mvp 78

😣

Not a death knell, but could knock down the win totals from 90 win to 85.

Glad you agree that we can squeeze out Refsnyder!

Also, 49th happy birthday to Scott Williamson! 🎂🎉🎁⚾ In typical TS fashion, we are talking about you in a Bregman thread!

I'm just saying that if there really is a squeeze for Refsnyder, it's because a better option has appeared in combination with a possible decline from Refsnyder. If Refsnyder is still mashing 900 OPS vs LHP, he's not going anywhere at his contract.

It wasn't a true "closer by committee" but I could see similar results from '25 to what we had in '23. There could be a hot potato with the closer role.

https://www.mlb.com/milb/news/pipeline-inbox-is-boston-red-sox-kristian-campbell-rise-unprecedented?t=mlb-pipeline-coverage Jim Callis comps for Campbell's rise: Brandon Belt, Ryan Klesko, Jeff Bagwell. Circling back to Campbell, we didn't play it safe by jumping him up to No. 7 on the Top 100. When we were getting external feedback for the list, multiple organizations told us they thought he was the best prospect in baseball. While his rise is shocking, the reasons behind it are real. It sounds a lot simpler than it is to actually accomplish, but the Red Sox put Campbell on a program to improve his strength and bat speed while changing his bat path and approach to do more damage. Those type of changes almost never work this quickly and dramatically, but his outstanding hand-eye coordination and work ethic made him an exception. His underlying data supports his growth and improved throughout 2024, so not only do Campbell's gains seem sustainable but there may be more to come if he can cut his chase rate a bit and hit more balls in the air. On non-top 100 players he's most excited to see stateside this year: The player who has piqued my curiosity the most -- perhaps because I just wrote his upcoming Red Sox Top 30 report -- is first baseman/outfielder Justin Gonzales. Signed for just $250,000 out of the Dominican Republic in January 2024, he broke into pro ball by hitting .320/.391/.517 with 20 extra-base hits and eight steals in 47 DSL games. He already has plus raw power with more to come, posted a very promising combination of non-chase and contact rates and exit velocities, and has surprising athleticism for someone who's bigger than his listed 6-foot-4 and 210 pounds.

I'm not trying to be obtuse, I'm just wondering where the lefties would be used to shut down the lineup. Casas and Raffy don't have split issues, so unless you have a really great LHP in your pen, I think the Sox are generally good at the top of the order. The only two regulars who have split issues are Duran and Abreu. You could obviously sub in Refsnyder for Abreu in a key situation. Duran? I guess you just hold your nose and hope he gets the bat on the ball. Duran is going to have that worry regardless of who is batting around him. Yoshida had a bad split last year, but was perfectly fine in '23 when healthy. Hard to say if there is a need to worry about him vs LHP this year.

How else would LH relievers "neutralize you over the course of a 3 game series?"

And by "mentally" I mean more of him just being checked out.

It's that he's no longer in the prime of his career and is easing into the final phase of calling it quits at some point. He can still be a good player, but I think we should be prepared to see some sort of decline at least mentally.

He was though?

I agree too. He's already on the roster. The only problem is that he's typically useless against RHP. If he's getting squeezed out, it's for Roman Anthony or Kristian Campbell. I don't think he's the first guy squeezed from the roster though.

Do better in the other 119 games. Also, having Story, Casas and Bregman should go a long way to fixing the 43 games a little.

Zavala and Kolozsvary are great to have in AAA working with the younger pitchers. I think Hickey is just there as a warm body who has his own catcher's mitt.

There were 116 LH relievers last season that pitched over 10 innings. Of those, only 68 were above 0.0 fWAR. So each team has maybe 2 lefties to get through and they both aren't going 2 innings each for 3 straight games. C'mon man!

Ref was contemplating retirement. Romy was DFA'd by the White Sox. If they get squeezed, they get squeezed.

It's part of the reason why I haven't been too focused on the RHB thing the way other posters are. I'd be way more excited over a closer and a great defensive catcher that could frame and hit enough to stick as an MLB regular.

Maybe he's holding out for the right offer or will just retire? He's his own agent, so that's why we probably aren't hearing breaking news about him every few days

Yup.

So was I.

It seems that the can is very replaceable so why pay a guy like O’Neill 20M when he doesn’t stay healthy. Ross Renfroe O’Neill Duvall These guys are entirely interchangeable. My biggest concern with O’Neill is health and bad defense. Bregman is more likely to be worth 40M than O’Neill is to be worth 20M.

We used to have a system where the poster of the previous night's game thread would make the next game thread IF the Sox won (mojo). HOWEVER, there were many times that this caused issues with late posts and people wondering if someone was going to get a post up in time. If the goal is to get posts up early enough so that they can be promoted throughout the day, we'd either have to have a time limit for this system OR just move on from it altogether. I'm all for whatever everyone else wants to do. If the goal is to increase participation, maybe it's best to have one person just get the threads up? Should we run a poll in the main forum closer to the start of the season?

The Nats are weird. They signed Lopez for 3M and a bunch of starters. That team won a WS and then just folded. Embarrassing organization. I can't really speak to the exact reasons Finnegan isn't signed, but that's all I could come up with.

C Wong, Narvaez 1B/DH Casas, Devers 2B Campbell SS Story, Hamilton 3B Bregman RF Abreu CF Duran, Rafaela LF Yoshida, Refsnyder I don't see room for a Duvall addition unless they plan on DFA'ing him midseason.