moonslav59

It's a self imposed handcuff. Kennedy spoke of the ability to go over the tax line, this winter, so what changed? We added a couple one year deals worth over $30M (Buehler & Chapman.) The Sandoval signing and Crochet deals do not bind us, deeply, in terms of money. We can easily afford Scott at $5M more than the top offer is.

Even 30-40 HR 1Bmen are not getting that much as FAs or via trade.

It's probably a mixture of all these things, and don't undersell how DD was not happy about having to let Kimbrell & Kelly go, before 2019, without being able to spend to replace them and then being asked to trade Betts in 2019. He could see the direction the team was going, and I'm sure he was displeased and probably let it show. His personality was such that he couldn't stay quiet, IMO.

They may keep him there on an extended "rehab," but I think he's our DH in 2025- maybe on a platoon with Refsnyder. We may try Ref in LF v LHPs w Duran in CF and Rafaela in RF vs LH'd SP'ers.

And the DEN- KC game, too.

Those are all the one year guys with Hendriks having an option for '26. Whitlock is out of our control after 2016. Not many of these will bring back something great, unless they are having a great season. I think it might be too early to think about this.

Reading the MBTR chat and they talked about PHI trading Bohm, if they could get someone to take Castellanos (owed $20M x 2) or T Walker (owed $18M x 2.) Can't think of anything, and DD does not want Yoshida, unless we took both of them. I should just give up looking. The chat also had the host saying a Devers trade would be his choice as a shocker, so ... Devers & Yoshida for Bohm & Castellanos (They may insist we take Walker, too.)

I'd be fine starting the year with a DHam-Romy platoon at 2B, until Campbell gets a shot.

When the pen looks so sketchy, why not do something major about it? RP'ers don't cost $200M/7. They should be JH's friends. Go get one Brez!

I'll see them play here in Houston in August. I'd love to see us play the Cubs at Wrigley Field- the site of my first live baseball game.

A look at the AL rotations (top 6) by Steamer projections; 14.5 BOS: 4.8 Crochet, 2.8 Houck, 2.5 Bello, 1.8 Crawford, 1.4 Buehler, 1.2 Giolito 13.6 NYY: 3.3 Fried, 3.1 Cole, 2.8 Rodon, 1.8 Gil, 1.8 Schmidt, 0.8 Stroman 14.0 SEA: 3.5 Gilbert, 3.3 Kirby, 2.8 Castillo, 1.9 Miller, 1.7 Woo, 0.8 Munoz 13.9 TEX: 5.2 deGrom, 2.9 Eovaldi, 1.9 Rocker, 1.8 J Gray, 1.4 Mahle, 0.7 Leiter/Bradford 13.0 MIN: 3.6 Lopez, 3.2 Ryan, 2.5 Ober, 1.5 Festa, 1.4 Paddack, 1.1 Matthews 12.9 KCR: 3.6 Ragans, 2.8 Lugo, 2.3 Wacha, 1.4 Marsh, 1.4 Wright, 1.4 Bubic 12.5 TBR: 3.2 McClanahan, 2.4 Bradley, 2.2 Pepiot, 2.0 Rasmussen, 1.5 Baz, 1.2 Litell 11.9 HOU: 3.7 Valdez, 3.2 Brown, 1.7 Blanco, 1.2 Garcia & Arrighetti, 0.9 McCullers 11.5 DET: 5.0 Skubal, 2.2 Olson, 2.0 Cobb, 1.6 Mize, 0.5 Montero, 0.2 Jobe 10.1 TOR: 2.9 Gausman, 2.1 Bassitt, 1.9 Berrios, 1.6 Francis, 1.3 Y Rod, 0.3 Bloss 9.6 LAA: 3.1 Kikuchi, 2.1 Soriano, 1.7 Detmers, 1.1 T Anderson, 0.9 K Hendricks, 0.7 Koch. 8.9 BAL: 2.6 Eflin, 2.5 Rodriguez, 1.4 Morton, 1.1 Kremer, 0.8 Povich, 0.5 T Rogers 7.9 CLE: 2.5 Bibee, 1.6 G Williams, 1.5 Bieber, 0.8 Cantillo, 0.7 Lively, 0.6 L Ortiz 7.6 OAK: 2.2 Springs, 2.0 Severino, 1.4 Sears, 1.0 Spence, 0.6 Ginn, 0.4 Estes 5.4 CWS: 1.3 Martin, 1.0 Burke & Cannon, 0.9 Schults & Thorpe, 0.3 B Wilson Notes: Only BOS & TBR have a 6th starter with a value as high as 1.2 (Gio & Litell.) Best 2 SP: 8.1 TEX (counting on deGrom,) 7.6 BOS, 7.2 DET, 6.9 HOU, 6.8 SEA & MIN Best 3 SP: 10.0 TEX, 9.6 SEA, 9.3 MIN, 9.2 DET, 9.1 BOS, 8.7 KCR, 8.6 HOU Maybe we won't be as bad as some of think we will be.

Would this work? Casas to SEA Castillo (maybe a little cash) to ATL Murphy to BOS Then, we make the Arenado trade.

Look how much finishing worst kept Sox fans bitching for years. Nobody likes hearing how much they suck, so yes, they play to win.

I just think he needs to stay healthy and he can hit near 40 Hrs and maybe .850-.875.

1. Point well-taken. Call those two signings a wash. 2. I get the point about Kluber on a 1 year deal, but go ahead and count Kluber+Richards+ Paxton as a $30M/3 signing. Now that is still less than Nat'es $17M x 4, but Nate did pretty well. The Price signing has no match with Bloom, and in some ways, it forced the Betts trade, as well as lessened the return on the Betts trade- a double whammy. The Kimbrell, JD, Pearce and Pom Pom deals might balance out the Price deal, which ended up costing us a lot, although not $210M/7. (Was it more like $150M/3?) The thing working in DD's favor is the fact that so many of the top prospects' traded away did not meet expectations- some fell way short. Moncada, Margot, Dubon did okay, but the gains we made were astounding. The Price signing sucked. The Sale extension sucked, but would have been a little redeemed had Sale had the 2024 season with us. The Nate signing was so-so. JD and Bogey deals worked well. Overall, the signings were a negative, but the trades were a big plus. I can twist and turn and wiggle and worm, but I can't make Bloom's moves even 50-50.

I like our rotation depth, without Giolito than our catching situation, that's how. I was not aware of ATL's rotation depth, but I read they were looking for a SP'er.

I think we need Casas in the line-up. He is one of our best LHBs vs LHPs. I do think he needs to end up at DH, eventually, but his bat is too essential to our outlook. Moving Devers to 1B, DH or some sort of time share makes some sense, but then a Yoshida dump needs to happen, unless we try a Yoshida-Ref platoon in LF, until Anthony wins a FT OF job. LF: Yoshida-Ref platoon CF: Duran (Rafaela) RF: Abreu-Rafaela platoon While the OF D declines due to LF, the CF and RF slots remain very strong, if not GGesque. (The pressumes a Bregman or Arenado addition at 3B.)

They lost 59 starts from Fried & Morton, and need Sale to stay healthy, too.

DD hit big on the Sale trade, but I failed to identify the failed extension. The Nate extension was so-so. The Price signing was an overall failure, but he did okay for the first couple years. Sale's last season w ATL was still under DD's deal, so that looks better, now, than it did, last winter. Overall, that $320M was not well spent, but did it outweigh all the good major deals and signings? If you discount the Story failure due to injury, then discount Sale and Nate, too. JD was a good signing. The Bogey extension was good. The Sale and Kimbrell trades worked very well. If you stretch to say DD was at 50%, that still beats the hell out of Bloom's major deals- granted the Bloom "major deals" were at lower costs than DD's.

soxprospects.com's podcast spoke about the immense focus on pitching on the farm, and the fact that we traded both of our last 2 first draft picks, who were everyday players (Montgomery & Teel) for a pitcher. They talked about all the holes in the AAA everyday roster slots, and how we've really only been adding pitchers. We did add Zavala and Eaton, but we lost Gasper & Meidroth, too. Trading Gasper for Moran pretty much replaced Booser with an equal or better LHP who does not need to be on the 40. Booser got us a far-away pitcher ranked 35th by soxprospects.com and is projected to be in FCL. We also added Austin Adams, Jose Adames, Hobie Harris, Joe Vogatsky (for EValdez) and Noah Davis. In theory, it seems the FO got our memo on improving the pitching throughout the whole system and using everyday prospects to "balance" things out. At the MLB level, we added Crochet, Buehler, Sandoval, Chapman, Wilson and in a sense Giolito, Fulmer & Hendriks, while losing Pivetta, Jansen & Martin plus some scrubs. Over the 2024 season, we also added Priester for Yorke, and over the last winter: Slaten, Fitts, Weissert, Sandlin, I Campbell and others. Later, they spoke of how little 1Bmen are valued, these days. They cited the Nate Lowe & Naylor and trades bring so little back, and Walker not getting huge money and Alonso still not signed. Keeping Casas makes too much sense, since his trade value is probably low. They wondered why SEA would say no to Casas + Yoshida for Castillo with no money, involved. They made me more optimistic about the team's direction.

The Braves could use pitching. I know notin suggested a Story for Murphy deal and roll the dice with Mayer, but how about Giolito for Murphy and roll the dice with Crawford/Criswell/Fitts/Priester/Dobbins for the 5 slot and depth in the rotation? Murphy is owed $15M x 4 with a $15M club option with no buyout. He just turned 30. His contract ends at 33 or 34 w option. His tax hit is just over $12M per year, which fits the Sox budget, well. I'm not sure who says "no." Maybe ATL wants more... like a Cespedes or some non 40 man guy.

3 left coast road trip with just one with all left coast teams. Although the A's are no longer a big push-over, we play them twice in Sept, and we end the season at Detroit. In some ways, Sept looks easier than I can remember: We end August w 3 at home vs PIT, then SEP start w 3 vs CLE at home (not easy.) Then at AZ 3 & OAK 3, Home for 3 v NYY & OAK, at TBR 3 & TOR 3 and home for DET for 3. Season ends Sept 28. We open the season with 4 at TEX and 3 BAL to end March & start APR. Our home opener is vs STL followed by 4 v TOR. We play 7 games vs CWS in April. May has 12 gms vs the NL (6 ATL, 3 NYM and 3 MIL)

I doubt HOU would do this, but they are desperate for an OF'er, and maybe they could stomach Yoshida in LF. Yoshida ($18M x 3) plus $12.5M in '26 and $12.5M in '27 and Kelly or Cespedes/Jh Garcia for Pressley ($14M x 1) and Caratini ($6M x 1) The Astros save $2M in '25 and pay $5.5M x 2 for Yoshida in '26 and '27. We get a good defensive catcher for a season and a decent RP'er and save $9M over 3 years.

I'm going with the, "this is a face-saving, knee jerk reaction move." (If it happens.)

0 chance we sign Scott 0 chance of Hoffman, as he wants to be a starter Yates is likely to get just one year, so that is something you'd think the Sox would be all over, but I've heard no rumors of interest. (Not that "interest" matters much with the Sox.) Estevez or Finnegan might be the best we can hope for. Some of the others don't get me all that excited, but they may be better than Guerrero or Wilson, our current #7 and 8 men in the pen. Upgrading our 8th man in the pen does not do it for me.)