moonslav59

Pick a lane and go full throttle.

I'm hoping we do better. I'm not being negative.

I would, too, but we won't get Paxton.

For some reason, all this talk about hor bad COl at this and that, does not make me feel any better.

Another major problem with the 2019 team was not replacing Kimbrel and Kelly. Compared to Brez adding Slaten, Booser, Anderson, Weissert, ICampbell and Criswell, DD did next to nothing about the pen from 2018 to 2019. At the end of 2018 and through the playoffs, the pen screamed for help. Nothing was done. Perhaps budget constraints were part of the reason, but we found money to bring back Pearce at about $2M AAV than Kelly got with LAD.

Agreed, and not to the Sox.

Exactly, and that's wht the whole FO, winter talk, including the "full throttle" statement was a sham. The team was and is not a sham, but their actions vs their words was and has been for years.

1. You conflate "doing nothing" with moves that looked good not working out. 2. Slaten's 1.3 fWAR as a RP'ers places him 9th in MLB. I suppose Brez should be blamed for his injury, too. 3.Booser has a 0.5 fWAR (tied with Bernardino for 4th best on the 6th best pen in MLB.) and Weissert 0.1, which is tied for 7th best with Horn & Keller- two other Brez additions. Find another position and reason, but we were fine with the pen, until 2 of our top 3 RP'ers went on the IL. Not many GMs provided enough depth for their teams to overcome that.

Beating COL is a must. Turning around the momentum might help as we head into a very tough stretch our schedule after COL, but the team cannot look ahead. One game at a time! Just win, baby!

Also 20-43 in September the last2 years,combined.

Brez added Slaten, Weissert and I Campbell to the pen, last winter. IC was supposed to be good, but as with most RPers, they can be a hit one year and a miss the next one. Also Criswell and Anderson were added as pen depth, but with 2 SPers down, Criswell had to be used I. The rotation, mostly. Our pen was not a weakness on opening day.

Agreed. I expected more negativity than this

Hard to know. IMO, unless we go 5-2 or 1-6/2-5, we will be on the bubble of which lane to pick. I think we will be cautious buyers, giving up only blocked or duplicated values for useful but not great returns. We may trade Abreu and any prospects at #10 or below for a 4/5 SP, 1-2 RP'ers and a RHB that can play SS, or maybe 1B, 2B or RF (if Abreu is traded.) If we do trade Abreu, adding a RHB SS would allow Rafaela to go back to CF FT. I'm not sure how many RHB SSs are on the market, but we just need a rental to bridge to Mayer and Story in 2025. I think DHam, Grissom and others offer enough MI depth to not need a keeper at SS. We can get by with an OF of Refsnyder, Duran, Rafaela and O'Neall until Anthony replaces O'Neill in 2025. (We also might have Campbell, Lugo, Valdez available in LF in '25.) 1B depth is a need, but more for 2024 than 2025. Our pen needs help.

Winning more than losing seems to keep some of the instigators at bay, a bit more than when we are losing. Certain posters show up much more often, when losing. I've done my fair share of instigating, too, so I'm not trying to throw stones, but nothing like a losing streak to bring out the worst is some.

More good prospect news. It seems our IFA signings are looking pretty good. 2022: Jo. Garcia 1.063 before injury Portes .339 OPSA in Salem N Yuten .680 in Salem Y Asencio .843 2023: Cespedes 1.015 before injury Arias 1.055 and rising Y Ruiz .444 OPSA DSL Mussett .731 promoted S Nunez .761 2024: Brito .772 D Reyes .360 OPSA in DSL Fermin .760 Ju. Gonzales .939 (2019: Jh Garcia at .954)

The trade deadline, this year is 6 pm on JUL 30th. That leaves just 7 games in 8 days for the Sox to "pick a lane." 3 @ COL Off Day (THUR) 3 v NYY 1 v SEA We have a real tough stretch starting with NYY on FRI. 3 NYY 3 SEA 3 @ TEX 3 @ KCR 3 HOU 3 TEX 4 @BAL 3 @HOU 3 AZ

I expected 1-2 of the big 3 to be promoted to AAA, after the AS break.

Maybe I misheard what they said. I was kind of distracted while listening. I thought they said a few might see time in Salem in 2024.

It's hard to know how to value Abreu, and all it takes is for one GM to like him, a lot. There is much to like, and even his defense seems to be pretty decent and can improve. His worst fault is how he hits LHPs. As of now, he is a very good strong side platoon RF'er and okay CF'er. He'd be a plus LF'er for most teams. A simple swap of Abreu for a RHB might be a big help, and maybe we get a better player if we trade the 5 years of Abreu for 2-3 years from a RHB (SS, 2B, 1B, RF?) We can us Ref in LF and O'Neill in RF vs LHPs, and Rafaela in CF vs RHPs, but then our middle IF looks shaky. Adding a RHB middle IF'er at the deadline could cure that, at a low cost. I doubt we trade a top 6 prospect (Anthony, Mayer, Teel, Campbell, Bleis & Cespedes,) and I don't think we trade Zanetello, Perales, Fitts or Sandlin, either, unless we get back a good pitcher with 1.3+ years of team control. That still leaves some decent talent that can be traded for a 4/5 SPer, a RP'er or two and a RHB that plays SS (maybe 1B or 2B.) I may be over valuing these guys, but we did get Schwarber for Aldo Ramirez, so maybe we can do something with these guys: Abreu Yorke Meidroth Lugo Paulino Castro Jordan Hickey Mata (out of options and rehab almost done) Additions like these guys might help: Walter, Wikelman or Bastardo Coffey or Sogard Romero or McDonough Guerrero or Hoppe Brannon or Zeferjahn

Yes, but it's too bad there are no more FCL games, once they sign. SP's seemed to think many will go to Salem, at some point.

Shows just how quickly a changing tide affects outlooks. We have two games in hand vs most teams, and we'll need to win both to keep pace with KCR and MIN. One good thing is, MIN and KCR play each other 6 more times. Also, we play 3 at KCR in early AUG, and MIN plays 3 @ BOS in SEP. Our fate can be in our own hands, if we can beat them both- head to head, and keep pace in the rest of the games. A lot of baseball left to go. We need to beat COL, now- one game at a time.

The soxprospects.com podcast spoke about how signed draftees not being able to go to FCL might hurt, but that college players might get some action at Salem. That might push up some promotions, up the line, and some guys at AA/AAA let go.

I don’t the ATL takes Sale without a lot of cash, and that was expected. Let’s say Salescontract was expiring, last winter. Be honest: who would have wanted us extending him at $25M? $20M? $17M? $10M might have had some takers, but as Bell has pointed out, we still needed more SPers, last winter.

Agreed, but the move from Sale to Gio was made for more certainty of IP and to lessen the need for depth. Nobody expected Sale to out IP Gio. I totally agree on the depth thing. criswell was it.

They weren’t all in in 2020 or 2021, either.