moonslav59

That was a stinker, and soxprospects.com missed on all of them. 17 pick Yorke: ranked 3rd in fall '21 and spring '22 (17th now) 89th Jordan: ranked 7th in fall of '21 & 10th spring '22 (19th now) 118th Wu-Yelland: 3 IP in '24 148th Drohan: ranked 6th in summer of '23 (gone from system)

They really liked Lugo, a while back, but then soured, perhaps too quickly. Maybe his massive fall in the rankings was a bigger WOW than this massive jump. They must have saw something to rank him #14 at the end of 2022. He's basically back to where they had him, before his stumble in '23 at AA. He did do pretty badly in 2023, so it's not like it was all undeserving, but 50th?

99 games to go, and we've seen about what many expected: too many holes to overcome, but quite a few bright spots, perhaps more than many expected. The emergence of Houck has been astounding. The big question is about sustainability and durability. Crawford has come down to earth, as his earlier work was not supported by some metrics. He still looks like a decent 3-4 SP'er, going forward. Criswell seems to be mostly smoke & mirrors, but who knows? Maybe he will be our next Pivetta- a decent 3-5 SP'er. Pivetta has looked fine, and it's too b ad his control ends, this winter. Our pen has really stepped up, especially with Martin not coming close to matching 2023, and Jansen struggling while still getting the job done. Hats off to Bernardino, Slaten and Weissert, most of all, but others have done well, most of the time. Bello has been a disappointment, but hopefully he finds a groove and pitches like a 2-3, the rest of the way. On, O & D... Devers is on his way to a career best season, while the league wide offense has taken a hit. His D has even improved over the last 30 or so games. Duran is proving 2023 was no fluke. Good to know. Abreu & Rafaela have done fine, in their first full years in the bigs. Refsnyder has blasted into space. Not sure he can keep this up, especially vs RHPs, but hell- ride the hot hand for all it's worth. Our catchers have met my highest expectations for 2024- even beyond them. The staff's improvement since the departure of Vaz has been noticeable. The Casas injury has hurt us badly. Dalbec sucked. The Cooper-DSmith combo has fallen way short of what we needed at 1B. His return is greatly needed. The middle IF has been atrocious- both on O and D. Romy, Valdez & DHam have been an improvement over Reyes, Short, Grissom and the earlier version of EValdez, but it is still a weak spot. Grissom might be our best hope for an in-season turn-around, but who is counting on that? Yoshida has been virtually and in reality- non existent. With Ref & O'Neill doing well, we don't need his return. Overall, I see more good players than bad, but not enough great players to bring glory to 2024.

I couldn't find the post you were responding to, but yes, those numbers match w Rafaela.

Sox Rankings by fangraphs: 2nd Pitching 9.5 fWAR (2nd xFIP, 3rd ERA-) 3rd SP 6.7/3rd RP 2.8 14th Offense +5.8 (9th in runs scored, 7th OPS, 12th wRC+) 19th Defense -11.7 (20th OAA, 11th DRS, 17th UZR/150) Everyday + Pitchers fWAR totals 23.8 PHI 11.5+12.3 22.8 LAD 15.5 +7.3 22.1 NYY 15.5 +6.6 20.1 BAL 12.3+7.8 17.8 MIL 13.2+4.6 17.0 BOS 7.5+9.5 16.9 KCR 9.5+7.4 16.8 SDP 10.2+ 6.4 15.9 ATL 8.9+7.0 15.2 CLE 9.2+6.0 14.5 ARI 10.1+4.4 13.8 MIN 8.7+5.1 12.4 SEA 4.9+7.5

Who is this about?

Agreed. I still have hopes in Bleis & Cespedes, but Perales has shined.

I think it is more about how unimpressive those he jumped over are.

Agreed, and the improvement DHam and Romy brought to the middle infield is evidence enough on how a stable MI is essential to winning.

Not only can they not enjoy the good parts of this team, they mock and criticize those who are enjoying some of the fun things we've seen among all the not so fun things.

Kristian Campbell from 22 to 10 was a bigger jump that I expected, but when you look at those from 11-15, nobody jumps out as being a better pick. Meidroth's rise from 14 to 11 was more about Slaten graduating and Yorke falling than Campbell jumping him and others. I'm thinking E R-C will pass Wikelman, this fall. Castro and Paulino did not deserve rising, even if mostly by attrition, but there aren't many below them, besides Lugo & Campbell that deserved to jump up to top 15. Jordan's drop was expected, (Below 20 would have been understandable, too.) I'm hoping Jh Garcia gets to the top 20 or 25 by the fall.

Perales to #4 is a big vote of confidence, although jumping Bleis & Cespedes is not all that shocking. This does bring me back to a point I made earlier about how maybe our system's lack of acquiring and developing young pitchers was maybe not quite as bad as we thought it was. (Not saying all is well, now.) Houck Crawford Bello acquisitions like Whitlock, Slaten, Wink, Fitts, Kelly, Sandlin and non-prospects like Pivetta, Criswell & Bernardino. Of course, Perales has proved nothing, however, it's nice to see three pitchers in the top 9: Perales 4, Fitts 7 & Sandlin 9. Most recent 3 in top 9's: Summer '23: 6 Drohan, 7 Perales, 9 Wikelman (none in top 5) Summer '22: 5 Walter, 6 Mata, 9 Wink (none in top 4) Whitlock was our last pitcher ranked #4 (Spring of '21 as a Rule 5 pick) 4. Whitlock 5. Houck 7. Seabold 8. TWard 9. Aldo Ramirez (traded for Schwarber that summer)

Run Differential (League Winning % Rank) + 118 NYY (1) 104 PHI (2) 86 BAL (4) 85 LAD (5) 80 CLE (3) 72 KCR (6) 58 MIL(8) 39 ATL (7) 38 BOS (11) 9th in RD/11th in record 15 CIN (18) 13 TEX (16) 10 SEA (10) 7 SDP (14) Outliers: -5 MIN (10) -3 DET (12) -47 TBR (13) -152 CWS (30th) Next closest is at -96 COL

1.081 Judge 1.075 D Fry 1.027 J Soto 1.000 Ozuna .979 Tucker .973 Ohtani .951 G Henderson .949 W Contreras .947 Devers .943 Refsnyder .939 Pillar .931 B Witt .923 Betts .920 Kwan .914 K Carpenter .905 Yelich 31. O'Neill .859 33. Wong .844 42. Abreu .819 55. Duran .801 6 in the top 55.

After a game like this one, almost everyone's OPS went up... 78+ PAs .947 Devers (shooting for career high of .916 in '19) .943 Refsnyder (killing RHPs, too. Surprise of the year.) .859 O'Neill (back from the knee issue.) .857 Casas (sorely missed) .844 Wong (was dropping, until recently) .829 Abreu (come back, soon, Wilyer!) .801 Duran (back over .800 after big game, tonight) .749 DHam (best middle IF bat of the season) .736 Yoshida (hardly miss ya) .664 Smith (finally on the rise) .617 Rafaela (back over .600 with a bang. RBI leader- BAM!) .610 Valdez (3-run homer, tonight) .367 Grissom (can't be much worse) Rotation ERAs 1.91 Houck (been buttah) 3.40 Pivetta (need this guy) 3.51 Crawford (needs to bounce back) 3.92 Criswell (chugging along) 4.36 Bello (time to find the groove) Top Pen ERAs (rank in team IP by RP) 0.72 Bernardino (3) 2.52 Weisert (4) 2.73 Slaten (2) 2.89 Jansen (8) 3.33 Wink (5) 3.97 Booser (6) 4.22 Martin (7) 4.55 Anderson (1)

Cue "padding stats" from someone.

Soto left game with injury.

Woo won 13-4 Penrod walked 5. Uwasawa & Guerrero shut em down. Meidroth 2BB & 9th SB Sogard 3-6 w HR Lugo keeps blasting away (2-4 w HR, 2B & BB) Yorke 3-5 POR lost 9-7 as WEbb let up 4 in the 9th. 3-5 Paulino w 2B 2-5 Anthony w 2B 1-4 w BB Teel E R-C wnet 5 in a SAL loss (2H, 0ER, 2BB, 2K)

Rafaela keeps hitting for RBIs. 5 batters have been on base 3 times in 6 innings. 2 batters- two times 2 batters-one time, with EValdez hitting a 3-run bomb as his only hit.

Not only did they start DHing him v RHPs, they jump him to the 3 slot. I'm glad he's getting a chance. If he starts to falter, then yank him v RH'ers.

It does seem like a set-up, in that way. We keep winning after we think things look bleak, then lose, when it looks like we have a chance to close the gaps.

Meidroth may move up, only because Wikelman may fall below #13.

I never noticed those carrots. Right on Benitez.

Some positive things: 29 unearned runs first 31 games, but 10 unearned runs last 31 games. The return of Casas. Better offense at SS and 2B than before. (Romy, DHam, Rafaela> Valdez, Reyes, Short) Hendriks joins in August. The concerns: Rotation coming back to earth Martin's issues Offense, offense, offense (Rafaela & Grissom)

Drops: Wikelman 7 > below 10 Jordan 17>20ish Hickey 19>22-25 Anderson 26>30ish Hoppe 30>35-40 Rises: Perales 8> 6 or 7 Slaten 12>10ish Meidroth 13>11-12 E R-C 18>16-17 K Campbell 20>15ish Mullins 40>32-34 Sogard 43>35ish Benitez 44>35ish Lugo 50>20-25