moonslav59

He's got a long way to go on defense. A long way.

What's not to get? Is defense worth anything? Is the catcher a very important defensive position? Is there more to catching than hitting and throwing out would be base stealers? Could the fact that our pitching staff over performed last year with Price, Wright, Smith and Thornburg out all or most of the year have anything to do with catchers not named Swihart?

If you are basing this on Swihart's 5 HRs in 390 career ML PAs, I'm not getting it. If you're basing it on Spring Training numbers, well... Leon now has a better ST'ing OPS than Swihart.

To me, Leon can hit .650 OPS and be a significant plus. He'd have to be at about .550 for me to even think about playing Swihart as our exclusive #1 or #2 catcher.

I doubt Salty could play LF, 1B or another position like Swi can do, although he did play some 1B a few seasons here and there..

With Blake and his 390 and 5? Huh?

We signed JD for pop. Catcher is a defense first position. Our .693 catcher OPS was .693 last year. That placed 20th in MLB and just .024 from the mean .717. I'll take the great D and slightly below O everyday of the week. If we give Vaz more PAs this year,maybe we'll get our offense to average. Our weakest link is 1B. HRam and Moreland have to do better than 2017. They probably won't. 1B is a position that most other teams get HRs and OPS. 25 HRs and a .749 OPS with a measly 80 RBIs was pathetic.

LOOGY's are over-rated, and besides, many of our RH'd RP'ers do very well vs LH'd batters.

Let's say Pom starts on the DL with Wright and ERod, here's what we might see... 3/29 @TB Sale 3/30 @TB Price 3/31 @TB Porcello 4/1 @TB Johnson 4/2 @MIA Velazquez 4/3 @MIA Sale off 4/5 TB Price +1 off 4/7 TB Porcello +2 4/8 TB Sale off 4/10 NYY Price 4/11 NYY Pomeranz 4/12 NYY Porcello 4/13 Bal Sale 4/14 Bal Johnson or Wright? In our first 13 games, I see Johnson and Velazquez starting one game each. If Wright is not better by the 14th, Johnson (or Velazquez-not both) might get 2 or 3 starts.

Also, I have criticized WAR for giving too much credit for IP, as with Porcello.

I usually use ERA- and WHIP to judge pitchers. I do value WAR, but not as much as harmony and others. Here's the WAR numbers from 2014-2017: 12.0 Lester 12.0 Price 8.8 Porcello 7.2 Lackey ERA- 77 Sale 77 Price 80 Lester 81 Pom 84 Lackey 96 Porcello WHIP 1.03 Sale 1.15 Lester 1.16 Price 1.18 Lackey 1.24 Porcello Again, I'm not saying Lester has been bad. Lackey's ERA- and WHIP numbers look good, too. I wish Ben had kept Lester. I understand why we traded Lackey. It would have been nice to trade Lester and end up with Porcello, but to have also re-signed Lester and Miller, instead of HRam & Pablo.Better yet, we could have signed Scherzer & Miller.

Also, I think people are glamorizing what Lackey did after leaving Boston. While he was clealy better than Masterson, Webster and others, here's his post Sox numbers: With STL and his remaining contract signed with Boston: 16-13 3.10 (The Cards went 23-20 in his starts over 1.3 years with STL. With the Cubs (post contract): 23-20 3.94 (The Cubs went 36 -23 in his starts- very nice) In his 7 playoff starts with both clubes, he averaged just under 5 IP. He was 2-1 with 20 ER in 41 IP (4.39 ERA) in the playoffs with both teams combined. Those are good numbers but not great. Lester had a great 2016 (19-5 2.44), but he wasn't really all that great the other two years. 2015: 11-12 3.34 (17-15 in his GS'd) 2017: 13-8 4.33 (19-13) Total: team went 36-28 in his starts in these two years. His record was 24-20. I'm not trying to say I didn't want Lester back. I did. Porcello has done pretty well- not as good as Lester, but he's been cheaper and has a great year under his bealt as well. Kelly has been a let down, and Craig imploded.

I'm saying the trading away of the rotation was not bad. It was the failure to resign them or replace them in kind that was awaful. Yes, that's on Ben. HRam, Pablo and Masterson were horrific signings. The Lester low-ball was, too. I had hoped the trades we made were for younger, more cost-controlled players, but they were not the bad part of Ben's moves. My point about what those players not re-signed did after their contracts ran out was meant for judging the trades only.

I totally agree on the catcher point. Swihart hit pretty well, when he started for us. He wasn't replaced for no reason. He will probably never be a plus defensive catcher. I'd like to see Swi make the team as a 4/5th OF'er, 2/3rd 1Bman and 3rd catcher. Our pitching staff outpitched projections last year, especially the pen. That was not a fluke. Our catchers do a great job calling games, framing pitches and other intangible things. I'm not for messing with a good thing. I'd like to see Vaz play more than last year, but I still see Leon as the number 2.

Lackey may or may not have played here for the min. I thought he would have, but the risk was there. I wasn't crazy about the trade, even though I had hopes for Kelly as a starter, but it was clear we had to clean house at that point in the season. We could have re-signed Lester, or Lackey, or Miller, and so what those guys did after their new contracts should not be held against Ben. Ideally, he'd have re-signed Lester and Miller and never talked to Pablo or HRam, but it wasn't really the trades that were awful.

Devers just seems to hit, and hit and hit, no matter where he is playing. I hope his defense improves quickly, but his bat will more than make-up for any defensive short-comings. Some speak of Price, Porcello, Bogey, JBJ or Pedey as being "the key" to a great season, but Devers just might carry this team on his young shoulders for long stretches this year. He's a pure hitter, and his approach differs from other Sox players, which is something we need to keep opposing pitchers off guard.

I think our catchers do a lot of things not measured by stats or new metrics. I do not view our catching tandem as a weakness, despite the lower than average offense. To me, our biggest weakness is 1B, and that's why I hated the Moreland signing.Fangraphs positional projected rankings: The Sox... 1st RF 5.7 1st DH 2.8 4th 2B 2.9 5th CF 3.6 5th LF 3.2 8th SS 3.5 14th 3B 2.8 20th C 2.0 22nd 1B 1.3 8th SP 15.9 11th RP 3.9 2nd Batting 27.9 8th Pitching 19.8 6th overall 47.7 1. Astros 55.2 2. LAD 50.6 3. NYY 50.0 4. Cubs 49.8 5. CLE 48.7 Our next weakest link might be 6th and 7th starter, but I don't see other teams with much better than we have. IF defense is another weak area. I think our pen will be fine with Smith joining in and maybe Thornburg, too.

That's a little deceptive, as Lackey's contract had just 1.3 yrs remaining when traded.

The philosophy of not signing 30+ year old pitchers was not Ben's idea either. Ben was given a good team with a few very good young players but little farm depth. He had expiring contractsand many holes to fill. Had Pablo hit at 80% of his career norm as he entered his prime and HRam hit like 2016 in 2015, Ben might still be here. Ben was able to dump CC and Beckett, and as it turned out, dumping AGon wasn't bad either. Napoli actually did better one year. I loved Theo, but look at some of the guys Ben inherited... Crawford Beckett Youkilis Dice-K Ellsbury Buchholz Salty Sweeney Bard Aviles Was Middy still here? I still think the Dodger dump was a top 3 or 4 Sox trade of all time. Of course, ben haters will say LL did that trade. That trade was essential to the 2013 ring. Too bad the rest of the money saved was wasted on Pablo & HRam, instead of Lester or Scherzer.

I might put the Cubs 5th, Sox 6th and Yanks 7th, but poor health may do us in.

Is Justin Haley a 6/7th starter candidate? He came back to us on rule 5 last year and hasn't looked too bad.

Erod's injuries have almost always been the knee. Hopefully, the surgery will fix the reoccurring issue once and for all. Yes, with Elias in the pen, it looks like Johnson and Velazquez will have to fill the 5 slot until Wright returns. If both do poorly, we'll get 5-7 starts from them. That should be enough time for Wright to return. Then, he gets 3-4 starts (at least and hopefully) to bridge us to ERod's return. I realize this is a tight set-up, and I've said I'm fine with signing vet depth at no added cost, but cutting into our $4M remaining spending budget right now, would be too dangerous. How much of that $4M are you willing to spend right now to add a 6th or 7th starter?

I was kind of hoping we gave Elias one more shot at a starter role, but... Former Mariners starter Roenis Elias has become somewhat of an afterthought since the Red Sox acquired him prior to 2016, but the left-hander could reemerge this year out of the bullpen. Elias is now working as a reliever, owing in part to a newfound commitment to using a sidearm delivery against same-sided hitters, per Chad Jennings of the Boston Herald. The only lefty reliever on Boston’s projected roster is Robby Scott, which could help give Elias a path back to the majors. After appearing in 51 games and making 49 starts from 2014-15 in Seattle, with which he pitched to a 3.97 ERA across 279 innings, Elias has only thrown eight frames in two years with the Red Sox. The 29-year-old spent nearly all of 2016-17 with Triple-A Pawtucket.

Minor league- non 40 man roster depth, yes, or perhaps a 40 man roster addition with options remaining, but I doubt we upgrade, right now, with anything significant. Right now, we have 8 guys worth starting or giving a chance... Sale Pom Price Porcello ERod (DL) Wright (DL) Johnson Velazquez plus another two that might surprise... Elias Beeks The $4M or so we have remaining on the luxury tax budget before major penalties kick in can be better spent in mis summer on a pro-rated contract of a much better pitcher than we can sign now. I think that's the plan. Give our 8-10 starters a chance first. Try to get by with whht we got until Wright and ERod return, and maybe we won't even need more depth. If we do, we'll know by May or June, and we can look to add a starter in June or July-- a much better one that does not put us over the $40M limit. Even with ERod and Wright out, we still have 6 guys worth starting, at least for 2-3 games for 2 of them. That buys us enough time for one of Wright or ERod to return, and if not, maybe we try Elias or Beeks until one is healthy. It does suck to have to go starter hunting in May, and that is a possibility, butI have some faith in the 8-10 guys we have being able to hold us over until summer (or longer). I'm fine with adding soome minor league vet depth.

Certainly, Ben did enough or failed to do enough to be critical about. He made some serious blunders, and his FA signings were major failures. The Lester fiasco was horrific. That being said, I think he had a plan. He aimed to build the farm- no, not by high draft picks gained from losing but by great international signings that Ben bashers ignore. IT WASN'T THE DRAFTS! Look, I hated the Pablo signing and was not happy about the HRam signing either, but there was a glut of pitchers coming on the market the following year, and I think his plan was to boost the offense with Pablo & HRam and then sign a pitcher the following year. It's not like our offense didn't need fixing, too. The team had major holes that winter- not all due to Ben's mistakes. In hindsight, signing Scherzer (or Lester) would have been much better, but the theory or "philosophy" was not illogical. He chose the wrong FAs. I'm also convinced Ben was not going to hoard prospects and never pull the trigger on a big trade. I think he was going to sign a big pitcher like Price and make a big splash trade for another stud. We'll never know for sure, but we do know he built up the farm without the use of high draft picks coming from finishing in last place before two of his four drafts. Only Beni came from losing.