moonslav59

Is someone in the Navy a big Phillies fan?

We do have some incentive money attached to some contracts, so we may be closer to the line that it appears, but I agree. Maybe we are saving space for deadline deals. When you see some of these recent signings, they are for peanuts and a few look better than our lower roster players. Why not improve? (I think they might actually like Brasier over Chafin and Fulmer and Mondesi, Arroyo and Chang over Andrus, but I scratch my head over those calls.)

Agreed. The two situations are a bit different. They had a good enough look at TWard to get a decent read on his chances. If they get him wrong, it's a failure of their evaluation methodology. Song was pure promise and speculation. For some reason, I feel worse about losing Song. I trust they knew enough on Ward to make the right call.

He's unDFA-able. Maybe not untradeable.

I didn't say we were strung along by Song. We were strung along by the military's decisions that had the exact wrong timing, for us. I wanted to see what this kid has. I think we had room on the 40. Did the Sox know he was to be available back when they decided to leave him unprotected, of was the military decision made afterwards? If we knew, this hurts me more than TWard.

Is it just me who thinks this whole situation with Song sucks? We were strung along for years and years, and when he finally is ready to play, he's Rule 5 and gobbled up.

HRam 2016. (I cheated.)

Yup. 1.7 would be the average per 30 teams.

I'd give Whitlock better odds than Paxton at getting to 120.

They also lost some fine talent, although some had off years in 2022. Most of their line-up is over 30.

No Whitlock at 120?

Why wouldn't Whitlock, Houck or any other player breaking out not be exciting?

My guess is 2-3 others will- just don't ask me to name them.

Napoli? Youk?

We also have the most promising farm since the early DD days or even back 10 years ago. If we reset, this year, I see no reason to doubt we will be going for an extended window starting in 2024, but I think 2023 should not be written off.

If we get to Memorial Day with no SP'er injuries, I'm projecting a second place finish. If we get to June 30th with just 1 of the 6 losing significant time- the same, unless of course, a bunch all go down, at the same time, like 2022.

IMO, the whole pen, which was very similar to the 2022 pen, way over-achieved. Kike & Dalbec had career years, and Renfroe one of his best, but that is not a lot. Not like 2013.

I don't necessarily disagree. I do think many don't view Yoshida as a top of the roster guy, so that was a big chunk of the winter spending viewed as a bottom addition. They could be right: they could be wrong. I'm glad we seriously addressed the pen. I wish we had added a SS and kept Kike in CF and addressed the rotation more assertively (via trade,) but we to me, we have a deep starter list with a lot of upside potential. We may just need 3-4 out of the 8-10 to do very well or 4-5 to do a decent job. I don't think that's being optimistic to think it could/should happen. Honestly, I don't blame fans for not being excited about the 2023 Sox, but they really weren't in 2013, either, so maybe this will be a magical season.

To be honest, I did think it would be more "splashy" than it turned out, but with the spike in top FA salaries, I can't really say I wish we had outbid anyone for one of them. Yoshida was the "splash," and since there is so much unknown about him, it's hard to see adding him as momentous, just yet. Again, I had wished we'd pooled our money for 5-6 FAs, instead of the 7-8 we ended up adding, but I'm giving it a chance to play out. I like the fact that we signed most to 2 or more years, not one, so a tiny bit more continuity is being put into place, now. The Story injury hurts. The Sale question is still front and center, despite the hope dropping year-by-year on him. We spent enough, this winter to be beyond excuses. If the injury-prone players Bloom added get hurt (including Story), it's not an excuse for him. This is his team, now, except for Sale, and just one salary drain guy carried over can no longer be used as an excuse. Bloom chose quantity, but I think the 7-8 guys he signed have enough quality to make it all work out. I', excited to watch it all play out. I think we should have a fun season. There are so many interesting storylines to follow.

No, I'm holding them accountable for this off season. Despite the spike in contract costs for the best FAs, we had enough to spend to improve the team, significantly. Bloom & Co. chose to spread the money out more than I had hoped, but this is on them. If we don't get better, I'll be critical. I said this was Bloom's "Flashpoint offseason" and could cement his "legacy" as a Sox GM. That has not changed. That does not contradict or move any goalposts to say I think they seem to be eyeing 2024 more than 2023. That's their choice. It doesn't change the 2023 reckoning.

If the Mets win it all, he might decide to cut back on his own, too.

There are, in theory, 90 starting OF'ers in MLB (30 teams x 3 OF positions per team.) How is 22nd mediocre? He's top 25%. If you figure some rookies or players that were hurt are better, he's still probably top 1/3rd.

An injury before opening day is probably an 80%+ probability, so yes, it will likely work itself out. IMO, Bello is probably on a lower IP plan than Whitlock, so maybe a Bello-Paxton piggy-back might be the choice. Who knows what Cora has in mind?

I'm not sure I've seen such a massive 40 and 26 man roster make-over in just 1-2 years, as now. If you figure we "over-achieved" in 2021, maybe it was a good idea to pretty much start from scratch. Had we just done that in 2020, we might be better positioned, going forward.

Fangraphs has us with the 4th best offense in the AL, so it looks like it will ultimately come down to pitching. The pen should be better- hopefully close to as good as other AL teams, so it all seems to narrow down to the rotation and rotation depth. As of now, if all are healthy, we're not even sure which 5 of the top 6 SP'ers will begin the season. We may even start with a 6 man rotation or some sort of piggy back thing. I'd put it this way, but I can't see Paxton moving to the pen: 1. Sale 2. Kluber 3. Whitlock 4. Bello 5. Pivetta 6. Paxton Depth: 1. Houck/Mata 2. Crawford 3. Walter 4. Winckowski 5. Murphy There is quite a bit of promise, here, but so much is up in the air.