moonslav59

The Clerk assured her it was clean.

Maybe deferring pay can get them under the 2nd tax line.

I wasn't talking AAV, and I wasn't implying we would or could pivot to signing both Monty and Snell. I was just pointing out the types of players one could get for $400M. There comes a point where the price gets so high, alternative additions look better. I know AAV counts, bigtime, and $400M/12 vs $200M/6 + $200M/6 would kill our tax budget for 6 years, but to JH, $400M is $400M, or whatever absurd amount Yamo ends up getting. I really like Yamo. The age 25 thing grabs a hold of me. I'm just saying, there comes a point where the price is just too absurd, yet we will blame JH (or Breza) for not going higher. Of course, a good plan B could quite the restless fans, but it looks like any plan B will get absurd, quickly, too. I had hopes, last winter, when it appeared we had enough fund to add a top SP'ers and more. Bloom chose to spend on the pen and offense, but also the absurd signing costs of Bogey and other exposed bad timing on our owner's part. (Not that salaries haven't been spiking before 2022-2023, but deals like Castillo and Gausman look like steals, now. Now, it's either too late, or we need JH to become an absurd spender, too. I think I know what the answer is.

I'm not sure how much different these past 4 years are from 2012-2015. Some view the 2013 ring season as a fluke. Once could view 2021 as one, too. 69, 97, 71, 78 were the win totals from '12-'15 65*, 92, 78, 78 were the win totals from '20-'23 (*2020 pro-rated) This isn't the first time we have had a long stretch of questionable commitment to winning. After the big Dodger salary dump trade, who did we replace AGon, Beckett and CC with? Vic, Napoli & Dempster. At the time, many felt that wasn't even a half-hearted try at building a winning team. I'm not saying history will repeat itself, and ship will be righted, but I don't think we should use a broad brush to paint the 2004-2018 era as all glory and no suffering times. This post is not intended to encourage anyone into thinking JH will do what it takes2, as he did after 2015. I have no idea what he is thinking. I have no optimism he will re-commit himself and the organization to winning. I'm optimistic about the promising farm and decent foundation. In a league that is perhaps as balanced as it has been a long time, I could see us getting relevant, again with just 3 major additions (SP1, SP2/3 and 2B w big RH bat,) and we seem to have the budget space and trade capital to make it happen, but I see no signs it will get done. Winning the Yamo sweepstakes would be a major step forward, but that seems like a small chance. I'm not sure Monty, Imanaga and Merrifield is enough to even make us a favorite to be a WC team. A big trade would have to happen, and that would weaken the longer term outlook, in terms of young, low cost talent joining the team in the next few years. I'm not optimistic, at all. I'm barely hopeful, but history could possibly repeat itself.

There aren't many top alternatives. Maybe Bellinger to the Mets or Jays, if they miss out, plus a 2nd or 3rd tier SP. Kershaw to LAD. Does Hader count as a major score? Snell or Monty to a team that falls short on Yamo. Then what? There are at least 6-7 teams looking to make a major addition and only 4-5 high impact FAs available. Even 2 pitchers from the next tier falls way short, IMO. Maybe, Imanaga does better than expected, then there are... Stroman Giolito Clevinger Someone will be left out in the cold. It's easy to imagine it being us. It's been out M.O. for 5 years. The trade market might blow up, after these guys are all signed.

I like Monty slightly better than Snell, but I would not call him "full throttle." Monty and Burnes, yes. Monty and Framber, yes. Monty and Imagana, not really.

If we lose out, yes. No matter what we did, if we don't sign him, fans will bitch about not doing enough. If it turns out we were close in the bidding but did not go more, JH is going to get the blame. BTW, it was mostly his fault under Bloom, too.

"Pending Dorks of the Week."

The Yankees are in decline. They have Soto for one year. Their budget is a mess. They are loaded with injury prone players- more than even the Sox are. Their farm is not what it used to be. They are an aging bunch of overpaid players who haven't even been to the WS in 2 decades. Most of their best players are old. How many of these guys are their top 10-15 players? Age 35 LeMahieu $15M x 3 34 Rizzo $20M x 1 34 Stanton $25M x 5 33 Cole $36M x 6 31 Judge $40M x 8 31 Rodon $27M x 5 31 Trevino 1 more arb 30 Holmes last arb Last arbs: Torres, Dugo, Kahnle 7 Loaisiga Maybe they decide to spend like the Mets, but they've held off spending real big for a long time. MLB Pipeline ranked the Yanks farm #21. (Sox 16th mid 2023.) Bleacher Report 2024: Yanks 19th and Sox 3rd.

We don't know how the Sox-Yamo meeting went. Maybe we pulled out all the stops: maybe not. I don't disagree on Sox fans needing a big splash to ease the unrest. The Devers extension was not enough.

So, Wacha got $16M x 2 (KCR). Martin Perez $8M/1 w PIT.

I agree. I think he is worth the risk, but I also know that money spent on him will not be spent on others, later. We pretty much know JH won't ever have a limitless budget.

So, if Cohen let's his GM go to $400M, not allowing Brez to match or top that shows a lack of commitment to success? We can maybe get Monty and Snell for that. Maybe Monty, Imanaga & Stroman. Certainly, we can get Monty, Imanaga, Garver and Merrifiled. The thing is, we need more than just Yamo to win in 2024. Adding just Yamo & Merrifield will not be enough. We'd need a trade, too- or more.

I guess one could be viewed as forcing on just what is happening in the off season, and the this one is about how the 2024 team outlook is. Both are related to each other, and often are on the same topics. It would not be the first time.

You hear a lot about the Japan leagues being at a level between AAA and MLB. Imagine a AAA pitcher with an ERA of about 1.50 (about what Yamo has had in Japan) over the last 3 years being signed to these numbers. This guy does really seem like the real deal, but man, what a huge risk a team will be taking. I think he's worth it, but at what point does it become too much? One could argue, the bidding is already past that point, but such is the nature of top FA bidding wars.

My guess is he has been thinking about it for a long time, starting before he visited teams. He may have already had a team he wanted to play with and was seeing if someone could talk him out of it. He may have had a list of 2-3 faves, all along. Maybe 1-2 have dropped out of the bidding. Total guess, but it's probably down to 2 teams, now.

Certainly we have had major issues in that area. I was speaking more to the claims that FAs are avoiding us, because we don't look like we have a winning outlook. I'm not saying we do, but I don't see the NYM, NYY or SFG as being any better on those fronts. Yankee fans and media have been all over Yankee management for a decade. The SFG have made great efforts to bring in top talent, but seem to come up short every time. The Mets have spent like maniacs, but sucked in '23 and traded away 2 of MLB's best pitchers this past summer. I was only speaking in the context of these 4 teams, seemingly the finalists on Yamo.

One area of hope for the Sox is the farm. I've mentioned, before how we have not traded a top 6 prospect since Moncada and Espinoza in 2016. (We traded #6 Beeks for Nate in '18 and #9 Aldo Ramirez for Schwarber in '21.) We drafted a lot of high schoolers for several years, so the wait has been prolonged. The rise of some of DD's prospects has been surprising in some ways, but we witnessed a long drought of high impact prospects from the Devers call up in the summer of 2017 to the call ups of Casas and Bello in 2022 and 2023. That's about 5 years with the best homegrown prospect being Houck. (One could count Whitlock- the Rule 5 guy, I guess.) So, aside from Whitlock and Houck in '21, it was pretty barren, here is what we have seen and can expect to see, starting in 2022: Graduated in 2022: Bello, Crawford, Duran, Winckowski, Wong 2023: Casas, Bernardino, EValdez, Murphy, Kelly 2024 (expected: ) 4. Rafaela 8. Abreu 11. Fitts 21 DHam, 24 Slaten (Rule 5), 28 Mata (out of options), 26 Guerrero, 32 Walter 36 Gambrell, 40 Scott, 40 H Olivarez, 50 Rosier 2025 (some may be called up in '24) 1. Anthont 2. Mayer 3. Teel 6. Yorke 9. Wikelman 13. Meidroth 16. Hickey 19. Jordan, 23 Dobbins, C Troye, I Coffey, Liu 2026 (some may e called up in '25) 4. Bleis 7. Perales 14. Castro 17. Paulino 18. Romero 20. Monegro, 26 E R-C, 27 Bastardo, 29 A Hoppe, Rogers, C Coffey, Penrod, K Campbell Later than 2026: 10. Cespedes 12. Zanetello 15. Joh. Garcia 22. A Anderson, 30 Alcantara, F Arias, Brannon, Paez, Yuten, Ravelo, Cepeda, Sena, Riemer Of course, many of these guys won't ever make the bigs. Many more will but won't impress, but I like our odds on a few making a significant impact in the next 1-2 years. I'm not pencilling in a single prospect, but I am near certain a few will be very good to excellent.

I thought he'd announce by tonight, but who knows. As long as one team is still saying, "Let me get back to you," he will likely wait it out.

I get that. Really quire astonishing. We have the rings, and to me, the Yanks are trending downwards. I see us all pretty close to even, going forward.

The Mets traded them away. Texas did not. I’m not getting the comp.

Machado was not part of the plan.

Of course. I’m just not buying the idea that the Mets, Yanks and Giants look any more like future winners than us. If anything, we MIGHT look better positioned.

Been that way for a long time

You really think could not have gotten more as a FA?