moonslav59

Let's look at our 2017 player splits from this year and their career and the average of the two: OPS vs RHPs AVG--Career/2016 .889-- .861/.917 Betts .823-- .745/.902 Bradley .820-- .844/.796 Ramirez .812-- .797/.827 Pedroia .791-- .835/.744 ('15) Sandoval .756-- .751/.762 T Shaw .751-- .717/.785 Bogaerts .737-- .707/.766 Young .733-- .704/.762 Holt .727 (career) Swihart .704-- .653/.764 Leon .584 (career) Vazquez OPS vs LHPs Career/2016 1.005-- .913/1.097 Ramirez .912-- .846/.999 Young .906-- .750/1.062 Leon .860-- .847/.873 Bogaerts .842-- .761/.599 T Shaw .823-- .832/.814 Betts .818-- .847/.812 Pedroia .673-- .681/.665 Bradley .673 (career) Swihart .667 (career) Vazquez .569-- .673/.465 ('15) Sandoval .529-- .709/.350 Holt Some big differentials here!

Who? Shaw/Hill/Holt?

Iggy was hitting pretty well the year they traded him, and he has a .275 career BA. Belanger's career BA was .228. Iggy doesn't have to be the defender Belanger was, if he hits 47 points higher the rest of the way. Iggy's career line .275/.325/.353/.678 Sox 3B in 2016 .242/.306/.380/.686 Most feel OBP is more important than SLG, it looks like the career Iggy would have been about a wash on offense when compared to Shaw & Co., but our team defense on the left side would be much better.

Yeah, I got it, and it does make the Iggy side of the debate look stronger.

It's Vazquez not Velazquez. I think Pablo and Swihart will battle for DH vs RHPs. I think Shaw and Holt will battle for 3B with Hernandez as an outside threat. Moncada may challenge by May or June.

...and if we still had Rizzo (instead of AGon), then we'd still have Crawford! I felt that keeping Youk at 1B might prolong his career. (He was already on the cusp of a nosedive.) I felt VMart's value as a 1Bman would not be worth his salary. (He certainly earned his money.) As it turned out getting Barnes and Owens for VMart did not mitigate the loss. I liked the idea keeping Beltre. (But, getting JBJ and Swihart and using the "saved" money to extend AGon made sense.) There were a lot of big decisions made that had long-lasting ramifications in more ways than we can imagine.

No doubt.... or Espinoza ...or Margot...

I'm not even sure that many people in LA care.

...and Bogey recorded his 1415th Assist 400 innings after Iggy did (which is about 1/9th of his career at SS).

Shaw's a much better fielder than Pablo, so why not swap their positions? You also left Young out as our DH vs LHPs. The guy has been one of MLB's best hitters vs lefties- surely he's better than Shaw of Holt, especially vs LHPs and maybe vs RHPs as well.

I agree that the pen has higher urgency. I'd even prefer an ace over a 3Bman, so I think we are on the same page here. I might have less trust in Shaw than you do. His first half numbers don't jive with his whole career in AA/AAA.

I used to feel that way about finishing in last place 9 times to just get one ring. That was prior to 2004, which changed everything. I'm totally with you on the long term aspects of trades. Just because a deal may or may not have led to a championship, it doesn't mean you negate the long term aspect of the trade. Almost everyone agrees the HanRam & A Sanchez for Beckett & Lowell was a win-win. We got our "ace" and won a ring in 2007. Lowell gave us much more than hoped for as well, but look what HanRam and Sanchez did! I'm not saying I'd redo the trade, but we lost a lot in that deal too.

Yes, the idea was to get the draft picks and then spend the money "saved" elsewhere (which they did). The problem was the way they spent the savings.

As was yours on mine. I haven't given up on DP yet. There are plenty of examples of players who struggled in the postseason initially, but then improved.

I feel when you have the worst 3B WAR in MLB, there has to be a sense of urgency, but I don't disagree with the idea to let things play out. Pablo and Moncada were not really part of the equation this year, so things have changed already without any acquisitions. I do have some serious doubts about Moncada's ability to be a decent fielding 3Bman, but we should know a little more after watching him play in the Fall League. If upper management deems him likely to be unfit to play 3B for an extended time in the bigs, then maybe a one year fix might be called for. I hate the idea of relying on just a Pablo-Shaw combo to get us out of the bottom 5 in 3B WAR next year.

Rumor has it, the Royals are looking to save some money next year. Here's a look at some of their bigger contracts: $62.5M/4 Ian Kennedy (may opt out after 2017 with $6M buyout! making it possibly $19.5M/1) $60M/3 Alex Gordon (including $4M buyout on a $23M 2020 mutual option) $21M/3 Yordano Ventura (including $1M buyout on $12M option for 2020. There is also a team option on 2021 at $12M (with $1M buyout.) $18M/2 Joakim Soria (including $1M buyout on $10M option for 2019) $11M/1 Lorenzo Cain $11M/1 or $1.5M buyout on mutual option Kendrys Morales $10M/1 or $2.5M buyout Wade Davis $10M/1 or $3M buyout Edinson Volquez $8.7M/1 Mike Moustakas $8M/1 Jason Vargas Last arb: Eric Hosmer (made $8.25M this year) & Danny Duffy (made $4.2M this year) Some interesting names here. If we end up trading JBJ, KC has a couple OF'er that would fit right in. Moustakas would also be a great fit, especially if we could get him to extend, but he might also block Moncada and Devers at 3B. Wade Davis might be a fit. Your thoughts?

I liked Cueto better, because the money saved could have gotten us Miller too.

Really? He had to become that good to off-set what Peavy brought us for 1.3 years worth of control?

Well, the pen didn't stop Wright from having the best half out of any of our starters, but I do think it probably helped the second half numbers somewhat. If you think of a top 30 starter as a number one starter (30 teams have a number 1), then we had 6 different starters have a number one type half season. Porcello nearly had two halves ads a number one, and Price had one as a low number one and one as a low number two. Pretty impressive!

I've touched on this before, but looking at our starting pitchers by first half and second half, we can see some remarkable rankings. MLB Rank in ERA- 3) Wright 61 (1st half) 5) Porcello 59 (2nd half) 6) Pomeranz 62 (1st half) 17) ERod 73 (2nd half) 18) Buch 73 (2nd half) 29) Price 81 (2nd half) 33) Porcello 83 (1st half) 53) Price 98 (1st half) That's 6 starters with a top 30 ERA- in MLB over half a season. That may be an overly optimistic view of what we might have in 2017, but it is pretty amazing.

Well, Price did have a good start in the playoffs as a RP'er in 2008: 5.2 IP 2 H 4 BB 8 K 1 ER He hasn't stunk in every single playoff start either. Deciding game 5 in 2010 vs Texas (not great/not bad): 6 IP 8 H 0 BB 6 K 3 ER Elimination game 2014 vs BAL: 8 IP 5 H 2 BB 6 K 2 ER 2015 Playoffs vs KCR Game 2: He went 6 IP with 0 ERs, before getting shelled in the 7th. Game 6 elimination game (not great/not bad): 6.2 IP 5 H 1 BB 8 K 3 ER Obviously, Price has fallen way short in the playoffs. He's never had even one shut down performance out of 9 games started. He's done okay to good in 3 of them.

I think the optimism is well founded. When's the last time we've had a number 1 prospect? The issues to me, is timing and where his best position is. That could take months and months to determine. I feel pretty certain Moncada will become an offensive threat. He may be at that point in his development right now or very soon. I don't think we should look at a few handful of September ABs to think he's a long way away from making an impact with his bat. He's got a great swing and all the "tools" a player could need. Is there a chance we get let down? Of course, but the chances are much better he becomes something special. It's hard to play the waiting game, when you're trying to win a championship every year. I have mentioned trying to find a one year fix at 3B, but I'm not sure that's practical or possible. The one good thing we have going for us is this: our two most high need areas beyond the staff are 3B and Catcher, Maybe 1B/DH is next, but our very best prospects and recent prospect grads play (or can play or may someday play) those 2-3 positions. 3B: Moncada, Devers (maybe Swihart and further away Dalbec) C: Vazaquez & Swihart 1B: maybe Devers or Swihart plus Sam Travis (plus further away Ockimey/Longhi)

I watch every play of every game every year, and I thought he was doing worse on D before I looked to the metrics to confirm my observations. I realize he may have just had an "off year" or a slump, same as hitters do, but I'm pretty certain he showed a significant regression from 2015 on defense. That's not good for someone expected to continue improving like he did from 2013/2014 to 2015. He's still okay at SS, but not great.

Our team 3B WAR was the worst in MLB this year. Anyone who counts on Pablo to be the savior is a dreamer. Moncada may fill the role at some point, but I doubt he'll be "ready" for 3B by opening day.

This doesn't take into account that the Sox very well may not have won the World Series in '13 without making that trade. I'm not so sure, but I certainly get why they made the move. Also, Bogaerts said that he wasn't comfortable at 3rd and didn't like playing the position. You could say that he would've became used to 3rd and they should've made him play there anyway. I'm just not sure that it's a good idea to take your "all-world" prospect and stick him somewhere he doesn't to be. Well, if he keeps getting worse on defense, maybe we'll end up hurting his feelings anyways. I thought he looked pretty good at 3B on defense (although the metrics don't show it in just over 400 innings played there), and I'm not sold on the idea that his playing 3B was the root cause of his offensive struggles in 2014, but like I said, I'm fine with him at SS right now.