moonslav59

This is one area I have been harping on for years, and it seems like we finally did something about it. While Casas remains a weak defender, maybe someday Devers can show he can play 1B better. The OF defense is solid and then some. Our catcher D needs work, but Narvaez is supposed to be pretty good on D.

I can't see us carrying 2 DHs or playing Devers at 3B enough & Yoshida in LF enough to have enough PAs for Yoshida to build back up helpfulness and trade value. Even if an OF gets hurt, we have Anthony. We also have a better LHB in Refsnyder. There was a reason I spent too much of my winter scrounging team rosters to find a trading partner for Yoshida. Most of what I came up with looked lame, and the Arenado choice went poof, when we signed Bregman. I think we will need to just trade him for the most we can get, and that assumes paying $12-14M a year of his $18M x 3 remaining. It sucks, but it is what it is. The guy can still hit well enough to be someone's DH, but who is starting the season dying for a moderate DH without much power? Trade him for a non 40 man roster prospect and throw in whatever is needed for cash. Refsnyder is already squeezed and should be playing, every time a lefty starts. Anthony and Mayer are almost certainly going to get a long look, sooner rather than later. Both are better than Romy and DHam, but we are not squeezing 3 of those 4 guys, just to have two full time DHs on the 26.

It was an enjoyable game, even before the Abreu laser shot. It was good to see Crochet manage to not let up a bunch of runs, without having his best stuff, today. We K'd a lot, but we also hit for some hard outs. The infield defense is night and day better than 2024. Stunning reversal of a big weakness. I can't contain my enthusiasm for this team, even with Bello, Crawford, Gio, Sandoval and Hendriks on the IL and Mayer & Anthony not even on the 40, yet.

I only whip Casas on D, but hey, maybe it worked!

Very nice and useful feature. Thanks.

What a difference between Brez and Bloom. Once can point to getting a better budget, but it goes way beyond that. So much of the roster from top to bottom and into the farm has been turned over in such a very short time. We still saw the short term pitcher signings and rolling the dice with pitchers coming off injuries, but the upgrade looks pretty damn good, on paper. While we need to see the results on the field, there is no doubt, he has made a great effort to improve this club- the offense, the defense, the pitching, the depth and the farm. It will take a while to see if the changes in player and prospect development are for the good, but everything from this guy screams competence. Sure, I'm looking through pink glasses, right now, and I know we could end up being disappointed again, but I'm buying and chugging the Kool Aid. Brez hasn't even been here for 18 months, yet, and here are the plus guys and a few pending possible plus guys he has added: Crochet, Bregman & Buehler Slaten, Fitts, Newcomb, Criswell, Priester, Giolito, Sandoval Chapman, Hendriks, Weissert, Wilson, Fulmer, I Campbell, Sandlin Narvaez, Romy, Thompson, Eaton, Toro, Sabol, Zavala, Fajardo, Ju Gonzales, Tolle, S Soto, Cason, Reyes, Wehunt, Neely, Tygart, S Delzine, H Rivas, H Ramos, Ehrhard, Clarke Departed helpfuls: O'Neall, Danny Jansen and Dom Smith I probably forgot someone.

For sure, and 2024's team was better than 2023. The farm improved, especially pitchers.

Agreed, last year we took 2 of 4 at SEA and ended up 7-3 on the opening 10 game road trip of 2024. (We lost both games in SEA by 1 run.) Let's get off to a nice start!

Nice win!

Maybe more Sox players should get the bug, Wilyer had!

WOO opens, tomorrow vs Syracuse. POR opens April 4th (8th at home) SAL & GRE are April 4th

Rafaela: the RBI MAN!

Only 11 from the season ending roster, too.

Pretty much, yes, and even one very big basket is not enough to get to glory, IMO.

I hope to hell you are right. I like Story. I think he still has something to give. A 4 WAR would be very nice.

We do look pretty good, on paper, but most of us know, the games are won on the field. I'd rather have our roster than any other AL team, right now, and that's not even counting the farm.

It's great, but it's not 10. No doubt, judge will win 8-12 games for the Yanks. I'm not arguing otherwise. My point was about one man teams not winning much. He could turn a 70 win Yankee team into an 80-82 team, for sure.

Yup, and moving Rafaela to SS just moved a RHB from CF to SS, but the OF'ers were mostly lefties (Duran, O'Neill & Abreu) We replaced a LHB DH with a LHB Devers, but yes, 3B flipped to righty. 2B was lefty heavy in 2024, but some RHBs saw time, there: L Valdez 202 PAs L DHam 118 PAs R Grissom 109 PAs (seemed like DHam played way more 2B than VG.) R Romy 56 L-R Sogard 42 R Westbrook 39 R Rafaela 17, R reyes 16, R gasper 11, R Wong 8

Opening Day Roster: 1. Duran LF 2. Devers DH 3. Bregman 3B 4. Casas 1B 5. Story SS 6. Campbell 2B 7. Abreu RF 8. Wong C 9. Rafaela CF Bench: Narvaez, Refsnyder, DHam & Romy Rotation: Crochet, Buehler, Houck, Fitts & Newcomb Bullpen: Chapman, Slaten, Whitlock, Criswell, Wilson, Weissert, Kelly & Bernardino 10 Day IL: Masataka Yoshida 15 Day IL: Brayan Bello, Kutter Crawford, Lucas Giolito, Liam Hendriks 60 Day IL: Sandoval, Murphy, Penrod

Isn't curmudgeonly part of the new England experience? He fit right into the culture.

...and once again, if Story can stay h....

I'm comin' out blastin' like Yosemite Sam Get tha cheese an tha bread for tha ham

Or last place and just under .500. BTW, he's topped an 78.7 fWAR twice in his career. He's averaged about an 8.5 over the last 4 years.

Interesting to see 5 RHBs vs the righty Nate. We had such a lefty batting team, last year.

I'm pumped up for this game and season. Go! SOX!!!!