Here's the link to Part I
https://www.talksox.com/forum/thread...at-2019-Part-I
We're half way through the season and on our way to London for 2 big games with the Yanks sandwiched between 3 "days off" (travel days).
No doubt, the first half has been a disappointment. We started very slow, showed signs of snapping out of it here and there, but then seemed to stumble back into out struggles again and again.
Blame has been thrown around by us posters, and certainly much of the criticism is well-warranted, but we can probably all agree that no one area is our clear weakness. One can even argue that our weaknesses are not really a weakness, since they may still be at or above league average or mean.
Here is where each position ranks among the 15 AL teams at the halfway point:
WAR (fangraphs)
Area:
3rd Positional Players 14.1 (5th in runs scored/ 4th in OPS)
3rd Pitching 11.2 (6th in ERA-/ 7th in WHIP/ 1st in K/9)
5th Defense (3rd in UZR/150/ 6th in DRS)
Position:
2nd SS 3.7 (1st OPS)
3rd SP 8.2 (7th ERA-/ 7th WHIP)
3rd C 2.0(8th OPS)
4th 3B 2.8 (1st OPS)
5th RP 3.0 (3rd ERA-/ 5th WHIP)
7th RF 2.4 (2nd OPS)
7th LF 1.3 (7th OPS)
9th DH 0.2 (13th OPS)
10th CF 0.5 (8th OPS)
11th 1B 0.1 (10th OPS)
12th 2B 0.4 (8th OPS)
While RF and DH looklike major disappointments and declines from 2018, 3B and C have seen great improvement.
Here is my own individual report card based on what I perceived their 2019 expectations were- not on just the numbers.
A+ Bogaerts, Devers
A Vazquez, Price, Walden (due to very low expectations)
A- Chavis, Holt, Workman
B+ Hembree (until injury)
B Taylor
B- Porcello
C+ JBJ, Leon
C Brewer, Smith, Weber
C- Beni, JD, Moreland (injury)
D+ ERod, Velazquez, Eovaldi (injury)
D Betts, Sale, Barnes
D- Brasier, Johnson, Thornburg (an F but my expectations were low)
F Pearce, Nunez
Going forward, I think we need to make 2 trades. We need 2 pitchers. I'd like to see us get a closer and a decent set-up man, but a starter and closer would be fine with me. I think our offense and defense will have to work through their issues and improve. I think we win the home field for the WC game and have a very good shot at winning it all. We won't be the favorites going into the playoffs, but we've won it all before without being faves.
C- Cora
D+ DD
Let's keep this thread about the Sox. Let's keep it real. Let's keep it non-personal.
Go Sox!