Give him the innings for now. There’s no rush in making a decision. Even with Rodon coming back at some point and Kopech a mid-season call-up, he can have a spot in the rotation until one of Stephens, Adams, Guerrero, or Hansen says otherwise.

 

Yep. Again less than 300 IP TOTAL as a professional. He has pitched about the same amount of innings as Michael Kopech.

 

Get Fulmer his innings. No need to make a panic move.

View Fulmer the exact same way we viewed Avi last year - this year is literally meant to figure out what we've got. Although we're still not quite sure on Avi, it's starting to look like he is not the worst.

Moncada finishes second on the team in homers (29) & leads the team in K’s (166)

 

Davidson has a .803 OPS at the deadline and for whatever reason, an AL team offers the Sox a top 100 prospect for a pennant chase. Hahn makes the trade. Is water wet?

 

Jimenez comes up 8/1 as Davidson’s replacement

 

Anderson finishes the year with 21 HR’s and 31 SB’s

 

Sox come to an agreement on an extension with Sanchez

 

By the end of the year, Cease is a top 30 prospect in baseball

Moncada finishes second on the team in homers (29) & leads the team in K’s (166)

I know you and I have had our Moncada debates over the past couple weeks, but I'm surprised you went with 166. I still am not worried about him but expect him to strike out at least 190 times.

Our pitching cannot continue to be terrible. I also think one or two pen guys become valuable chips and are flipped for prospects. We finish a solid 4th place in the central but hit a billion homers.

It's going to be challenging to finish behind the Tigers and the Royals...

Fulmer has the great stuff, that's apparent when he pitches, but if he can't throw strikes as a starter, I don't know why we assume he will throw more strikes as a reliever when he is likely to pump up the velocity. Is the assumption that he won't need all his pitches if he is only pitching to hitters 1 time each game, so he can just use the 2 pitches he's able to get over that day?

Davidson talked about how his walks were way down last year. This year, and it's been 10 games, he has had a huge increase. That's great to see even in the short term. If he's a one trick pony with power he probably bounces around the league getting signed in February every year. If he's a power guy with a 10-15% BB rate he's a very capable player.

 

Yeah he is going to whiff a lot and hit for a low average but if he hits 230 with 80 walks and 35 bombs that is not bad, basically Chris Carter before he became really bad. Those types tend to decline early (like dunn) because they lose all their contact skill at some point but can be productive in their mid to late 20s.

The bullpen sucks.

 

While I agree they've failed the eye test, their peripherals are pretty good now that Infante and Minaya are gone:

 

Jones 2.08 ERA, 1.43 FIP, 3.11 xFIP, 10.8 K/9, 2.08 BB/9

Bummer 2.70 ERA, 0.95 FIP, 1.82 xFIP, 13.5 K/9, 2.7 BB/9

Rondon 0.00 ERA, -1.24 FIP, -0.62 xFIP, 19.29 K/9, 0 BB/9

Avilan 2.08 ERA, 1.66 FIP, 2.67 xFIP, 12.46 K/9, 4.15 BB/9

Soria 6.75 ERA, 4.55 FIP, 3.47 xFIP, 11.25 K/9, 2.25 BB/9

Farquhar 3.00 ERA, 5.05 FIP, 2.41 xFIP, 10.5 K/9, 0 BB/9

 

SSS, but I think they can atleast be league average now that things have shaken out a little.

I know you and I have had our Moncada debates over the past couple weeks, but I'm surprised you went with 166. I still am not worried about him but expect him to strike out at least 190 times.

Well, if you guys are right and he's going to make strides in the HOT WEATHER, hopefully that means less K's.

 

If he finishes with more than 190, he'd be top 5 in K's in baseball, most likely. That would be borderline embarrassing.

FWIW, if you take out opening day, Matt Davidson is 4-26, 1 HR, 1 2B, 3 RBI, 8 BB, 12K, .308 slg, .371 opb, .679 OPS.

 

It's still to early to draw a conclusion on Davidson. The Sox lost 3 or 4 1 run games in the past week. He is drawing walks and can win the game with one swing of the bat, like he just did. I think he will be fine.

 

The bullpen? That's an entirely different story. I'm guessing that we will see some of the kids getting their shot sooner rather than later.