moonslav59

None finished 6th in BA in the AL, even if you lower the qualifying ABs. My pick is Story with Yoshida close behind. "Break out" implies a jump. For Yoshida to break out, he needs to go from .285 to .325. For Story to "break out" from .235 to .275. I have little faith in Grissom.

Rafaela playing more SS in 2024 helped with that choice, but yes, O'Neill was going to play, when healthy vs LHPs and RHPs. There may have been a more prevalent platoon with Rafaela and Abreu had Story been healthy, of maybe they'd have played Rafaela at 2B, instead of pivoting to DHam and Romy after EValdez & Grissom imploded.

Kelly or Forest green?

I'd bet on O'Neill, but if I could take Grichuk or Laureano combined, I think one is more likely to do better. Which one? Who knows?

They both fit the profile: will take one year and not cost much. Also, do NOT be surprised, if one of these guys does better than O'Neill in 2025.

We've gotten so many 4+ deals wrong, in a row, that I can see why JH is a scaredy cat. BTW, when was our last 3 year deal or extension? Bogey opted out after 3 and Barnes had a 3rd year option, but I can't think of the last one. Have we had one since Vic?

We are far enough away from the tax line, that there does not seem to be a reason to wait, until the season starts, unless we also want to extend a younger player or prospect, too. Maybe, we are waiting on Bregman to choose the timing aspect of the signing, but who knows with these clowns?

Hey, we've done okay with the revolving door OF add-ons: Pillar> Renfroe>Duvall>O'Neill. This year we have "Joe Diddilee." Maybe Anthony of Campbell becomes the next add-on OF'er. We still have... LF: Duran (Anthony/Campbell, Romy, Ref & Yoshi) CF: Rafaela (Duran & Anthony) RF: Abreu (Anthony/Campbell, Rafaela, Ref & Romy) It's not like our OF is barren. The depth involves some shuffling, at times, at least until a top prospects gets added to the 40 & 26 (at the same time.) I still think we sign Grichuk or Laureano as a cheap one year bridge to a kid or two.

It has become an ugly pattern. A few is fine, but every signing has become one and dones or take a half season or more to get off the 60 Day IL, then give us one season.

I think we are on to something!

Yanks talking extension for Boone. LOL!

So these are the prospects added to the soxprospects.com rankings, since the end of the season rankings. (Trades and IFA signings) 28. Narvaez (ERC trade) 30. Dorian Soto (IFA) 36. Yhoiker Fajardo (Booser trade) 37. Harold Rivas (IFA) 38. Hector Ramos (IFA) 39. Sadbiel Delzine (IFA) 52. Andruw Musett (attrition) 58. Eduardo Rivera (attrition) 59. Danny Kirwin (attrition)

If it's 4-1, there needs to be an asterisk. LOL. (The fix has been in, all year.)

I do think last year's team had some excitement and exciting players. We inched up slowly with the record and standings. I think we look better, on paper, now, but we need a bigger jump, IMO. The reliance on the kids to boost us over the top is an age-old plan, but I can't help but feel like we could have made a strong statement that the Sox are back, with the kids knocking on the door as the fall back not "the plan." I've always been big on building up the rotation from the top and continuously, along with decent up the middle defense and a closer. I gotta say, we've done a very nice job constructing a solid rotation along with better than decent depth. We took a stab at boosting the pen with the Hendriks and Chapman signings, but to me, Jansen and Martin were better. Our up the middle defense can only improve greatly, if Story can stay healthy for a full season. We may improve a little at 2B, now that EValdez is gone, CF if Rafaela plays there more often, and Catcher if Wong can improve or the back-up does better than McGuire and Jansen, but none will likely be a huge boost. I think the O will be about the same. The defense will improve a little, but going from bottom 5 to bottom 10-15 may not be enough. The rotation should be much better, and it wasn't bad, last year. The pen is the wild card. It is deep with promising pitchers but shallow on sure-thing arms.

It's the signing part. Trades, homegrowns, waiver wires hardly ever get hurt, for us.

The pattern of signing pitchers we know will start the season on the IL is ongoing: Paxton> Hendriks>Sandoval. So is the pattern of signing "healthy" pitchers who used to be good to great, missed extended time with injuries and are now supposed to regain past glory: Richards> Wacha/Hill> Kluber> Buehler. We even tried to start a new club: pitchers with hardly any injury past who immediately get hurt when they pitch for us or just think about pitching for us: Giolito, I Campbell and I hate to go to far back, but Thornburg rings a bell.

More like when you stole that bag of Cheetos from the corner store.

I never called him a steal. I said he could be the steal of the year. Part of the reason is that our Catcher D sucks, and he offers promise in that area. Our back-up catcher O was around .600. That leaves some room for improvement. Yes, it is just jibber jabber, as there is not much else to talk about. Here is something else to talk about: Jovani Moran might be the "steal of the winter."

When I'm talking about a steal, it does not mean someone wins the MVP award. Why were the Yanks so generous to leave Whitlock unprotected for us to "steal" away from them? Things happen for varying reasons. We've had "steals" in the past from the waiver wire, like Schreiber in '21 and Bernardino in '23. Maybe these guys were not the "Steal of the year," but they were moves that outshined the cost to get him. One could claim O'Neill was the steal from last winter. He did not cost much to get, and his salary was cheap for what we got. Was the Nate for Beeks trade a "steal?" Maybe we are just arguing semantics.

True, hence the chance for a "steal." It would not be a steal if we gave up Anthony for a catcher that does much better than McGuire/Jansen. I realize that Crochet has the better chance for a great impact, but we gave up a lot and the expectations are high, to begin with. I think people are confusing the word Steal with who will do better.

I think greatly improving catcher defense can make a big difference, and how a catcher works with the staff is often overlooked, when valuing their impact on a team. On the batting side of Catching, Narvaez is not projected to be that good, despite some decent power and OBP numbers on the farm, but if he does do average, it would be a very big boost from 2024. .465 McGuire in 158 PAs .623 Jansen in 96 PAs That is over 250 PAs that can be greatly improved upon and could have significant impact on our 2025 results, beyond an improved defense. We were -14 DRS for catching, last year, and Wong finished poorly in many categories.

BULL!

Defense is rarely a big selling point for these things, sadly.

It hasn't helped that our largest FA deals have not even hit the 50% success rate since at least the Nate signing. ($8M/4 '19). $140M/6 Story '22 $90M/5 Yoshida (plus posting fee) '23 $38.5M/2 Giolito '24 Our extensions: $313/10 Devers $145M/5 Sale '20 $120/6 Bogey '20 (opt out after $60M/3) (and the lower deal of $19M/2 for Barnes)

He's also traded away a lot of everyday players and prospects for pitching. He's drafted more pitchers than we've seen in recent years. He's signed 2 IFAs with $450K+ bonuses. That's 2 of the 3, we've signed since 2020. (Paez '21, D Reyes '24, Delzine '25)