moonslav59

I think Wong and RHern have been alternating C/DH in WOO, so calling Wong up actually let's RHern get more reps at catcher. How much Wong plays might depend on DFA'ing Plawecki or not.

Probably the thick one.

Like it or not, this is how I see the 2023 roster: Unless traded, these players will be back, next year: Barnes Sale Devers Taylor (assuming healthy) Verdugo Pivetta Arroyo Houck Mata Wong Whitlock RHernandez Crawford Winckowski Bello Paxton (option) Story Schreiber Refsnyder McGuire Pham (option) Hosmer Casas (Rule 5) German (Rule 5) Gonzalez (Rule 5) Murphy (Rule 5) Paulino (Rule 5) Rafaela (Rule 5) Walter (Rule 5) E Valdez (MiFA) That's only 30 out of 40 needed. Possible Returnees, Traded or DFA'd? (Red= may be back or traded) DHern Dalbec Seabold Downs Duran Cordero Danish Ort Ja Davis Borderline Rule 5 Protectees/Lost to Rule 5 (likely will not be selected.) WAbreu BBonaci KCottam DFeltman DGranberg DHamilton GJimenez CKoss NNorthcut VSantos NSogard NSong JThompson JWallace TWard

With one of those micro pens?

Wong hit another HR (14th) and Enmauel Valdez is 1-4 w 2 RBI. Mata walked 4 in 3 IP (2 H, 1 ER). Wong has 7 HRs in his last 14 games, Wilyer Abreu is 3-4 w BB, so far w POR. Koss 2-5 with 14 dinger. Kavadas 1-4 w BB. Binelas 1-3 w 2B. Hamilton 1-3 w 2BB.

Cut Brasier and Plawecki. Add German, Casas and Murphy to the 40. Call up Wong & Casas, tonight. Add Murphy and Casas for September call-ups.

A more realistic trade would be to a big spending team. Would you trade Devers, Wong and Wink to SEA for France & Raleigh? (BTV accepted)

There are a lot of other players I'm interested in, but I'm not sure the budget will be big enough to sign them all. Eventually, it will come down to some either/or choices, and I think 1B and or DH might be the slots left untouched.

Remember when many of us were considering a QO for Eovaldi?

Indeed. That's why I said it's not like he's in DHern territory.

As a Sox fan, I hope you are right.

The Pistons?

A quarter of the board was crying about us not getting him, all year.

They could trade for higher-priced players or arb players some cheap teams might look to trade. I'd like to see us get Swanson at SS, but KWong at 2B would be nice, if Story moves to SS. (Neither should cost more than Story did.) Kike & Nimmo would be great for the OF, and neither will be mega deals. Re-sign Wacha or maybe offer him a QO. Maybe a couple RP'ers. I'd like to see Diaz or Jansen, but that's not likely. Fulmer would be nice, if we can keep Houck & Whitlock in the pen. We might add Abreu at 1B/DH on a short deal. I doubt we seriously go after Judge, Contreras, Turner, Correa or deGrom, but we could.

I'm not sure they want a total and complete overhaul, but if they did, you are right. If they know they will never reach Devers' demands, they should trade him, and this is from "Mr. Devers Forevers." I think the plan will be to spend big, this winter, but it will be year 2 on the tax ledger, so I'm not expecting a bunch of long term deals that ensure we go over in 2024, too. I think we go large and long on 1-2 deals, or 1 with a mega deal for a top SP- maybe with the Marlins. The prospect cost will be great, but I think we can afford one big prospect trade after something like 8 of the last 10 trades involving prospects coming our way. I could also see us going pretty big on 3-5 deals and making one big splash trade. May be something like... Rafaela, Yorke, Wikelman & Duran to MIA for Lopez & Stallings Sign: Nimmo, Kike, K Wong, Wacha, Fulmer C: Stallings/McGuire (Wong/RHern) 1B: Hosmer/Casas (Dalbec/Kavadas/Jordan) 2B: K Wong, Arroyo (EValdez/Downs/Hamilton) SS: Story (Lugo/Mayer/Bonaci) 3B: Devers (Koss/Binelas/Paulino) LF: Verdugo, Pham (Granberg/McDonough CF: Kike (Ja.Davis/Bleis) RF: Nimmo, Refsnyder (WAbreu/Jimenez DH: Casas/Verdugo-Pham/Dalbec/Cordero/EValdez SP: Lopez, Sale, Paxton, Wacha, Pivetta (Bello, Mata, Ward, Wink, Seabold, Murphy, Santos) RP: Houck, Whitlock, Schreiber, Taylor, Barnes, Crawford, German, Brasier/Danish (Winckowski/Seabold/Murphy/Kelly/Ort/Thompson/Politi)

I wouldn't call it a longshot- not that you did. He's got good stuff, and although he walks too many batters, it's not like DHern territory. Plus, he just turned 23.

What's early? They should b e bounced, if they fail to make the WS. I know the Astros are tough, but it's gone on, too long, already.

There are also a lot of examples where pitchers had bad to very bad starts and then became great, sometimes shortly afterwards- sometimes a few years later. I'm impatient, too. It's been too long since our last prospect pitcher made good with us. (Houck?)

For real, though, if Bogey opts out, our veteran, pre-arb budget will be around $60M at the start of winter. I'm thinking that may be the lowest in a long time. (These one year deals are a major factor.)

Bello had some pretty incredible numbers in AA/AAA, this year, despite the 36 BBs in 96 IP (3.4 BB/9.) 129 Ks (12.1/9) .559 OPS Against 2.52 G/F was by far, the best starter in the system (Walter was 2nd at 2.23) He may end up not impressing, but he's the best looking pitching prospect we've had in a long time. (Mata might be second best.)

lmao!

I was responding to another poster. I think it's fair to say that when a pitcher gets a batter to swing at a ball outside the strike zone, it was a good pitch.

Did you see the pitch? There is a reason Urshela points to the sky after getting that key hit... MLB Gameday: Red Sox 2, Twins 4 Final Score (08/29/2022) | MLB.com WWW.MLB.COM Follow MLB results with FREE box scores, pitch-by-pitch strikezone info, and Statcast data for Red Sox vs. Twins at Target Field

It's good to hear from such an unbiased commentator as Eck. (I love the guy, but of course he's going to view the pen as being very important, and of course, it is.)

Fair enough. I hate higher prices, too, and when I look at concert ticket prices, I'm astounded. To me, personally, I can't de-couple the actual winter spending budget, the amount of new farm infusion each year and the production of inherited players when judging any GM. Of course, the biggest judgment comes from grading the actual moves they make, but to me, it's should have context attached. When I hear, "The Rays and A's don't have any rings," I think, "sure that's true, but they run a good system to be able to but together competitive teams more times than not on a shoestring budget and without getting top draft picks, year-after-year like Pittsburgh & Baltimore." It's all relative, to me, but I know full well, those concerns don't reach most fans. They want a winning tea, right now. Nothing wrong with that. And, when they see the Sox budget being higher than almost any other teams, anything said is just excuse-making. I get that. The point has merit. We should be winning more than we are, this year. No doubt. The next logical step is to say, "The buck stops at the top," and that makes sense, too. Those who try to add context to what Bloom has faced aren't oblivious to the fact that we are in last place while spending more than 25 teams, but we don't view it as excuse-making to point out facts that were beyond Bloom's control being maybe too much to overcome the good he has brought to the system, as a whole. While the W-L record may show we are no better off than 2020, I think we are. The 40 man roster is deeper and stronger, even if too much is just mediocre. The past 40 man roster was at or worse than replacement level from #30 to #40. The long term dead money is almost gone, and sale's money is not Bloom's doing. (Story's is.) The long term budget looks brighter. The farm, on paper, looks much better, and that's all you can really as of a GM, until the players start making it to the bigs- 2-6 years from now. (We can see how little the farm has contributed after 2018: Houck, Dalbec, Duran...) The 2021 results were better than expected. The 2022 results were not. In a rebuild, that's not uncommon. When you look at Bloom's major moves, one-by-one, you will see a lot of "failures," but many are player signed to $2-5M, and those are the types of contracts where gambles are taken and losses are very common. Now, the moves like Richards and Story were not minor, but the fact that only 2 have been made at $10M or more says alot about the need to temper expectations. The midlevel signings have been more successful: Kike, Wacha, Hill and it looks like he missed on Perez by a year. He was supposed to be great at finding gems in the rough at less than $3M, and guys like Andriese & Marwin were big failures, but he also signed Renroe for $3.1M, stole Whitlock, Arroyo, Schreiber and Refsnyder off Rule 5 and waivers. Strahm was a decent signing. His trades have been the most hotly debated and for good reason. The JBJ trade jumpsout and seemingly overshadows all others, and the fact that prospects were attached to nearly every trade made, makes it hard to definitively judge them prematurely. The Pivetta deal got us a solid 4/5 starter for nothing. The Ottavino trade, which cost us nothing, also brought us German. The Beni trade looks bad, but the $3M saved did allow us to sign an OF'er in his place (Renfroe or you could say Marwin.) The deadline deals look like pluses, overall- both for now and going forward. How many GMs can say that? I know I ran on and on, here, and much of this has been said before. I know I'm not changing anyone's mind and saying I'm just hoping some understand our viewpoint better sounds condescending, but I honestly don't mean it that way.