moonslav59

All farm teams won, today. Wish it could rub off on the big team. Sansone went 6 scoreless for Woo. Eaton 3-5. Mullins went 6 scoreless for POR. (8K-1BB). Phillips went 3.2 scoreless for GRE (7K:1BB) Gonzales & White 2 hits. Morgan went 2.2 scoreless for SAL. 5 guys had 2 hits. No runs allowed by starters.

The worst 9 teams in MLB by record include these 7 teams: 7-14 NYM & KCR 7-13 TOR 8-14 HOU 8-12 BOS & PHI 9-13 SEA The best 9 teams include: 13-8 CIN & AZ 12-8 STL & TBR 12-9 PIT Why can't we have a GM like STL's? (LOL)

Wasn't Sandoval supposed to pitch today for Woo? Whaddup?

Who are the other 4?

I told you my points: The Sox have just a handful of players 25 or younger, and they are not the problem, as a whole. 26 and 27 is near or part of prime. Rafaela, Abreu and other 25-27 year olds should be on the upswing. We have capable back-ups for Anthony (3 OF'ers and Yoshida) Mayer (IKF) Durbin (Monasterio) and Early (Sandoval, Tolle and maybe Oviedo & Crawford). I'm not sure what your two false choices offered is all about. Most of us saw the major mistake we made, this winter. Most of us argued we had a surplus in OF/DHs and a shortage in capable IF'ers. Most of us saw our pen was thin. I don't think our youth is the issue. In fact, I think the opposite: the youth is the only thing we can be optimistic about and not just for 2017 and beyond, but this year. Now, arguing that we shouldn't need Early and Anthony to carry us has a lot of merit, but most good teams are looking at a couple under 26 guys as major factors. The difference is, they better "other players." I'm not pretending all my suggestions were better than we made, as guys like Suarez and Polanco are doing poorly, but many are doing well. Almost all are doing better than Durbin & IKF. (Note: I liked the idea of adding one of these two as a complimentary piece, but along with someone like Paredes, KMarte, Neto, Hoerner or even BLowe/Donovan types.) My point about PIT was about you bringing them up. (My guess is they miss the playoffs, again.)

I liked the Sale trade, at the time, since Sale embodied everything we hate about waiting for injured pitchers to return to form. Update: Sale has started about 55 out of a possible 70 starts and was not healthy by the end of both seasons with ATL. His numbers are off-the-charts great, when he pitches. 29-9 2.49 w ATL with a Cy Young Award. Grissom sucked and was traded for Isaiah Jackson. Now, do the Teel and Verdugo trades.

But, but but... they are trying sooooo hard!

5 players more than double the ISO of Abreu, our only player with power.

Devers trade update: Devers in 485 PAs: 22 HRs 59 RBI .231 BA and .758 OPS Kyle Harrison: 3.04 ERA in just 27 IP since trade James Tibbs: 9 HRs in 81 ABs in AAA, this year (1.116 OPS) Jose Bello: doing okay in A-. Hicks: part of trade for Durbin, Monasterio & Seigler Money saved spent on: choose one: Suarez, Gray or Contreras

The Sox are 6th in spending and spend more than double 8 teams. They spend over $60M more than half the teams. Henry has a long history of targeted budget cuts followed by significant high spending trends.

20 Konner Griffin 23 Chandler 24 Skenes & Yorke 26 Davis, Ashcraft & Montgomery 27 Cruz, Gonzales, Cooke

I do think he is on thinner ice than Breslow, but I still think they could promote him rather than fire him, as weird as that sounds.

Ring the 1986 bell.

Perhaps, the biggest hindsight mistake was not trading Duran after 2024. The second biggest was not trading Duran after 2025. Oh, and BTW, for many of us, this is not hindsight.

I liked the Contreras deal on day one. I've said all along, let's compare Willson to Alonso when 2026 is over. Where did I say it was questionable? I said the Sox brass viewed him as the "complimentary" bat to the guy they felt was the #1 prize: Bregman. I also have felt viewing Bregman as the #1 prize was a mistake. Also, 26 and 27 year olds are no longer "young." They should be prime or just months away from peak prime. Okay, Anthony, Mayer and Early are young, but they are not the players dragging the team down. Counting on 3 young players like them is not unheard of, and BTW, we added IKF to cover for Mayer, have 5 OF/DHs to cover for Anthony and SP'er depth was viewed as one of the few plusses this team had to cover for Early. Rafaela turns 25 in September and has played 355 MLB games and 425 minor league ones. I guess you can count Durbin as "too young," and Early is the only pitcher under 27 on the ML roster. (I'm not counting Anderson with 3 IP at age 26.) I don't think counting on youth was one of our major issues. It was not addressing the power issue, not timing a Duran trade correctly and maybe not adding a significant RP'er to the pen.

I'm not there... yet.

League ISO: .145 Sox Players: .203 Abreu (59th in MLB among 254 batters with 50+ PAs!) .172 Contreras (89th) .167 Wong (just 27 PAs) __________________ .118 Mayer & Story .111 Anthony .103 Yoshida ____________________ .094 Duran .088 Rafaela .087 Monasterio (26 PAs) ___________________ .050 Durbin This is hideous!!!

This is the killer: ISO by Team: .110 BOS #30 .111 NYM #29 .117 SFG #28... We are also 10th worst in K% with the 11th worst BB%. If these numbers don't move in significant ways, I don't see a way to make the playoffs, despite being just 2.5 GB a playoff slot, right now.

I doubt he's considering selling. I do wonder what his thoughts were, when fans were chanting that at the park. I've always said, "Be careful what you wish for." The next owner could spend less and hire worse leadership. I'm not ready to jump ship on Brez & Cora, but the thread is getting thinner and thinner by the day.

We need a big bounce back game from Crochet. Cora says our batters "are trying to do too much." Hmm....

They knew what they needed. I'm certain they got Contreras as a complimentary piece, but they dropped the ball on the main piece. They got that wrong, too. They thought Bregman was the second bat. I'm glad they didn't overpay for him, but knowing he was their first choice greatly lessens my confidence in their ability to make the right choices.

No, but I'm tired of the wait that keeps getting pushed back. I've been pumping him up and giving stats of when he used to be pretty good all winter long. I usually have a lot of patience, but after all the waiting for injured pitchers to return from Sale to Hendriks, I'm wore out thin.

I agree on missing that "BIG BAT" many of us screamed for over the winter. I do think we have nice balance and a lot of decent plus bats, and maybe over the long haul, that will start showing better results, but I can't stop thinking "what if?"

Eyanson is showing why they jumped him over Phillips, Gonzales & Soto. He's 6th in IP on the farm and has a .338 OPS Against. The Priester deal is looking a lot better with Holobetz doing so well. Hell, even YRod has an .832 OPS as a 20 year old in A+ ball. John Holobetz is 2nd in IP and has an 0.73 ERA & .397 OPS Against with 23Ks in 16 IP. That's 12.9/9! Futrell is now 5th in IP among farm pitchers and has an eye-popping .191 OPS Against (2H & 3BB with 13 Ks) Bennett has been the other major standout pitcher on the farm. He's first in IP at 16.1 and has an 0.55 ERA and .337 OPSA. He's walked just 2 batters and has 13 Ks. Tolle had one bad start, but has 19Ks and 4BBs in 15 IP. (3.00 ERA/.619 OPSA) Valera in on the IL after a fantastic first 9.1 IP (1.93/.441) with an earth shattering 17 Ks (4BB) Pretty encouraging start on the farm for this handful of pitchers.

Those that felt Bello should have been traded, seem to have been right on.