moonslav59

I'm hopeful the revamp of Pitching Development makes its mark, and it will take some time to start seeing the results at the big level, but I do like the fact that we have added more promising pitchers to the farm in the last 10 months than we have in a long time. Of course, it would be nice to see some nationally ranked, but we have seen many pitchers showing real promise, this summer. I've never been one to favor quantity over quality, when it comes to pitching, but quantity is better than sparsity. We need some young pitchers to make some significant jumps in the next few years, but with so many of them, the odds have improved on that happening. 1-2 years: Priester, Fitts, Dobbins, Gambrell, Murphy, Mata 2-3 years:Perales, Sandlin, E R-C, Tolle, Early, Monegro, Paez, Mullins, Dean, 3-4 years: Valera, Cason, Neely, Wehunt, D Reyes, Clarke, Tygart, Carlson, Ingrassia

He did have a .905 OPS in 1994, although for just 301 PAs. He led the league in 2Bs in '97, while hitting .871. He hit .811 in 1996, .793 in '93 and .781 in '98. From '93 to '98: .845 (21 HRs and 70 xbhs per 162 games) In that 5 year stretch, he was 11th in fWAR at 29.1. He hit .879 from '94-'97 (45th in MLB) and had a 19.4 fWAR . It wasn't a real long stretch of being real good, but I think it was more than just that one great season.

Be careful saying you have enjoyed this team. It upsets some posters.

I totally agree, especially on the part about us being in a "better spot, now" than we have been in a long time. We have a solid and deep everyday roster. We have a few role pitchers that could be major plusses, if we don't ask them to fill roles they are not good enough to fill. Houck, Bello and Gio should be fine 3-5 SP'ers. Whitlock, Crawford and Wink should be fine mid to long RP'ers or solid 1-2 IP set-up men. Slaten & Hendriks could be nice set-up men. Out of Weissert, Kelly, Booser, Bernardino, I Campbell, Fulmer and a few others, we would be fine with pen depth, but we need to add a closer and solid set-up man to move these guys down a slot on the depth chart- where they belong. Criswell, Fitts, Priester and maybe Dobbins would be okay as slot 6-9 on the rotation depth chart, but not in any higher role. In short, while it sounds like adding 4 major pitchers is too much to ask for, with the budget space and trade capital we have, we can pull it off. We can't have any swings and misses, or maybe just 1 miss out the 4 additions, but that is not some pie-in-the-sky dream. Sign a #1/2 like Burnes. Trade for a #2/3 or sign one. Add a closer and solid set-up man. Maybe trade a lefty bat for a righty bat, and call it a day.

Yanks and KCR lost, which just makes our loss seem more hurtful, in some way. I'm not sure we have enough time to reach the dance.

The farm is becoming closer to being more entertaining than the big club. Westbrook hit a granny to lead Woo to a victory. He went 3-4. Story went 2-4 as the DH. Anthony & Campbell went 1-4, Meidroth 1-1 and Teel went 2-4 with a homer & BB. Grissom homered and walked once. POR won 9-1 as Bolden pitched 4 no hit innings. Romero's stock keep rising, as he homered while going 3 for 6. Jh Garcia went 2-4 w a BB. GRE won 6-1, as Monegro went 5 IP, allowing 2 hits, 2BBs and no ERs (5Ks.) SAL completed the farm sweep with a 6-5 win. Ingrassa 2 IP 0H, 0ER, 2BB, 2K. Brannon went 3-4 w a dinger. Nice day on the farm: horrible day in Detroit.

5 Hits & 2BB: 1 run 3 Hits & 1BB: 4 runs The Sox season in a nutshell.

Been using Hill, a lot, after such a short time in the minors. I guess this was bound to happen. He can't be at 100%.

Sox SP'er after their first 4 starts, then since then... ERA/FIP 0.42/2.19 Crawford (4.71/5.07 since) Was at 2.17/2.91 after 10 & 3.00/3.78 after 20. 1.35/2.01 Houck (3.46/3.59 since) Was at 1.91/2.24 after 13 & 2.79/2.93 after 21. 1.75/3.61 Criswell (includes 1 RP gm) 5.20/4.23 since, not counting today. 1.96/3.34 Whitlock N/A (on IL) 3.92/4.72 Bello (4.80/4.32 since) Was at 3.04/4.07 after 5 & 3.52/4.27 last 9 GS.

Duran has really stepped it up, and that is not an easy thing to do, since he was doing great, beforehand.

It is a big gamble to trade top prospects for a pitcher that may get hurt or suddenly decline, but what sort of gamble is it to add no major upgrades to this staff? I'd say it's near 100% certain we will not win a ring with our current pitching staff and farm pitching, for a long time. We simply have to roll the dice, and hope we finally hit on the next one.

I think this topic deserved its own thread. It hasn't even been a year, yet, and Brez has already faced a lot of criticism, rightfully so on a few choices made (Gio, Sale/Grissom & 3 of the deadline deals.) I do not think there has been enough talk on Slaten, O'Neill, dumping Dugo and his whole schtick, and the building up of our pitching depth (Weissert, I Campbell, Criswell) farm pitching... ?? Priester 10. Sandlin 14. Tolle 15. Fitts 23. Cason 30. Neely, 34. Reyes, 38. Horn, 44. Clarke, 45. Tygart and more...

They did do well with the Pablo Lopez trade & extension, buy yes, they are a fine example of a team, like the Sox, dealing with budget restrictions, but they have done better ... for 2024, anyway.

We face a righty, today, in a pretty close to must win game. Brieske has a 4.44 ERA. Rafaela gets the day off, and Ref gets a start vs a RHP. Here is the line-up: 1. L Duran CF 2. L Yoshida DH 3. R Refsnyder LF 4. L Devers 3B 5. L Casas 1B 6. R Wong C 7. L Abreu RF 8. R Romy 2B (too bad DHam is out) 9. L-R Sogard SS I like our chances, today, but then again, I did yesterday, too. Criswell needs to do well.

I agree, and a large chunk of his moves were designed for the 2025 and beyond teams: Hendriks & Fulmer jump out as two. Fitts, Sandlin & Priester, among others 2024 and beyond: Criswell, Weissert, I Campbell & Romy

KCR had a winter spending budget that allowed them to sign several pitchers. Of course, that does not absolve Brez from his big swings and misses on Gio, Grissom and most of his deadline deals, so far.

I remember him, fondly. He was one of the most underappreciated stars on those teams in the 90's.

I did not know he was that huge. Maybe it helps him become a good pitcher. I do like how Brez has attempted to improve our pitching pipeline, even if just with quantity and not so much quality. We have to start somewhere, and not many felt like Crawford, Wink and Pivetta would amount to much, when we acquired or drafted them. Gio, Slaten, Criswell, Hendriks, Weissert, I Campbell, Paxton, Hill, Garcia, Sims, Horn & other MLB pitchers Priester, Fitts, Sandlin, Judice, Tolle, Cason (SS, too), B Neely, D Reyes, B Clarke, B Tygart, B Aita, D Futrell, S Rojas, J Medina, S Brooks, S Sprague, A Bouchard, J Gartrell, G Kilander, C Tolbert, B Hansen... Pitchers we traded away: Sale (Grissom), Schreiber (Sandlin) , N Robertson & V Santos (O'Neill), Zeferjahn & Vargas (Garcia), O Portis (Sims), G Batista (Jansen), Bolivar (Paxton)

It's in MVP's head, too. I could see choosing Mayer as the one top prospect to trade away, but with out middle infield being the weakest area on our every day roster, I don't really like the idea, unless it brings back someone like George Kirby and his 4 years of arb control.

Skubal & Crochet both have 2 arb years left. Unless we extend them after a trade, I don't think a 2 year window is big enough to trade so much young talent for. Deals like Luis Castillo and Pablo Lopez do come up, here and there: both were extended after the trades. If I'm giving up two our top 4 prospects (Anthony or Campbell plus Mayer or Teel,) I'm looking for longer team control pitchers like... Logan Gilbert (3 arbs), George Kirby (4 arbs) or 2 pre-arb guys like Bryce Miller & Bryan Woo, who might take 3 top prospects to get (only 1 from Anthony & Campbell.) We could also look to trade for a higher salary guy like Luis Castillo ($21.6M AAV through 2027 w option for 2028,) and it wouldn't cost as much in prospects to make happen. This, of course, depends on SEA's willingness to trade pitching for hitting. We'd likely have to WOW them to get a deal. Mayer, Teel, Abreu and Winckowski might be enough.

I feel the same way. Part of my thinking on the Sale trade was that we probably fixed the 2B problem (We did not) and added $10M to the winter spending budget that would surely add more than just Gio, Criswell and Chase Anderson. We ended up cutting the opening day budget by exactly the $10M we saved on Sale, so I don't see it as using his saved money to sign Gio. I see it as using it to pay JH's yacht crew & mansion staff. Had we spent up to the tax line, we could have signed Imanaga or Lugo, instead of Hendriks. That would probably have been enough to get us into the playoffs, especially if we took Lugo away from KCR. The next what if was Gio's injury, but that crap happens , all the time. The Astros are ahead of us, despite having 4 of their top 6 starters out, all year or most of it.

Brez is near having his first year as team CBO under his belt. He's already done a lot of moves, including some significant ones, as well as attempted to change the way we acquire and develop our prospects and players. I won't get into the changes he has made to the scouting and development, so far, and those changes may take years to realize any gains (or losses.) I hope this thread can be an honest look at what he has done, can do, should do and is allowed to do by JH & Co. I'll kick the thread off by simply cataloguing his most significant moves made, so far. I'm sure I'll miss some or list some that might not be viewed as significant, but here is my list: Signed Giolito: $18M/1 w $19M player option for 2025 ($1M buyout) and club option for $14M for 2026 or $19M, if he pitches 140+ IP in 2025. Extended Brayan Bello to $55M/6 w option for $21M in '30 ($1M buyout) Extended Ceddanne Rafaela to $50M/8 w $16M option for '32 and $4M buyout Traded for Vaughn Grissom (Chris Sale & $17M cash) Traded for Justin Slaten- a Rule 5 pick (Ryan Ammons) Traded for Richard Fitts, Greg Weissert & Nicholas Judice (Verdugo) Traded for Tyler O'Neill (Nick Robertson & Victor Santos) Signed Cooper Criswell ($1M/1 w arbs pending after 2025) and Chase Anderson Signed Liam Hendriks $8M/2 w option for '26 at $12M (w $2M buyout- making it a $10M/2 or $20M/3 deal) Traded for David Sandlin (Schreiber) Traded for Isaiah Campbell (Luis Urias) Traded for Quinn Priester 7/28 (Nick Yorke) Traded for Danny Jansen 7/27 (Paulino, C Coffey & G Batista) Traded for Luis Garcia 7/29 (M Lugo, Kavadas, Zeferjahn & Vargas) Traded for Lucas Sims 7/29 (Ovis Portes) Traded for James Paxton 7/26 (Moises Bolivar) Signed Dominic Smith (May 1st) and Brad Keller (5/28) Signed Rich Hill (8/17) to minor league deal> majors Traded for Garrett Cooper (Cash) Traded for T Wingenter (CJ Weins) Traded for Bailey Horn, Tyler Heineman, Zach Short, N Uwasawa (all for cash) Later, traded Short for cash. Traded Pablo Reyes for cash. Rule 5 Picks: Mickey Gasper (minor league phase) & Shane Drohan returned to Sox Waiver Claims: Romy Gonzalez, Max Castillo, Y Ramirez Signed to minor league deals: Michael Fulmer (2 yrs), Jamie Westbrook, Joely Rodriguez, Wyatt Mills (2 yrs), Lucas Luetge Drafted: Braden Montgomery (12), Payton Tolle (50), B Neely (86), Z Ehrhard (115), B Clarke (148) and 11 more pitchers and 4 everyday players. (14 pitchers out of 20 draft picks) IFA signings: V Asencio ($1M), C Carrasqquel ($590K), E Brito ($450K), D Reyes ($450K- RHP), A Fermin ($400K), Justin Gonzalez ($250K) and many more to $200K or less All-in-all, there were a lot of pitchers acquired, of which some won't play until 2025 or beyond, if at all. We've already hashed out the Gio signing and Sale trade, and to some extent other moves, but not all that much.

Who said they thought Grissom was a better hitter than Campbell. I don't disagree that Campbell might be ready to be called up, now. I do, however, trust the Sox organization to know when he is ready, and how to maximize his years of control on the big club, when he is at a point where he will be playing his best. Why waste a year of control having him learn and adjust, when we can have a year added in his prime, on the back end? Calling someone up is not such a simple task. That being said, if they called him up, today, I'd be happy. I'd be thinking he must be ready. I've not given up on Grissom, but he has to earn his way to the 26, and earn his way to being a starter. His only "leg up" on Campbell is that his years of service clock has already begun.

Agreed. It's like they thought it was going to be easy.

The Domers pulled it out. I wasn't impressed by our QB play.