GreenSox

The solution is mostly in Birmingham, and otherwise internal. Some of the guys in this pen would be fine in the bottom of a good pen. The solution is not to start draft college relievers or to focus free-agent resources, whatever they may be, on relief pitching.

Leasure’s got a good arm. Still learning. Defense behind him was less than exemplary. Probably shouldn’t be closer yet, but the best relievers are still in Birmingham.

I understand that the bench has to play some and I've seen worse Sunday lineups. But why is Capra batting in the 9th?

Assuming that the continued presence of Slater et al on the roster is to be traded in July, he should be up soon. Sox are in no position to give away players who might help.

To me, it was the lack of a real farm system. Hard to develop depth, shore up weaknesses, have any staying power at all without one. This crew seems to be trying to build something. On another matter, kudos to whoever found Vasil. I assume he’ll be in what should be an interesting rotation next season.

Sosa was a good minor league hitter; it's taken him a while to figure out the majors but it looks like he has. Trade rumors doesn't know what they are talking about.

Rojas to DFA. He shouldn't be on his team in the first place. Sox moved Vargas to first and Elko to Charlotte to accommodate him.

Seems like some Birmingham pitchers are airplanes flying a circular pattern around the airport just waiting and waiting. What’s next for Taylor and Dalquist? They really can’t send them to Charlotte. Nastrini is star of the day in Charlotte.

Now Elko has Vaughn to mentor him! If they are actively working with Elko to shore up his deficiencies, that's fine; but if this is just to make room for utility veterans coming off of the injured list or to make room for Rojas to play 3d, it’s just silly. Elko already won a game for the Sox.

Per Law from above: " It’s a good year to go under slot with your first pick and spread some money around," The Sox set up perfectly for that. The big draft advantage that they have is picking first in rounds 2-20 and round 1 and underslot in Round 1 allows them to maximize the advantage without punting.

The Sox are ahead because the Pirates don't try. This is not a rebuild period for the Pirates. This is standard operations for them.

Benintendi and tauchman do not help the team now; they do not help the future. Rojas, Slater, etc. Why are we wasting time with these stiffs? Elko has 3 homers in less than 2 weeks; 3 in 32 PAs. 30/320, 60/640. Just saying. Send him away? What are we doing here?

We can yap about the bullpen, but it's not much of a stretch to see the foundation of a good pitching staff. Birmingham has 4 guys throwing relief right now who would probably be 1-4 in the Sox pen. WE have 3 good starters right now, and a couple of studs in the minors. But not overwhelming depth, especially when they might have to use some of it to get the position side, which is not so easy to visualize, up to spiff. Benintendi is already a big anchor, so I don't know why Getz adds more of that type with Slater, Rojas, Taylor (who at least plays elite defense). Vaughn seems absolutely intractable, and that is absolutely weird. A lot more benefit from playing Baldwin, Julks and Fletcher and a continuing Palacios' audition.

I kind of like Palacios. He gets on base reasonably well for a 4th OF type. And he's an effervescent fellow.

Jared Kelly looks like he's born-again hard in the Birmingham pen. Palette, Dalquist, Kelly....Taylor, too, although I hope he stays in the rotation.

Is that really the long-term plan? There's probably 3 relievers in Birmingham better than any in the sox pen.

Well, I guess I found the point of Houser. Well done by him and the pen!

I see Dane Dunning gets the call for Round Rock v. the Knights I didn't know they had interleague play in AAA. If they called up Palette, he'd be the best reliever in our pen right now.

Is he a draft-eligible sophomore, or is he a '26 guy?

Yes, you're probably right. But I've always felt that their drafting was a bigger issue than development. They do a lot better pulling players from other teams' minor league systems.... of course everybody does, as it's much easier to evaluate. Even now it seems/feels like Shirley is a big improvement....but are the results there yet? Of course I don't know who's really doing the picking and who's doing the punting and all of that.

Honestly they haven't been great at that either. Since 2010, 3 TOR guys in Sale, Crochet and Rodon - pretty good as aces are hard to find. And then Bassitt for mid-rotation. And that's been about it. Now Martin and Cannon are looking like they might settle into solid mid-rotation starters (which is an improvement as we've had basically 1 in 15 years). And we have 3 prospects with ace potential...but as of now, it's still just potential.

Absolutely, but we need to keep eyes wide open for teams willing to overpay. That said, I'm not exactly sure what 5.5 seasons of a pitcher who looks like he'll settle in at 2-3 WAR is worth in terms of prospects. But in general, I'd like 3 interesting prospects back for such a player.

I'll file this under "What's the Point." Looks like the pitching version of Slater or Tauchman.

I'd like to see them bring up Fletcher and/or Julks. Each is having a good year; each was traded for so the Sox saw something in them. With all of the mess that was the 2024 season, perhaps they should get another look before rendering definitive judgments. Slater and Tauchman have each been around MLB for a number of years, and neither has ever been a full-time starter. They see to be similar offensive players, neither with much power and one RH and one LH. I guess the idea is to platoon those 2 eventually. But I just don't know what that does for us.

Absolutely not. But we do have a couple of guys in Charlotte better than Palacios; and a couple who make more sense than Taylor. So I wish Getz would accelerate the churn.