moonslav59

I thought we were 4-5 players away from being very competitive- maybe not top 6-7 in MLB, but pretty close, and with so many kids coming up and a bunch of players (Kike, Story, Sale, Paxton) who were hurt last year possibly doing more in 2023, I felt this winter was the the time to go big. I guess the Sox top brass felt the foundation needed more building up. That whole add 7-9 players might have been the only truthful thing they said all year. In a vacuum, each signing looks decent to pretty good. The non signings are what look scary- both in terms of our own players not extended and all the players who play our positions of highest need all but gone and signed elsewhere. I'm surprised they have taken this route. The talk that Abreu was their first choice should have raised the red flag higher than it did, for me. There is not much this whole board can agree on, but I'm pretty sure 99% of us felt SP, SS and RF were 3 of our top 4 or 5 highest need area. I know I'm not the only one who thinks winters are meant to address a team's weaknesses and maybe strengthen a few strengths with upgrades, along the way, if resources are available to do it all. It's like we went backwards through our need areas, except for beefing up the pen. Even that joy may be lessened, if Houck joins Whitlock in the rotation, due to our lack of acquiring a solid SP'er. Did our pen really get all that much better by adding Jansen, Martin, Joely & Mills, but subtracting Whitlock, Houck and Strahm? I'm not so sure. Okay, apparently we have $36-37M left under the tax line and 3 major needs to fill- 2 at least: SP SS RF (I guess a Dugo-Ref platoon is bearable, if we fill the other 2, nicely.) I'm really trying to find reasons to be positive, but I doubt I can, until some more is done.

Oh, they have to be long tenured, like Boggs. That was a good time to quit. Or, back when Evans left, of the great Haywood Sullivan purge.

Why didn't you quit being a Sox fan when we lost Pedey, DLowe, AGon, Beckett, Beltre, Jake...

You know my position.

Our line-up looks very good and balanced, but we still have our 3 biggest needs on the table: SP SS RF Okay, maybe the pen was top 4.

The whole season is cherry-picked, too. Yes, his seasonal numbers went way down, but he started to show signs of life.

He his 27 HRs, last year, started out slowly, this year then hit this from June 30>>> .349/.419/.549/.698 w 9 HRs and 16 2Bs in 246 PAs 162 gm avg: .349 25 118 w 44 2Bs Maybe there is life left in him and Fenway Park will spark a big year.

The Geeks aren't the ones telling JH not to sign any large and long deals, IMO, anyway.

I do, too, but they've already decided.

What a guess!

Would most Sox fans be upset with this winter, if we extended Devers and signed Andrus & Kluber? 1. L Yoshida LF 2. R Story 2B 3. L Devers 3B 4. R Turner DH 5. L Casas 6. R Kike CF 7. L Verdugo/ R Refsnyder RF 8. R Andrus SS 9. L McGuire/R Wong C Bench: R Dalbec & R Arroyo (L EValdez/R Rafaela/ L Duran/ L Hamilton) SP1 Sale & Paxton combined SP2 Whitlock SP3 Kluber SP4 Bello SP5 Pivetta RP1 Jansen RP2 Martin RP3 Housk RP4 Schreiber RP5 Barnes RP6 Joely RP7 Mills RP8 Brasier/Taylor/Crawford/Kelly/Wink/German/Mata/Walter/Murphy/Seabold

We could extend him, and jacko would still say it was just to trade him!

Strange how as badly as JBJ was doing, this season, they totally avoided putting Dugo in RF, until we traded for Pham. The year before, they put Renfroe in RF, obviously not liking his D over letting Dugo play RF and Renfroe LF. I think Dugo gets traded.

Strange how as badly as JBJ was doing, this season, they totally avoided putting Dugo in RF. The year before, they put Renfroe in RF, obviously not liking his D over letting Dugo play RF and Renfroe LF. I think Dugo gets traded.

According to cots, the Turner signing still leaves us with about $37M to spend and still reset. $14M x 2 or 3 Kluber $12M x 1 or 2 Andrus Trade Dugo and Dalbec for a real RF'er.

Or, a Bobby Dee deal. As long as they are fine with Dugo?Ref in RF, then getting a short term DH is okay. We need a bi gRH'd bat. Sign Andrus and Kluber and I'm actually not hating this winter, assuming Devers is not traded.

So, we trade Bobby Dee and give E Valdez a spot on the 26? (Assuming no other additions, like Andrus) 1. L Yoshida LF 2. R Story SS 3. L Devers 3B 4. R Turner DH 5. L Casas 6. R Kike CF 7. L Verdugo/ R Refsnyder RF 8. R Arroyo/ L E Valdez 2B 9. L McGuire/Wong C (Dalbec?)

There was talk, earlier, Bobby Dee was on the block. I have to think he's a goner. Turner has played 39 games at 1B, so he must be better on D at 1B than BD.

It's not a bad signing, if we go on to add a SO, SS and RF'er, but until we do, I'm puzzled. JT had a .968 OPS after June 30th. The guy can hit. We needed a RH'd bat, but other needs were greater.

So, our highest needs were/are SS, SP, Pen, RF and then maybe more pitching and a catcher. We end up spending more than half our spending so far onDH/LF. I don’t get it. I’d mention head scratching but where did that get me last winter?

He’ll DH. Weird, I just said his name

I do think they felt the same in '21 and '22.

Mata may get his first look in the pen. He may not need as much "adjusting," but his ceiling is lower than Bello's, IMO.

It may work, this year, if everything goes right, but I doubt even they truly expect competitiveness in '23, on any higher level than maybe scraping into a WC slot.

Maybe, they still think can fool the fans and media with this "staying competitive" crap by going through a few silly motions- all shorter term deals, which is the dead give-away. If the window was now, we'd see more longer term deals than Story and Yoshida. That's all we've had since DD, and neither are all that large or all that long, either.