jacksonianmarch

From what I can tell, Lemahieu will begin the year as Tulo insurance and by the end of the year will be Andujar/1b insurance. Park adjusted factors peg him as a minus offensive player on the whole, even though his slash lines aren’t bad for a middle infielder. I didn’t see position adjusted numbers for 2b or SS. I’d assume he’s a plus offensively at those spots. But he’s also a superior defender with gold glove type defensive metrics. He’s also one of the best opposite field hitters in baseball. Now interesting with this kid is his approach. He hit over .300 for three seasons with little pop based mostly on his ground ball tendencies. He clearly tried to alter his approach last year which led to his biggest HR output, but an overall drop in his production. With how powerful this team is, I’m entirely fine if Lemahieu goes back to being a .310 hitter with 6 bombs. We don’t need .270 with 15HR as much as I’d like to see contact and hits. Our struggles as a team we’re striking out with guys on base. Having someone in the lineup who makes contact and gets hits will be a welcome alteration

His FA AAV will be $35 mil, especially if he posts big numbers the next two seasons

This is likely our Machado consolation prize.

Apparently he is gonna be our Neil Walker. I like Lemahieu’s bat. He’s a high average kind of hitter with some pop. He’s usually been a plus BABIP guy until this past season when he was right where everyone thinks it should always be (near .300). He’s not a big walk guy, good K rate, plays good defense. I wonder if this is a sign that we aren’t gonna get Machado and Lemahieu is the Andujar insurance we need in case he continues to s*** the bed defensively

2 years $24 mil. I’m really confused here unless Andujar is headed to 1b or if we have a trade brewing

$20 mil for second trip through arb. Wowza

He also hits the piss out of the ball and is one of the rare RHH who has almost seamlessly figured out how to abuse the RF wall in Yankee Stadium.

Dude, you’re entirely delusional about injuries here. Sale wasn’t healthy to finish the year. Expecting 30 starts here is wishing. ERod hasn’t gone past 25 MLB starts as a Red Sox. Eovaldi is a huge injury risk. And even with no questions, a team usually loses the equivalent of a starter a season (30-40 starts) due to injury or ineffectiveness and that’s usually a best case

Did you notice a trend with Pearce? Great-Terrible-Great-Terrible-Great. I wonder what's coming up?

The sox did not have the best staff in baseball. They did have the 3rd best pitching staff in the AL, albeit not considerably different than the #2 or the #6 team. The Yanks happened to be 0.03 ER per 9IP behind the Red Sox in 5th place in the AL. The sox starters were 4th in baseball, 0.28 ER per 9IP ahead of the Yanks. The sox did have the best offense in baseball, scoring 25 more runs than the Yanks and having a miniscule .009 advantage in OPS over the same Yanks. I am not sure the sox can count on career seasons again from Betts, JD, and Bogaerts. Maybe the expected small drop from them is offset by Devers or a full year of Pearce standing in for Hanley's 2 months of awfulness. Maybe not. One thing is for sure, the Yanks lost 6 weeks of Judge and a full season from Sanchez (for the most part). We also would hope to see the real Stanton as well as his 2018 season wasn't bad, just not to his previous level. Reminds me of ARod when he came in. ARod's 2004 was a really good season, but his subsequent seasons were insane. Maybe those upsides balance off a couple months of Tulo for Didi and maybe a second year swoon from our two top rookies in Torres and Andujar. Or maybe we add Machado and just launch ahead. One thing is for sure. The difference between the two clubs on the whole was not significant. .009 in OPS and .03 in ERA. That is more than within the margins and that doesn't include us adding Paxton, even if you argue that Happ and Eovaldi will be around for the whole year. And it doesn't include you losing Kimbrel.

The only proven effective closer on the market right now is Kimbrel. Ottavino had the best season of the relievers left. Beyond them, the rest are reclamation projects coming off bad years or trending in the wrong direction.

Didi will be back by June. We’ve been without him to start a year before

We don't "need" Machado. You do "need" a closer

Music to my ears

Moreland isn’t some RHP masher. His platoon splits are better, but last year he was a below average hitter against everyone for his position. Pearce is a hit or miss guy who seems to alternate good and bad seasons at an advanced age. He was the balls last year. Can you project that he will be the same this year? Based on his history, you cannot. I predict the Yanks 1b spit will outhit the Sox for a few reasons. First, if Bird is healthy, he’s the superior player of all 4 of the options (Moreland, Voit, Pearce, Moreland). Second, Voit wasn’t some shot in the dark, he was targeted due to his exit velocities. He was 11th in all of baseball on exit velocity. Yes, his BABIP was high, but he’s a 30HR hitter waiting to happen and if he shows his minor league contact skills, he should be able to hit .250-.270 which will be really good for us. Also, if we get Manny, Andujar will be our 1b and he’s a better hitter than anything you have there

You cannot project Eovaldi. He very well may end up with an injury as he is prone to do. Projecting ERod to be healthy but Paxton not to be is absolutely hilarious. Happ outpitched Price. He has outpitched Price 3 years running. Price has already seen a drop in his fastball velocity and it clearly affected his performance. But yes, let's look at Happ's age and just call that a win for Price. Steven Wright just had another surgery. He had micro fracture before that. Expecting him to do anything in 2019 is a puppy dog and rainbows fantasy Johnson and Velasquez are replacement level players.

Our 1b will outhit your 1b in 2019. Bank it

Didi's lead arm at the plate? The arm injured by Torres was his lead arm too as he is a righty. So no real point there. It isn't going to affect his hitting. It may affect his throwing. I am sure they wont be bringing him out until he can make all the throws. I had a teammate, a catcher, who blew out his elbow in the fall. He was back by June and this was college, so assuming better access to rehab, he may beat that timeline Pedroia isn't dead, you are right, but his baseball career might as well be.

Eovaldi caught lightning in a bottle for a month. ERod has never stayed healthy and seems to recover very slowly from injury. For 2019, I agree I’d rather have Eovaldi or ERod over Sabathia, but not Happ. He’s a damn good pitcher and I’m not sure why you don’t see that, other than the uniform he wears

Assuming a team waltzes into a season and wins 100 games is a really good way to be let down, even for a team poised to make the playoffs. Your team, as is, will lose a lot of games you should have won with your pen the way it is

That’s more blind faith than actual likelihood. But that’s part of fandom I suppose

Hype and hope does not a season make. I made a ranking based on 2018 WAR except at the end when I put CC behind Eovaldi. You also cannot forget Montgomery, who will be back by the ASB.

Each team needs to count medical benefits and other benefits in as compensation. These amount to around $14-$15 mil a season. I know, it’s stupid

The sox creamed us in one game. The other losses were 1 run affairs with the tying runs on base.

Harper has 30.7WAR before turning 26 yrs old. His age and his potential are why he is hyped so much.