moonslav59

Some Woo Numbers: .952 Anthony (.856 POR) .897 Campbell (1.045 POR & .976 GRE)) .835 Sogard .834 Meidroth .776 E Valdez .758 Grissom .736 Hickey (.716 POR) .716 Teel (.852 POR) POR .850 Mayer (0 PA at AAA) .800 Romero (.817 GRE) .706 Jh Garcia (.998 GRE & .882 SAL) GRE .894 B Gonzalez .812 Castro SAL 1.063 Jo Garcia .746 Bleis .710 Arias (1.055 FCL)

Maybe adding the Abreu to TEX and Josh Smith to SEA might get it closer. A lot depends on how much SEA values losing Castillo's salary vs taking on the lower Yoshi deal. They could "spend the saving" and add another piece that might tilt the balance to a "Yes."

Some have potential for growth, but except for Slaten, I agree that they all look mediocre, right now. Slaten Criswell Weissert & I Campbell Fitts & Priester Sandlin & Judice Gio, Hendriks & Fulmer

I hope just count them as depth, not as our #5.

Super hard. I get it, but we have seen some traded in the past few years. Plus, what other teams have better everyday players to package up to land one?

I'm not sure he can "make it" with an OPS below .650, but I'm not sure he will be there, more often that not. .586 for 1st 203 PAs (2024) .787 next 273 PAs .441 in last 68 PAs The two really bad sample sizes, combined is about equal to his nice one, so it begs the question, which one is the "real" one? Maybe he will always be up and down and end up between .650 and .700: maybe not. I think .650 is about the cut off, these days, and the norm seems to be around .680-.690. With Anthony banging on the door, and Rafaela being the only RHB in the OF, I'm thinking Abreu might be the odd man out, as in being traded, this winter.

Maybe unnoticed through all this: Since Aug 27, the Sox are... 4th in SP ERA 2.74 (4th in ERA- at 64) T 10th in SP FWAR 2.0 Wasted good starts in too many games.

I'm glad we are making deals like this one. Sooner or later, we will get one that does well.

I think we just have to hope we pick "the right" guy to trade, and hope we don't get it wrong. Then, we have to make sure the guy we get is "the right guy." Two things can go wrong, and with our record, it seems to be too big a risk, but ot fixing our staff is a sure bet failed plan.

Their fans are likely saying the same thing about the Sox.

Astounding! This guy is breaking all the rules!

He's at .952 in AAA.

They are choosing to not prep= checking out.

Stomping up behind me.

Last night, I caught grief for saying our bats have checked out. Now, that looks like too kind of a statement.

Ohtani is the first MLB player to ever hit 50 HRs and steal 50 bases. WOW! If only he could pitch... errr....!

As of now, no "losing team" has a legitimate change at the playoffs. In the NL, the SFG are the best sub .500 team and is 105 GB with 9 to play. They are officially eliminated. The Cubs and Cards are 77-75 and 7 back with 10 to play. In the AL, BOS is at .500 (not "sub," although they might have been when you wrote this) and are 3.5 out with 10 to go. The Rays are 74-78 and are the closest sub .500 to the WC slot. They are 5.5 behind with 10 to go. Officially, they are still in it, but 5 teams are ahead of them, with several teams playing each other, which guarantees one team wins, each game. They can't game on every team, everyday. I'm with you on the watered down aspect of this set-up. It's good for some fans and cities, and "makes more money" for MLB, but it cheapens the 162 game season.

If you take current winning % and apply to remaining games, this is how pertinent team records would unfold: 85-77 MIN & DET (84.7-77.3) 82-80 SEA (82.1-79.9) 81-81 BOS In theory, if we go 10-0, we'd be 86-76 and would be in with no exceptional losing needed from others. If we go 9-1, we'd be tied with DET and MIN at 85-77, and they bot actually project to a fraction below 85 wins, so it would not be a big stretch to think they both could end up at 84-78. Now, let's assume they both go 84-78 and SEA goes 82-80 or even better than projected by one game (83-79,) The Sox could go 8-2 and tie 2 others at 84-78. Note: I am not projecting this of even saying there is a decent chance this happens. I'm just saying we don't need massive collapses by 3 teams, if we go 8-2 or 9-1. Now, going 9-1 is an extreme long shot, IMO. VERY Extreme!

Yes, I said his contract is the liability. He has plus value, otherwise, we'd have to pay 100%. His performance value is under his contract value. Agreed.

I've never seen him pitch, but I notice his very good numbers. soxprospects.com wrote this... Fastball: 93-96 mph. Tops out at 98 mph. Pitch has average life. Control is ahead of command at this point, but both are at least average already. Needs to do a better job consistently getting ahead of hitters with his fastball and is much more comfortable pitching to his glove side than arm side. Fastball velocity and quality decrease as the game goes on. Velocity has increased since early in his career and is hitting the high-90s in 2024. Potential average pitch. Sprinkler: 89-92 mph. New pitch to his arsenal in 2024. Looks like a sinking fastball at times with a little more vertical drop. Still a work in progress, but has flashed potential. Cutter: 87-90 mph. Short, horizontal break. Fringe-average potential. Slider: 81-83 mph. Two-plane, 10-to-4 shape. When he snaps it off, has shown bat-missing ability in the zone. Will also show a harder bullet slider in the mid-to-high 80s at times, with less break. Potential above-average pitch. Sweeper: 78-80 mph. Newish pitch in 2024 with long, horizontal break. Mostly used as a chase pitch, but has shown the ability to land in the zone as well. Has shown improvement with it as 2024 has gone on. Potential average pitch. Curveball: 76-78 mph. Long, 12-to-6 breaking ball with depth. Used primarily to steal a strike early in the count, or to put away hitters late. Can be effective when used in sequence. Potential fringe-average pitch. Splitter: 84-87 mph. Newish pitch in 2023 that evolved from his changeup, which itself had developed from a split-change. Some will show late dive and bat-missing ability down and out of the zone. Shows potential as a chase pitch, but still working on consistently landing it in the zone. Potential average pitch. Summation: Potential up-and-down depth starter or multi-inning reliever. Ceiling of a back-end starter. At his best, will show plus-to-better velocity and several secondary pitches that can all get hitters out. Wide-ranging arsenal with pitches that move in all directions and confidence that he can throw any of them for strikes. Still working to find a go-to, major league-quality out pitch. Effortful delivery brings injury and consistency concerns, and needs to improve his fastball command. Fastball can get hittable later in games and velocity tends to tick down. Needs to show he can consistently get left-handed hitters out to profile as a starter, but has developed into one of the more intriguing arms in the system.

In our case, leapfrogging one is tough enough.

I'm fine with that idea. I'd be okay with 2 big trades: one for a 1 or 2 SP and one for a closer. Then, sign a couple more pitchers.

I don't see many closers on the FA market, this winter, and we need one. I'm not sure what it will take, of if he thinks we will be a contender, or not. I'd give him a decent offer.

He was up and down that last year w BOS, too, although the 2.74 final ERA and 0.995 WHIP was still pretty damn awesome. Start of 2018>JULY 22: 1.73 ERA (2.85 FIP) JULY 23> end of 2018: 4.79 (3.69 FIP) The 2018 playoffs were an adventure: 14 IP, 13 H, 8 ER, 9BB, 3 HBP, 15 K, BUT 6 saves

Okay, but there should be.