moonslav59

It has been sad, for sure, so far. It matters little that we "tried" for bigger fish than last couple winter's Eflin, Monty, and other mid level FAs. There was the false Yamo flag raised, but it was brought down, quickly. JH needs a win. If he doesn't see that, I'm jumping on the ousting bandwagon.

Good one. I do like Hendriks better than Wilson, for what that is worth. The addition of Crochet was very nice, but just Crochet, Chapman, Hendriks, Narvaez and Wilson fall far short of what I felt we needed to make serious gains, this year. I'm not even sure they equal what we lost: Pivetta, Jansen, Martin & O'Neill plus McGuire/Jansen.

I don't see Buehler as even a small splash. He'd be a project with hopes he pulls a Sale and an expectation of maybe a Paxton 2023. Flaherty would be nice, but I'd want a Hoffman or Teoscar/Santander with him to make some ripples.

It's not like saying WE did anything special by adding hendriks and Fulmer. Maybe lunch a Burger King.

One could argue that can only be Burnes.

I was going to say him, since he only started 4 games, but then what about Story? Casas and Slaten missed some time, too. Devers missed time and played hurt other times. Yoshida. I just figure, what we gain from them, we may lose from others, but yes, if 100% healthy, we could see some major additions. Story is huge, especially for SS defense, where Rafael, DHam & Co were awful on D. Casas could make up for O'Neill's loss, as Tyler missed some time, too. Whitlock could be a huge plus, but is a wildcard.

We have to act, now. We can't wait for the window to open in 2026 or 2027, despite the incoming top prospects timelines. Houck reaches free agency in 2028. That may be the end of the window. (maybe not.) Whitlock in '27. Duran & Crawford in '29, along with some others. We don't have ig stars leaving, soon. Act NOW!

I'm not excited about either, as well, but they would be significant additions. "Big Splash:" probably not. I'd like to see Burnes & Scott and a LHB trade for a RHB.

Keeping his salary off the lux tax books.

In a sense, we really added Hendriks and Fulmer for 2025, not 2024, so we can say this is our significant net plus & minus: Plus: Crochet, Hendriks, Fulmer, Wilson, Narvaez Minus: Pivetta, Jansen, Martin, O'Neill (HR leader and big RHB), Valdez (most games started at 2B) [Minor: McGuire, D Smith, Chase Anderson (11th in IP) and Keller]

It's not too late, but we are down to a handful of big splash players, and some seem like no chance signings, like Scott. Burnes Bregman Teoscar No Go: Scott, Alonso & Walker Santander & Flaherty (borderline big splash) Next Tier: Manaea, Hoffman and some up for debate

That very well may be the reality, but it is hard to know just how high other teams will go. I'm not sure anyone expected $700M, even after the signing of two-way Ohtani. No doubt, we lost out to the Mets with Soto and the Yanks with Fried and with the Dodgers on a few guys, over the years. JH is famous for setting a line and not crossing it- more so with his own vets reaching free agency than guys he trades for and extends (Schilling, Beckett, Agon, Porcello and Nate.) He has won a few bids, like Foulke, Damon, Dice-K, Price, JD, Story and Yoshida, but since the Yanks, Mets and Dodgers were not involved, I guess they don't count.

I forgot about him. We also won the Dice-K silent auction- not sure who else made serious bids.

I'm a firm believer in the need for a lock-down closer. No, I don't think JH will okay signing Scott- maybe not about the 2 years of success thing, but more about his need to get 4-5 years at about $15-17M per year. I'd be okay with Hoffman or a trade for Helsley, but Helsley only has one year of control. I realize RP'ers are up and down, often, and the best you can do is just build up a good pen on paper, and hope they don't all tank at once. To me, we have about 8 pitchers who profile and very nice 8th men in the pen or AAA pen depth. That's not a put-down. I think we will need that depth, as we always do. I think we have a decent 2-7 guys in the pen, but when you make them 1-6, they may not even be average. (This is assuming Crawford is in the pen.) We need a closer, or at worst, a very solid set-up guy, AND Crawford pushes to the pen.

You have to ask, why and who would leak this information. What purpose would is have?

I can agree our pen has the potential to be better and even way better. It's not hard to improve on the worst second half pen in MLB. We'd need near perfect health, bounce back years from Hendriks, Whitlock and others, AND a rotation that goes deep and does not create "pen games." If we sign a solid SP'er, we should have a nice and deep rotation with Crawford joining the pen and helping there, too. We could also see Criswell do well in the pen. We have some wild cards like Guerrero, Penrod, Weissert and even non 40 man guys: I Campbell & Mata. I think Slaten is poised to be a very nice set up man. To me, add a closer and the rest of the pen looks much nice- knocked down one notch. As is, I would not project our pen as being top 15.

I'm not saying we have outbid them, recently. I'm not sure who of the 3 teams you mentioned are still in on guys we are currently talking to. I'm just saying, the next guys are the big 3's second choices, so maybe JH can and will make the highest bid. We just don't know. To me, it's more about Henry drawing lines than his ability to out bid everyone else. Reports were that not many other teams were bidding near what the Sox did on Yoshida and Story. Maybe we bid against ourselves, but those two guys are examples, where we identified someone we wanted and we bid highly for them. (Some say nobody else was close on Yoshida. Story was a late signing with an injury issue.) Granted, I don't think any of the big 3 were in on those two, but I'm not sure about JD, Price and Nate. We could also go way back to Lackey, Damon and others, but that was before the Mets were the Mets.

I do not think Chapman, Hendriks & Wilson are better than Jansen & Martin. The return of Whitlock may help, a lot, but someone else will get hurt. Crawford to the pen would help, too, but we need a real closer. Chapman, Hendriks and Slaten would be nice set-up guys. Whitlock, Crawford & Wink would be nice 2-3 IP guys. Our pen depth looks okay, to me, as long as we bump everyone down one notch by adding a closer- maybe Scott (FA) of Helsley (trade.)

I doubt we get one of B & B. I was just saying we could. We might sign Teoscar, Santander or Flaherty to a 4-5 year deal and then some fluff,

$3M is the cots estimate, for what that is worth. I think his previous inaction factors into the numbers. Also, he was not a SP'er, before this season. Maybe he gets $4-5M?

I don't think it's so simple that the richest guy will always outbid the other less rich guy. If JH bid $800M, I'm not sure Cohen goes higher. In that sense, JH chose to bow out. My point was that even if Cohen wants a few guys JH wants, it does not mean he will treat every bidding war like Soto's. He may think, it's not worth it and pivot to someone else he likes, too. In other words, I don't think it's a done deal on every FA. Since Cohen got Soto and the Yanks got Fried, I'm not so sure the bidding dynamic will be the same, if the two NY teams are in on Burnes, Bregman, Teoscar, Santander or anyone else the Sox are also bidding on. They both got their prize, and may not feel it is worth it to one up JH on one of these guys. While it may still be true, if they will never be outbid, eventually JH will drop out, but we don't know if that will apply to every FA 2 or 3 of else teams are seeking. Cohen does have a history of backing off, at times, and the Yanks have been roasted by fans for many years for not going one step further on spending. I just don't think it's a foregone conclusion we lose every bidding war, going forward. If we do get one, you'll say it's only because the two NY teams didn't really want the guy, and we did not outbid them.

This did not clear it up for me. I thought, all along, it was about nobody can outbid Cohen. It did not matter how far JH went.

Here are my rankings after today- assuming GB wins*, tonight: 1. Buffalo 11-3 2. Kansas City 13-1 3. Detroit 12-2 4. Philadelphia 12-2 5. Minnesota 11-2 6. Green Bay 10*-4 7. Baltimore 9-5 8. Pittsburgh 10-4 9. Houston 9-5 10, Washington & Denver 9-5

Pretty much nails our position. There "HAS TO BE A NEXT!" Burnes or Bregman are the two big prizes, but I only want Bregman, if Devers moves to 1B/DH. Casas at DH over Yoshida would be great, but trading him for pitching might make more sense. If we miss on one of these two, I think we'd need two from this group: Teoscar or Santander Flaherty, Manaea, Scott, Hoffman and maybe Pivetta or Estevez, plus a better catcher than Wong-Narvaez/Gasper. This doesn't seem absurd, when you figure we bid $700M for Soto.