mvp 78

He was at least competent when he started. Guys like Joe Jacques... Yuck!

@tylermilliken_ Bradford Doolittle has the Red Sox as his #1 breakout team in 2024 based on his model, The Breakout Index. “Boston has had a combined record over .500 from all of its minor league teams in each of the three seasons since the 2020 pandemic season. Our system weighs these seasons in reverse order to reflect how prospects progress toward the majors. The Red Sox dovetail perfectly with a three-year winning percentage progression of .588, .529 and .502. The success of the Boston farm system is also reflected by consensus prospect rankings.” He compares them to the 2019 Twins. ESPN+ article: https://www.espn.com/mlb/insider/insider/story/_/id/39336308/mlb-top-5-breakout-teams-2024-red-sox-mets

2023 got Klubered.

Pens don't work like that anymore. Those opportunities are few and far between unless there is an opener.

Ability to eat innings? He's thrown 160 innings once! If you extrapolate Houck's '23 to a full season, it comes out to 160 innings. They are the same pitcher.

Crawford last year started in the rotation, was put into the pen for almost two months (only pitched over 3 innings or more in relief twice in that span! don't tell moon) and then needed 4 starts to get back to pitching 5 inning starts again. Probably should have just left him in the rotation.

Maybe eat SOME more innings, but is it enough of an upgrade to throw out some prospects?

@mlbtraderumors Collin McHugh Announces Retirement

Bulk guys like that don't really exist anymore. When he was put back into the rotation, it took several turns for him to get back into the swing.

I think the trade is fair for Boston. I'm just saying that I don't know if he's an upgrade over Houck especially when looking at last year's numbers and realizing the Sox have to give up a prospect to acquire him.

They are currently at 190M and are probably going to spend 215M or less per what ownership has stated. Clevinger, Chapman and Duvall combined would be about 25-28M. Maybe they make a scenario like that work? IDK. Not geting my hopes up.

No idea as I'm not a therapist. I think he probably believes a batter not being able to put the ball in play is the best option for a pitcher? The second best option would be for a batter to weakly put the ball in play, but if the defense sucks it may not help much.

Urquidy is decent and I liked having him on my fantasy team back in 21/22. It's not that I'm all for whiffs (not simply k rate mind you) and velo, but that it's what Crag prefers. Why talk about pitchers that have profiles that don't fit what the FO like?

Former Sox legend Baerga had bad knees unfortunately.

I bet Song struggles again this season and retires.

Move him from the rotation to the pen and back to the rotation where it will take him 4-5 starts to get stretched out again?

Why make those moves just to add some lower end arms? Anyone you sign for 5M this offseason will be worse than Crawford.

I'm not convinced he's an upgrade over Houck anymore. Was he injured last year?

What’s the plan in Boston? The Red Sox held their annual Winter Weekend fan event over the weekend, during which team officials made headlines by indicating the club is unlikely to match last year’s payroll in 2024 and suggesting the team doesn’t need to add another starting pitcher after swapping out Chris Sale for Lucas Giolito (despite making starting pitching a focus of the offseason). Even as club officials were downplaying expectations, local reporting indicated that the club remains in contact with free agent starters, including top-of-the-market southpaw Jordan Montgomery. There’s little question that the Red Sox, who finished 22nd in the majors last year with a 4.68 rotation ERA, would benefit from an impact addition at the top of their rotation, particularly after losing a high-upside arm like Sale, but there’s certainly question about whether they’ll actually make such a move. I'd rather them just continue to not say anything and do nothing than get our hopes up and put out word that they are in on every FA.

If you sign 3, it's kicking 2 valuable guys to AAA. I think they can really only sign one more starter for the back end of the rotation.

He doesn't generate a lot of whiffs or have good velo (Crag's preference). Why dump a prospect for Urquidy's profile?

He was the sales and marketing guy underneath Larry going back to San Diego.

McHugh 1/3M

They asked him to be forward facing last year since Henry wasn't going to be around and I don't remember hearing from Kennedy at all in 2023 except before and after the season.

Maybe it depends where they are at the deadline?