moonslav59

Me, too, and Cora said something that rang true to me. He said, "We now have a complete team."

If Javier could regain what he once had, this would be a steal. The 2027 cost would be higher for the Sox, but the upside might be worth it. HOU would say no, unless they see value in Masa as an OF'er. (They have a DH)

Kimmi, I got it done! BTV accepts: Masa (+$5M) Sandoval & Bleis for Christian Javier Javier is owed $21.4M x 2, but Masa (18) Sandoval (7.8) =$25.8 (The $5M kinda evens it out)

There must be a mental block. If you won't trade an OF'er than just tear off the Masa band-aid.

'24 was a tough one. Had we sold in '22 and '23, we'd have had a better foundation in '24, '25 and now.

I agree 100%. I think Kutter might fit into this role very well. There is also a bit of a mind shift and physical aspect of knowing you don't have to go 5-7IP. Closer: Chapman 8th/9th inning: Whitlock 8th inning: Slaten & Wiessert 7th inning/2-3 inning RP: Crawford (Oviedo or Sandoval?) Low/Moderate Leverage: Watson, Moran, Kelly

An OF'er.

I admit, most of the moves I listed look sideways and not big Wows, but the roster makeover has been absolutely stunning, even if you don't like many of the changes.

I was for selling in 2 of those seasons and on the fence for the third.

I'd say the Yanks were "lateral," too, but they did add some pitching depth. Standing pat rarely works in any sport.

I keep hearing how great they did. Sure, they also added Tyler Rogers & Ponce, but can we Cease and desist with all the Ponce & Judy talk? They lost Bichette and Bassitt.

If they did not trade for Gray, they'd have his $21M and maybe couple it with $6M for I K-F and that's $27M. (That's about the same as Surez's AAV.) Yes, Gray's money. They may have wanted to take back the Gray trade, if they knew they'd sign Suarez. Alonso got $31M AAV. We could have gotten him, I K-F and Suarez with no Gray & Contreras. We coulda got Okamoto + E Suarez for $30M combined.

Not Brez. Probably the TOR GM, but I'm not impressed with Cease and The Okomotive. They lost Bichette & Bassitt, plus a guy named Kiner-Falefa!

We should be top 6 or 7 in MLB and top 3-4 in the AL. I had hopes I could say top 3-4 in MLB and top 2-3 in the AL, but I think we look better now, than last February (or last Sept-Oct.)

I agree, and I think looking at age and injury history should be a factor when projection how well some teams will do vs others. Nobody knows for sure what will happen with injuries, and for a while, we were intentionally signing injured pitchers in hopes they come back year two and salvage something good. When you look at the Sox ages, only two key players are a concern: Chapman and Gray. No everyday player is way past prime. When you look at injury prone players, only Casas, Mayer and Story stick out among everyday players with Abreu seemingly having several minor injuries over his shrt time in the bigs. Among pitchers, we already know Houck is out, so we aren't even counting him in the projections. Crawford, Sandoval and Slaten were injured last year, but I'm not sure I'd call any of them "prone." The next thing I look at concerning injuries is the depth. I live near HOU and no team has had more major injuries to SP'ers over the last few years that they do, but they have had remarkable depth, until 2025. We had decent depth, last year, and it made a difference. I think people forget we lost our #2 SP (Houck) #4-5-6 slot pitchers (Crawford & Sandoval) and Buehler sucked so much we cut him loose, yet our rotation carried us. I'm not saying we can win without Crochet or even Suarez, but IMO, we have better AND deeper SP'er depth than maybe every other team in MLB. We have 3 guys looking at the 5 slot (Crawford, Sandoval & Oviedo) and then Tolle and Early MLB ready. That's a nice 4 man depth group (#6 to $9.) I'm not sure any team has a 4th OF'er as good as us, but here's the kicker, our best 3 defensive OF'ers are the best defensive OF in MLB and our best 3 batter OF'ers are likely top 6 or 8. Even with Ceddanne getting 600 OF ABs, we should be top 10 in OF offense. This last week or so saw us add enormous infield depth (I K-F, Monasterio, Seigler)as well as a starter (Durbin.) The infield D got way better. The infield O took a hit with the loss of Bregman, but Breggie missed a big chunk of 2025 and never came back to the same form. While fangraphs ranks our catchers lowly, I'm fine with the two we have and we added much better depth, there, too. Let teh games begin!

Batters win the MVP because pitchers have their own award. MVP Award voters should consider this: PAs and PAs against 814 Crochet 696 Duran 683 Bello 654 Story 613 Giolito 587 Rafaela 1. Notice crochet with 118 more than Duran. 2. Which 3 were more responsible for us making the playoffs, last year? Crochet/Bello/Gio or Duran/Story/Rafaela I rest my case.

Once the game threads start, we'll hear Cora this and Cora that most often, but I do think we may hear more Brez talk than before. When we win 2-1 or 3-1, how often will Brez be mentioned?

I really don't see why getting Bregman was all that better than Suarez & Durbin. I do feel we coulda/shoulda spent Gray's money or trade capital on a bat, but if he has a good year, it all may work out fine. It's not easy being a GM. The Gray deal might have been like say yes, now, or we're trading him somewhere else. Gray at the same cost as Buehler looks like a huge plus.

Okay, I must have missed it. Neto looks like the real deal, and I'm not so dead set on high K batters like many are. I really like Early & Tolle. I would not give both. I might have said yes, if we subbed Witherspoon for Early or Tolle. I'd have given Arias, Witherspoon, Valera and Soto. or similar

I thought the changeover from post 2023 to the start of 2025 was stunning, but Brez even outdid himself, this winter. Many moves were minor or essential to clear 40 man slots for incoming similarly rated players/prospects- like Perales for Bennett, but still the make-over has been nothing short of astonishing. We can argue not enough of the incoming players were high or high enough quality, bu there is no debate on the amount of moves being high. He brought a lot of this upon himself with all the one-and-done signings over his first 2 winters, as well as trades for one and dones, like O'Neill, but here is a rundown of the moves made this winter: Signings: Suarez & Kiner-Falefa Trades: Gray for Fitts & Clarke Contreras for Dobbins, Fajardo & Aita Durbin, Monasterio & Seigler (+ Comp Pick) for Harrison, DHam & Drohan Oviedo, Guzman & Samaniego for Jh Garcia & Travieso Gage Ziehl for Hicks and Sandlin T Gray, B Ward, L Heyman & Ro. Hernandez for Bernardino, Guerrero, Murphy & Hoppe Ryan Watson for J Riemer Jake Bennett for Perales/ I Jackson for Grissom/ Nate Baez for T Gray I count 17 players added by trade plus a comp pick and 20 players dealt away- mostly pitchers. Add the two free agents and it's about 20 for 20.

So, that's a yes? You'd make that deal? (You may turn out right. I'm just trying to get an actual stated specific opinion from you.)

The improved wiing percent due to better pitching in 2025 should be noted, too. Our record in games scoring 3 or more runs was and can be helped with better pitching, too. One aspect will become more important: timely hitting.

He'll be back even if we finish 4th.

Maybe he meant preventing Opponents' HRs.

I mentioned that in another post, and we may decide to DH him 8-10 times rather than give him 4-6 off days, since we need hos power bat in as many games as possible. (This assumes he hits lefties well enough, otherwise- just give him 4-6 days off against tough lefties and never DH him.)