moonslav59

Trade him while his stock is high! Trade 'em all! Start over with Beni and Devers as the foundation, ....err, wait... plagerism alert!

He missed almost all of 2016, and you claim he came back "noticably diminished". You're basing a lot on about 250 PAs from 2017, not counting his .997 OPS in 33 PAs this past winter and a torrid ST'ing this year. The guy was recovering from a serious injury and at the same time, was being asked to learn multiple positions. Look, I get how people caan view Swi as a long shot or worse, but there is certainly reason enough to see a chance at him becomming a meaningful MLB player. Nobody is projecting Swihart to be a starting 1Bman or LF'er, but as a sub, a .330 OBP brings something useful to the table. Having a 3rd catcher gives us much more late inning catcher options with PH'ing. That alone has value.

As a sub, yes, but even then, he never "excited" ,e.

Never excited me.

Injuries interrupted his growth. His hit tool is still largely unknown, so writing him off so soon might be wrong. His ability to play LF and 1B could keep him around long enough to explore the hit tool more closely. Nunez at 2B keeps him from being the 4th OF'er until Pedey returns, so Swihart could get some PAs there. We can PH for our catchers more freely with 3, and since our catcher position is our weakest offensive position, we could see Swihart's 3rd catcher role come in more handy than keeping two infielders on the bench who will never play. (Marrero or Lin might be used as late inning replacements, but I can't see Holt getting any reasonable amountof playing time. He's not a better fielder than anyone, excpet maybe slightly over Devers, but Marrero and Lin are better. Swihart should make the 25 roster, at least until Pedey returns, but even then he might have earned a spot by then with his bat and (assuming) decent defense in LF or 1B.

MLB.com click on stats- springtraing sortable, fielding- teams- position...

Maybe. Maybe not. I'm pretty sure that if someone better was offered the job, they'd have said yes rather than continue as an underling. I guess we'll never know.

If there was a better Theo underling candidate for the Sox GM than Ben, I'm going to assume, he'd have been offered the job over Ben.

It's an unhealthy love affair.

Innings as a catcher vs MLB teams: 32 Vaz 27 O Hernandez 23 Butler 23 Rei 23 Swihart 21 Leon 9 Procyshen & J Nunez I don't really see a sign here for turning Swihart into our #2 catcher, but then again.... Swihart's innings elsewhere: 11 at 1B 6 at LF 0 at 2B or 3B

Here's somethings I found: http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/red_sox_mlb/boston_red_sox/2015/08/lauber_ben_cherington_hurt_by_own_unselfish_approach https://nesn.com/2011/10/ben-cherington-to-take-multi-factorial-approach-to-rebuilding-culture-of-red-sox-video/ (See all 4 parts)\ https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexreimer/2016/09/20/red-sox-success-traces-back-to-ousted-general-manager-ben-cherington/#6453bf173b92 http://www.espn.com/mlb/playoffs/2013/story/_/id/9807343/how-gm-ben-cherington-rebuilt-boston-red-sox Epstein, who endorsed Cherington as his successor upon leaving Boston to run the Chicago Cubs two years ago, remains a Cherington fan. "He has tremendous insights about the game and about people and applies them in myriad ways to make the organization and those around him better," Epstein said in an email. "He is a steady, dependable and understated person who is systematic in his work and his communication but ultimately empowers those around him. Ben was instrumental in building the foundation for the Red Sox's success through his work in player development and obviously has been outstanding in shaping this year's team out of the adversity the organization faced in 2012." http://www.masslive.com/redsox/index.ssf/2012/03/ben_cherington_says_red_sox_wi.html

I liked the Nunez signing, but there is a chance his time with Boston last year was just an isolated hot streak. That .882 at Fenway was special, and I hope he can keep that up.

Let's just hope we hold onto those paddles.

Here's how I see our roster shaping up: DL: ERod (60 Day?), Pedey (60 Day?), Wright, Pomeranz, Hernandez, Thordnburg 5 SP: Sale, Price, Porcello, Johnson, Velazquez* 7 RP: Kimbrel, Smith, Kelly, Barnes, Hembree, Workman, Scott (* We could start Velazquez in AAA and call him up for game 5, which would allow Marrero or Holt to start on the big club for 4 games.) 3 C: Vaz, Leon, Swihart (LF/1B/3B) 2 1B: HRam & Moreland 1-2 2B: Nunez & Holt* (3B/SS/OF/1B) 1-2 3B: Devers & Marrero* (2B/SS) 1 SS: Bogey 1 LF: Beni 1 CF: JBJ 1 RF: Betts 1 DH/OF: JDM AAA with ML potential in 2018 SP: Beeks, Haley, Shepherd RP: Maddox, Buttrey, Layne, Poyner, martin C: Butler 1B: Travis (Ockimey AA) 2B: Holt/Marrero & Quiroz 3B: de Jesus SS: Lin LF: Castillo CF: Taverez RF: Barfield DH: Chavis (AA) & Witte Here's the line-up I think Cora will start with: 1. Beni LF 2. Betts RF 3. HRam 1B 4. JDM DH 5. Devers 3B 6. Nunez 2B 7. Bogey SS 8. JBJ CF 9. Vaz C

I was expecting to see him playing 1B and 3B more often. Maybe they are doing that in practice time. Still, I'm not sure we can read too much into Swi starting 4 of 18 games. Six catchers have 21+ innings. Swi has 23 innings. I could see Swihart eventually winning the 2 catcher slot, but I doubt it happens, especially by opening day.

I think he was projected as a plus on defense too early, probably due to his extremely quick release time on throws to 2B amd strong arm. As we all know, throwing out base stealers is just a minor part of catcher defense. I seriously doubt Swi will ever become good enough on defense for my liking, but if his bat develops into something special, he might not have to get beyond barely decent on D

Maybe, but the fact that Sox management has all but given up on Swihart as a catcher speaks volumes.

Cobb might be a shocker, too.

Since Nunez, JD and Swihart can play OF, I don't see Lin's ability to play OF as a deciding factor. Marrero is out of options, so if Cora and DD like him, he seems like the obvious choice to keep system depth all in place. An argument can be made that finding no-hit-good glove infielders like Marrero is easy to do, so maybe we DFA Marrero. (He may be DFA'd and not claimed and end up staying with us in AAA.) I can see choosing Linover Holt, since he's a better defender, and that's what our IF lacks. Marrero or Lin could be used as late inning defensive replacements for Nunez and Devers. A case could be made to trade Swihart and keep Lin and Marrero on the 25man roster until Pedey returns.

MLBTR... Veteran starter Alex Cobb, he says, was in position to secure a four-year, $48MM offer at one point earlier in the winter (from an unknown team) and “easily” could have landed a three-year guarantee. We’re obviously still waiting to see just what Cobb will ultimately earn, but needless to say, it seems unlikely he’ll reach the levels he might have had previously. In the meantime, several lesser pitchers have gone on to sign fairly solid, multi-year deals, perhaps absorbing some of the demand that might have led to a better payout for Cobb

How ready can any new pitcher be for game 5 in April? I think we are going to go with what we got and hope returning starters get healthy by the time we need to move on from a failing experiment, assuming one or two fail from Johnson/Velazquez.

Well said.

I'm hopeful but not too optimistic on Devers on defense. I'm thinking he may end up at 1B or DH, when all is said and done. I'm hoping he can get to a decent level by playoff time.

Holt has options. I'd go with the glove (Marrero) to start the season. Marrero is out of options, and while I agree finding guys like marrero are easy to pick up, Holt should not ever be used as a defensive replacement late in a game. His offense is not good enough to play any IF position for us. Nunez and Swihart can cover the 4th OF'er slot, and JD can play OF in NL parks. Holt's OF availability is no longer needed, nor is his ability to play 1B. Holt gives us good minor league ML ready depth at several positions. Marrero, Swihart, Moreland and Leon should be our opening day bench, as I see it. Holt, Travis and Lin give us good minor league depth.

Yes, but if we hadn't signed Moreland and traded Holt (DFA), we probably could have squeezed Lynn or Cobb into our budget. I totally agree on keeping the $4-5M spending budget into the season. Give Johnson and Velazquez a 4-5 game leash, and by then, we'll know more about the health status of Pom, Price, Wright and ERod. I know it's hard to find a decent SP'er in May, but it's not impossible. The added benefit of waiting is that we just pay the pro-rated salary of whoever we pick up. That makes it easier to squeeze under the $4-5M we have left and get better quality than we can get now.