moonslav59

Some sort of trade almost has to happen to clear the multiple logjams we created. The Yoshi situation will likely end in a near total salary dump trade. Unless there is an injury, he has not place to play. DH is for Devers. LF is already overcrowded. Even if we take Yoshi out of the equation, we still have several jams: OF: Duran, Abreu (vs R only) Rafaela, Anthony, Refsnyder (v L only) and Campbell. (Y Rod & Jh Garcia down the road) Middle IF: Story, Campbell, Mayer, DHam/Romy/Grissom with Bregman as depth and Romero/Arias down the pike. I'm not for trading a top 3 prospect, but we could. If not, they will need a chance to show what they have, at some point, and it won't be while playing a utility role of less than 80% playing time. Now, trading guys like Grissom, DHam, Refsnyder or Rafaela could ease the jam a little, but not much, except for maybe Rafaela. The returns will not be earth-shattering, either.

It could get ugly, and if it does, Bregman can just choose not to opt out and try again in '27.

Last year, our 2B position looked like this to start teh season: E Valdez Reyes Grissom, DHam Anyone who thinks this year's 2B situation is not just better, but pretty damn good is being overly critical or pessimistic. We had the worst defense at 3B in MLB- now we are top 5-10. "Same bad D?" I'll take Devers/Bregman over Devers/Yoshida 24/7/365. SS is still a question, as always, but I'm glad Mayer is near or at ML readiness. (BTW, Bogey has a .745 OPS w SDP and still is a minus on D.) I have no worries about the OF. Sure, Rafaela's O is in doubt, but we have Anthony, Refsnyder and Campbell in reserve. Abreu looks more "sure" now, than last April, when one poster complained about him "kicking the ball all over RF." Duran is off to a poor start after 20 games, and apparently, he's now an unknown and a worry. C : Wong, Narvaez, Grandal 1B: Casas, Romy (Devers?) 2B: Campbell, Mayer, DHam/Romy, Grissom (Bregman) 3B: Bregman, Devers, Mayer/Campbell/Story SS: Story, Mayer LF: Duran, Yoshi, Refsnyder (Anthony) CF: Rafaela (Duran, Anthony) RF: Abreu, Refsnyder (Rafaela, Anthony) DH: Devers (Yoshida/Refsnyder/Casas) This may not look like the best everyday player depth chart, but it's good enough for me. It's young. It's inexpensive, except for Story, Yoshi and Devers. Hardly anyone becomes a FA, soon, except Bregman & Refsnyder. The future of the pitching is what is at question.

I wasn't conceding the point that the MLB roster is not improved, just because I mentioned the farm. I have been talking improvement all winter long. I have claimed that the team improved or kept even the defense (on paper) at every position. I have claimed the offense should be better than the .500 team of 2024. I have claimed this is the deepest rotation depth I have ever seen on a Sox team and that the top 5-6 are damn good. (I mentioned we were the only team in MLB with 6 SP'ers projected with an fWAR or 1.1 or better.) I've blasted the pen choices, and might end up being wrong about it. We have a solid everyday player set-up with depth at every position, except Catcher and 1B (if Devers is out of 1B consideration.) I have not given up on Casas at 1B. MVP mentions he's never played a full season, which is correct, but he did "qualify" in 2023. Our 2B situation is easily in the best shape since Pedey was healthy, unless you count when Story played a half season there. Our SS position might be questionable, due to Story's health issues, but the guy who just criticized it, also projected a 4 fWAR for Story in 2025. We also have a national top prospect who plays SS. Bregman at 3B and Devers at DH are top 5 in MLB. Our OF is young, controlled and have already shown about enough to justify being optimistic. Duran, Abreu, Rafaela and Anthony/Campbell are way more than fine with me. There, was that enough of a rebuttal? I have zero concerns about our everyday situation, except catcher. The now and the future.

You think this team is worse, "on paper," than the past few years teams? No doubt, on the field, they have not looked very good. "Better" is a relative term, and I can understand thinking they look worse than 10-10, but it sounds like you are trying to have it both ways. For years, you always claim the record is all that matters. If that is true, then this team is better than '22, '23 and equal to '24, as of now.

The homegrown players were a vast improvement over the post Betts roster of 2020. The farm is leaps and bounds better. The Houck, Bello & Crawford trio, while not looking so good, right now, has been the best SP'er trio from in the system in a very long time. Guys like Whitlock, Slaten and a few other pen arms are nice, too.

I don't think Rafaela's RHB situation matters much, since his splits are pretty even, and he's been so bad, the lefty bats on the team are about as good or better. vs. LHPs 2023-2025 .906 Romy .867 Refnsyder .858 Casas (LHB) .731 Devers (LHB) .720 Wong .669 Yoshida (LHB) .660 Duran (LHB) .619 Story & Grissom .618 Rafaela .519 DHam & Abreu He only beats out 2 guys vs lefties. Rafaela is .665 v RHPs, which barely beats out refsnyder at .643. (He's much better than Romy .564 and Grissom .425, but they play IF.)

It will suck, bigtime, but at least I won't blame management for not really trying hard to build a winner. I know that doesn't ease the pain, but I think we have turned the corner and are now on an upswing. I've been wrong, before, so we'll have to see how "on paper" translates to reality and how the "suspects," as youcall them, pan out.

While Theo still has a lingering "presence," I'm not sure I give him any credit or blame for today's executive situation. In the last 7 years, we've seen Dave D, Bloom & Brez at the helm of personnel decisions, but to varying degrees Kennedy, JH and others have had their hand in financial and other choices made over the years. The big blunder was Betts, but the Sale extension and other bigger moves and non moves have been troublesome (Story, Yoshi & the Bogey situation to name three.) The big plus has been the rather rapid improvement of the farm and the more recent years with pitching upgrades. I like how our roster is set up. We have the everyday positions, seemingly locked up for many years- most at pre-arb and arb costs. Only Devers, Story and Yoshi cost a lot for 2+ years more. The pitchings is much more unknown, but we have some good young and younger pitching and no long term commitments, except for Crochet, who is pretty young.

We gotta take 3 of 4 vs the CWS.

Indeed, then we beat the tougher teams. Same with scrub pitchers vs good ones.

Call him up, the minute he can have the extra year of team control.

OPS Leaders (30+ PAs) 1.015 Alcantara .941 Anthony .935 Arias .920 Grissom .917 Encarnacion .872 Anderson .810 Jh Garcia (Other notables: Romero .748 & Max Ferguson w a .395 OBP and 6 SBs)

Even if he gets $175M/7 not $200M/8, next winter, he's made out well. I think he may get $200M/7, next winter, after an explosive year with the Sox. Maybe we give it to him, after we realize what a great clubhouse guy he is.

On paper, I think we look better, while several AL teams who finished ahead of us look worse or the same. We've played 7 one-run games and are 3-4, so maybe with a little luck, we could have been 11-9 (projected 88 win team) or 12-8 (projected 96 win team.) We are 2-1 in extra inning games. We have a stretch where we should do better than .500: 4 CWS 3 SEA 3 @ CLE and 3@ TOR 3 MN & 3 TX 3@KC & 3 @ DET Mid May, the real fun begins: ATL, NYM, BAL, MIL, ATL, LAA then 6 of 6 gms vs NYY.

Maybe, we work on extending him beyond the opt out.

Wonder what we could have gotten for Houck?

Who sits when Yoshi plays?

It's very hard to project promotions, but I do think Arias will be promoted, soon. It might take Anderson and Cespedes longer to rise to Greenville, and maybe Encarnacion will get promoted before the season is over, too. That's the whole Salem infield! This also begs the question, who moves into their slots and who is "crowded out in Greenville? I could see Alcantara taking Ferguson's 2B job in POR, and I've never been high on Zanetello at SS, so maybe he moves to 3B or OF? (De Leonis at 3B and A Lugo is at 1B, now in GRE.) Could it be time to trade Jordan or Hickey? (They could DH.) I could see Romero going to Woo, when Mayer gets the promotion to the bigs. Eventually, Jh Garcia will go to WOO (after Anthony promotion?) and Y Rod can move up to POR.

A rare Sox 1-0 win. Gotta keep this Jad mojo risin'!

I was really counting on him to be a solid #3 with hopes he could pitch like a #1 or #2. Now, I wonder if he can keep the 5 slot.

Gotta say it: it's a bit surprising that as poorly as we have played over the first eighth of a season, being at .500 and just 2 GB is not bad, at all.

You called it, early.

Bello pitched tonight of POR. He did not do well. Hendriks went another scoreless IP.

Like Crochet?