moonslav59

3 @ CLE 3 v CHC 3 v SFG 3 @ MIN Day off 2 @ ATL Day off 3 v WSH Then, the real hard part comes (not in order): 7 w Rays 3 w BAL 2 w ATL 3 w MIL 4 w DET 3 w STL May 13 to June 5th will be very telling. No easy teams in the bunch.

Pivetta and Whitlock may return. One must, for sure. The others have to give 28+ GS, IMO.

He's got options and may bounce back. He looked good, last year.

It would not be the first time a Sox team made the playoffs after not having high hopes in March.

Playing a team when they are on fire is worrisome, but they have to cool down, at some point. Might as well be now.

I'd like to see the domer get a shot, but his high K rate is not a good sign. Neither is Dalbec's, so what do we have to lose? (Bobby Dee can play 3B, though.)

My dream.

We are in 3rd place, by ourselves. 2 GB BAL 2.5 GB NYY 5th Best record in the AL (.5 GB KCR for 4th) 11th best record in MLB but tid for 9th in GB (0.5 GB 7th best) 8th best run diff at +18. Nice start.

Sox fWAR leaders through 1/7th of the season: (bWAR) 1.1 Crawford (1.7) 1.0 Houck (0.9) 0.9 O'Neill (0.8) 0.8 Duran (1.2) 0.5 Slaten (1.0) 0.5 Casas (0.2) 0.4 Whitlock (0.9) 0.4 Pivetta (0.6) 0.4 Abreu (0.9) 0.3 Bello (0.5) 0.3 Wong (0.1) 0.3 Refsnyder (0.3) 0.2 Wink (-0.5) 0.2 Bernardino (0.4) 0.2 McGuire (0.3) 0.1 Devers (0.1), Martin (-0.1), Anderson (0.2), Jansen (0.3) Take the average and multiply by 7, and you get: 9.8 Crawford 7.0 Duran 6.7 Houck 6.0 O'Neill 4.6 Abreu 4.6 Whitlock 3.5 Pivetta 2.8 Bello 2.5 Casas 2.1 Slaten, Ref , Bernardino 1.8 McGuire 1.4 Wong, Jansen 0.7 Devers

I'd have O'Neill in RF over Refsnyder and it's about even with Abreu. vs RHPs, I might go: LF: Duran CF: Abreu RF: O'Neill "Might."

I think he was battling an injury, last season. When we got him, he was known as a pretty good defensive catcher. It took a while for the staff to adjust to him, but now they seem totally at ease with him and Wong. Wong still has to do a better job blocking bad pitches, but he seems better, too, this year. I've always given some credit to catchers for how the pitching staff does- perhaps more than most do, but our staff is doing very well, despite no Gio, Pivetta and Whitlock and guys like jansen & martin struggling out of the gate. I don't like comparing staff CERA between two catchers, because each catcher often catches different pitchers for vastly different sample sizes, but here is a look of some small sample sizes. This year, there is more balance than last year. Overall: 1.74 w McGuire 3.35 w Wong OPS Against by Pitcher (note sample size differences) Pitchers listed in order of most IP in 2024 Crawford .382 w Wong 44 .491 w McGuire 66 PAs Houck .437 w McGuire 45 .606 2 Wong 60 Bello .547 w McGuire 23 a bit unbalnced .672 w Wong 67 Whitlock .590 w McGuire 39 .643 w Wong 36 Wink .732 w McGuire 47 Big swing, here .916 w Wong 27 Slaten .203 w McGuire 25 Big swing, but still good numbers w Wong. .523 w Wong 24 Anderson .200 w Wong 20 Big swing, but small samples .739 w McGuire 30 Pivetta .520 w McGuire 41 N/A w Wong 0 Weissert .556 w Wong 21 .778 w McGuire 18 Martin .671 w Wong 21 .787 w McGuire 17 Joely .713 w McGuire 23 1.203 w Wong 14 Jansen .267 w McGuire 15 .762 w Wong 21 Bernardino .311 w McGuire 10 .402 w Wong 16 Campbell .000 w McGuire 3 1.148 w Wong 30 Criswell .762 w McGuire 30 NA w Wong 0

MLB SP Leaders (146 Pitchers with 10+ IP) fWAR 1. Crawford 1.1 3. Houck 1.0 48. Whitlock & Pivetta 0.4 67. Bello 0.3 ERA- 4. Crawford 16 6. Pivetta 20 14. Houck 33 24. Whitlock 48 53. Bello 74 xFIP- 5. Houck 52 7. Pivetta 63 28. Bello 79 54. Whitlock 93 66. Crawford 98

Before today's win, our pitching staff was... SP: 1st in fWAR at 3.2 2nd in xFIP- at 81 4th in SIERA ay 3.37 RP: 11th in fWAR 0.5 5th in xFIP- at 88 6th in SIERA at 3.34 Overall: fWAR 3.8 PHI 3.7 BOS 3.2 WSH 2.9 KCR 2.7 NYM 2.5 BAL & OAK xFIP- 84 BOS 85 PHI 86 SEA & MIN 89 BAL SIERA 3.24 MIN 3.33 SEA 3.36 BOS 3.42 PHI 3.49 BAL (Note: we have played 2 of the top pitching teams from each of these 3 categories, already.)

I don't disagree, but I'm not sure they will do this. They may just try to start Whitlock and pull him after 55-65 pitches. Maybe the dreaded "piggyback" word comes out, again. We do have Wink, Anderson and Criswell who can go 2-3 IP (Criswell & Anderson 4 or 5,) so maybe they just stick with the original rotation. I worry about Pivetta being able to return. We might need Criswell or Anderson for him more than Whitlock.

Our top 13 Pitchers all have ERAs below 4.26, counting Pivetta and Whitlock. Listed in order of most IP 0.66 Crawford 27.1 3.04 Bello 26.2 1.35 Houck 26.2 1.96 Whitlock 18.0 (IL) 4.20 Wink 15.0 0.63 Slaten 14.1 2.77 Anderson 13.0 0.82 Pivetta 11.0 (IL) 1.86 Weissert 9.2 4.00 Martin 9.0 5.63 Joely 8.0 2.35 Jansen 7.2 1.23 Bernardino 7.1 12.79 Campbell 6.1 (IL) 4.26 Criswell 6.1 4.50 Booser 2.0 5.40 Jacques 1.2 (DFA'd)

Yup. and Slaten, Bernardino and Anderson.

Grissom is on the 40 but he is rehabbing in AAA, now. He will be called up, soon. I'm not sure who we have, who could be added to the 40 and is better than what we have (besides Dalbec) and can play 1B and or 3B. 1B Kavadas (Jordan AA) 3B Westbrook (might be the best choice) 3B Meidroth (has been hot, lately) UT Sogard, E Alvarez 3B Paulino (AA) 2B Yorke (AA) Nobody jumps out as being held back from greatness. SS Mayer (AA)

No argument from me. We don't really have a 1B/3B guy who is ML ready, but I'd still do it.

Rafaela is our best defensive SS, and SS is the most important defensive position, except maybe catcher. We have 4 good OF'ers when O'Neill returns, so yes.

Maybe. He did go 3 IP- almost as much as the starter.

Indeed

...and the Bucs swept them in '23.

Bloom had his chances to make more moves like the Vaz one, which many hated at the time. That was one of his biggest faults.

Good summary, and this might happen. I'm not sure you sign Soto AND get a top closer, but 2025 does look pretty good. You need your old guys to stay healthy, still, right?

Woo won 7-1 as Uwasawa went 5 strong IP 1 Hit 1 ER 1 BB 7 K Gutierrez walked 3 in 1 IP. Meidroth 2-3 w 2BB (.803, now) Sogard 3-5 Kavadas 1-4 w no BB & 3 Ks. Wikelman came in the game after Bastardo went 3 innings of 1 hit ball.) Wikelman: 3 IP, 1 H, O ER, 1BB, 4 K POR won 8-5 Yorke 2-5 Anthony & Mayer 1-5 Sikes went 3-4 w 3 rbi