moonslav59

I thought about that after I clicked submit.

Listened to the Soxprospects.com podcast and they (Andrew Parker & Ian Cundall) spoke about the Romy injury and not really having a back-up 1Bman on the 26. They have been working out Sogard and IKF there in practice and even Monasterio was seen taking reps there. If Romy's injury is prolonged, something will need to be done. Casas probably won't be ready. Romy's bat vs lefties will be missed, too, especially with Ref gone. Looks like Durbin at 3B and Mayer at 2B, but they will start giving them flipped reps, at some point. With Romy out, maybe they platoon Mayer at 3B with Eaton, and then they flip when Romy returns. (This is the podcast discussion.) Both predict the Sox get back to the playoffs due to the rotation strength and depth. Having Tolle & Early begin the year in AAA is amazing. The rotation health is the key. Bello went from our #2 to our #4. They see Oviedo as the wild card. The "ceiling raiser." He could be in AAA in June or pitching like our #2. They see the trade deadline as a chance to make an Impact on the offensive side. So many players have a chance to "elevate their value," that they can have enough trade chips to get what we need. They think Sogard takes Romy's slot, but maybe Monasterio wins the job. They likened Sogard to Brock Holt. Tidbits... Glowing report on Eyanson as "sticking out" and hitting 95-97 in camp. Crochet is adding a pitch- a splitter. Was working out at Vandy over the winter. Durbin has not reached a year of service, yet, so he has 6 years of control. (He missed by 8 days in 2025.) They think TJ Sikkema is a big unknown and could be the NRI guy that could advance. (He broke Anthony's bat twice.) Christian Foutch is getting a lot of buzz- throwing very hard. He is starting out in the pen, so no need for transitioning, later. (Never started in college.) Brady Tygart has battled health issues, but is healthy now. Hitting 96. Could see him reach potential, this year. Good shape and spin rates. Holobetz has a great fastball but his secondaries were weak, last year. He throws strikes. He's working on changing his change up grip and needs to improve his slider. Brandon Neely has not made his pro debut yet, but is up to 95 and might be used as a bulk pen guy. "Look out for him." Cason will still be used as a pitchers and position player, this year, but coming off the surgery, he'll hold off on pitching for a while. They think Gonzales is more like 6-6 or 6-7 than his listed 6-4 height. He's "massive" but can still "move well." They spoke about Bloom & Brez both being underwhelming at the trade deadline. They attribute it to GM "inexperience" and not something from upper management or organizational issues. They think that Brez thought he had the Joe Ryan deal done, and then had to scramble when it didn't go down. They think that shows Brez was willing to be bold, but fell short. (Sound familiar?) They like what Bloom did with STL, where he was given the power to completely rebuild. The Cards have 6 picks in the top 86, and they credited Bloom for the Anthony pick, so to watch the comp between Bloom & Brez could be interesting.

Tolle starts game 1 of ST'ing, today. Here is the line-up: 1. Anthony RF 2. Rafaela CF 3. Abreu DH 4. Contreras C 5. Yoshida LF 6. Wong C 7. Monasterio 3B 8. IKF SS 9. Rodgers 2B Pretty good up the middle defense.

They floated the idea of broadcasting the games at a frequency only dogs could hear, but decided it would be too costly.

While I agree that we needed to get a bigger bat than Contreras, Willson is pretty good. We don't have a top 30 SLG% guy from 2024-2025 (900+ PAs). That might be a first for the Sox in a long time. We do, however have 2 in the top 46. 32 Duran .468 46 Contreras .455 (Abreu would have finished 34th, had he gotten 36 more PAs to qualify, and Anthony's small sample size places him around 36th.) It looks like we could have 4 players in the top 50, but still nobody in the top 30. Will that be good enough? Damned if I know! I think we'll see Duran 3rd (v R) and Story 3rd (v L.) Contreras bats 4th. Anthony leadoff, so who fills the top modern day slot (#2)? Story with an OBP around .300 vs L? Durbin? Abreu v R? If Duran and Abreu didn't have such bad splits, we could have both in the top 4 with Story hitting 5th. Maybe this... 1. L Anthony 2. L Abreu/ R Story (half the time) 3. L Duran/R Story (half the time) 4. R Contreras 5. L Duran or Abreu (see the 2-3 slots) 6. R Narvaez 7. R Durbin 8. L Mayer (R Romy/KC?) 9. R Rafaela or do we just bite the bullet and bat Story 2nd all the time? This fits Cora's lefty-righty thingy, and has a good power bat up 5th every game: 1. L Anthony 2. R Story 3. L Duran (maybe bats 6th v L?) 4. R Contreras 5. L Abreu 6. R Durbin (maybe bat him 3rd v L?) 7. R Narvaez 8. L Mayer/ R Romy or KC 9. R Rafaela

Bregman was not "the big bat" we needed. (Nor was Bichette.)

Fair enough. The last part of the post you replied to was about making a deadline deal for a big bat.

My updated top prospects list: 1. Tolle 2. Early 3. Witherspoon 4. Arias 5. Valera 6. Bennett 7. Gonzales 8. Phillips 9. Soto 10. Godbout 11. Holobetz 12. Eyanson 13. Watson 14. Romero 15. Azocar 16. Jo Garcia 17. Delzine 18 Ramos 19. Rivas 20. Mullins/Uberstine

I still think this guy may flip the script on the Priester trade.

You know your stuff, but I also think sps,com is weary of the small sample size of Early's early success. Of late, you seem to be really valuing small samples sizes, especially if recent.

I think Casas has an equal chance as Masa to DH, if an OF'er gets hurt. They may go with Masa, first, due to the money, and the fact that Casas has an option.

True nuff.

I think it was someone else. I think Fred was on the O all the way back to the Devers trade,

Not in terms of trade capital. It's hard to know about line 2 and 3 of the tax.

Looking at the Sox schedule, we don't really end the season with any extremely difficult opponents, but not really easy teams, either. Here is the end of the season in reverse: vs 3CHC & 3CLE @3TBR & 3TEX vs 3KCR & 3LAA @4 BAL vs 3 SEA end of AUG: 3 @ NYY & 3 @ MIA We begin the season at CIN MAR 26, 28th & 29th and 3 @ HOU, then we come home to play SDP & MIL for 3 each.

I'm one who is not a "playoffs are a total crapshoot" kinda guy, but there is some luck involved with advancing a round or more into October. I will say, once you make the playoffs, your top 3 SP'ers and top 2-3 RP'ers take on more importance and value, and your 4th and 5th starters less significance. This could be a plus for us. Maybe we make some sort of impactful deadline deal to get a big bat, even if just as a rental. I know this goes fully against the recent trend of do nothing or do poorly at each deadline, but I think Brez is fully aware of the fact that one of the team's stated offseason goal (acquiring a big bat) was not accomplished. Now, other teams may make equally impactful deadline deals, too, and that may negate any gain we make, but other than a big bat, assuming reasonable health, I think we'd be among the faves to advance to the WS with said "big bat" addition.

I absolutely love seeing us play NL teams, especially at Wrigley Field or versus storied franchises like the Dodgers, Giants, Cardinals and Pirates. (I'm trying to workout a way to visit my sister in Pittsburgh during the mid August series against the Pirates. That stadium looks awesome.)

Is anything really "significant" about the first game of spring?

Alonso homered for the O's as they shut out the Yanks. Will he hit 60, this year? (just kiddin')

The "Devil Rays?"

Are you dysgraphic? Did you mean 68?

I'm really not anti-Masa. I think he's a decent hitter with .800 upside, despite never having a MLB season over .783. I just think our roster look much better, more flexible and L-R balanced with Campbell or Monasterio on the 26. I'm not sure Yoshida accepts an assignment to AAA, unless he's rehabbing a true injury. I suppose he may agree to a short stint, but he can always refuse it and force a choice to be made by Cora & Brez. Apparently, we are close to the second tax line, so trading him and saving $3-6M a year might be something they want to do, apart from allowing more flexibility to the 26 and 40 man rosters. I read somewhere, we might trade Sandoval to get under a line, but I think we've already put the SP'er depth chart about as small as we dare. I would not expect anything back in return, unless it's some other salary dump player, of if we include a prospect like the Hicks trade. (BTV accepts Yoshida & Sandoval +$10M for McCullers and his $17M/1 contract. I know- it's a NO GO.)

But this year, Cora said it. I think Abreu will get a long look vs LH'd SP'ers. He may be better than Duran vs lefties, now, but it was just one season, where he did better. If they try to platoon Romy at DH, that really puts a squeeze on the OF, when we face a lefty starter. That is one reason why I see Romy as primarily a platoon at 2B with Mayer. I don't think Cora wants Duran or Abreu out of the line-up, especially with our offense looking so questionable.

Agreed. They had a pretty nice looking young team last spring, and it seems like many underperformed, while management sat on their hands. It looks like they chose well to let Santander walk, last winter, and they did more than just add Alonso, this winter, but they also lost a couple good players, too. I do think they can make up 10-15 games, but I think the Sox improve by 4-6 games, so it won't be enough. I think the Jays will get worse, and the Yanks stay about the same, but the Yanks will rely on good health for 2-3 players with very little hope if 1 or 2 miss a bunch of time. Of course, what are the Sox chances without Crochet, Suarez or Anthony staying healthy?

We have a very different team than 2025. I'm not sure anyone expected this much turnover- beyond needing to replace Bregman, Gio, Wilson, Buehler, Lowe and Refsnyder. For a team that made the playoffs for the first time since 2021, it surprised me a bit. It's not like Brez wasn't wheeling and dealing the previous season, but this time he wheeled and dealed some of his previous wheels & deals. Between the opening day MLB and AAA opening day rosters of 2025 and now, I count 11 MLB players gone plus Houck to the IL and about 17 gone from the AAA roster. I'm figuring an almost 50% changeover. That makes it hard to project improvement or otherwise, and since so much of the team's focus changed, it's more complicated than just comparing 2025 numbers to projected 2026 numbers. For example, just how much does improving the rotation compensate for a possible/probable loss on offense? We also don't know which pitchers will fill out the pen, and the pen was a significant reason we won as much as we did, last year. i'm not always optimistic, this time of year, but I feel pretty good about our chances of improving and going farther into October. There are grave concerns, of course, namely the offense, but also with health, the pen and counting on so many young players to fill key rolls. Returning rookies: Anthony, Narvaez, Durbin, Mayer, Campbell, plus Tolle & Early. Second year or three partial year players: Abreu, Rafaela, Slaten, Monasterio & Sogard (Crawford pitched 2 IP in one of his 4 seasons) I'm hoping players nearing or in prime to improve. I'm hoping those in prime of just past it, do well, again, and I'm hoping the elders hold on for one more year.