moonslav59

Indeed. How many "elite" players have the Sox signed, this century? I count two: Manny & Price.

I'm happy about how both handle our staff, but the Wong offense has been putrid, of late. I think Thaiss is known for defense, and I guess I'd be okay with him taking Wong's slot on the 26. We could stash Wong in AAA.

I'd add Whitlock as the leagues highest fWAR #2 RP'er. I really like Slaten, too. Our SP'er depth looks very nice, as well.

It was shocking how much we focused on SP'ers. Even Oviedo might become a surprise.

.799 at AAA is not the end of the world, but certainly he didn't move himself any closer to getting another look. I'm not sure I'd use the word "wasted," but it wasn't a good year. He sucks on defense, so it makes sense to try and find out where he sucks the least. He may be a DH.

He did play in a 140 games and get 580 PAs between MLB & AAA, last year. (Plus 6s PAs in the PRWL.)

He certainly has a ways to go to even be considered for another MLB look-see. Maybe that gamble is a loss. It's $60M- about the same as Buehler+ Sandoval+Kluber+Richards gambles.

Having depth is not a problem, and if we had a gaping hole somewhere else, one could argue there is a problem, but I don't see one anymore. I wish we'd have gotten a better infielder than Durbin, but he's pretty good. I wish we got a bigger bat than Contreras, but he is pretty good, too. We did better than I ever expected on improving the rotation, so hopefully that makes up for the possible shortcomings I mentioned. I think our roster looks pretty solid. We have no major weak areas. We might have the best rotation in MLB along with a top five 1-2 or 1-2-3 RP'er punch. We balanced the left-righty issue a little bit, despite losing Refsnyder. I think our overall infield defense will be better. The OF defense is A #1.

Where is all this Wong love you speak of? Okay, Kimmi has said she likes him as the back-up catcher and others have said he's prtty good on defense and knows our staff, but I'm not seeing any "love."

What do you think Bello would get as a FA? Have you seen what some pitchers with way worse records than Bello have gotten, recently? He's owed $50M/4 or $70M/5: 26:$6M, 27:$8.5M, 28:$16M, 29:$19M, 30:$21M club option ($1M buyout) I know the arb equation is vastly different than the FA equation, but many GMs would love to have Bello at this cost. Yes, some of the low budget teams would not want him at this cost but would take him for a couple arb years, then maybe trade him, assuming he gets to expensive.

I've said these types of early extensions are gambles that seem no more risky than other types of signings. All of these signings, except the Whitlock one is too early to know if they are or will be good ones. I've watched so many of our younger players bolt for free agency, that in general, I like the idea of locking up the young players we think will be very good. Not anyone and everyone. Not Sogard. I wouldn't even lock up Mayer. I might look to lock up Narvaez, but I'm not advocating for it. I think the Bello signing is working out pretty well, so far, He's just entering prime, now, and with the two seasons he's had his arb costs would likely have been pretty high. Of course, how he does this year would affect what his 2027 arb would have been. It's a guessing game. Even when his years of control are done, we might still have disagreements on being worth it or not. The Rafaela extensions is off to a very nice start, but there is a long way to go. The Anthony extension is way too early, but he has some major upside. Only the KC extension is off to a bad start. Of course I look at all the elements involved with judging if the extension is or will be worth it or not. I'm not claiming victory on any of the extensions nor defeat on the KC one.

There is a report on MLBTR that the Sox have not explored an extension with Early.

I'm not a big Wong fan, but why assume a player will continue his last season's OPS again and again? I'd be fine with Thaiss as our #2 catcher.

But, but, but he sucked in AAA after the demotion, too!

I'm not sure about the advantage of locking a guy up for ages 32-34 seasons, especially when he still has some question marks.

ST'ing should never be used to project season stats, but we have some eye-popping numbers, so far... 2.176 Duran 1.563 Contreras 1.438 Rafaela 1.206 Eaton 1.189 Gasper 1.093 Durbin 1.086 Story 1.016 IKF .940 Narvaez .900 Ward .816 Mayer .809 Ferguson .797 Castro, .754 McDonough, .735 Hickey .623 KC, .616 Anthony, .611 Romero, .586 Thaiss .437 Abreu, .382 Sogard, .247 Wong WBC 1.654 Yoshida 1.412 Duran 1.238 Cheng

The next wave is following the current one.

It looks like 5 players will be on the IL for opening day: 60 Day: Houck & Romy 10/15 Day: Crawford, Sandoval & Casas. Other teams have several injuries, too, and some to more important players than ours, but we could sure use these guys healthy.

No player has been listed in my BTV trade suggestions more than DHam.

I've never put much stock into ST'ing and WBC numbers, but it does seem better to see so many players doing well than the opposite.

I have mentioned this several times. How am I not taking this into account? I mentioned arb estimates vs production, and what happens during the last arb years and the years that go beyond are very important to judging the success of locking these guys up. All are a long way from that time. So far, some look good, but I'm not claiming wins. It sounds like some are claiming defeat before the majority of the deal has even occurred. If they do great, we'll make out. If not, we may lose out. It's a gamble- not much different than a gamble on Buehler+Sandoval+Kluber+Richards, which is about what we are paying Bello. Yes, he was already under control at decent prices. The contract has to beat that and or make up for it in the final "post control" years. I could say "you have to take this into account."

Where did I even hint at thinking this? I wasn't for extending Mayer or even Duran. I wasn't for extending Crawford or Slaten. I wasn't even thinking about extending Rafaela, Bello and KC, until they did it. I never suggested we do it. I've reacted to what was done and think 3 of the 4 deals (4 of 5, if you count Whitlock) look pretty good, so far, but much can still happen- for good or for bad.

Lets not extend Narvaez, until he's worth way more, too.

Maybe the $1M price tag is reason enough. I like this move and the fact that he is a lefty. I'm not sure the lefty thing was as urgent as it appeared, since our top RH'd RP'ers have done pretty well vs LHBs. OPS Against Career Whitlock: .648 v L/ .668 v R Slaten: .542 v L/ .606 v R Weissert: .711 v L/ .665 v R Crawford: .723/ .709 Kelly: .734/ .699 (not really horrible, and he's the worst on the list.) LHP Sandoval crushes LHBs: .598/.734 Chapman, too: .462/.553 Coulombe: .596/.694 Moran: .602/.622

With the Romy to the 60 Day IL news, losing Refsnyder looks more hurtful, despite the OF/DH logjam.