moonslav59

Overdue! I don't want Torres, though.

There might be other teams with just 2.

But since Bloom is a buffoon, maybe he wants Duran to play.

Maybe easier said than done. How many GMs value Dugo highly? How many teams really need a LF'er more than 2B or SS?

I'd rather trade Dugo for a SS or 2Bman, keep Kike in CF and play Duvall in RF.

I would rather we find a SS and 2Bman than a CF'er. Just keep Kike in CF. Getting Duval for RF makes more sense, and then trade Dugo- perhaps for a middle IF'er.

Does the cash in return reduce the CB Tax line, even if miniscule?

He's averaged about 40 HRs and 110 RBI per 650 PAs since 2019, including 38 and 113 in 2021. He also won a GG in 2021 but not in CF. He also averages about 200 Ks per 650 and has just a .287 OBP since 2019. Defense? CF just 594 innings +4 DRS +4.7 UZR/150 RF +3 DRS in 812 innings -0.8 UZR/150 LF +51 DRS in 4500 innings +6.0 UZR/150

Last 3 years of Theo: 1/2 $142M/7 Crawford $82.5M/5 Lackey 3 Years of Ben: 1/1 or 1/2 or 0/1 or 0/2 of 0/3... (AGon Extension at $154M/7) ($110M/8 Extension for Pedey) $95M/5 Pablo (not really too large or too long) $88M/4 HRam (not really large or long) 4 Years of DD: 1/2 or 1/3 or TBD $217M/7 Price (Sale Extension at $145M/5) $110M/5 JD ($82.5M/4 Extension for Porcello) $68M/4 Nate (not really large or long) ($60M/3 Bogey Extension opt out) 3 Years of Bloom: 0-1 or 1/2 or TBD ($313M/10 Extension) $140M/6 Story It's hard to grade some of these, and where do you set the mark for "big deals?" 4+ Years? 5+ years? $80M+? $100M+? Do you adjust for inflation?

Kinda shows you the state of pitching, these days. Who knows, maybe the "cash considerations" is what a bag of used balls costs.

I'm not sure any GM could have gotten Bogey to sign for $160M/6, unless it was 3 years ago.

Good points. The best moves made by Bloom: FA $7 x 2 Kike (maybe the $10 x 1 Kike extension) $3.1M x 1 Renfroe $7M x 1 Wacha $5M x 1 Hill $3M x 1 Strahm Rule 5 Whitlock Trades: Pivetta & Seabold for Workman & Hembree Ottavino & German for cash McGuire for Diekman Springs for Sam Travis Waivers: Scheiber Arroyo Minor League FA Refsnyder Kelly No major signings have worked well, so far. His biggest signings before this winter: $140M/6 Story $10M/1 Richards $14M/2 Kike $10M/2 Paxton $8M/2 Diekman (Traded for McGuire) $7M/1 Wacha $6M/1 Perez These are all the deals over $5M. Extension: $18.75M/2 Barnes $18.75M/4 Whitlock

Thay have Hamilton and RHern for AAA. Scott in AA might be close to AAA, and Hickey might be promoted to AA, this season.

It does seem like an outlier year, but maybe we were right about him having the potential to be decent, but we just missed on the timing. Maybe the Rangers have better coaches or some other player helped him with an adjustment that made a big difference.

Indeed. They got Springs for a reason, then gave up a year too soon. Once could say the same about Martin Perez.

Yes, I think they know which catchers handle pitchers better, and which pitchers it doesn't seem to matter as much who catches them. My guess is, some pitchers do voice a preference, especially if they keep getting paired with a catcher they don't seem to be in sinc with as easily as they feel they do with the second catcher. It's obvious some pitchers are given just one catcher almost exclusively, and it's almost always the one known for defense or CERA-related intangibles. I'm guessing one reason we traded for McGuire, is that they think he's good with the staff. I'm not sure how they view Wong. There was a lot of talk, when we got him, that he may not stick at the catcher position. Soxprospects.com writes this about him, "Moves well behind the plate, and has improved his receiving and framing skills to the point where he is considered solid with both... Has been able to develop a good rapport with pitchers and become someone they like throwing to and have confidence in. Potential solid-average defender." If they view both catchers somewhat equally on defense, then maybe they can start the season with a platoon, and see if certain pitchers and catchers work better together. They did not have much time with the staff, last season, and most of our starters are gone or were on the IL to end last season, anyway. Here are some tiny sample sizes- hardly worth mentioning at all: CERA Bello 8.82 w Vaz (16.1 IP) 3.20 w Wong (25.1) 2.87 w McGuire (15.2) Whitlock '22 7.20 McGuire (5 IP) 3.42 Vaz (52.2) 2.89 Plawecki (18.2) 0.00 Wong (2.0) Pivetta OPS Against Bello .592 w McGuire (67) .775 w Wong (118) 1.027 w Vaz (83) n/a w Plawecki Whitlock 1.000 w McGuire (21) .670 w Vaz (215) .473 w Plawecki (68) .143 2 Wong (7) Pivetta .907 Plawecki (73) .840 w McQuire (186) .754 w Wong (58) .692 w Vaz (456)

Unless a pitcher has a strong preference for a certain catcher, and it seems hard to think they would, as of right now, since they hardly know either one of them, maybe starting the season on a L-R platoon could work for a while. If a certain pitchers voices a preference, then we start moving away from the L-R thing.

I think we'd all take back the Springs & Mazza for RHern trade.

BorA$$ opens up a bit on Correa negotiations... https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2023/01/scott-boras-discusses-carlos-correas-free-agency-saga.html Note related to Story: Officials with both clubs have noted that HIPAA privacy protections prevent them from revealing many specifics about player health.

Now, with Alfaro added to the catcher mix, it looks like Hamilton & RHern will just be minor league depth with little chance of making the 40 man roster, at least until Alfaro's dates to be added are up. Down the road a bit, 23 year old Nathan Hickey shows some promise, if he can stick at catcher. Gotta love his .415 OBP at A-/A+, last year. He's projected to start at Greenville and has Stephen Scott ahead of him at Portland.

That does seem to be the norm, but maybe since no Sox catcher really had built up a relationship with any of our SP'ers, it might be helpful to let pitchers work with both, for a while. Maybe, it becomes apparent a pitcher prefers one over the other and you move that way, but we could start with some mixing and matching. The platoon splits on offense could be a significant boost to the offense. The samples are small but... McGuire: 114 OPS+ v R 46 OPS+ v L Wong AAA .967 OPS v L .798 OPS v R

Yes, and Alfaro doesn't need to be added to the 40 before April.

$2M is more than McGuire makes.

Or Wong 2 months to prove he deserves the 2 slot.

So this was the type of catcher they had in mind, when they said they wanted to add a catcher?