moonslav59

As much as I dislike the idea, they probably view 3 slots going to Sale, Houck, Crawford and Pivetta. We might get lucky and see them add 2 solid SP'er and make those 4 fight for 2 slots, with the other going to the pen or on the IL. (Whitlock stays in the pen, forever.)

If we trade Dugo, we will add another OF'er- most likely a RH'd bat like Duvall.

Imagine having 2 new pitchers at 190 or 200+ IP Bello at 175+ and Pivetta and Houck at 150+

Does that mean three pitchers at $10M/1 and Duvall at $28M/3?/B]

That's what scares me. They lie more than truth.

Most games played vs ND: 91 Navy 89 USC 85 Purdue 77 Mich St 71 Pitt 51 Army 49 Northwestern (hardly any after 1976) 43 Michigan (every year from '78-'14) 36 GA Tech (almost all from long ago) 33 Stanford (every year since '97)

ND seemed to resist playing too many teams seen as skimping on academics. Sure, they added Miami and have played USC for a long time, but they seem to favor the Stanfords over the Alabamas, Oklahomas and Ohio States. They did play Big 10 teams, a lot, but mostly Michigan, MSU and Purdue and not Ohio St, Indiana or Illinois, which seemed like nice regional rivalry opportunities. We also joined up with the ACC, which is known for higher academic criteria than most other conferences. The Army, Navy and for a while the Air Force made sense, due to the independent status of these teams. Just a theory on my behalf.

Many teams would. The Marlins might also want Duran or Dugo, but they won't bring back the same return. I could see us trade Duran and E R-C for Garrett. We'd then keep Dugo and re-sign Duvall. vs RHPs: LF: Yoshida (DH?)/Duvall CF: Duvall/Abreu RF: Dugo vs LHPs LF: Refsnyder CF: Rafaela RF: Duvall

It's hard to know about a person's managerial skills. I'd think he might make a great pitching coach.

OBP .372 Refsnyder .367 Casas .355 Turner .350 Yoshida .346 Duran .342 Devers .341 Dugo .337 Duvall .302 Wong Under 200 PAs .429 Abreu 21 .375 Rafaela 8 .353 Urias .340 Reyes .327 McGuire SLG .590 Duvall .508 Devers .495 Casas .482 Duran .482 Turner .481 Yoshida .462 Dugo .408 Wong .611 Abreu .500 Rafaela .408 Reyes .384 McGuire OPS 8+ PAs 1.040 Abreu .927 Duvall .875 Rafaela .862 Casas .850 Devers .836 Turner .828 Duran .813 Yoshida .790 Dugo .748 Reyes .711 McGuire .710 Urias .708 Wong .690 Refsnyder .677 EValdez vs RHPs .943 Duvall .875 Casas .859 Devers .852 Dugo .841 Duran .823 Yoshida .791 Turner .762 Wong .701 Reyes .695 Urias .671 McGuire .470 Refsnyder vs LHPs 1.105 McGuire .964 Turner .878 Duvall .870 Reyes .850 Refsnyder .830 Devers .803 Casas .779 Yoshida .733 Urias .623 Dugo .551 Wong vs LHPs

My idea of Duran and Ref sharing LF is not about great gloves in LF, either, but it is an important. I also think maybe Yoshida's bat suffered from getting tired, so playing him more at DH might make him an even better hitter. I do not think LF D, especially in Fenway is as important as SS, C, 2B, CF and then RF and 3B. I'm okay with neglecting D in LF. Nobody sees Devers or Casas as net negatives, but that doesn't mean looking at ways to improve our D without losing their O should not be dismissed, out of hand. I'm fine with letting Devers and Casas have another year at 3B and 1B. I'm not for taking any spending from pitching to sign Chapman. I think our D will improve enough without making signing a player based on defense a major priority. That is not to say I would say let's ignore D, if we sign another OF'er. To me, improving our rotation needs to take up 90%+ of our resources spent, this winter- either with money spent or who we might trade for.

1. Abreu CF 2. Devers 3B 3. Turner DH 4. Casas 1B 5. Duvall RF 6. Yoshida LF 7. Story 2B 8. McGuire C 9. Urias 2B SP: Bello

It aslo took VTek until his 30's to be considered one of the best defensive catchers in the game.

If the reports are accurate, hell no!

It does not ignore D, at all. It does weight some positions more so than others, but defense is a major part of their WAR. They also count baserunning. Verdugo is ranked 7th on their offense score: 16.3 Duvall 14.2 Casas 13.9 Duran 13.4 Turner 12.1 Devers 6.7 Yoshida 6.2 Verdugo His D is the reason they have him tied with Devers and ahead of the others on this list. It's not his baserunning. Conversely, it is bWAR that ranks Dugo higher based on his O and NOT his D. OWAR 3.6 Devers 2.7 Duran 2.5 Duvall 2.4 Dugo 2.3 Casas & Turner 2.1 Yoshida It's bWAR's O score that has him higher than fWAR, and not the D score.

The Dodgers sure pick some winners. THey are the Raiders of MLB.

He can still improve, especially with getting the best out of our staff, as McGuire needs to do, even more so.

No doubt. Sox OPS Leaders on the Farm: (45+ ABs) 1.056 K Campbell (.500 OBP) .993 Teel (.493 OBP) .983 Cespedes (25 XBHs in 191 ABs) .944 Dalbec (31 HRs) .933 Asencio (.457 OBP) .930 Abreu (22 Hrs and 34 XBHs in 299 ABs) .893 Arias (.440 OBP) .886 Brannon (.583 SLG) .874 Hickey (40 XBHs in 329 ABs) .874 G Rod .869 Rafaela (54 XBHs in 444 ABs and 36 SBs .869 Scott .860 Fitzy .855 EValdez .855 Anthony (40 XBHs in 362 ABs) .847 Musett .844 Salazar .841 Asigen .832 Jordan (47 XBhs in 441 ABs) .828 DHam (32 XBhs and 53 SBs in 348 ABs) .818 RHern (17 Hrs in 286 ABs) .818 Bonaci .815 Joh Garcia .809 Yorke .802 Rosier (48 SBs in 103 gms) .792 Castro .782 Meidroth .770 Sogard .769 Kavadas (.378 OBP)

I agree, and while I do think the Sox top brass expected or hoped for better W-L results in 2023, their eyes have, IMO, always been on improving the foundation of the 26 and the farm more than making the playoffs in 2023. I know some or many disagree, but to me, the foundation of young players has greatly improved from 2020, 2021 and 2022. Many are DD guys, but it seems clar to me, our foundation is much better: Years of control: C: Wong 4+ and McGuire 2 1B: Casas 4+ 2B: Urias 2 and Reyes 3 SS: Story 4 3B: Devers 10 LF: Duran 4+ and Refsnyder 2 CF: Rafaela 5+ RF: Dugo 1 and Abreu 5+ DH: Yoshida 4 and EValdez 4+ (These are just the players with MLB experience, already.) Bello 5 Crawford 4+ Wink 4+ Bernardino 4+ Kelly 4+ Mills 4+ Murphy 4+ Walter 4+ Houck 4 Whitlock 3 Schreiber 3 Joely 2 Jansen 1 Martin 1 Pivetta 1 Sale 1 The farm is harder to quantify, but on paper, it certainly looks stronger than 2017-2021. Recent grads might make 2022's look better, but here is a breakdown of our farm by position: C: S Scott, Teel, Hickey & Brannon 1B: Dalbec, Kavadas & Jordan 2B: Yorke, Bonaci, Ravelo 3B: Meidroth, Coffey, Anderson, Paulino SS: Mayer, Cespedes, Zanetello, DHam & Romero OF: Anthony, Bleis, Rosier, Castro Forgive me for being optimistic, but I see plenty of reason to be so. Add 2-3 players via free agency or trades, and we can be a contender. Add 3-4 top players and we can be top contenders in 2024.

Someone mentioned the idea of pouncing on the second tier SP'er we like the most first, and then waiting to pounce on the leftover first tier SP'er, despite an expected gross overpay. Maybe Gray would be the choice, as he will likely settle on less years than the others in the top tier, due to his age.

SEP 23 Ohio St at ND We better not be looking ahead, but I am.

We can take steps to fix some of the D without sacrificing offense, and some moves don't cost us a cent. If Story can just hit over this year's SS OPS of .634, we will greatly improve our SS D, while likely greatly improving its O, too. NO ADDED COST. If we move Yoshida to DH and not replace JT's salary with a bat, we actually save money. Yoshida's ,813 OPS is an improvement over the 2023 team DH OPS of .778. Gain on O while saving money. With Yoshida at DH nearly FT, we can play a Duran-Refsnyder platoon in LF that should improve the LF defense, significantly without adding a cent to the budget. Duran's .828 OPS is better than Yoshida's .813 OPS and Retsnyder's splits vs LHPs have been among the best in MLB from 2021-2023, combined. Plus on O and D at NO COST. Playing Rafaela in CF adds no cost and improves the CF D astronomically, again at no cost or by saving $7M, if we do not replace Duvall. One can assume a drop in O in CF by not bringing Duvall back, but we can bring him back with a raise, or sign another RH'd OF'er who can hit and play decent D. That would be a slight increase in cost while improving D and maybe keeping the O close to even. Keeping Duvall in RF can be counted as staying even in O and D at no cost. Abreu represents better defensive back-up support with unknown offensive input. Call RF even. 2B rates to be a significant improvement on O and D. Reyes and Urias are capable defenders, unlike what we saw, this year. They also should be able to beat ,640 2B OPS in 2023, easily. PLus-plus at just the arb raise cost for Urias. That leaves 1B and catcher, where I have to think improvement on D should come with more experience, and the O could improve, too. No cost and possibly better O and D. Why isn't trying to fix the D without changing the O such a bad idea? Let's say we lose JT but keep Duvall, Urias and more play Story, Reyes, Rafaela and Abreu more. Is that a big loss on O? I would argue we should have a higher OPS than 2023. Improve the O AND D with minimal additions. (keeping Duvall can be viewed as no added players.)

On Kike, I said Cora thought he was the best defensive 2B in MLB not that he actually was. On Duvall, good point, but signing a guy who was GG just 2 years ago can be viewed as wanting to upgrade our OF D. Our D before the signing was Yoshida in LF- yuck, Duran in CF- double yuck as we thought in March and Dugo in RF- who was highly suspect on D in RF, before this season. I'm just talking about the thought process of the additions, when they were made. No, I don't think we are not paying JBJ. He had a 2023 option. I assume it has been paid, already.

All the more reason to trade him while his stock is highest. LOL BTW, fWAR: 2.6 Devers 2.6 Dugo 2.4 Duvall (in about 40% less games) 2.3 Duran 1.8 Turner 1.5 Casas 1.0 Wong 0.9 Yoshida 0.6 McGuire & Reyes Pitching 1.8 Sale 1.6 Crawford 1.4 Bello 1.3 Jansen 1.1 Martin 1.0 Pivetta & Paxton 0.9 Houck & Bernardino 0.7 Winckowski 0.5 Whitlock

I'd say the odds of Yoshida playing DH more than 81 games is over 50-50. The odds of Casas playing DH 81 or more games is over 500:1. (The same odds as Devers at 1b in 2024.)