moonslav59

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)

One reason I mentioned him as a candidate for the award is that we gave up very little for him, and that is part of the equation for it being called a "steal." We also have a great need for a catcher, beyond just back -up. Any one of the 3 new catchers we added will have a chance to step in and get a look, if they do well. The bar is so low for the catching position, after 2024, that just an average catcher could win the award running away.

Very well may be, especially since it will take years to see the value we gave up for him. I never said Narvaez was the front-runner for "steal of the year," and it's possible nobody deserves the award.

He hasn't. the budget is not higher. He just shifted the money from the pen (Jansen & Martin) and everyday players (O'Neill) to the rotation.

Yes. That was why I mentioned Grichuk/Laureno.

We took a stab at finding a plus defensive catcher that may or may not end up hitting well enough to stick. He certainly has a chance to be our "steal" of the winter. It's not like we've made many other deals that look worthy of such hope. I guess Buehler could win the Cy Young and make $21M look like a steal. I guess Sandoval could return in August and lead us to a ring and win the award of Steal of the Winter. Who else? Wilson? Sabol? Zavala? Crochet cost us a lot, but I suppose he could be a strong contender.

No way the union ever agrees to a cap 1t $240M, let alone $189. One way to persuade MLB players to accept a cap would be to vastly increase the min wage and establish a hefty floor cap over a 3 year period.

Trading Abreu has been an idea with some traction, this winter, even without an O'Neill return. We've been talking about "balancing" the line-up, and he is one of our worst batters vs LHPs. We've been talking about Anthony being ML ready and Rafaela moving back to a FT role in the OF. The one year aspect would be more about a "bridge" to Anthony. That bridge could also be Grichuk or Lauereno. I'm thinking we keep Abreu around and hope heleans how to hit LHPs. It's hard to carry 2 OF'ers who struggle vs LHPs with only Rafaela and Ref as RH'd options. (Duran is .634 vs LHPs career and .665 in '24.)

From Soxprospects.com... Roberto Clemente Professional Baseball League (Puerto Rico) Eduardo Rivera's (pictured) team, Mayaguez, won the championship series over San Juan, and Rivera played a major role. In the series-clinching Game Six, Rivera fired five shutout innings and only allowed one hit. He walked just one and struck out five. It was the left-hander's second five-inning shutout performance of the series, as he ends the series with no runs allowed and 12 strikeouts over 10 innings. After a huge winter, Rivera, the 58th ranked prospects here at SoxProspects, will look to make an impact in the coming weeks down in Fort Myers.

I was not for resigning O'Neill for these reasons, among others.

I said he "could be" followed by "and maybe not." Look up the word "could."

So everything good written about a prospect is suspect, but bad things are written in stone. He's just a kid. Overall, the report I think you got this from says he has good framing skill, but you take the one bad thing out of the report... Field: Strong defensive profile. Fluid actions; good receiving and framing skills. Better framing at the bottom of the zone, but inconsistent at the top and regressed some in 2024 compared to prior seasons. Potential above-average defender.