moonslav59

Imagine all the Williams HRs in yankee Stadium, or so the thinking went.

A healthy Story at SS, no Kike and Rafaela in CF should make for better up the middle defense than 2022, but 2B is kind of unknown. Urias has a -1 OAA at 2B from '22-'23 -2 DRS (zero career) +1.0 UZR/150 (about average) An upgrade on D would be nice at 2B.

We could sign Duvall & Garver Trade Dugo & Urias for Donovan (Keep Crawford) C- Gaver/Wong 1B Casas 2B Donovan SS Story 3B Devers LF Duran/Refsnyder CF Rafaeal/Abreu RF Duvall/Abreu DH Yoshida SP Gray Bello Sale Seth Lugo Pivetta LR Houck, Crawford, Whitlock (Murphy) SR Jansen, Martin, Wink, Schreiber, Bernardino/Mata/Kelly Again, I'd prefer a better upgrade of the rotation, but something like this might be more likely.

I'm worried about Garver's D, but this does solve some line-up issues, nicely. The 3 positions I listed were 2B CF/RF C If we go cheaper on the rotation than I hope, something like this would help.

I listed Soto and would love to have him. It does not matter that he hits lefty or plays LF, because he transcends all else, but we'd still need a RH'd bat on top of getting him. (We could trade Dugo and stay even on the L-R numbers, but we'd still need a big RHB. At what position?) I did not list players I felt were not good fits.

I like Urias. I think he can bounce back. Reyes is a capable back-up. I am thinking we could use a few more players we can count on to be very good on D and O. I'm not sure who is out there to make a major upgrade in RF to a RHB. I'm not sure the catcher position is the area we should spend major resources on upgrading. I know you like the idea of a 3B upgrade and a major shuffle, but we've hashed that out enough.

I'm okay with all our everyday positions one-by-one, despite losing Turner and Duvall from a team that sucked on D and dropped off a cliff on O, late in the year. However, we lack true star power at all but 3B, 1B and maybe SS. We do need a big RHB or lead off hitter with a high OBP. Getting both would be nice. To me, our weakest 3 positions, in order are: 1. 2B 2. CF/RF 3. Catcher As I have said, too many times, already, I'm all for spending almost everything on the rotation. None on the pen, despite a shortage of LHPs, there. Little on OF or 2B, but a RH'd power bat or RH'd high OBP guy would be nice. My point was made after the idea that we might just get a #1 and #4 SP'er. I figured we'd have a lot of budget space for upgrades in the field and line-up. It was in this context, I suggested a major upgrade or two at everydsay positons.

Better than 2023. 29th in fWAR at -0.9 If we could get some RHB with power or serious OBP skills, we could not spend on a RHB for RF.

MLBTR listed possible winter trade candidates. Here are some I think we might be interested in: SP 2. Burnes 4. S Bieber 5. Glasnow 6. Cease 16. SEA SP (B Woo, B Miller or E Hancock) 18. Blackburn 2B/SS 3. Willy Adames 9. H-S Kim (RHB) 10. Torres (RHB) 11. India (RHB) 14. J Polanco (L-R w power) 21. Donovan N/R T Edman OF 24. Luis Robert Jr. (RHB, but not likely traded) 1. Soto, but he is really a LF'er- something we have a lot of. 8. Grisham, CF but he bats lefty. N/R Castellanos ®, Santander (L-R), Lane Thomas ®, T O'Neill ®, Margot ® C N/R S Perez

If I hafd to bet, I think this is what we will do. A #1 and a #4 (maybe like Clevinger, Giolito or Flaherty, at best but probably worse.) Gray & Flaherty or Seth Lugo. If they do this, does it mean we go large on a positional upgrade at 2B, OF or catcher?

I was going to say something, but didn't want to stir the pot.

I'm not sure Breslow has the same concern about D as Bloom. Rafaela could solve the OF defense by hitting just well enough to stick in CF. If he does not, then it comes down to Abreu or Duran in CF. At least we have multiple options, but at some point, we are going to need someone we can count on, or go outside the system and get one. With Anthony beating on the door, I doubt we go large & long on an OF'er.

I'd say Duran is a significantly better LF'er on D than Masa. Duran showed a big improvement on D, last year. Was it a fluke? Can he continue to improve. (As of now, I would totally avoid placing Duran in CF. Maybe someday, he can be good enough on D to play in CF.) If Dugo goes, I agree, I think we add a RH'd RF'er, so the other OF'ers will not really be affected.

All big Qs. I'd add Mayer as someone who needs to show he's all he's rated as. Rafaela and Abreu will graduate, and we really need at least one to shine. Cespedes, Zanetello, Jo Garcia and Anderson might jump. My sleeper is Gambrell.

True. Clevinger had a +103 ERA+ from '22-'23 and was really good before that. Giolito looks about the same as Flaherty. I'll take him off my last acceptable category list.

I agree, but I've given up expecting it to happen. They went over in 2022, when I didn't think they would. They may also lose Pivetta and Dugo's contracts, so a reset in 2025 seems very possible. Plus, I'm thinking we being to see some big farm infusions at the end of 2024 and to start 2025: Anthony, Teel, Mayer and maybe Yorke/Wikelman/Perales/Drohan.

Maybe you have some numbers that could convince me he belongs in the list of hopefuls, but I see his 87 ERA+ from 2022-2023 and a 4.48 FIP/1.59 WHIP and thought, no.

Lessening the budget should allow for more and or better SP'ers. It's not complicated. Maybe we trade Sale with $6M for a prospect and free up $20M to spend on a second top SP'er. The team trading for Sale does not want to add a long term contract, so they take a chance on Sale.

I think his idea was to trade Sale for a lesser player, but use the savings to spend more on a better SP via free agency.

Nobody is saying Devers or Casas should be part timers. Casas could "fit" at DH or half-time DH and half-time 1Bman. As we know, Cora loves to rest players 8-12 games a year. It might be nice, if we rest Casas and Devers as a DH some of those days, so we keep their bats in the line-up, more often. When Casas is resting, either on the bench or at DH, I'd like to see Devers play 1B, after he gets some reps in ST'ing. Nobody is missing PAs with this idea. The idea of trading Yoshida seems remote, to me. For the same reasons you want him gone, other GMs don't want him and his salary. We'd likely have to pay some of his salary or take back a big contract in return. I'm just going by what we have. If we trade Yoshida, then it makes more sense to DH Casas and Devers more often. The idea of playing Casas and Devers at 1B and DH, only, makes some sense, assuming we add a 3Bman or trust Urias to be the FT 3Bman. Our D would improve at 3B and 1B, and no PAs would be lost from Casas or Devers. If we trade Dugo, and don't add an OF'er, we might see this: LF- Yoshida (Duran/Ref) CF- Duran (Rafaela/Abreu) RF- Rafaela/Abreu This would also free up the DH position.

My order might be: Ohtani is out of reach and not a possible Sox signing. Tier A 1. Yamamoto 2. Gray (should be a shorter contract) 3. Montgomery 4. Nola Tier B 5. Snell 6. ERod 7. Bauer Tier C 8. Wacha 9. Imanaga 10. Stroman 11. Giolito Tier D 12. Clevinger 13. Seth Lugo I'm probably forgetting someone. It looks like a deep year for SP'ers and we need 2-3. MAKE IT HAPPEN!

Casas finished third in the ROY voting, so he does not earn a year of service time, and the Sox get no draft compensation.

I see a gaps between 4 and 5 and after ERod. I think we need a top 6 SP'er minimum. I'm not sure Bauer could be included.

Who might the be? Mayer, Anthony and Teel are not "overlooked" and likely will not play for BOS in the first half of 2024, if at all in '24. That leaves: 4. Rafaela- could be DA MAN 6. Yorke- not likely 7 & 8. Perales & Wikelman wont join the team in early '24. 12. Abreu- might be DA MAN 13. Drohan- would need a mighty turn around 15. Walter- not likely 21. EValdez- has offensive skills 23. DHam- may not make the 40. 27. Mata- out of options and might surprise from the pen. 29. Guerrero- not likely 35. Scott- not likely 38. Gambrell- a long shot chance.

I'm taking a wait and see approach, this winter. The talk is great, but we heard talk before, and it amounted to squat. I'm not projecting anyone, but this is a rough guideline to what I would be happy with (realistic or not:) A) 2 from this group (pipedream): Kershaw, Yamamoto, Gray, Montgomery, Nola, Snell, ERod and maybe Bauer 1 from the group in A plus one from: Wacha, Stroman and maybe Imanaga, Giolito and Clevinger C) The cheapest from group A plus 2 from group B