moonslav59

It's easy to not be wrong, when you only give the names in hindsight.

You would never have said :Duran," last summer, when we asked for names. No mention of Duvall, either, until after the fact.

Romero, too, because he knows, if he gets replaced, he will likely get promoted or given a sideways position.

I agree, totally. I'm not saying I liked the 5 year plan, if that's what we just went through. The lying to the fans is worse than the losing, IMO, because at least we were building a better future, while losing (on paper, anyway.) Losing Betts really sucked. Not even trying to replace his salary, as well as Porcello's and half-Price's for 2-3 years stung hard. When you look at a team like the Astros, they lost Springer, Cole and Correa, but had the pipeline set up, so the fans did not care, all that much, about losing their studs and playoff heroes. Losing Bogey would not have been so bad, had we not lost Betts.

3.1 Charlie Morton (Won't get a long deal.) 2.4 Wacha (5.7 in '22+'23) 2.1 ERod (has a player option) 1.6 Giolito (2.8 w CWS)

His "payroll management" was not the major reason we lost in '22. Other than the Story deal, he actually did pretty well with these deals: $7M Wacha $5M Hill $3M Strahm It would take near perfect hindsight signings to lead us to a playoff slot in 2022.

Maybe to 8th or 9th?

He has done very well in all but one playoff clutch situation, yes.

It's funny in the sense that we went 80 years without a ring, then got 4 under Henry. Now, we go 5 years without one- in a 30 team league, and the guy is a loser. You may disagree, but certainly, you should at least be able to see why some are chuckling. I could see, if our farm was now barren, and the 26 man roster was loaded with over the hill, high-priced players, but there seems to be some sort of strategy that involves being better in the near future.

He's had a 3.65 or better ERA in every playoff series in his career, except the 2021 ALCS (6.97.)

It likely would not matter much, unless the priorities changed at the top.

Rangers to the show!

Agreed. Plus, the "right teams" are winning! LOL!

That doesn't mean he was there for the taking. My guess is DD would match or top a few levels of bidding for a guy he wanted. It's his MO. He gets what he wants, and he usually wants the right players.

Loving this Rangers-Astros game!

Bloom couldn't outbid DD for a box of popcorn.

Some good stuff and a nice summary of what we have and need. The ending... Despite all the uncertainty, there are many things to like about this Boston club. They just went 78-84 in the toughest division in the league, with a run differential of -4. It would only take modest improvements to get them into contention for a playoff spot. Perhaps a new hire would like to take a year to get more looks at young players like Duran, Rafaela, Abreu, Anthony, Teel, Mayer and Yorke. There’s plenty of money coming off the books after 2024, with Sale, Jansen, Martin, Pivetta and Verdugo all potential free agents. Maybe some of those guys end up getting moved this winter, freeing up roster space for younger guys. They need help at catcher and in the middle infield, but there aren’t obvious solutions available in free agency and the Sox have possible long-term solutions in the pipeline. All things considered, the ship isn’t in terrible shape. But as of right now, it’s unclear who is steering it, which direction they’re going or how fast they’ll be allowed to head there. There’s plenty of fog on the horizon but perhaps things will clear up soon.

This was about the Kike extension given, last summer. Many felt it was a good deal for what we expected Kike to give us in CF: Near GG defense Maybe a .725-.775 OPS. There were not many FA CF'ers in that following winter market, so many of us felt it was a pretty good deal for the team. Red was dead set against it, so we asked him who was a recent signing at $10M that was better, or who he felt we could get for $10M that winter. We got not answer. It's easier to not be wrong as often, when you don't ever back up your position with real suggested solutions. BTW, last winter's CF signings: $40M x 9 Judge $20M x 8 Nimmo $17.5M/1 Bellinger $9M/1 Kiermaier $3M/1 Pillar That's all Spotrac listed as CF signings, last winter. Like we said, there weren't many options for that kind of money. I guess we could have signed notin's guy, Gallo for $10M/1, but he's not a true CF'er. (Neither was Duvall.) Don't get me started on pitchers for $10M/1! LOL!

That's one reason I think we don't touch 2B for '24, unless it's a one year deal. Urias, Reyes and EValdez might work out well. SP SP RHB (CF?) SP LH RP (2B is about 6th on my list.)

They've won so much, they are smug and annoying. I live down here, so I have deal with all the blather. No doubt, winning as much as they have gives the players reason to be confident. I just want tehse fans shut up, and the sooner the better.

A better GM should be reflected in better 2024 rankings.

Why root for a bunch of cheating and smug bastards like the Astros?

No doubt, and like most teams, some hopes are being placed on players returning from injury and returning to glory. We have our fair share of both. We seem to have a bunch of capable players filling 20-21 slots on the 26, but many have at least one serious flaw or lingering question mark (like health.) We don't have many really old players, except for Jansen & Martin. We have a bunch of younger and promising players and prospects that can be added to the mix, but we've all seen what the quantity over quality approach has gotten us. Our positional rankings: 20th: Catcher- Wong and McGuire took a dip, at the end of 2023 and are young enough to improve in 2024, but it's hard to know they will or to project it happening. T10th 1B- I think this is one position we can expect a top 10 slot- maybe higher. 29th 2B- Seems to be one area we can improve on, since there is just about no way to go down. I like Urias and Reyes, but expecting more than 20th place might be wishful thinking. EValdez offers some offensive support, but his D is so bad, one wonders if he is meant for 2B. 26th SS- Is likely the one position we can see a major improvement without any additions to the system. It remains to be seen, if it happens. T12th 3B- One can expect a top 10-12 ranking for 2024. 13th LF- It's hard to know, if Yoshida will be out FT DH or not. A Duran- Refsnyder platoon could hit as well as MY and should be better on D. T8th CF- That was with Duvall and Duran. Who plays CF in '24? Rafaela, Duran, bring Duvall back? Abreu? Hard to project. 13th RF- If Dugo returns, we should expect about the same. Abreu could give the slot a boost. T14th DH- No Turner? Yes Yoshida? Maybe close to the same? The big if is the rotation. 27th in IP. 22nd in fWAR, but if we had a better D, maybe it could have been top 20. The pen was 4th in IP and 13th in fWAR. We used 33 pitchers in 2023- 24 for more than 9 IP. We ad 21 over 18 IP. Hopefully we can find 16-18 to give almost all the innings to.

Most likely, unless they were all with LAD and he's be -11. LOL.

The phrase. Maybe I said it another time, of something like it. I hate the Astros. The Texans are growing on me, but I'll never like them more than the Packers. I'm Bucks all the way. No issues with the Rockets. I loved Dream and Sam Cassell.