moonslav59

Just the extra 300 PAs from Anthony could help a lot, even if he hits the same as '25. If Mayer can play FT and hit .720 in his first full season, that will be helpful. The more IKF plays the worse the offense will be- but better the D. There is no reason to think the 4 OF'ers (Duran at DH) won't do better than 2025 as a whole. Narvaez & Wong are hard to project.

Fangraphs has the Sox projected as the 8th best team in MLB (4th best in AL.) That 0.2 for IKF helped us jump the O's. We are ranked 17th on offense and 1st in pitching. Sounds about right, to me.

And have Framber for 2 more years than Skubal.

We can't afford to trade for Seager or Buxton, and injury issues are concerning. Muncy? Wood? Chisholm?

I know KMarte is "off the table," but is Rooker really on it? The best bat "available" might be Paredes. He'd allow Mayer to play 2B or platoon it with Romy and I K F/Mayer to back up SS, too.

1. Moving Devers off 3B. 2. Signing I K F 3. ______? Not sure it's a trend yet, but maybe....

We better trade him, then.

Ahhh... genius.

BTV accepts Bello & Phillips for Shaw.

Bello & DHam gets to a yes! LOL

Why would Ken Boyer care?

I'm not sure about the pipe, but maybe a bong dream.

I did not need to imply experience matters more than nasty stuff, but as pitchers age, sometimes it compensates for losing some of the edge off their previously super nasty stuff. I have no idea if Bello will get better. I have seen many pitchers have their best seasons between 27-31.

Our #1 DH for a #3 SP! LOL

That would make Paredes like an 8 war player.

I agree, but it's hard for me to think a 26 year old can't keep getting significantly better. Sometimes, it's more about smarts and experience than nasty stuff and secondary pitches.

Wow, F to B for Paredes. That's more that I'd raise his grade.

Does Paredes, Hoerner of Saw brin it up to a D for you?

Ranger A S Gray B+ Contreras B+ I K F B as utility, but D- as a starter. Final grade: Incomplete No more moves made, it's a C- to D, in my book. Add Paredes: A-/B+ Add Hoerner B+ Add Shaw B+

They musta known that when they signed Framber, but they might have decided, if we lose the Skubal arb, we'll trade Torres. Maybe that's what Brez has been waiting for... LOL! NOT!

It was a 3 question test: 1. Get a #2 SP'er. Yes 34 points 2. Get a big middle order bat. Maybe a little more than half credit (Contreras) 20 points 3. Get a solid 3B/2B man. No (got a solid defender) 6 pts. That's a 60 and an F at my school. Extra credit for Gray might get me to bump you up to a 65, but no pass.

Tolle is higher ranked for a reason- mostly upside potential, but there was a reason Early got the call first. Yes, it's a small sample size, but the guy seems to be mentally ML ready. I'd try like hell not to trade either one. Witherspoon is close to the same feeling. I'm moving towards trading Bello, too.

I was one who said he shoulda asked for $24-26M. Wow, I wonder if the Tigers wish they didnt sign Framber. Maybe they need to dump some salary and we can trade DHam and Harrison for G Torres and $10M.

I don't think we were unlucky, last year. It was kinda normal, except that maybe most injuries were to SP'ers and 3 were basically lost for the whole year. These days, that's not all that abnormal. I think we had better than average everyday player luck with injuries. I was shocked Story player 150+. I was not shocked Casas got hurt blowing a bubble. Counting on normal injuries, we have the best rotation depth in MLB. Our everyday depth is not great, but we have 4 OF'ers, where all 4 are better than most team's best 2. Our catcher depth is not good, but we added a couple okay AAA catchers. Our infield depth is not shallow, it's just not all that good, however, there is not much of a drop off from DHam to Sogard to Eaton. On hitting, there isn't much from IKF to those 3. My whole assumption is based on adding another infielder. If we don't. I'm worried.

Clearly, we have focused more on drafting pitchers in the 20 years before Brez. Our top 3 picks that were pitchers since 2003: Most of the pitchers taken in the top 10 were ranked 6-10 2003: 3rd (#49) 5 of top 10 2004: 2nd (95) and 3rd (125) 5 of top 10 2005: 2nd (26) & 3rd (42) 4 of 10 2006: 2nd (28) and 3rd (40) 6 of 10 2007: 1st (but #55) 4 of 10 2008: 2nd (45) 4 of 10 2009: 2nd (77) 4 of 10 2010: 3rd (39) 4 of 10 2011: 1st (19 Barnes) & 3rd (36) 5 of 10 2012: 2nd (31) 3rd (37) 8 out of 10 (after 10 years of more everyday in the top 10) 2013: 1st (7 TBall) and 2nd (43) 7 of 10 (looks like Ben did focus more on P) 2014: 2nd (33-Kopech) 5 of 10 2015: none in top 4 picks 3 in top 10 2016: 1st (7- Groome) and 3 (88th) 4 of top 10 (back in the groove, but 2 yrs in a row w top pick P'ers) 2017: 1st (24-Houck) 4 in 10 2018:: 3rd (100) 3 in 10 (4 yrs with 14 in 40) 2019: 3rd (107) 5 in 10 2020: 3rd (118) 2 of 4 picks 2021: none in top 3 and just 4 in top 10 2022: none in top 3 and 6 in 10- 5 of em from #5-10 2023: none in top 3 (way to go Bloom!) and 5 in 10 (3 of em 8-9-10) ____________________________ Change: 2024: 2nd (50) and 3rd (86) and 4 of top 6 and 6 of 10 (12 of top 16!) 2025: 1st (15 Witherspoon) and 2nd (33) and 8 of 10 & 14 of top 19 picks (14 of top 20 over 2 years) That's a sea change.