moonslav59

My guess is he has been thinking about it for a long time, starting before he visited teams. He may have already had a team he wanted to play with and was seeing if someone could talk him out of it. He may have had a list of 2-3 faves, all along. Maybe 1-2 have dropped out of the bidding. Total guess, but it's probably down to 2 teams, now.

Certainly we have had major issues in that area. I was speaking more to the claims that FAs are avoiding us, because we don't look like we have a winning outlook. I'm not saying we do, but I don't see the NYM, NYY or SFG as being any better on those fronts. Yankee fans and media have been all over Yankee management for a decade. The SFG have made great efforts to bring in top talent, but seem to come up short every time. The Mets have spent like maniacs, but sucked in '23 and traded away 2 of MLB's best pitchers this past summer. I was only speaking in the context of these 4 teams, seemingly the finalists on Yamo.

One area of hope for the Sox is the farm. I've mentioned, before how we have not traded a top 6 prospect since Moncada and Espinoza in 2016. (We traded #6 Beeks for Nate in '18 and #9 Aldo Ramirez for Schwarber in '21.) We drafted a lot of high schoolers for several years, so the wait has been prolonged. The rise of some of DD's prospects has been surprising in some ways, but we witnessed a long drought of high impact prospects from the Devers call up in the summer of 2017 to the call ups of Casas and Bello in 2022 and 2023. That's about 5 years with the best homegrown prospect being Houck. (One could count Whitlock- the Rule 5 guy, I guess.) So, aside from Whitlock and Houck in '21, it was pretty barren, here is what we have seen and can expect to see, starting in 2022: Graduated in 2022: Bello, Crawford, Duran, Winckowski, Wong 2023: Casas, Bernardino, EValdez, Murphy, Kelly 2024 (expected: ) 4. Rafaela 8. Abreu 11. Fitts 21 DHam, 24 Slaten (Rule 5), 28 Mata (out of options), 26 Guerrero, 32 Walter 36 Gambrell, 40 Scott, 40 H Olivarez, 50 Rosier 2025 (some may be called up in '24) 1. Anthont 2. Mayer 3. Teel 6. Yorke 9. Wikelman 13. Meidroth 16. Hickey 19. Jordan, 23 Dobbins, C Troye, I Coffey, Liu 2026 (some may e called up in '25) 4. Bleis 7. Perales 14. Castro 17. Paulino 18. Romero 20. Monegro, 26 E R-C, 27 Bastardo, 29 A Hoppe, Rogers, C Coffey, Penrod, K Campbell Later than 2026: 10. Cespedes 12. Zanetello 15. Joh. Garcia 22. A Anderson, 30 Alcantara, F Arias, Brannon, Paez, Yuten, Ravelo, Cepeda, Sena, Riemer Of course, many of these guys won't ever make the bigs. Many more will but won't impress, but I like our odds on a few making a significant impact in the next 1-2 years. I'm not pencilling in a single prospect, but I am near certain a few will be very good to excellent.

I thought he'd announce by tonight, but who knows. As long as one team is still saying, "Let me get back to you," he will likely wait it out.

I get that. Really quire astonishing. We have the rings, and to me, the Yanks are trending downwards. I see us all pretty close to even, going forward.

The Mets traded them away. Texas did not. I’m not getting the comp.

Machado was not part of the plan.

Of course. I’m just not buying the idea that the Mets, Yanks and Giants look any more like future winners than us. If anything, we MIGHT look better positioned.

Been that way for a long time

You really think could not have gotten more as a FA?

Theur farm is still not as good as ours, and our top 6 are all due in 1-2 years, and 9 of top 11, too. I have already mentioned Cohen will spend way more, but he has shown it does not lead to wins.

Yes, his "whole family is on PEDs."

The salary relief was tge big return: Cuc Napoli Dempster

I agree. Joe Mauer. Very few, but many sign extensions, so they are not counted as FAs taking less. They are still players not choosing more money. Papi, Pedey and Bogey took less than they could have gotten as FAs.

Yes, still okay, but almost as big a drop from SDP/BOS as from year 3 to 4: wRC+ 156 SDP '09 142 SDP '10 155 BOS '11 (116 BOS/LAD '12) 124 LAD '13 129 LAD '14 129 LAD '15 111 LAD '16 The drop from '15 to '16 was 18 points. The drop from '11 to '13 was 21 points. He was still a good player for 3-4 years with LA, but he was not great and did not earn that salary, IMO. When you consider the salary LA took on with AGon, CC and Beckett, minus the small payments we made to them, they got hosed.

What is brother did was stupid, insensitive and ignorant. If it was based in racism, I wasn't aware the trait was genetically passed onto siblings. "Stroman's a punk." "Gurriel's is a defacto racist." "Giolito is a nutcase." Did I miss any?

I'm not saying I like the idea. I'd be bummed, but it might be the best we can expect.

He might have gotten close to $75M more, had he waited. Curious why you chose $75M. Is $70M more not "all about the money?" How about $50M or $25M?

Devers might have some encouraging words, too. If it's about letting stars go, why would Yamo sign with the team that just traded Verlander and Scherzer? The team that finished 4 games in front of the Nats, who were the 2nd worst team in the NL.

Or maybe Luzardo, Framber Valdez or some under the radar trade target. I could see us settling on Stroman and Imanaga.

Yes, but at the time, he was still viewed as a big plus, at the time of the trade. BTW, AGon declined after the trade, too. .888 OPS w SDP .895 OPS w BOS .793 OPS w LAD, but .817 his first full 3 years there.

I think we sign Monty and trade for another SP'er and 2Bman. They may take on salary to ease the return needed in trade, as we can spend quite a bit without going over the first or second tax line. We may sign Monty and Merrifield and trade for a SP. Maybe we sign Monty & Stroman and trade for 2B. All kinds of options, but I hope we concentrate almost all our resources on just 2 slots, so we get some real quality.

You guys never cease to amaze me.

Assume we add a SP1, SP3, and 2Bman: I know big assumption, I see the 26 and 40 like this: SP1 Bello SP3 Sale Pivetta (Maybe Crawford) Jansen Martin Winckowski Schreiber Crawford Houck Whitlock Slaten (Rule 5)/ Mata (out of options) Trade, return or DFA the other Wong McGuire Casas 2Bman Reyes EValdez Story Devers Yoshida Refsnyder Duran Rafaela O'Neill The other 14: (Blue= should see key time in MLB) Murphy, Walter, Wikelman, Perales Campbell, Bernardino, Criswell, Kelly, Weissert 2 from Weiss, Llovera & Jacques Abreu DHam Dalbec

Talk a bout a team who keeps swinging and missing at their top priorities.