mvp 78

I think they'll be better than 2024, but they haven't really invested in the bullpen in a meaningful way. I think the ceiling is limited until guys like Campbell, Anthony and Mayer actually get their feet wet and learn how to be MLBers. They aren't going to all be mashing right out of the box.

Horrible.

I'd rather just keep Devers at 3B until they have a better option going forward. I think Devers is the 3B until Casas' ARB years run out or is traded. I think adding a stronger 2b and SS combo will help the IF immensely.

It seems obvious to me that Sam is out there playing a used car salesman role and is trying to get the Red Sox over to the public regardless of what they'll actually do. Is he stupid? No, there's just a disconnect between when he sees himself as in being a caretaker of the Red Sox and what the normal Sox fans want out of the Sox. His wants and needs are different than those of us on here. If the Sox miss the playoffs again, I don't think it impacts Sam the way it impacts us. Selling the team to the public is not necessarily the CBO's job and I don't think we've had a guy in that role try to really do that. The CBO is clearly working under fiscal constraints that they really don't comment on and are trying to build an org the way they see fit. Bloom leaned on farm development and kind of ignored the MLB team. Breslow focused a little bit more on the MLB team, but still hasn't been able to push them over the top. The real rot of the organization is at the tippy top and largely the reason they weren't a hot destination for potential CBO's to interview at.

Such a great resource that if you click the top 100 prospects list that it takes you to the top 100 FA list instead.

Rafaela may be better than Arenado going forward. A lot of the proposed moves are just changes for the sake of making changes and not really improving the team.

I'd just add Estevez and not make those other moves.

It's not that they are figureheads, it's that they have no control over increasing the budget meaningfully. The days of feeding the Monster are gone and aren't coming back anytime soon. Hey, weren't they spending up to the second CBT line this year?

Makes zero sense. I'm not sure any pitcher deserves a win in that scenario. If a starter throws a QS? Maybe. W/L is completely meaningless for a pitcher IMO. ERA isn't perfect, but it's way better than wins or saves.

Well, he wasn't the worst last year or the year before or the year before that.

Just like how people said that they haven't considered a 6 man rotation and then...

It would be dumb to say "we're moving Devers to 1B" publicly without having the pieces to move first. I'm sure they've talked about it internally, which is why they were prepared to move Casas.

Bloom pens: 2020: 26th fWAR, 27th ERA 2021: 8th fWAR, 13th ERA 2022: 26th fWAR, 27th ERA 2023: 13th fWAR, 20th ERA The 2021 pen worked because they had Barnes and Ottavino at the back end with Whitlock adding bulk innings and Taylor being a solid middle reliever. Bloom tried to recreate that in '23 (Martin and Jansen), but was hurt by the additions of Kluber, Barraclough, Ort and Bleier. Some real low end guys in there.

Unsigned players projected to have 2 fWAR or greater: Bregman - only for 3b, but seems like Sox FO isn't sold on this guy Kim - if they want a MIF, I'd go with this guy Flaherty - another injury risk for this rotation seems like a bad idea at this point Pivetta - LOL Alonso - not coming here Santander - probably the best fit of the bunch, but so underwhelming to not be worth it Scherzer - no Profar - yuck Kershaw - not coming here

Reports said an ALE team offered more $$$ and he turned it down. Jays?

The problem is that Bloom overly believed in the volatile/fungible nature of relievers so much so that we got a whole bunch of garbage thrown at the wall for 4 years and most of it just didn't work. The prevailing opinion was that arms could pop out of nowhere so what's the point in spending on them. I believe that can be true, but you can't rely on that as a strategy. There are good relievers. However, their stats are impacted wildly by small sample sizes. They could pitch virtually the same year to year to year, but one blowout would make it look like they were awful one season.

Next one needs to be about the Bagwell trade. I was shopping for a mattress yesterday and this is the convo: Sales guy: "Are you guys from MA?" Me: "Yes, moved down in 2019." SG noting my Sox hat: "You like baseball?" Me: "Oh yeah." SG: "You remember Phil Plantier, former first round draft pick?" Me: "Uh, my family had season tickets to the PawSox in 89-91." SG: "You know who he was traded for then?" Me: "No, I don't remember that." SG: "Oh, he was part of the Jeff Bagwell trade." Me: "I don't think so. That was a relief pitcher named Larry Andersen." SG: "Really? Huh. Well, my aunt was the babysitter for the Bagwells."

And the Sox would sign him to play 2b for some stupid reason anyway. Pass.

Maybe they don't have to "award" a win at all to a pitcher?

Teoscar re-signs with Dodges 3/66.

Houck always had that wipeout slider. He just needed that third pitch to make him a real deal starter. Working with Bailey, he figured that 3rd pitch out. I don't know why I need to sit back and watch another 162 games to decide if Houck is still better than Bello. I saw enough last year to determine that Houck's ceiling far surpasses anything that Bello could ever do even IF Houck never replicates 2024 again.

No, you have too many pitchers listed.

Some teams have tried it intermittently. I've seen the idea thrown out a lot more by other teams this offseason (Dodgers, Marlins, Orioles).

Bello 2024: 3rd time through the order: 6.63 ERA, 5.02 FIP, 1.50 WHIP 5th Inning: 5.06 ERA, 715 OPS 6th Inning: 7.24 ERA, 894 OPS