moonslav59

I would not have been against the idea. Maybe they felt Dalbec could get hot and get a slightly better PTBNL.

Some metrics show this is not true. Devers has shown signs of improvement and then relapsed, at least twice. DRS -9 in '23 -6 in '22 (improved from '21) -13 in '21 -5 in '19 (improved from '18) -11 in '18 -5 in '17 UZR/150 -11.5 -5.2 +2,4 -10'6 -5.8 -1.9 -2.2 OAA shows he's worse... -9 in '23 worst in MLB -9 in '22 2nd worst -14 in '21 worst +17 in '19 2nd best -4 in '18 was 28th out of 38 -9 in '17 was 4th worst

He's not going anywhere.

We get 3 hits in an inning and don't score. They get 3 hits all game and score.

Yes, the AL with 9 DRS to 7 by Ad. Garcia. Weird how Tatis has 29 in the NL with the next NL RF'er with 2! OAA shows a different story: 11 Tatis 5 four players 4 three players 3 two players 2 seven players 1 twelve players, including Duvall and Dugo Dugo leads the AL in UZR/150 at 10.5 (5th in MLB).

Abreu and Rafaela will be given a chance. I don't see anyone saying otherwise. Should they both be handed separate FT jobs for 2024, right now? That is a debate. I think letting the two fight for one slot: CF, while giving Abreu the back up RF and maybe LF job, when not playing CF should give both plenty of opportunity to play enough to both earn a FT job during 2024. If Dugo and Duran are playing so well, there is a squeeze, then trade Dugo or Duran (and/or Ref.)

It would make sense to have Devers learn 1B during the winter. IMO.

Duran is better than Yoshida in LF, and that is not an assumption. The only reason I am talking about improving the D, is because our D is crappy, and there is a way to do it, significantly for free. My position is all about pitching, and allowing our pitchers to do better by improving the D without spending a cent or trading anyone. I'm not saying Casas will get better, but he has one year in the bigs. Yoshida not only sucked on D, he also looked like he ran out of steam on O, too. DH'ing may improve our LF D and his offense. I'm all for letting Devers play 1B, when Casas sits, but I'll never be for signing Chapman over a SP. It's not a bad position to hold.

All he needs is MLB to change the rule to force teams to play a reverse shift.

Actually, not all teams do play the same brutal schedule as the Sox. Yes, same amount of games in about the same amount of days, but not the same brutal schedule, no.

Yes, but using the BAbip against him without context seemed to be hinting at him not being as good as he might be. An .890 OPS is probably his ceiling and not what we should expect off 77 PAs. I'm not saying you were projecting .690 due to is BAbip, but I felt that BAbip needed context. He got off to a good start, and it's not all luck.

It was a disappointing season, for sure.

Like I said, maybe it wasn't a formal offer, so nobody is lying, because the amount was "floated."

Duran nin LF does improve his D and our LF D.

Indeed. This all requires almost everyone to stay healthy, especially Story at SS. The chances everyone does the same or better is never something to plan on. I get that. We do have OF depth, despite losing Duvall and moving Yoshida to DH. We don't really have anyone who looks to regress terribly due to age. C Wong 27/McGuire 28 1B Casas 23/Devers 26 2B Reyes 29/Urias 26/EValdez 24 SS Story 30 (Reyes 29/Urias 26) 3B Devers 26 (Yrias 26) LF Duran 26/ Refsnyder 32 CF Rafaela 22/Abreu 24 RF Dugo 27 (Abreu 24) DH Yoshida 29 The biggest "ifs" are with the pitching staff, but age does not seem to be an issue there, either, except for maybe Martin 37, Jansen 35 and Sale 34. 31 Bernardino 30 Pivetta 29 Schreiber 28 Kelly 27 Crawford, Houck, Whitlock 25 Winckowski & Murphy 24 Bello Add 2 top SP'ers or 1 with 2 other solid SP'ers Add a power RHB (CF/2B or RF, if we trade Dugo or Duran) Add a LH'd RP, if possible Yes, we'd still need a bunch of things to go right, but no key players are expected to decline.

The $300M was reported, long ago. Why wait so long to specifically deny that amount? I'm not saying Betts is lying. I just wonder. There is a chance the $300M was never officially offered, so Betts is telling the truth, but it might have been "floated" as a starting point, and it never got farther than that. Does that change the narrative, much?

Sometimes, I think the BAbip number does not show the whole story. While Abreu (.438) and Rafaela (.346) seem to be lucky, so far, due to their high BAbip, I'm not so sure. They have been hitting the ball hard, so they should have higher BAbips. Sox leaders in LD% 28 Rafaela 27 Refsnyder 26 Duran 23 Duvall & Turner 22 Wong & Abreu 21 Casas & Dugo 20 McGuire 19 Reyes & Chang 18 Story, Devers & Yoshida 17 Valdez 13 Urias Hard Hit % 42 Devers 40 Abreu 39 Chang 37 Casas 36 Dugo 35 Duvall & Duran 32 Wong 31 Story, Reyes & Turner 30 Yoshida & Valdez 26 Refsnyder 23 McGuire 19 Rafaela

Saying someone sucks on D is not saying they suck overall. WAR captures the overall value well enough for me, but we often see players with lower WARs due to poor D and higher WARs due to great D. Devers and Casas would have much better WARs, if they just player average D. They'd have great WARs, if they played great D. Nobody wants to bench them. They are two of our best players, but moving them to different positions might improve their value. I doubt it would hurt it.

I don't disagree, but this costs nothing and brings us from the worst D in MLB to near the middle with no outside additions: C: Wong & McGuire (hopefully, a little better due to added experience) 1B: Casas & Devers as back-up (hopefully, Casas works on his D like he does on his O, over the winnter.) 2B: Reyes & Urias or EValdez? (Reyes as the FT 2Bman is an improvement over the combined group of 2023. ) 3B: Devers & Urias/Reyes (same) SS: Story & Reyes (HUGE improvement) LF: Duran/Refsndyer platoon (significant improvement with no Yoshida) CF: Rafaela & Abreu (significant improvement) RF: Dugo & Abreu (same) I see improvements at 4-5 positions, including all up the middle ones. I see close to the same at 1B, 3B, RF and maybe C and 2B. Is that enough to boost the current pitching and incoming ones?

Well, Betts said he never saw a $300M offer, so this would have been one. Would $299M/10 have been "lowballing?"

We had a bunch of really good half seasons from several SP'ers, this year. Nobody put together a full season of consistent good pitching. Bello 3.15 ERA in 15 GS from 4/29 to 7/26 Sale 3.16 in 15 GS from 4/30 to 9/28 Pivetta 3.22 in 8GS & 13 long relief outings from 6/18 to 9/29 Paxton 3.36 in 15 GS from 5/12 to 8/10 Crawford 4.19 in 16 GS 6/20 to 9/18 Just enough to get our hopes up, briefly- some of us "losers" anyway.

Maybe it was $295M/10, and nobody is lying.

Casas should get a longer chance to see if his defense can improve. We know pretty much what Devers can do, although he has looked okay, at times. It can't hurt to try and fix the D, as long as it doesn't mess up the O or take away resources needed for added pitching.

That was fun to watch.

Senior, maybe.