jacksonianmarch

I know exactly why Frazier isn’t starting in the OF. We’re probably not gonna score a lot if Sale has rediscovered his velocity. Frazier has been an adventure in the OF and having Gardy-Hicks-Maybin gives us a really strong OF defensively.

Yanks are expected to sign the top prospect available, Jasson Dominguez. His expected bonus is $5 mil. That’s almost our entire budget. We will trade for more, but I’d expect maybe one more top 20 signing then spreading the wealth after that. He would be a huge get, though, and would slot into our top 10 almost immediately

Blown saves are a measure of momentum change. A shift in momentum from a game in hand to a toss up or trailing doesn't mean it's over, but points towards a bad outcome

Amen. I had no issue with some good back and forth with Mr Crunchy or ORS. Those days are gone

Right now the sox are working off a pen with Barnes being Barnes, Brasier being okay and three guys entering territory they have never broached yet in Walden, Workman, and Hembree. If those three hold up, the DD is a genius. All he needs to do is get Cora to designate a closer and he is good. If those three fall off, then his pen will be in shambles

We are not likely to replicate a 73% winning percentage. That being said, we are likely to continue wrecking the crappy teams. These are strange times where more than half the teams have no interest in competing. This lends to more favorable matchups and higher win percentages due to talent disparities. Also, the first two months were cupcakes for both our squads. It will get harder. The Yanks are 10-7 vs teams at or over .500. The sox are 11-14. Insanely, the Astros have played the toughest schedule. 42 of their 57 games have been vs .500+ teams. Strange. I doubt we ever see a 73% win percentage vs the top tier teams, but I guarantee adding back Stanton and Judge will make us formidable vs them

Huge benefit for the Yanks. No opener game, rest day for the squad and pushed back far enough where we should be full strength

I think what he is saying is you don't build a house by making the roof first. Your best guy is the one who pitches when it matters most. Close game, final outs. Then you build back from there. Well, the best pen arm is Barnes and he hasn't been sniffing the closers role. He does have 3 blown saves like Brasier, but I think all of his are in the 8th inning role. Brasier has been seeing the lion's share of save opportunities and has clearly not been up to the task.

Where is the reckoning? As it stands right now, the only guy really outperforming his history is Urshela. Frazier is playing like a top 50 prospect that he was. Lemahieu is doing exactly what he had done in Colorado. Voit is continuing to show the power he did last year. Sanchez is playing to his 2017 potential. Torres is actually playing a bit worse than his 2018. Gardner is showing more power but not much different from 2018. Hicks has been awful since he got off the DL. Estrada is hitting in his brief PT like the fringe top 100 prospect he was. Maybin can barely hit. Morales cannot hit. Our rotation, outside of German being good, has been reasonable. Our pen has been solid, but seeing Kahnle come back to life has come with the downside of Green fading early. This squad is still good. We are gonna be awesome when we get Judge and Stanton back, two guys capable of carrying a team.

You’re kidding me complaining about injuries, right?

If I were Kimbrel, I’d mandate at least a deal for this year and next. These shelf guys who come in for June almost always suck in the year they return then get back to career norms the following season

Oh foy, if the Sox sign Kimbrel and shoot past the final barrier, their 2020 first rounder will drop by ten spots as well. Losing a 4th rounder is annoying for the Sox, but losing what will amount to $500K in draft pool and ten spots for a second year in a row is a big issue

Teams didn't want to give him more than what Britton got. By the time he lowered his demands, the teams had already filled their slots

I am also not the guy doling out the cash here. These guys are supposed to be able to read a market. That is why they are there. DD read the market correctly on JDM. He pounced early for Eo and Pearce and proved to get emotional about something he should have been more aware of

DD overplayed the market, struck early and overpaid. His tactics were in stark contrast to what he did with JD the year prior where he waited him out. Eovaldi got WAY more than expected and not shockingly, he sucked and got hurt. Maybe he returns gloriously, but his track record points against it. He went out and spent a bunch on Pearce only to see the 1B/DH market crater even further. He could have waited out the market and grabbed a guy like Gio Gonzalez for a few mil. The Yanks had him and let him go because, at the time, we didn’t have a starting spot for him. He’s now in MIL tearing it up. He’d have been a great find for your squad. Eo could have signed elsewhere and DD could use the savings on a couple pen arms. He didn’t have to get Kimbrel, but a bidding war on Ottavino would have helped. Either way, I’ll take the fact that the Sox have a glaring weakness. They’ve had a few good performances, but nobody who has proven capable of closing games. Barnes has the reputation of being soft when it counts. Brasier isn’t getting it done. Workman has been surprisingly good, but isn’t used in high leverage spots yet. Good teams facing the Sox now need only wait out the starter. This is on Dave

It’s not tough to criticize DD for his pen assembly because it’s been DD’s bugaboo throughout his career. I said at the beginning of the year that you cannot go into the year expecting to “lose a little” off a title team by leaving your pen unprepared. I said from the beginning that the game had changed and a bullpen is vital to the success of a team. This was particularly evident because, as the Sox of 2018 were prime examples, most teams now get 10 or more outs from their pen on average every night. The Sox averaged getting 10 outs a night from their pen in 2018 and won because the final 3 outs were usually obtained by a guy who proved he could do it. Now, who knows what the lineup is? DD should have obtained a closer or designated a closer. I legitimately think their approach this year was arrogance. The Sox got arrogant after 2013. They got arrogant again after 2018. DD thought his team to be so superior that he didn’t upgrade them at all, and accepted a major decline in the back end of the pen. It’s biting him in the ass. And with the lux tax being an impediment for further additions, he needs to figure out if there’s a cheap option he can buy with his small collection of prospects

Who cares where he’s hitting right now. Your team scored 26 runs in a 3 game set and lost the series. The offense isn’t the issue

The question becomes, would you rather have a pen game vs the Yanks or the Guardians? I understand why Cora chose Cleveland. A game against a team you’re chasing is essentially a two game swing every time you play. Cora sacrificed yesterday to try to win today. We shall see if it works.

You guys are pretty lucky that we will have an opener/pen game in the series. CC returning Sunday means Tanaka gets pushed back and out of the series. Instead of lining up Paxton for the Sox, Boone took the “a game is a game” approach and blew out the Padres. The Sox decided to line Sale up with the Yanks and in the process blew a game against Cleveland

We don’t need a 1b. Didi should be back after the Sox series. Right now, Morales is our DH and he sucks. When Didi gets back, we will have 5 infielders for 4 spots. This allows us to rotate a DH spot around our IF and keep everyone fresh. Judge just started swinging. If things go well over the next seven days, we could see a rehab assignment and a return mid June.

And by then, we should have our actual team back

Our minor leaguers are better than your major leaguers

You’ve got EVERYTHING to lose. Bringing up the kids may work. It may backfire like hell as it did with Lakins last night. Right now, the Sox are tied for the second WC spot. You start bringing up kids who aren’t ready and you’re going to run your team out of that spot. With the Twins entering the playoff fray and having the biggest divisional lead in the AL, you have to consider the playoff races to be 7 teams instead of 6. The Guardians are too talented and play in too s***** of a division to be counted out. The A’s jumped back in. Then your usual 5 suspects with TB, NYY, BOS, and HOU. You aren’t gonna waltz to the second wild card this year.

I read an article in ST saying the Sox has about $4 mil of room

Nunez isn’t going to be the main piece for any type of acquisition. He sucks. The one way I could see him being dealt is to balance salary, but another piece would have to go with him. I could see the Sox tacking Ockimey and another prospect together with Nunez to get a soon to be FA reliever and balancing out the cash.