moonslav59

I think he meant the Salem witch trials, not the baseball team.

LOL. No pitcher can get him to swing an miss on anything they got!

Tiny sample sizes? Yes, but what the hey... ST OPS: 2.500 Wong 1.417 Thompson 1.400 Bregman 1.356 Rafaela 1.250 Romy 1.236 Mayer 1.000 Duran .983 Hamilton .917 Anthony .833 Story

Devers has yet to make an accurate throw to 1B, this spring, so there is that, too.

Is it me, or are these guys shaded in dark gray?

I see Hendriks, Chapman, Slaten and Wilson as the short guys for the 8th and 9th. Whitlock will be the 2-3 innings guy that could end up finishing out some games, Wink can be the 1-2 inning guy, who may go into the 3rd inning, at times. That's the 6, I see as having a slot pretty much locked up. I like the idea of Criswell as a second "long man," but I also see the value of having as many stretched out SP'ers in AAA, as possible. Guerrero seems to be a pick many think will be made. I don't disagree, but I don't see him as a lock for the 8 man pen. Weissert is the #8 guy on the soxprospects.com projected opening day roster. That seems reasonable. There is a boatload of pitchers hoping they can win that 8th slot away from Weissert, or maybe even the 7 slot from Guerrero: On the 40: Bernardino (IL?), Kelly or a converted SP: Criswell, Fitts, Priester, Dobbins Non Roster Invitees: Michael Fulmer, Ottavino, Austin Adams, Matt Moore, Isaiah Campbell, Jovani Moran, Wyatt Mills, Noah Davis, Bryan Mata, Sean Newcomb

Yes, I see that, now. I just responded to that point.

I'm happy Story looks pretty good, so far.

Ahhh. I'm not sure why that should be his projection. Yes, he's coming off a serious injury and is not getting any younger, but he hit .794 after AUG 5th in 2024, while the rest of the team slumped. Okay, it was .633 in SEP after going around .900 from July to the end of August. .783 in 2023 .765 in 2024 .700 "at best" in '25? It's the "at best" that seems hyper-pessimistic.

Right now, soxprospects,com projects NRI Campbell to be the starting 2Bman on the roster. They have Crawford, Penrod and Yoshida starting the season on the IL. Rotation: Crochet, Buehler, Houck, Gio, Bello Pen: Hendriks, Chapman, Slaten, Whitlock, Wilson, Guerrero, Wink & Weissert C: Wong & Narvaez 1B: Casas 2B: Campbell SS: Story 3B: Bregman LF: Duran CF: Rafaela RF: Abreu DH: Devers Bench: DHam, Refsnyder, Romy Others on the 40: Fitts, Priester, Criswell, Dobbins, Kelly, Grissom, Sogard, Sabol & Jh Garcia (AA)

The fact that he looked so damn good, at times, is what gave each new team hope he might put it all together for a prolonged period of time.

True, but "saving" some of his salary. I'd like to think we could get away with paying none, but why would MIA take on Yoshida's salary that offsets Alcantara's? Their whole purpose for making this trade would be to dump salary. I'm not saying I'm for trading Mayer for Alcantara, but he has a big chance at being great, again. He's shown he can be great at the ML level. Mayer has not, and my desire to dump Yoshida is likely getting the better of me. No Yoshida really helps our roster construction. I realize we could just option him to AAA and get the same results, but the budget issue cramps our future choices, bigtime,

I can see having little faith in DHam and Romy. So much of their 2024 numbers were heavily boosted by just one prolonged hot streak, while the rest of their careers look like .700 tops, at best. I've never been thrilled with the idea of a DHam-Romy platoon at 2B, but I do feel like those two offered the best we've seen at 2B since Pedey, except for that period where Story & Kike each played 2B for a half a season. Their career splits are: .695 DHam v RHPs (26 SBs in 303 PAs) .802 Romy vs LHPs in just 214 PAs spread over 4 seasons. .700 is real possibility and is unacceptable, even if that is neat the league average .711 OPS at 2B in 2024. It is, however not nearly as bad as we've seen in a half decade at 2B. The D from these two is a plus. That, alone, is a major improvement over the EValdez's, Reyes', Arroyo's, Arauz, Peraza's and Chavis' of our recent 2B history. I'd certainly rather see Campbell, Story or Bregman at 2B over the platoon I have mentioned, and maybe that happens. (I hope not the Bregman choice for reasons I have mentioned several times.) I do, however, see the potential for .750-.790, and maybe in a perfect world .800. I am pretty sure they'd play plus defense, if that ends up the main choice Cora makes. In short, while I don't see a DHam-Romy 2B platoon as something great, I do see it as a vast improvement over this: 2020-2024 Sox 2B (note how nobody had 550+ PAs in 5 years combined) .739 Arroyo (544 PAs) -2 OAA .737 Story (396) +10 OAA .651 Valdez (350) -12 OAA .901 Kike (304) -8 511 Marwin (119) +2 .627 Reyes (100) -2 .468 Arauz (91) -6 .553 Peraza (89) +2 .743 Urais (88) -3 .587 Chavis (83) -3 Team: .668 OPS (-16 DRS, -123 OAA and a 0.0 UZR/150) I'd like nothing more than to fix the 2B problem, once and for all. Even the 2018-2019 2B situation was an issue that forced us to trade for help (Nunez, Kinsler and others.) I'm a big fan of Bregman at 3B, so I don't want to see him as the 2B fix. He "fixes" 3B more. That leaves Campbell or one of Mayer or Story as a FT solution. I'm fine with any of these chocies over a DHam-Romy platoon. This whole conversation was based on the supposition that Campbell does not make the roster on opening day. It's a hypothetical scenario that I hope does not occur. I'm not for DHam-Romy over Campbell. My only point was what do we do, if Campbell does not win the job (or Mayer & Story are the opening day keystone combo.) The chocies I laid out were ONLY within this context: 2B: DHam-Romy platoon, 3B: Bregman, DH: Devers and maybe forcing Yoshida & Ref to put a squeez on the OF (namely Rafaela as Duran plays some CF) by playing some LF' vs 2B: Bregman, 3B: Devers, DH: Yoshida-Ref platoon and the OF freed from Ref and Yoshida's playing time squeeze. (More PAs from Rafaela improves the D but is likely worse O than DHam-Romy.) This has never been about DHam-Romy vs Bregman or Campbell. It is basically boiled down to DHam-Romy at 2B (We'd maybe see a Rafaela-Abreu platoon in RF, too) vs Rafaela in CF FT and maybe Abreu playing RF vs LHPs, unless we stick Ref out there w Yoshida as the FT DH.

Not at all. Their injury histories makes me wonder how long they both can hold out, but I like the combo. By next year, maybe we see: 1B: Casas 2B: Story SS: Mayer 3B: Campbell Maybe in 3 years we see: 1B: Casas 2B: Mayer/Campbell (Romero) SS: Arias (Mayer) 3B: Campbell/Mayer (Romero)

I gotta think injuries are the biggest concern on this team. I know all teams have that concern, but with so many of our players coming off recent injury episodes, or still in recovery, it just jumps out at me. Devers and Story are the main concerns, but we cannot have too many pitchers out, at the same time, as well. Crawford, Bello and Gio have not been great, but we need 1-2 to eat innings at a decent skill level. Crochet, Houck and Buehler have not been pictures of health over the last 2-3 years, either. Our pen has Hendriks coming off a long layoff, and 80 year old Chapman and recently injured guys like Whitlock, Slaten and fellow 80 year old Wilson being counted on to pitch high leverage innings. We can count the durable pitchers on one hand or just a couple fingers: Wink and untested Guerrero. Back to the everyday players, Casas still has major concerns, and Yoshida will likely start the season on the IL- perhaps even the 60 Day one. Mayer has dealt with injury issues, and he seems to be our best back-up for Story. Grissom is another injury concern, but at least he's not being counted on as a FT'er.

It would seem, to me, that if Mayer makes the big club, without an injury to Story, Trevor would be at 2B. Then, there is Campbell, DHam, Romy, Grissom and even the Bregman debate to conclude. Before long, Arias and Romero may join the conversation.

Is David Robertson still unsigned?

I was thinking they'd demand Anthony or Mayer, if we included Yoshida. I think my "not sure" statement was light, although I would consider giving up a lot with Yoshida for someone with his promise.

It's hard for me to know if my excitement over so many promising prospects is more of of want or need than reality, but I see a lot of potential- seemingly way more than we've seen in a long, long time. This now goes beyond the big 3. The next 4 look poised to jump: Arias, Perales, Bleis & Cespedes. We got older guys like Fitts, Guerrero, Sandlin, Narvaez, Early & Dobbins with some decent chances. We got the Garcia brothers & Romero with real potential. Then, we have a whole mess of kids that are young and/or unproven but with some noticeable skills, like Valera, Reyes, Tolle, Cason, Justin Gonzalez, Soto, Delzine, Ramos and maybe a half dozen more. Our farm is deep, now, and it is more balanced with pitching hopefuls, too. While only 1 of our top 7 prospects in a pitcher,,14 of the next 17 are. That makes it 15 of the top 24 with Wehunt, Neely, Tygart, Fajardo, Delzine, Carlson, Ingrassia and others looking to rise, this year. I'm pumped!

I went over the pitching adds and subtracts, and it looked like the Yanks might have improved, some, there. On everyday players: Lost: Soto (irreplaceable,) Torres, Verdugo, Trevino, Berti & Rizzo Add: Soto> Bellinger Rizzo> Goldschmidt Torres> more of Chisholm & Cabrera (LeMahieu?) Verdugo> more from Dominguez & Cabrera Trevino> Alex Jackson I see a steep drop, here.

Hey, he's another TJS pitcher, so sounds about right. Pay $40M of Yoshida's $54M remaining, and include him in the deal. It might take trading a top 3 prospect to get him. Anthony, DHam, Yoshida and $40M for him? Mayer, Abreu, Yoshida and $35M? Not sure. Maybe we can keep the kids and go Crawford, Bello, Rafaela, DHam and Cespedes.

Great example. We never paid him top money.

I thought Story, but the arm looks too fat. Romy?

Nobody is, but if he's on the big club, it will be because he's done something to deserve it.

Ref is a top 15 batter vs LHPs. Bregman is not close. Campbell may get there. We know what Ref can do. Romy was one of our best hitters vs lefties, last year, but I'm fine with Bregman or Campbell taking his PAs.