Red Sox Spring Training

[mvp 78]

We made it...

[mvp 78]

 

[vegasbob]

Certainly hope that Campbell turns out to be a youthful miracle solving the 2B dilemma , but expectations are sounding high on a player who has  not yet cracked the 40 man roster .  

The one guy that you barely hear about any more is last year's  great hope at 2B, Vaughn Grissom, who is on the roster .   Vaughn underwhelmed with only 31 game  appearances and .465 OPS  .  He does bat RH'ed, a rarity on the Sox.    

If Vaughn is another washout this year , the Sale for Grissom deal begins to smell even worse. 

[Larry Cook]

I really hope slaten stays healthy all year in 2025! He could be very important in the back end of the bullpen for us!!!

[moonslav59]

1 hour ago, Larry Cook said:

I really hope slaten stays healthy all year in 2025! He could be very important in the back end of the bullpen for us!!!

If we end up with a so-so closer, we might be able to compensate by having the next 3-4 guys have great years and lockdown the 7th and 8th, so we don't need so many save opportunities.

Say Hendriks closes: if Chapman, Slaten and Whitlock can pitch like they have shown they can, recently, and Wink holds his own, maybe the pen can surprise us.

[mvp 78]

14 hours ago, vegasbob said:

Certainly hope that Campbell turns out to be a youthful miracle solving the 2B dilemma , but expectations are sounding high on a player who has  not yet cracked the 40 man roster .  

The one guy that you barely hear about any more is last year's  great hope at 2B, Vaughn Grissom, who is on the roster .   Vaughn underwhelmed with only 31 game  appearances and .465 OPS  .  He does bat RH'ed, a rarity on the Sox.    

If Vaughn is another washout this year , the Sale for Grissom deal begins to smell even worse. 

Send Grissom to LF.

[Bellhorn04]

15 hours ago, vegasbob said:

Certainly hope that Campbell turns out to be a youthful miracle solving the 2B dilemma , but expectations are sounding high on a player who has  not yet cracked the 40 man roster .  

The one guy that you barely hear about any more is last year's  great hope at 2B, Vaughn Grissom, who is on the roster .   Vaughn underwhelmed with only 31 game  appearances and .465 OPS  .  He does bat RH'ed, a rarity on the Sox.    

If Vaughn is another washout this year , the Sale for Grissom deal begins to smell even worse. 

Grissom does get mentioned a lot on places like Sons of Sam Horn, which is of of course overrun by Pollyannas who have no doubt the Sox are entering a new Golden Age.

[Hugh2]

What do you do though if Grissom starts the year on a tear down in AAA, like 1.000 OPS+?

There are many scouts who think Campbell is better suited for the outfield.  If Grissom turns it around, perhaps his best place is LF.  Which does beg the question of who's the 4th outfielder and who is the odd man out between Duran/Rafaela/Anthony/Abreu?

[moonslav59]

3 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

Send Grissom to LF.

He might be as bad, there, as Yoshida on D.

[Larry Cook]

1 hour ago, Hugh2 said:

What do you do though if Grissom starts the year on a tear down in AAA, like 1.000 OPS+?

There are many scouts who think Campbell is better suited for the outfield.  If Grissom turns it around, perhaps his best place is LF.  Which does beg the question of who's the 4th outfielder and who is the odd man out between Duran/Rafaela/Anthony/Abreu?

I think Campbell is much better suited for the outfield, but 2nd base is a huge black hole for us. I am surprised rafeala does not claim the second base position full time!!!!

[Hugh2]

41 minutes ago, Larry Cook said:

I think Campbell is much better suited for the outfield, but 2nd base is a huge black hole for us. I am surprised rafeala does not claim the second base position full time!!!!

Because CF and then SS are much more importantly defensively and when pretty much all of your value is tied up in your defense, you're going to find yourself playing the more important positions. 

Rafaelas best position is CF. 

[vegasbob]

With respect to the position players and upcoming prospects , the logjam may reach its peak no later than a year from now.    Yoshida will clog the runway in 2025  in his 3rd year but he can actually contribute offense. 

 Keeping some of the rookies, including Campbell and Anthony, maybe even Grissom at Woosox ( plus Mayer)  might be  the 'patient, roster building" Sox  way for the early months of 2025 .  By June 1, there will have been injuries ( say it ain't so, Trevor Story)  and some under performance by some marginal guys  who do break camp with the team. 

There is also still time for  ST trade breakthrough including prospects or last minute signing of  a RH bat, precluding prospects from the regular lineup.  

[moonslav59]

2 hours ago, Larry Cook said:

I think Campbell is much better suited for the outfield, but 2nd base is a huge black hole for us. I am surprised rafeala does not claim the second base position full time!!!!

1. Rafaela cannot hits as well as DHam vs RHPs and Romy vs LHPs, and both of them seem like plusses on D at 2B.

2. Grissom will be given a chance to redeem himself, even if he has to first prove himself in ST'ing and or AAA, first.

3, Rafaela is a much better defensive OF'er than Campbell, and Anthony is about to put a squeeze on the OF, soon, as well.

I'm not writing off the idea. I'd like to see how Campbell plays 2B defense, first.

[moonslav59]

59 minutes ago, vegasbob said:

With respect to the position players and upcoming prospects , the logjam may reach its peak no later than a year from now.    Yoshida will clog the runway in 2025  in his 3rd year but he can actually contribute offense. 

 Keeping some of the rookies, including Campbell and Anthony, maybe even Grissom at Woosox ( plus Mayer)  might be  the 'patient, roster building" Sox  way for the early months of 2025 .  By June 1, there will have been injuries ( say it ain't so, Trevor Story)  and some under performance by some marginal guys  who do break camp with the team. 

There is also still time for  ST trade breakthrough including prospects or last minute signing of  a RH bat, precluding prospects from the regular lineup.  

These are some possibilities, too:

1. Story stays healthy into June and is playing excellent defense and hitting over .740. Dham & Romy or Grissom are holding down the 2B job, very well. Their defense is a net plus, and DHam is hitting .750 v RHPs and Romy .800 v LHPs. Maybe that keeps Mayer and Campbell from being added to the infiled, unless we are thinking 3B.

2. An OF of Duran & Ref in LF, Rafaela & Duran in CF and Abreu & Rafaela in RF is doing as well as they did in 2024, or better. The need for Anthony or Campbell in the OF is not present.

Now, we may decide that even if those positions are doing okay or better, a prospect addition could provide an even better result. I'm not against that idea, despite the old adage, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." 

How much we want to prolong the prospect additions to gain a year(s) or control may play into the chocies and timing of the choices, but we do have some decent hopes at 2B, SS and OF without counting on the kids.

[notin]

21 hours ago, vegasbob said:

Certainly hope that Campbell turns out to be a youthful miracle solving the 2B dilemma , but expectations are sounding high on a player who has  not yet cracked the 40 man roster .  

The one guy that you barely hear about any more is last year's  great hope at 2B, Vaughn Grissom, who is on the roster .   Vaughn underwhelmed with only 31 game  appearances and .465 OPS  .  He does bat RH'ed, a rarity on the Sox.    

If Vaughn is another washout this year , the Sale for Grissom deal begins to smell even worse. 

Most player/prospect yield minimal results.  Considering the Sox had chances to unload all of Sake’s deal and get nothing, it’s a good sign they at least tried to get something at the cost of several million.  
 

And hopefully they don’t just give up on Grissom after a questionable spring…

[moonslav59]

I trust the Sox know which pitchers we have in our system with very minimal chances at giving us lasting value. Of course, the ones we identify, are likely the same ones other teams don't want. The trick is to find one some other team likes more than we do, and hope we know more than they do.

Unlike some, I think we have begun to improve the pitching pipeline in our system. Counting Whitlock, who we acquired as a prospect, we have seen these pitchers at the MLB level:

DD's guys: Houck, Crawford, Bello & Perales (Better than Bloom's combined guys)

Bloom's guys: Whitlock, Wink, Dobbins, Guerrero, Early, Kelly, Valera, Monegro, Paez, Mullins, Wehunt

Breslow's guys: Slaten, Fitts, Priester, Sandlin, Tolle, Cason, D Reyes, Delzine (This group may be better than Bloom's, too.)

I'd avoid trading any of these guys, but for something good, fine.

(Notice I did not list Penrod or the vets acquired.)

I'm not trying to take anything away from our ring seasons, but those teams were not built on our farm pitching pipeline.

2018: Trade or FA: Sale, Price, Porcello, Nate, ERod (as a prospect) Kimbrel, Kelly, Hembree, Pom, Wright. FARM: Barnes, Velazquez, B Johnson, Workman.

2013: Non Farm: Lackey, Dempster, Doubront, Uehara, Miller, Bailey, Breslow, Peavy, Aceves, Webster, Mortenson. FARM (more this year) Lester, Buch, Wilson (Taz?)

2007: Non Farm: Beckett, Wake, Schill, Tavarez, Timlin (Okajima & Dice K?) FARM: Lester (11 GS) & Papebon

2004: Non Farm: Pedro, Schill, Wake, Lowe, Arroyo, Foulke, Timlin, Embree, Williamson, Leskanic, Mendoza. FARM: basically none

Certainly, we have moved in the right direction on building up a pitching pipeline since 2018, but we have failed, badly on our non farm additions.

[Larry Cook]

On 2/8/2025 at 12:17 PM, Hugh2 said:

Because CF and then SS are much more importantly defensively and when pretty much all of your value is tied up in your defense, you're going to find yourself playing the more important positions. 

Rafaelas best position is CF. 

yoshida already in fort Myers! Wow!!!

not much of a drop off from rafeala to Anthony, if Anthony is ready, but Campbell is not ready 

[mvp 78]

On 2/8/2025 at 11:19 AM, Hugh2 said:

What do you do though if Grissom starts the year on a tear down in AAA, like 1.000 OPS+?

There are many scouts who think Campbell is better suited for the outfield.  If Grissom turns it around, perhaps his best place is LF.  Which does beg the question of who's the 4th outfielder and who is the odd man out between Duran/Rafaela/Anthony/Abreu?

It's great news for the Sox if he Grissom can turn into a 4th OFer. 

[mvp 78]

8 hours ago, Larry Cook said:

yoshida already in fort Myers! Wow!!!

not much of a drop off from rafeala to Anthony, if Anthony is ready, but Campbell is not ready 

Probably needs to do a lot of rehab considering his shoulder injury.

[Hitch]

6 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Probably needs to do a lot of rehab considering his shoulder injury.

Is looking noticeably bigger and stronger apparently. 

[mvp 78]

13 minutes ago, Hitch said:

Is looking noticeably bigger and stronger apparently. 

It's that time of year where many people show up looking that way. 

[moonslav59]

49 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

It's great news for the Sox if he Grissom can turn into a 4th OFer. 

It could work out well, especially with Ref likely to retire after 2025, and Rafaela is our only RHB OF'er, after him.

[mvp 78]

 

[mvp 78]

 

[mvp 78]

 

[mvp 78]

Clockwise: Buehler, Masa, Wilyer, Crochet

[notin]

On 2/10/2025 at 7:20 AM, Hitch said:

Is looking noticeably bigger and stronger apparently. 

Bigger?  Like 5’7”?

[mvp 78]

22 minutes ago, notin said:

Bigger?  Like 5’7”?

20 lbs of muscle.

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

19 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

20 lbs of muscle.

He's driving a Camaro instead of a Camry.

[notin]

20 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

20 lbs of muscle.

Did he clean out O’Neill’s locker?