moonslav59

It also moves Casas to DH and keeps Yoshida in LF. Yoshida in LF might force Duran and Ref to play CF/RF more than we'd like to see happen.

I know a lot of people will hate this idea, and I am extremely hesitant to trade such a promising hitter, but if we sign Chapman and move Devers to 1B and Yoshida to DH, thereby improving 3 positions on defense, we could make Casas the centerpoint to a trade that brings us a top young pitcher with several years of team control. I got no names, but Casas has a lot of value. Again, I'm not for trading Casas, and don't say I want to dump him, but I realize we will have to give up a lot to get a top young pitcher in return. Duran or Dugo won't get us one. Rafaela plus Yorke won't get us one.

MVP says Walter. I think you get one pitcher and one everyday player to add.

I always felt Dugo was a fave of Cora. I remember when he was struggling v LHPs, Cora announced there would be no platoon. I'm not sure how they get along, now, of how much Bloom might want to "rid the team" of a bad apple or feels it's all good, now.

Welcome aboard.

It would improve our D at 3B and 1B, but I doubt we make 3 moves with one signing.

If Duvall can play CF or RF better than Teoscar, I'm fine with signing him, instead. Maybe we trade for a RH'd CF/RF'er who can hit well and play average or better D.

If we add 2 SP'er, we don't need a pen singing, except for maybe a couple depth signings of guys with options remaining. SP1_____ SP2 ____ SP3 Bello SP4 Houck SP5/RP1 Pivetta SP5/RP1 Crawford (Sale on IL) RP2 Whitlock RP3 Winckowski RP5 Schreiber RP6 Joely/Bernardino RP7 Martin RP8 Jansen

Losing his and JT's bat will be bad, but we don't need to replace them with a LF'er or DH. Ideally, we can try to find offense and defense at CF, maybe RF, if Dugo is traded or 2B. Or, we take a hit on O, maybe hoping Rafaela, Abreu and Story can add some O lost, but gain more by vastly improving the rotation, instead. I hear you, though. A quick look at FAs who play CF or RF: Bellinger L T Hernandez R Conforto L Blackman L Renfroe R Kiermaier L

Where do get this info?

You are right. I did not notice Volpe had climbed up to 15th on fWAR for SSs. He should project to better than AVG . next year. That still leaves a pretty small core of avg or avg+ foundational players for 2024. A lot of slots to fill. C Trivno/Higgy 1B Rizzo 2B Torres SS Volpe 3B LeMaheu LF I K-F/ Bauers CF ______ RF Judge DH Stanton SP1 Cole SP2 Rodon SP3 Cortez SP4 Schmidt SP5 German/Brito RP Holmes, Loasiga, King, Abreu, Kahnle

I really like Duvall, but I hate how we keep stacking our team with LF/DH players. Why choose to add another LF'er? (Duvall) Add a RH'd OF'er who can play CF and or RF. (2B might be nice, too!)

His OPS was about the same. He was under 30. No, it's not a good comp.

I think a pretty significant event happened today that raises serious questions about the system set up through contract negotiations. As we know, the Angels put almost a quarter of their roster on waivers, recently to try and get back under the tax line. That could matter, because the comp pick for losing Ohtani will be affected. Now, the Guardians, who kinda suck, and have the earlier pick on claiming guys off waivers than team ahead of them, claimed 3 players: Lucas Giolito Reynaldo Lopez Matt Moore They have recently gotten back into the AL Central race, die to MIN sucking, too. The Guardians are 6 games under .500 but just 5 games behind MIN, and yet can still can pull this off. It seems kinda unfair, although waiver wire deals have been around a long time, no bad teams will claim high price salary dumps, leaving the weakest contender a glden opportunity to pounce and only pay 1/6 of the player's deal. https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2023/08/guardians-claim-lucas-giolito-reynaldo-lopez-waivers-angels.html

Fair, enough. I'd say Rizzo is borderline and the "average" offense for a 1Bman will likely be better than he gives, next year. Volpe should improve, but it is not a given, and is he average or above, now? I almos put Cortes and Schmidt in red, as they should be average 4/5 SP'ers or better, but again, there is significant concerns on both. My point was meant to highlight how few positions you have locked up as being plus positions, and this is a team that was projected to win the AL, this year!

Any news on the two Sox September call ups?

Yes. All 4 are cheaper options. Ideally, we'd add 4 solid SP'er and have the best pen in MLB: Jansen, Martin, Schreiber, Winckowski Houck, Whitlock, Crawford, Pivetta Depth: Bernardino, Kelly, Joely, Mills, Robertson Murphy, Walter, Mata, Gambrell, Hagenman

Exactly. For God's sake, Crawford is our "ace" right now. Doesn't that tell us something important? I think we can get by with Houck as a 4th or 5th starter than can never go beyond 5 IP. Whitlock needs to be sent to the pen and told he will never start another game with the Sox. Pivetta can be a decent #5, but we need to be thinking of who will be our #1 and our #2. SP1 ____ SP2 ____ SP3 Bello SP4 Houck SP5 Pivetta/Crawford (The other is a long man or SP depth) (Sale is just possible depth- nothing more.)

I've been calling for adding top of the rotation pitchers since the 70's. LOL!

I do NOT "want to dump" Verdugo." I am willing to trade him for equal value. I think Sox brass is looking to trade him, as they will likely not extend him. He has one year of control left. He has trade value. I'm tired of his antics and the poor example he sets for the growing number of young player joining the team. He is having a fine defensive year in RF, but he has had average and below average years in RF, before. (I'm not one to always think a player's recent year is bound to be repeated, next year.) I really like the idea of having Rafaela and Abreu get a solid chance at winning the CF and RF jobs. I don't like the idea of having Duran and Ref as back-ups in CF or RF, so we do need someone else, and I guess having Dugo in RF for one more year makes a lot of sense in that context. We can let Rafaela and Abrue battle for CF and Abreu can back up RF, but then we have too many OF'ers, even if we make Yoshida the FT DH. Do you want to trade Ref or Duran? It seems many here (not you Max) complain about us never trading for anything good- like a SP'er, but whenever a name is suggested, we are told we want to dump the guy or don't like him. You gotta give to get! We need pitching. We have an excess in OF and some young talent that appear to be ML ready. We can't make everyone "untouchable," if we want to make changes to a roster that is not a winning one.

Name the foundation you have going into 2024, then tell me how many you view as "solid": C Trivno/Higgy 1B Rizzo 2B Torres SS Volpe 3B LeMaheu LF I K-F/ Bauers CF ______ RF Judge DH Stanton SP1 Cole SP2 Rodon SP3 Cortez SP4 Schmidt SP5 German/Brito RP Holmes, Loasiga, King, Abreu, Kahnle

YES! I wouldn't mind us having 4 guys in that role: Houck Whitlock Pivetta Crawford Set-up: Martin Winckowski Schreiber Closer: Jansen (No way this ever happens. We'd need to add 4 SP'ers or 3 and hope for a Sale miracle.)

I'd do that, but MVP did not even mention Duran.

I don't make their rules, but SP's has Bernardino as "graduating" in June 2023. Bloom is a genius at farm building. (LOL)

Duran in AAA or what?