moonslav59

Love the article and the general positive vibe on our farm pitching. I know many are "far away." and we seem to have more "quantity" than top "quality," but I'm hopeful we have turned the corner on poor pitching development on our farm. We've already seen an uptick at the ML level with Houck, Bello, Crawford, Whitlock, Slaten, Fitts and others. That's the best 5 or 6 pitchers we've seen in a long time.

Speaking of undefeated teams, with a 12 team playoffs, you have to think, no matter how bad a schedule a team has, if they run the table, they will be in the 12. Here are the remaining schedules for all the undefeated teams: (current rank- before yesterday) 2. Oregon: IL, at MI, MD, at WI, Wash (one, maybe two tough games) 3. Penn St.: at WI, Ohio St, Wash, at Purdue, at Minn, MD (one) 6. Mia FL: FL St, Duke, at GA Tech, WF, at Syracuse (NONE) 9. IA St.: TX Tech, at KA, Cincy, at UT, KA St (one) 13. BYU: at UCF, at UT, Kansas, at AZ St, Houston (NONE) 16. IN: Wash, at MI St, MI, at Ohio St, Purdue (two) 20 Pitt: Syracuse, at SMU, VA, Clemson, at Louisville, at BC (one) 23. Army: Air Force, at No. TX, at ND, UTSA, Navy (two) 25. Navy: ND, at Rice, at So FL, Tulane, at E Car, at Army (two) (Liberty at 5-0 might be the exception.) MIA and Pitt have the easiest road to undefeated.

As much as I really love watching Devers hit, I'm true to my word on being willing to trade anybody and everybody, if I think the return is better and helpful, or equal but addresses a greater need. I also look at who we have to replace the guy(s) we trade and weigh the "step down" vs the "step up" at the position we obtained a new player. One issue with trading Devers is who plays 3B? I've suggested Campbell or Mayer. notin suggested Grissom with Campbell at 2B. Meidroth might be an option, but for now, he looks like just decent non-40 man roster depth. Another issue is the contract. My guess is, 20 teams would not be able to pay his deal, so we'd be down to about 7-9 teams. How many need a 3Bman? How many even view him as a long term 3Bman, or do they see him as a DH, 1Bman or maybe a LF'er- long term? Suggest a trade, and I'll respond. I like the idea of trading Casas and moving Devers to 1B more, and with Casas being lower cots, we might get a better return. (It doesn't bother me that Devers swings at bad pitches. It works for him.)

I agree, nobody thought he was a $3-4M player, when we signed him, That wasn't the point I was making. My point is, what 3 year offer would he get, if he was a FA this winter. I think we can assume that is probably his "real value" and we'd have to pay off the difference to trade him to that GM- just to get nothing in return. What do you think he'd be signed for on a 3 year deal? $9M/3? $12M/4? $15M/3? $18M/3? More? I'm not sure anyone would pay him $20M/3. If he comes back and looks healthy in April, maybe close to that, but I can't see more than that. I'd say $15M/3 is likely the limit. Just my opinion. He's not worthless, but his contract is under water.

I'll knock him every year. He sucks. Even Jacko knows it. (Yes, big boo-boo on thinking the series was still 3-1.)

I was thinking it was 3-1. LOL. Yes, getting Soto made a big difference, but adding one more big bat would have gave them a much better shot. Counting on Stanton is a risky thing to do.

The Yanks have done so poorly in the playoffs, since 2009, that I almost, yes ALMOST, forgot how much I hate seeing them win. GO GUARDIANS! Stanton has woke up the echoes, for sure, and it just goes to show you how Cashman is such an idiot to not provide a couple more real good bats to t his line-up, day one. I've said it before, but here it is again, "Cashman is the best GM the Sox have ever had."

Dipoto will listen to any trade offer. I admit my list is rather arbitrary. I chose teams that might have a surplus of pitchers or are rebuilding, plus free agents to be.

Yes, I meant to write 2023-2024.

IA St almost lost to UCF. GA beat #1 Texas at Austin. My top 20: 1. Oregon vs #22 Illinois 2. Penn St at Wisconsin 3. Georgia (1 loss) 4. Miami vs FLA St 5. Ohia St (1 loss) vs Nebraska 6. Texas (1 loss) at Vandy 7. LSU (1 loss) at Texas A & M 8. IA St OFF week 9. Tenn (1 loss) OFF week 10. Clemson (1 loss) 11. Notre Dame (1 loss) at #25 Navy 12. BYU at UCF 13. Indiana vs Wash 14. Alabama (2 losses) vs #19 MO 15. Texas A & M (1 loss) v LSU 16, Pittsburgh (no losses) vs Syracuse 17. Kansas St (1 loss) v Kansas 18, Navy (no losses) vs ND 19. Illinois (1 loss) at #2 Oregon 20. Army (no losses)

Here is a list of the top fWAR SP'ers I think might be available by trade or FA signing: 3. Sonny Gray 9.2 STL 6. George Kirby 8.5 SEA 9. Kevin Gausman 8.0 TOR 11. Pablo Lopez 7.8 MIN T16. Corbin Burnes, Blake Snell 7.2 FAs 19. Logan Gilbert 7.1 SEA 23. Tanner Bibee 6.3 CLE 25. Yusei Kikuchi 6.0 FA 28. Luis Castillo 5.7 SEA 30. Mitch Keller 5.5 PIT T31: Joe RYan and Bailey Ober 5.4 MIN 35. Max Fried 5.2 FA 38. Nate 5.1 FA 39. Mikolas 5.0 STL 40. Flaherty 4.9 FA & Monty 4.9 AZ 43. Bryce Miller 4.7 SEA 44. Garrett Crochet 4.6 CWS 45. Chris Bassitt 4.5 TOR

PIT may be looking to retool, but I'm not sure they want to trade another high upside, young SP'er. If they deal anyone, if might be Mitch Keller, and he might be a nice fit for the Sox. He's only 28 and is signed for 4 more years. His Lux Tax hit is only $15.4M, but PIT might look to trade him before his costs go up: $15.4>$16.9>$18.4>$20.4 by 2028.) That is cheaper than the Sox would have to pay for a top 30 or 40 pitcher. Here are some of his numbers, since 2022 (3 seasons) 225 pitchers with 180+ IP 14th in GS (92) and IP (531) T33 in fWAR (7.5) w Joe Ryan & Shane Bieber and within 0.1 of Monty, Darvish, Wacha & Bassitt 140 Pitchers with 250+ IP, he places... 70th in ERA- (96) 58th in xFIP at 3.92 (just above Bello, Stroman, Monty, Bibee and Manaea) 69th K-BB% at 15.2 83rd in ERA at 4.13. I'm not sure what it would take to get him, but maybe Casas for Keller and the slumping Bednar, who has one arb left. Maybe Abreu, DHam and Dobbins for Keller.

Gotta love seeing ALA lose to Tenn and Texas about to go down to GA. With 2 losses, I think ALA drops from the top 12, but they could get back in by running the table. The undefeated teams outside the top 12, right now, have to think they have a shot, if they win out. Some have rather easy schedules left to go. ND got a nice win. They play a ranked Navy team, next week.

Depth is very important, and our 2024 depth almost got us to the dance. (Houck, Craiswell & Fitts did a great job replacing Gio and Whitlock.) IMO, if we add 1 top SP'er and 3 solid RP'er, our depth will become a strength. We already have 16-17 everyday players for 13 slots, on that side of the game.

Not sure about that. He played much of his career in pitcher's parks.

No, the shoulder issue won't help, and waiting until he shows he's healthy might be the choice, but he'll take up a roster slot until then.

So, we both value him about the same. We both want him gone. I'm just looking for another way to do it. I'd even include a blocked prospect or two to get a return that might help.

I never understand why this happens, so often. The waiting.

fWAR +0.6 Dugo +0.5 Fitts, +0.5 Weissert Opening made for more playing time for +3.1 Abreu, +2.5 O'Neill and +1.2 Ref

I'm glad we traded Dugo, and the deal allowed Abreu and O'Neill to play. WIN (no Dugo), WIN (more Abreu), WIN (more O'Neill), WIN (Weissert) and maybe win (Fitts & Judice)

ND better not take Georgia Tech for granted, especially at their home field. Other big games, today: #2 Oregon already won big over Purdue #6 MIA is about to win vs Louisville #10 Clemson took care of VA 48-31. #13 BYU beat OKL St 38-35, yesterday. They may challenge for a top 12 playoff slot. #5 GA at #1TX #7 AL at #11 TN #14 TX A&M at MS #24 MI at #22 IL UCF at #9 IA St My upset prediction: #LSU loses at Arkansas

I don't think I am. I've often said we'd have to pay almost all his salary for nothing in return- not even a "low level prospect" you mention. Maybe, just maybe, we'd save $3-6M/yr, if some team thinks they'd pay that to a FA Yoshida. My idea of taking another team's salary dump as part of the return is assuming the other team does not want the pitcher about as much as how little we want Yoshida. The net money exchange would still mean we pay more than they do, so they achieve their goal of cutting salary and dumping a guy they don't want, while filling a possible need at DH or with a LHB. I've mentioned several times, that team and pitcher may not exist. How much do you value Yoshida? Do you think he'd get a $9M/3 offer, if he was a FA? How about $12M/3 or $15M/3? That's about my range, with a tops of $18M/3. Are you much lower than that?

I think a lot of teams keep their better pitchers as SP'ers for as long as it seems like they have a shot to be a good one.

You guys are killing it, today.

I've said it might be impossible to find someone to do a deal like that, because they'd probably just prefer to save as much money as possible and not take on another big contract: Pay enough of Yoshida's contract to make AZ still save money over paying Monty, instead. They save money and get a batter. We pay a little more money than we pay Yoshida, not, but we get a pitcher. like Monty, who could turn tings around in '25. Maybe we pay $4M more than we do with Yoshida and get a pitcher. In theory, we then replace Yoshida at DH with better batters: Ref v LHPs and ___ vs RHPs (Abreu? the possible GG winner, if Anthony plays RF?) Like I said, why wouldn't AZ just get someone to take Monty and almost all his contract? Even if they like Yoshida, they can probably do better. I have yet to come up with this theoretical type trade that I think both sides might say yes.