moonslav59

No poster has ever said baseball players don't deserve massive contracts?

I might go... MVP: Ohtani/T Turner Cy: Cole/ Burnes ROY: Adolis Garcia/ J India MOY: Cora/Kapler

How about Cincy ending up with 3 of the top 8 OPS finishers? 6. Winker .949 7. Castellanos .939 8. Votto .938 450+ PAs TOR had 3 in the top 28: 2. Vladdy 27. Semien .873 28. Hernandez .870 Sox had 3 in the top 32 (4, if you count Schwarber) 9. Schwarber .928 22. Devers .890 30. JD .867 32. Bogey .863 LAD had 4 in the top 46 (5 if you count Trea Turner) 15. T Turner .911 19. Muncy .895 34. Smith .860 36. Betts .854 46. J Turner .832

I think we can win (or lose) in many different fashions.

We are still big spenders, but we are way lower than we were a few years back, and a chunk of our current payroll was going towards Price & Pedey. No excuses. We are stills pending more than most team, even taking out the sunken money, and way more than many teams.

You make a great point, Max, really- you do, but JD is the DH, and playing Devers at 1B and Bogey at 3B or 2B would not change the offense much, depending on who we got to play SS. (Semien > Dalbec)

I'm the least superstitious person in the world, but I wore the same Sox shirt for the last 3 wins, and I'm not washing it. I'll put it on tomorrow night and hope my wife won't notice the smell.

I honestly would not mind seeing us do more of what the Rays do, but with a higher budget. That's why I am looking at our one-year control players and thinking about what we can get for them. That being said, we need a solid pitcher, and spending on one via free agency is not the Rays way, but they do go out and get guys like Rich Hill, so think like that but just on a bigger scale.

Exactly, there always seems to be outrage when people who never had any money or not much makes it big. That seems to bother people more than anything.

I'm fine with keeping him at 3B, but I hope we push him real hard to work on his defense. One thing that complicates that plan is that Devers has gone very long stretches of playing plus defense. The issue seems to be fielding slumps that apparently are caused by losing focus and concentration. I'm not sure working all winter long can help that. (It also will not help, if he's at 1B, either.) Devers is such a great hitter and leader that he way overshadows his limitation on defense, but it would be nice to see him round into an all around great player. I'd extend him, this winter.

Good to see you back, Kimmi.

They both had nice bounce back years' Goldschmidt had a 17.5 fWAR (ages 25-27) 15.3 fWAR (ages 28-30) 3.0 in 2019 2.2 in the shortened 2020 season- actually much better than 2019 4.9 in 2021 (10.1 in 2.4 seasons ages 31-33) Certainly very good, and better than most aging players, but still a drop off. Votto is older, and he did very well in his mid 30's: fWAR 7.2 (age 31) 5.2 (32) 6.5 (33) 3.5 (34) 0.5 (35) 0.5 (36) short season 3.6 this season (age 37)

If one team has a better roster at a lower budget, they should get the GM of the Year Award. IMO, the manager of the year should go to the manager who got the most out of the players he was given- not their salaries.

I think he is worth close to $7M, too. I'm just wondering, if we can cut some corners at the catching position without losing a step, while adding funds to other areas of high need. Bringing back both Vaz and Plawecki makes sense, too. With one year of team control, I think GMs start looking at moves and other options.

The Trout, Goldschmidt and Votto comps also offer a glimpse at the back end of long mega deals.

I think greatly improving the defense would make our pitching look improved without changing anything, but as I have mentioned before, it is complicated by the fact that some of our best offensive players are entrenched in their positions and not plus defenders. Moving them could create dissension or pouting. Trading them creates issues elsewhere, such as offense or finding a suitable replacement at a reasonable cost. Maybe we can tweak our defense a little, this winter and add some top quality arms, as well. That would be my plan. It might not take as much as I think it will. Our staff was basically top 10 or 12, overall, and if you look at that horrific BAbip number, we could easily claim our staff was top 6-9 in MLB, as strange as that sounds! ERod is a big question, and the QO offer and decision may be a key point in our winter direction. Losing Richards, Perez, Ottavino, Andriese and others looks more like addition by subtraction, even if we replace them all from within our existing system. This also offers us a huge opportunity to greatly improve without even adding to the budget. Bloom will be closely watched, and this winter may define his career as a Sox GM. Of course, the budget set by Henry will be a big factor, but I have to think, Bloom will be allowed to spend up to the tax line, again, assuming the CBA does not radically change anything.

Is Vaz worth the $7M, and since he's a FA after 2022, should we start thinking about replacing him, sooner rather than later? Plawecki hits pretty well for a back-up, but he made $1.6M, this year and is up for his final arb year. Not tendering him an arb offer or trading him might make sense, too. If we feel Wong or Ronald Hernandez could be a fine back-up, it might be a way to save a little money and open another slot on our 40 man roster for a Rule 5 player, a bubble player like Rosario or Potts, or another free agent or trade addition. The catching position is in play, this winter, IMO.

Yes, it's crucial to id who the 'garbage' is, and why other teams are so blind to that we can trade them for 'medium free agents'. Nearly everyone on the roster has been called garbage at some point this year, so it's hard to keep track. -JAD Ain't that the truth. There was a lot of Renfroe bashing in late April. Cora was being roasted for using a "career utility guy" (Kike) at lead off into June. Verdugo was bashed when he went into a mid season swoon. Dalbec deserves a category, all by himself. Even Devers defense was bashed, and he had a couple slumps that got people talking. Arroyo's injuries. Bogey's second half cliff. Even steady JD was bashed. The SP'ers deserved most of their lashings. The pen was praised for months, then imploded on a massive scale, led by Barnes. I have praised Bloom for improving the depth of our 40man roster and beyond (players not needing to be placed on the 40 man,) but we still have room to improve our depth and our top quality at the top of our 26 man roster. I've mentioned a minimum number of 4 key additions needed, this winter: 1) a solid SP'er 2) a solid #3/4 SP'er (ERod?) 3) a solid set up RP'er (assuming Houck and or Whitlock are in the pen) 4) a solid, and I mean no Marwins, infield utility man (Arroyo, if we add a starting 2Bman?) These additions do not negate the need to improve the bottom of the 40, but some of that will be done by adding our rule 5 protectees, who look vastly better than the guys they will be replacing and exponentially better than the bottom of our 40 man roster in 2020. I've posted something similar to this, before, but here might be the framework for our 40 man roster, next year with 4 slots left open for FAs or trade additions: S1 ______ S2 Eovaldi S3 Sale S4 ______ (ERod on QO?) S5 Pivetta R1 Houck R2 Whitlock (maybe the #4 SP'er) R3 ______ R4 Taylor R5 Barnes R6 DHern R7 Brasier R8 Sawamura C Vazquez (traded?), Plawecki (traded?) 1B Dalbec 2B Arroyo, _____ (utility) 3B Devers (to 1B?), Casas SS Bogaerts (traded? to 3B/2B?) LF Verdugo, Duran CF Kike RF Renfroe DH/OF Martinez (traded? Schwarber?) Other 14 players on the 40man roster: SP: Seabold, Bello (Rule 5), Crawford (Rule 5), Winckowski (Rule 5), V Santos (Rule 5), Mata, Groome RP: Valdez, A Davis, Feltman (Rule 5) C: Wong, R Hernandez (maybe on replaces Plawecki on 26) IF: Arauz, Downs (Rule 5) OF: Cordero Bubble/traded/DFA'd: Rosario, Potts, Munoz Not Rule 5 protected: G Jimenez, T Ward, F German, D Granberg, K Ort, T Reed

Just some observations on your insightful comments... I'd like to keep Robles over Davis, too, but Robles is a FA, and Davis is not. I'd keep Cordero on the 40 man, in hopes that he reaches his potential. Trading Barnes when his stock is low, may not be a good idea. Trading Bogey rather than watch him sulk at 3B may be a better option. Moving Devers to 1B does create a mega logjam that may necessitate a trade (Casas or Dalbec?) I still see Sale as a #1 or #2, but he has not looked like one, this year. I am not certain Eovaldi will repeat 2021 in 2022, but calling him a #1 or #2 is fine with me. Either way, I think Bloom looks to add a solid #2, at worst. Maybe that's just my hopes seeping into what I think will happen, but I have to think Bloom looks at our starters from this year and sees a high need for a solid starter, whether ERod returns or not. The pen moves depend a lot on where Whitlock and Houck are intended to be slotted. I like Seabold, but would like him slotted as out #7 SP'er. (#6, if we solidify our pen at the expense of adding a #4 SP'er on top of a #2.)

Other teams lose payroll, too and don't spend $40M. I'd be curious to see what teams spent what after subtracting what came off the books. My guess is, we'd still be one of the biggest net plus spenders, last winter. Some teams blew us away, but many more teams went very cheap, this year. We lost JBJ's $11M and some of Beni's contract, but not all. We cut some salary at last year's trade deadline, but I think JBJ and Beni were the only significant subtractions- maybe totally about $15M. If you count Kike's second year and Sawamura's 2nd and third year cost, we are still near $35M in total net spending.

Excellent point, and when you watch guys like Archer and Snell go to other teams and basically suck, it indicates, he is doing something other managers are not. I'd be fine with him winning or the guy from Seattle, but to me Cora is a genius and deserves the award. We were God awful, last year, and not the great in 2019. On paper, we did not look all that good, this year. Many felt we'd have a losing record- even several Sox posters.

I totally get your point and agree, but the counterpoint is valid, too. How many teams spent as much as us, last winter? It does not seem like much, because we had to spread it out to fill the massive holes deep into our 40 man roster, but we spent about $40M. That is big market spending- just spread out. $8.9M for Ottavino via trade (not a FA) $10M Richards (counting the 2022 buyout of $1.5M) $7M x 2 Kike $5M Perez (counting the $500K buyout) $3.1M Renfroe $3.0M Marwin $1.5M Sawamura $1.0M Santana

I don't live in New England, so I'm out of the media loop. I was thinking there was some exception for an injury, but that does not apply to players added after August 31st.

I was asking about health not telling. Oh, and I meant to ask about Taylor. I was wondering why Davis would be left off Max's list when he's done better than 4-5 pitchers on the list. Bazardo would be a big reach. Vaaldez had that big implosion game (or two) that totally messed up his numbers, but he's been AWOL since Sep 5th. I doubt he's an option. I'd go with these starters- in this order of confidence: 1) Eovaldi 2) ERod 3) Houck (could be used as a closer) 4) Sale 5) Pivetta (could be used in relief) Pen (in order of confidence in high leverage) Note: the pen is the one area I give serious credence to the recency bias effect. 1) Whitlock (Houck, if not starting) 2) Brasier 3) Robles 4) Sawamura 5) Davis 6) Ottavino 7) DHern 8) Barnes 9) Perez 10) Richards If Taylor is healthy, I'd slot him #4.

We missed by what 2 days? I think we got him on Sept 1 or 2nd, right? What a shame!