moonslav59

I'd be fine keeping him over Gasper or Narvaez as next year's back-up, but those others have more control and maybe higher upside on offense.

I'm guessing $8.5M to $10M, but likely somewhere else.

The Sox messed up badly with Devers, but that does not take him off the hook. His antic with the SFG are showing it's not just the Sox.

It's not uncommon for prospect Catchers to be moved to 1B or DH, but the Sox have 4 Catchers/Ex-Catchers at their top 3 levels: AAA: Newly added Knizner, Delay & Thaiss plus Hickey at 1B/DH. AA: Baez & Rosarion/Garcia C/1B & Brannon 1B/DH A+: Gerardo Rodriguez, Luke Heyman, Hudson White & Ro Hernandez C/1B

Is it time to demote Alcantara to GRE and promote Cespedes? How about flipping Justin Gonzales with Bleis or Taylor?

Woo lost 4-1 as Sandoval started the game and threw 34 strikes in 53 pitches. (3.1, 4H, 1ER, 1BB, 1K) Cheng had 2 hits (.794.) Ward & Romero went 0-9. POR lost 7-5 as Rogers pitched poorly. Arias seems to be hot, again (3 for 5 and at .978 again.) Garcia went 2-5 (.901) Winnay walked "only" twice. Futrell sure looks like the real deal: 12 Ks, 1 BB, 2Hits and 0 ERs in 6IP, as GRE won 2-0. Heyman homered and Anderson had 2 hits. SAL can't win anymore. They lost 7-2. The FCL Sox lost 10-9 and walked 10 batters. (Delzine did not do well.) The DSL teams split the day.

Has Johanfran been written off as a Catcher?

You did. I wasn't so sure, but let's see if Tracy keeps playing him.

So, do we all agree, he's at least a "number two?" 8.6 fWAR since 2024 (16th in MLB) 1.2 fWAR in 2026 seems a bit low but still ranks 52nd among SP'ers with 70+ IP.

Suarez is doing great, too! Contreras might be the best bat to change teams, this past winter. 3 major moves that look great on paper, but we still fell woefully short of what was needed to be competitive in the worst league in many seasons.

No he's not- correct! The buck stops with him on this sort of issue. This has been a long-standing issue with this team, so it's not like he can claim this is all new to him, and he'll try to fix it, starting now.

Oh, they call it a non incident, so it must me. I'm sure Devers calls this incident a non one, too. The guy turned from a fun-loving guy to a cancerous plague, seemingly overnight. Does it matter that he had good reasons or not? Just because other cancers needed to go, too, doesn't mean you don't remove all the cancer.

The question of the year.

Good points. Most should be TBD, and I was doing some projections on some. Yes, so far the Crochet and Anthony extensions should be "F".

The Royals pick 30, this year. BAL picked 30th in 2025.

Yes, with lower picks.

For better or worse our foundation for next year will likely involve just 2 maybe 3 major additions. There better be two big bats as part of the 2-3 additions. I know some could care less about the positions we make the big bat additions, and if we trade Duran, I could see adding any position. (A 1Bman or OF'er could DH.) That being said, here is my current view at 2027: C: ____________ Narvaez or Gasper/Wong (Trade Wong?) 1B: Contreras (Romy) 2B: ____________ Romy/Mayer (Durbin) 3B: Durbin (Mayer) SS: ____________ Mayer/Story LF: Anthony CF: Rafaela RF: Abreu DH: _____________ (Romy/ Duran or Yoshida) Utility competition: 3 from Romy/Durbin/Mayer/Story, if we add 2 infielders, two of if we add one, and Romy could DH or platoon DH. AAA: Seigler, Monasterio, Eaton, Sogard Pitching Rotation: Crochet, Suarez, Tolle, Early, Bennett with Houck, Crawford, Oviedo and maybe Bello as known depth. Eyanson, Holobetz, Wehunt, Paez & Uberstine as extended AAA depth. Pen: Chapman, Whitlock, _______, Slaten, _______, Moran, Weissert, Kelly/Watson/Samaniego/Mullins or maybe a converted SP'er like Houck or Crawford. As you can see, I have 6 slots open. Estimating 2-3 major additions still leaves 3-4 openings for minor to moderate additions or to be filled with what we have in the system. The FA market looks pretty bad for everyday players and big bats, so we probably need to trade for 1 or 2. That just opens more slots, unless we deal away only prospects and secondary ML players. The winter spending budget may be key, once again, and if we dump Yoshida and or Story's deals, I'm not sure how that will affect JH's willingness to spend as needed.

1. Eaton LF 2. Rafaela CF 3. Abreu RF 4. Contreras C 5. Duran DH 6. Durbin 3B 7. Monasterio SS 8. Wong C 9. Seigler 2B Bench: Yoshida, Mayer, Gasper, Narvaez

Someone might pay more than min wage for Yoshida, but not by much, so yes, assume we pay 99% of his contract, if someone takes him. Duran might need some money added, too, but only if we want something of value back. I think someone will want him and give up a promising single A player or two- not much more, at this point. One plus is he is still just arb eligible, so any team can just walk away. If IKF gets healthy, he may bring something back of minimal value- same with Wong, Coulombe and T Guerrero. Gray is the one guy that may bring back a useful piece or two. My guess is, we will want someone who will be part of the 2017 and beyond plans. Chapman's 2027 control makes it hard for me to suggest we trade him, but I'd listen to offers. Contreras has 2 years remaining, so I'd listen but not settle on lower return values.

Coulda/Shoulda/Mighta just had Roman go under the knife weeks ago.

I think Brez gets another year. On good decisions vs bad, it's hard to grade non moves, and I think we both agree he gets a big "F" for not making another big bat addition (or two.) On his actual moves made, it doesn't look as bad to me, as it might to you and others, but yes, "too few" good ones. My subjective view on the major moves (note almost all are still TBD for the most part) Not counting draft and IFA: In approximate order of importance/cost... 10 biggest B Crochet trade C+ Devers dump A- Suarez signing B- Bregman signing (and not re-signing) A- Contreras trade A Chapman signing & extension B+ Gray trade B- Crochet extension D+ Giolito signing F Buehler signing _________________ 10 Moderate choices made: B- Verdugo trade B+ O'Neil signing D+/TBD Harrison-Durbin D+/TBD Priester trade C Anthony extension A- Rafaela extension A- Romy waiver claim B- Slaten trade F Hendriks signing B Bennett for Perales trade __________________ Please feel free to call me out for missing some equally or more important choices made that should be listed. Some might be moderate or the next tier of 10: Bello extension, KC extension, Justin Wilson, Narvaez, IKF, Oviedo, Moran, Coulombe, Hicks & Sandler, May & Matz, Danny Jansen, L Garcia & L Sims, Bernardino, Booser (get & trade)Watson, Criswell, NLowe, Gasper, Toro, Paxton, T Guerrero, I Campbell Again, "TBD" should probably be the current grades, but so far... Looking at the 2026 results and the unbalanced roster, the final grade is worse than the sum of all these parts combined.

I said I agree with your position. I'm hoping we can do better with a higher pick that we've done with the last few times. Anyway, we are talking draft 2027 and then a few more years to see results. The MLB draft is not as certain as other drafts. I don't view it with much excitement. I thought we did pretty well the last few drafts, but it hasn't gotten us anywhere special... so far.

I believe this, but this is a statement that the facts prove your point. It's not actually the data/facts that are given.

Just curious why you have hope they will in this area and not other areas. I'm not disagreeing- just curious. Our best picks seem to be comp picks, picks after rounds one and two and even very late picks.

12th out of 15 in everyday players seems about right. 6th in pitching seems a little low, especially SP'ing, but Bello & Crochet really drove the numbers down.