moonslav59

I see him as another DH/LF type.

Soler is a nice RH'd bat but is another DH/LF type we don't need.

I found these odds on Aug 30th: Gunnar Henderson (BAL): -700 Triston Casas (BOS): +750 Tanner Bibee (CLE): +1500 Masataka Yoshida (BOS): +1500 Josh Jung (TEX): +4500

BTV accepted Dugo for Dubon & Javier, but I doubt the Astros could keep themselves from laughing at that offer. Dubon and Urquidy was accepted, too.

I'd like to think our defense could get up to 15th or so, with no major additions made, and without hurting the offense, but who knows? There really is no going down in the rankings from 2023. OAA 30. BOS -50 29. CIN -36 28. MIA -29 27. LAA -20 26. OAK -19 25. CWS -17 24. BAL -17 23. NYM -13 We were worse than the #27 and #28 teams combined! We were worse than the #23, 24 and 25 teams combined! Here is a breakdown by position: Innings/Player/OAA in 2023 1B: 1037 Casas -10 289 Turner 0 98 Dalbec 0 2B 442 Arroyo -2 357 Valdez -4 209 Urias -3 196 Reyes -2 131 Kike -2 49 Turner -1 (On the surface, Arroyo & Kike's OAA/inning looks better than the others, but not playing Valdez at 2B should make it an overall gain, IMO.) SS 484 Kike -12 314 Story +8 256 Chang +4 208 Reyes +1 90 DHam -2 45 Rafaela -1 (No Kike & DHam turns a net zero SS OAA into a +14 OAA.) 3B 1293 Devers -9 57 Turner -4 44 Urias +1 (Maybe we can get more innings from urias at 3B, somehow. He can, at least, take JT's 57 innings.) LF 713 Yoshida -8 347 Refsnyder -2 173 Duran 0 86 Tapia 0 76 Abreu +1 (Big gains possible, here.) CF 557 Duran 0 478 Duvall -4 117 Rafaela +2 (in very few innings) 87 Kike +1 85 Abreu -1 68 Ref 0 39 Tapia 0 (Depends on how much Rafaela plays in CF) RF 1170 Dugo +1 180 Duvall +1 52 Tapia -1 (May not change much, even if we replace Dugo with Duvall, assuming a re-sign.)

Something we can all agree on!

If Yoshida goes to DH, there is room for all 3. Agreed, if Duvall is added, someone goes, and I think it would be Dugo, with Duran as the second choice. Even if we trade Refsnyder, there is not enough playing time for Duran, Raf, Abreu, Duvall and Dugo. I guess we could start Raf or Abreu in AAA and see what happens, but yes- all 5 on the 26 is not happening. With Yoshida at DH, and Duvall replacing Dugo & Ref, we could make this a rough goal: Innings: LF: 1000 Duran 300 Abreu 100 Yoshida CF 1000 Rafaela 400 Abreu RF 1100 Duvall 300 Abreu Basically, Duran, Rafaela, Abreu and Duvall getting 1000+ innings in the OF, That would be an improvement on D and a dice roll on O.

Agreed. I doubt Nate & Eflin get us to glory in '23. I know you were talking about regular season IP, but I think it is fair to point out the guy pitched 37 IP in the playoffs. That is not a common number for the postseason. He only pitched 22 IP in the '18 playoffs. This should count for something, when we are talking about his time pitching. (I get it: if we miss the playoffs, because he misses time in the regular season, what good is his playoff resume.) BTW, 144 IP would be second on the '23 Sox and just 13 IP below #1.

Risky on O, yes. Better on D. My analysis is assuming Dugo in RF, so Duran, Rafaela and Abreu would share 2 OF slots, which is much less risky. (Rafaela is a RHB, too.) Refsnyder and Yoshida offer some back-up in LF, if the offense gets so bad, we need to replace someone, but then the add on D goes away.

37 IP in the playoffs, MAN!!!!

I do think he pitched more innings than you expected from him, after leaving NYY and getting older, along the way. 111 IP '18 (TOR & BOS) + 22 POs= 133 68 IP '19 182 IP '21 + 21 POs= 202 109 IP '22 144 IP '23 (TEX) + 37 POs=181

I'm thinking we should be the teama giving two for one, but this does make some sense.

OK. If people are speculating on how bad our 2024 defense will be, they are assuming certain people will be at certain positions. I'm not even moving anybody to a new position, except Yoshida to DH and giving Duran less time in CF and more in LF. It's basically what our current depth chart shows. Sure, changes may be made at any position, but the foundation we have, now, looks better on D than 2023.

If we add 2-3 SP'ers, our pen will have 8-9 arms that are good neough to not need a lefty replacing them.

I'm more certain or equally so that Devers plays 3B and Casas 1B than Story at SS. My point is that we can improve 4 positions on D without making any roster additions. Whether we do or not, is up to Breslow & Cora.

I think he fully understood what he was getting himself into. I think the top brass hired him, because he shared in their priorities, willingly. He may not have realized how brutal the fans and media could be, but he must have known he'd be the fall guy, if things went south.

I could see that as being true or mostly true. The trade part might have just been a stated guideline that the farm was a high priority but not that any prospect was untouchable.

Before you even took the wrapper off the Bloom toy gift, you wanted to throw it saway. I'm not tryng to bust your balls, but I'm just curious why Breslow, with no GM experience either, is not elicting a similar response with you.

I'm saying, we could have spent more and traded prospects under Bloom, too. I'm not convinced it was his choice to do neither. No, I don't think you need to play pro baseball to be a great GM. I could list a few.

It sure seemed like Bloom was surprised when Bogey bolted, but I'm not convinced. Still, that does seem like that was the plan, when we signed Story- despite my wishes they flip Bogey to 2B.

You don't see an improvement on D at SS, 2B & CF, next year?

Thanks for the thoughtful response. 1. Yes 2 SP'ers, but I'd add "solid & dependable" or three decent & dependable. 2. I'm not sure Breslow will move Story to 2B, and Cora might be the main guy to decide this, but I'm kind of okay with Story at SS (Reyes as sub) and Urias/Reyes/EValdez at 2B to start 2024. 3. If adding Hedges worsens who we sign to pitch, I'd just stick with McGuire and hope Teel jumps levels. 4. Agreed. 5. I think Dugo should go. 6. I'd be fine starting the year with CF: Rafaela/Abreu and RF: Duvall/Abreu 7. Near FT DH. Only play him in LF, if you want to give Raffy a rest at 3B by DH'ing him. 8. Most of our RP'ers do pretty well vs LHBs. I don't see this as a major priority, but still would be helpful.

I fully understand your issue with the idea that our current players will simply just "get better." To assume that can be a big mistake. Duran got better- Casas and Devers did not. Let's just assume nobody gets better or worse and see what we have... That being said, I think you are minimizing the overview of our 2024 defense vs our 2023 defense by just talking Yoshida to DH, as if that's the main improvement. Having Story at SS for a full season is a big plus. Not having Kike at SS for any games makes SS a double plus gain. (It could literally go from worst to first, overnight, with no roster additions.) Yoshida to DH, in theory, improves more than LF. Not only are Duran and Refsnyder better than Yoshida in LF, keeping Duran out of CF, by proxy, improves our CF D, too. If it ends up being Rafaela, it would be a major gain on D. If it's Duvall or Abreu, it should still be an improvement over Duran in CF. More than half our CF innings, this year went to Duran, Refsnyder, Abreu and Tapia. Add Duvall, and it's about 86% of the innings. (14% to Rafaela and Kike.) If we can get 85% of the CF innings to Rafaela and Abreu, I see a big gain on D at a key "up-the-middle" position. I'm not sure a full season of Urias and Reyes at 2B will be an improvement on D, but Arroyo led all Sox players in innings at 2B. E Valdezz was 2nd. I can't imagine the two we have now doing worse than they did. (Arroyo + EValdez had 799 ot 1430 innings at 2B. Add Turner, Wong and Bobby D's totals and it's 854/1430 or 60%.) Why can't 2b be a greater improvement on D than LF? Now, I'm going to go back on my initial promise. I do think Wong can and should improve on defense as he gains experience. It is very common for catchers to improve until at least 30. He was excellent on runner control, but needs to improve on blocking pitches off the mark and maybe how to handle the staff to maximize results. I will not project Casas will improve. I tried that with Dalbec. Better at SS, 2B, LF, CF and maybe C with no new roster additions.

How much tinkering does it really need? I know I've been talking a lot about how much the 40 man roster and farm seem to have been improved, significantly under Bloom, but we still lack excellent and all around players, as well as pitchers that can go 170+ IP, consistently. It seems we have a bunch of decent to good players, some with a major flaw to their game, but still with net plus value. We could obviously use some upgrades at several positions not thought of as "high need areas." With the difference between "fringe contenders," as many probably felt AZ was, all year and at the start of the playoff, and the best of the best not all the wide, do you think it is unreasonable to think we are just 3-4 major additions away from being serious contenders? Maybe two solid and dependable SP'ers, a big RHB at 2B or CF (RF, if we trade an OF'er) and maybe another upgrade somewhere. IMO, getting 3 SP'ers and bringing back Duvall, gets us real close to being serious. Gray Montgomery Morton Duvall I think we can do this and stay below the second tax line, but we may need to trade Dugo, Urias and say bye-bye to Joely.

I guess I have to see it to believe it. They could have done all this under Bloom, too, and talked much of the same talk, all along, except for the "no restraints on spending" part.