moonslav59

Rangers to the show!

Agreed. Plus, the "right teams" are winning! LOL!

That doesn't mean he was there for the taking. My guess is DD would match or top a few levels of bidding for a guy he wanted. It's his MO. He gets what he wants, and he usually wants the right players.

Loving this Rangers-Astros game!

Bloom couldn't outbid DD for a box of popcorn.

Some good stuff and a nice summary of what we have and need. The ending... Despite all the uncertainty, there are many things to like about this Boston club. They just went 78-84 in the toughest division in the league, with a run differential of -4. It would only take modest improvements to get them into contention for a playoff spot. Perhaps a new hire would like to take a year to get more looks at young players like Duran, Rafaela, Abreu, Anthony, Teel, Mayer and Yorke. There’s plenty of money coming off the books after 2024, with Sale, Jansen, Martin, Pivetta and Verdugo all potential free agents. Maybe some of those guys end up getting moved this winter, freeing up roster space for younger guys. They need help at catcher and in the middle infield, but there aren’t obvious solutions available in free agency and the Sox have possible long-term solutions in the pipeline. All things considered, the ship isn’t in terrible shape. But as of right now, it’s unclear who is steering it, which direction they’re going or how fast they’ll be allowed to head there. There’s plenty of fog on the horizon but perhaps things will clear up soon.

This was about the Kike extension given, last summer. Many felt it was a good deal for what we expected Kike to give us in CF: Near GG defense Maybe a .725-.775 OPS. There were not many FA CF'ers in that following winter market, so many of us felt it was a pretty good deal for the team. Red was dead set against it, so we asked him who was a recent signing at $10M that was better, or who he felt we could get for $10M that winter. We got not answer. It's easier to not be wrong as often, when you don't ever back up your position with real suggested solutions. BTW, last winter's CF signings: $40M x 9 Judge $20M x 8 Nimmo $17.5M/1 Bellinger $9M/1 Kiermaier $3M/1 Pillar That's all Spotrac listed as CF signings, last winter. Like we said, there weren't many options for that kind of money. I guess we could have signed notin's guy, Gallo for $10M/1, but he's not a true CF'er. (Neither was Duvall.) Don't get me started on pitchers for $10M/1! LOL!

That's one reason I think we don't touch 2B for '24, unless it's a one year deal. Urias, Reyes and EValdez might work out well. SP SP RHB (CF?) SP LH RP (2B is about 6th on my list.)

They've won so much, they are smug and annoying. I live down here, so I have deal with all the blather. No doubt, winning as much as they have gives the players reason to be confident. I just want tehse fans shut up, and the sooner the better.

A better GM should be reflected in better 2024 rankings.

Why root for a bunch of cheating and smug bastards like the Astros?

No doubt, and like most teams, some hopes are being placed on players returning from injury and returning to glory. We have our fair share of both. We seem to have a bunch of capable players filling 20-21 slots on the 26, but many have at least one serious flaw or lingering question mark (like health.) We don't have many really old players, except for Jansen & Martin. We have a bunch of younger and promising players and prospects that can be added to the mix, but we've all seen what the quantity over quality approach has gotten us. Our positional rankings: 20th: Catcher- Wong and McGuire took a dip, at the end of 2023 and are young enough to improve in 2024, but it's hard to know they will or to project it happening. T10th 1B- I think this is one position we can expect a top 10 slot- maybe higher. 29th 2B- Seems to be one area we can improve on, since there is just about no way to go down. I like Urias and Reyes, but expecting more than 20th place might be wishful thinking. EValdez offers some offensive support, but his D is so bad, one wonders if he is meant for 2B. 26th SS- Is likely the one position we can see a major improvement without any additions to the system. It remains to be seen, if it happens. T12th 3B- One can expect a top 10-12 ranking for 2024. 13th LF- It's hard to know, if Yoshida will be out FT DH or not. A Duran- Refsnyder platoon could hit as well as MY and should be better on D. T8th CF- That was with Duvall and Duran. Who plays CF in '24? Rafaela, Duran, bring Duvall back? Abreu? Hard to project. 13th RF- If Dugo returns, we should expect about the same. Abreu could give the slot a boost. T14th DH- No Turner? Yes Yoshida? Maybe close to the same? The big if is the rotation. 27th in IP. 22nd in fWAR, but if we had a better D, maybe it could have been top 20. The pen was 4th in IP and 13th in fWAR. We used 33 pitchers in 2023- 24 for more than 9 IP. We ad 21 over 18 IP. Hopefully we can find 16-18 to give almost all the innings to.

Most likely, unless they were all with LAD and he's be -11. LOL.

The phrase. Maybe I said it another time, of something like it. I hate the Astros. The Texans are growing on me, but I'll never like them more than the Packers. I'm Bucks all the way. No issues with the Rockets. I loved Dream and Sam Cassell.

You can have the last word.

Go Rangers! (I'm not sure I ever uttered those words before.)

Could this be soxprospects.com's next top 20? 1. Anthony 2. Mayer 3. Teel 4. Cespedes 5. Bleis 6. Rafaela 7. Wikelman 8. Yorke 9. Abreu 10. Perales 11. Zanetello 12. Monegro 13. Joh Garcia 14. Castro 15. EValdez 16. Anderson 17. Meidroth 18. Romero 19. Drohan 20. Gambrell (Drohan?)

2023 wOBA (490 players with 80+ PAs) 18. Abreu .375 33. Casas .367 42. Devers .359 58. Duran.354 79. Duvall .347 91. Turner .346 122. Yoshida .339 161. EValdez .328 189. Dugo .322 214. Reyes .315 219. Ref .314 297. Urias .298 321. McGuire .293 328. Wong .292 348. Rafaela .287 447. Story .249

318 MLB players had 500+ PAs since 2022. Here are how some place in OPS: 6. Betts .932 11. Soto .893 17. Devers .864 22. Casas .842 25. JD .836 30. Schwarber .822 39. Bogey .811 40. Suzuki .811 63. J Turner .795 79. Yoshida .783 113. Duvall .760 116. Renfroe .759 117. Duran .758 146. Dugo .738 .733 is the median OPS 172. T Pham .724 175. Beni .723 181. L Urias .712 208. Arroyo .696 224. Story .685 256. Vaz .661 270. Chavis .648 285. Kike .639

It's interesting to note, Cora once called Kike the best defensive 2Bman in MLB, then moved him to CF. Once Kike established himself as one of the best defensive CF'ers in MLB, he moved him to SS. Once Kike established himself as one of the worst defensive SSs in memory, he moved him to LA.

Also... Dominican Professional Baseball League (LIDOM) The 2023-2024 LIDOM season began this past Thursday. Enmanuel Valdez appeared in three games for Toros del Este and went 1 for 5 with two RBIs, one run scored, five walks, and two strikeouts. The 24-year-old second baseman was also hit by a pitch on four separate occasions, leading to a sky-high .714 on-base percentage so far.

SP's breakdown of this week in the AFL: Boston's contingent of prospects had its fingerprints all over this successful run for Glendale. Corey Rosier led the way offensively, going 6 for 14 (.375) with two doubles, two RBIs, six runs scored, two stolen bases, five walks, and four strikeouts in four games. The left-handed hitting outfielder is currently batting a stout .333/.424/.412 with a team-leading five stolen bases in his first 13 games (59 plate appearances) with the Scorpions. He has already seen playing time at all three outfield positions. Tyler McDonough has made his impact felt at the plate as well. Despite being a late addition to Glendale's roster, the versatile 24-year-old reached base in 10 of his 24 plate appearances last week while swiping three bags. He broke out for three doubles, one walk, and three runs scored (including the game-winner) as part of a come-from-behind, 10-9 victory over the Salt River Rafters this past Thursday. Nathan Hickey enjoyed less success as far as offensive production is concerned. The 23-year-old backstop went 3 for 15 (.200) with two runs scored, three walks, and six strikeouts to drop his slash line on the season to just .182/.386/.182 in 10 games (44 plate appearances). Defensively, he has thrown out two of 11 potential base stealers while splitting time behind the plate with Kevin Parada of the Mets and Andrew Cossetti of the Twins. Turning to the pitching, Bryan Mata made a pair of scoreless relief appearances for the Desert Dogs on Monday and Thursday of last week. The 24-year-old righty allowed just one hit and did not issue a walk while striking out five of the eight batters he faced over 2 1/3 innings of work. A member of Boston's 40-man roster, Mata now owns a 6.75 ERA with eight strikeouts to zero walks in five outings (5 1/3 innings) this fall. On the topic of relievers, fellow right-handers Felix Cepeda, Wyatt Olds, and Christopher Troye each appeared in two games for Glendale as well. Cepeda, 23, allowed two runs (one earned) on two hits and two walks in two innings. Olds, 24, put up zeros in his two outings and picked up the winning decision by tossing a 1-2-3 ninth inning in Saturday's extra-innings victory over the Mesa Solar Sox. Troye, also 24, went 2 for 2 in save opportunities without giving up a run. Zach Penrod, meanwhile, got start for the Desert Dogs in their matchup against the Solar Sox at Sloan Park on Saturday night. The 26-year-old lefty went three innings, allowing two runs (one earned) on three hits (one home run), two walks, and two strikeouts. Of the 53 pitches he threw, 31 went for strikes and nine elicited a swing-and-miss. Through three starts this fall, Penrod is 1-1 with a 1.64 ERA and 11 strikeouts to seven walks over 11 innings in which he has held opposing hitters to a .184 batting average against.

He did play 300 more innings than Kike to squeak by him -14 to -13, but we don't need a crappy SS. Odds are he'd be okay at 2B, but I'm not sure he's all that much better than Urias. If 2021 to 2022 is the time period of worth: fWAR 5.2 Rosario 4.4 Urias OPS .766 Urias .722 Rosario

3 major trades from Nov 2015 to Dec 2016, then none for almost 8 years is a pretty notable change. The Price contract was an outlier, and I agree that the spending after 2020-2021 has been pretty much in line with past seasons. (The bigger change has been that more teams now have bigger spending owners.) IMO, I love the idea of building and maintaining a solid farm system and pipeline, but that priority should never be the be-all-end-all priority. 8 years is long enough to wonder, if we will ever trade major prospects, again.

Agreed. At some point, we should pull off a big prospect trade- not just for the sake of doing it, but to provide a big boost to the current team, while allowing the budget more space to fill other needs. We haven't really had a bigger trade than #6 Beeks for Nate and #9 Aldo Ramirez for Schwarber since the Sale trade in December of 2016! We are coming up on 8 years!!! (Before Sale, we traded for Kimbrel and Pomeranz within 13 months of that trade.) I think it goes beyond spending. We went over the tax line (barely) in 2022 and came close in 2023. Yes, several teams have passed us, and we need to stay a pretty big spender, for a while, anyway, to reach a competitive level, but without some major trades, I don't see us having the ability to sufficiently upgrade 4-6 positions on a tihg budget like $50M, this winter. We've spent years trying to build up the farm and 40 man roster with capable players and prospects. We seem pretty deep, now, although some might argue deep with mediocrity, and they may not be far off base. Here's the thing, teams will trade for mediocrity or "capable." Teams will like our prospects. IMO, we can now afford a 3 or 4 for one deal. We can trade one top prospect and a good second tier one or two for someone who is proven and has several years of team control. We'd still have 2-3 very promising top prospects left over with more promising ones on the rise, behind them. IMO, if we want to compete in '24, we will need to make one big trade, and I'm not talking Dugo, Drohan, Hickey and Walter for a pitcher. Then, we need to spend at least right up to the tax line, but going to the $20M tax line without going over could very well do the trick. Big trade +$69M = competitive team in '24. Does JH agree? Will he do it, if he does?