moonslav59

Crybaby fans make a difference. Maybe my choice of words was not great, but it's true.

BTV accepted: Houck, Dugo, Anthony & Paulino for 3 years each from Grisham & Kim Would you do that?

I'd do this in a heartbeat.We'd have to add more pieces to get it done (Duran, Wink, Crawford or even Murphy would be ideal, but I doubt the Padres want any of these guys on their 40. Maybe Murphy.) Maybe they take Houck, Dugo and a non 40 man prospect like Romero, Yorke or Anthony. They each have 3 years of control, so maybe we are paying for more years than we need, but we could always trade Kim or Story, if and when Mayer wins the FT SS job. I guess Kim can even play 2B and OF, so maybe we keep 'em all.

Indeed. We are not going to start the season with 2 middle IF'ers on the 26. We won't have EValdez as the 3rd, either. Bank on it. It is fair to say, as of now, we really suck up the middle, but the rest of the team seems to have improved at all the corners and the pitching staff.

Salas looks pretty promising, but he's too far away to bet Casas on him helping out 3-4 years from now. To me, the Lopez trade showed that MIA valued him less than I thought they did. A straight up trade made more sense, and BTV agrees. By value, alone, a Houck and Duran for Lopez was better on BTV than Casas for Lopez and Salas and throw in Wendle.

You do know Bogey had just 15 HRs in 631 PAs, last year. He and JD combined for 135 RBI. That's almost as much as just JD had in 2018 (130.) I'm not going to accuse anyone of having mistaken opinions, we may very well suck, this year, but I think when some are thinking about us losing Bogey, JD, Nate and others, they are remembering them in their glory days. JD .330 43 130 in '18 .304 36 105 in '19 not the... .213 7 27 in 54 games '20 .274 16 62 in '22 Bogey .288 23 103 '18 .309 33 117 '19 not the... .295 23 27 '21 .307 15 73 '22 Nate: The heroics of 2018 11-9 3.75 in 2021 (32 GS) not the... 68 IP 5.99 ERA of 2019 6-3 3.87 in just 20 GS and 109 IP of '22 I'm not saying I'm happy losing these three, but replacing the more recent versions of them is not as hard as it may seem to be to some, here. Saying we will not do as well as last year is extreme pessimism, IMO, or a misunderstanding of how low the bar is set for improvement: How hard will it be to improve on these positional numbers? .694 Catcher (Replacing Vaz & Plawecki with McGuire & Wong) .683 1B (The worst 1B season I have ever seen on a Sox team: Casas has arrived.) .694 LF (One of the worst LF productions by a Sox team in '22: Welcome Yoshida!) .671 CF (Hard to know what happens here with no Kike in CF) .661 RF (We may step down on D, but a massive O gain is probable.) .763 DH (Turner should improve on JD's '22 numbers.) That's 5 of the 9 everyday slots where improvement is not only possible, but probable. Ine 3, it's highly probable we see major gains. (One could argue C is unknown.) .724 2B (Looks like a loss) .815 SS (Loss) .856 3B (Could improve as Devers reaches prime) Rotation: many see the 2023 rotation as being almost all one big question mark, but so was the 2022 one, this time, last year, and again, we look to be losing many bad innings, too. 2022 SP Innings 180 Pivetta 4.56 (expect about the same: a plus 5th starter) 127 Wacha 3.32 (will be hard to replace his 23 GS, but it's not 33 GS'd) 124 R Hill 4.27 (a decent 26 GS'd needed to be replaced) 109 Nate 3.87 (only 20 starts needing replacement) This is 69 GS'd needing replacement. That's basically 2 FT SP'er NOT the 3 it appears to be. We added Kluber 25-33 GS +27 Whitlock 9 GS >> 25-33 +22 Bello 11 GS >> 25-33 +20 There is the 69 GS'd replaced. Now, the easy part to improve on: 67 Winckowski 5.75 in 14 GS 61 Crawford 5.43 in 12 GS'd 18 Seabold 11.29 in 5 GSd 6.1 Davis 0.00 in 3 GS'd That's 34 GS'd needed to be replaced and almost impossible not to greatly improve upon by this year's additions: Sale Paxton Mata Walter Houck (Maybe some better starts from Wink & Crawford, if needed) The pen improvement looks like a no-brainer, but pens are always fickle. I don't expect Schreiber to be the 2022 Schreiber, but guys like Barnes and Houck could balance out the returnees. No more... 51 Sawamura 3.73 48 Davis 6.19 40 Danish 5.13 38 Diekman 4.23 25 Robles 5.84 16 Bazardo 2.76 * Valdez 4.41 10 Familia 6.10 7 DHern 21.60 and others... More and hopefully better from some of these returnees 65 Schreiber 2.22 62 Brasier 5.78 43 Houck 2.70 40 Barnes 4.31 14 Kelly 3.95 4 German 18.00 The big boost is the additions: Jansen- one of the most consistent closer over the last 10+ seasons. Under 1.05 WHIP last 2 seasons. Led league in Svs in 2022 w 41 Martin- 0.527 WHIP, last season (1.15 career and 1.03 since 2019) 2.87 FIP since '19 Rodriguez- not a great addition but has a solid 3.14 FIP since 2020. I see a plus in the pen, a good chance for a plus in the rotation, a plus at 4-5 of the 9 everyday positions (1B, 3B, LF, RF & C or DH) and a break even at 1-2 others (C or DH). The only sure down slots look to be SS, 2B and CF, but we may be able to lessen the down degrees with another addition or two up the middle. We should be better in 2023, unless we equal the injuries we had in 2022.

They were talking about adding more than 2 middle IFers as being a possibility, although some could be on minor league deals. If I'm a SS or 2Bman looking to get a chance to play, the Sox would be high on my list. I am 100% certain we add a ML middle IF'er before ST'ing. EValdez will not be our opening day infield utility guy.

He does have options- and trade value. Casas is a not a sure bet at 1B, and Dalbec also provides depth at DH and 3B. notin's idea of trying him in the OF may work.

Lopez had just 2 years of team control.

Not for just Lopez. Hey, now that MIA gave 3 for 1, maybe they can take a 2 or 3 for 1 or 2 trade with us: Dalbec & Ort for Wendle Murphy, Duran & Dalbec for Berti & Wendle

You suggested thinking the glass was just half full was stretching it. We will be better, next year.

Seems like he's very consistent with his inconsistencies.

99.9% sure we reset in '23. Wendle makes peanuts. There are a lot of trade options out there for SS or 2B. We can even afford Andrus or Harrison, but the extra years are probably a barrier for the Sox.

I think he deserves another chance at the plate- maybe not with the Sox, since we have Casas and Turner, now. His D is horrific. Maybe, trying him in LF might be the best idea, but we already have 18 players where LF is their best position.

Weird, because after the Rojas trade, MLBTR stated Chisholm was moving to SS. What are your thoughts on acquiring Mondesi from KC as a one year bridge SS? He should not cost much: maybe Dalbec straight up (throw in Ort... LOL)?

If he can keep hitting .,754 with 33 HRs and 95 RBI per 650, he could stick as an Of'er, assuming he can catch fly balls. Big ifs, though.

How about Houck, Duran and Yorke for Ober and Kepler? Or, Houck, Dugo & Murphy for the same two?

Looks like the Twins got a lot, or BTV is really messed up on the value of Arraez.

Maybe now MIA will trade us Wendle.

Pablo Lopez to Twins for Luis Arraez (with Jose Salas & Byron Chourio)!

If how players ended the previous season have anything to do with carrying over to the next year... 1.069 Casas in last 51 PAs (.441 in first 44 PAs) .940 Turner in last 289 PAs .877 McGuire in last 108 PAs .847 Verdugo in last 229 PAs (.784 in last 481 PAs) .806 Arroyo in last 173 PAs .722 Dalbec in last 132 PAs (.798 in last 30 PAs) .691 Kike in last 277 PAs (.491 in first 125 PAs) Departing players: .780 Bogey last 361 PAs .672 JD in last 316 PAs (.693 in last 423 PAs) .672 Pham in 235 PAs w BOS .631 Hosmer in 50 PAs w BOS .585 Vaz in last 108 PAs (w HOU) .497 Cordero last 136 PAs Devers is the only returning player who dropped off at the end of 2022.

Prepared to be shocked.

A look at Bobby Dalbec: Is he a player we should totally write-off? Maybe give one more chance? (If yes, when and where?) .959 first 92 PAs of career (2020) .718 first 57 PAs of 2021 .382 next 51 PAs ('21) .862 next 102 PAs ('21) .556 next 104 PAs ('21) 1.114 last 139 PAs of 2021 .000 in 12 PAs of 2021 playoffs .440 first 89 PAs of '22 .824 next 83 PAs of '22 .556 next 49 PAs '22 .722 last 132 of '22 Career: .754 in 898 PAs. Career Line per 650 PAs: .232 33 95

We probably could have still gotten something useful for Hill, Wacha and Nate. Strahm, too. Not trading JD to get under the tax line was the obvious mistake, and not just in hindsight. Bogey had a no-trade clause, and it seemed like we really did want him back, at that time, but in hindsight, we now wonder.

JD did look "cooked" in the second half of 2022: .234/.299/.401/.400 last 69 games 18 2B+3B 8 HRs 29 RBI .312/.379/.493/.872 first 70 games 26 2B+3B 8 HR 33 RBI Compare these numbers to Turner: .220/.293/.356/.649 first half (20 2B and 4 HRs w 35 RBI) .336/.406/.522/.928 2nd half (16 2B and 9 HRs w 46 RBI)