moonslav59

Craig's List: Crochet Buehler Sandoval Giolito Criswell Fulmer, Fitts & Priester Slaten Chapman Hendriks Wilson Sandlin Weissert, I Campbell, Judice & J Moran (and others) D Reyes, S Delzine, Tolle, Neely, Cason, Clarke, Aita & others Ummm... Paxton, L Garcia, L Sims, Booser Joely, Anderson, Horn, Uwasawa, Wingenter, Y Ram, Jacques That's a long list for 15 months on the job.

Narvaez is still a prospect and A work in progress. Call them suspects all you like, but sometimes suspects turn into productive players. His ML sample size is too tiny to be pulling framing stats on all 14 high pitches he caught.

True. LF: O'Neill v RHPs/ Duran v LHPs CF: Duran v RHPs/ Rafaela v LHPs RF: Abreu v RHPs/ O'Neill v LHPs

Even when he played, he was not always like the 2024 player we saw. Also, if he has a QO attached to his name, I'm not sure he'd be signed by now- or maybe for less money.

He's such an up and down player with injury issues and declining defensive skills. We have Anthony and Campbell ranked top 10. Both can play OF. I get the one year risk thing, but $20M is a lot, for this team and the winter budget. I'd rather have Buehler & Grichuk.

Tis is one area of catching I have ranted and raved about for years. The CERA has been widely condemned and misused for years, as is OPS Against by catcher. With everything computerized, now, I'm not sure catchers need to be the living encyclopedia VTEK was for years, but I do think it went beyond that with Tek. Pitchers felt comfortable and confident with him catching them, except Wake. I had hopes Tek would help Wong improve, but I saw zero progress in 2024 on D. Maybe this new guy can work wonders, like he did in NY. Lord knows we need better D from our catchers.

I actually have some hope for Narvaez. He could be the steal of the winter. Then again, maybe not.

Wow, the anti Sox guy gave us 5, not 4.

Cora doesn't want to break the news to Devers about a position change.

Now that they are worse, we can go 5-2!

There is no sure bet that O'Neill will come close to 2024 numbers. It might not even be 50-50 he hits at 80% of 2024.

That does matter, too, but I'm looking at who we need to pass to make the playoffs, and I don't see any teams that finished ahead of us in the AL who clearly improved. Some look worse, on paper.

That would help. He won't get help for framing via robo umps, this year.

Agreed, but also, Narvaez is going to have to hit- hopefully better than Sandy Leon (except for 2016.)

They already have a budget projected to be higher than ours. Sad.

Just because VTek was a human computer brain, doesn't mean he's the best coach of catchers. He was best at knowing opposing batters, while his blocking, framing and throwing skills took a long time to develop into pluses. I doubt anyone "gets excited" about a team's catching coaches, but this guy does have pretty good track record on improving catcher defense. When I mentioned the new guy, it wasn't out of any sure thing expectation, but you did ask, "what new coaches?"

I doubt Bregman will take a one year deal to try and reset his value by having a big year. I do think Boston and Fenway Park could help him have a very good 2025 season, but he looks to want a longer deal. If the Astros offer him $130M/5, but we offer him $112M/4 with an opt out after 1-2 years, maybe he takes our offer.

Those are three very legitimate concerns, and there are others, too. I'm not trying to lessen the importance of these concerns, since I worry about these things, too. 1. I'm not big on thinking a player or team's most recent production level is who they are and will be, going forward. We have dropped off, late in the season a couple years in a row, so it does make you think about why that happens. 2. Losing O'Neill is a big one, but he did miss about 50 games and was just 5th on the team in PAs w 473. We are also losing more than 473 PAs from these guys: 278 Dom Smith (.706) 223 E Valdez (.633) 158 McGuire (.575) 96 Jansen (.623) 93 Dalbec (.410) and 75 Cooper (.455) This is about double the PAs lost by O'Neill. While there is no certainty Narvaez and other back-up catchers will outhit McGuire and Jansen's 2024 numbers, the bar is pretty damn low. Replacing Smith/Dalbec/Cooper with more PAs from Casas could easily make up for the loss of O'Neill, all by itself. (Casas has good splits vs LHPs, too.) The 2B offense was putrid, until DHam and Romy started playing more often, Replacing EValdez on O and D should be a big boost. If Grissom hits .465, again, he won't get the 114 PAs he got in 2024. Replacing O'Neill's PAs will likely come from more OF PAs from Rafaela, which is not very promising, offensively. We could see a 200 point drop, there. The only current other hopes we have are more OF PAs from Refsnyder vs LHPs or Anthony and Campbell. 3. I'm not sure about Devers and his shoulder. I hope the docs got it right with no surgery. We can't afford losing him, or having him play hurt, again. I guess Campbell could play 3B, but there is no replacing Devers' bat. Another big question is SS, particularly Story's health and how well he may do on offense. It's been a long time since he was a force on O, and we could use a power bat from the right side. It's not likely Wong will keep hitting this well, although he is trying to put on weight. We need to rely on the younger players (Duran, DHam, Abreu, Rafaela, Grissom and others) to do well or improve. A healthy Yoshida could help, too. We have about as many question marks as everyday players on the 40 and off the 40, but we do have a lot of depth and choices, if someone gets hurt or falters. (Guys like Devers and Casas are not easily replaced by the in system depth we have.) Devers, Casas, Duran Story, Abreu, Rafaela Wong, Yoshida/Refsnyder and the 3-headed 2Bmen: DHam/Romy/Grissom Campbell, Anthony and Mayer That's 15 players of 9 slots, plus these 3 for catcher depth: Narvaez, Sabol & Zavala

It is not a certainty that the $156M/6 original deal is still on the table w HOU. Talk shows down here are are saying it is not.

Narvaez is supposed to be good on D. He has shown some power and OB skills in the minors, but who knows.

He may choose HOU, even if some other team beats their price. The Sox have reportedly stuck to their guns, as they do, with a shorter term offer- maybe 4 years, tops. Apparently, there have been multiple long term deals offered, but that could just be Boras bluster. I read somewhere that Devers is still resisting a change of position, but who knows what to believe. Adding Grichuk and Estevez might be the better plan, but I doubt we see that happening, either. We will be counting on 1-2 of our top prospects to fill in the holes, but there is also a decent chance some returning players step up their game. 2B: If DHam can repeat or improve on how he did after his second call-up and just one from Romy & Grissom can do well as his platoon, we may not need Campbell at 2B. SS: IF Story can.... I know.... broken record.... we may not need Mayer in 2025. OF: If Abreu can start hitting lefties, and Rafaela improves on his hitting, we may not need Anthony or Campbell in the OF in 2025. C: We need Narvaez to not be a total bust on O. Maybe the new Yankee catching coach can help Wong's D improve. Corner IF D: Maybe the Bregman talk has lit a fire under Devers to improve his D, so he won't be moved to DH/1B, at least for a while longer. Lots of ifs and maybes, but we don't need all of these to come true to be a serious contender.

If I had to bet, I think I would say yes, due to the fact that I did not see the teams better than us improve or improve by more than we did. It's close, and it shouldn't have had to be this close. I always think the team with better pitching has a chance. I hope our O and D can do well enough to get us there. I think the O can. The D still needs help- mostly via health.

As our closer? (Or make Gio the closer?)

Maybe 2 with team option for 3 and buyout.

We don't need SP'ers.