moonslav59

I'm not Cora, but I'm guessing maybe this could be a way he can get 150 games played. Maybe, he will show this plan is not workable, and Cora learns that now and not during the regular season.

I'd rather have good projections than bad ones, but yes, we need to see it work on the field. Our 2B was way better after we stopped playing EValdez & Reyes there, so your example is not beefing up your point. The depth at SP and 2B and even SS with rafaela, kept us in the race,

Because he needs more improvement there, maybe? There is no way we have Campbell on the Opening Day roster unless he plays near FT, so maybe Cora's plan is to get him 150 games at 2B AND LF. Who knows?

We need action, not talk. At least we took action on improving our defensive catching strategy. We took action on adding a real defensive 3Bman. I'm not sure a long talk with Casas would be enough.

Of course, it will be determined on the field, but the idea is to build up the best team you can, on paper, and hope the "paper" translates to "on the field." Yes, much of the depth I spoke of are question marks, and that is precisely what I was saying. If one question mark is a let down, we have hope the next on the depth chart will do fine. We haven't even had that on paper for a long time. Better on paper than not at all. No team, other than BOS has 6 SP'ers with a projected fWAR of 1.2 or higher. Not many teams have a guy like Criswell 7th or 8th on the depth chart. Could he suck in 2025? Sure, but I'd rather have him than almost every other team's 7th through 10th SP'er depth. (Criswell, Fitts, priester & Dobbins.) I'm not even counting on 1 start from Whitlc=ock or Wink, and I hope we don't see one, unless it is as an opener. In short, we have a lot of question marks, but we have a lot of promise in those that are on our depth chart, and at some positions that goes 3-4 deep. One reason I mentioned Story as the first big question is that we don't really go 3-4 deep, there. It's Mayer and then a big drop off, and Mayer may not do well, year one. I don't want Rafaela at SS in 2025. DHam and Grissom suck on D at SS. That leaves Romy or Campbell, if Mayer falters or gets hurt.

Good point. He has to be the # question.

Every team needs "things to go right" to have a good year. It seems we more questions than answers, but what I like about our predicament is that we have so many options that if a few key things go wrong, we have other players that could go off and have better seasons that the ones having negative issues. The number one question, to me is Story, and I'm not sure Mayer is the best depth guy on the team, but he does have enormous potential to be really good- perhaps even better than Story in 2025, even if Trevor is healthy. Campbell offers another gigantic promise to fix the 2B issue that actually started looking okay over the second half of 2024. DHam and Romy are okay as a platoon, and Grissom is still clinging onto the hopes he showed a few years back. Our OF was a big plus in 2024-both on O and D, and that was with Yoshida & Ref DH'ing, alot, and Rafalela playing more SS than CF. Add Anthony to the mix, and we can afford to have one major let-down and still be okay, if not better. Narvaez does not offer great hope at fixing our issues at C, but he does show promise on defense, and his bat was not awful on the farm (some pop and OBP numbers.) Our rotation is as deep as I think I have ever seen, and that is assuming Whitlock (1.96 in '24) and Winck (2.42 as a SP in '24) start zero games. Crochet, Houck, Buehler, Gio, Bello, Crawford, Fitts, Criswell, Priester and maybe Dobbins offers tremendous depth. The pen has nothing but depth, although mostly mediocre or with faint hopes of upticks, resurgences, regaining past glory or just plain finally getting their act together. I count 14-17 RP'ers with some level of actual promise or skillset. I think 92 wins is very doable. 100 would need a confluence of career years or near-sos. With so many players nearing or in prime, maybe that's not such a long shot.

There are some things to learn at 1B that are way different than 3B, but he could learn it in a few weeks, before trying it in a game. Ideally, ST'ing would have been the best place, so maybe next winter/spring would be best. The other issue that jumps out at me is just how awful Casas is at 1B. Devers could be 2nd worst in MLB, and we'd still see improved D at 1B. He should DH, to start the year, and see how that goes. If he's itching to be on the field during the opps half innings, then grab a 1Bman's mitt and see how you (and Cora) like what you see.

You saw the goofy face, right? I knew you were jivin'

He hasn't pitched in ST'ing, but his rehab has been right on target.

Thus Spoke Trollathustra. 🤣

It's been reported that Cora has said that Whilock is "100% going to be part of Boston's roster on Opening Day."

Any good news on his D helps.

Not many would complain over .825-.850.

Good to know. I wondered how he might end up being okay at 2B, after not looking good at SS, so maybe there is still some hopes.

We know he can't field, so yes.

Our current IF starters, except for Bregman have all had injury issues, recently- no doubt. Story, most of all, has a lot to prove, especially with the bat, if he can play 145+ games. Casas seems to be a nice hitter and horrible defender, when healthy. Devers has had recent injury issues, but not a long injury history. We know he can hit, but is awful on D, despite a few brief stretches where he looks okay. Mayer has had injuries, just about every year on the farm. Campbell, DHam and Romy, none that I'm aware of. Grissom has a ton to prove, IMO.

A hurting Devers: DH: Devers 1B: Casas, 2B Campbell or DHam-Romy, SS Story, 3B: Bregman A healthy Devers: DH: Casas & Devers 1B: Devers (if he can handle it) & Casas, the rest stays the same.

I've always been fine playing Rafaela in CF as much as possible. I did not like seeing him at SS, last year, but he was the best we had there, for a while. My point about playing him in RF vs LHPs, assuming we platoon Abreu, again, is that he's way better than Ref, Duran or Yoshida out there, and the drop off from Rahaela to Duran in CF is minimal. I'm not sure any top prospects break camp with the big club and never have been. I see a few reasons for keeping them down, one being an added year of control. That being said, if and when Anthony joins the OF, a big question on who gets squeezed will occur. My guess is Abreu and Rafaela will platoon (Abreu in RF and Rafaela in CF with Anthony moving from RF to CF or LF, depending on who is sitting, and if we want Duran in CF over Anthony.) Some choices will have to be made, at some point, unless the kids never get the call. That is very unlikely.

Yes, 3B or 2B. LMAO

I know! He was signed as an IFA in 2021. He played a career high games in 2024 at 52. Geesh! 202 games in 5 years.

I think Mayer has the least chance of the big 3 of breaking camp with the big club, but he sure does seem like he'd fix the defensive needs in a second. That would be a damn good defensive alignment in the IF, minus Casas at 1B. An OF of Duran, Rafaela & Abreu has to be top 3 in OF defense in MLB. ONly 1B and C would be weaknesses on D, and if narvaez is what they say he is, and he plays more than we might expect, maybe we go from bottom 3 in team defenser to top 10 or 15. Maybe better.

In one sense, you are right. We ended up needing too many "pen games" that may have put the final nail in the pen coffin over the last 2-3 months of 2024. (7 GS from Kelly, Bernardino & Anderson) We also had to trade for Paxton (3 GS) and Hill (0 GS.) In another sense, our rotation depth did very well, until like you said, we had to go too deep. Houck was looking to be the 6th starter, until Gio went down, and he was, by far, our best SP'er in 2024. Criswell started 18 games and wasn't even on the immediate depth chart, this time, last year. (3.49 ERA) Winckowski started 6 games and actually did okay. (2.42 ERA as a SP) Fitts (4 GS) and Priester (1 GS) did very well. (1.63 ERA combined) BTW, Kelly and Bernardino allowed zero ERS in 11.1 IP as "openers." It was more about the need to overwork the pen than actual poor performances by our 2024 rotation depth that put the knife in our side.

I would not, since I think Bleis may see his stock rise by more than Romero's in 2025. (Just a guess, on my part.)

If starters would go 6-7 innings, instead of 5-6 by starting every 6 days, it might be worth it, but they wouldn't.