moonslav59

Red Sox, Chris Sale Agree To Extension By Steve Adams | March 22, 2019 at 1:57pm CDT 1:57pm: The guaranteed money will come in “slightly below” $150MM, per MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand (Twitter link) and the contract will contain some deferred money as well. Great news! I'm so thankful we have... Chris Freakin' Sale!

Cots has us on the books for Pablo's $5M buyout for 2020.

I wonder if Mookie and Judge are comparing rings.

One could count Lin and his limited OF experience as a possible OF'er, too.

I'm lovin' this news!

In today's age, 2 days in ancient times, besides what the article was about was old news.

I KNOW! I expected Goldy to get more than that. He's 31 (same as JD). He's been over .899 for 6 straight years. He has 3 GG awards- something JD will never come close to.

Old news.

I've not given up on him at 3B. He's been improving, and when that stops, we'll see where he is and decide then. If Chavis is the guy we keep and call-up, my guess is Devers stays at 3B for at least 2-3 more years. If Dalbec is the guy, we may want him at 3B and Devers at 1B. We could even see this sometime soon: 3B: Dalbec (Devers back-up) 1B: Devers (Chavis back-up) DH: Chavis

Then, it might look like this: 23-7 Sale 20-9 Price 19-11 Porcello 18-11 Eovaldi 18-11 ERod 6-7 Others

It hurt seeing Tiant, Lyle and Boggs playing for the Yanks, but I never really felt any anger or resentment towards those players. I was glad we didn't re-sign Damon. He did well with the yanks, and that sucked, but I never regretted him leaving BOS. Youk was toast by the time he played for NY. That didn't bother me at all.

Actually, it could be: Porcello ($21.1M), Pablito ($18.5M), Bogey ($12m), Moreland ($6.5M), Pearce ($6.2M), Nunez ($5M), Thornburg ($1.8M). That's over $70M, but a lot of holes to fill... Porcello> DHernandez Bogey> Holt (re-signed) or Lin/Chatham Moreland/Pearce> Chavis/Dalbec Nunez> Lin/Chatham/Chavis/Dalbec Thornburg> might not even need to be replaced. Sale is getting $15M now, so if we extend him, maybe add $20M. Betts is getting $20M now, so if we extend him, maybe add $15M. That's only $35M out of the $70M lost. Add some arb raises to JBJ, ERod, Barnes and eventually Beni & Devers, some of that $35M will be spent within, but there should be enough for 2-3 lower cost FAs or 1-2 moderately costly FAs to fill a hole or two that cannot be filled from the above internal options. I still think we will struggle the year we reset, but the "cliff" may be short-lived, if we don't make any more mistakes like Pablo, HRam & Castillo.

But they likely would pick him up, if he is DFA'd, right?

And this forum's most prolific poster always projects high on the Red Sox. Wrong. I projected much lower wins last year and under-projected in some other years as well. (I admit I was way off in 2017.) That's why this thread is An Optimistic View at 2019: Part I. I am often critical and try to give the upside and downside. Yes, I spend more time on the upside. It's not "unrealistic". One source projects the 2019 Red Sox with 94 regular-season wins: https://www.fangraphs.com/depthchart...tion=Standings Another source projects the Red Sox with 89 wins: https://doublegsports.com/pecota-pro...tandings-2019/ A third source projects the Red Sox with 92 wins: https://www.rotochamp.com/baseball/P...Standings.aspx A fourth source projects the Red Sox with 100.9 wins: https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/p...r-and-machado/ A fifth source projects the Red Sox with 101 wins: https://bleacherreport.com/articles/...andings#slide0 A sixth source projects the Red Sox with 93.7 wins: https://www.teamrankings.com/mlb/projections/standings/ All I can say is" Whoop-dee-freakin'-do!" They may be right, and so might I. The reputations of these sources vary but I suppose a Red Sox fan would be expected to be optimistic. I am well aware several players may decline after an uptick last year, but in my opinion 2017 was the outlier and not 2018. We hardly have any old guys, and the very few ones we have are not in key roles. We have a very strong rotation. We have a very strong line-up. We have a very strong defense. Just about everyone agrees on that. Our weak area seems to be the pen, and on paper, I agree, it is very questionable, but we have some budget space available to make some mid season pick-ups. DD has done very well in that area the past 2 years. Maybe he swings and misses this year, but I'm sticking to my optimistic projection that we decline in wins by 4, which is more than the double the WAR of Kimbrel + Kelly's 2018 numbers (1.9). I see no reason to think it is optimism to think Devers, Beni, JBJ and others entering prime or in prime to do as well or better than 2018, at least enough to offset the expected declines- expected or otherwise.

We're off the hook with Pablo after this year and Castillo after 2020- the winter Betts becomes a FA. We will be "off the hook" in time. Our high payroll does incluse paying Betts, Sale & Bogey. While it's not FA market rates, it's still a lot. We can't afford everyone, but if we let Porcello, Bogey and maybe JD or JBJ go, we can afford Betts & Sale. We may have a lean year or two, but once we reset the tax, Henry can go back to $40M over the line and we can be back in the race in 1-2 years- assuming no blunders and decent returns from Price and other big money players.

1) Offense is not all about what you did last year. 2) Offense is way down on the list of catcher importance. 3) It's not just defense. There's more to defense than throwing, blocking pitches in the dirt and framing pitches. You can't just take a great defensive minor leaguer and plug 'em in with our rotation and expect the same results. Someone may claim him. Maybe not. There's a learning curve with every pitcher and new catcher. It may not be worth the risk. That would be great for us, if Sandy can be our minor league catching depth.

I didn't walk it back. I still have 104 wins.

I've been very cautious with my Devers timetable. He may takes a step back here or there, but IMO, he will be great in the not too distant future. I also think he ends up at 1B in 1-2 years, but I want to give him a longer look at 3B. With Moreland and Pearce becoming FAs next year, the timing might be just right for that choice to be made after 2019.

Sparky Lyle.

They always project low. How many wins did they project to the wins leader? 16? My win totals may be off, and I usually do team wins per start, and I think I went somewhere in between this time. How's this, assuming no injuries... Team Record in Starts by: 25-8 Sale 22-10 Price 21-12 Porcello 18-14 Eovaldi 18-14 ERod

Price and Porcello like him, too and probably others. They may release him, but he will be picked up by somebody. We may try to get him back, later, if our staff struggles (or collectively do slightly worse) with Vaz & Swihart behind the plate.

It seemed like there was about 2-3 passed balls or WPs per game before Mirabelli came back.

I'll still think Cora is the best, even if he gives the okay to trade Leon. It's not like there's no pluses to keep the cheaper, longer-controlled player. I hope we trade Swihart, but like I said many times, I won't be crushed, if we trade or DFA Sandy.

8 RP slots: Barnes Brasier Hembree Johnson Workman Thornburg? Mejia? Brewer? Hernandez? Poyner? Velazquez? Lakins?

Well, if he already said Mejia is making it, does that mean 3 other slots are open? I find that hard to believe.