moonslav59

Dalbec seems like such a waste of a 26 man roster spot. Ref, if he could play 1B, would be slightly lesser one.

Do we give Ref a 1Bman mitt, or what?

I agree and agreed then, too. He did acquire Whitlock via Rule 5, and Winckowski via trade (Beni), plus some marginal guys like Schreiber and Bernardino in other low cost ways, but it looks like Brez is taking it more seriously. Let's see how we draft. The IFA signings did not seem to focus on pitching, anymore than we did in the past.

Tigers sign Gio U. to $1.5M deal.

Here is what sp's has for summaries on these you listed: Fitts Potential multi-inning depth reliever. Ceiling of a back-end starter. Has some traits you look for in a starting pitching prospect, but effort in delivery and lack of a third pitch hint at the bullpen being the most likely outcome. Stuff improved as the 2023 season went on and could be a candidate to take a step forward with new development staff, as he was tweaking his secondary pitches throughout 2023. Needs to find a consistent third pitch and continue to refine his slider to have a chance to stick in the rotation. Has a starter's fastball with the command and control to work deep into games. Sandlin High-variance prospect with starter upside. Will show three pitches that are at least average with an above-average command and control profile. Stuff appears to have ticked up during winter workouts heading into the 2024 season but it remains to be seen if he can hold those gains into regular season action. If the improvements with his fastball that he showed in the offseason hold, projection could change. Exciting arm with considerable upside if things click. Monegro Potential up-and-down, multi-inning relief arm. Ceiling of a back-end starter. High variance arm who is still learning to pitch. Still very projectable and has already added velocity, even within the season. Could gain even more velocity given how loose his arm is and the remaining projection in his frame. Stuff took a significant step forward in 2023, making him a much more interesting prospect. Needs to show more consistency and improve command and control as he moves up the ladder. Fastball quality could stand to improve, as could creating separation between his two breaking balls. Has dabbled with a changeup in the past and adding something like that or a splitter could give him a better chance to stick in the starting rotation. Pitches with emotion and swagger. Dobbins Potential emergency up-and-down starter. Ceiling of a back-end starter. One of the more interesting pitching prospects in the Red Sox low minors, but has a wide gap between what he currently is and what he could be. Already shows an intriguing three-pitch mix with advanced feel and command for his age. Stuff at present is on the light side, but has already started to tick up. If stuff continues to tick up, projection could change. Paez Potential emergency up-and-down starter. Ceiling of a back-end starter. One of the more interesting pitching prospects in the Red Sox low minors, but has a wide gap between what he currently is and what he could be. Already shows an intriguing three-pitch mix with advanced feel and command for his age. Stuff at present is on the light side, but has already started to tick up. If stuff continues to tick up, projection could change. Early Durable left-hander with four pitches and a solid command and control profile. Advanced pitchability. If stuff takes a step forward, could develop into an interesting arm. If stuff stays as is, still has a relatively high floor with his feel and ability to locate all of his pitches and change speeds.

Yes. I'm just talking about the money part. The extension for Keller covered 1 year of team control (his last arb year) plus 4 years of basically open market prices. A Bello extension would cover 5 arb year, the last of which might be at pretty big numbers, but only 2 open markey years. I would not expect similar contract numbers or AAV.

Thanks. Any significant hopes for lower ranked pitching prospects?

First, Perales has to have a full & healthy season- maybe 120+ IP. We may never know his true potential, until he does. His highest ranking has been #7. It's like he's our next Mata. Wikelman just seems like he's another in a long line of hyped pitching prospects that fizzled out or got hurt. I hope I'm wrong, but nobody says he has electric stuff. He needs everything to go right to maybe become a decent #3. That would be nice, but we need some 1's and 2's. His highest ranking on sp's is his current 9 slot. We've seen so many pitchers ranked higher than #7 and #9, in the last decade become total flops or get injured. Here are but a few, with their highest sp's rankings, ever: 1. Groome '18 2. DHern '19, H Owens '14 3. Espinoza '17 4. A Webster '14 5. Walter '22, B Johnson '15 6. Shawaryn '18 8. Scherff '18, Raudes '16

I agree. Even if this ends up being a swing and miss, we need to do things like this to increase the odds we end up with a solid SP'er, ASAP. Maybe Fitts ends up being the one. Maybe none of the ones we have added, so far work out, but I like the effort. We have hit on a couple moves, like this, in the past few years, mot notably Whit & Winck, who may be really good pen arms and not starters, but adding quality pitching is a good idea.

Keller was in a different situation than Whitlock and Bello. Keller was making $5.4M, this year and had just 1 ard year left. A 5 year extension is 4 years beyond the team control. If we sign Bello to 7 years. it would be for just 2 years beyond the 5 years of control we already have.

What would you say the odds are that just ONE of these two becomes a decent 3/4 SP in MLB? I'm guessing less than 50%. Maybe 50% just ONE becomes a decent #5. Second Q, do we have anyone ranked 31-60 that looks anywhere near promising?

Typical. It's a minor league deal, so no biggie.

I was just correcting the statement that he is 35. I like the trade, especially since we are not going anywhere, this year. If we don't sign Monty, I'm all for a fire sale of all 1 year guys and anyone else near the end of control and aging or not looking like a key for the 2025 or later teams.

I'm still clinging to the sliver of hope that this is just temporary.

I'd say for sure. I'm not sure what his trade value is, but if we could get a good SP'er with 4+ yrs of control for Duran, Yorke and Mata, I'd do it.

Agreed, but we don't have to pretend things about Schreiber to make the trade look better.

I think the teams that were spending got what they wanted. Others are waiting for a bargain, and do not think the players left are worth the asking price. There are 4 guys that are far from journeymen. Snell and Monty are top 20 or 30 SP'ers. Bellinger and Chapman are solid FT plus players.

I keep checking in on MLBTR to see if one of the big FAs have signed. This is really weird.

Schreiber is 29 and had 2 arbs years left, after 2024.

While true, being the best pitching prospect in the Sox organization may not mean all that much. I like the deal more, now, than I did at the time of the deal.

I'm not going to pretend the Sox can match teams like ATL, BAL, LAD, HOU & others, in terms of the strength of prospects and recent grads, but we have a pretty nice list of players under 27 or so... 17 Asencio 18 Cespedes, Zanetello, Anderson, Arias 19 Anthony, Joh Garcia, Brannon, Yuten, E Soto 20 Perales, Castro, Romero, E R-C, Paez, Ravelo 21 Mayer, Wikelman, Yorke, Paulino, Jordan, Monegro, K Campbell, C Early 22 Teel, Meidroth, Bastardo, Sena, Reimer 23 Grissom, Rafaela, Guerrero 24 Bello, Casas, Abreu, Hickey, Mata, Dobbins 25 Winckowski, Murphy, E Valdez, Hoppe 26 Campbell, Slaten, DHam 27 Devers, Crawford, Houck, Whitlock, Duran, Wong, Criswell, Walter The 23 in Red look pretty good.

I hope he and new set of people can give both a lift. Perales turns only 21 in April, and has been in the system for 4 seasons, due to missing 2020. He doesn't even have 150 IP, total, yet, but we were forced to add him to the 40. Wikelman turns 22 in March and has 5 seasons in our system, also missing 2020. He barely has over 300 IP, total. These two still have a few years to develop, but they are fast losing their chance as starters. They need to show something, soon. Fitts just turned 24, and apparently lacks a third pitch. I guess it's not too late to find one, but he seems destined for the pen. Sandlin turned 23, today! He apparently has 3 plus pitches. sxoprospects.com says he has " ...at least average with an above-average command and control profile. Stuff appears to have ticked up during winter workouts heading into the 2024 season but it remains to be seen if he can hold those gains into regular season action. If the improvements with his fastball that he showed in the offseason hold, projection could change. Exciting arm with considerable upside if things click." He might be the guy with the highest upside of the top 3. Monegro is 21 and might be a pen arm, at best. Stepped up some in '23, and there might be hope he can again in '24. Slaten is 26 and is a pen arm. Dobbins is 24 and has 3 secondary pitches, so maybe some hope there. E R-C is the youngest of the top 25 or so. He has a 4 pitch mix with 3 upside pitches. I'm not seeing a lot of hope, but it's good to see Brez & Co. trying to add to the mix. Adding 3 in the top 7 pitching prospects before your first draft does show a commitment. (It took a while longer for Bloom to add Whitlock & Winckowski.)

I'm sure Pedey knew they knew. I think he was saying "Hello! Is anyone in there? It's not too late!"

Nobody ever asked these questions. Now, there never is even an opportunity to not ask these questions.

I think they have decided they want to make more money. Maybe they are waiting for the big 3 prospects to arrive, and then will make up for skimping, but I have my doubts.