moonslav59

I'm sure Duran will tell all, once he gets the boot.

I'd say our two top needs are big bats and a SS. A decent hitting or big bat hitting SS and and the same at 2B would be ideal, but DH or C would fit, too. SS: We aren't getting Witt, Lopez, McGonigle or Colsen Montgomery, but CJ Abrams at #5 in SS fWAR this year might be available. Neto at 14th would be hard to pry from the LAA. For those who want Willy Adams, he has a zero fWAR this year. He has the same OPS (.705) as IKF. The hope would be he can return to his old form, but I'm tired of hearing that. Abrams is at .864 and would be the prize. I doubt MIN trades one of their 3 middle infielders Kreidler (.877) Lee (.750) or Keaschall (.647) 2B: B Lowe at .815 looks like the best target at 2B. Arraez is at .812, but I think his decline will return. KMarte is at .790, now and may also be declining. He's still owed a chunk of change, too. Gleyber Torres (.790) might be the easiest to acquire, since he is a rental on a team going nowhere fast. C: I gotta go with Ryan Jeffers (.949) as he could DH, too. I've wanted him for years. Goodman (.856) has some decent road numbers, so he's not all that COL padded. He can DH, play 1B and corner OF as well. DH: Yordan (1.031) would be super costly. Soto (.975) is too expensive for JH. O'Hearn (.820) or Horwitz (.842) could be a target. Realistically, maybe Abrams would be too costly, but he'd be my #1 target. Maybe the best we could hope for is BLowe and Jeffers/Goodman/O'Hearn/Horwitz. Is that enough to give up some future for?

Sox OPS at 2B (.619) and SS (.600) are the worst in MLB- no surprise. It's nothing new. Story was the last major attempt to fix the issue, and then Bogey bolted a year later.

It's sometimes hard to ignore comments to posts by those on ignore, but it does make it easier by avoiding it all. At least Fred doesn't lie and distort what others say, so I can tolerate his extreme negativity. To each his own.

I've always felt that 3 ER in 6IP is not better than 2 ER in 5 IP or even 1ER in 4 IP, and in recent years, with SP'er going less and less IP, maybe we should keep track using my criteria over 3 ER in 6IP. (Hell, why isn't 4 ER in 8 IP even better, then? Same ERA and less taxing of the pen.) 4ER or less in 8 IP+ 3ER or less in 6 IP+ 2ER or less in 5 IP+ (at least 1 ER or less in 5IP) 1 ER or less in 4IP (at least 0 ER in 4 IP should count.)

Ah yes, Tolle only went 5 IP (3ER) 14 games ago, and Bennett went 5.1 (2 ER) 13 games ago. My bad. For some reason I was thinking 5 IP was the cut off. The last bad start by a Sox pitcher was 15 games ago. Early vs TEX: 4.2 IP 11 Hits 6 ER 2 BB & 3K

Durbin had a great June, last year, too.

Several players from the 2025 team were approaching prime or at peak prime. They should have done better and not just the same. A few players were young enough that projecting improvement was not justified. Call it the "sophomore slump" and some players have down seasons year 3 or 4, too, but too many are doing worse (Durbin & Mayer), way worse (Narvaez) or are hurt (Anthony.) Blame Brez and ourselves for hoping for better than what these guys have given us, but these 4 hurt us badly. (Durbin is seeking redemption.) Abreu plateau'd in peak prime. Duran fell sharply just as he reached the "peak" years. Yoshida is in prime and got worse. Story was already past peak prime, but not so far past that this type of cliff dive was to be expected. The injury seemed like a near blessing, Wong bounced back. Rafaela continued the normal bell curve rise as he gets closer to prime.

You think Duran will be good in 2028 (his final arb year) ?

I wish these two the best, but honestly, I'm not counting on any value added. I'm not writing either off, but we can't plan on a return.

SEA holds the last WC slot at .500 (same +8 run diff as BOS) -1.5 HOU -2.0 MIN -2.5 ATH & TOR -4.0 BAL -4.5 BOS We've won 8 of 11 and passed nobody.

Isn't it 14, now?

He only works in June.

Soxprospeccts.com podcast listed the core 5 as: Crochet, Suarez, Tolle, Anthony and Rafaela (borderline) Next tier 1A: Early, Bennett & Abreu (They have confidence in the pitching pipeline, so maybe can trade Early or Bennett, since they can be replaced. "Big chips to get a bat." Need to balance with a RHP starter, at some point. Eyanson + vets Crawford-Houck-Oviedo) Core/Keepers? Contreras, Mayer, Whitlock, Slaten (Would listen on offers)

The Sox have won 7 of their last 10 games and have 13 straight quality starts. (June 15 to June 28) MLB Team ERAJune 15> 2.58 BOS 2.84 TBR 2.91 SFG SP Only: 1.87 ERA (43 ERA-) 0.84 WHIP Pitchers: 0.71 Suarez (16 ERA-) 1.53 Bennett (35) 1.69 Gray (39) 2.25 Early (51) 3.00 Tolle (69) All under 0.94 WHIP (The pen has a 4.32 ERA in these 13 games)

Sox are 7-8 in Suarez starts. He has 4.26 run support and some bad luck. The Sox lost these games with these Suarez lines: 4IP 3H 0ER 1BB 3K 5.1 4 9 1 8 6.1 6 1 0 6 6.0 7 1 1 9 The record could easily be 11-4 or 10-5 in his starts. There was one win with 4 ERs in 5 IP, so 10-5 or 9-6 is a fair estimate.

A. Wong is okay on defense. He has a career 20% CS rate, which is not great, but not horrible. B. Abreu just barely overthrew the cutoff man. He leads the league in OF assists and is a legit GG winner. Chapman should pat Abreu on the back for saving his ass a few times. (BTW, Abreu made a great catch earlier in the game.)

Last Offseason- not including draft picks and IFA: Traded: Harrison, Drohan, Fitts, DHam, Dobbins, Bernardino, Perales, Hicks, Grissom, C Murphy, Jh Garcia, Hoppe, Sandlin, Clarke, Fajardo, Travieso, L Guerrero, Aita, Reimer, Galle (lost and regained: Paez & Bastardo/ Gained and lost: T Gray) Acquired: Suarez, Contreras, S Gray, Bennett, Durbin, IKF, Coulombe, Monasterio, Seigler, Oviedo, T Guerrero, Samaniego, Watson, Gasper, Cheng, Kahnle, Ziehl, I Jackson, Thaiss, Delay, N Baez, Ro. Hernandez, L Heyman, A Guzman ________________________ 2024-2025 Winter: Traded: Teel, Montgomery, Meidroth, Booser, Gasper, E Valdez, Wikelman, Elmer Rod Added: Crochet, Bregman, Chapman, Buehler, J Wilson, Narvaez, Newcomb, Burdi, Moran, Eaton, Fajardo, Fulmer, Vogatsky _________________________ 2023-2024 Winter: Traded: Sale, Verdugo, Schreiber, Urias, Ammons, Robertson & Santos, Added: Giolito, O'Neill, Romy, Fitts, Weissert, Slaten, Hendriks, Criswell, Grissom, Joely Rod, Heineman, Sandlin, I Campbell, Judice I probably missed a few.

ARod- LOL Technically: Schilling, Foulke and Reese? Maybe 2003 was better: Ortiz, Mueller, Millar/Kim/Timlin

We need a real deal bat. Tibbs is an unknown value at the big league level. With so many teams still "in it," I'm not sure who the sellers will be or how we match up with their wants and needs, but here is a run down of the worst teams and who might help us with our offensive needs: Top players by 2025+2026 OPS- some are or may be untouchable or not in JH's price range. Under .800 are selected players of interest... COL .863 Rumfield/ .843 Goodman/ .842 Moniak KCR .841 Witt NYM .935 Soto/.790 Lindor DET .814 McGonigle/ .807 R Greene/.770 Torkleson/ .756 G Torres SFG .818 Devers (LOL)/.746 Chapman/ ,728 WAdames LAA .823 Trout/ .780 Neto CIN .805 S Stewart AZ .887 Carroll/ .851 KMarte/ .809 Perdomo WSH .847 Wood/ .780 CJ Abrams PIT .809 Horwitz/ .809 O'Hearn/.800 BLowe BAL .854 Alonso TOR ,869 Springer MIN .886 Buxton/.798 Jeffers ATH .980 Kurtz/ ..851 Langeliers/ .817 Cortes/ .815 Soderstrom/ .806 Baldwin HOU .953 Yordan/ .829 Pena/ .796 Paredes MIA .848 Stowers ____________________________ My short list of reasonable targets: CJ Abrams SS (WSH) High salary lowers return costs? BLowe 2B (PIT) Probably the most bang for the buck Paredes 3B/DH (HOU) 1.5 yrs of control Jeffers C/DH (MIN) 3 month rental lowers cost Torres 2B (DET) 3 month rental KMarte 2B (AZ) High salary lowers return costs? Adames SS (SFG) High salary lowers return costs? _____________________________ BTV accepts: Phillips, Romero & Alcantara for BLowe, O'Hearn and Comp A pick or To BOS: Abrams & Jeffers To WSH: Mayer, Buxton & Wong To MIN: Ford, Soto, Witherspoon & Valera or Duran & Witherspoon for Paredes or Casas and Monasterio for Torres

He just too unpredictable on so many levels- from offense to defense to emotional, mental and body type (Physical). He changed positions. He changed his stance and approach more than any player I have ever seen, and it's just been 6 seasons, including two tiny sample size ones. He missed the road trip to TOR during COVID. He's had numerous run-ins with fans. He's had countless base-running and defensive, mental blunders. He's had stretches, some very long, where he looks like a top 15 to 20 everyday player in MLB. Other times, he looks average. Still others, he looks totally lost- both on O and D. Nothing in baseball is predictable, but you try and get as close to it as you can, and with this guy, it's impossible.

I don't see how anyone's opinion has not changed, at least to some degree. We still have way too many teams between us and the WC berth, but looking at the run diff numbers of those teams, they are due to regress to their norm. +101 NYY (13 over .500) +24 TBR (15 over .500) +18 CWS (4 over, but are they really this good?) +5 BOS (13 under!!! Talk about snakebitten!) +4 SEA (1 under and the last WC berth) -3 DET (14 under is about as shocking as the Sox) -8 TEX (at .500 and the last 2nd of 3 WC berths) -8 CLE (4 over- go figure) -26 BAL (7 under) -30 MIN (just 5 under) -33 TOR (just 6 under) -36 LAA (13 under) -42 HOU (just 2 under is amazing!) -70 KCR (15 under is about right)

If the deadline was tonight, I'd buy. I would not trade Arias. I'd look at trading farm pitching for a bat upgrade or two. Close call.

Of course how this season ends will have something to do with how this game ranked in Sox-Yanks lore, but wow, what a finish! Duran Duran! Hungry Like a Wolf!

It was 4-2 into the bottom of the tenth, but yes, we never come back like that. On Chapman, they scored on a flyball to Abreu and a terrible throw, then a chopper up the middle for a fielder's choice, followed by 2 Ks. Chapman is more than fine.