moonslav59

Indeed, and he far from a rookie. He may be one of those "late bloomers," as his AA and AAA numbers were way better than his single A and college numbers.

Good points, Max. Our O has been about average, but on timely hitting, we have been atrocious. I'm one who believes clutch hitting is not a repeatable skill set, so I'm hoping we regress to the mean. Just being average at that would be a major improvement. (We are sub .600 in high leverage and Late & Close ABs.)

I think we all agree on that, and I welcome differing views, especially yours. I do think it is a good sign that a few of our top pitching prospects are Breslow additions, in such a sort time at the helm.

(corrected post) Agreed, and it's not like Houck has been a longtime ace or even a #2 or #3. It seems like a lot of really good pitchers were taken in lower rounds by teams that do much better than we do with those types of picks. Hopefully, with some new blood the organization, we will start hitting on more pitching picks than we have done, in the past 10-15 years. That being said, I kinda like the foundation of young ML pitchers we have, right now, but we are still an ace and maybe another very good pitcher away from having a dependable solid staff. We lose Pivetta, Jansen and Martin, this winter. Pivetta has 200 more IP than any other Sox pitcher, since 2021, and has been pretty solid for 3+ years. Jansen is the best closer we've had since Kimbrel. Martin had the best set-up man season in 2023 that we've had in a very long time. We may have Giolito and Hendriks for 2025, but we will need more. The current foundation for 2025 and some for beyond: SP: Houck, Crawford, Bello, Giolito, Criswell, Fitts (Gambrell, Murphy, Walter, Wikelman) Pen: Whitlock, Hendriks, Slaten, Bernardino, Weissert, Winckowski, Fulmer, Campbell, Kelly, Mata (Booser, Uwasawa, Guerrero, Zeferjahn...)

Yes, my bad on Whitlock. I'd like to see us lock up Pivetta, if we think his recent injury is not a major concern.

We have Houck on the mound, tonight. Game 3 of the 4 game series. The Sox need to give tanner better support, in this game. Despite his 2.24 ERA and 3.33 FIP, the team is just 4-4 in his 8 starts. (3 losses were in games he was awarded a Quality Start.) Let's hope Romy's "timely hit" was a sign of the team improving in that area. These numbers are one main reason we are still hanging around .500: Team OPS .542 High Leverage (.525 Late & Close) .691 Medium Leverage .789 Low leverage Those bucking the trend on high leverage: .961 Duran .929 Refsnyder .918 O'Neill All the rest are at .701 (McGuire) or less than .630! Late & Close: .956 O'Neill .875 Refsnyder .856 Devers All the rest are below Yoshida at .690 or .625!

This whole Yorke pick talk and his value pales compared to the T Ball pick. Teams miss on draftees, all the time, and maybe Yorke may come back and surprise us all. We are talking draft strategy and no one pick should prove or disprove a strategy's effectiveness. I fully understand the desire to improve our farm's pitching, but I firmly believe taking a pitcher, just because he's a pitcher, over someone we think is clearly better is not a good strategy. On top of that, until we prove we can pick good pitchers, I'm not sure why we'd want to keep banging our head against the wall with bad pitchers being drafted, over and over. You want more guys like this (not that all are doomed to failure)? 115 Duffy '23 99 Rogers '22 105 E R-C '21 118 Wu-Yelland '20 107 Zeferjahn '19 100 Feltman '18 24 Houck '17 12 Groome '16, 88 S Anderson '16 171 Lakins '15 33 Kopech '14 7 TBall '13 & 43 Stankiewicz '13 These are all our top pitchers taken in the last 11 seasons (first pitcher drafted and or top 100 pick) We are 1 for 4 in top pitchers drafted success. The one we got right, Houck, was the 3rd lowest pick of the 4, and the lowest of the first round picks.

He's got 37 PAs, which have essentially been like ST'ing at bats. To me, he gets a longer look than 12 more games.

He's got almost 260 PAs in MLB, which is a rather small sample size. 5Hrs and 19 XBHs. In AA+AAA, he hit 31 HRs in 583 PAs (517 ABs.) Yes, he had pop. He slugged around .500, which was better than he did in A ball and college.

Exactly, but we often hear about the misses, who may end up not being misses, in some cases. We've had way more "misses" with pitchers, starting with TBall and Groome. We've had just one "hit" on early drafted pitchers: Houck, for over a decade.

It was nice to see no walks by Pivetta, but I don't think he looked as sharp as he was in his initial starts before the IL, or the last 4 months of 2023. He definitely looked very good, last night, to me. Big hit by Romy. If this guy can contribute, it really gives Cora some major flexibility.

I think Dalbec would have had the least chance at snagging the throw. Maybe it made a bad bounce. It went to the inside of his glove/leg and looked to be at the right height as the glove. It was a bad throw, but I think it was about 50-50 on maybe MLB 1Bmen make that play 50% of the time or more..

I thought the bad throw should have been caught at 1B, so the E was not all on him. He had a hard time getting it out of his glove, and he threw on the move. He's still a plus on D, so I hope he starts to lessen the E numbers. He'd then be a plus-plus on D.

Every pick we make is our #1 ranked prospect when taken. The same theory applies.

Now that was a fun win

If he can get what he found back,again, he surely can.

Good to see Cora using Wong at DH. To date GS: 23 as a C 1 as a DH (He has played some 1B in 3 games and 2B in 1 game, but has not started there, in his whole career.)

Single A prospects just don't get the trade returns they used to get. I'm not sure many of our pitching prospects are in high demand, but I wouldn't be looking to trade any away, unless they are part of a deal bringing back a better pitcher. Here is how soxprospects ranks out current pitching prospects: Red= AA level or higher 4 in top 10 (none in top 5) 6. Fitts AAA 7. Wikelman AA 8. Perales A+ 10. Sandlin A+ 6 in top 20 13. Slaten MLB 18. E R-C A- 16 ranked from 21 to 42 (16 out of 22!) 21. Monegro A+ 23. Dobbins AA 25. Guerrero AAA 27. Bastardo AA 28. Gambrell AAA 29. Penrod AA 30. Hoppe AA 31. Zeferjahn AAA 33. Early A+ 36. Cohen A- 37. Rogers A+ 38. Wehunt A- 39. Mata IL/MLB 40. Mullins A+ 41. Troye AA 42. Booser MLB (7 straight pitchers from 36-42) 9 of the last 17 are pitchers: 44. Benitez AAA 45. Walter AAA 47. Paez A- 53. Olivarez AA 54. Ehrlicher A- 55. Judice FCL 58. I Coffey AA 59. Cepeda AA 60. Batista FCL

You think he might crack the top 60?

Bats have to wake up!

Benitez is imploding, as we speak.

Here are the Sox ERAs listed in order of most IP, this season: 2.24 Crawford 2.24 Houck 3.13 Bello 2.10 Criswell 3.33 Wink (in AAA) 1.74 Slaten 4.34 Anderson (on really bad game hurt) 1.96 Whitlock (should be back, soon) 1.56 Weissert 0.53 Bernardino 4.11 Martin (righting the ship) 3.60 Pivetta 2.63 Jansen 3.09 Booser These are all the Sox pitchers with more than 8.1 IP. Nobody over 4.34 (Anderson) Only two over 4.10 (add Martin) Only 3 over 3.60 (add Pivetta Only 4 over 3.33 (add Wink) All season, we have just 3 pitchers with an ERA over Anderson's 4.34: 5.40 Jacques 1.2 IP 6.55 Joely 11.0 IP 12.79 Campbell 6.1 IP

From soxprospects.com FCL Red Sox 10, FCL Rays 3 The FCL Sox had 17 baserunners on their way to a 10-run outburst. Andrew Musett continues to dominate, going 3 for 4 with a pair of RBI. Mussett has now reached safely 14 times in 24 plate appearances. Yoeilin Cespedes ripped an RBI double in the fifth inning and added a sacrifice fly in the seventh. Franklin Arias tripled and walked as part of his 2-for-4 afternoon. Raimundo de los Santos was held hitless in his two official at-bats but he drew three walks, stole two bases, and scored three times. Bryan Mata and a trio of relievers were the beneficiaries of the offensive explosion. Mata, on the injured list since spring training with a hamstring strain, allowed one run on three hits in two innings, striking out two without issuing a walk. Deybi Salcedo gave up just one hit in 2 2/3 scoreless frames, striking out four, walking three, and getting credit for the win. Ovis Portes pitched the final three innings to get the save. He allowed one hit, walked one, and struck out four.

Not many, but some... Iggy for Peavy Moncada + others for Sale Margot, Asuaje + 2 pitching prospects for Kimbrel Beni for Wink & Gambrell also... Dugo (not drafted) for Fitts, Weissert & Judice

We need Pivetta to right the ship. We face RHP Aaron Civale (2-3 5.88) Gotta beat these division foes!