moonslav59

So much for Bello finding his way back, but then again, some better D would help.

You mentioned the stat, not me. RBIs are RBIs. He's gotten his share, this season, after a slow start planted it in many fans' minds.

Knowing him, he'd sell them to a miser.

Not Duran?

Maybe you think the MLB Power Rankings are a joke, or worse, but here is an interesting tidbit of information that highlights how bad many of the best teams in MLB have looked at some point this season. Lowest season rankings of the top 10 teams, right now: 1. LAD 6th 2. NYY 7th 3. PHI 8th 4. MIL 19th 5 . BAL 5th (most consistent) 6. HOU 26th!!! 7. AZ 8th (pretty consistent) 8. CLE 21st 9. SDP 9th (consistent) 10. KCR 24th 11. MIN 23rd 5 of the top 11 teams were once viewed as 19th best or worse, at some point. If KCR or MIN play like they are 24th going forward, maybe we'll have a shot.

You keep repeating this about Devers, when he is very near his career RBI/PA norm. O'Neill has as many RBI per PA as the rest of the team. You guys get bummed that too many are from solo blasts.

Salem scored 5 in the bottom of the 9th to win 8-7. Happy Labor Day!

Fitts pitched well, today: 6 IP, 2H, 0ER, 0BB, 5 K (55 of 77 pitches were strikes.) Westbrook had another monster game, going 2-4 w a 2B & HR. Campbell went 1-3 w BB, Teel 2-3 w BB and Anthony 1-4 w 2B. Arias is 2-4 late in their game.

This has been the main reason I thought the Sox had a legit chance to make the dance. Hell, we were a decent season by Gio from still being in the division hunt.

I do think spending on extensions and arb raises is key, but most of our current players are already locked up or are pre-arb. The few that are arbs are 1st year ones that wont cost much. We have a window opening. We can say it starts in 2025 or 2026, but even if it's determined to be 2026, we can add a multiple year SP'er, this winter to help us have a chance in 2025, and still help in 2026 and beyond. We don't need another David Price, but we can do better than Gio, Kluber, Richards and all. Maybe last year was a bit lucky with the mid range SP'ers, but we missed many good chances at strengthening our rotation at moderate prices.

Yes, we were number 1 in spending in 2019, when the decline began. We were 3rd in that horrific 202o season, when the writing on the wall became clear to even the non-believers. The 2021 brought some hope the decline would be short, and we were still 3rd in spending..yes, just 3 years ago. We went from $180M to $195M, but dropped from 3rd to 6th, as several teams made huge spending leaps: +86M NYM +49M NYY +48M PHI +42M LAD +37M SDP By 2023, the big spending team got way out of hand, led by the Mets adding $93M more than the $86M in '23. No doubt, JH could have spent more, but keeping up with some of these wild spenders seems like a lot to ask. Had we stayed the same from '23 to '24, we'd have been 9th not 13th.

About as many exceptions as the "rule."

ND could move up to #6 or 7, since they were the only top team to beat a tough opponent. The ND schedule, this year, is easier than other years, so maybe this could be the season we finish in the top 2 or 3. 9/7 No. Illi 9/14 @ Purdue 9/21 MIA OH 9/28 Louisville Off 10/12 Stanford 10/19 @ GA Tech 10/26 @ Navy Off *** 11/9 FLA St (currently #10) 11/16 VA 11/23 at Army ***11/30 @ USC (currently #23, but will move up) Just two tough games, left.

Nobody has more PAs and a higher OPS than Duran. (Only Lindor has more PAs, so that is a major reason, but still...)

Maybe by a tiny bit, but there are 8 teams within 5 games of the best record, and some of them played tougher schedules than LAD. When you factor in all teh times the Dodgers have come up short, despite having the best record, if looks to me, like a toss up between LAD, PHI (-1,) MIL (-2,) NYY (-3,) and BAL (-3.5.) I see CLE (-4) and AZ/SDP (-5) as next tier. I might add HOU (-7) to the second tier. Maybe, I'm short-changing AZ & SDP, too. Best records since June 19th (last 64-66 games) 42-22 HOU 41-21 SDP 42-23 AZ 37-27 MIL 36-26 LAD 36-27 CHC 36-29 DET How about this? 32-32 PHI, 32-34 BAL, 31-32 BOS, 28-34 NYY Vegas agrees with you: +320 LAD +460 PH +600 NYY, +700 BAL, +750 HOU, +1600 SDP

We hear the same when suggesting we trade Anthony or Mayer in a package for an ace. To me, it's not giving up on them or valuing them less than those who say they ar untouchables. To me, getting an ace with 3+ years of control for one plus other pieces is showing I value them, greatly. BTW, I really liked the article and enjoy the back and forth, too.

We were at the top in spending in 2018 and 2019, and we had several big stars coming up on their big paydays. Our farm appeared more empty than it turned out to be, but the years going forward was going to cost a lot more than an already league leading point. Many of us felt a downturn was coming. I don't think anyone felt it would be so sudden and steep. JH's near complete divestment, which started slowly in 2019, when we let Kimbrell and Kelly go without replacing them in even half-kind. The rumor that DD nearly traded Betts in 2019 is more evidence that the budget cuts were coming, and comin sooner rather than later. Surely, it's easy to sit back and say, "JH can afford to spend more and should have done it," and that is totally true, but can't just about every fan of a cost limited team say the same? Maybe some owners aren't as rich as JH, and their revenue streams are smaller, but all owners are rich enough to spend significantly more, if they wanted to do it. In that context, why do we "deserve" it more? If anything, we could claim we were extremely lucky to have an owner that did fork over hundreds of millions of dollars that could have lined his pockets to bring us 4 rings. I've shown that JH has not really cut spending as much as him being passed by several owners going nutty with spending. I'm not sure how fair it is to think he should have gotten that "nutty," too. Now, spending up to the tax line should be easy for him, and I agree that there is no excuse for not doing, at least that, but I'm eternally grateful to JH for doing what he did. There were many times, in my life, I fully believed I'd never see the promise land. I've seen it 4 times. I don't really feel entitled to 5.

I don't see it as "giving up." Thornburg was damn good. If anything, it showed just how much they valued Shaw to insist on getting a top quality pitcher for a guy who didn't really have a FT position locked up, that year. Trading someone does not mean you gave up on the guy, especially when you get what was thought to be top quality in return. We tarded a very good player for another very good player. It just did not work out, due to Thornburg's injury and failure to recover from it.

The same guy who criticizes Cora more than anyone else, also quotes him as if he speaks the Gospel truth on the only importance being October.

DD made very few bad trades, and this one made sense, when made. We needed pen help, and Thornburg was good one, until he joined the Sox.

I'm feeling the least optimistic since March and before the season began. We simply had to beat Detroit, and we failed. Yes, we can now beat tougher teams, including some we need to pass, but we may need some sweeps to make that happen. We've backed ourselves into a very dark corner. There are enough games to still be mathematically in it, but the more we play, the more we seem to show we don't have it in us, anymore. First and foremost, we need our pen to turn it around, and NOW! I have faith our bats can do better. Our SP'ers have shown some improvement, already. The pen and D have been killing us, this past 5-6 weeks.

Great point. I felt the same way, at the time, despite the tiny sample size. His D is still a major issue at SS, but he's okay at 2B. With Mayer and Story both looking like SSs, having DHam on the 26 for 2025 looks very close to a given, IMO, even if Mayer is on the 26 and 40 on opening day. He's better than Romy and Sogard. Grissom might be able to give him a run, and he's a RHB, but he has to win the back-up job from DHam, IMO. DHam is clearly above him on the depth chart at 2B, and probably SS, too. His base stealing skills are amazing, and that gives the team a whole new dimension, when coupled with Duran's abilities. I know we are going through a very rough patch, right now, but I can't stop myself from being excited about our 13 everyday players for 2025. Just about every one of the 13 are pre-prime through peak prime. This does not mean all will improve, next year, but most players follow a somewhat bell curve on production that peaks around age 27-29. Ref is 33 and may retire. Story is 31, which is still within prime years (26-31.) Yoshida is 30. The other 10 are all under 30: 28: Wong 27: Devers, Duran, Romy 26: DHam, Sogard 25: Abreu & EValdez 24: Casas 23: Rafaela, Grissom

Leonard made some really bad throws- like way, way off the mark. It was one game, and he had pressure on him, a lot, so I'm giving him more time to show what he has, but I was not impressed, at all. I do think the play calling was overly conservative, but he was so wild, opening it up, more, might have led to interceptions... and a loss.

And, the way they played shows why you don't cut these guys loose to see what some highly touted prospect may or may not do- not that the choice was to DFA Abreu or DHam, others would be DFA'd before them, but keeping them at AAA would have meant we missed out on what they ended up giving. Hell, we may have just upped their trade value, to make it easier to make room for the kids. Anthong, Mayer, Teel, Meidroth and Sandlin all are at least a year away from Rule 5. I think this matters. I would not be surprised if none of them are on the 40 on opening day, but some may be added during the year, but only when they have a starting MLB slot ready for them to assume. We are not adding them to the 40 to ride the ML bench. (Also, we have a pretty decent bench, unless Ref retires, but even then, moving Rafaela to CF still leaves us with a solid 3 FT'ers, where adding Anthony would squeeze one out.

Extending arb and even pre-arb players has become more common, but not every player gets extended or agrees to one offered. The years of team control matters, a lot. There are ways for teams to fix it so a player gets 4 arb years, not three. There are way to start the clock on arbs a year or more, later with the idea that you can have a player on the big club from ages 25-29 or 30, instead of 24-27 or 28/29. That makes a lot of sense, as most players are better at ages 28-30 than from 22-24. Not all, of course. I'm only saying this is and should be one of many factors involved in deciding who and when a player is added to the 40. Most teams hold off adding someone to the 40, until it is Rule 5 time, and sometimes they delay beyond that date, if the determine the player is too far away to be selected, even if very promising. We currently have several minor leaguers, who are not on the 40, but are very close to being ML ready. Some might be ML ready, already. We also have a pretty deep returning player roster, and despite losing 4 big names to free agency, we have 4 guys on the 60 day IL that will fill their slots. Of course we have a few players like Dalbec that can easily be DFA'd to make room, or we could trade some bubble players for prospects not needing 40 man protection, but when winter rolls around, there doesn't seem to be much trade demand for "bubble players," as many teams are trying to squeeze their Rule 5 guys onto their current 40 man roster. I think we were proactive on this front, at the deadline, and "cleaned out" a lot of "bubble players" and players eligible for Rule 5, this winter. I do not see a major crunch to the roster, unless we add several non Rule 5 players to the 40, and this is where I think choices made on a guy like Campbell might be heavily influenced by wanting to keep other options available on the 40, for as long as possible. I do not think we choose to protect these players, but I am often wrong on who we choose to protect: Angel Bastardo, Nathan Hickey, Blaze Jordan (although we could DFA Dalbec and add him), JJ Liu, Wyatt Mills, Noah Song, Jeremy Wu-Yelland Bubble protectees: Alan Castro, Grant Gambrell, Luis Guerrero Certain protectees: Richard Fitts, Hunter Dobbins, Michael Fulmer, Jh Garcia As you can see, several prospects knocking most loudly on the MLB door are not on the Rule 5 list for Dec 2024: 2025: Marcelo Mayer, Chase Meidroth, David Sandlin, Miguel Bleis, I Coffey, H Mullins, J Paez 2026: Roman Anthony, Kristian Campbell, Kyle Teel and many more. These 5 underlined players all seem like they will be "ready" by opening day of mid-summer. I doubt we add even 3 or 4 of them before Sept call-ups. I will do a more indepth post on next year's 40 man roster and Rule 5 situation, later. Again, I don't see a big crunch. We can add some of these 5, even on opening day. If we see Anthony as being opening day ready, we could trade Abreu. If we see Mayer as ready, we could trade DHam, Romy or Sogard, of if there are any takers, Story. The back-up catcher situation is fluid, so it would be easy to add Teel over someone like Heineman, but I think adding Mayer and Campbell might be too problematic for roster construction, unless several deals are made.