moonslav59

Wow, F to B for Paredes. That's more that I'd raise his grade.

Does Paredes, Hoerner of Saw brin it up to a D for you?

Ranger A S Gray B+ Contreras B+ I K F B as utility, but D- as a starter. Final grade: Incomplete No more moves made, it's a C- to D, in my book. Add Paredes: A-/B+ Add Hoerner B+ Add Shaw B+

They musta known that when they signed Framber, but they might have decided, if we lose the Skubal arb, we'll trade Torres. Maybe that's what Brez has been waiting for... LOL! NOT!

It was a 3 question test: 1. Get a #2 SP'er. Yes 34 points 2. Get a big middle order bat. Maybe a little more than half credit (Contreras) 20 points 3. Get a solid 3B/2B man. No (got a solid defender) 6 pts. That's a 60 and an F at my school. Extra credit for Gray might get me to bump you up to a 65, but no pass.

Tolle is higher ranked for a reason- mostly upside potential, but there was a reason Early got the call first. Yes, it's a small sample size, but the guy seems to be mentally ML ready. I'd try like hell not to trade either one. Witherspoon is close to the same feeling. I'm moving towards trading Bello, too.

I was one who said he shoulda asked for $24-26M. Wow, I wonder if the Tigers wish they didnt sign Framber. Maybe they need to dump some salary and we can trade DHam and Harrison for G Torres and $10M.

I don't think we were unlucky, last year. It was kinda normal, except that maybe most injuries were to SP'ers and 3 were basically lost for the whole year. These days, that's not all that abnormal. I think we had better than average everyday player luck with injuries. I was shocked Story player 150+. I was not shocked Casas got hurt blowing a bubble. Counting on normal injuries, we have the best rotation depth in MLB. Our everyday depth is not great, but we have 4 OF'ers, where all 4 are better than most team's best 2. Our catcher depth is not good, but we added a couple okay AAA catchers. Our infield depth is not shallow, it's just not all that good, however, there is not much of a drop off from DHam to Sogard to Eaton. On hitting, there isn't much from IKF to those 3. My whole assumption is based on adding another infielder. If we don't. I'm worried.

Clearly, we have focused more on drafting pitchers in the 20 years before Brez. Our top 3 picks that were pitchers since 2003: Most of the pitchers taken in the top 10 were ranked 6-10 2003: 3rd (#49) 5 of top 10 2004: 2nd (95) and 3rd (125) 5 of top 10 2005: 2nd (26) & 3rd (42) 4 of 10 2006: 2nd (28) and 3rd (40) 6 of 10 2007: 1st (but #55) 4 of 10 2008: 2nd (45) 4 of 10 2009: 2nd (77) 4 of 10 2010: 3rd (39) 4 of 10 2011: 1st (19 Barnes) & 3rd (36) 5 of 10 2012: 2nd (31) 3rd (37) 8 out of 10 (after 10 years of more everyday in the top 10) 2013: 1st (7 TBall) and 2nd (43) 7 of 10 (looks like Ben did focus more on P) 2014: 2nd (33-Kopech) 5 of 10 2015: none in top 4 picks 3 in top 10 2016: 1st (7- Groome) and 3 (88th) 4 of top 10 (back in the groove, but 2 yrs in a row w top pick P'ers) 2017: 1st (24-Houck) 4 in 10 2018:: 3rd (100) 3 in 10 (4 yrs with 14 in 40) 2019: 3rd (107) 5 in 10 2020: 3rd (118) 2 of 4 picks 2021: none in top 3 and just 4 in top 10 2022: none in top 3 and 6 in 10- 5 of em from #5-10 2023: none in top 3 (way to go Bloom!) and 5 in 10 (3 of em 8-9-10) ____________________________ Change: 2024: 2nd (50) and 3rd (86) and 4 of top 6 and 6 of 10 (12 of top 16!) 2025: 1st (15 Witherspoon) and 2nd (33) and 8 of 10 & 14 of top 19 picks (14 of top 20 over 2 years) That's a sea change.

We should not lose more games to injury than 2025. Remember, Houck was our #2 in February, Buehler was our #3, Crawford was our #5 or 6. Guys like Gio & Dobbins were rarely talked about in positive light. Bello was our #4 or 5 in FEB. We were also kinda counting on Hendriks and Sandoval to make an appearance near the deadline. While nobody was drooling over the return of Casas, he did off some hope. We lost Devers to trade, and Bregman, Anthony, Mayer and Abreu to injuries in '25, too. You call is based on more injuries in '26 than '25? Okay, if that happens, maybe, but why not think some guys will be back from injury? Maybe even more than how many get hurt.

He did trade 5 pitchers (w no everyday players) for Contreras & O'Neill.

BTV also accepts Early for Shaw- plus we can always just add DHAM! (LOL)

I haven't been to Fenway in many years, but I'm never cancelling my NESN subscription.

I'm saying we haven't drafted for a need (pitching) despite knowing we've needed pitching for over 20 years. notin was saying we don't know what we'll need in 2-4 years. I'd say we knew all too well.... and for more than 2-4 years.

More importantly, the downgrade from .827 Alonso to .817 Willson moved us from ring contention to 4th place in the ALE.

I might say 33%, so we are not far off on the pessimism spectrum on this one.

I didnt bring it up in the post you responded to. You brought it back up.

How did you take the word "adjust?"

Plus, the team is higher rated than last winter and spending $50M more than 2024. As much as I wished/wish we'd do more, it's hard to whip up massive rebellion when these two facts are standing front and center. We should win more than 2025. We shoulda got even better, but we do look better, now.

I'm kinda glad Brez wasn't "interested in" Ranger.

I'm not sure the Cubs want to trade for a "down-the-road guy like Witherspoon, even if they really like him alot. The Tolle for Saw deal looks like a possibility. (Add DHam... LMAO!)

Well, the Sox did for about 20 years, but your point is well-taken.

I'd say maybe they can be combined: he wont get the guy he wants most in winter or at the deadline.

I know the SFG situation was different. I acknowledge that, so "not seeing that" is another wrong assumption. Oh, and by the way, he wasn't so willing to get ready to play 1B so quickly with them, too. He missed a workout session at 1B as he shuffled his selfish feet, all along. Differing opinions, even when astounding are fine with me, but pretending posters don't understand your point because they disagree is a problem for some, yes.

"He expressed his feelings. John did the same thing," Cora said. "I think the most important thing here is we're trying to accomplish something big here. And obviously there's changes on the roster, situations that happened, and you have to adjust.... The plan is to keep having conversations..." Oh, so I suppose this means to you, "Management needs to adjust to the Devers demands and wishes. We need to keep talking to him so he can help us adjust and do as he says by going out and getting a 1Bman, instead of asking politely for him to play there for the team's good." Okay. I got your position down. It's so obvious the "changes on the roster" was the Casas injury. It's so obvious that the "have to adjust" meant changing the idea of Devers as the FT DH to playing 1B was what Cora, Brez and JH wanted or at worst came to a consensus about. One other major point about wanting to adjust the roster to improve the team involved finding a place for Anthony to play, and Anthony at 1B was not going to be an option. Anthony at DH was part of the whole "getting batter" mantra.