moonslav59

I'm not "advocating" Grissom. I prefer DHam-Romy at 2B to end the season. I only am arguing that it made sense to want to try and upgrade 2B- our very worst position since 2018: worse than SP1, SP2, SP3, SP4, SP5, RP1-8 and every other position. Tell me, why that does not make sense? Now, clearly the pitching, as a whole, was our biggest weakness, but that does not mean it makes zero sense to try and upgrade 2B, and I think their belief was Gio would start 29-33 games, while Sale would start 5-20 games, AND we'd be better at 2B. The idea made sense. The results did not work. I'm not sidestepping anything. I know who we got for Sale has sucked. I know Sale is having the best season of any SP'er in 2024. I know Gio has started zero games in 2024. Nobody is disputing we failed on all three levels. That does not change the fact that the attempts made SOME sense, at the time. Easily, one or two of the 3 things I listed might have been different, and this whole debate would never have happened. To me, the biggest shocker of the 3 was the 34 year Sale about to win the Cy Young after 5 straight seasons of let-downs. The Gio zero starts was an easy 2nd. Grissom's poor 2024 is a distant 3rd. I'll also add that if DHam and Romy had not shocked the hell out of all of us and replaced the Valdez-Reyes middle infield utility crew, we would be talking about how 2B has been a big reason we are 10 GB the WC race, right now, because we might have been that far back, now. I'm not gonna blame Brez for not knowing DHam was going to do this, either. I mean what was he, our 4th string middle infielder in March?

Okay, I should have said 2B has been worst or near worst since 2018 NOT 2019. Just because we can win with a horrible 2Bman, does not mean 2B is not important. We sucked at 2B and tried to improve. That is not a bad idea. It just did not work as we expected.

I don't know, but I think given time, Grissom will be better. With DHam's speed, I wonder if they ever considered moving him to OF. Some tiny sample sizes, here, but... OAA at 2B in '24 +2 DHam (220 innings) 0 Westbrook (102) 0 Sogard (78) -2 Grissom (186) -2 Romy (69) -7 Valdez (396) DRS 7 DHam 0 Westbrook -2 Sogard -2 Romy -6 Valdez UZR/150 -0.6 Valdez -3.1 Romy -4.0 Grisson -7.1 DHam

We need really good pitchers, and everytime someone suggest a trade candidate, a poster says, "NOT HIM!" I will say, we have very little depth at corner IF, unless you count Story or mayer as a possible 3Bman, so we can move Devers to 1B. A couple moves like that improves the D at 3B and 1B, and our weakness is not LHBs, like casas is.

The SBs vs CS is a big plus, too. It's too bad his defense is lacking. (He's also below .560 v LHPs, but with a utility guy, you gotta like the .750+OPS v RHPs.)

Huge win, if we are to have any chance. BAL lost. CLE plays NYY. MIN is at SDP. KCR hosts LAA before their tough stretch.

DHam DA MAN!

Yup, forget all I said about there being no "clutch skillset." Rafaela has proved me wrong.

Two interesting notes on Enmanuel: 1. He still leads the team in PAs as a 2Bman in 2024 with 175. DHam is a distant 2nd at 100 as a 2Bman. 2. He has a .946 OPS in his last 90 PAs (June 1>) He might be back as a LF'er/DH/

He had one really bad start his first game back from the IL on July 12th, then went 7 IP w 0ERs allowed at COL, before going to the pen for 10 IP and 9 ERS. (8 of those ERs were in his last 2 games: 4 IP 8 ER) Maybe, they should have kept him starting.

ERA as SP 1.96 Whitlock (4GS18.1 IP) .616 OPS Against 2.42 Winckowski (6/22) .721 OPSA 3.01 Houck (25/152.2) .616 OPSA 3.91 Criswell (14 /66.2 after 4 IP, today) 4.09 Paxton (3/11) .741 OPSA 4.25 Crawford (25/142) .704 OPSA 4.70 Pivetta (20/105.1) .750 OPA 4.80 Bello (23/123.2) .771 OPSA Team Record in Starts 16-7 Bello 9-4 Criswell 11-9 Pivetta 13-12 Houck 9-16 Crawford I Hope this quiets the all about wins crowd.

I do think of all these players listed, Grissom might have the best chance at being a FT 2Bman, someday. It's a close call between he and DHam, IMO. Valdez looks like a platoon DH,a nd how many of them are around?

Man, that rafaela kid is CLUTCH! (LOL)

It took my childhood hero, Tommy Harper, 154 games to hit 31 HRs, 70 XBHs and steal 38 bases back in 1970 (for the Brewers.) Later, he led the AL in SBs with 54 for the Sox in 1973. (He never hit more than 18 HRs or 45 XBHs in any other season. At the time, Harper was just the second AL and 5th MLB player to do it. Now, there are 69 players. Canseco had 42 HRs and 40 SBs in 1988, ARod 42 & 46 in '98 and Barry Bonds had 42 HRs and 40 SBs in 1996 Alfonso Soriano had 46-41 in 2006 and Acuna blew everyone away with 41-73 in 2023.

Our 2B position has been 29th or 30th in many categories from 2019-2023, combined: defense, offense, anything and everything. We don't have to be number 1, or even #15, but 30th hurts the team. The DHam-Romy platoon ha sstabilized the position, this year, and the SBs has boosted their value, but nobody expected them to play like this. In fact, DHam was last year's Grissom.

The Beckett trade was HRam plus a nice pitching prospect in Anibal Sanchez, and MIA forced the Sox to take on Lowell and his contract. The Sale trade involved 4 prospects, including Moncada & Kopech, another highly regarded pitching prospect. Pedro took 2 top pitching prospects to get: Tony Armas Jr. & Carl Pavano. Schilling took 3 moderate pitching prospects (Yes, harmony, sometimes 3 or 4 for 1 trades happen;) Fossum, Jorge de la Rosa and Brandon Lyons. We have done far better with these types of trades than FA signings like Price and Lackey. Even lesser deals like Nate & Peavy worked out well.

I would not call Fried an injury prone pitcher: 2019: 30 GS (3 in relief) 2020: 11 out of 12 possible GS 2021: 28 GS 2022: 30 GS 2023: 14 GS 2024: 21 GS out of what? 22 chances? Since 2019, there are only 21 pitchers with more than 134 GS, and one is GIO, who I will assume he passes in 2 more starts. He is 2 starts from #18 in MLB. He is 24th in IP at 772, just 1.2 IP from GIO and 23rd place.

I always wondered about moving them to the AL. Seems like MIL would have made more sense, since they were once in the AL.

Power isn't everything, but he has not looked like he can even get 20 2Bs a year. I've not given up on him, but I am much more a doubter than I was shorty after the trade. At least he has several years to prove he belongs in the bigs. If Mayer gets promoted, we may not need hi, anyway.

What if every one of those 45 outs were when the score was close, and most of the hits were when up or down by 5 or more runs. Is it still "clutch?"

While 88 seems like a lot, it's not really a big sample size. I seriously doubt he'd have gone 86 for 176 had he gotten double the chances.

I don't either, and I live in Sugar Land, now. I'm a Packer fan, but I like the Texans, a lot, now. They are fun to watch.

He's looking more like Jeter Downs than even Pablo Reyes.

I'd say heppenstance.

Almost every pitcher we sign ends up sucking. I'm not sure spending more on one would work. We'd have probably signed Monty, last winter, and then where are we?