mvp 78

I think C is a position that you can upgrade on pretty cheaply so I don't think that impacts the budget all that much. I'm not sure I'd add anything to 1B except for a platoon RHB to DH and play other positions a la Wil Myers, Mancini or someone else. If they passed on adding there, it's not the end of the world this season. I think Dalbec as a platoon only against tough LHP is fine at 1B.

I always do.

I never said Myers was just the 4th OFer, but go off.

If Refsnyder plays like 2022, sure. It's not a given.

Gotta play the old hits once in a while I guess...

Why not make the OF a STRENGTH rather than just NOT AT HIGH NEED AREA?

My plans already included re-siging Xander AND Beni, plus 2 starting pitchers and a closer.

Quintana over Wacha? Ok. Quintana over Kluber? IDK. I feel like he's an NL guy. I know that's not really a thing anymore, but... Excluding Kluber's CY-era, Statcast looks at them fairly similarly. Kluber is better with the bb rate. Hard to forecast if Kluber can replicate 2022 or even do better. I take a chance on him again though. Looking at Quintana's Statcast shows 2022 as his high water mark and an out of the ordinary season for him for advanced metrics (xISO, Brl, EV). I'd expect significant regression with Quintana in 2023.

I'm trying to right the wrongs of 2020, 2021 and 2022 by making the OF situation a bit stronger. I think adding a clear closer like Montero and having a full year of Whitlock and Houck in relief would make the pen pretty might. It's more likely Whitlock is used as a cheaper SP option though.

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2022/10/christian-vazquez-eyeing-more-playing-time.html While almost any team could do with a well-rounded catcher like Vazquez, a return to the Red Sox would be something he’d welcome. “I hope so. I’d love it. It was my [house] for a long time,” Vázquez said. “We’ll see how it goes.”

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/yes-the-playoffs-are-still-a-crapshoot/ Kimmi found a new job.

Stanley with Sox 1996: 2.1 fWAR 1998: 0.7 fWAR (partial season) 1999: 2.2 fWAR 2000: 0.1 fWAR (partial season) I'll carry a torch for Mike Stanley if you guys are going to carry one for Refsnyder.

Refsnyder has a career 0.2 fWAR. Per fangraphs, 1 win is worth 8.3M in Free Agency. 8.3 * 1.2 = 9.96M, or 10M AAV which is the contract which I suggested.........................

Myers is far better than Refsnyder. Refsnyder has a good chance of being DFA'd next season. Keep pumping him up, but he's a AAAA guy.

I did say "chance."

I didn't mind Mike Stanley when he was here.

How is that less versatile? Dalbec hasn't shown he can play OF. Myers can play all 3 OF positions.

I throw babyWAR out with the bath water.

You're the one saying the Sox have nothing the Mariners would want for a guy with little trade value.

And that was with you specifically adding the two years Kluber was injured. Add the 5 years prior where he exceeded 200 innings each year. Wacha has never done that. Kluber threw 164 innings this year. Wacha hasn't thrown that many since 2017!

fWAR since 2019 Kluber 5 Wacha 2.3

Also, I think a rotation of Sale, Kluber, Bassitt, Bello, Pivetta has the chance to be very, very good.

He's been lucky that the Sox have been such a rollercoaster franchise. At least it's helped him to be right once in a while.

Myers is a platoon guy. Backs up at RF/1B/DH. Super-SUB guy like Kiké!

Jake Reed is changing is arm slot... again. Could be interesting? IDK. Bazardo was what he was. Sometimes these arm slot guys can give a few good years out of nowhere. https://blogs.fangraphs.com/red-sox-acquisition-jake-reed-has-a-less-funky-arm-slot-in-mind/ “I’d pretty much always been low three-quarters. I was pitching pretty well in the minors, but in 2017 the Twins changed over their front office. Baseball was getting a lot more progressive, which sort of changed how guys are valued. I threw pretty hard — I was a mid-to-upper-90s kind of guy — but my stuff didn’t necessarily perform super well analytically. So about halfway through the 2019 season we had a long conversation and came to the idea of me dropping down sidearm and trying to create more movement on my sinker, and improve my slider. That was the first time I really made that transition from how I’d thrown my whole life. “I dropped about a foot, probably more. At my lowest, I was probably in the high threes as far as release height, whereas right now I’m closer to five. So I dropped down and things were going like we wanted them to — the movement improved on both of my pitches — but a couple months into it, I started wrestling with my command. I was kind of all over the place. My strikeouts were up, and stuff-wise it was a good year, but numbers-wise it wasn’t a good year. It was a strange year.” “I struggled early on this year. Now I’m sort of going back in the direction of how I used to throw, or at least I’m trying to; it’s something I can’t really do during the season, although my arm angle has already drifted up. That transition happened probably in mid-June. And then the other thing is — maybe you’ve noticed — my arm out of my glove goes really high. It’s swinging more like a normal arm swing. “Last offseason, my shoulder was kind of bothering me and without me even knowing it, I started throwing a certain way to where it didn’t hurt so much. By the time I started seeing video of myself, I was like, ‘I don’t remember doing that on purpose.’ People ask, ‘How long have you been throwing like this?’ I tell them, ‘I didn’t try to do this, it’s just kind of where my arm has drifted.’ The body is interesting in the way that it works.” “I think if you were to look at my release, it would probably be similar to some other low-slot sidearm righties. What makes it so different is the way in which I get there. It’s not like anything that anybody else is doing. And to be honest, it just doesn’t feel natural. That’s part of what is making me want to go back to how I used to throw. Sometimes it almost feels like what I’m doing is throwing with my other hand. It’s interesting. It’s a weird dynamic.”