moonslav59

We might be able to sign Ford and make it 3.

If I told you in March that Wong and Abreu would be top 3 on the team in OPS, would you have said, "You are crazy!"

Is Connor Wong the unsung star of this season, to date?

DFA Garrett!

Send in the clowns There ought to be clowns

Speaking of the best 3 homegrown starting pitchers, what was the best year for our rotation (homegrown or not?) Since 1972, when I started following the Sox... ERA- 77 2002 81 1990 82 1999 84 1993 85 2018 86 1986 87 1978 88 1992 FIP 3.13 1972 3.32 1990 3.57 1992 3.60 202 3.64 1976 fWAR 20.6 1990 Clemens, Boddicker, Harris, Kiecker, Bolton 19.9 2002 Pedro, Lowe, Burkett, F Castillo, Wake/Fossom 19.7 1999 Pedro, Portugal, Rapp, Saberhagen, Wake/Rose 18.2 2004 (32 GS+ by all 5) Pedro, Schilling, Lowe, Wake, Arroyo 18.1 1992 Clemens, Viola, Dopson, Hesketh, Gardiner/Darwin 17.7 2003 Pedro, Lowe, Wake, Burkett, Fossum/Suppan 17.5 1987 Clemens, Hurst, Nipper, Sellers, Stanley 17.2 1986 Clemens, Hurst, Nipper, Boyd, Seaver/Sellers/Brown 16.9 2001 Pedro, Nomo, Cone, F Castillo, Wake/Ohka 16.7 1972 Pattin, Siebert, McGlothen, Curtis, Tiant/Culp

I was never that high on Masterson. Buchholz was really good but couldn't stay healthy. Lester was our best homegrown SP'er from Clemens to today. I think I'd take Houck, Crawford and Bello, but Lester makes it hard to do. I'd go with Clemens, Hurst and Boyd or Clemens Hurst and Ojeda.

You'd think the threat of a DFA might snap him out of it.

These are the best looking 3 homegrown SP'ers since _____?

His swing was hideous, and I think you are right on Walt Hriniak.

Springs

There was a lot of talk about Monty, but that was likely because he signed so late. There was a lot of hot and cold on Snell, Gio, Stroman and Wacha. I liked Gray and felt $25M x 3 was reasonable. I think I was higher than most on Seth Lugo ($15M x 3)and Imanaga ($13M x 4,) but who knows, if they will continue doing well.

On soxprospects.com, some jockeying occured between the two: At the end of 2017, Mata was 3rd and Houck 4th. By mid 2018 they both climbed up to 2-3, as Groome dropped. They flipped in the Fall of 2018: Houck was th and Mata 7th. The gap widened by Spring of 2019: Houck 5th and Mata 10th. They flipped agin in Summer 2019: Mata was back up to 4th and Houck dropped to 9th. That fall it was Mata 2nd and Houck 7th. He held his ground through 2020. Another flip in spring of '21: Houck was 5th and Mata dropped to 11th. By the fall of '21, Houck had graduated and Mata was 10th. Mata was as high as 6th in 2022 and 5th in early '23. By the end of '23, he was 27th.

You crack me up. (Don't stop!)

LOL. Funny.

A few people, I think Bell was one and I felt Gray was a good idea, because his age would likely mean a shorter term deal- something we felt this management team might be attracted to.

It's not impossible to make trades in May and June, and back-up 1Bmen are often a dime a dozen, but it is not always easy to find the right fit, at this time of the year. In '22, it was not absurd to give Bobby Dee a long look. He had started slowly in 2021, but was a big part of our second half success (.867 in his last 103 games of 2021.) In 2021, he began his turn-around on May 13th, so it made some sense to stick with him to mid May or a little longer. The idea was casas was beating down the door in AAA, so looking outside the system looked to be unnecessary. We also had late 2021 late season star, Travis Shaw on the roster, early in 2022. The killer was when casas went on the IL in AA near the end of May. I'm not sure they knew how long he was going to be on the shelf, but if they knew it was going to be a long time, then looking outside the system made sense at the end of May and through June. (Casas returned to AAA in mid July.) The choice to try Marwin Gonzalez (99 innings at 1B,) Danny Santana (98,) Cordero (65) and Chavis (53,) before finally acquiring Schwarber at the deadline- someone not known as a 1Bman. I'm not sure who the choices were near the end of may to July, but it sure looks like an outside option could not have done as badly as the in-house guys ended up doing.

How about Gedman?

We could move Mata to the 60 Day IL. He's already been out about 30 days.

We currently have 22 pitchers on the 40, not counting the 3 we have on the 60 Day IL (Giolito, Murphy and Hendriks). We do have 4 of those 22 on the shorter IL (Pivetta, Whitlock, Bello & Campbell.) That leaves 18, including Wikelman and Perales, who are not likely to be ML ready, this year. I guess we could say we have 16 available, now for the 13 man ML staff. Of those 16, one is the recently acquired Bailey Horn- a pitcher with very high BB/9 rates and no MLB experience. It does look like we are cutting this very short, but we do have 3 pitchers who may come off the IL in the next 1-2 weeks. With all these 1Bman on the roster, maybe we finally DFA Dalbec and add a pitcher.

I'm thinking they might like him more than Cooper, and Cooper got hurt in his first game- how badly I don't know. We could also DFA RH'd Dalbec for Ford, but Ford will want a MLB slot.

Zack Short has a pretty small MLB sample size. His D numbers: +1.0 dWAR (all positions combined) DRS/UZR -2 3B (-16.3) 0 SS (-3.3) +5 2B (+1.8)

This guy had some great numbers from 2019-2020, but less than 200 PAs in both of those seasons: .299 21 67 in 396 PAs .366 OBP .571 SLG .937 OPS Projected to 650 PAs: .299 36 116 Since then... .243 23 121 in 1231 PAs .311 OBP .355 SLG .666 OPS (about 11 Hrs per 650)

1Bman Mike Ford might be available (.902 v LHPs, career.)

So, they get an infielder, just like you wanted!