moonslav59

Western Maine is truly God's country.

What would the Rangers give up, in order to dump Odor's contract?

We've been runner-ups, recently.

Nice town, Harpswell. Yeah, Portland- the big city! LOL. In Gray, we had a log home built on 5 acres at the end of a dirt road. Nobody else in sight. In Limington, I had another log home on 5 acres. I've lived in the boonies for maybe 15 years of my life. I lived in Mexico City, too. Four years. Talk about massive urban living.

It's all good, jacko. There's not much difference between middle and back end anyway.

Okay, I get it. Back end cause the Sox might get him. Middle if it was the Yanks.

MLBTR As per a scouting report from Will Hoefer of the Sports Info Solutions blog after that big 2019 season, Arihara has a plus changeup, and a fastball that can touch 95mph (though Arihara prefers to mix speeds to keep batters guessing). Arihara has good command over these two pitches “and a slider that flashes plus,” and Hoefer projects the righty as “a middle of the rotation starter for an MLB team.”

I lived in nearby Gray and later New Gloucester. I grew up in Portland in lived in Limington for 4 years, too.

Maybe the idea would be to trade Bogey.

LA to me, still means Lewiston-Auburn.

That has to be it, but one wonders if 2019 was an outlier. While he did have 27 HRs in 2016, his .892 OPS in 2019 was about 160 points higher than any other season. BTW, Baseball Reference has Semien with a +6.4 dWAR and Bogey at -1.1 RF/9 (old school) Semien 4.25 Bogey 3.80

Bogey is steady, but his range is far from plus. As for "improving," he seems up and down, to me. His best defensive season was his second one: 2015. While jis UZR/150 has been plus the last 2.5 seasons, his DRS have gotten worse since 2017.

I just checked "the metrics:" Career: UZR/150 (Both middle of the pack 2013-2020) 0.0 Bogey -0.3 Semien DRS +13 Semien #10 of 26 who qualified -56 Bogaerts #26 out of 26- dead last. 2016-2020 (31 SSs with 2000+ innings) UZR/150 16. Semien +1.6 17. Bogaerts -0.1 DRS 10. Semien +19 31. Bogaerts -55 To be honest, I thought Semien was much better. He still appears better than Bogey, but maybe they do want him as a second baseman. (Kind of expensive.)

Jeter steady, maybe.

You, too, CP. I miss the Maine life, but those damn winters are just far too long!

Not that now is the time to splurge on Bauer, just because he's the best big splash Free Agent out there that fits our highest need, but you are right. Springer is wrong on so many levels.

He's better than Bogey at SS defense. Much better.

We knew very little about what each school district was like, when we attended a job fair for Texas schools. We were living in Mexico City at the time. I wanted to live in or near Austin, but the cost of living there was very high and only one school district was hiring. My second choice was San Antonio, but no districts were hiring. That left the Houston area. We read up on the best communities to live in. The whole job fair methodology was crazy. They forced you to accept an offer within 24 hours. My wife got several offers, including one in an Austin suburb, but the pay was about 60% of the ones near Houston. We ended up choosing Sugar Land (Fort Bend ISD). It paid the most & had better health insurance. Sugar Land also got good reviews for places to live and raise your kids. (Roger Clemens lives here.) I ended up choosing to become a teacher, too. I had been teaching some ESL classes in Mexico on my own, but I had to go through an alternative certification process to get certified in Texas. I got an offer in 2 districts not too far from our home. One was in a pretty well-regarded district- the other was not. I accepted the one in not-so-good district, because I felt I could do the most good in a school that was nearly 100% Eco-Dis and Spanish speaking. A week after I accepted, I got an offer from the school I can see from my house and that my daughter was about to attend. I hated going back on my word, but I turned down my original acceptance and went to the nearby school- also in Fort Bend ISD. It wasn't really about the money, but that helped me decide. (10% more pay) 3 years later, after the economic crash of 2008, and the opening of a new school nearby, I was relocated to the farthest school in the district led by a horrible principal. I was prepared to quit after that school year, but was able to transfer to a better led school. 4 years ago, I switched to a very close school that is fantastic. It is known as the most diverse school in the nation. It is about 25% Hispanic, Black, White and Asian. Last count there were 81 different languages spoken by our students. (I am an ESL teacher.) My wife ended up switching to Houston ISD over a dispute with her principal. The pay is about the same, but she's 50 minutes away from her school, now, instead of 15. The school has since changed principals, and the new one loves my wife, as she truly is a great teacher, but the school is very demanding and messed up in so many ways. I'm loving my situation. We have a great principal, and they have allowed me the ability to totally redesign the structure of ESL classes and placement of students. The district has since switched to our model. It feels nice to be respected and wanted. That certainly means more than a few thousand dollars, but our original choice was made mostly on the money and cost of living. It all worked out.

I don't make comparisons between players that often, but it doesn't really bother me when others do. I do remember some comps between Betts and Aaron & Mays.

Springer would take up the whole winter spending budget as he immediately reaches post prime years. Nothing left for starting pitching or relief pitching, and no, trading Chavis and Chatham aren't bringing us squat. It's really that simple. Bloom isn't even making a courtesy call to the New England native.

It's almost as bad as keeping Jeter at SS, when the Yanks acquired ARod. Just don't sign Semien, then, if we won't use his best asset.

M e r r y C h r i s t m a s

He's a better defensive SS than Bogey.

They are not done cutting salary. I'd like to see us make a play at Taillon & Frazier. (I'd even give them Vaz, if they gave us Stalling back.) I'm not sure they like, need or want the likes of Chavis, Chatham, Ward, Groome, Pivetta or Duran, but I'd think one or two would be part of the deal, if it was up to me. They'd probably want Dalbec and or DHern or Mata plus...

I doubt we sign Semien, but if we do, he'd be our best defensive SS, so that's where he should play. That means moving Bogey to 3B & Devers to 1B or Bogey to 2B. Or, we trade Bogey. I have very little interest in Puig, and I think JBJ will cost too much. You hardly mention pitching, which is our highest need area. Trading Beni & Chavis will not net us squat, in terms of quality pitching. Please look at Nolan's home & away splits and tell me you still want him and his bloated contract.