moonslav59

When did I say you said that? Playing scarecrow, again.

You forget, a lot, and only remember when the blind squirrel runs up the broken clock.

You crack me up.

Probably using lead paint.

Weird fascination with metric makers.

Well, the Sox can still sign Bregman and be comfortably under the first tax line. They could maybe even sign Bregman to about $25-26M and still add a decent RP'er. Extensions could kick in after opening day, if that's the way the want to structure the budget. Again, the only way I'm okay with signing him is to play 3B. 1. L Duran CF 2. R Bregman 3B 3. L Casas DH/1B 4. L Devers 1B/DH 5. R Story SS (Mayer) 6. L Abreu RF/R Refsnyder LF 7. L Yoshida LF/ R Rafaela RF (Anthony) 8. R Wong/ R Narvaez C 9. L DHam/ R Romy 2B (Campbell?)

Many of the highest paid FAs were not all that good year one or year two. 1. Ohtani '24 MVP (but did not pitch 1 inning), Yr 2 pending 2. Machado '19 (.796 yr 1, 3rd in MVP yr 2) 3. Seager '22 (.772 yr 1, 2nd MVP yr 2) 4. Yamo '24 (3.00 ERA in 18 GS/ yr 2 pending) 5. Cole '20 (4th in CYA, 2nd CYA- won CYA yr 4) 6. T Turner '23 (.778 and .815- both below career OPS) 7. Bogey '23 (.790 & .688 first 2 years) 8. ARod '07 (MVP, 8th MVP) 9. ARod '01 (6th MVP, 2nd MVP) 10. Rendon '20 (.915 then collapse to .712 and down every yr afterwards) 11. Pujols '12 (.859 yr 1 was almost 200 pt drop, then .767) 12. Cano '14 (.736 yr 1, then injuries) 13. Price '16 (dropped from 179 ERA+ to 112 yr 1 and 135 yr 2) 14. Fielder '12 (.940 to .819) 15. Scherzer '15 (CYA 5, CYA yr 2 and 3) 16. Greinke '16 (4.37 ERA then 4th CYA) 17. Correa '23 (.834 and .711) Top Extensions: over $300M: Trout (kind of a bust), Betts (BAM), Judge (BAM), Lindor (.734, .788 OPS) Machado, Tatis, Harper, Devers

Top 8 FA signings in 2024 (Total Money) 2 NYM (Soto & Manaea) 1 LAD (Snell) 1 NYY (Fried) 1 AZ (Burnes) 1 SFG (Adames) 1 TOR (Santander) 1 TEX (Nate) Top 16: 3 NYM (add Holmes), 3 LAD (add Scott & Teoscar) 2 TEX (Pederson) 1 NYY, AZ, SFG, TOR, TEX, OAK (add Severino) LAA (Kikuchi) HOU (Walker) BAL (O'Neill) Top 24: 5 NYM, 4 LAD, 2 TEX, 2 TOR, 1 NYY, AZ, SFG, CHC, CLE, BOS, CIN Top 32: 5 NYM, 5 LAD, 3 TEX, 3 TOR, 2 SFG, 2 BOS, 2 DET Top 40: 5 NYM & LAD, 3 TEX, TOR & BOS, 2 SFG, DET, NYY, LAA, CLE, CHC, OAK (The top 40 is all players paid $10M or more. Yates not included.)

I do see somewhat of a contradiction in my lifelong philosophy of what makes the Sox a top contender. I have always felt that we are at our best when we have a better rotation, especially 2-3 really good ones, along with a solid defense, especially up the middle. I've always hated the strategy of trying to build up the rotation by replacing the #4 or #5 with a supposedly better #4/5. My mantra has always been to "build up the rotation from the top, not the bottom." Also, for the past few years, when many have been saying we need 2 SP'ers, I was calling for 3. When many said 1, I said 2. Well, since the start of last season, we have added Crochet, Buehler and essentially Giolito and depth like Priester, plus a more well-known Criswell. Yes, we lost Pivetta and moved Whitlock to the pen, so one could view the net addition as just 1-2, but to me, it seems like more than that. Crochet is a legit #1 or #2, despite some lingering questions about durability and repeatability. Buehler is the real deal, if healthy and fully recovered from major surgery. Giolito is an unknown, but he is not old, and had 3 really good seasons, not too long ago. Houck and Crawford answered the durability questions we had, last winter, but of course doubts still linger. Houck proved a lot more, while Crawford might have pitched better in 2023 than 2024. Bello did not improve his standing, but he has shown he can take the ball every 5 days with 58 GS in the past 2 years. For the first time, in a long time, we have 5 pretty solid SP'ers with better than average AAA depth in Criswell, Fitts, Priester, Dobbins and non 40 man Fulmer. This should be enough to make us a contender, based on my lifelong beliefs, but for several reasons, my doubts and pessimism over certain aspects of this team have squashed or diminished those hopes. Our catching and corner IF defense is about as bad as it could ever be. I'm not sure we have ever had a worse defensive C-1B-3B group, since I started following the Sox in the early 70's. Our middle IF and OF D look fine or better, as long as Story is playing, and these positions, other than catcher are more importnat than 1B and 3B, so maybe I'm overblowing how bad our team D really is. Mayer, Campbell and Anthony are no slouches on D, so the future does look brighter. The more DHam plays 2B over Grissom, the better 2B D is. The more Story plays SS D over Rafaela & Co, the better. The more OF D Rafaela plays, the better. Duran-Rafaela-Abreu is a better OF Defense than one with O'Neill and Ref playing 161 OF games, not to mention 15 OF games by Romy, Dalbec, Wong, Valdez, Westbrook & Yoshida. There is hope for improved defense. Bregman at 3B would help, a lot. That leaves the pen. We had the worst pen in MLB, over the second half of 2024, and we lost Jansen and Martin. We also lost and equal amount of pen IP by scrubs and failed relievers like Garcia, Sims and others. We added Chapman, Hendriks, Whitlock and Wilson. We might see Crawford, Fitts, Criswell or Priester take some major innings in the Sox pen. To me, we have a very deep pen, that stretches 8-10 deep into the minors, but we lack a true lock-down closer- something every Sox champion had, this century. Should I really be so discouraged by just 3-4 major weaknesses? (Closer, Catcher D, corner IF D and poor RH'd batting vs LHP'ing?

I could see top 3 in SP'er ERA+ but not overall pitching staff combined.

I can see reasons to be higher on KC than Anthony. I'm glad we have both! My love of Mayer is wavering, but maybe he changes that in 2025. I'm very high on Arias and Cespedes, and I think the Garcia brothers jump in teh rankings, this year.

There are a few that scream out, "DONT START ME Vs THIS HANDED PITCHER!) vs LHPs: Abreu & DHam vs RHPs: Romy & Ref All these 4 are also among our leaders in OPS vs the "better handed pitcher," so 2 platoons jump out at me: DHam-Romy at 2B (The other makes for a decent utility guy when not starting.) Campbell could end the whole 2B platoon with a call-up. Ref (LF)- Abreu (RF) with Duran moving to CF, when Ref is in LF. (Both can PH or Abreu could be a late inning defensive replacement for Ref.) We can "tolerate" Duran's low OPS vs LHPs, since he still had an acceptable .320 OBP and is such a great base stealer. Rafaela needs to start hitting both hands, better, or he will become our super utilityman. Devers and Casas hit LHPs well enough to never need a platoon. Story remains the great unknown on O. Yoshida could be platooned with Ref at DH with Rafaela & Abreu, if Anthony (or Campbell) win a FT OF slot in 2025. Grissom needs to prove, a lot, in 2025- beyond splits. With no additions, could these be the line-ups? vs RHP 1. L Duran LF 2. R Story SS 3. L Casas 1B 4. L Devers 3B 5. L Abreu RF 6. L Yoshida DH 7. R Wong/ R Narvaez 8. L DHam 2B 9. R Rafaela CF vs LHP 1. L Duran CF 2. R Refsnyder LF 3. L Casas 1B 4. L Devers 3B 5. R Story SS 6. L Yoshida DH 7. R Romy 2B 8. R Wong/ R Narvaez 9. R Rafaela RF 8.

This probably what matters most: League vs RHP: .711/ Sox .747 (+37) League vs LHP: .711/ Sox .728 (+17) No park factors included, here. But these numbers are interesting: League RHB v RHP .691/ Sox .646 (-45) League RHB v LHP .728/ Sox .815 (+87) League LHB v RHP .734/ Sox .813 (+79) League LHB v LHP .668/ Sox .628 (-40) We never hear about our RHBs vs RHPs, which is our worst split and it happens more often than any other split.

There still is a little bit of "is this guy for real" aspect to KC, but I think he is.

Yes, and ... 37. Rivas 38. Ramos 39. Delzine It looks like these guys are ranked higher than previous years' IFAs. (Narvaez is ranked 28th and Yhoiker Fajardo, the guy we got from the CWS for Bosser is ranked 36th.)

The NCAA has to schedule their playoff games better, next year. Some were during NFL games, including the U of Texas game during the Texans game. I'm glad they kept Alabama out of the playoffs rather than bow to the pressure. The system is flawed, but it's better than the ones they had before. I don't think it's fair to give the top 4 seeds only to the big 5 conference winners, but I see the reasoning behind it. Some teams, like ND did not have to win an "extra game" with a conference championship game. Maybe ND joins a conference, at some point. The AAC looks like an easier one to win, and we are part of the AAC for basketball.

That's always your excuse when a team you think is not good, does better than you expected: "It must be the other teams weren't very good." Georgia was a damn good team. Penn St, too. Indiana might not have been as good as their record indicated, but they were no slouch. Army won their bowl game, as did USC over a decent A&M team we beat. Navy, MIA OH, No. Illi and Louisville all won their bowl games, too. GA Tech and A&M lost theirs. I think only 2 teams we played did not make a bowl game. We played 5 ranked teams, during the season and went 5-0. So, Alabama was not "Alabama," this year. That does not mean the rets of the NCAA was watered down.

You certainly win the "Gloater of the Year Award." You were dead right about the Domers from day one. (sarcasm alert.)

Wong actually has career reverse splits, and there are lefties that hit lefties better than he does. (.686/.727) 2023-2024 OPS vs LHPs (Returning players only) .886 Refsnyder .879 Romy (may start in AAA) .794 Casas (talk of trading him) .749 Devers .721 Wong **** NEWSFLASH: Here is where Bregman places at .704 **** .680 Duran (YIKES! Our leadoff hitter!) .669 Yoshida (the guy we designate as a hitter) **** 2nd NEWSFLASH: Arenado at .654 **** .610 Rafaela (also reverse career splits) .573 Story (one guy we hope might be the savior) .539 DHam (should never start vs a LHP) .514 Abreu (see DHam comment)

Of course that is at least half of the issue, but if we really chose someone else over Story, Yoshida or maybe Bregman, we could have chosen to "do what it takes" to land him. Instead we outbid everyone for Story & Yoshida, and now, maybe Bregman. Yes, it's kinda like War Games, where our objective is "not to play the game," but it is also making poor choices on the games (guys) we do choose to play. We are plating tic-tac-toe, while others are playing 3D chess.

It's not worry: it's wonderment. Of course, I'd be happy to see us fix two of what I view as out top 5-6 high need areas, assuming he starts at 3B. I just wonder, "why him?" Because he's the last decent FA remaining? Because maybe his price will fall into JH's range? Because they don't think they have shammed the fans into enough interest to turn a big buck? We will, indeed, be much better with Bregman than without. That's a good thing, but we all know one thing for sure: a dollar spent by JH< now, will be a dollar not spent tomorrow. It's always an either/or situation, and signing Bregman, now, mean not filling a need that develops, later- maybe 2 or 3 needs. We can also look at just this winter and ask, was this the best way to spend the winter budget handed to Brez? Assuming Bregman gets $160M/7, we could have gotten Scott & Teoscar for less, "in theory," (I'm sure we could come up with other combos of 2-3 others. I get the sense that the Sox upper brass is not feeling the level of angst fro Sox Nation, perhaps they should. The whole Dodger situation has made many MLB fans throw their arms in the air and think there is no hope our team can compete with that. We stick with our one and done deals and make a splashy trade for a 2 year deal. Whoop-Deee- Freakin'- Dooooo! But hey, they tell us, "We have a bunch of injured players returning," like this is something new and promising.

You crack me up. I'm just hoping a top 2-3 group of SP'ers will carry us into the playoffs, where I've often heard, "all bets are off."

Dodgers to sign Yates, right after the Scott deal. There goes the one area of weakness they had. This is worse than the Yankee reign of financial dominance.

I could see the Sox signing Yates, since he turns 38 before opening day and would take a one year deal. Jansen turns 38 in September, so maybe he could still be a late signee on a one year deal. I'm not sure how much either of these two would move the needle, but at least both have experience as closers, and pitched, last year. We probably will not be adding a RHB, unless it's someone like Grichuk, but we already have Refsnyder. Could it be Yates and call it a day? (Could it be we are done with any meaningful additions?)

We came a lot closer than we have in decades, but OSU was just too talented to overcome. I'm excited about our coaching, and maybe getting this far will help with recruiting, going forward. The 2025 schedule: at Miami FL Texas A&M Purdue at Arkansas Boise St USC Navy at PItt at B C N Carolina Syracuse Not an easy schedule, but not super difficult.