moonslav59

Indeed, but the guy has limits. Remember when he signed some guys, then traded them the next summer? If money is nothing to him, why did he do that?

No love for Narvaez?

I'll never argue against pitching being a higher priority.

I happen to think the offer was legit. Maybe the same spread sheet people don't think Burnes is worth $240M/7 or $260M/8. I get that.

I'm sure that's what he thinks. I hate having feelings that validate the direction he chooses. I do think we can do both: let the 3 kids play and splurge a little more.

That's my point. Even the nuttiest owners have a limit, and they compare the cost to what else they could get for he same money. At some point, the balance tips and they walk away. With JH it was apparently $700M (maybe slightly more, if he thought it might get the prize.) With Cohen, we don't know. I just don't believe he'd go even near $1B, let alone $1.6B. Nobody would.

Adding one quality and dependable pitcher would help. Burnes or Scott are the two top prizes, but Flaherty or Hoffman would be nice. I'm not sure Manaea, Pivetta, Buehler or Esteves does it for me. Add a SP'er and Crawford gives the pen a big boost as an innings eater. Add a solid RP'er and it pushes the rest of the pen down a notch on the high leverage v medium to low leverage scale of useage. One pitcher would make our depth look nicer: two would make it very nice. Look here: SP: Burnes, Crochet, Houck, Bello, Gio RP: Hoffman, Chapman, Hendriks, Slaten, Whitlock, Crawford, Winckowski, Wilson (No clear weak link) This would be our AAA/AAAA depth: SP: Criswell, Priester, Fitts, Dobbins (non 40: Fulmer, Gambrell, Drohan, Early, I Coffey) RP: Guerrero, Penrod, Bernardino, Shugart, Kelly, Booser, Weissert (non 40: I Campball, Mata, Mills, Sandlin, Hoppe, Troye) We just need the will to get it done.

I really don't think the $21.3B v $6B is the deciding factor. The bidding would never get near $6B, so it's really about the owner's willingness to go to absurd levels to "get his guy." How will we ever know just how absurd Cohen would have gotten? Anyway, it doesn't really matter. The point that matters to me is whether JH was really prepared to pay $700M, or if he'd have gone to $725M, if he felt that had a chance of winning the bidding. If he was, then I'm encouraged, a little, that his spending might go up, soon, If it was all for show, then the sham has kicked into overdrive.

I think 85-90% is on point, assuming he shows he can hit .775 for a few weeks.

This makes the most sense, and to be honest, I think Sox management will put off promoting 2-3 of our top 3 prospects, until the extra year of control is gained, so there is not really a 26 man roster crunch. Even if we add Teoscar or Santander without an OF trade, wee can still manage the roster, until a call-up.

couple months, probably not. Pillar was 1.5, I think. I chose not to mention JBJ and the 1/4 year of Marwin.

We've done well with the one and done OF'ers: Renfroe, Duvall & O'Neill.

Got that right. Scherzer would have been cheaper than those three and kept us from signing Price to 7 years and $210M.

We could probably manage one more significant prospect trade and still have a good farm, but we'd need some luck. If we trade Mayer, we'd need Story to remain healthy until Arias/Romero are ready. Trading Anthony or Campbell would need to bring back a top pitcher with 4+ years of control to keep any idea of a long window open. I don't see that happening. I don't think we'd get much for Perales, Arias or Romero, Bleis or Jh Garcia or Cespedes. We'd probably have to give up 2-3 of them plus more to get something substantial. Including Abreu or Rafaela and or maybe DHam or Grissom might help, but that should only be done, if we add a Teoscar, Santander or Bregman. Maybe we could just hand the season to the kids and trade some current starters: Mayer at SS, 3B or 3B. Campbell and 2B or 3B. Anthony in RF/CF and have Narvaez catch as much as Wong (see Murphy suggestion.) Trade Story and $24M for Murphy. Trade Wong, Abreu and DHam for a pitcher, and just sign Teoscar to 3 years, something JH can stomach. C: Murphy & Narvaez 1B: Casas (Romy) 2B: Campbell, Grissom (Rafaela) SS: Mayer, Romy (Rafaela) 3B: Devers (Romy) LF: Duran-Refsnyder CF: Rafaela-Duran RF: Anthony (Campbell) DH: Yoshida (Refsnyder) SP: Crochet, Houck, __SP in trade__, Bello, Giolito RP: Chapman, Hendriks, Slaten, Whitlock, Crawford, Winckowski, Criswell, Wilson

I'm not sure I'd use the word "strange." It's expected, now. Even when JH was spending with big boys, it was usually one big signing. I think the biggest duo signing was HRam & Pablito.

When the list gets narrowed to 4-5 players available, and we need to hope JH essentially overpays on 2 of them, the winter looks bleak. Sure, one signing and another trade might get us just to the point of mild satisfaction, but at what cost to the extended future?

It probably has to be Burnes & Teoscar or Flaherty & Bregman, to me.

No, but you know, there are a lot of teams that think they are a player or two away from making the playoffs or going far in the playoffs. There might be less than a handful of teams that are in full rebuild mode. Even the A's are spending (due to the gun upside their noggin.) The Dodgers seem far away on Teoscar, but you never know with them. The Yanks have done a lot, already. If we add Buehler and Teoscar, we still lost ground to them. (I'd subtract Buehler from your list and maybe add Manaea, Scott and Hoffman.) The Mets might be in on one of these guys- maybe Flaherty. TOR seems to be willing to spend. Burnes to SFG was rumored, long ago. I think the best we can hope for, which is more than I expect is Flaherty and Santander. I think that would nudge us into the "got better" category, but that is based more on my hopes for Anthony, Campbell and maybe Mayer giving the team a boost than thinking Crochet, Flaherty, Chapman & Santander is a significant upgrade over Pivetta, O'Neill, J Jansen, Martin and D Jansen. The rotation would be better, but the pen worse. Maybe Santander equals O'Neill's 2024 numbers. It would be an okay winter, but I was hoping (dreaming) for more, especially after the Soto hype and reported $700M opened up.

The winter is not over, but it sure looks bleak. I'm really not thrilled with anyone, leftover, even if we get one or two at last minute bargain rates. The pen was the worst in the majors over the second half, and despite most pen arms being volatile, our pen looks worse, on paper. The Chapman, Hendriks, Wilson and Whitlock additions don't outweigh the loss of our best two RP'ers since Kimbrel in 2017-2018. I think our offense can make up for O'Neill's loss, and if Story can remain healthy and with EValdez's departure, our middle IF defense should be much improved. The fixation with keeping Devers at 3B is troublesome. Casas is no better at 1B. Maybe Narvaez can fix the awful catcher D, but we still have those three positions ranked bottom 5.

I drove a taxi. I worked salting Cod on the docks of Portland. I worked a smally rendering plant. I think that qualifies. I don't see why AZ wants Yoshida, or what this has to do with street kill.

I've kinda given up on the Yoshidump idea. I'm not very high on Monty, anymore, but we need pitching and he's a shot in the dark. We can fill the DH role, easily, but not rotation slots. I'm not sure AZ wants Yoshida, unless we pay 2 bags of cash.

I doubt he'd have gone that high. He could get Burnes, Fried, Bregman and Alonso for that, and then some.

So, how have the best AL teams of 2024 done, so far? NYY: Added Fried, Bellinger and D Williams BAL: Added Sugano, O'Neill and G Sanchez CLE: nothing major HOU: Added Paredes/ Lost Tucker (may lose Bregman) DET: Added Alex Cobb KCR: nothing major BOS: Added Crochet, Chapman, Narvaez (Lost O'Neill and may lose Pivetta, Jansen, Martin)

Kinda expected. Maybe they give up on Bregman. Not sure about Burnes.

Sounds like it might work. I'm ready to start the Anthony-Campbell-Mayer era. I don't think we can win without them, as things look, now.