moonslav59

This is getting scary good.

It is rare. Catchers in the top 30 in PAs who played for 2 teams in a season: Only one was top 15 in Catcher PAs (Vaz) 2025: Danny Jansen and Freddy Fermin 2024: Danny Jansen 2023: none 2022: Vaz (8th in PAs) 2021: Yan Gomes

Hardly any catchers play "everyday." We traded for Reese the same day we traded away Vaz. He hit .877 after the trade. He started at Catcher more than anyone else. He played in 36 games AUG 1>>> Plawecki played in 25 after AUG 1. Wong was called up in Sept and was a late inning guy in many games.

Rutschman and Story may start rehab assignments soon. Houck is up to 40 pitch sessions and may rehab soon. Mead does not need surgery and may be back in mid Sept. Crochet re-started throwing at 50-60 ft. Anthony is swinging and may start batting practice, soon. IKF will start hitting soon. Nothing new on Crawford, but I think he's still throwing. Oviedo just threw off the mound, so I'm not counting on him. Casas will have a new injury soon.

6th inning and Wong is the only Sox batter hitless.

No team is injury free but take a gander at this roster: SP- A team: Crochet, Suarez, Gray, Tolle, Bennett SP- B team: Houck, Crawford, Sandoval, Bello, Oviedo RP- Chapman, Whitlock, Slaten, Moran, T Guerrero, Miller, Weissert C- Rutschman & Wong (Rogers, Knizner, Gasper, Delay, Baez, Rosario) 1B- Contreras, Casas (Harris, Hickey, Brannon) 2B- Mead, Seigler (Capra) 3B- Durbin, IKF, Eaton (Romero, Winnay) SS- Monasterio, Story, Cheng (Arias) LF- Anthony, Duran, Jones, (Castro) CF- Rafaela, White RF- Abreu (Campbell) DH- Yoshida, Romy (Brannon)

Man you guys are pretty tough on a guy with a 2.74 ERA.

Maybe not. Tolle and Bennett need limits on IP, so maybe the pen might be best for one of them. How about Tolle and Bennett as openers with Crochet and Bello going 4-5 IP every 5 days..

The Mirabelli and Reese McGuire trades come to mind. Vaz on the other end.

Is Sandoval the new Giolito?

Dubin-Da-Man. Amazing that he's up to .720, now. The guy was at ,530 to end May! He was still at .542 on June 9th and .557 on June 16th. Not counting tonight, he hit .924 in his last 40 games. Counting tonight, he has 8 HRs in 41 games- a 32 HR/162 pace!

I have to admit I'm about as high on the Sox as I've been since 2018. Maybe in part because I really thought Brez did a good job improving on a pretty good 2025 team, and after such a horrific start, the doubts, hyper-criticisms and finger pointing became overwhelming. It wasn't so much having to feel like maybe Fred, Red, the STORK and others might have been right, but rather how far off it looked like many of us were in our 2026 projections, and more importantly having to watch us piss away so many games we coulda-shoulda won. Our run differential was always much better than our record indicated, but that offered very little solace and just a tiny fraction of hope for just a handful of posters and fans. I'm not predicting a ring or the best record in the AL or ALE, but I will say this team is fun to watch. We improved the team on paper at the deadline, especially our worst batter (Narvaez) and added some OF and pen depth. If we get nobody back from the IL. except Rutschman, we'll still have a top contending team. Guys like Anthony, Crochet and maybe even Crawford, Oviedo and IKF may make significant contributions.

We've won 23 of 27 and 28 or 33! That is simply astounding and historical. The Rays were the second best team since June 25th and we gained 6.5 games on them. June 25th was when we started our Yankee 4 game sweep and this whole magical journey. Here are some team numbers since then: 1st fWAR pitching at 6.4 (MIL was at 5.4 and CWS 4.9) 1st in Pen fWAR and 4th in rotation fWAR. 1st ERA- at 66 1st FIP at 3.25 6th in Runs scored at 167 (5.1 per game) 11th everyday fWAR at 4.7 11th wRC+ and 12th in OPS For the year fangraphs has us ranked 6th in fielding, but DRS has us 5th and OAA 4th. In the last 33 games, we basically have the best pitching, 5th best defense and a top 10 offense.

I'll take a guess at the next soxprospects,com rankings: (2 Eyanson trade, 3 Witherspoon traded, Bennett graduated, 6 Azocar traded & 19 Uberstine traded) 1. Arias 2. Primera 3. Gonzales 4. Valera 5. Godbout 6. Delzine 7. Soto 8. Holobetz 9. Cespedes 10. Phillips 11. Schaffner 12. Rivas 13. Shelar 14. Wehunt 15. Hull 16. Winnay 17. Heyman 18. Rivera 19. Mataczynski 20. LaFavor Paez, Romero, Davenport & Lanman (I might put Jo Garcia #20, but I'm biased.)

Brez has traded as many top 20 prospects as DD, and in shorter time. How about the draft slots of some? #1 Mayer (2021's 4th pick- Bloom) #1 Teel (2023's 14th pick-Bloom) #1 Braden Montgomery (2024's 12th pick) #1 Kyson Witherspoon (2025's 15th pick) #3 Anthony Eyanson (87th pick and $1.75M bonus) #4 Elmer Rodriguez (105th pick) #4 Chase Meidroth (129th) #5 Connelly Early (151th)

Go Sox!

It's been a long time coming for Part II, and yes 340 pages is too much to bear. What a crazy season! In many ways, the team of the last 4-5 weeks is the same as the one from opening day to mid June, but in other ways, it's like night and day. The 40 man roster has not changed much until the Mead and deadline trades. Sure, there were additions as we put guys on the 60 Day IL, but a few were already in the Sox system. Before I go into the new roster, I want to give a shout out to the bench. Much of the huge turn-around was fueled by SP'ers that we maybe 6th to 11th on the rotation depth chart: Tolle, Early (now gone,) Bennett and Sandoval. We've seen 18 different pitchers fill the 7 pen splots, yet our pen is one of the best in the league in fWAR and ERA-, among other stats. 9 pitchers have 20+ IP from the pen, while 13 have 13+ IP. We have a solid 7, now and are arguing over who to demote to make room for Miller. Wong pretty much pushed Narvaez to the bench and a trade, although him sucking helped. 2B and SS have changed hands more times than anyone can name. DH has been all over the map. Only 1B (Contreras) 3B (Durbin) and the OF has gone pretty much subless. There may still be some major roster changes to come, as our IL list can almost field a whole decent team, by itself: SP: Crochet, Houck, Crawford & Oviedo RP: Kelly & La Sorsa C Rutschman 1B: Casas 2B: Mead SS: Story 3B: IKF OF/DH: Anthony Some may/will not make a 2026 showing, but damn, this team seems to not need any of them, except Rutschman and maybe one pitcher to take innings from Tolle and Bennett, but hey, maybe Bello can handle the load. Our rotation is among the best in MLB and could get better. Our pen is top 2-3 in almost every category. Our hitting still lacks multiple power bats, but the offense has come around to be around 10th to 14th best- maybe even top 10. Our defense has been rock solid at nearly every slot. We've been the best team in baseball for 5-6 weeks, and nobody has really been close. We've beaten the best of the best teams, and seem to have the focus and confidence to carry us at a good pace going forward. I seriously doubt we can continue at this pace, but what a glory it has been. Rafaela has really come into his own, and Durbin flicked the team's light switch almost by himself. The team attitude seems just right. Contreras has brought a good kinda "edge" to the team's personality, and I love it. It's hard not to be supremely optimistic about our chances. We will likely have a tough stretch or two before the season ends, but I like the fight in this team. They don't give up, despite Fred saying "game over." Kudos to everyone, including Tracy and Brez. Let's keep it "real" on this thread, and.... Go Sox!

Yes, had DD gotten Bogey to sign for 6 years with no opt-out for $20-35M more, it would have been fine. My guess is there would not have been a Story signing, which would have made that deal even better, but it's all speculation. There has been little talk about "letting Bogey go," and of course the mega deal he got is one reason, but my question is about the year or two before free agency. Many wanted us to sign him and probably would have been okay with even more than the numbers I asked about back when. I think the feelings are pretty mixed, right now, unlike Betts and others we "let go" or traded away.

I asked this question back before Bogey bolted: Would he earn a $200M/8 contract? $200M/7? $180M/6? I wasn't sure he would, but I think that's what we'd have to have offered him. Maybe when we extended him, we could have boosted the money and years and took out the opt-out, but it kinda looks like the contract Bloom gave him was a steal for the team and with perfectly timed opt-out. going by fangraphs value, which is very generous, he produced $53M over the next 2 years and $26M. last year, so those offers I cited don't look horrible or even bad, so far, but he looks to be in decline and never came close to BOD production with SDP, except year one with his .790 OPS and 4.6 fWAR. I'm glad we didn't get him to sign for $200M/7 or $180M/6. Too bad Story didn't do what they hoped he'd do. Bogey's departure and Story's no-shows really hurt the team.

I think with the Sox adding Miller and some IL pitchers rehabbing or close to it, they knew Uberstine's days were limited. Was he and is he better than Gamboa, Rivera or Samaniego? La Sorsa, maybe, but he's probably next to go.

Only because you cherry-pick a sample size and not his .764 season, which is over 200 points better than Narvaez. You strategically focused on 2024, 2025 and just his recent 2026.

Your favorite ex Sox player! 🤓

I don't know why I always think of Darwinzon Hernandez with guys like Miller. Very low Hits per IP. Not bad HR/9. Horrific BB/9 that never improved. DHern had one of MLB's best H/9 over the first year or two (yes, very small sample size.) 2019-2021: 61 Hits in 79 IP but 65 BBs! Whoopdeedoo with the 3.85 FIP! His BB/9 was never below 7.0 in a season and his last season was 10.8! Miller career: 97 Hits in 130 IP (fantastic!) 80 BB/130 is DHernesque. By seasons... 5.1> 6.0> 6.1 (Better than DHern, okay, but...) That's not showing improvement! MVP will like thiss, though... Last 10.1 IP, only... 1 BB 1 IBB 14 Ks One last point, DHern finished his career early (just 4 seasons) with a 4.54 FIP. Tim Wakefield pitched 19 seasons with a 4.72 FIP. The whole in the FIP stat is that high BB/9 guys can look good, but they don't last long.

They were worried about being sued for hiring only tall pitchers.

I used to break it into 3 or 4 parts. 1 pre-season, 1 opening day and 1 after trade deadline, but things got busy. Sorry.