moonslav59

You are sounding like the posters you bashed a couple months ago.

Houck and Crawford hit the wall weeks ago. We needed to manage their IP and or pitch counts, all along. The lack of pitching depth killed us. It might be too late to hope for a return to form from those two pitchers, even if we go to a 6 man rotation and baby them the rest of the way. I can't see Pivetta, Criswell, Paxton and Bello taking up the slack. We would need to trade for an ace and 2-3 solid RP'ers to get our staff back to top tier (10) or maybe 11th to 15th best. I'm not feeling all that optimistic, anymore. I know two games should not flip a switch, but it's been more than the last 2 games. The rotation was showing signs of decline before th AS break, and the whole staff collapsed after the break. I'm not sure adding 4 solid pitchers will be enough.

I am far from an expert on other teams' farm hands, but are RP'ers really getting massive overpay returns? Are the prospects given up actually better than Yorke, Lugo, Meidroth, Castro, Hickey, Kavadas, Jordan, Wikelman and other mid-level Sox prospects? We have extra depth on the farm at every position, except pitching: C: Teel, Jo Garcia, Hickey, Brannon 1B: Jordan, Gasper & Kavadas 2B: Grissom, Valdez, Romero (Meidroth, Campbell, Yorke/Lugo) SS: Mayer, Zanetell, Cespedes 3B: Meidroth LF: Campbell, Lugo, Yorke CF/RF: Anthony, Bleis IMO, we can afford to trade 5-7 midlevel guys and still have decent farm depth and keep all our top 7-9 prospects.

Would a WS appearance cause another waiver?

Yes, but the more I thought about how bad our 2B position had been for 4-5 years, and how promising Grissom looked, I moved towards thinking the deal was okay. The more I thought about the unreliability of Sale, and how all the Klubers, Richards and other oft-injured SP'ers killed our chances over the last 4-5 years, I began to like the deal, a little bit. Then, the more I thought about the $10M "saved," and how we might use that towards paying some of another SP'er salary (beyond Gio,) I came to like the deal. When we did not add another SP'er (like Lugo, Imanaga or Flaherty,) I began my "sham" talk. The savings was not really used. Sure, we can say we don't sign Gio without the Sale trade, or we don't take on O'Neill's cost without it, but that's all a smoke screen for JH's greediness and neglect. The Sale deal made some sense. The fact that Grissom has sucked, this year, and Sale has returned to Chris Freakin' Sale does not change the deal's merits at the time. The Gio injury only added to the problem of the deal's failure.

But otherwise thought the player swap was okay.

You'd need JH to cooperate with DD, to make that work. Yes, we do need a RH bat, and will need two, next year as O'Neill reaches free agency. Ideally, O'Neill would be the DH and Abreu/Ref would platoon RF (Duran in LF and Rafaela in CF.) I wonder if Duran might be better in RF than Ref and maybe even Abreu. His arm seems okay. The issue is Yoshida, and he might be for a couple more years. If O'Neill or Ref (platoon) do not play DH, where do we add the RH bat? With Story, Mayer (LHB) and a DHam/Romy/Grissom platoon as back up, I'm not sure adding a middle IF big bat is likely, and it would be very costly. Assuming Casas returns to form, he will not be platooned, so a RHB 1Bman makes little sense for 2025>>>. Perhaps the best choice, in theory would be to trade Abreu for an Abreu clone who bats RH'd. Anthony bats LH'd. (Campbell might play LF and bats RH'd.) In 2025, maybe bring back O'Neill and trade Abreu for a RH'd RF'er with the same control and skills as Abreu. Our offense would be set, as long as one from Mayer and Story produce. Those are not long odds. Add Teel to the catching tandem, and we look sweet on O, and not bad on D: 2025: C: R Wong & L Teel 1B: L Casas (Romy) 2B: R Story & L DHam/R Romy-Grissom SS: L Mayer (Story & DHam-Romy) 3B: L Devers (Romy) LF: R O'Neill & R Refsnyder(L Duran) CF: R Rafaela & L Anthony (L Duran) RF: L Duran & RHB return for Abreu DH: L Yoshida (R Refsnyder/ R O'Neill) All 3 rookies will not be on the 26 in April, but by August they very well could be. Our issue is and always has been pitching. The only times it wasn't was 2004, 2007, 2013 and 2018.

He rarely gets a high-priced player that fails. That is a major plus. We've seen so many of our higher paid additions fail and fail badly. I'm not sure what is record is with under-the-radar additions.

Meanwhile... To KCR: Michael Lorenzen (SP) To TEX: Walter Pennington There are still plenty of pitchers on the block, and I hope Brez is not thinking Paxton is nearly enough.

They often take 1/2 day to 1 and 1/2 days to report.

I think we can get some significant RP'ers for prospects below #9 and Valdez. If we have to deal Abreu, we can, but it better be for a decent RP with 2-3 more years of control.

If there ever was a time to go on a good 15 game stretch, it is now. We play only teams that are closest to us in the WC race: 6 v TEX 3 v HOU 3 v SEA 3 v KCR Then, it's on to BAL & HOU, again. I'm not predicting a winning stretch, but it would help to go 9-6, or 8-7 as long as we take 2 or 3 from KCR.

Why wouldn't he? Of course, alone he won't bring back much, but I'm sure many teams would want him in a package. Sub Sandlin or E R-C, if you prefer.

Pitchers who allowed a run per game: 4/4 today 4/6 yesterday 3/7 Friday 4/6 Wed 15 out of the last 23 outings

What an ugly way to end the weekend, and after such a nice start with Friday's big win.

Soto is a pipe dream, and that's an undisputable fact.

Weird how there were over a dozen trades, yesterday and hardly any, today.

Ugly swing at that one Kiddo!

We need the RBI man to do just that!

Jansen put to the test.

The bats have awakened.

Valdez .325 OPS vs LHPs.

vs LHPs .835 Romy .790 Westbrook For what that's worth.

I'm thinking bigger and more legit. Package Campbell with Fitts and 2 from Yorke, Lugo, Valdez or Meidroth for a proven SP'er with 3+ years of control.

Teams are looking to trade for him. Apparently, the Yanks are one.