moonslav59

I think we score 4-5 or more runs, tonight. Crawford needs to bring his A game after a long rest.

I realize deadline deals seem to be more overpays than winter deals, but Crochet and Skubal both have 2 arb years left. I'd like to see us make a play for them. It would probably take a big 3, or maybe Campbell plus Bleis or Cespedes to get the talks started. There has been a lot of talk about which of the 3 (or 4 with Campbell included,) is most expendable. I see it this way: Mayer fits into our highest non pitching need area (middle IF.) He is at the top of my avid a trade list. Teel is a legit catcher. Even though we have Wong, catchers are too few and far between to trade him over an OF'er (see Anthony/Campbell.) Anthony or Campbell are both very promising, and I don't feel like I am devaluing them or writing them off by saying one could be traded for a TOTR pitcher, and we could absorb the loss. We have Duran, Rafaela, Abreu and whoever we keep from these two to take Ref's place in or after 2025. We also have Lugo, Yorke or Valdez to maybe play LF, if we need one. Bleis and Cespedes are too far away to have high enough trade value to get a TOTR pitcher. Their upside is too high to trade, now. We could include Fitts, Sandlin, Perales, E R-C or Dobbins, in a package for a SP'er with 2 or more years of team control. If anyone insists on Lugo, Yorke, paulino, Castro or Jordan, none should hold up a good deal.

Lets hope Paxton doesn't bite or ass like Kike did.

How about... To BOS: Fedde (1 yrs left at $7.5M) and Tanner Scott (Rental) To CWS: Abreu, Zeferjahn To MIA: Shuster, Yorke & 2 from Lugo/Paulino/Castro/Jordan

I'd do this. I think Yorke could help ease the loss of the LHB Abreu in the OF by being a RHB in LF, but you gotta give to get.

Crawford vs Paxton. NYY & BAL have already lost. 1. Romy 1B 2. Duran LF 3. O'Neill RF 4. Devers 3B 5. Wong C 6. Yoshida DH 7. Westbrook 2B 8. DHam SS 9. Rafaela CF Turn the tide, tonight!

Agreed.

Maybe he's one of those late bloomers.

OBP is often not something that transfers well to MLB. The list is long of those who can't do it. If we go by OBP, why not bring Dalbec back up? .363 OBP in minors/.290 in MLB. Others: .398 Cordero .396 Alex Hasan .392 Beni .384 Basabe .375 Lavarnway .372 Cecchini .370 Lars Anderson

Okay, yes, that makes more sense, but getting a pitcher, now, might make it work, especially if the pitcher is not a rental.

I think the theory behind a move like this is that the drop off from trading Abreu, who looks like a platoon OF'er, to a Refsnyder vs LHPs and rafaela from SS to CF v RHPs is not that great. Maybe Lugo or Yorke could play LF until Anthony is ready. Maybe EValdez or Grissom can play well enough to move Rafaela to CF FT. It does seem counterintuitive to trade one of our best hitters, but we are LHB heavy, and we need pitching more than a LHB.

Is Anthony going to be called up after the trade? More likely, Lugo, Yorke or EValdez/Grissom with Rafaela back to CF FT.

I'm not sure Abreu brings back a really good pitcher, but maybe good enough. We could go with Refsnyder/O'Neill in RF and Rafaela in CF, or Ref in LF, Duran in CF and O'Neill in RF. (I guess we could call up Lugo or Yorke to play LF, when ref sits. An Abreu plus a decent prospects (#7-20) might get us a good pitcher.

CBS Injury Report claims these players will be out AT LEAST until ... JUL 26 Slaten (doubtful, as he has yet to rehab.) JUL 26 Martin (doubtful, as he is currently "shut down.") AUG 2 Mata (out of options) AUG 9 Grissom AUG 15 Hendriks SEP 1 Casas

He had some injury issues a while ago, but has starter 29. 32 and 30 the last 3 years (16, so far in '24.) 3.5 years 4.13 ERA (102 ERA+) 4.22 FIP 1.19 WHIP Looks a lot like Pivetta's numbers, and a perfect fit for the Sox 4/5 starter addition philosophy. (I'm not dissing the idea: we need some decent innings eaten.) Only 20 pitchers have more IP since 2021 (569). Pivetta is 27th (4.32 ERA/4.15 FIP) 121 pitchers have 300+ IP since 2021, and here is where Taillon (and some others we know) rank in... xFIP- 22. Eflin 84 30. Nate 86 40. Flaherty 90 42. Kikuchi 91 49. Bello 93 52. ERod 93 55. Montas 94 59. Giolito 95 62. Bassitt 96 67. Heany 97 71. Berrios 97 76. Pivetta 98 79. Wacha 99 83. Taillom 102 85. Fedde 103 ERA- T74 Berrios, Heaney, T Rogers 100 T77. Taillon 101 (M Keller, Dunning) 85. Pivetta 103 94. Giolito 106 99. Bello 107

Seems like a wasted 26 man roster slot, unless he's waiting for mop up duty.

Could this be next year's Woo roster? SP: Penrod, Gambrell, Dobbins, Murphy, ICoffey/Bastardo/Drohan RP: Booser, Horn, ICampbell, Guerrero, Mills, Walter, Zeferjahn/Liu/Webb/Speas/Hoppe/Troye C: Teel, Hickey (Gasper) 1B: Jordan, Kavadas (Gasper/Dalbec) 2B: Yorke, McDonough SS: Mayer 3B: Meidroth LF: Lugo, Rosier CF: Anthony RF: Sogard, Sykes (Campbell?) DH: Valdez (Kavadas/Gasper)

He's been horrible for about a month, true. Last 28 Days OPSA 1.304 Bernardino 1.042 Weissert .994 Criswell .854 Bello .758 Jansen .745 Wink .685 Houck .670 Horn .648 Kelly .618 Anderson .530 Pivetta .521 Slaten (IL) .407 Crawford .364 Martin (IL) .328 Booser Do we follow the "hot hand" theory and start pitching Booser, Anderson and Horn more and more in higher leverage situations? It looks like Kelly is our new #2, but our #3 & 4 look sketchy.

Mostly, yes, but a few seem to have disliked him, all along, or when slumping spoke like that was what he truly was. One poster hated the "roid" guy addition from day one. One of the few areas our GMs have done pretty good on is adding one year OF'ers: Pillar '20 Renfroe '21 Duvall '23 O'Neill '24 The big swing and miss was JBJ in '22 (had a second year option) The Kike addition in 2021 worked, too, but that was his two year deal. Marwin was IF/OF and a miss. Kike II was a big miss.

Agreed. 1. Bailey 2. Slaten 3. O'Neill 4. Criswell 5. Maybe Fitts & Sandlin (potential value) Romy, Booser & Anderson have been okay. Maybe these guys up their stock, going forward: Grissom Weissert I Campbell Gio, Hendriks & Fulmer Lower level prospects obtained Draft and IFA additions

Indeed. I was talking about this team, as of right now. We may finish poorly. I was also talking about the future outlook of this team vs that after 2019 and 2020. Your point about after 2021 is a good one and well-taken.

While I agree with your point, and bringing Bailey aboard might have been his best winter move, this team is largely Bloom & DD's. DD was roundly criticized for "emptying the farm," and yet here we are enjoying several of his prospects and some of Ben's not traded away. Bloom was criticized, and rightfully so, for not winning more games, but many hardly ever give him credit for rebuilding the foundational depth and farm to respectability. He also did not trade away key prospects chasing wild miracle hopes in 2022 and 2023. Many here, including me and you, suggested we trade Duran. Many disliked the Vaz-Abreu/Valdez trade. I could go on, but it's all been rehashed, enough. On the surface, look at Brez's winter moves: FA/Rule 5/Waivers Giolito Criswell & Anderson Slaten Romy & Booser Hendriks & Fulmer DSmith & Keller Westbrook & Spears Trades: O'Neill for Robertson & Santos Grissom for Sale Weissert & Fitts for Dugo ICampbell for Urias Sandlin (Rule 5 trade) Cooper, Horn, Wingenter & Heineman It kinda looks like a Bloom winter: restricted by budget constraints, top spending failures, and some gems found at lower costs. His two best moves for 2024, only, look to be O'Neal and Slaten, who is now on the IL. (Just before yesterday's game, even O'Neill was being bashed.)

Are we better, now than we were in 2019 and 2020? Even if Sale and ERod were healthy for 2020, this team is better. They had to do a few things right to make that happen, and the farm is way better than it was in 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021.

This is the reason I think we trade for a 5th starter type and 1-2 decent RP'ers. Not only will there be less sellers, there will be more buyers.

True. We have had worse years for pen injuries. We even started the year with Jansen and Martin missing most of the end to ST'ing. We've used 17 RP'ers, not counting Reyes and DSmith's mop up games. That's not a whole lot for a 13 man pen. Only 8 have gone 24+ IP. It's not uncommon for the RP'ers with the most IP to be the low leverage ones, and with the Sox, that is true: IP rank: (OPS Against) 1. Anderson .621 2. Weissert .804 6. Booser .619 (started the season in AAA) 9. Winckowski .764 (was demoted to AAA, at one point.) 10. Keller .702 11. Joely .875 12. Horn .670 13. I Campbell 1.175 The Core 5: .569 Jansen .579 Slaten (IL) .682 Martin (IL) .549 Kelly .674 Bernardino 8 our our top 13 pitchers are sketchy, and 2 of the others are on the IL, yet we rank as follows as a pen: T4 fWAR 3.8 4th in K/BB at 3.1 9th xFIP- 96 11th xFIP 3.93 7th ERA- 88 12th ERA 3.75 (10th SIERA 3.61) 12th in WHIP at 1.25 21st in BAbip at .294 (poor D behind them)