moonslav59

I'd like to see their pecking order list, before any turndowns. Maybe Breslow was always near the top: maybe not.

fWARs 6.0 Carroll 4.2 Marte 3.8 Walker 2.7 Perdomo 2.1 Gurriel 1.7 Moreno (in just 380 PAs) (The next was 0.6) Pitching 5.2 Gallen 3.2 Kelly 1.3 Ginkel 0.8 Davies 3 @ 0.7

SEA missed the dance with 88 wins. They had one more win than MIN, who played a much easier schedule, too.

AZ had a -15 run differential and an xW-L record of 80-82, according to MLB.com. (The Sox were at 81-81 as a reference point.) They were helped by having two top pitchers: 34 GS Gallen 3.47 ERA (125 ERA+) 30 GS Kelly 3.29 ERA (132) But... WOW! The rest of their SP'ing sucked 27 GS Nelson 5.31 (82 ERA+) 18 GS Pfaat 5.72 (76) 18 GS Davies 7.00 (62) 17 GS Henry 4.15 (105) As a whole, the rotation ended up at 4.67 with a 1.34 WHIP and a .766 OPSA. The Sox rotation finished at 4.68, 1.29 and .766- almost identical, but with worse D behind them. Go figure!

Wait until it's 16!

It's hard to know how good of a hire Breslow is. It's nice to know he worked under Theo and was hired or promoted 3 years in a row for the Cubs. His focus was on pitching, so let's hope that helps, especially in the developing aspect of the organization. We'll see if he changes the philosophy of not drafting pitchers too highly. I'm optimistic this will work out, but I really do not know enough to formulate an opinion, one way or another. I'm glad all the turmoil and talk about who will be our next "guy" is finally over. We have some serious flaws to fix. Let's hope upper management gives him the green light to do it quickly. This should not be the start of a 4 or 5 year plan. We just went through that. A pretty nice foundation is set up for Breslow, but we lack in star power numbers and have 3-5 gaping holes that need to be not just filled, but filled with 2-3 studs and 2-3 plus players. Good luck, Craig!

A few coaches are gone. We will have a few new faces on the '24 team. I think it's enough to change the culture of losing. Not much will matter, if we stay $10M below the tax line and don't allow a decent prospect to be traded.

So much for my anti-crapshoot crusade.

So, you like the move?

Agreed. I was just trying to say OF has a bunch of guys ahead of Anthony, so OF is not really more crowded than MI or Catcher. You are right, none are filled with someone we can't replace or move to another position. Mayer to SS> Story to 2B (or 3B- GASP!) Teel to C> McGuire gets traded and Wong is the #2. Anthony to CF or RF> We force out the lowest performer or move them to an easier OF position, like LF. (Refsnyder is an easy player to replace on the 26, despite his useful splits.)

Trade: (BTV Accepted) Mayer, Dugo & Dalbec for Jesus Luzardo (3 years of control via arbs. His 2024 arb estimate is $6M. Verdugo's in $9M) We save $3M and add a solid SP'er, while seriously downgrading our farm and Middle Infield depth. Sign: Sonny Gray to $26M x 5 (or Montgomery to $27M x 7) Charlie Morton $22M x 1 Adam Duvall to $9M x 2 I think this keeps us under tax line 1. C: Wong & McGuire 1B: Casas (Devers) 2B: Urias & Reyes SS: Story (Reyes) 3B: Devers (Urias) LF: Duran-Refnsyder platoon (Yoshida) CF: Rafaela & Abreu (Duran/Duvall) RF: Duvall (Abreu) DH: Yoshida (Devers/Casas) The D looks better. The O looks worse, unless Story can replace JT's bat. The pitchings looks like nails: SP1: Gray SP2: Morton SP3: Luzardo SP4: Bello SP5: Sale SP6/LR3: Pivetta (Drohan/Gambrell/Walter/Hagenman/Wikelman) LR1: Houck LR2: Crawford MR3: Whitlock MR4: Schreiber MR5: Winckowski (Bernardino/Murphy/Mata/Kelly/Mills) SR6: Martin SR7: Jansen NOTE to MVP: This is not what I think will happen.

I've answered this several times: no. You confuse what I want with what I think we'll do. I doubt we get one top SP'er and one second tier SP. More likely we get 2 second tier guys or one second tier and someone like Seth Lugo or Flaherty. I listed what I felt were our top 5 priorities, based on our highest need areas. I hope we don't go light on 7-8 signings, which might include a MI'er. If the goal is 2025, then let the kids play and make 1-3 longer term signings as a step towards more additions before 2025, once we have a better idea of what our kids can do. If we want to win in 2024, I think we need to come close to my list of 5. One SP could come from a trade, and the rest would seem more affordable.

All these years, we thought the "f" in fWAR was for Fangraphs, but it really stands for FIP.

I get the value of FIP, but I think fWAR gos a bit overboard on its influence on their score. Some low K pitchers are damn good, and they get whacked on fWAR.

You really have a way with twisting what people write. I wrote: You get what you pay for, but Bloom did not do badly with these lower/mid-range deals at $3-9M. This is not the same as saying he did not do badly with every single signing in this range. It's a statement about the overall quality of that range signing vs the $10M/1 range and the $10M per year plus range. You add "the Diekman signing," like that is what I said.

I wasn't trying to justify the signing. I listed all the signings from $3M to $9M. I know some sucked. All the $10M signings sucked. Most of the $10M or more signings have sucked or are TBD. I just made a couple comments about the worst of the $3-9M signings to show maybe they weren't as bad as they first looked. Diekman was still a bad signing. There is no "justification,," but we were lucky to get out of ost of the contract money, and got back McGuire for the effort. McGuire does not make the signing any better, but I'm glad we have him. You were right on Perez. There is nothing that could be said to lessen how much he sucked.

Apparently, the best "eye test" is looking at the box scores in the morning paper.

If we end up signing Duval or a RHB who plays OF, we'd need quite a few to not do too well to create the need for a call-up, but I guess if Anthony is raking, we'll just "make room." Yoshida to DH? Dugo traded? Both could make room for another OF'er. Here is the depth charts for the OF: LF: Yoshida (DH) Duran (v R only?) Refnsyder (v L only?) Abreu CF: Duran or Rafaela (AAA?) Abreu (AAA?) Anthony RF: Dugo (or Duval, if we trade Dugo & sign Duval) Abreu (AAA?) (Refsnyder/Duran- YUCK!) Anthony/Rosier

I caught flack for hating the signing day one.

I said "good?" I literally used the words "sucked.: $4M x 2 Diekman (sucked, but we dumped his salary and got McGuire.) He minimized how much the signing sucked by trading him, and the final results ended up being about $3M spent on his s***** work, here.

Did we end up paying Diekman $3M, which was my cutoff?

Okay- two sucked. That beats 3 for 3 sucking at $10M and not very good with all contracts at $10M or more.

I lost respect for the Globe. Honestly, I don't believe what they write.

What a score he was!

Bloom was a big Oh for 3 on all of his $10M/1 deals. (Richards, Kike & Kluber.) His $3-9M ones were much better: ($8.75M x 2 Martin '23-'24) ($7M x 2 Kike '21-'22) ($6M + $4M Paxton '22-'23) $8.3M Turner (+ buyout) $7M Wacha $7M Duvall $6.5M Perez '20 (not great but better than those 3 at $10M/1) $5M Hill $5M Perez '21 $4.3M Pillar $4M x 2 Diekman (sucked, but we dumped his salary and got McGuire.) $3.1M Renfroe Not a great list, but certainly better than the $10M/1 and larger deals. You get what you pay for, but Bloom did not do badly with these lower/mid-range deals at $3-9M.