moonslav59

AA June OPS 1.416 Anthony 1.283 Binelas (the other prospect in the Renfroe trade) 1.123 Campbell 1.067 Lugo .990 Teel .985 Jordan .892 Mayer AAA 1.359 Gasper 1.153 Yorke 1.009 Meidroth .877 Sogard .818 Lugo .806 Alvarez .802 Kavadas

It's almost always longer than I think, so I'm trying to be realistic. Being a catcher is not easy. I'm not sure how they view his defensive readiness, and I'm not sure we want to take our improved pitching staff out of their comfort zone with McGuire and Wong. Players not needing to be on the 40, often get left in AAA longer, as teams want to keep as many MLB ready options in the system, as possible. I think Teel, Mayer and Anthony all might be ML ready, very soon, as in 2024 or maybe even now. I doubt Sox brass thinks like me and you. I think the fact that none have been promoted to AAA, yet, despite not being blocked is telling. I think they deal with the 26 and 40 man roster through Rule 5 and roster changes, this winter, and then add one of the big 3 to the 40, only when needed in 2025. That may or may not happen to any or all of the big 3.

I was one of the few saying Yoshida deserved a longer look, and did okay for much of 2023. His ending really hurt his numbers, but I'm done with him. It's not just about his missing time and sucking much of the time: it's more about other batters needing to play, instead of him. If he stays on the 26, Cora will play him more than I want to see. Trade him and 80% of his salary to a west coast team. I agree with you on Yoshi. I just don't think adding a RHB who is a DH/OF, DH/Croner IF or DH/C fits into the scheme. Find a middle IF'er with a big RHB and let me know. As far as O'Neill's health is concerned, it is an issue, but even without him, we have Ref to DH v RHPs and the hot DSmith vs RHPs. O'Neil is 7th on the team in Games started, just 1 game behind 6th (DHam) and 7 behind Abreu and Wong. He may catch Abreu, soon. Only Duran and Rafaela have started more than 56 games.

I don't see Teel as a 2024 option. He may not be added to the 40 until mid 2025, at the earliest. McGuire is wonderful with our staff. Wong has had reverse splits for 3 straight years and by a lot, until this year's near even splits. In the minors: 2019:.829/.738 reverse splits 2021:.730/.733 almost identical 2022:.798/.967 A big non reverse split I'm not so sure he normalizes his splits, but with catchers, you never see a L-R platoon that I know of, anyway.

Teams win all the time, despite having s***** players at certain positions or not having someone due to injury. There is no way in hell, I see anyone as being batter than Story at SS or 2B- not DHam, not Romy, not Valdez and not Westbrook. We'd be a better team with Story, even if he kept hitting .681, which I do not concede would be his projected OPS.

Now, add a big RHB that plays OF/DH or corner IF/DH. It doesn't work. I don't think C/DH works either, as McGuire has done an awesome job with our staff, so that leaves middle IF big RHB. Name names. Do we get a rental SS/2B/DH type at the deadline?

Now, compare them to Bobby Dee at 3B. Is Bobby Dee that much better that he deserves his 99th life?

Westbrook and Valdez have played some 3B in the minors, too. It would not be good having Romy or Westbrook at 3B, but both should hit better than Dalbec.

Defense. He's hitting better, recently. The tougher decisions are vs LHPs, but yes, if you go just by the batting splits, Ref and O"Neill should play over Rafaela vs RHPs. Someday, Ref might come back down to earth v RHPs, but I do think he should play, if and until he does.

In 683 career PAs, Wong has 15 HRs and 39 2B+3B. His decent .725 catcher OPS is mostly fueled by SLG (.404) not OBP (.321,) but I guess that might be about the norm. I do think he will eventually "regress," but to what? .725 to .750. For a catcher, I'll take it. I don't know what happened to McGuire's bat, but he has done a great job with the staff. CERA: Houck: 1.46 McGuire (37 Inn)/2.33 Wong (54 Inn) Crawford: 1.61 McGuire (22)/ 4.22 Wong (64) Pivetta: 1.55 McGuire (29)/ 6.66 Wong (24) B Bello: 3.86 McGuire (12)/ 5.26 Wong (51) Criswell: 3.12 McGuire (35)/ 6.23 Wong (17) It's a clean sweep with our SP'ers- some by a heel of a lot.

With the big RHB we need? Wong hits RHPs better than LHPs, so you are looking to add a better platoon catcher?. Do you have someone in mind? Also, I don't know anyone who platoons catchers based on L-R splits.

I'm not a Celtics fan, but WOW! They are clearly the best team in 2024! Congrats!

He has really been horrible on D for his MLB career. He looks a little better, this year, in limited playing time. It does not matter if you hit RH'd, if you don't hit the ball. I'll take Smith with his crappy D and reverse splits.

What does it matter? We are not going to get a big RHB to catch for us. The Wong-McGuire tandem is here for 2024 and maybe 2025, too. As long as we have O'Neill and Ref, we don't really need a RHB at DH or OF, unless you want a full platoon for Duran (.587 v L) and Abreu (.450) Career L/R splits: .578/.802 Duran .437/.906 Abreu I'd say clear yes on Abreu, but I'm not so sure about benching Duran for 30% of our games. His D and baserunning are important in every game.

Wong is a freak. His batting vs RHPs is not fluke. He is a career reverse split batter: .769 v RHPs in 478 PAs, mostly slugging .621 v LHPs in 205 PAs Sidenote: our lefty-batting catcher's splits: 2024: .933 v L/.587 v R 2023: .875 v L/ .639 v R We are not looking to get a big RHB at Catcher or corner IF. Our OF is deepe enough to think about trading from strength, if we are going to sell or trade aLH'd OF'er for a pitcher or RHB who plays OF, but we already have O'Neill and Ref in that role, and they are both looking squeezed in OF play. DH has to be a slot for them, and I'd argue, even against RHPs I'm not big on going just with 2.5 month sample sizes of data to fix the line-up configurations, but here are the 2024 L-R splits for the Sox: vs RHPs (usually about 70% of SP'ers are RHPs) 1.001 Devers (FT- always) .905 Duran (FT) .895 Abreu (Could be platooned w Ref/O'Neill) .874 Refsnyder (IMO, he needs to play vs almost all RHPs, until he shows he should not) .821 Wong (Our catchers are not L-R platooned, but if they were, it would be in reverse) .817 DHam (Needs to play, unless he earns a benching) .807 Casas (will be back to FT, upon returning) .776 EValdez (on fire, right now) .751 O'Neill (Based on this, he just might have to be benched vs most RHPs, surprisingly) .729 Yoshida (Can't even beat out LHBs for the DH slot vs RHPs) .670 Romy .619 Rafaela .587 McGuire .568 Smith .501 Dalbec (Proving keeping him, because he bats RH'd is pointless.) .334 Grissom .310 Westbrook Vs LHPs (Maybe 30% of starts) 1.195 O'Neill (has to play 100% of games vs LH'd SP'ers) 1.036 D Smith (reverse split) .994 Casas (SSS, but is a FT'er) .958 Westbrook (WOW!) .904 Wong .885 Refsnyder (Needs to start every game vs LHPs) .818 Rafaela .794 Devers .739 Romy .587 Duran (Do you platoon him over this?) .572 DHam .517 Grissom .503 Yoshida .450 Abreu .316 Dalbec .091 Vadlez (should never start vs LHP) Based on these numbers, maybe we see this with 100% healthy players: C: Wong (FT, as much as possible for a catcher)/ McGuire when needed 1B: Casas has to go FT 2B: Valdez v R/ DHam or Westbrook v L SS: DHam v R/ Romy v L 3B: Devers FT LF: Duran v R/ O'Neill or Ref in half the starts vs LHPs CF: Rafaela FT (When he rests, Duran to CF and O'Neill or Ref to LF) RF: Abreu v R/ O'Neill or Ref in half the starts vs LHPs DH: O'Neill or Refsnyder (see LF/RF) There is zero room for Yoshida in any line-up, unless someone gets hurt or starts slumping, badly. There is no room for Dalbec, and I'd take DSmith as the Casas back-up, since we have a back-up 3Bman, anyway. There may be no room for Grissom, but time will tell on that.

When Abreu comes back, I see an all lefty OF, except for scheduled days off, hopeful when we face a LHP. We could play Rafaela at SS, but that does not add a righty bat to the line-up either. Using the DH slot to play O'Neill and Ref seems like the only real option, with a few scattered games in the OF. I hate to think we'd bench even one of these two, and certainly not ever vs a LH SP'er. In theory, getting a big RH bat that plays middle infield makes the most sense, but who would that be? How do we get him? Will he end up doing better than DHam, EValdez and Romy have been doing, so far in June? Now, when O'Neill bolts, this winter, obtaining a RH bat at DH/OF or DH/Corner IF or Middle Infield makes a ton of sense.

The point was benching Yoshida for a big RHB. When Abreu returns, we already have Ref & O'Neill with no position to play but DH and back-up OF, so yes, I took the vegasbob point as such.

IMO, he also need to choose the right path of decisiveness. If we should be sellers and goes all in on buying, that is not good, and vice versa. Of course, it's hard to know in foresight. We still argue about past lanes taken in hindsight. I've been one of the most optimistic fans on this site, this season, and I'm still nearly certain, selling should be the lane taken. That being said, if Brez can be a genius and "buy" a younger pitcher with 3+ years of control, at the deadline, I'm all for buying and would even trade top prospects to do that. IMO, that is nearly impossible to do, but maybe Brez can pull it off. If selling means trading Matthew Lugo, Wikelman, Jordan and Paulino for something decent, then I have no issues with buying. If Brez is done with someone like Wink, I trust his judgment on trading him or the like. If we trade a top 6 prospect of 2 from #4-20 for a rental, I'd be very concerned about it being a bad choice.

When the guys you play, instead are worse than replacement level, you can still miss someone. Gio's replacements have not been that, but we could still have used Gio at his norm. We can't assume anything about just about any player, and I certainly don't automatically assume Story would continue at .681, like he has since joining the Sox. I will say, .681 and his superior defense makes him an improvement over every other SS we have played since Bogey left after 2022. DHam has really come on strong, and I get Max's point about not missing him, of late, but Story still is tied in bWAR and tfWAR at SS. fWAR 0.7 Story (1.0 bWAR) & DHam (1.0 bWAR) 0.3 Reyes 0.2 Romy & Chang 0.0 Rafaela -1.1 Kike The real kicker is Story at 2B: fWAR since 2022 2.5 Story 0.6 Arroyo 0.1 Urias 0.0 DHam -0.1 Downs, Turner, EValdez -0.2 Reyes -0.3 Kike & Sanchez -0.8 Grissom In terms of overall middle IF value, even playing as little as he has, Story is second only to Bogey since 2022. We all know his big value skill is his D, but look at out MI OPS since 2022 (500+ PAs, unless noted) .833 Bogey .749 Westbrook 24 .717 Romy 42 .710 DHam 191 .698 Urias 109 .696 Arroyo .681 Story .669 Rafaela 356 (mostly CF) .647 Reyes 249 .615 Kike (most MI PAs on the Sox at 725) .564 Chang 138 .427 Downs 41 .367 Grissom 87 .322 Y Sanchez 44 I'd love to see Story at SS w DHam & Romy/Valdez at 2B. IMO, we miss him.

O'Neill is now 2nd in OPS on the Sox. We have 7 players over .800 and 9 over .700. .929 Devers .888 O'Neill .879 Refsnyder .857 Casas .850 Wong .829 Abreu .809 Duran .776 Duran (.748 Westbrook w just 18 ABs) .717 Romy G On a serious rise... .670 Rafaela (.822 in June) .668 Valdez (1.199 in June) .636 Smith (.801 in June)

So, we bench Refsnyder or O'Neill?

We seriously miss Story's bat & glove. We seriously miss Gio. We could have used the Grissom of 2022.

Yup. He's showed power in the minors, too.

HRam Rusney Renteria

Even paying 80-90% of what's owed might not get a taker, but I'd try.