moonslav59

Is this the opening day line-up and roster? 1. L Yoshida LF 2. R Kike 2B/SS 3. L Devers 3B 4. R Turner DH 5. L Casas 1B 6. R Duvall CF 7. L Dugo RF 8. S Mondesi SS/R Arroyo 2B 9. L McGuire/ R Wong C Bench: Wong/McGuire, Arroyo/Mondesi, Refsnyder, Tapia SP1. Sale SP2. Kluber SP3. Whitlock SP4. Bello SP5. Pivetta SP6. Paxton RP1. Jansen RP2. Martin RP3. Houck RP4. Schreiber RP5. Barnes RP6. Rodriguez RP7. Brasier Rest of 40: C: (Alfaro added when Story goes on the 60 day IL) 1B: Dalbec 2B: Valdez, Hamilton (SS) SS/2B: Story (to IL) OF/IF: Rafaela OF: Duran SP/RP: Crawford, Winckowski, Mata, Walter, Murphy RP: Mills, Kelly, German (Ort- DFA'd for Duvall?

One interesting thing about the 2023 roster is who should play if healthy. I have to think Mondesi would get the nod over Arroyo (with Kike at 2B) and Tapia and maybe even Duvall (with Kike in CF). Kike is a given starter. Duvall and Mondesi are maybe tied for second. That would mean: SS Mondesi, 2B Kike, CF Duvall. It's going to be interesting to see if Kike is moved all around the middle of the field, or we try to just keep him at one spot. Assuming 2,000 PAs at SS, 2B and CF, this year, could we see this (going out on a limb and implying almost total good health): 550 Kike (300 SS, 250 2B, 0 CF) 450 Duvall (CF + 50-100 in LF/RF) 400 Mondesi (SS) 400 Arroyo (2B) 200 Tapia (CF)

So, with the Mondesi, Duvall and Tapia pick-ups are we looking at bouncing Kike between CF, 2B and SS, or will we try to keep him at one position, most likely SS, and let the others duke it out for playing time? SS Kike (Mondesi then Arroyo as back-ups, maybe Mayer by August or September) CF Duval & Tapia (Please no Duran!) 2B Arroyo (Kike plays 2B, when Mondesi starts, and EValdez is the minor league depth.) Mondesi is a switch hitter and son of Raul Mondesi. His splits are pretty even over his scattered career PAs: .719 v L .674 v R Arroyo's splits are pretty even, too: .725 v L .696 v R Tapia .684 v L .717 v R Duvall .771 v L .749 v R Kike: .822 v L .671 v R Nothing really jumps out and says "PLATOON!" It looks like we have the depth we wanted, but much is tied to good health. It's the Bloom Themes Song.

I had suggested a few trades on BTV for Mondesi and sometimes him and Michael A Taylor. I think one was Murphy and Dalbec for the 2 of them.

Would it be better to list who plays 90% of available games? That list might be shorter: Devers Pivetta Dugo ???

I mentioned the 650 number to give an idea of his skill level, not as a realistic hope of happening.

If Kike gives us 500 and Arroyo 350, we may just need 250-400 from Mondesi to make it matter. Having 3 in the mix is better than 2, but we can't keep filling 40 man roster slots with players looking at playing less than half the time as being more probable than more than half the time.

soxprospects.com reports: http://news.soxprospects.com/2023/01/fallwinter-league-roundup-players.html Matthew Lugo was one of two players named the LBPRC Rookie of the Year, and recent signing Edwin Diaz was named the LBPRC MVP. Lugo hit .275/.360/.450 with six home runs in 120 at-bats, while Diaz hit .229/.375/.418 with eight home runs in 153 at-bats. Both players helped lead Caguas to a first-place regular season finish. Jorge Alfaro, signed as a minor league free agent on January 16, led his team to a title. He only had 21 regular season at-bats for Licey but was ultimately named MVP of the LIDOM championship series. In the round-robin portion of the playoffs, he hit .383/.471/.633 with two home runs in 60 at-bats. He turned it up another notch in the championship series, hitting .417/.417/.667 with another home run.

3 years of control could turn into a big win. We basically traded Diekman (a net negative), Groome, Northcut and 2 months of Vaz for... 3.3 yrs of McGuire 0.3 years of Pham and Hosmer 5+ years of EValdez, WAbreu, MFerguson, CRosier The deadline trades of 2020 (Hembree, Workman, Moreland and others for Pivetta and others) worked. The deadline trades of 2021 (ARamirez and scraps for Schwarber, Iggy, Shaw, Robles and davis) worked. It's the winter trades that kill Bloom. let's hope that changes with Mondesi and Mills help Bloom turn the corner on this phase of his job.

Key word "If," and that's why he got what he got. He may be worth double: he may be worth nothing. He got about in the middle. We'll see if it was an overpay. We may never know how high the second offer might have been. It won't matter, if he does great. If he sucks, we'll be hearing a lot about us "bidding against ourselves," like the Dice-K signing, years ago.

One really bad thing about last year was that many of the injuries happened at the same time at like positions: Story and Arroyo went down at the same time, which forced Downs, Sanchez, Arauz and others to play 2B. (Kike might have been an option at 2B, but he was out, too.) I think 4 of our SP'ers were all out at the same time, and 2-3 were out, together for long periods. Of course, we knew Sale and Paxton were starting the year on the IL, but we lost Wacha, Nate, Hill and Whitlock/Houck for much of the same time periods. The weakest area of the team, the pen, might have been the healthiest, although Houck, Whitlock and Barnes missed time. (Taylor missed the whole year.)

What is his biggest drawback from being a capable SP'er?

We might be done for the winter. Adding Harrison might work, but we may save budget space for the deadline.

If he can ever get 650 PAs, he might hit 20 HRs, steal 65 bases and be a huge plus on D at SS. Once again, the "BIG IF" is about health. Sale Paxton Mondesi Arroyo Kike Kluber Barnes (Houck & Whitlock wer4e hurt, last year)

Taylor was really good, when injured, so we basically just swapped out injury for injury, but gained at a position of high need. This guy is pretty damn good. The big if on health is getting to be our team banner.

MLBTR... In Mondesi, Boston is acquiring an immensely talented 27-year-old infielder — but also one of the most frequently injured players in MLB over the past few seasons. Dating back to the 2018 season, Mondesi has appeared in only 40% of the Royals’ possible games, missing time due to a right shoulder impingement, a groin strain, a pair of left shoulder subluxations, a left hamstring strain, an oblique strain and, most recently, a torn ACL that wiped out his 2022 season. Both the left shoulder injury and ACL tear required surgery. It’s a daunting list of injuries for Mondesi, but it’s nevertheless difficult not to be enticed by Mondesi’s blend of power, speed and defense. In 1366 Major League plate appearances, Mondesi has 38 home runs, 54 doubles, 20 triples and 133 stolen bases. He’s also amassed 23 Outs Above Average and a 13.3 Ultimate Zone Rating in 2126 career innings at shortstop.

Some may have had a dedicated closer, all year, but just changed horses in midstream.

I thought the Beni trade was to build up farm depth and some hopes that one of the 5 guys we got would end up balancing out Beni's questionable future. Cordero and Winkowski were ML or near ML ready, and the other 3 were long shots, but our farm was weak and shallow. It looks like the return will not pay off, as with Hamilton & Binelas with the Renfroe trade, but I suppose more time might flip the script. (Unlikely, in my view.) The Pivetta trade was better than some seem to think it was. He's been on of MLB's best 5th starters over the past 2.5 years. While the 5th starter is not a shiny position, 180 solid innings has been very helpful. He's even pitched like man teams' number 3 for much of his time with the Sox. The Vaz trade is still largely unknown, but I do think EValdez and WAbreu look better now than hamilton and Binelas looked at the time of their trade and Cordero/Wink looked at the time of the Beni trade. For someone who is supposed to be good at finding gems in the rough, Bloom has not done it via trades- only waivers, Rule 5 and MiLFAs.

Depends how McGuire does. Trading Diekman without giving any money was a good trade with no return.

Do you see him staying a RP'er?

IKF was included to offset Donaldson's "emotional" baggage.

Good one! Will Andrus and harrison be signed by the first day of ST'ing?

You said you don't read my posts but responded to one (not the one with my list.) Not incorrect.

It doesn't make the trade not a good one. He gets dinged for a bad signing and a plus for the trade. Overall, it was still a net plus, as we have McGuire for several more years and only had to pay 1/3 of Diekman's 2 year deal.

Rich Hill had one of MLB's best records vs 3rd PA in a game in 2021 with a .586 OPS Against in 101 PAs. It was .485 in 2020. Still, they seemed to view him as the guy they needed to yank early on. He had thrown just 50 pitches in the O's game, and the next game they yanked him after 68 pitches with a 1 hitter going through 5 IP. (They ended up losing that game.) After May, they started letting him go longer.