moonslav59

Not "proof" to me.

His drop off, at the end of 2023 confirms your position. IMO, he remains extremely promising, and is deserving of being handed a slot in the 2024 rotation, but he has more to prove. Bello started 28 games and gave only 157 IP. His last 13 starts: 5.58 ERA 5.31 FIP .880 OPS Against Last 14 starts: 5.49/5.35/.887 Last 20 starts: 4.36/4.48/.767 Casas has a great approach, and other than his defense, he seems to have "proven" he can hit in the bigs. (Again, IMO.)

You know this for a fact? Bloom chose to be at #12? Spotrac has us $17M under the #10 team. We'd have gone over the tax line to get to #10.

Well, why not say "Bloom specialized in $220M last place finishes," which he did in 2 of the 4 seasons, here. Either way, to me, it's only about what you have to spend, each year, how many slots you have to fill and how many of those slots are major weakness areas. IMO, he had about 18-21 slots to fill on the 2020 roster with, effectively, less than zero to spend, if you count all the salary lost vs what he had to spend, but okay count the toal at less than $20M. He did not have all that much to spend on 2021, but he had lessened the "open slots" to about 12-14, despite hardly spending anything going into the winter before 2021. (He added Pivetta, Whitlock, Arroyo and others for just about nothing.) It was only before 2022, when his spending budget increased significantly, but with still so many slots to fill, he had to choose where to skimp (Pen in 2022 and SP in 2023.) To me, we have about 3-4 major slots to fill, this winter. We could probably use 4-6, but only 3-4 are crucial. That is a major shift from past winters, IMO. With close to $50M to spend up to tax line 1, we are in better shape than at an time since pre 2019. If we can spend up to the second line and/or decide we can trade a top prospect, we should be able to fill 4-6 slots.

I fully agree. I'd actually be bummed, if we spend over $30-35M/yr on him.

You think Duran has "proven himself?"

I know I've read several quotes on this, but here is what I found with a google search, today: https://nesn.com/2023/06/red-soxs-alex-cora-explains-scheduled-rafael-devers-rest-day/ If I am wrong about his rigidity, then my issues with the chosen days off will no longer be something I disagree on. I still think 3-7 days off is probably more than enough for almost all players, but it's no big deal, to me, if they get 8 or 9. Over 9 needs some 'splainin'.

One year is "specializing in...?"

Depends. If we trade Mayer for an top pitcher, we could use a 2Bman for longer.

I don't, especially when someone says something like, "We should trade Dugo for a good SP."

Cora has said he schedules days off over a week in advance. It seems weird that we have been talking about this issue for months, and you only now question whether he even does it.

Indeed, but as it turned out, the additions to the offense were needed and also not really enough. The additions to the pen were needed and that worked out well. The bottom line: there just wasn't enough funds to fill all our needs. More on starting pitching seems to be what everyone agreed on, and the big swing and miss on Kluber was the big mistake. As it turned out, Yoshida did not do all that well, so using his money for pitching and a defensive SS might have made a significant difference, but we had no way of knowing Duran would bounce back, and our OF offense would improve by over 100 points. The winter budget was large, but we were also in need of replacing Bogey, JD, Nate, Wacha, Hill, Vaz and Strahm. The other point was that several other teams passed us in the salary rankings, besides our major winter budget.

I don't think it is near that number. It seems most of his posts are directed at lowering overly lofty and optimistic Sox fans' hopes.

I think he still believes what he said was true, but had to retract it, so fans would not be so pissed. He did go beyond just a retract.

I think he's trying to bait us into arguing about how s***** it must be playing for a lowly team like the Sox.

It won’t matter if the bid is highest.

So, if the wallet opens wide, the next GM is a hero. IMO, the best case scenario, while staying realistic, is that the new GM is bolder, and JH opens his wallet to the second tax line. We trade for someone like Burnes. We sign Yamamoto (or Bauer/Nola/Gray) We sign Duvall. We trade Dugo and Urias for a better 2Bman. We sign a LH RP'er. (I'm all for getting 3 SP'ers, but two top ones would be awesome.) Our deep pen can now handle two SP'ers from Pivetta, Sale, Houck or Crawford going 4.2 IP per start. The offense may need help at the deadline, or if there is money left over, this winter, maybe we get another big RHB somehow (other team's salary dump trade?)

I do, too, but I'm guessing that might be bolder than they will end up doing. Also, I just listed the SP. I think we also sign Duvall and trade Dugo for a LH RP'er or 2Bman.

Today's awards: Rookie of the Year: Yoeilin Cespedes (.346/.392/.560, ranking second, eighth and first, respectively, among system hitters with more than 150 plate appearances) Comeback Player of the Year: Grant Gambrell (620 days between games) Maybe he and Wink will make that Beni trade look like a real good one. Breakout Player of the Year: Roman Anthony (He started the year at No. 11 in the SoxProspects.com rankings, but wasn't on the radar in Top 100 lists. He is now No. 2 on SoxPropsects and is in Baseball America's top 20, sitting at No. 19.

I am thinking the best we can hope our guys will spend on are... Gray & Montgomery Maybe Montgomery, Cobb & a big 1 yr deal for Morton. I'm still hoping we trade for one and then sign Gray & Montgomery or Gray & Morton.

I think Yamo/Nola means one of the two.

If a guy is "banged up," why schedule a day off in 10 days? It's not the 2 days off that bugs me: it's the inflexibility of the match-up on that scheduled day off. It goes against the very metrics they preach. Unless they have some data that shows this works better, (and they may) I'm sticking to my guns on this. Give a guy a day off around when he needs it ut based on who he is facing in that 2-4 day window when rest is needed most- not one day, regardless of who the pitcher is. I may be wrong, but I get the feeling, Cora is so rigid on the chosen day, that he'd rest a guy who was 10-12 against the pitcher in the past, just went 4-5 in the last two games and has a 1.000 OPS against that handed pitcher. All because the day was picked 10 days ago.

How about what Dipoto said to the fans, then later apologized for saying it... https://www.seattletimes.com/sports/mariners/jerry-dipoto-tells-mariners-fans-what-they-dont-want-to-hear/

I think it is more likely we sign Yama or Nola than Chapman. We are likely not even looking at adding corner IF'ers.

This would be a major step up, but I'm sticking with the call for 3 significant SP additions, hopefully one and ace, one a #2 or solid #3 type, and the other better than a #5 or how Kluber looked when we signed him. Is it possible? Depends on the budget. Is it likely? I seriously doubt it. 3 solid pitchers added. Bello. Sale/Pivetta as the #5. A major by product would be a most amazing pen with perhaps a revolutionary strength and depth at the long relief part of the pen: Pivetta Crawford Houck Whitlock The 4 short guys would be: Jansen Martin Winckowski Schreiber Depth: Bernardino Kelly Murphy Robertson Walter Mills Mata Weiss Guerrero Gambrell, Drohan, Wikelman, Hagenman (Joely's option declined?)