moonslav59

Out of those 13, I think we keep these: Barnes: pay him to pitch here not elsewhere, and hope he returns to 2018-2019 form (not early 2021.) Downs: cut him some slack. Maybe missing 2020 hurt some guys more than others. Hosmer: the guy is free and is better than Dalbec/Cordero, anyway. Dalbec: still has options and until casas proves he's a keeper, we'll want to have more choices. Not so sure: Cordero; only because our OF depth is shallow Kelly & Danish: only because our pen depth is shallow Seabold: had good numbers in AAA and probably deserves a second chance That leaves 5, Brasier, Almonte, Ort, Chang and Bazardo, which happens to be about how many players we will add to fill our 5 major need areas: 2B/SS RF SP SP/RP RP If we add 6 or 7, we can find room. The Paxton and Pham options weigh in on these numbers, too.

I agree on JD. I'm not so sure on Story. If we added Enmanuel Valdez to the 40, and called him up, then, yes, I'd sit Story or play him at SS.

Nate & Hill are likely goners, anyway.

2 years of Diekman, too! (They basically paid him $5M.) I liked McGuire for his defense and intangibles, but if he can turn his offense up a notch... WOW!

I remember catching grief for questioning that signing. People said, "It's only $4M," but I wondered why this guy got 2 years, when hardly anyone else did. Oh wait, I forgot- we never question Bloom's greatness.

The players we are releasing are still getting paid by us, even if they are claimed, and it's all pro-rated, anyway. Had we traded JD at the deadline, we'd only have saved about $7M. We are $11M over, now. Trading Nate would have saved about $6M. That's assuming the team we traded them to wanted no cash or return salary dump players.

Hence the need to build up the farm, so we can have some low cost, yet talented players coming up nearly every year, and sometimes 2-3 in some years. It's really the only way to build a sustainably winning team. Expecting a GM to get 90% of all his moves right is just plain unrealistic, and when you have a solid farm, you can get by with a GM who gets 50-75% right. Maybe you have to plan on winning in cycles and not try every year. That doesn't mean tank or suck in between, like we have, at times, but just not expect us to go all in, every year. We are currently seeing the results of going all in from 2016-2018.

He didn't get rich by not looking for ways to make more and more profits. The Sox aren't his toy- well, maybe a little bit. Until we see evidence JH is going to change his ways, I'm going on the assumption he will continue spending way more than most owners do, but try very hard to never go over the tax line for 3 straight years and to try and avoid going way over in year two, which happens to be 2024, due to us not staying under in 2021. Like it or not, this seems to be our reality. We can wish and wish all we want. We can make reasonable points about how he should be able to spend way more and still turn a profit, but that doesn't change the reality. Maybe, someday he changes his methods.

He times his spending, when we have a solid foundation and we seemed to be just 1-2 key pieces away from being highly competitive. 2013 was not supposed to be "that kind of year." IMO, 2022 was not "that kind of year," either. I was hoping 2023 might be, but now, I'm not so optimistic.

Minor League FA & Rule 5 Additions: Ceddanne Rafaela Enmanuel Valdez Wilyer Abreu Brandon Walter Wikelman Gonzalez Eddinson Paulino Other Notables: Brainer Bonaci Kole Cottam Luis de la Rosa. Durbin Feltman Devlin Granberg David Hamilton Gilberto Jimenez Christian Koss Chris Murphy Victor Santos Nick Sogard Noah Song Jake Thompson Jacob Wallace Thaddeus Ward When we subtract the 2023 free agents from our 40 man roster and add the 5 players on the 60 day IL, we'll have 39 players. I don't think it is difficult to open 6 slots for the players above, or even 9, if the players in red are added, but once we start signing free agents, we will run against a roster crunch, unless we trade some players from the 40 man. Here is a look at some possible DFA, Trade or "Bubble Players: Option: Tommy Pham and James Paxton 1. Yu Chang 2. Abraham Almonte 3. Ryan Brasier 4. Kaleb Ort 5. Eduard Bazardo 6. Zach Kelly 7. Eric Hosmer 8. Tyler Danish 9. Jeter Downs 10. Connor Seabold 11. Franchy Cordero 12. Bobby Dalbec (not Hosmer & Dalbec) 13. Matt Barnes

Minor League Leaders in SLG% (500+ PAs) 9. Enmanuel Valdez .558 12. Niko Kavadas .547 15. Ceddanne Rafaela .538 ____________________ OBP 2. Kavadas .443 15. W Abreu .399 34. E Valdez .379 61. M Ferguson .366 69. B Jordan .363

The Sox might end up with 3 minor leaguers with 100+ RBIs and 4 with 90+: 114 Wilyer Abreu (most in all minor leagues) 102 Niko Kavadas (5th) 96 Max Ferguson (9th) 89 Brainer Bonaci (17th)

All Level Rankings on the Farm (350+ PAs) wRC+ 3. Kavadas 170 33. Mayer 144 66. E Valdez 135 74. Rafaela 134 80. Sikes 133 119. Paulino 128 135. Bonaci 125 150. W Abreu 124 150. Jordan 124 160. Lugo 122 160. C Rosier 175. Wong 121 204. Stewart 119 204. Granberg 119 Speed Index on fangraphs 2. Max Ferguson 9.7 6. David Hamilton 9.4 12. Corey Rosier 9.0 31. Eddinson Paulino 8.5 48. Phillip Sikes 8.3 49. Ceddanne Rafaela 8.2 74. Brainer Bonaci 7.8 100. Matthew Lugo 7.4

Yes, exactly, and vice versa.

When you trade them in the offseason, nobody is around to quote about their displeasure.

Maybe he was liked but not a "leader."

He often resets, and several times goes 2-3 years not going over the mark. We can all hope or complain about spending more, but until he does, I'm assuming he continues as he has been doing for 2 decades.

Then, Dwight got better!

Again, I am not disagreeing. I know clubhouse chemistry matters. My position is not exclusive of this. My point is that maybe the clubhouse leaders weren't all that great, this year, and changing them might help in the long run, even if it causes some immediate grumblings among the team. Maybe it's worse after a change is made. I'm just saying nothing was working, this year.

Interesting to see how Bloom gets bashed for having crappy players on the team, and when he cuts them, he gets bashed for that, too.

You don't have to remind me. I agree with your position. Most fans don't care. They will care only when JH cuts salary to re-set and not wonder why it had to happen. I get it. I'd love JH to spend more, too. It's not like I'm here wishing we don't sign good players.

Then, what's this talk about clubhouse leaders mattering?

Not to put down anyone's leadership skills, but the fact is, people who are complaining about the team's lack of focus and will to win, should not be praising the team leaders in the same breath. Just my opinion. people can say whatever they want.

Nobody knows but Bloom & brass and maybe Vaz. When we are forced to reset the tax, I'll remind people about 2023.

It's also never guaranteed that the team trading away players will do worse or be less exciting, then. people bitched most at the Vaz deal, and McGuire has done better. It's not hard to imagine anyone doing better than the post-deadline JD and Nate, either- same as speculating about us being better or worse, next year.