moonslav59

I don't remember very many meaningful defensive pick-ups for players expected to be FT'ers back in "those days." I do remember guys like... Manny Offerman Canseco C Everett Tommy Harper Lansford Tony Armas The "D guys?" Darren Lewis Darren Bragg FT? Reese D Buford A Cora Alex Gonzalez Spike Owen

I do, plus they were fed up with Nomar. When we made that trade, I said to my brothers-in-law, "OCab is going to win us a ring!" They said, "Who's he?"

It would have to be a soft stool.

Salvador Perez tied the catcher HR record with 45. The Royals are tied with the A's 2-2 in the 3rd. Yanks play at 5 pm, today.

These 8 home games might decide the whole ballgame. Although our last 6 games look "easy," they are on the road and we don't want to have to count on other teams losing.

That is what my post implied. I should have worded it differently.

Brett Gardner, too?

I won't deny we have gone after many big hitters, but what makes the henry era different from the others, IMO was placing higher priority on pitching and to some extent defense. Although Pedro was acquired before Henry, it wasn't until we added great #2 and deeper rotations and pend did we start seeing rings. Trades and FAs Schilling Lowe Beckett Wakefield Dice-K Lackey ERod Porcello Price Sale Eovaldi To a lesser extent: Wells, Clement, Burkett, Doubront, Peavy, Miley, Wright, Kelly, Pomeranz, Pivetta, Foulke Kimbrel Timlin Embree Koji Okajima Tazawa If you look at our top pitchers by WAR since 2003, only these pitchers were homegrown: 1. Lester 5. Buchholz 7. Papelbon 18. Barnes 31. Bard We did seem to focus on drafting hitters that could also play D more often than before: Betts Pedey JBJ Iggy Youk Reddick Nixon The best UZR/150 players we traded/acquired for were: A Beltre JD Drew Crisp R Sweeney S Leon D Mirabelli C Kotchman D Meintkewicz Victorino P Reese Alex Gonzalez A Cora B Holt S Drew I would agree that defense has not been a really high priority under Henry, but I do think higher than pre-Henry.

I doubt they flip him based on just a handful or games for Mayer, but this is my list.

A small stool might work.

Agreed.

So, give the guy a chair.

With robo umps, it might not be a bad idea.

Here is one way we might use our starters: Off BAL Seabold (+1 day rest) BAL Pivetta (+1) BAL ERod (+1) Off NYM Eovaldi (+2) NYM Sale (back from COVID) Off NYY Houck (+4) NYY Pivetta (+1) NYY Eovaldi Off @BAL ERod (+4) @BAL Sale (+2) @BAL Houck (+1) @WSH Pivetta (+1) @WSH Eovaldi (+1) @WSH ERod WC Sale (+1) We could also begin using Houck in the pen or as a "piggyback) RP'er and start him just once more: Off BAL Seabold (+1 day rest) BAL Pivetta (+1) BAL ERod (+1) Off NYM Eovaldi (+2) NYM Sale (back from COVID) Houck Piggyback Off NYY Pivetta NYY ERod (+1) NYY Eovaldi Off @BAL Houck @BAL Sale (+2) @BAL Pivetta (+1) @WSH ERod (+1) @WSH Eovaldi (+1) @WSH Sale if needed or Houck/Seabold WC Sale (+1)

Sox Days Off (and who TOR & NYY play to make up the 2 games they both have in hand): 9/16 NYY @ BAL 9/20 NYY v TEX, TOR @ TBR 9/23 TOR @ MIN 9/27 (all off)

To me, Baez is a way better defender than Bogey, so why move Baez to 2B?

I'm guessing, if we move Bogey off SS, he bolts after 2022. Who knows? Maybe he falls in love with 2B. It would be nice to have Kike in CF, Bogey at 2B and Arroyo as the infield utility guy. 1. Kike CF 2. Devers 3B 3. Bogey 2B 4. JD or Schwarber DH (only one on the team) 5. Renfroe RF 6. Baez SS 7. Dalbec 1B 8. Verdugo LF 9. ______ C

To be honest, I don't know what to trust for catcher defensive value rankings or metrics. To me, how a catcher handles a staff is most important. If robo umps are added, framing pitches value becomes meaningless. Blocking bad pitches and CS% have value, but how much? Get me a guy our pitchers love to throw to. Now that Vaz's offense is not a big plus anymore, there should be more options. One question is, do we give Vaz his $7M option and trade him? Are the enough GMs out there that want him at that price?

soxprospects.com really dinged him in their last rankings. Maybe they move him up for their end of season rankings. Some others should jump up, too. Maybe we see this: (Duran graduates) 1. Mayer (up from 2) 2. Casas (from 1) 3. Yorke (8) 4. Bello (7) 5. Seabold (9) 6. Groome (10) 7. Jordan (13) 8. Downs (4) 9. Jimenez (6) 10. Bonaci (15) 11. W Gonzalez (20) 12. Murphy (16) 13. Mata (11) 14. Song (12) 15. Bleis 16. Winckowski (14) 17. Lugo (18) 18. Santos 19. Wong 20. Hernandez 21. McDonough 22. Hickey 23. B Walter 24. Paulino 25. Ward (17), Arauz, Bazardo, Rafaela, Crawford, Cannon, Howlett

It's all about D for the catcher, to me. I don't know enough about catcher D on other teams, so maybe Bloom does.

I've always loved Simmons, for his defense of course, but the metrics show his defense has slipped a lot. (As has Iggy's.) There might be some young defensive SS some team will trade for cheap. Otherwise, my needle is moving towards Baez or Semien.

Of all the positions where defense is a major concern, I see Devers and Dalbec as the best chances for improving at their positions. Devers has done very well, defensively for very long periods of times, but then seems to slump on defense, many times while also struggling at the plate. I'm not sure if he is distracted- lack of focus or just cannot control his arm- ever. Since Devers and Dalbec have longer team control than Bogey and Vaz, I think the focus for this winter should be SS and Catcher and maybe RF. With Kike having just one year left, and Duran not being a defensive whiz, OF may be a higher priority than 1B and 3B, to me. (Plus, Casas offers a third option before too long.) I think the best thing to do is stick with Devers at 3B and Dalbec at 1B for another year. We'll know more about Casas. We need to get Devers to buy into working hard on improving his focus, footwork and throwing. Dalbec, too, but he seems to be improving over the last 4-6 weeks, on D. I'm not a Bogey hater, despite my obsession for great SS D, but I think we need to think about a change, there.

Me, too but not his D. I'm thinking Baez may be the best fit and should be cheaper than Correa and Story. Is Semien a FA?

I'm going: BOS 9-5 TOR 9-7 NYY 9-7

The Sox have less "hard games" though: 9 NYY 6 TOR 3 BOS (5, if you count the 2 games vs the Mets as hard)