moonslav59

I thought he was open to moving. I guess this adds a reason to not re-sign him.

Brad Miller to Rangers and Jonathan Villar to Cubs, so it looks like no significant upgrade at 2B via free agency, this year. Archie Bradley to LAA for under $4M. Corey Dickerson $5M to Cards Matthew Boyd to SFG for $5.2M with over $2M in incentives. Royals looking into Montas trade! Options are dwindling as we speak.

Easier to move Bogey to 2B and keep Kike in CF FT. Verdugo plays LF or RF, depending on who else is playing- JBJ or Duran (the perfect lefty-lefty platoon!).

Houclock does?

I think Cora is really good with the pen he's been given. (2018's was pretty good, but it started leaking late in the season. I remember some felt Joe Kelly should not have even made the playoff roster, yet he turned into a hero.) As for starter health, we did lose Sale for most of 2021, and Houck missed some time, but yes, the rest stayed very healthy. In 2020 (no Cora), we missed ERod and Sale and 25% of Eovaldi's starts. In 2019, Sale missed time, Price started just 22 games and Eovaldi just 12. We got 37 starts from Velazquez, Johnson, Cashner, Chacin, Weber, Lakins and 4 others.

...and the genealogy.

Like I said, I need to get new glasses.

I do like Wacha ($7M) and Hill ($5M) more than I liked Richards & Perez at $15M combined, last March. That may not be saying much, because I was not thrilled with those signings either. We lost ERod, Ottavino, Richards, Perez, Robles and few others. We gained Wacha, Hill, Diekman and Strahm. We had hopes more innings from Sale might make up for some of the losses, but now...

Could be real bad, unless we sign 2-3 top FAs to fill the gaps left by Bogey, JD, Kike and Eovaldi, next winter.

Why not call it Whithouck?

I doubt both Houck and Whitlock start, so the other could close. I'd have Barnes, Taylor and others ahead of DHern, but your comment was well-taken. My only optimistic view on our pen is that I've felt this way about our pen for many of the last few years, and they keep surprising me. Have we got lucky? Is Cora a genius at pen usage? Are our pitchers better than we think they are? Houck/Whitlock Barnes Taylor Diekman Strahm Brasier Sawamura Davis (no options) DHern/Bazardo/Valdez/Feltman/ZKelly of a converted AAA starter: Winckowski, Crawford, Seabold, Bello, Groome

Henry has gone 2-3 years without major spending, before. I know that does not mean he will follow the same pattern and spend big, again. He might still be serious about success, but is looking for a different method to get there- a slow and steady approach without taking major long term risks, in which the vast majority of ours have been failures to varying degrees. I'm skeptical, too, and next winter should be the major test.

In 2021, it sure looked that way, but he had under 300 PAs. He's better than Arroyo.

...and we ended up with $10M Richards and $5M Perez in the pen, too.

...and maybe Springer & Biggio, too

Good points, but they also have Berrios for a full season and signed Kikuchi, this winter. Rotation: Ryu, Berrios, Gausman, Manoah & Kikuchi Their infield is insane! Guerrro (1B), Biggio (2B), Bichette (SS) and Chapman (3B) with Santiago Espinal at utility. Their OF is not too shaby either: Gurriel, Springer & Teoscar Hernandez (Grichuk as the #4) Jansen is their catcher. Their pen is not great. OPS in 2021 1.002 Vlad .907 Springer .870 THern .828 Bichette .785 Gurriel .781 Espinal .772 Jansen .716 Chapman (.808 career) .703 Grichuk .678 Biggio (.762 career)

I think would probably be starting, even if Sale was healthy. 1. Eovaldi 2. Sale 3. Pivetta 4. Hill 5. Wacha

Impressive line-up!

I am certainly skeptical about Dalbec's future production, but I am about Voit and Torres, too. It's all projections and speculations, and Dalbec has put up some pretty decent numbers in his first 156 games: .243 33 94 (.308/.511/.819) His OBP in the minors was .362, and it was .374 in college. There is hope he can improve on that while not losing the power he has already proven to have. Unlike Voit, he has stayed healthy and looks to be in good shape. Now, granted, Voit has had some amazing short stretches of awesome power, AND he gets on base (.357 career OBP). No doubt, if he is 100% healthy, he has the current edge over Dalbec and has twice the PAs of ML experience. It took him 5 years to double what Dalbec did in 156 games, so you can see why his value is low. Then, look at the ages for the following numbers and think years of team control... 162 game avg: .267 34 94 Voit (.867 OPS) ages 26-30 (He just turned 31/ 3 yrs of team control) .243 34 98 Dalbec (.819) ages 25-26 (About to turn 27/ 5 yrs of team contol)

I know they have limitations, and I don't agree with all of their evaluations, but they do a pretty good job at something that is very difficult to do. If you look at all the trades made, so far, many are very close to even or at minor or moderate overpay status. So, now you think Voit is better than BTV says they are? Didn't you call him a bag of s*** a few times over the last 2 years?

No medical staff can project a broken rib. I think they expected a lost year for TJS.

True, but when we signed Eovaldi to that money, he had never pitched like this, before. His highest ERA+ was 114 back with Miami in 2013, and that was just for 103 IP. He blew away his best FIP by leading the league at 2.79. His career FIP before 2021 was 3.97. And yes, I understand signing really good pitchers will cost $20-25M a year and more for the very best, but the guys you listed did not "wow" me, at all. Now, some of the guys traded for did.

Sounds solid.

BTV has this trade as dead even: Torres, King & Garcia for Duran

I chose them to single out, because of the enormous and unprecedented gap between their player budget and the second highest spender over the last few years combined. No doubt, they have won more than others, but I do feel rings are a big part of the package. They finally got one in the mess of the 2020 season, so "yeah" for them! I can see how many non Sox fans may have looked at our spending to win rings in much the same way, but we never blew ALL the others away in spending. Should that matter? I think it does. I'm fine, if others don't think the same way.