moonslav59

Yes, about $80M without Bogey. If you spend $50 of that as you indicated, we'll have $30M to spend on SS, RF, DH, C and more pen depth.

I brought up Vogelbach, but it would mean we trade Hosmer. He won't be DFA'd. He has value as a min wage guy, but he needs to okay any trade, so that might get tricky. I don't see Vogelbach as a big upgrade over Hosmer, but I do like him better. The cost of getting Vogelbach will not be worth the upgrade, IMO, and it would mean downscaling what we have to spend on the pen or rotation or SS & RF. Until we trade Hosmer, Vogelbach is not on my list. I'm actually okay with a Hosmer-Dalbec platoon to start 2023, but only if we do well replacing or bringing back Bogey, upgrading RF significantly and adding a solid SP and at least 2 solid pen arms. To me, there are too many high need areas to spend big on all of them. That is one reason I am not sure 2023 will be or should be a semi all-in season. I think we will choose 4-6 of the 7-8 high need areas to address, this winter, but in ways that also help 2024 and beyond, either with a few longer term solid signings or with some more one year deals that help us reset and basically punt the decision to 2024, while keeping us competitive enough to placate most fans.

If we have $80M to spend, that's not much left over for 2 of our top 3-4 high need areas (SS and RF.) If Bogey gets $25M or Swanson gets $23M per, what kind of RF'er do we get for $5-7M? Then, nothing for DH and C. To me, if we want be a top 4-5 contender in 2023, and I'm not sure that is a goal, we will need to trade for a solid pitcher, so we can spend more on SS, RF and the pen.

The Yanks have been in a very clear window of opportunity to win it all, after so many years. Cashman has resisted trading his very top prospects to get them to favorite status. It may end up working, years from now, but this was the time to go "all-in." He didn't even have to totally empty the farm, either, but his reluctance to hold onto his top 3-4 prospects hurt their championship prospects the last 2-3 years. Now, with Judge set to make mega bucks or bolting, unless they start spending way more, which seems unlikely, the window may be closed by 2023. They need to do better than the Donaldson, Carpenter and Gallo types. Before, it was Odor, Kluber, Paxton & Happ. Trying to catch lightening in a bottle, instead of going for more sure bets and forking over some bucks. True, they did get Cole and DJ, and I think the Taillon deal was solid, but still. They seem to be playing it halfway, at a time when "all-in" made sense.

Wrong again, I said I was puzzled by signing him and not making him the SS- not knowing about the arm injury and him being okay playing 2B. Also, I never said from day one. I just said I Liked it (past tense) and still do. Where have I ever said I disliked Bogey? I'm owed an apology, but I know I will never get one. It's not that hard to admit a mistake.

You never said we should have signed Schwarber to what he got with Philly (or more,) so you "whiffed," too.

Assuming Bogey becomes a FA, here is my ranked priority list with who we have, now, listed: SP (After Sale, Pivetta, Bello and maybe Whitlock or Houck) Paxton?- Crawford, Wink, Seabold (Mata, Walter, Murphy) . SS Arroyo, Downs RF Refsnyder, Dugo (Platoon: Duran in LF v R and Ref in RF v L)) P (RP/SP depending where Whitlock/Houck a re slotted) see SP above RP (After Whitlock? Houck? Schreiber, Barnes, Taylor? Kelly) Brasier, Danish, McGee, Reed, German, Ort, Dhern, Politi RP (see above) 1B/DH Casas at 1B, Hosmer/Dalbec at DH & back-up 1B Arroyo or Ref (AAA: E Valdez, Cordero) RP (see above) C McGuire, Wong (C Hamilton/RHern)

I liked the Story signing and still do. I have said, many times, I'd offer Bogey more than Story ($150-160M/6), so how does this show I "dislike" Bogey? You have bashed me over and over for saying you "hate Cora," despite me apologizing for saying that, yet it's fine for you to basically do the same thing. I guarantee there will be no apology from you for your lie.

Nobody wants to know.

I'm not hung up on it like you are with my saying you hated Cora, despite me quickly apologizing. BTW, Schwarber's 4 year deal with the Phillies might just be, essentially, a lifetime deal. He might be toast by age 33. Also, I never once heard you say we should have given more for Schwarber than Philly gave, yet you now say Bloom whiffed by not bringing him back. Classic.

I'm not crediting DD for being an overall plus on farm building. He hurt the farm much more than he helped. I am just saying he did better than many of us expected, and he kept Devers, Houck and a few others who make the term "decimated" untrue. The fact that our best prospects who made the bigs after Devers were Houck, Dalbec and Duran is not giving credit.

I seriously doubt we spend big at catcher. I think Sox management likes McGuire/Wong/RHern more than they like Downs at SS, Ref in RF, Hosmer-Dalbec at DH, Winckowski as the 5th SP'er, and whoever we have in the pen after Houck, Whitlock & Schreiber. It's just not a top 6 or 7 priority, and I doubt we spend enough to make it one. We may add a veteran catcher, known for defense and working with the staff, who can also tutor Wong and maybe ev en McGuire, a little bit- maybe even someone on a minor league deal or one of those minor league deals with an opt out if not on the Major League team by a certain date.

I did not expect him to be their starting catcher, despite Maldy's .586 OPS since 2021, because I know HOU values defense and pitcher-catcher comfort/confidence or whatever you want to call it more than catcher offense. I'll say it again, overall, Vaz has been a plus as a catcher. I'm glad the Sox had him. I think his plus O outweighed his faults b ehind the plate. I do not think he was as good as others felt, but that is not the same as saying he sucks or was a net negative. He wasn't. Houston needed someone to spell Maldy, so he'd be more rested for the playoffs. The trade made total sense for them and us. I think, if Vaz had hit .750 for Hou, he might have played a little more, but not much more. They love Maldy, here, unlike how many fans viewed Leon and Plawecki, here.

More absolute lies. I did not like either's D, but never wanted them benched. I love Bogey but not his D. Stop lying. Many times, I said I would not start Plawecki or Leon more than Vaz.

Like with Vaz, the sample sizes are too small and unbalanced to make any fair comps, but I will say those numbers are concerning. Here are the pitchers he caught the most: PAs Against/ OPS Against 186 Pivetta .840 (.754 w Wong in 58 PAs) 456 w Vaz .692 120 R Hill .800 (.582 w Wong in 43) 262 w Vaz .790 110 Crawford 1.034 (Wong 0 PAs w Crawford) 100 w Vaz .597 67 Bello .592 (.775 w Wong in 118) 83 w Vaz 1.027 67 Brasier .902 (11 PAs w Wong .182) 107 w Vaz .851 . 60 Schreiber .900 (18 PAs w Wong .516) 110 w Vaz .446 Clearly the edge goes to Vaz over the full season on almost all pitchers with 60+ PAs against.

I don't know. It looks like he did with Garcia and Valdez, and to a lesser extent with Uquidy and Smith, but I think the sample sizes are too small to prove he did or didn't suck on D. I do not think he gave HOU what they wanted or expected. I think he did worse than McGuire, after the trade. I doubt we even make him an offer, this winter, but they might make a one, just to say they appreciated him.

I would bet against you on this. They did better with his back-up, every year and overall. He's getting older, too. His bat was his best asset and even that was wildly inconsistent, but for a catcher, it was a clear plus- no doubt. I think he was a net plus, overall, in his time with the Sox, but not by as much as others felt he was, and going forward, IMO, we are better off with Wong & McGuire than a 32 year old Vaz in 2023.

The sample sizes are too small, and Houston used an almost total personal caddy set-up, so Vaz and Maldy caught different starters, almost exclusively. It would not be fair to compare overall CERA, which Vaz did amazingly close to Maldy's whole season numbers (3.02 to 2.91) OPS Against (note very unbalanced sample sizes) .730 Garcia w Vaz (189 PAs against) .395 w Maldy (371) .749 Urquidy w Vaz (133) .695 w Madly (449) .388 Javier w Vaz (127) .596 w Maldy (303) .784 W Smith v Vaz (63) .704 w Maldy (27) .449 Neris w Vaz (58) .572 w Madly (150) .800 Valdez w Vaz (58) .587 w Maldy (744) I'm not going to claim a 4-2 edge to Maldy proves anything, especially with small and unbalanced sample sizes, but it doesn't show Vaz was better than Madly, here.

I'm not sure what expectations have to do with it. Many here viewed Vaz a plus starting catcher and still want him back as our starter. He sucked after the trade. That is not "over the top." He did suck. For those who poo-poo the idea that many pitchers feel much more comfortable with a certain catcher over another, despite the guy they like better having a .586 OPS since 2021 (Maldonado) vs a guy they acquired, who had a .750 OPS, this is one further example of evidence that a specific catcher matters. Vaz did start many games (23) for the Astros- more than a typical back-up does, and he hit .583. GS'd 33 Maldonado (59%) 23 Vaz (41%) Before Vaz: 77 Maldonado (73%) 29 others (27%) Clearly, the Astros valued Vaz more than their previous back-ups and/or felt Maldy needed some rest for the playoffs, but Vaz has been a let-down in Houston.

Before the deadline, too: Donaldson Carpenter Gallo K-F Taillon to some extent

So every FA not signed by a GM on a restricted spending budget is a "whiff?" I thought you were against signing him to such a big contract, too. You blasted those who wanted to sign him to a "lifetime contract," as I recall. Please, correct me if I am wrong. (I was not for signing Schwarber for what he was signed for, unless we traded JD, which may have been difficult to do without including $5-10M, which in a sense should have been added to the price of Schwarber's contract.)

It might have been an organizational choice to stop trading promising prospects after the 2018 season, so crediting DD for keeping all our top prospects might be unwarranted, but the fact is, many of the prospects acquired under DD were not traded. We hear about the ones that were traded, all the time- even those not taken first. It's only fair he gets credit for those acquired and kept by him and the organization. He also kept some prospects acquired before he was the GM, so when someone says he "decimated" the farm, they are totally discarding Devers, who was our top prospect in 2017 [/b. Beni was a numb er 1, at one point, too- not traded by DD. Chavis was one of our top prospects from before DD and was never traded by DD. DD drafted Groome in the first round of 2016. He was our top prospect at the end of 2017, due to Beni & Devers graduating, but still, he was not traded by DD. Dalbec may not have been highly coveted by other GMs, but he did begin to show promise before DD's tenure ended and was not traded. Chatham, too. One would expect most of an organization's top prospects to have been acquired 3-6 years ago, unless you had top 5 picks in the last 2 years. I'm not trying to gloss over the fact that between Devers and Bello, only Houck has been a major factor. That's a pretty long stretch of very little farm significance, but here is how it looks, right now with Bello #3 at highest ranking, Duran #3, Crawford #16 as recent graduates: soxprospects.com: (Red= in farm under DD) Mayer Casas Bleis Rafaela Yorke Mata Romero Walter Paulino Anthony Wong Murphy Wikelman E Valdez Perales Jordan Lugo Ward Bonaci There is no doubt, the many prospect trades by DD hurt the farm, and hurt the big club after the players acquired by those prospects moved on from the team or their years of initial team control when acquired, but DD's farm was not as bad as many of us thought it was when he left.

I think this was a case of selective amnesia by RR.

He was a very good defensive SS and way better than Nomar, especially the hobbled Nomar of '04. How could Nomar have done what OCab did for us? OCab gave us a 1.3 dWAR in less than 60 games. He hit very well for us, too. .294 w 26 XBHs in 58 games. He then had 11 RBI in 14 playoff games with and .873 OPS vs the Yanks. He got a big hit in game 4 vs the Yanks that drove in a run to make it 2-1. He went 2 for 6 w BB in game 5. 2-4 with big hit before Bellhorn's HR in game 6. Game 7, he got on base 3 of 4 times, scored twice and had an RBI. Hard to forget all that. He was a big part of our winning effort in 2004.

If you look at his stats after the trade, it's very "believable," and it came at just the right time. Nomar was going to be a FA, so he was basically a rental trade. OCab was no slouch, but he was going to be a FA, too, so it was basically a wash there. Doug M was kind of a minor aspect of the trade. We needed defense at SS to make the team a WS contender. Nomar was never gong to give us that. I don't think we win in 2004 with Nomar over OCab, but there is no way to know. I remember, when the deal was made, I said to my fellow Sox fans brothers-in-laws, "We just won the ring by trading Nomar for Orlando Cabrera." They all said in unison, "Cabrera who?" The rest is history. It's almost always all about defense up the middle.