moonslav59

Another good RP'er traded: To SEA: Yimi Garcia To TOR: Jonatan Clase (OF, switch hitter, 22 y/o in MLB)

Some ERAs & WHIP in the lower minors: DSL-Blue 0.00 D Reyes 0.63 (4 GS) RP 1.96 E Carta 0.91 (11 gsm/23 IP) 2.01 Galvan 1.25 (11 gms 22 IP) DSL-Red 1.10 Ruiz 0.80 1.73 Payano 0.85 (2 gms as RP) 3.08 Frias 1.33 3.60 Morillo 1.53 RP: Bonaci 2.70/0.90 in 10 games/17 IP FCL: 1.79 Valera 0.77 (not counting 0.00 in 4IP w Salem) Salem 2.03 Ingrassia 0.99 (9 GS and 9 as RP) 2.16 Wehunt 1.05 (8 GS) 2.51 E R-C 1.18 (13 GS) 2.52 Paez 1.25 (5 GS/ 2RP) 3.43 Portes 1.52 (5GS/2RP) RP: 2.64 Sansone 0.92 (13 gms and 48 IP is a lot for a RP) Greenville: 3.50 Mullins 1.28 (14 GS) 3.72 Early 1.14 (15 GS)

Not bad for a $45K IFA signing bonus given by Bloom in 2023.

Yandy Diaz (RHB who plays 1B/3B- not very well) is reportedly on the trading block. (The Rays placed him on the restricted list, about a week ago, for an "Undisclosed personal matter," so there is concern about that.) He led the AL in BA, last year and had 22 HRs and a .410 OBP. His 133 wRC+ since 2019 is top 15, but he is 32 y/o. He is making $8M, this year, $10M next year and has a $12M club option for 2026 (no buyout.) Once Casas returns, he could DH, but what about Yoshi? I guess we could trade him, this winter (or Yoshi.)

Our 2B position has been so bad, for so long, maybe our expectations are set, too low, but a mid .700 OPS Against vs LHPs is of meaningful value for any team at 2B. It's the D that is in question with Westbrook (v L) and Valdez (v R) at 2B. The DHam-Romy platoon has been better than just capable, so far in 2024. .776 v RHPs (18 SB- 4CS) DHam .791 v LHPs (3 SB- 2CS) Romy G Together, this is about a .780 OPS with 21 SBs

The context is who should go to the pen. The concern over Criswell's IP total maybe going barely over his career high is less than Bello's production concerns and Pivetta's consistency concerns, IMO. We will have to bite the bullet on Houck and Crawford reaching career highs, and then maybe being asked to pitch more in the playoffs. BTW, Criswell pitched 117.1 IP in 2019 and 118.2 in 2021 (minors+ MLB) plus 70.1 IP in the AASO. Do those IP not count? He also had 117.2 IP, last year (MLB+AAA) He is at 90.2, now. Add 5 IP x 5 GS and he'll be at 115.2. This is a big concern to you?

It's hard to keep track of each posters' long-standing positions, and hence sarcasm related to those positions. I have not lost faith in Grissom, but I think Rafaela at SS allows a great OF alignment of Duran, O'Neill and an Abreu-Ref platoon. It also allows DHam to platoon with Romy (SS when Rafaela is in CF or 2B) or Westbrook (2B only.) This alignment is the best middle IF we have seen since Bogey-Story.

No, and of course 101 IP combined is a little concerning, but I'm less worried about his 101 IP than Houck's 123 and Crawford's 118. I think we can get 5 IP from Criswell for 5-6 more starts. That would get him to just over his career high.

I'm sticking with Criswell in the rotation. His 65 IP does not worry be, in terms of overloading him. He also has 13 IP in his last 2 GS'd, combined.

I'm not sure you have noticed, but other 2Bmen have been doing okay to pretty good for the Sox in the last couple months. Can we wait until they don't to try Grissom, again? Since June 1st: DHam is 6th in fWAR on the Sox Romy is 9th They make a nice platoon at 2B: .776 DHam v RHPs plus speed .791 Romy v LHPs (one of the best on the team) .732 career OPS since June 1st: .973 Valdez (in AAA and better than Grissom on O.) .749 Romy (not bad on D at SS and 2B, unlike all others) .688 DHam (16 SB/3 CS since then) .662 Westbrook (Career .852 v LHPs, a weak area for the Sox)

Red Sox Rotation, since June 1st: ERA 3.12 Wink (2GS) 3.89 xFIP 3.38 Crawford (9) 3.87 3.76 Criswell (5) 4.21 4.20 Houck (8) 3.77 4.81 Pivetta (9) 3.47 6.33 Bello (9) 3.63 fWAR(almost the reverse of the above list!) 1.1 Pivetta 0.6 Houck 0.5 Criswell 0.4 Bello 0.2 Kelly (4.2 IP in 2GS) 0.0 Crawford -0.1 Wink

I said a few extra batter, not a full IP, although that could happen, every few starts, if needed.

Buying teams often trade from strength on their 26 to fill another need on their 26. I've suggested we might trade LHB Abreu for a carbon copy RHB OF'er. If another buyer needs a LHB and is overloaded with RHBs, why not?

It might really help the pen, if Pivetta can eat 2-4 IP every 3-5 games.

In theory, going with a 6 man rotation should allow pitchers to go an extra few batters per game, so maybe it evens out. BTW, the Braves have used it a bit, this year. With 111 games played and some days off, one would expect 22-23 GS by all uninjured starters on the Braves. (Fried is on the IL, now, but I'm not sure others missed starts due to injuries.) GS by Braves pitchers: 19 Sale (-3 to 4) 18 Morton (-4 to 5) 18 Lopez (-4 to 5) 18 Fried (???) 9 Schwellenbach 8 Elder 2 Strider (on 60 Day IL) None of these starts were by "openers" as all averaged more than 3.1 IP/GS: 2 Kerr, Vines, Winans, Waldrep 1 Smith-Shawyer

Yup! For sure. Every year: the same thing. Since adding pitchers at the deadline almost always "costs" more, why not add them in the winter? If we end up with too much, we can trade some to desperate teams and get higher return value. It seems so simple.

To SEA: Randy Arozarena (OF) a RHB To TBR: Brody Hopkins (single A RHP) and Aidan Smith (OF) + PTBNL To PHI: Austin Hays (OF) To BAL: S Dominguez (RHP) & C Pache (OF) To BOS: James Paxton To LAD: Moises Bolivar (IF on DSL Blue) To AZ: AJ Puk To Mia: Deybison De Los Santos, Andrew Pintar

Part of the reason our rotation is still ranked 6th is the pitching from Criswell, who was a Brez addition. Losing Whitlock is not mentioned, often, and he might have been a bigger loss than Gio. He had a 1.96 ERA after 4 starts. Another amazing part about our rotation's high ranking has been precisely their depth. Of course, counting 'openers" is not really starter depth, but it worked more often than not. 2.33 Winckowski in 5 GS (19.1 IP) 0.00 Bernardino + Kelly in 4GS (just 7.2 IP in those 4 openers) Anderson had one really bad opener game. Here are the numbers for Whitlock, Wink, Bernardino & Kelly (4 pitchers we could consider as rotation/opener depth: 13 GS 45.1 IP 9 ER (1.80 ERA) 33 Hits 33Ks-14 BBs I'm not ting to say I think our pitching depth was fine. I'm just saying the results of our depth are not a main reason we are on the outside looking in, except for the fact that our pen was overly taxed by starting openers 5 times and getting less than 4 IP from Wink in 5 starts and less than 5 IP from Whitlock in 4 GS. Those 14 GS hurt the pen. Add Criswell to the "depth" and the numbers look like this: 26 GS 108 IP 37 ER (3.08 ERA is second best on the staff!) 94 Hits (less Hits than IP) 87Ks-29 BBs For those who think only of wins and losses, the team went 15-11 in these 26 starts! To be fair, add Anderson's 1.2 IP and 5 ERs and we have: 27 GS 3.47 ER (which is almost equal to Crawford)

Pitching depth is always something that gets discussed, and we lost 2 of our top 6 SP'ers (Gio & Whitlock) and maybe our 7th/8th SP'er in Murphy for the full season. One can argue Houck (the 5/6 going into the season) and Criswell (perhaps the 7th/8th SP'er with Murphy) have done a fine job as depth. Our main problem has been with our pre-season #2 Bello and the inconsistency of our #4 Pivetta. Of course, having more depth would help mitigate those deficiencies, but the depth would have had to be really good to oust Bello from the rotation, and it's hard to imagine many cheap depth signings doing much better than Criswell has done. Of course, keeping Sale would have done wonders for the Sox, this year. We'd have maybe started Houck in the pen, but maybe it would have been Whitlock, which might have prevented his injury. (Ideally, we'd have started Pivetta in the pen, but that was not going to happen, IMO. 1. Sale 2. Houck 3. Crawford 4. Bello 5. Pivetta/Criswell ...looks like the best in hindsight.

It's sarcasm. The Alanis Morissette song really messed up the meaning of "ironic."

So, LAD are paying about $1M of the 2.4-2.6 owed.

This Paxton deal should more than make up for the loss of Sale and put this thread to a final resting place.

Agreed, unless we go to a 6 man rotation. Days off: AUG 1 (after 6 games in a row) AUG 8 (after 6 games in a row) AUG 22 (after 13 straight) SEP 5 (after 13 straight) SEP 16 (after 10 straight) SEP 26 (after 9 straight and before our last 3 of the season) Having a 6 man rotation up to AUG 22 would mean all 6 starters get 2 days extra of rest, since we have days off after 6 days, twice in a row. Maybe there is not a need until after AUG 22. We could also spot start Pivetta to allow just Houck and Crawford an extra day of rest, every chance we can, but keep Bello, Paxton and Criswell on mostly normal rest.

He's played 4 games w Woo, since July 20th (2 for 14.) My guess is, he is close to "ready," in terms of health, but I doubt we call him up, soon. Rafaela has been doing okay at SS, and him playing SS allows for Duran and O'Neill to play FT and Abreu and Ref to platoon. A 2B platoon of DHam and Romy/Westbrook has done pretty good since the start of June. Certainly, Grissom replacing Westbrook is possible, but if he's not playing much, keeping him playing everyday with Woo makes more sense.

Agreed. It has been about 2mph less than 2023.