a700hitter

UN has been addedbelow. I was counting on him. it would be ideal to gt 2 more TalkSox members. So far we have: 1. Thunder 2. MVP 78 3. iortiz 4. jasonbay44 5. A700Hitter 6. Karlos 7. Jose 8. Hugo 9. Gringo 10. UN

It was a business negotiation. J.D. didn't do anything that should have people upset. I am very happy to have his TNT bat in our lineup.

Maybe they booed Papi a few time during his slump in 2009.

My haters are cowards.

We still need more participation from TalkSox members. It is a very uncomplicated league that will not take a lot of your time.

Maybe Brentz will finally get a major league shot.

I don’t see Pedroia playing more than 5 games a week, so Nunez, Bradley, Beny, and Devers sit once or twice a week. The crunch is made worse by the fact that we need to find playing time for 11 full time players. I don’t think that either Moreland or Hanley will take well to a strict platoon.

Who will sit?

What do you think the lineups will look like when Pedroia returns?

I do not like Bogey hitting 3rd -- too inconsistent. 1) Nunez 2B 2) Beni LF 3) Betts RF 4) JDM DH 5) HRam 1B 6) Devers 3B 7) Bogey SS 8) Vaz C 9) JBJ CF

His biggest challenge is remaining healthy.

Martinez signing makes the opening day lineup have 4 killer B’s: Betts, Boergarts, Bradley and Benentendi and 4 EZ passes....Martinez, Ramirez, Nunez and Vazquez....and a Devers

Abad signed with the Phillies.

Will DD make another move to alleviate the OF/1B/DH logjam?

It is about time.

So far we have: 1. Thunder 2. MVP 78 3. iortiz 4. jasonbay44 5. A700Hitter 6. Karlos 7. Jose 8. Hugo 9. Gringo We need more interest.

That is an improvement over his injury plagued 2017, but it is certainly not a breakout.

It is as good as any other guess... I guess.

This is one of those instances when the statheads go off the rails into fiction and fantasy. Just nonsense.

XB provides good offense for a SS, but I don't think he has the bat speed or a consistent plate approach for him to have a breakout season. The slider is his krypronite. He is helpless against it unless he goes into slap mode, in which case he has no power at all. In order to drive the ball, he has guess right on a fastball. I have never seen a player with such completely different swings.

Hopefully Nunez is fully healthy, because he was big over performer for us in 2017, and we will have a full year of Devers. Moreland's toe should be healed, but I don't expect to much upside from him as he outperformed his career norms in 2017. While I hope that Betts, Bradley, and Bogaerts have breakout comeback seasons, I am not expecting it, especially not from Bradley and Bogaerts. I just don't think that Bradley and Bogaerts are all that good. I am more hopeful that Benintendi will have a breakout season, because we still don't know what his ceiling is. Is it reasonable for us to expect HanRam to stay injury free and put up an .850 OPS at this stage of his career. I think that is unlikely. Our catchers are meh offensively. Without obtaining a big bat, I see this as the same type of offense as last year, and only big years from Benintendi and Devers can push it to the next level.

Unless someone wants to step up to run the TalkSox Fantasy League, I will do it again in 2018. My goal every year is to have the teams be run exclusively by TalkSox members. We have been falling short of that. Please express your interest if you want to play for bragging rights against fellow TalkSox members. It doesn't take much time outside of the couple of hours for the draft to participate in the league. You don't need to hire an actuary to be competitive. Lack of time is not a good excuse, especially if you have a few thousand posts on TalkSox. I keep trying to get some of the more vocal statheads in the league to show their stuff. Fantasy Baseball is all about the stats, so step up and show us what you got. Maybe some of you posters who think I am an arrogant prick on TalkSox will take the opportunity to kick my ass and rub my face in it. I doubt it -- bunch of blowhard cowards. LOL!! Please post on this thread if you will be coming back for another season or whether you want to be a new entry. Entry fee is $20.

Performances go up and down during a career --even during prime years. Look at a guy like Porcello. He is an extreme example, but many guys experience ups and downs especially early in their careers. I find it hard to wring my hands about a player under performing if he performs to his career norms. Of course you need enough data to establish a career norm. We don't have that on Benintendi yet. We really don't know what he will be yet. We have 2000 PAs on Bradley, and although he had a terrible start to his career, he might have a career season that evens that out. I can see that his career norm will probably increase for a few years and last year was an inexplicable off year for him. Betts also has over 200 PAs. His career norms may be skewed upward by his 2016 performance. It is possible that 2016 is his career year. If so, 2017 isn't that far off his career norm, but it is an under performing year due to injury. HanRam has had .700 OPS seasons in 6 of the last 9 seasons. That is starting to become his norm. At what point does a .750 OPS season no longer become under performance for him. I think 6 out of 9 times is enough. I can't see calling Leon's 2017 an underperformance. His 2016 performance will end up being far and a way his career season. 2017 will be much closer to his norm.

Wow, you went through the trouble of quoting me 4 times. Thank you.

You are very thin skinned. I said nothing condescending to you.