moonslav59

And, Yoshida has a 1.296 OPS in his last 4 games with an HR

...or not bring Cora back, keeping Bogey and not signing Bloom to be the GM. Wrong, wrong, wrong!

I'll start with Salem. Last night, the Salem staff K'd 17 and walked just 1 in a 3-1 win. E R-C 5IP 3H 1ER 1BB 7K The pen 4IP 2H 0ER 0BB 10K Yuten homered. Zanetello 2-2. Greenville got killed 11-1 Early had a bad start (6ER in 4IP) Castro 2-4 w DBL POR won 3-2 Olivares looked good: 5IP 1H 0ER, but 5BB and 6K Yorke continues to heat up (1-4 w HR & BB) Jorda 3-4 Woo scored 4 in the 9th to win 7-5 Guerrero got the win with 2 scoreless innings. Westbrook 2-5 w DBL Grissom 1-4 w DBL Marrero 2-4 w HR and DBL

I know harping on the bad seems to be the way of the world, right now, so I'll join the crowd for a bit. Here are some of the weakest "links" on the Sox. 1. Defense. 2. A few batters starting off very slowly: .483 Rafaela (2nd on team in PAs) .427 Valdez (5th in PAs) .428 Reyes (10th in PAs) .245 Dalbec (12th in PAs) Maybe Valdez and Reyes see less playing time, when Grissom joins the 26, but Rafaela and Dalbec need to get closer to .600 or .700 than .400 or .500. (Yoshida .660 hasn't helped, either.) 3. It's hard to find many weaknesses with the pitching staff. Jacques (5.40) is gone. Campbell 12.40) is on the IL. Only Anderson is 14 in IP (7+ IP) with an ERA over 4.50. 7+ IP worst 3: 5.52 Anderson 4.50 Joely 4.20 Wink

I think we've had losing records in extra inning games since 2021. This year, we are 1-3. That is one area we might be able to reverse. We play the hot Cubs, now (Thanks Astros!) Then the Giants and off to play at MIN. Day off and 2 @ ATL, followed by another day off. This should give our staff a break, and hopefully by May 10th we have some arms back for the homestand vs WSH (3) and the Rays (4.)

Or try and stay near .500 or just under .500 vs good teams and kill the bad ones.

Since 1967, we have not had that many periods of "flopping around near the cellar." This is what I found: 1980-1987: 5 of 8 seasons finishing 5th or 6th out of 7 teams. (1st in '87 and 3rd in '82) 1992-1993 (7th and 5th) 2012-2015: 3 last place finishes in 4 years (5th out of 5 teams) surrounding a ring season in 2013 2020-2023: 3 last place finishes in 4 years surrounding a 2nd place in '21. All-in-all, that's not so bad. To me, the worst stretch was decades with no rings. I'll take last place finishes, as long as some rings are sprinkled in the mix. 2018 seems like a decade ago, but it's not. 2021 was fun. There has been precious little, otherwise.

Good stuff, Max. I'm not sure about where our spending will go, but JH's track record is to spend and go cheap in cycles. I'm not sure why we should expect that to stop. There is certainly a logical position to take where the idea that our big 3 prospects maye be adding significant value to the 26 man roster in 1.5 to 2 years from now. Add that to a sizable core of 22-27 year olds, already on the team, who have 3+ years of team control. I can understand the thinking that holding off spending until then might be better than spending now, assuming there is an either or dynamic to the choice. Of course, we can argue JH can afford to spend now and then, but he hasn't always done that, and he is the one who chooses how to spend his money. I am not trying to downplay the difference in spending from 2018-2019 and the 5 years afterwards. There is a very significant difference, but we must also remember 2018-2019 was a bit of an outlier in Sox spending, too. If you take away the 4-5 owners who have gone bonkers over the last 2-3 years, it wouldn't look so comparatively awful. That doesn't change the fact that JH has gotten stingy, but the relative part of it is equally due to others going nutty. I'm not going to say I expect JH to spend large, again. I've given up on that. He has had some significant spending adventures since 2019 (Devers, Story, Yoshida,) but that falls way short of the spending that began with Price and ended with that enormous 2019 budget. I'm not sure JH ever spends like that again, but it is entirely possible he goes over the tax line, at some point in the next 1-3 years. He may quickly reset, the next year, but I figure the odds be 50-50 he spends, again.

Sox announce Rafaela to be "primary SS" going forward. https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2024/04/red-sox-rumors-ceddanne-rafaela-everyday-shortstop.html

Notice I did not mention Marc Sullivan.

I seriously doubt we don't pay arb raises, this winter, unless we make the Yoshida for Abreu trade, or something like it that saves us money. I agree that if trading for Ray means we have to cut others or don't sign someone else, I'm not for that deal. (I also mentioned I'd expect money to even the cost of the trade for each team.)

Which is more surprising? 9-17 HOU or 18-7 CLE

I think we got him from the Padres, where I believe he was once a highly ranked prospect in their system.

Again, you are assuming we use the "savings" to make a difference to our roster. I don't assume that.

The Sox pitching staff has a .625 OPS Against. This blows me away. OPS Against listed by most PAs Against: Red= below .700 .546 Houck .448 Crawford .646 Bello .616 Whitlock .799 Wink .706 Anderson .358 Slaten .625 Criswell .819 Joely .670 Weissert .787 Martin .520 Pivetta .506 Jansen .436 Bernardino 1.039 Campbell .946 Booser .944 Jacques .000 Kelly No more PAs from Jacques, going forward. Hopefully, Campbell will be better, if he comes back. More PAs from Pivetta, Whitlock, Bernardino and maybe Kelly could help keep these numbers down, assuming they keep doing well. We have 10 RHPs pitchers with an OPS Against vs LHBs under .570. (Anderson, Wink, Weissert & Campbell do not.) All of our LHPs have OPS Against v LHBs above .570. Best K/BB 13.0 Pivetta 10.0 Joely 6.4 Houck 5.5 Slaten 5.0 Martin 3.7 Bello 3.5 Criswell 2.7 Crawford

I don 't have a problem taking on a bad contract for another one. It's just Abreu is worthless. A guy like Ray will have value in 1.5 years, which is about when it looks like we might try to win, again.

They are likely 1-2. I'm just thinking of a few Sox catchers who came up short: RHern Swihart Lavarnway Kottaras (I'm sure there are more)

Ray would likely give more production than Abreu. I did not say it, but I was thinking the money could be evened out by SFG paying $5M a year.

8 Sox players have 10-11 RBIs (O'Neill has 8, but he leads the team in Runs scored with 15.) 12 players have homered with 8 having 2 or more.

...and you are "wrong," if what you think should happen, doesn't happen.

Amazing how, despite all the major injuries, including some season long one, we are still in 3rd place and knocking on the last WC slot door. The numbers of many of our 2nd stringers are horrific, so it's hard to figure out how we are doing this, except to point out our rotation has been awesome, to date. The O has been carried by our catchers, O'Neill, Abreu and a few hot streaks by Duran, Ref and a couple others. The pen has been a bit touch-and-go, but has mostly done a fine job. The D has been the biggest thorn.

He still can't understand the difference between saying something should happen vs saying it might happen or will happen. Then, he projects his cluelessness onto others.

JH did not spend more on Devers than any other player in Sox history? What am I missing? (Inflation?)

I don't assume it, that's why I don't want to trade just to save money...and for a less promising player than Yoshi.

Maybe 6th to 12th, if I had to guess. I don't think JH will ever spend like a handful of maniac owners are, now. 6th might be tops, unless some of these big spenders start wanting to reset. No doubt, the big cut to the budget for 2024 sucks. I think we all are unhappy with this turn, but look at this selected group of team spending over the last few years, and determine where the biggest changes were made. (Hint: it's not cuts to the Sox budget.) '24 Team 2021 308M NYM 201 307M NYY 205 250 HOU 194 245 PHI 197 232 TEX 96 230 ATL 153 228 LAD 265 227 CHC 144 226 TOR 150 197 SFG 172 183 BOS 187 I'm not defending the fact that we are not spending more, each year, but we are spending about the same, while others have even doubled their spending in 3 years (TEX) or gone up by 40-50% (NYM, NYY, ATL, CHC, TOR.) That's 5 teams that have spent at absurd or near absurdly higher levels than just 3 years ago. I don't expect JH to match their absurdity. He could, however, spend more. He could spend up to the tax line and go over by a little, every other year or 2 years in a row, from time to time. (He has done that in the past, and has often pulled back on spending to reset, sometimes staying under the line for a couple years.) The tax line is $237, this year. Spenind $236M would place the Sox 5th. $226 would place us 9th. $198M would bump us up one slot, overtaking SFG for 10th. The big unknown is what we will do in 2025 or 2026. Nobody knows.