moonslav59

“Raffy’s going to DH. We all are in the winning business. He understands that.” -Cora

It was the obvious choice- Day one. Nothing changed.

Besides naming Chapman the closer, "big surprise," Cora had named Slaten, Whitlock, Hendriks and Wilson, earlier, but yesterday he named Weissert and Kelly. One slot remains, I'm thinking maybe Criswell, but maybe it's lefty Bernardino. Newcomb is the 5th starter. Abreu is "100% on the opening day roster."

I didn't realize this was your criteria.

Well, we did go younger at closer and kept up the streak of going with aging pitchers as closers. One time great, Kenley Jansen is 37 years old and 177 days, while once great Chapman is 37 years old and 26 days. We have the young sprout, Liam Hendriks, waiting in the wings at 36 and 44 days. I do hope Chapman can do well and hold the job, all year. A merry-go-round closer position would likely spell doom for this promising team.

A AAA closer is not a "real closer."

Foley was just sent to AAA.

On paper does not win games, granted, but it feels better looking good on paper in March than looking like a fringe 4th place team.

I fixed it for you.

Yes, a make believe closer holding the slot on a team without a "real closer."

Stick a fork in 'em. No Soto. No Cole. No Gil. No Torres, Cortes & Holmes. Stanton has two injuries. There aren't enough players to trade to get to a winning team in 2025. Toast.

Good point. They have perfected what Bloom could not do. Just keep having a winning records. Bloom had one, but I'm not totally convinced management was fully behind building winning teams, or at least not to the extent the Yankees were, especially with spending.

He wasn't very good at that, either.

Look where the projections were before the Bregman signing.

He knows I'm right and is in hiding. Jacko used to bash Boone and Cashman, a lot, in between supporting them and their long record of .500+ seasons.

I did not say he was successful. I said Bloom & Brez MAY have done a better job than Boone and cashman's who had the job of winning a ring, which they failed to do and are still around, unlike Bloom.

They had to try and sell the idea it was not a rebuild.

Agreed. You can't just skip ST'ing, get 1 or 2 starts in AAA and jump into the rotation.

Well, we do know Chapman and Hendriks are make believe closers.

The idea might be to trade him for someone in a similar situation as Story but at another position. I'm not expecting to get much in return, and adding a good prospect to sweeten the return has downfalls to it, too. I do think getting a guy like Murphy, who plays a position we need an upgrade at might be the push this team needs to get us in the conversation.

Yes, "back" means in AAA rehabbing for a few starts. Mid May might not even be realistic for 1 or 2 of these 3.

I would totally agree. We sucked. I do think the two management teams had two very different plans given to them, thus... "Apples to Oranges."

I know some posters do not think Abreu has much trade value, but I do. With our depth, we could also make it a 2 or 3 for one trade, involving 40 Man Roster players or prospects to sweeten the return. I don't want to decimate the depth, but we have some bottlenecks, now and will have more before too long. What could we get for Abreu, Cespedes and Mullins? What catcher might we get for Abreu, Wong and Romero? How about a real closer for Abreu, Grissom and Kelly? I'm not sure what is out there, and March-April are not typical months for big trades, so maybe we wait for nearer the deadline, but I do think something goes down, this year, unless we have so many injuries, we need these guys.

I know I'm letting the excitement of the fast- approaching opening day cloud my judgment, but I'm really liking our chances in the AL, this season. The rest of the AL looks to have gotten weaker, from the Yanks to the Indians, Astros and Orioles. Maybe the Jays and a couple other teams improved, but not by much. My hopes are as much about how bad I think they are as I think we are better. Yes, we lost Jansen, Martin, O'Neal and Pivetta, but we lost a lot of deadweight, too, and if you total up the PAs and IP, we lost more bad than good, except for the pen. I may sound like a broken record, but I'm loving our depth, that extends beyond the 40 Man Roster, this year to Anthony, Mayer, Fulmer, several other pitchers and the Thompson-Eaton-Toro trio. I think our offense is better. Our defense should be way better and may jump 15 slots in the rankings. Our rotation is as good as it's been since 2018. Our pen looks shaky, especially at closer, but it is deep and may get help from starters used in the pen. I've always been high on Cora, and Brez seems like he knows what he's doing. GO SOX! Let's win this thing!

Of course that matters. Spending matters. Both management teams had different tasks given to them. One could argue Bloom and Brez rebuilt a formidable team going forward- the task given to them. One could argue Boone and cashman failed at the task given to them- win a WS or get there often. I'm glad they kept both of these guys and expect the same results.