moonslav59

OPS since May 31st: (140+ PAs) 8. O'Neill 1.019 9. Devers 1.013 13. Duran .982 63. Rafaela .813 71. Smith .798 83. Wong .776 119. DHam .698 Under 140 PAs .973 Valdez 83 .803 Refsnyder 113 .794 Romy 64 .759 Abreu 93 .711 Yoshida 132

KCR lost, but just about everyone else won (BAL, CLE & MIN,) so we could tie with KCR with a win, tonight.

Top OPS in MLB (200+ PAs) 282 players over 200 PAs (about 9 per team) The Top Tier 1. Judge 1.131 2. Ohtani 1.051 3. Soto 1.032 4. Ozuna .981 5. Tucker .979 (262 PAs DNQ for official rankings) 6. Whitt .976 7. Devers .958 8. Rooker .954 9. Harper .933 10. Henderson .933 11. O'Neill .926 (10th out of qualifying players) 19. Betts .892 26. Refsnyder .866 27. Guerrero .865 29. Duran .860 44. Abreu .819 45. Schwarber .817 54. Wong .801 66. JD Martinez .785 Middle Tier starts at .755 (Romy is at .741 with just 103 PAs) 129. Renfroe .722 132. Yoshida .721 ***the 135th player is at .716*** (More or less the MLB mean. 139. J Turner .714 142. T Pham .713 147. DHam .711 165. DeJong .697 169. Rafaela .694 179. Smith .688 Bottom Third: 182. Bogey .688 193. Dubon .678 200. Jansen .671 215. Verdugo .662

Does Keller get another look, after the gem he pitched, today with Woo? 6 IP 5H 0ER 1BB 3K Gasper and Dalbec homered. Meidroth had his second straight 4 hit game (4-5, all singles and no BBs) Grissom 2-5 Yorke 1-5 w 2B POR starts soon. GRE lost 6-5 as Wehunt got shelled. Romero is lifting some eyebrows: 4-5 w HR. (up to .784) Castro 2-5 w 2B (.808) SAL is losing 10-2 2-2 Anderson & Yuten 1-2 Zanetello (triple) & Alcantara

Houck vs Rodon (LHP) We gotta beat a lefty! Only 2 LHBs in today's line-up, as Jansen gets the call to DH. 1. L Duran CF 2. R Refsnyder LF 3. R Wong C 4. L Devers 3B 5. R O'Neill RF 6. R Romy G 1B 7. R Jansen DH 8. R Rafaela SS 9. R Westbrook 2B Game is on ESPN at 7:10 We are almost 24 hours to the trade deadline.

Bumping up for a list of players who might be available...

Trades can still be made for Reese, like we did for Paxton, who was DFA'd. We have until the deadline to trade him, but I'm not expecting one.

Big trade for the Cubs, just announced: To CHC: Isaac Paredes To TBR: Chris Morel, H Bigge & Ty Johnson Others trades in the last few days: To BOS: Danny Jansen To TOR: Cutter Coffey, Paulino & G Batista To BOS: James Paxton To LAD: Moises Bolivar (IF on DSL Blue) To BOS: Yohan Ramirez (off waivers) To SDP: Jason Adams (RP) To TBR: Homer Bush, D Lesko & JD Gonzalez To CHC: Nate Pearson (RP) To TOR: Josh Rivera & Y Pinango To BAL: Zach Eflin (RHP) To TBR: Matthew Etzel (OF,) Jackson Baumeister (RHP,) and Mac Horvath (UT) To PHI: Carlos Estevez To LAA: George Klassen (P) & Samuel Aldegheri (P) To PHI: Austin Hays (OF) To BAL: S Dominguez (RHP) & C Pache (OF) To AZ: AJ Puk (RP) To Mia: Deybison De Los Santos, Andrew Pintar To SEA: Randy Arozarena (OF) a RHB To TBR: Brody Hopkins (single A RHP) and Aidan Smith (OF) + PTBNL To NYY: Jazz Chisholm To MIA: Agustin Ramirez (C-prospect) and 2 others. To SEA: Yimi Garcia To TOR: Jonatan Clase (OF) To NYM: Ryne Stanek (RP) To SEA: Rhylam Thomas (OF) To MIL: Nick Mears To COL: Bradley Blalock & Y Herrera Switch-hitter Josh Bell was placed on waivers.

Y Ramirez is out of options, so he will be joining the 26.

Paxton and Jansen are better than most of Bloom's deadline seasons, and he's not done, yet. 2023: Urias for Blaylock? LOL (earlier: Kike for Robertson? LOL) 2022: Tommy Pham, McGuire and Hosmer? LOL! (Abreu and Valdez for Vaz was good, but not as a buyer) 2021 was a good deadline: Schwarber & Robles (later Iggy and T Shaw) 2020 was a sell deadline. (Pivetta)

Indeed, and that alone should be the impetus for a trade or two. I love Campbell, but if Anthony and Mayer are the real deal, where does he play? I doubt he can play ML 2B, and we have Story and DHam/Grissom. Not LF, as we will have an OF of Duran, Rafaela, Anthony, Abreu/Ref in 2025 and the same without Ref in 2026, but with Lugo, Yorke and others capable of playing LF. DH? Even if we ditch Yoshida, somehow, I'd be happy with a Ref-Valdez platoon at DH for 2025, or a Ref-Abreu platoon, if Anthony squeezes Abreu from the OF. I do NOT want to trade KC, but we could afford to lose him from our positions of strength. If he could play 2B, well, it might be another story.

So, Paxton might push Pivetta or Criswell to the pen- helping it, a little. (Maybe Crawford needs a breather.) Jansen improves our back-up catching and slightly helps our offense vs LHPs. Yohan Ramirez can't be much worse than Anderson, but he is no savior. We need 2-3 more solid RP'ers, of another solid SP'er and 1-3 more RP'ers. Let's go Brez. We can afford to lose any of these players/prospects without putting a big dent in our future: Vadlez Yorke Lugo Meidroth Castro Jordan Trading Fitts, Sandlin or other prospects pitchers is okay, if we get a controllable, upgrade pitcher in return. Trading Grissom or ICampbell would be selling low.

See ya, Chase and Reese. Jansen is a better hitter than Reese, and I think he's okay on D. The metrics show he's about average on pitch-framing (+2 in '23 and -1 in '24) From 2022-2024, Jansen is second best in all MLB at Blocking (+11). In the same timeframe, he was -4 in throwing. Anyone can do what Chase could not do.

Getting good RP'ers are not "big deals." look what others have given up for some, so far. It is not earth-shattering returns.

There are still a lot of good to very good RP'ers out there. Brez better get a few.

At some point, if all of these prospects do as well as we think the will (or might,) we will be so bottle-necked, we will have to trade at least 2-3 from our core of vets and near MLB ready prospects. We could keep some on the farm, as depth and to lengthen their control time, but look at the "13" in 2026 or 2027: Wong & Teel Casas DHam, Campbell & Grissom Story (2B?) & Mayer (Romero) Devers (Meidroth) Duran (Jh. Garcia/Lugo/Yorke/Castro) Rafaela & Anthony Abreu, Bleis Yoshida (Valdez/Lugo/Yorke/Kavadas) Okay, let's say we somehow shed Yoshida and part of his contract by 2026 or 2017 (his last year) and Grissom, too. Let's say someone fizzles out. I still count 14-15 players that look like they deserve a slot on the MLB team by 2026. I did not even mention Jo Garcia, Cespedes, Zanetello and Arias, who may be ready by 2027. Odds are, we don't trade Yoshida or Grissom, so we'd be at 16-18 players for a 13 man roster slot on the big team. We will trade someone, eventually, of wait until someone fizzles and get nothing for him. Or, wait until this winter, or next, make a better determination of who to keep, and make a big deal then. Either way, it will happen. My point is this: trust our talent evaluators to determine who is the best to keep, and who looks most blocked. Trade 2-3 for a controllable pitcher. Even if it is trading guys like Yorke, Lugo, Meidroth, Valdez or a farther away top prospect, we can do it now and not wait. (O'Neill is gone after 2024/ Ref and McGuire after 2025. Nobody else loses team control before 2026.) When you look at our pitching outlook for 2026 and 2027, it looks much worse. We need to eventually trade from our everyday strength and get some pitchers for the future, and why not, now, too? We lose Pivetta, Jansen and Martin after 2024. We lose Gio and Hendriks after 2025. We lose Whitlock after 2026 and Houck after 2027. That's losing more than the everyday player losses between now and 2026 or 2027, and it's already our weakest area!

Look at every other AL team. Sure, some look better, on paper, but not by enough to think it would take a near miracle to beat them in a series. That is the one reason I want us to try, this year. We don't have to trade a top 4 to make a couple impact trades. We might be able to "help enough," without trading a 5 to 9 prospect, either, but Brez would have to excel. Trading a top 4 or 9 prospect for a pitcher with several years of control would shorten the window to some extent, but it could be a 3-4 or maybe 5, if we get lucky, playoff window. Let's say we trade Anthony and his window of 2026 to 2030 (and other midlevels) for a SP with 3.3 years of control (2024 playoffs plus 2026, 2027 and 2028,) we'd be shortening the window by 2 years, but that does not mean we'd suck in 2029 and 2030. Sure, if the pitcher fizzles, we might be worse in 2024 to 2028 and worse off in '29 and '30 as well, but we can't win without pitching, and our farm does not look like it will give us one, anytime, soon. I respect your opinion, and part of me feels the same way. Why sacrifice anything from the future for a longshot in 2024, when it seems like we've already given up on several recent seasons to build up what we have now: a solid foundation of everyday players on the 26 and 40, and 4 mega prospects on the cusp of making our 13 everyday players, perhaps the deepest and best in MLB. How do we get the pitchers we need, if JH won't spend large and long? It has to be by trade(s.) Maybe waiting to this or next winter makes sense, in terms of maximizing the window fro 2027 and beyond, but that is making the rebuild timeframe 7 years! (2020>2026) That is too long, for me, and I'm a pretty patient guy.

The thing is, Meidroth is not one of them. He should be okay at 2B and can play 3B, and area where we lack depth. Valdez has a ML bat as a strongside platoon. I have no doubts on that. DHam is not a plus on D, but has looked okay, and he can play SS, if needed. Yorke and Lugo are already playing LF, in hopes of finding a position they can play without us getting burned. The problem is, our OF is overloaded on the 26, 40 and farm, and LF is the least need area in the Sox system. Campbell will likely end up in LF, but he may be able to improve at 2B. Mayer looks fine on D and is a legit defender at SS. Cespedes and Zanetello have a long time to improve, but neither are sure bets on middle IF defense. (Zanetello might.) Paulino was just traded. Romero can't stay healthy. Arias is very far away.

Agreed, but I think the looked at it this way: Gio +180 minus Sale 100= +80 Bello +20-30 more Houck, Crawford and Whitlock +30-80, each. Pivetta +20-40 from 2023, where he spent time in the pen. Counting on just 6 pitchers, plus the longshot Criswell was clearly a big mistake, but in terms of projecting IP, it did look like we had more with Gio over Sale. Thinking that was enough was the fatal mistake. Now, we have to back-peddle and overpay for deadline pitching, or sit another playoffs out.

Of course, it's okay. I was with you and just about everyone else on our need to add at least one more quality SP'er, and many wanted more pen help and depth, too. Brez messed up- bigtime. Now, we are hoping against hope we can get a serviceable SP'er without a major overpay. I'm glad you moved away from focusing on just one move that back-fired, horrifically. How many years have we gone through, recently, where injuries left us high and dry, using 10 openers or below replacement level SP'ers while still near a WC slot? GMs should count on losing 2-4 or their top 10 SP'ers on the depth chart. We lost #1/2 Giolito, #3/4/5 Whitlock and #7/8/9/10 Murphy. Some of the others, like Criswell, the one depth guy Brez added, was on the IL for a bit, too. The budget cannot be blamed for not adding more Criswells. That's on Brez. The Sale trade made some sense, at the time, and those reasons do not change in hindsight. He was undependable. Our 2B position was our worst position over the last 4-5 years- even worse than SP'ing as a whole. Grissom offered a hope that many baseball people felt was legitimate. He had 5 years of control. The trade was not without merits. It just failed on both ends. The Gio injury made it worse, and not adding a pitcher, especially after knowing Gio was out for the year was a MAJOR blunder. It might be the one thing every poster agree on.

Is there any word or hope for a Martin or Slaten return? CBS has these earliest dates: 8/2 Slaten 8/9 Martin 8/23 Hendriks We can't wait: trade for arms, NOW!

I'd add Luetge to the 40 and give him a shot. He has a .649 OPSA, which is the best with Woo, right now. I'd take him over... .693 Shugart (55 IP) .706 Guerrero (39) .718 Gambrell (84) I might give a shout out to Penrod (.718 in 11 IP AAA and .558 in 36 IP at AA)

I get the reasoning, but pick a lane. (We all know what that lane should be.) Cashman has kept you guys from finishing in last place, which is kind of nice, but that is not and never has been the standard for the Yankees.

Our starters hit the wall, weeks ago. Our pen has been hurt by injury, overuse, and perhaps some luck running out. Last 2 weeks have gotten even worse. OPS Against: SP 1.267 Crawford (2GS) .989 Houck (1) .864 Pivetta (2) .788 Bello (3) .490 Criswell (1GS) Pen 1.250 Anderson (demotion time) 1.183 Kelly 1.180 Bernardino 1.148 Jansen 1.089 Horn .917 Wink .683 Weissert .536 Booser We need a solid SP'er and 3 RP'ers. (I'm not counting Paxton.)

Catchers can't catch 150 games. McGuire has sucked. What's not to get? Wong can play 1B or 2B when not catching, so we add a 2nd RHB option.