great points. They may have to decide that although all 4 of our top prospects are indeed "part of the future core," which one is the least part, and who do we have at that position for the future, instead. It might come down to how much faith they have in the next level of prospects at certain duplicated positions. If they are super high on Jh Garcia, maybe they bite the bullet and trade the best blue chip in Anthony for the better pitcher return. Maybe they really like Campbell, Arias, Cespedes and Romero, and think they can part with Mayer, despite viewing him as our SS of the future (w Story at 2B and maybe Campbell at 3B & Devers at 1B/DH.) Maybe they think a Grissom-DHam combo at 2B is good enough to believe they can part with Campbell (Plus the part about having Arias, Cespedes and Romero apply to this equation, too.) I do not see a suitable replacement for Teel, and Wong does not seem to be improving on D as he reaches the normal age and level of experience, where that should be coming to fruition. Teel seems like the least likely to be traded, if you look at positional depth and projected replacement value. In reality, I seriously doubt we trade a top 4 prospects, this winter. I think our 5-8 or 9 prospects are too far away and have too much upside potential to risk selling low on them. I also don't think other teams are willing to part with what we need for A+ level prospects. If we do make a major trade, I think it will involves Casas + Abreu or Rafaela and maybe we add a pitcher or a projected AA prospect like Romero or Jh Garcia. Who knows?

It's an age old question: why would any team trade away a young pitcher who has already shown excellence? Everyone knows pitching is so very important, and that is why the return on trades that do happen, often look like overpays, but we need to also ask: Why did Cincy trade Castillo? (To save money and get something for a player that would be a FA in 1.3 years?) Why did MIA trade Pablo Lopez? (Was it that his big payday was coming after his last arb year in 2024?) Both these guys ended up extending at somewhat reasonable amounts, from the team's perspective. Who are guys like them available this winter? When was the last 5 years of control good pitcher traded? (I honestly don't know.) For one thing, most pitchers with 5 years of control do not have long records of proven success, but some seem to have already proven they have nasty stuff and should be very good to great pitchers, going forward. In theory, I think the Sox should avoid trading Anthony, unless the pitcher blows us away. I'm not sure who that pitcher is. I think Skubal is, but not just 2 years of control for 5+ of Anthony, and I'm someone who values a 1 in 5 games SP'er over an everyday player, to begin with. (Many top SP'ers face 750-850 batters in a season, which is more PAs than any batter ever gets is my reasoning.) This is not an easy problem to solve. Do we first determine who is the best player or players to trade away, and that we can fill their holes internally without a major setback, and then just get the best pitcher we can get with that package? Or, do we find the best group of pitchers who are available in trade and seek to get one with the lowest package offer we can come up with, even if it means we part with Anthony or Campbell, since one is the lowest any team will go in their demands? IMO, trading Casas and Abreu makes the most sense, in terms of maxing out value giving away vs how well we can do without them, but I also fully realize that headline package is not getting even 2 years of Skubal and likely not 2 years of Crochet, either, so where does that leave us? How valuable is Mayer in the eyes of other GMs? I do think we can roll the dice on Story's health, once again and put our eggs in the Campbell basket at 2B, wile also counting on Anthony to give our already very good OF a boost. Maybe a package of Mayer + Abreu gets us better than Casas + Abreu. What does a Mayer, Casas and Abreu package get usvs an Anthony + Meidroth and Fitts package? There are so many permutations of deals we can offer- all with a very nice headliner and some decent add-on, and even packages with 2 very nice headliners that would not deplete the starting 9 or the MLB 13 everyday player roster too drastically. To me, we are very deep at everyday players and the top prospects we have coming up are projected to be better than who we have already. Trading a prospect does not lessen the MLB core we are carrying over, but it does lessen the depth and future outlook of the given position. Trading Casas and playing Campbell at 3B and Devers at 1B might actually be an overall improvement of the team (Defense for sure and maybe the offense.) Trading Abreu and handing the FT RF job to Anthony could be a major improvement, but maybe not right away. Trading Mayer and handing the 2B job to Campbell makes a lot of sense, until Story gets hurt, and our 3 best 2Bmen (Campbell, DHam and Grissom) might all such at SS D, or we end up with Rafaela back at SS, again. What would rafaela bring back in trade? We would also have a full LHB OF by trading him. This is all enough to make one's head spin, but with so many options we can put on the table, it's hard to imagine we can't find one GM taker, since most teams don't have the trading chips we do- both in value, variety and in quantity. Go to work BREZ! Get it done!

You make some great points, as you usually do. I fully realize the SEA pitcher stats are inflated by their home field "advantage" (for pitchers,) and that is one reason I look at stats like ERA-. As much as most fans take into account batters fro Colorado, I think most realize SEA is the pitcher dream park. (Team ERA in 2024: 2.84 Home and 4.23 Away.) This was one thing I looked at when I mentioned Woo might be the better target: AWAY ERA: 3.00 Woo 3.82 Gilbert 4.03 Kirby, 4.25 Castillo and 4.44 Miller For contrast, some Sox AWAY ERAs: 3.08 Houck 4.06 Craiswell, 4.19 Bello, 4.32 Crawford, 4.42 Pivetta Note: the Away ERA numbers do not factor in park dimensions of away games, strength of offenses face and more. For instance, the Sox faced a their own division in more away games- a division that boasts have the #1 offense by runs scored (NYY) and the #2 (BAL) in the AL. (TOR #9 and TBR #14.) SEA faced #6 HOU, #10 TEX, #12 OAK and #13 LAA. One can argue many of their away games were played in "pitcher parks" than the Sox, too. One could look at these away comps and wonder why we'd want to pay bigtime to let Pivetta walk and trade for Miller. That being said, the SEA pitchers are young, except Castillo, and have many years of team control (3 for Gilbert, 4 for Kirby and 5 for Miller and Woo,) and I think all can get better. This does make me wonder if Crochet, Skubal or someone else might be a better target, especially if we are talking a package with Anthony at the top.

Priester pitched for Woo, today. Their season ends, tomorrow. 5IP, 3H, 2ER, 1BB, 7 K (4.38 ERA) Anthony continues to raise his AAA OPS (now 1.000) after going 2-3 w 2B and BB. He had an .856 OPS at AA. The guy gets better as he moves up! Teel went 2-4 to raise his OPS in AAA to .714.

Maybe if he played just one position, all year, he'd have a better chance, but he has had a really outstanding year on defense, while proving he is a legit MLB hitter. Kudos to Duran for an very nice season. I'm not sure how much room there is to get any better, but if he does, WOW! I'll take the same for the remainder of his time, here. He is the Sox MVP, this year. (I'd put Houck 2nd and Devers 3rd.)