mvp 78

Must be well thought out and positive then?

Tapia? He's a corner OFer at best.

Just nobody mention the elite defense that Coco Crap displayed in 2007. Surely JBJ was the greatest that any man has ever seen play CF.

JBJ only had one season that was better than Kiké's 2021 DRS of 14 in CF. JBJ's defensive heyday was also a LOOONG time ago.

I'm pretty happy when Kiké is out there.

Depends on Rafaela and the time of year. Are we talking August or May? There's a chance Tapia makes the MLB roster early in the season. I don't see that happening with Rafaela.

Yeah, Duvall is a corner OFer. He's was a very underwhelming addition.

Alfaro's contract has an "upward mobility clause." https://bloggingtheredsox.com/2023/03/02/red-sox-jorge-alfaro-has-unique-clause-in-contract-that-could-make-him-available-to-all-other-teams-later-this-month/ It instead allows Alfaro to secure a major-league opportunity elsewhere if the Red Sox are not willing to give him one. If Alfaro is not added to Boston’s 40-man roster by March 25, he can request to become available to all 29 other teams in hopes of landing a big-league job. If another club is interested in Alfaro, the Red Sox would then have 72 hours to either add Alfaro to their own 40-man roster or allow him to switch teams. If no other club is interested in Alfaro at the time of his request, Boston would be able to keep the 29-year-old without committing a 40-man roster spot to him.

No. Alfaro isn't a very good catcher. Alfaro also has a horrible approach at the plate (career 34% k, 4% bb). He was strictly brought in as injury insurance.

I'm relying on Mondesi for approximately 50 PA's this year. Not sure when they will happen. If he gives more, it's a bonus.

Misc Injury Updates: Bello is ready for live bp. Paxton back on mound this weekend. Turner will get stitches out in 2 weeks. Opening Day isn't out of question? Connor Wong is back hitting. Mondesi hit and fielded grounders today.

More likely that they focus on retaining pitching prospects if anything: Perales (depending on if he stays healthy all year) Wikelman (depending on his production this year) Fernandez (health) Bonaci/Paulino are both UTIL type guys in this org, would that force one of them onto the 40 man? Lugo is dependent on what strides he continues to make at the plate this year. If Scott is dependable behind the dish, he could be protected. His defense is "functional" but more of the 1B/LF/C roleplayer type.

@jay_jaffe new @fangraphs: After making just 2 starts last. year and 11 over the last 3 seasons, Chris Sale is on the comeback trail, heading up what is potentially a much-improved Red Sox rotation https://blogs.fangraphs.com/chris-sale-begins-his-latest-comeback/ The Sale who took the mound at JetBlue Park on Monday showed little evidence of those misfortunes. Indeed, the 6-foot-6 lefty appeared loose and relaxed while throwing 31 pitches (24 for strikes) over two scoreless innings against the Tigers, reaching 96 mph with his fastball. That said, he wasn’t exactly facing Murderer’s Row, and he did have a few minor hiccups. The game had no Statcast coverage, alas, so any velocity reports came from the broadcast or subsequent reporting, but even while working out of the stretch with nobody on base, Sale did dial his four-seamer up to 96 against leadoff hitter Matt Vierling in the first inning. He also committed a pitch clock violation while ahead 1-2, and ended up surrendering a single to left center. Sale didn’t have another problem with the clock, and after the outing, he would tell NESN, “I’m a huge fan of it and I love it. It gets people into it and there’s little lag time… It’s going to take some adjustments, but once we get a couple under our belt we’ll be fine.” Again, without Statcast I can’t give you a breakdown of his pitches, but he did show good command, his slider had bite, and he worked in his changeup, a pitch he’s struggled with in recent years. From 2019-22, batters hit .328 and slugged .557 against the pitch while whiffing on 29% percent of swings, down from a peak of 38.5%. Afterwards, Sale was beaming, not only pleased with his fastball command but vocally appreciative of everyone who helped him in his quest to get back to the mound. Following a winter in which he sought therapy to work through the mental difficulties he’d encountered over the past few seasons — including the pressures of living up to the five-year, $145 million extension he signed in March 2019 — he said, “I’m trying to have more fun with it. I’m trying to be more open-minded. I’m trying to kind of soak some things in and really appreciate it.” Particularly if Sale is healthy, the rotation does have a bit more promise. The unit ranked ninth in the AL in WAR last year (8.6), 10th in FIP (4.19) and 11th in ERA (4.49), but with Rich Hill, Nathan Eovaldi and Michael Wacha all departing in free agency, the starting five has a new look. With the return of Sale and the addition of free agent Corey Kluber, the unit — which also includes Nick Pivetta, James Paxton, and Garrett Whitlock each penciled in for at least 100 innings — projects for the league’s sixth-highest WAR (12.3) and fourth-lowest FIP (3.89). But good gravy, this group is all too familiar with the 60-day injured list. As the projections suggest, that’s a pretty decent rotation if everybody shows up even at those modest inning totals, but there’s also a lot that can go wrong, and not a lot of additional depth in the minors if it does. Mata and Walter combined for seven starts at Triple-A Worcester last year after spending most of the season at lower levels. Each has some promise but also command issues, and will need to pitch his way into the picture.

Bloom playing 5d chess by letting Perales leave via Rule 5 draft because he wouldn't be able to stick on someone else's roster.

Being tired may make some sense as his ERA dropped every month from June onward.

Crazy that Houck is still pre-ARB next season too.

I haven't heard about an injury in late 2022. He wasn't missing starts and they didn't put him on any inning limitations. He threw 7 innings on 9/22.

Are we sure they are more injury prone now or are we just misremembering the past?

In Spring? Probably not. I just think Kluber has a better shot of wracking up the innings over the season than most other starters currently on the staff. Why? 1. Pitches to contact. 2. Low bb rate. 3. Currently more healthy than Sale/Paxton/Whitlock/Bello.

@Travis_Sawchik Players are stealing at an 81% success rate this spring compared to 73% last spring (75% in regular season). There are 10 seasons on record when the success rate was 78% or better (most recent was 1948)

I'm not projecting out his career, but what we have seen so far shows that he has a better chance of sticking long term. That shows A LOT actually.

I don't know how much to read into the ST workload. Part of it is just the starters only going for 2 innings or so. Maybe they'll throw Ort to the wolves for a second inning? Seems kinda wild to me.

https://www.si.com/mlb/diamondbacks/analysis/starters-workload-stop-blaming-analytics-for-122-year-trend In fact ever since 1901 the percentage of innings pitched by starting pitchers has continually decreased from previous years and decades. There is some ebb and flow of course, but the 122 year trend is undeniable, and did not just start since the popularization of modern analytics over the last 20 years. The average rate of decrease for the entire 122 seasons is 0.3%. Notably however there are several points in history where that decrease was accelerated for a seven or eight year stretch. The article is a quick and interesting read. It's free, too! There's a mention of the impact of the live ball era, integration, analytics and the impacts that these have had on the overall quality of play that has reduced the ability of starters to simply pitch longer into games. It's the natural evolution of the game that has occurred for 122 years and should continue. Perhaps there is a threshold where innings will flatten out, but MLB doesn't seem to be there yet.

I'm just not sold on Murphy. Need to see what he does this season. Maybe he'll surprise me?

Dalbec's 92 PA: 42.4 K% 394 BABIP I see warning signs!