moonslav59

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.

I just said he is not a liability. I didn't say he was a plus or big plus. He has an OPS+ of 116, this year (112 Career) and missed about 50 games due to an injury. With the new Mendoza line at .680, his .780+ OPS is "NOT a liability."

It's a magical place, especially for first timers. The atmosphere is top notch. The look is second to none. The small foul territory adds to the "closeness" vibe. Drawbacks: seats are too small and too many seats face CF not the mound or plate.

Yoshida is not really a liability: his contract is.

No, and I think the change of position would only very slightly lessen the chance of an in game injury. To me, it's more about Mayer's defense at SS and his health issues. If we think Mayer is really good on D, I'd move Story, but IMO, Mayer is not "that good," right now. Other than Mayer, I don't see anyone else that might even come close to Story's SS defense, which I view as elite and GG caliber. The idea of one of these two playing 3B is intriguing, as well, assuming we trade Casas and move Devers to 1B, or we trade Yoshida and Abreu and move Casas to DH and Devers to 1B. This might work well, especially, if we get something back for Yoshi + Abreu. C: Teel-Wong 1B: Devers-Casas 2B: Campbell- DHam SS: Story- Mayer 3B: Mayer-Devers LF: Duran-Refsnyder CF: Rafaela-Duran RF: Anthony-Rafsnyder DH: Casas-Campbell-EValdez This looks very impressive, to me.

It seems to happen much more frequently to out higher-priced players and those we just signed. Sometimes, we sign guys knowing they are injured or injury prone: Story, Sale, O'Neill, Nate, Paxton, Richards, Kluber, Wacha, Hill, Hendriks, Fulmer... But even guys like Gio and Slaten went down- year one.

It has kept more cities and teams paying attention, with just 10 games to go, but yes, if a last WC team wins the ring, there might be an outroar to ax the idea.

Good point on the HRs, and Crawford does let up many of his HRs in the first IP or two. 9 in the 1st, 4 in the 2nd and 11 in the third. His OPS is slightly better, earlier in the game, but not by all that much: .658 first 25 PAs (10 HRs in 196 PAs) .775 second 25 (13 Hrs in 195) .711 third 25 (8 Hrs in 201) 10 HRs in 196 PAs is like a batter hitting 33 Hrs over 650 PAs, but that .658 OPS Against might outweigh that. I think you talked me into it, although I do wish we could have a better 5th SP'er than Kutter. Maybe Fitts wins the job, of Priester eventually gets his act together. I'm high on Dobbins, but the experts keep saying it's not likely he amounts to much as a starter. 1. _____ 2. Houck 3. Bello 4. Gio 5. Crawford/Fitts (Criswell/Priester/Dobbins) Maybe find the next Criswell for more depth, and use the rest of the resources on beefing up and lengthening the pen.