moonslav59

2nd in pitching is encouraging and maybe not far from the mark. 14th in batting seems a little low, but it's hard to project younger players with 1-2 seasons of doing well under their belts. It's nearly impossible to predict how good the 3 AAA Amigos will do, or even how much they will play in MLB's 2025 season. Another major factor, as always, is injuries. Devers played hurt for part of 2024 and missed time, at the end. Casas missed almost 100 games. He could be our 2nd to 3rd best hitter. Story has 163 games played in 3 seasons. When he did play, he hit at an 89 OPS+, but he could end up being a RHB force at the plate and on D in 2025. Hard to know. Just staying healthy will be a plus- maybe a plus-plus. Yoshida may still have his best season in him, as he missed much of 2024, too. Losing O'Neill looks like a gut punch on the surface, but better health, alone, can and should make up for his loss. (BTW, he missed serious time, too, and he also went through some rough patches, including with men on base.) Here is the other part: so many of our batters are young or very young. Not all follow a bell curve, but one usually expects general improvement as they near or enter prime. I may be a homer, but I like how a DHam- Grissom/Romy platoon looks at 2B much more than half the innings played at 2B in 2024 by EValdez, Westbrook, Reyes, Gasper and Wong. The three I mentioned are 23-27 years old. While it's hard to project how well 23 year old Rafaela and 25 year old Abreu will do in their second full season at the MLB level, I can't see why we should expect regression over progression. If we end up using them in some sort of platoon, I think we can be optimistic about a very nice output. Duran and Devers just entered prime. In theory, they can and should get better. Wong is now in prime, too, as is Yoshida & Story. Nobody is past-prime. While I've lost hope on Wong's defense, many catchers don't reach their prime on D, until age 29 or later. I'm hopeful, he realizes he needs help and is working on that area, this winter. The defense at corner IF remains horrific, and will likely not improve, unless some pieces are shuffled. Our OF defense looks spectacular, especially if Rafaela plays more and stops making dumb errors. A middle IF defense by Story and DHam is a plus, something we have not seen in many years. I see it like this in the AL: Boston should finish: Top 5 in pitching and baserunning Middle 5 in batting Bottom 5 in defense Total it up and maybe we end up 4th to 7th best.

Most likely not, but I listed them as outside shots. Certainly, we can't "count on them," now. Penrod made it from Portland, in 2024.

To me, it's like FIP and BAbip, stats you use often. I do think fWAR counts more for awards. If the race is close, I think bWAR can be used to make the final call.

Romy does give us better defense at SS, as a back-up, and can play 1B & 3B, but I'd put Romy in AAA to start the season. DHam's speed and good D at 2B make him a good platoon for Grissom. Now, if Grissom is looking like a FT'er in ST'ing, I can see going your route.

Yes, they both have their uses. fWAR can also show that a certain pitcher should have done better (or worse) than his bWAR showed. That could tip the balance in a tight award, if the players are tied or near tied in bWAR.

Since you mention a couple platoons, why not one at 2B? DHam is ok vs RHPs and is a great baserunner.He sbetter on D than Grissom, too.

I've suggested that very trade, myself, even offering an overpay to do it. We are not far from being there. I know Arenado is overpaid, but we can afford him, and COl pays $5M x 2 more years. One trade like that vastly improves our pen- top to bottom, improves 3B defense and maybe 1B defense, and we add a RHB with some pop. It's a shorter commitment than Bregman.

Our O has looked pretty balanced. It's may not be the best of the 4 remaining teams, but the D has looked strong. I think the odds are pretty even, all around.

Hard to know. I thought Oregon was over-rated, so maybe their big win vs the Ducks is not such a big deal. (OSU lost to Oregon, earlier.) Losing to Michigan in a big game was not so long ago. While GA might have been ND's only real big win, this year, we are undefeated vs all ranked or previously ranked teams, this year. We shall see. Texas might give OSU a run. Penn St is no slouch, either. I like this playoff action, despite its many flaws.

Yes. We need a solid closer or two good set-up men. That would bump everyone down a notch or two and make us decent to good w the MLB 8 and the next 8 would be top 10, easily. We are not that far away from being pretty good. Improve the pen. Improve catcher defense. Improve corner IF D. Add a power RHB. Doo two of these and we should be a playoff fave. Fix 3 and we might have a shot at more.

You also hear GMs deny rumors and then do just what the rumors said.

We used 25 pitchers in the pen, last year, not counting Reyes and D Smith. We used 21 over 4 I and 16 over 10 IP. That's more than 8 on the ML roster and 8 on the AA roster. even you take away Pivetta and Criswell's games in the pen. The list included pitchers we added during the year (L Garcia, L Sims & Brad Keller.) Take those 5 away and we get to 16. I've mentioned, a few times, that I think our deep depth is decent and could be made into one of the best in MLB, if we add 1-2 top RP'ers, that would bump all others down 1-2 slots. The MLB 8 might be this: Chapman, Hendriks, Slaten, Whitlock (if not on IL,) Crawford, Winckowski, Wilson & Guerrero. The AAA 9: Penrod, Kelly, Weissert, Bernardino, Shugart. I Campbell, A Adams, Mata. (Others include: Mills, J Adames, H Harris, N Davis, W Olds, J Moran) AAA SP'ers who could help in the pen: Criswell, Fitts, Priester, Fulmer, Dobbins, Drohan, Gambrell. AA: Sandlin, Early, Wehunt, Mullins, I Coffey, Monegro, Hoppe & Troye

ND won their biggest game since maybe 1992. The broke their record for most wins in a season. Penn St v ND Jan 9 Ohio St v Texas Jan 10 (Just like the old days.) Championship game is Jan 20th. If it was up to me, to rank the teams, right now, I'd go: 1. Notre Dame 13-1 2. Texas 13-2 3. Penn St 13-2 4. Ohio St. 12-2 5. Oregon 13-2 Not many of us felt this was possible, after that loss to No. Illinois.

We can still add pieces that will not block Anthony or Campbell (and Mayer, too.) Our pen is very sketchy, despite the decent depth we seem to have. We should be able to spend on Tanner Scott or go cheaper on someone like Estevez, Yates or Finnegan. We don't have options issues with many of our better pen arms, so we won't be messing that up by pushing a pitcher or two to AAA to start the season. Signing Bregman could eventually block Campbell or Mayer, if they would have one day been pushed to 3B, but with Story's health issues and guys like DHam, Grissom and Romy at 2B, there is room for one, there. Anthony should not be blocked in the OG, unless Rafaela learns to hit, well. Even then, we can platoong Rafaela & Abreu and hand Anthony a FT job, if he earns it. (He could play FT CF or RF or play CF v R and RF v L, as Abreu and Rafaela platoon at different OF slots. We could also add a catcher without blocking anyone, since Teel is gone, now. We CAN and SHOULD do certain things that don't mess with any plans for prospect promotions. If we end up with a bottleneck, we can trade for the remaining weakest spot need.

Hoffman wants to be a starter, so I doubt he's a fit. I have not hears anything on a Sox interest in Scott. Yates fits our 1 and done contract mentality. Estevez or Finnegan might meet JH's dollar allotments.

I ca seen extending Crochet as soon as can be, assuming at a realistic number. I'd wait a bit on Anthony and Campbell, unless they are willing to sign a decent deal that adds a year or more of control time.

I expected better at the '24 deadline, but garcia and Sims were not bad additions: they just turned to crapola, after we got them. Paxton was a deep reach with little promise of working out. D Jansen was a great get. D Smith was before the deadline, and he kept us in the race, after Cooper sucked.

While not ideal, we could platoon Yoshida and Ref in LF, play Duran FT in CF and Anthony in RF. Trade Abreu for a catcher or RP'er and have an IF set up like this: 1B: Devers/Casas share with DH. 2B: DHam v R and Campbell v L 3B: Campbell v R and Romy or Grissom v L SS: Story (or Mayer) If Grissom does well, he could win the 3B FT job, outright and we go with Campbell at 2B or a DHam-Romy platoon, if Campbell is not on the 40. This costs the Sox $0M. We could spend on upgrading the pen or Catcher, depending on the Abreu trade.

This was my point. The rules are the rules, so I guess it's not "wrong," but I think it needs to be fixed and probably will be, at some point.

I'm never uspet with any trade that brings back better value or equal value that fllls a greater need than we create.

Another significant plus ve LHPs could be a full and healthy season from Casas and Devers. Both are LHPs who hit lefties well over their careers, but who were hurt, playing hurt or did poorly vs LHPs in 2024. Career: Casas .772 v L/.846 v R (only 61 PAs v L in '24) Devers .739 v L/.910 v R (.686 v L in '24) Yes, the return of RHB Story and possible call-up of RHB Campbell and a goos split LHB Anthony could also help. We will need to find a way (platoon w Yoshi at DH?) for Ref (.941 v L) vs every LH'd SP'er. We could also make sure Wong plays vs all LH'd SP'ers (.877). I'm not sure if Romy's .879 OPS v L warrants a full platoon role at 2B w DHam. There are various ways we can work some useful platoons into some positions: DH: Yoshida v R/ Ref v L OF: LF Duran v R/Ref v L, CF Rafaela (equal splits) v R/Duran v L OF: LF Duran, CF Anthony v R/Rafaela v L, RF Abreu v R, Anthony v L 2B: DHam v R, Romy or Grissom v L or go wild with... 1B/DH Casas & Devers and 3B: Campbell vs R, Romy or Grissom v L and 2B DHam v R and Campbell v L

Our later season play was awful and concerning, but I'm not so sure we should think that team was more of who we are than how we played before that. It does raise questions, as our Sept OPS in '23 was really bad, too. Maybe Cora should think about giving our players planned rest days. LOL

I do think we've improved, and the rotation most of all, assuming normal health. I'm a big fan of having the strongest rotation and depth possible. We do not have to improve by 10-15 games to make the playoffs, but when we made the Crochet trade for two years of his services, I figure the "here and now" finally arrives. The one year deal to Beuhler reinforced that feeling, somewhat, although I had hoped for a longer term and more durable signing, but then cricketts. One could look at the team's needs and say, "Wow! It's not such a bad thing to see you only needs are a back-up catcher (okay, maybe a #1 C) and improved corner IF defense and a solid pen arm or two." In this sense, I can see getting excited, but I also see so many question marks and a need for so many to all go right, that it looks to "dreamy" to me. I mentioned on another post how we seem to have too many players with 1-2 major flaws in their game: only Duran looks like a plus batter and fielder. He can also run very well. His splits are not perfect, and one could call his splits vs LHPs a weak area, but he's the closest and only guy we have with no major flaws. He's only done it for 1.5 years, so maybe that could raise a question. Devers and Casas: very good to great bats and horrific defense. Abreu and DHam cant hit lefties,. Ref can't hit righties. Story can't stay healthy and needs to reprove he can hit. Rafaela has a lot to prove with his bat, but is a GG-type CF'er and a plus on D at 2B. Yoshida can't play D and shows little power for a DH. Wong sucks on D but hits well for a catcher. On the surface, these guys look okay to good, or even very good, but we lack in everyday, all-around good players. I've spoken about how our pen depth looks fine, but more in quantity of promise than proven quality arms. We still have about $30M under the a tax line we were told wasn't an issue, this year, so what's stopping us from upgrading some of these flawed areas?

Yes. They can. Some are to lesser extents.

No.