moonslav59

I don't think losing the DH by having to move Wong from DH to C, late in a game, is such a big deal. If the RP'er comes to bat, we can PH Cooper or Smith then, and let them "get going" that way. Wong and Ref are hot: play them everyday.

Hindsight is making them look wrong, and not just with injuries. Look at performances in both roles: The sample sizes by IP is pretty close (133 as RP/109 as SP) 2.65 ERA RP (.763 OPS Against) 4.29 ERA SP (.632 OPS Against) To be fair, most pitchers have better numbers in relief, even some good starters. Crawford career: 3.35 RP (.592) 4.39 SP (.716) Nobody wants him in the pen, anymore. Same with Houck: 2.68 RP (.570) 3.72 SP (.649) Pivetta 4.19 RP (.707) 4.90 SP (.773)

When we acquired Smith and Cooper, did we really think they'd both be starting in nearly every game? With Wong and Ref hitting so well, why not DH them, when they are not playing catcher or LF? Ref is even reversing his splits, this year. 1.139 v R (.637 career) .747 v L (.756 career) He has DH'd twice, this year. Wong has a significant career reverse split: .775 v R .599 v L Wong in 2024 .904 v R 1.005 v L Wong has DH'd twice, this year. Cooper has started 4 games at DH. Smith has started 4 games at DH.

Certainly, the Rays, Sox and Jays don't instill much fear in their opponents, anymore. The ALE is more top heavy than solid from 1 to 4 or 5..

You don't have a .955 OPS in the playoffs by not being clutch. Devers has 8 playoff HRs in 102 PAs (89 ABs) That is like hitting 50 HRs in 650 PAs with over 160 RBIs. Very short memories for some.

Agreed, but this has nothing to do with how good Devers is. This guy has had some mammoth hits for the Sox, some as clutch as they get. He has not been clutch in his 34 games, this year, and it seems this is what defines him, to some.

Our rotation is starting to look human, just as the bats seem to be waking up in the last 2 days. The rotation still has a 2,76 ERA, despite allowing so many runs, recently. They are still being plagued by too many unearned runs, but that is what it is. ERAs as SP/Opener Only: 0.00 Bernardino (2GS/3IP) 1.69 Wink (3GS/10.2 IP) 1.96 Whitlock (4 GS/18.1 IP) 3.48 Pivetta (4/20.2) 27.00 Anderson (1/1.2) The more or less regulars: 2.17 Houck (9/58) 2.24 Crawford (9/52.1) 2.67 Criswell (6/27). 3.96 Bello (7/36.1)

Certainly, Criswell could easily have just been a flash in the pan for a few starts. I hope he isn't, but we all know he might be. Whitlock gave us two very nice seasons- both with over 73 IP, mostly in relief. 2.73 ERA 3.07 FIP 1.06 WHIP He started off this season, very well. 1.96 ERA in 4 starts (3.29 FIP/1.15 WHIP) He had one bad season (2023) and has battled injuries since being made a starter. I know you are not writing him off, and in many ways, a pitcher is only as good as he is right now, and right now, he's not pitching at all, but this guy has nasty stuff. He's a good pitcher, who just can't stay healthy. Sounds like a typical Sox pitcher, of late.

15 HRs with Men on Base (777 PAs) 0 Grand Slams 3 Three Run HRs 12 Two runs HRs 31 Solo shots (944 paS) .391 SLG Men on Base .411 SLG bases empty (pretty close) The team has a .718 OPS .702 Men on Base .678 RISP, but .777 RISP w 2 outs Here has been the killer: .515 Late & Close .532 High Leverage On High Leverage: it's feast or famine even within that .532 number: .889 Duran .875 O'Neill (a guy who is now starting to be bashed) .862 Refsnyder Then... .635 Devers (100 points higher than the team aaverage) .595 Valdez (in AAA) .567 McGuire .483 Wong (the biggest differential between overall and High Leverage) .469 Rafaela (most PAs in High Leverage) .095 Abreu (not a typo!) 6th in PAs in HL Others not in the top 9 in PAs in HL: .808 Smith .500 DHam .462 Yoshida .382 Cooper .333 Romy .277 Casas .000 Grissom

The Rays were not playing very well, when we faced them. Neither were the Cards. There is no saying "We lost to some good teams" on these recent losses. These are games we needed to win. These are games we need to win. Tonight is a game we need to win.

Devers has had a ton of big and clutch hits over his career. Memories are short, for some. He has not been "clutch," so far this year, but even some of his solo shots have tied game, or got us within striking range. They were not all useless. Here are the large sample size numbers: career 3,765 PAs for the 27 year old, who has just reached prime: .855 Career overall OPS (.842 home/.892 away shows that Fenway has not helped him.) .870 Men on Base (better than overall) .850 bases loaded (about the same) .905 RISP (better than overall) .892 RISP w 2 outs (better than overall) .876 High Leverage (Better than overall) .795 Low Leverage Can we stop with the "not clutch" talk? Is someone really being judge by a 34 game sample size? Is someone really being judged more harshly, because we didn't keep Betts, 4 years ago? It looks like the answer is yes, for some. Not me. Sure, I wish we kept Betts. I suggested we offer him $400M/14, if that's what it took. Sure, I wish we extended Bogey way before that last season with us. Sure, I wanted us to lock up Devers "forevers," and I'm still glad we did. We'd be much worse off without him, and we all know we could not have counted on JH to spend his money on others.

I just don't get the dislike for Devers. He's like a big teddy bear who loves playing the game. Like Manny without all the drama.

Falling below .500 sucks, bigtime. It's been a while, and hopefully tomorrow we get back to .500. We are still 2 up on TOR, but that offers very little solace, to me. We are 2.5 from the last WC slot, but we'd have to pass 4 teams to be in that seat.. 24-24-20 MIN (3rd slot) 24-22 TBR -1.0 (We had a shot at keeping them in the mirror and blew it.) 23-23 TEX -2.0 (Could be harder to pass than MIN & TBR) 22-22 DET -2.0 (Might be the only team we can pass by season's end.) 22-23 BOS -2.5 20-25 HOU -4.5 (Won 5 in a row, before tonight's loss.) 19-24 TOR -4.5 (I'm thinking they finish 5th in the ALE.)

Agreed. Many very good players go through stretches where they look horrible vs breaking balls, especially after missing time. I'm not saying I am not concerned, but this sample size is still small.

Crawford needs to stop the bleeding. The bats seem to be waking up, a little as the staff falters a bit. We need to put it all together. Go SOX!

45 PAs ain't proof of nutin'

I suggest to my students to study for a test. They don't and do poorly. I guess I am wrong. Red suggested the Sox not hire Bloom, but they did. Red was right. Got it.

Indeed. Deep in mediocrity can help, if you have more of that than other teams and injuries are rampant, everywhere, but we do need quality, too.

No, I did not think that, but with 3 OF'ers, as "balanced you can get is 2-1 or 1-2. I brought up Ref to show it can be viewed as 2-2, if we find a way to start and PH him vs LHPs.

Yes, it is one of the few bad starts we've seen, this year. Losing 3 of 4 to a formerly struggling Rays team, and now this, does not bode well for our future.

Rafaela and Ref bat RH'd. It would be nice to be more balanced, but we should be okay.

Very true, but no HRs allowed (0.0 HR/9 vs career 0.8) His 6.3 H/9 is above his career 5.8 mark but is his 2nd best number in the last 6 seasons. (it was 8.1, last year.) He's pushing his luck with all the BBs, but not letting up the key hits has saved hime, more often than not. BTW... 8 BBs in his first 5.2 IP 2 BBs in his last 10 IP (2 in his last 5 or 6 IP) He did miss some ST'ing, so maybe he is okay, now.

Jansen has had 4 bad games out of 16. He had 3 other games with 2 BBs but no runs allowed. He's not the same guy he was years ago, but he seems to be okay. A .542 OPS Against is awesome.

He looked much better in 2023, as compared to before, so this does not appear to be a fluke. He reminds me of Jacoby's turn-around on D. I still prefer him in LF, especially, if a Rafaela/Anthony CF and Abreu/Anthony RF materializes, as we hope it does.

Here are the OPS in order of most PAs for 2024. Rafaela being 2nd in PAs is both surprising and a big hit to the team's OPS. Red= likely to get the same or more PAs, going forward, assuming minimal injuries Black= unknown Blue= likely to get less PAs, going forward 135-200 PAs .784 Duran (continue FT) .595 Rafaela (continue FT, likely batting 9th) .902 Devers (continue FT) .924 O'Neill (despite missing time) .830 Abreu (should end up in the top 4-5 in PAs) 85-110 PAs .900 Wong (hopefully, he continues hitting well and gets some PAs as a DH) .452 Valdez (may not play much more for BOS in 2024) .857 Casas (will miss a lot more time) .736 Yoshida (a big question mark) .663 McGuire (may catch more as we use Wong at DH. he has been slumping.) 40-65 PAs .964 Refsnyder (with leading the team in hitting RHPs, he may play near FT, going forward- DH/LF) .451 Reyes (may not get another PA with BOS, this year) .377 Dalbec (see Reyes comment) .563 DHam (Romy should take away many of his PAs, going forward) .317 Grissom (likely to be FT'er going forward) .450 Smith and .584 Copper (likely to get almost all the PAs at 1B, unless we make a change.) 20-40 .617 Story (out for the year) .664 Romy (looks to be the primary IF utility player)