moonslav59

Signing Montgomery, Lugo and maybe Duvall and a decent LH'd RP'er should make us noticeably better, but IMO, not by enough to make us near a top contender status. Snell, Monty, Duvall and LRP, more so. I'd love to see Yamamoto, Snell & Duvall.

Easily? They first have to learn how to beat us, but the way we have been playing, we may beat ourselves enough time to hand it to them.

Duvall is 2.2 in less than half a season played, this year.

See my list with Bloom guys highlighted in red. (Wink & Wong did not make the list.) Yes, a lot of mediocrity and slightly better, but no real major find or get. Perhaps Story could have been without injury. Perhaps Duvall. Kike was one and done. Hill did fine, but he doesn't jump out at us.

The whole quantity vs quality thing- I agree. It's not just 2023, either. I try to convince myself this is all part of a plan- I like plans- to build the foundation, but I'm nos so sure, anymore. 2020-2023 highest fWARs on Sox 6.0 Bogey '22 4.8 Devers '22 4.3 Bogey '21 4.2 Devers '21 4.0 Kike '21 2.8 JD '21 2.6 Devers '23 and counting 2.6 Verdugo '23 and counting 2.4 Story '22 in just over half a season 2.3 Duran '23 in 102 gms 2.2 Duvall '23 in less than half a season 2.2 Renfroe '21 1.9 Verdugo '21 1.9 Verdugo '20 in short season 1.7 Vaz '22 in 84 gms 1.7 Casas '23 1.7 Turner '23 and counting Pitching 5.7 Nate '21 3.9 ERod '21 2.3 Pivetta '21 2.3 Houck '21 (and people wonder why we won in '21!) 1.8 Sale '23 1.8 Hill '22 1.8 Schreiber '22 1.7 Bello '23 and counting 1.6 Whitlock another '21 1.6 Crawford '23 and counting 1.5 Wacha '22 1.5 Pivetta '22 1.4 Whitlock '22 1.3 Barnes '21 1.3 Bello '22 1.3 Martin '23 1.1 Jansen '23 1.1 Richards '21 1.1 Paxton '23 and counting (backwards?)

He'll be 31 years old in 2028. He'll be 36 in his last year of the deal. With inflation the way it is, there is no telling what his value might be in 5, 7 or 8 years. He's just now entering peak prime, although his numbers did not jump. OPS+ 134 in '21 142 in '22 125 in '23

Sox Pitching Prospects by Current Ranking: 7. Perales A+ 20 (looking steady) 8. Wikelman AA 21 (may rise some) 11. Drohan AAA 24 (will drop) 13. Walter AAA 27 (aging out) 21. Mata AAA 24 (can't stay healthy) 25. E R-C 20 A- (2.65 ERA) 27. Fernandez AAA 25 (will drop) 29. Monegro A+ (May be a surprise: .527 OPSA) 31. Guerrero AAA 23 (may be a decent RP'er: .527 OPSA) 32. Dobbins AA 24 (3.77 ERA/.653 OPSA ) Rise? 33. Hoppe AA 24 34. Bastardo AA 22 (.678 OPSA) stay even? 35. Rogers A+ 22 (.659 OPSA) even? 38. Robertson AAA 25 39. Troye AA 24 (.622 OPSA) 40. Paez A- 19 (.613 OPSA)- Room to improve at his age 43. Gambrell AAA 25 (.705 OPSA- I think will jump 15+ slots) 48. I Coffey AA 23 (.680 OPSA- should rise) 49. F Encarnacion FCL 18 (dropping but still young) 51. Liu AA 24 (dropping) 57. Zeferjahn AA 24(dropping) 58. M Duffy 21 A- 59. Politi 26 AAA

Sorry for sounding testy.

We really could have used the leadership of Bogey, JD, Nate and Vaz, right?

Had we had just 2 from Nate, Wacha and Eflin, we'd be in the race, right now, so I don't think it's a great leap to think we can strike gold, this winter.

To keep Red happy: Sox -5.0 from TOR & TEX (loss in progress) +1.5 NYY

You are counting the trade and signing. This is about just trades. We were not extending Betts, so it's not like you can count that, anyway. That's like saying the Sale trade sucked, when it was a great one. It was the extension that sucked.

Hard to get a read on what JH is thinking, let alone feeling.

I figure we have about $48M to spend and not go over the tax line, but we have gone over the line as soon as 2022. Maybe he'll spend up to $68M to avoid going over the second line. If you believe like I do, that we really only need 3 major additions for 2024, he may not need to spend more than $48-68M, this winter. (Note: he spent about $80M AAV, last winter.) $25-30M per on an ace $15-20M on a solid #2 $8-18M on OF'er Of course, I could be wrong.... again.

maybe 5.

Not sure how BB would have done with a checkbook

No doubt in my mind: No JH- no rings. (Okay, maybe one with someone else willing to spend, but does "someone else hire Theo?)

That 2018 team certainly had plenty of FAs, some pretty highly paid (Price & JD,) but the rest was mostly traded with homegrown stock or homegrown studs like: Betts Bogey JBJ Beni Vaz Devers (Traded for: Sale, ERod, Nate, Porcello, Kimbrel, Kelly, Holt, Nunez, Pearce, Hembree) It looks like we need 2-3 big signings to get close to competitive. Sounds doable, but we'll see,

He made a lot of money, when we were winning, too. I think he'll spend big, again, soon, but who knows. I don't blame anyone for being cynical, especially right now.

SAL won 8-3 as Soto pitched 1 hit ball over 4IP (1BB and 6K) 3-4 Asigen (3 doubles) 2-3 Anderson 2-4 Garcia (w 3b) 3-4 Yuten GRE lost 5-3 1-3 Paulino w BB POR continues losing, this time 3-2 2-4 Jordan WOO is winning 3-2, late Murphy 4.1, 3H, 1ER, 2BB, 7K DHam 1-2 w 2BB and his 54th SB Scott 0-2 w 2BB Zimmer homered

Yes, mediocre, despite some things working out better than expected (Paxton, Crawford, Wink, Casas, Duran, our catchers- and a few more) and some worse (Whitlock, Houck, middle IF, Kluber and a few more.) I think we improved the foundation we will pass on to 2024. It's better than the one 2020 passed on to 2021, and the one 2021 passed on to 2022. To me, we have 3-4 major needs for 2024: SP 1 SP 2 OF Maybe LH'd RP We had like 20 slots open before 2020, 14 before 2021, 11 before 22 and 8 before 2023. I'm not sure how many prospects will be helping in 2024, but Rafaela and Abreo look very promising. Maybe EValdez and some surprises?

realistically, we are toast.

Most are minor or pushes, but if you throw those out, I see: Plus: 1. Pivetta 2. Ottavino & German (Denlinger) 3. Schwarber 4. McGuire 5. Abreu & EValdez (or incomplete) 6. Reyes (or minor deal) Count it as 5 wins Incomplete: 1. Wink & Gambrell 2. Rosier 3. Urias Minus 1. JBJ, DHam & Binelas 2. RHern Just 2 clearly bad trades, but I'm sure many will list Dugo/Wong, here for 3. I left the Betts trade unscored, because it was forced and in some regards a good deal, when you consider 1 year of Betts for 10 years of Dugo+Wong.

Sounds familiar. Someone reposts something, then disavows it's meaning. At least comment on what you don't agree with when reposting, please.

That sure looks like the season-ender.