moonslav59

lol

My position has never changed on losing Betts.

33 GS 217 IP 3.58 FIP 124 ERA+ (3.90 ERA) Yes, Schill was better in 2024, but Pedro was huge, that year.

The last place finished end this year. They should have extended Cora to even more years.

He did have a 3.3 bWAR, which was better than VTek, JD Drew, Manny, Lugo and Jake. His 4.4 fWAR was 3rd best and ahead of Youk and Pedey.

Your eye test told you he was not good on D?

Look what hitting 3Hrs in your last 8 games gets you!

Bello was supposed to be the better of the rest, except maybe Gio. He is one of the few Sox pitchers who has seen his ERA go down, since july 1st.

I think Rafaela is way better in CF than SS or 2B. I'd start by trying to plan on making that happen. He's also one of the few RHBs out of our top 16-17 everyday players. That begs the question: who will be the SS and 2Bman? If Story is healthy, he will be one or the other. If mayer is deemed "ready," he probably has the best chance at winning a FT middle IF job, but he still needs to earn it. I think we go with DHam and Grissom as the utility players, and Romy - Valdez start in AAA. Devers, Casas and Wong are locks. Duran can play LF or CF, but with Rafaela in my CF, that keeps Duran in LF. To me, our biggest surplus area is RF with both Anthony and Abreu LHBs, there. Refsnyder is our much needed RHB for LF or DH. If we could trade Yoshida, I'd love this set-up: C: Wong-Teel 1B: Casas 2B: Story (Grissom/DHam) SS: Mayer (Story/DHam) 3B: Devers LF: Duran (Ref) CF: Rafaela (Duran) RF: Anthony (Abreu) DH: Abreu-Refsnyder UT: DHam-Grissom Farm: Campbell, Meidroth, Romy, Valdez I don't think we add another RHB from outside the system, unless we trade a lefty bat for a righty one: like Abreu for a RH'd clone of Abreu. Maybe DHam and or Valdez for a RH'd middle IF'er. If Teel, Mayer and Anthony are on the 26 man roster, they should be playing near FT, so who gets squeezed out? Wong is one of MLBs best hitting catchers, this year. Our OF is as solid on O as it's been in a long time. Middle IF is far from set, so Mayer can win the FT job by playing well, but no way should Abreu (v R) and Ref (v L) not be playing. Duran needs to play every day. Rafaela could end up losing his job, but as of now, he looks like the FT CF'er for 2025. (His splits are pretty even.) Devers and Casas play everyday. Trading Yoshida allows for everyone to get enough PAs. I'm not sure we can do it, without eating a huge chunk of his deal. It's the pitching staff that has 3-4 holes.

He had a pretty good 2007 season, especially on D.

Perales will probably start the year on the 60 day IL, but he would take a roster spot until opening day. I don't think they keep both Monegro and Wikelman on the 40- stashed in AA with no hope of playing in MLB. JH Garcia has to be protected and kept on the 40, unless we trade him. He's too good to let go.

You need a "tennis racket", is not something very mean-spirited. Many players have heard much worse.

No Crispy love?

Where did I say I think they will suck? I said I was looking at the returning players and it's a mixed bag. I don't feel more confident in Bernardino, I Campbell, Weissert, Crawford or Whitlock. I feel better about Houck, Slaten and Criswell. I'm probably close to the same on other pitchers. I like Duran, Abreu, Rafaela, DHam, Romy, Wong and Ref better, not than I did in March. Devers, too. I fell less confident in Casas, Story and our back-up catching situation, until Teel arrives. Yup: mixed bag- nothing even implied about "sucking," but you read into things as you wish.

I'd go... Beckett/Lowell Pedro (trade from 1997, but was essential to 2004 ring season) VTek/DLowe (trade in '97 but essential to '04 ring) Schilling Sale Cabrera/Mientkiewicz Eovaldi Roberts Crisp ERod Kimbrel Wright Porcello Holt Salty

I meant how hopeful I felt going into 2024, after seeing the Brez moves and non moves over the winter vs what I see coming back, next year. Since we don't know who might be added, I'm looking at how I felt about guys like Houck, Crawford, Bello and the everyday players vs how I see them looking for 2025. It's a mixed bag, right now.

It's pretty clear he said it and already apologized, so I think the fact is he did it. I'm not sure what the punishment will or should be, but probably some sort of "sensitivity training" will be mandated. This is really a bad time for this sort of distraction for the team and Jaren.

Those hopes have sure sunk, for now. I'm not sure things look more hopeful for next year. Wwe will need additions, for sure.

If we had signed 4 Criswell's, we'd have a few more wins. BTW, he has a +0.6 bWAR. Brez signed two guys like him: Criswell and Chase Anderson.

Is this something other teams avoid? We do seem to have 2-3, every year. This year, it was Wikelman & Perales. I can see why we kept them from Rule 5. Next year, it might be Monegro & Jh Garcia as Guerrero and Fitts could be ML depth. Is two, too many?

We may have room for 4 without dealing Wikelman, but trading him would not hurt my feelings. We have plenty of trade/DFA guys: Dalbec EValdez Heineman (Teel?) Horn Westbrook Murphy Mata Bernardino These guys see their control end in a couple months: Pivetta, Jansen, Martin, O'neill, Garcia, Sims, paxton Keller and D Smith

Every pitcher's ERA is helped by one team's stats, and 3.06 is pretty damn good. 4.11 would be leading the Sox post ASB ERA. They chose well- initially and in hindsight.

There are many different ways to set up next year's line-up, including the one you mentioned. To me, adding a TOTR pitcher is essential for us to have any chance, but that is just the starting point to fixing our roster. We do need another solid SP'er and should not count on Gio as an addition, since he can be viewed as just replacing Pivetta. A trade makes sense on too many levels to not happen. We have various logjams that can allow us to trade from strength and depth, without really even noticing the loss. Trading Casas and moving Devers to 1B is one idea. Mayer at 3B makes some sense, assuming Story can stay healthy. Moving Story to 2B and playing mayer at SS might work, too, and having casas and Devers in the line-up would be a plus, as well. Trading an OF'er makes the most sense, to me. Abreu would not bring the same return as Anthony, but if we signed a guy like Burnes, trading Abreu plus a couple mid-level prospects might bring back a good enough SP'er to make the rotation close to whole. The heavy LHB nature of our everyday players has to be dealt with, as all of the big 3 prospects are LHBs, too. (I'm not sure Campbell can be counted for the 2015 26 man roster, but he is a RHB.) Trading Yoshida seems like a pipedream, and we'd certainly have to pay a sizeable chunk of his contract to do it. I do love the idea of an Abreu-Ref DH platoon (back-up OF, too.) LF Duran, CF Rafaela, RF Anthony looks impressive.

That is all of them.

Agreed, and our "bad luck" streak on FA SP'er signings is years long. Gio was known to be injured with enough time to so something about it: Whitlock, not as easily, for sure.