moonslav59

It's hard to know we have with this guy. I hope he impresses us.

The injury bug is really biting the Sox. 60% of the rotation: Giolito Pivetta Whitlock 56% of the line-up, including the entire infield: Devers 3B Story SS Grissom 2B Casas 1B O'Neill RF Plus, our best sub, Refsnyder missed time. Our back-up SS (Romy G) is out, just like Chang in '23. Our 3rd string Catcher (Heineman) is out. Some pen arms have missed time (Mata, Campbell.) Being 13-11 with all these guys missing time is rather remarkable. We will get some back, soon. (Today)

LOL. It looks that way!

Building up his trade value?

Cora said he wanted to get him more playing time. Good idea.

Bummer of a loss. Another solid start from our rotation.

Wilyer Time!

True, but 5 runs still needed to be scored a few times, and the pitching staff "bench" has done well.

I'd have been okay had he chose to BUY, and did is with some real effort. Straddling the line or doing next to nothing rarely works.

He also added McGuire and Pham in '22. Nothing real major, but IMO, it was more of a buy than Urias, and selling Vaz was more significant than "selling" Kike. The Hosmer trade also included 2 prospects, so it was sort of a minor buy and sell in one move, and giving up prospect Groome make it a minor "buy."

Well said. It's been a group effort, and despite some really bad numbers on O and D by much of our bench, many have found ways to get key hits or make key plays, when needed. I'm not a big fan of using RBIs ads a stat of choice, but after 23 games, we can see that this team has spread the wealth in that area, and some of our leaders are surprising: 10 McGuire, Yoshida, Casas 9 Valdez & Duran 8 Wong, Rafaela (.494 OPS) & O'Neill 7 Abreu (with Devers 5, Story 4) Remember the old stat RBI +Runs- HRs? 23 Duran 19 Rafaela 17 Yoshida 16 Casas 15 Abreu 15 O'Neill 14 Valdez 12 McGuire 10 Wong 8 Devers 6 Ref in just 16 PAs)

Beyond the 20 days? (He was working out and doing drills before actually beginning the rehab.)

What day is the 20th day?

Famous last words.

60% of the rotation on the IL. The entire infield on the shelf (Not for all of the season) Devers, Casas, Story, Grissom Our best batter out of the gates on the IL (O'Neill) That's 5 of 9 everyday players out for some time. 13-10 Not sure how a "weak bench" pulls this off.

Okay, technically, yes, but that's not what I call "selling." IMO, he was near DFA level. Not really a big sale.

Recently, there has been a bigger "crapshoot" aspect to the playoffs. I agree. It's not all black and white. It's not just about the best record not winning. A top 3-4 team wins more than a 5-8+ team. I'm not sure if the trend will continue.

After last night's games, we are in a 4 way tie for the 4th best record in the AL, at 13-10 (with DET, KCR & TOR) That's a 91 win pace. We have some tougher teams to play, but we do have the big west coast trip out of the way, and some key players returning from injury as we head into a tougher part of our schedule. There is reason for optimism and concern, but I'm liking what I'm seeing from Brez & Bailey, so far.

Agreed, but Reyes was better than Kike and ended up showing that, when he finally did play. Hell, DHam would have been a better choice.

Sorry for sounding acusitive. The team is playing well, now. Let's enjoy this!

I agree, but there was a time, when we had Reyes, when Cora even said, Kike will not be playing SS much, anymore, yet he kept playing him there. That small part was on Cora.

Teams that squeak in to the playoffs do win, from time to time, and it seems more so, recently, but I still see the better teams with way better chances at winning it all or getting to the big dance. It's a delicate balance to try and build for a more sustained future vs the here and now. often doing one harms the other. When odds are low, I look to the future. It's how i see it. I'm fine with people disagreeing, and I understand their views. I did not think we had a big enough chance at winning in '22 or '23. I wasn't alone. Others did think we had a big enough chance to make a run at it. They were not alone.

Where have I said "I give up on 2024?" I'm not for selling, now. If we are on pace for over 90 wins at the deadline, I doubt I will be then, either. The rest of MLB teams have serious weaknesses, too. They have injuries, too or will have some. We need to get some guys back and into form to have a real chance. That can happen. I've not given up. Can you acknowledge, we might be in a position to sell, this deadline? If yes, why is it so bothersome to talk about it and discuss who might bring us value in return? We often discuss more pointless or mundane things than that.

With the injuries we had, I think yes. I understand not thinking the same. (I'm also not one who believes in the playoff crapshoot things, so that plays into my opinion to sell at the 2023 deadline, too.)

Exactly, and discussing the possibilities of selling certain players, based on where we stand before the deadline, is an age old topic. It's been a contentious topic, the last few years, as we have sometimes been on the bubble of buying and selling. There have usually been two camps, except in 2020 (all wanted to sell) and 2021 (all wanted to buy.) It's easy to judge in hindsight, and some might still think we could have made the playoffs in 2022 and or 2023 had we added 2-3 key players, but in hindsight, it looks like it would have taken more than that. Had we gotten something for Bogey, JD, Nate, Wacha, Duvall and others, we'd likely be much better off today and going forward. As we stand now, I'm not for selling. I wish we'd trade for a defensive SS, today. I had hoped we'd sign 3 SP'ers over the winter, not one. We all know this team could implode, at any minute. Before the season started, there were precious few who felt this team had a snowball's chance in hell of just making the playoffs, and that was before we lost Gio and Story for the season and others for parts of the season. I think it is entirely reasonable to look ahead and discuss some what ifs.