moonslav59

DHam was better than "good at 2B" and hit .729 v RHP. We have Campbell. We don't need a 2Bman, finally. If we sign Bregman to play 2B, I'm jumping on the fire Brez & Cora bandwagon, day one. (That is NOT hyperbole. That choice breaks the camel's back.)

.795 OPS over the last 4 and 5 years. He would add some RHB help, but not enough. His plus O and plus-plus D at 3B is what fulfils his true value. We have a weakness at 3B. Don't overthink it.

That does sound like I think it could happen. I did not mean to imply that. I know they are tied to Devers at 3B until Casas or Yoshida are gone. To me, I'd make the move now, even without adding Bregman or Arenado. Either start Campbell at 3B and go with a DHam Grissom platoon at 2B or give Grissom some time at 3B and Campbell times at 3B and 2B. Devers and Casas share DH/1B duty and Yoshida is benched, dumped or forced to win the LF job.

I know this. That won't stop me from saying what I think is a better plan.

Exactly. The window SHOULD be , now, but instead we get halfway measures- maybe just enough to give fans enough hope to not revolt.

3 years of god-awful defense at 3B, and the talk is about how much they want to keep Devers at 3B, even if they add Bregman or Arenado. This is gross incompetence, or just a ruse to keep Devers happy, at least until they actually add a real 3Bman.

That's how I see it. The trade made the window NOW! Of course, we may extend him, and maybe they already have an extension worked out, but for now, the window may not be better in 1 or more years. If the plan was to wait for Anthony, Campbell, Mayer and others to be significan't, then we should have waited to make a Crochet-type trade.

Casas has 4 years left.... UGH!!!!!!!! LEEEEEEEEEEEEE! The middle IF, once again, will rely on Story's health, but I do think we already have 2B "fixed," defensively. DHam looked like a plus in 2024 at 2B, and there is no reason to think Campbell will be a minus at 2B. (BTW, Campbell might also be the solution at 3B and not 3B. Maybe he plays 2B v LHPs and 3B vs RHPs.) I've never thought the Sox would move Devers, as I wish they would. I'm surprised you'd rather keep him there. Do you think he'd be better at 1B than Casas, who is awful at 1B D? (We could DH Casas or do a 1B/DH share between the two.) notin mentioned Grissom at 3B or Mayer. Could we see this? Vs RHP: Campbell at 3B and DHam at 2B Vs LHP: Grissom at 3B and Campbell at 2B

So, basically a used car salesman= big fat liar. (BTW, I don't disagree.)

He's just trying to give hope to guys like Crawford, Fitts, Priester, Criswell and Fulmer.

#32 out of 34 from 2022 to 2024, according to OAA (-16.) Wisdom & Burger were worse. #34 out of 35 '22-'24, according to DRS (-24.) Only Bohm was worse (-27.) With different players coming up slightly worse than Devers on these two lists, one could argue Devers comes out as the worst or tied for worst. Anyway, is it really that much better if he's 29th or 28th? We need to give our pitchers a break by providing them with a plus defense behind them, and the place to start is corner IF. (We have to just hope Story bring more stability to our MI.) Catcher is another task that needs to be addressed.

I fully realize Rafaela may be better, going forward, despite your hyper criticism of him (well, mostly his contract), this year, but we have duplicated values in the OF and nobody who can play 3B better than 29 other 3Bmen. My suggested trade also included adding a RHB OF'er like Grichuk. You gotta give to get. I'd start with an offer of Cespedes & Winckowski, but might go as high as Rafaela, straight up. (BTW, I chose Rafaela not just because of our duplicated OF values, but because he is owed about $49M to Arenado's $60M. The deal would make more financial sense to JH and his bean counters.)

I kept thinking the days of feeding the monster would cycle back around, one day, but it really has not happened. The Story signing, and to a lesser extent, Yoshida deal didn't even match the amount of salary we have lost over those years. The Devers extension was massive, but it too did not put us near the spending and spending rankings we used to be at, years ago. It was also likely only done to quell a fan revolution. I will say, that despite these guys being mainly "figureheads," there is still some major disconnect going on within the FO. Are they really this stupid? Are they really just blatant liars? Are the both? If the Kennedy statement about the tax line not being a priority, this winter was true or close to the truth, then what is the hold up? Is someone saying, "It's okay to spend up to $260M," but then nix every big offer suggested, only because they'd rather spend the money on other players? What "other players?" Again, it looks like it is not happening. The so-called bidding on Soto was a mirage and fed the idea that our FO is willing to spend, but just on certain players that we never make the top offer on. I'm tired of the circle jerk. This was the winter for action- meaningful action. Okay, Crochet was meaningful, but where is the spending to go along with that trade and open up the window wide, even if just for Crochet's 2 years of control? Cricketts, as always. (Please, nobody say the name "Buehler" as an effort to spend us to glory.)

MLBTR reported that Arenado's contract has $74M remaining, of which COL pays $10M and deferred payments brings the actual amount owed to $60M. Forget giving them Yoshida: they want to cut salary. We could trade Rafaela (owed about $49M/7) and the AAV hit would only be about $18M a year with no money pitched in by STL. That would leave us enough to sign Grichuk and or Estevez. Of course, I's only do this, if we moved Devers to 1B/DH and not play Arenado at 1B. It creates an issue with Yoshida, but he's an issue, anyway. In theory, we could platoon Yoshida/Ref in LF and Abreu/Grichuk in RF, until Anthony is called up, and alternate Casas and Devers at 1B & DH.

No other team sports "award" a win to a single player. A pitcher can let up 8 runs, while a batter hits 3 grand slams, but guess which player is the only one with a chance at the win?

Not sure, and not sure it matters.

How many here would be happy if we ended the off season by adding Grichuk and Estevez and traded Abreu for Catcher Caratini (1 yr at $6M) and RHP Luis Garcia (2 arbs left)? Adds: Crochet, Buehler, Chapman, Sandoval, Caratini, L Garcia, Grichuk, Estevez & Wilson Lost: Jansen, Martin, O'Neill, Pivetta and a few others, plus 3 of our top 8 prospects 1. L Duran CF 2. R Campbell 2B 3. L Casas 1B 4. L Devers 3B 5. R Grichuk LF 6. L Anthony RF 7. R Story SS 8. L Yoshida/R Refnsyer DH 9. Caratini-Wong C Bench: Rafaela & DHam/Grissom/Romy SP: Crochet, Houck, Buehler, Bello, Giolito RP: Chapman, Estevez, Hendriks, Slaten, Whitlock, L Garcia, Crawford, Wilson

My bad on Kikuchi. I was looking at his age at debut. I still would like that signing- just not as much. Forget the signings by players who took less to play where they wanted to, ie Burnes & Teoscar. What signings that have already been made would you think would have been worth bidding more on?

Agreed. We've been watching that strategy fail for a half a decade. One of our biggest hopes was a return to form by Sale. I'm tired of hoping. I gave up on expecting, a while ago.

Teoscar took less to play in LA, where he wanted to play. He's 32- not in prime. O'Neill got $50M/3 and had only one season with 390+ PAs, before 2024. He's 29. I suggested Kikuchi at age 27 (28 in 2025.)

I don't disagree, but are we sure JH would have nixed a higher bid on every FA that has signed, already? He said "No" to $65M/3 for Kikuchi and $220M/8 for Fried? It looks like Kennedy was either lying when he said the tax line was not a priority or JH stabbed him and Brez in the backs by saying no to every ask.

I'm not. The only reason for having any hope we do signing him is that he is the only real major guy left, next to maybe Scott. I have no expectation we signed either of these two. The guys I liked are all gone. Some seemed intent on signing with a team and nobody else, Like Burnes and Teoscar, so it's hard to get pissed on losing out on them. Others got so grossly overpaid, I can at least understand why we didn't go higher. A few I thought were worth the overpay and maybe we should have bid more than what they signed for, but I'm not sure if that would have been enough. I was not high on Kikuchi, but $63M/3 looks pretty good, to me. $218M/8 Fried was a close call on going to $220M/8 or more. $60M/3 Walker??? (Would have to trade Casas or DH him.) $75M/3 Nate and Manaea is borderline, but I'm fine with missing out here. All the others were too overpaid for me or bound to certain teams. I suppose I could think there isn't too much to get so upset about. Fried or Kikuchi? So, what's left? Bregman or Scott? Alonso (trade Casas?) Give Santander 5 years? Flaherty? I'm not thrilled with any choices left. More likely we sign Estevez and Grichuk.

Our largest new FA signings since Price in 2016 and JD in 2018 are... I'd say Story and Yoshida are lower range major signings, and it's just 2 of them in 7 years. 3+ Years: $23.3 x 6 Story '22 $18M x 5 Yoshida '23 (not counting posting fee) 2 Years: Maybe 2 significant and 2 near significant, in terms of money spent. $19.25M x 2 Giolito '24 $16M x 2 Jansen '23 $9.125M x 2 Sandoval '25 $8.75M x 2 Martin '23 $7M x 2 Kiki '21 (extended for $10M/1 '23) $5M x 2 Hendriks '24 $4M x 2 Diekman '22 1 Year $21.05M Buehler '25 $10.25M Chapman '25 $10M Kluber '23, Paxton '22, Richards '21 $7M Duvall '23 & Wacha '22 $6.25M Pearce '19 $6M Martin '20 $5M Martin '21 & Hill '22

Very few of those 30 look like fits, although plenty of pen arms are there. When we look at the context of Kennedy's 90-95 win and the tax line statement, all the best fits are off the board. While I agree on your Santander comment, signing one of the best FAs almost always includes paying beyond projected usefulness and overpaying in AAV, too. You just have to bite the bullet. Tradses mean giving away possible future assets and are fine, but not too many, at the same time.

The Sale trade shook the ground. To me, it was the biggest deal the Sox made since signing Manny. The 3 years of control was a huge part of my excitement on trade day. We got the best pitcher in MLB: "Chris Freakin' Sale!" (The Pedro trade was probably the most impactful in my lifetime.) The Nate trade rivals the Schilling trade. Both led to rings and legendary playoff performances. The Kimbrell trade seemed like an overpay, at the time, but shortly afterwards the price of closers skyrocketed. The Pom trade seemed like an overpay, as well, but he did give us a very nice 2017 season. He was no help in 2018. The Thornburg trade looked good, at the time, but the injury ruined it. The hindsight, all the prospects DD traded did not equal the returns we got. I counted over 20 players DD traded that were, at one time (not always at the time of the deal) were a top 20 prospects. It's easy to lazily blame him for the long lull we saw in farm help from his era into Bloom's, including the stretch from Devers to Houck/Duran, but as it turned out, he kept almost every prospect that amounted to anything, including Devers, Houck and Duran, and some of his far-away prospects have ended up doing better than the top prospects he did trade, namely Moncada (1) , Espinosa (3) Margot (4) Kopech (5) Beeks (6) and Guerra (6) He kept Devers, Houck, Duran, Casas, Bello, Crawford and others.