moonslav59

Meidroth, but he'd have to be added to the 40, and DFA'ing Jacques is apparently forbidden,

I can understand wanting the A option, but I lived that one for over 30 years, more or less, and it sucked never winning a ring. I don't want to go back. This should not be real hard to achieve: 7 years 1 ring or 2 WS losses 2-3 other playoff appearances 3-4 playoff misses with no more than 2 last place finishes This might be min for me, out of 7 years: 1 ring + 2 playoffs or 4 years of strong playoff teams (maybe 2 WS losses)

I'm fine with Reyes for utility, but when you know your SS is out for 5+ months, you should not count on him to be a FT'er. You use him until you find help from somewhere else, and he goes back to back-up. I can understand not trading a good prospect for a decent SS during a punt season, we should be able to find a plus glove SS who does not hit sub .650 at a decent price.

We never seem to have a bench of defensive specialist, but the odd thing is, they are rarely good at hitting, too. We often have platoon guys like Refsnyder. When we had guys like Holt, we were better off.

I get why, but with some SSs available, now, and last year, too, for cheap, I'm not sure why we have to give DHam/Romy a shot, first.

True, but the idea has existed pre-Cora.

Yes! If only one is working, it’s not good, either. Right now, only our pitching is plus.

I’m picking B and it’s not close. I think we can do this: Win a ring every 6-7 years and compete for the playoffs in the majority of seasons, without needing to be a top 5-7 spender. If it turns out we need to spend top 2-5, then I hope JH can splurge when the time is right.

The deadline or mid July is more likely a time frame

No doubt. More than Monty would have provided, for sure.

IMO, unless the upper brass fully commits to investing heavily in filling the holes in our 26 man roster for 2025, I think Cora bolts the Sox. I'm not sure he can believe any promises they may make or have already made to him. (I wouldn't.) I like Cora, a lot. I do not think he is a negative on this team. I like Breslow, so far. The Gio signing was not what I would have done, but it did look like a better gamble that Richards/Kluber/Perez I & II/Wacha/Hill. I'm not on the side of those hoping JH sells the team, either, but he is wearing my patience thin. I think DD & Bloom may have helped put together a very good core of everyday players for the Sox of 2025 and beyond, but it may not be enough, if we don't fill some holes. The talk of the lack of young pitching prospects is scary as hell, and something that has been part of the Sox organization since Lester, yet we have won twice under those same circumstances. I also think the core of Bello, Crawford, Houck, Whitlock (Pivetta, if extended) and Wink is better than any 5 homegrown pitcher group in a long time. So, what is the problem? 1. Big gaps at key positions. 2. Defense sucks 3. Poor choices on big ticket additions. (not in any order) I can't write off Brez for swinging and missing on Gio, and he basically had to shed Sale, Urias and Dugo's deals to afford him. I'm not writing off Cora, either. Unlike many, I cannot write off the owner who brought us 4 rings, either. I went more than 30 years dying for just one ring. Maybe, I'm have more patience than others, but I still have a sliver of faith, JH will spend bigly, aagin.

It's a lot to ask of a manager to try and cobble together a winner, when about $100M of your $180M budget is on the IL or about to be. I'm not making excuses for Brez or JH. Our depth sucks, and depth should not be very costly. But, asking Cora to do the impossible is tough. Last night's line-up had Reyes 2nd, Oh few April Dalbec 5th, sub .600 Yoshida 6th, Wong 7th, sub.550 Rafaela 8th and AAAA DHam 9th. What were his options? Romy or Valdez? The sham goes on.

I think Reyes is an okay back-up, but being asked to get 400+ PAs is not good. EValdez might end up being a decent ML hitter, but likely never good enough to DH. The man is awful on D. DHam is AAAA all the way.

Knowing Cora, this has to be killing his insides.

There has never been a Sox team with better pitching than hitting, that I recall. This year may be the first, but the defense might skew the pitching numbers downward. In Sox history, we have lost tons of games and missed the playoffs with some really great hitting teams. We have missed the playoffs with teams that had good pitching, but by and large, when you look at the times we made the playoffs, and especially the years we went to the WS, we always had better pitching than the years we missed out. It's undeniable. I wasn't a Sox fan in '67, but no way they even make the playoffs without Lonborg (Siebert & Stange, too). Same with Tiant (and Lee) in '75. Same with Clemens (Hurst/Boyd) in '86. Pedro and Schilling in '04. Beckett & Schilling in '07. Lester & Lackey in '13. Sale, Price & Nate in '18 (okay, maybe they make the playoffs in '18 missing one of these 3, but they needed 2 to win it all.)

Post of the week.

So, basically, we do much better with our lower cost players. Maybe, this is why JH is thinking that spending more is not the solution. Watching things here in Houston, they just paid Hader big bucks to save the team. Oooops! Max has struck a chord that rings true. Our big money contracts have largely been disasters, since maybe the nice JD signing. Many of the ones that worked out okay, still saw some sort of qualifier, like an injury or decline in some area of performance. One could go back as far as HRam, Pablo and Price, but I'm going to start with post JD... This may not be a complete list, but here is a stab at it: Players making more than $6M per year (not counting arbs) $68M/4 Eovaldi '19(worked out okay to well, but he missed time and had an off year) $145M/5 Sale '20 (complete disaster) $120M/6 Bogey '20 (opt out after 3, saw his offense decline) $6.5M/1 Perez '20 $14M/2 Kike '21 (did fine in '21 but not in '22) $10M/1 Richards (disaster) $9M/1 Ottavino '21 (trade, did meh to okay) $10M/1 Kike '22 (awful at SS and at bat) $140M/6 Story '22 (awful, so far & too late to fully redeem) $19M/2 Barnes '22 (had a great half season, then a cliff) $11M/1 + opt '23 JBJ (disaster & put us over tax line) $7M/1 Wacha (did well, but missed some time) $7M/1 Paxton '22 (missed '22 & took '23 option) $90M/5 Yoshida '23 (+ fee, not off to a good start, TBD) $32M/2 Jansen '23 (okay to good, so far, TBD) $22M/2 Turner '23 (opt out hurt, but he did well) 18M/2 Martin '23 (great in '23, TBD) $10M/1 Kluber '23 (disaster) $7M/1 Duvall '23 (good but missed time) $313M/10 Devers '24 (started, this year. TBD) $55M/6 Bello '24 (TBD) $50M/8 Rafaela '24 (TBD) $39M/2 Giolito '24 (cannot make this a plus) There are many TBDs, here, and one can argue the Bogey and Wacha deals were good ones, so maybe with the Turner deal, only 3-4 worked out well for the team. ($4Mper to $5.9M per: Whitlock, O'Neill, Hendriks, Hill, Diekman, Bleier/Barnes swap, Perez II) The $1 to $7M deals seemed to work out better.

HRam in LF worked out well, too.

"Internal options:" how surprising.

We've never done it, but one could argue the Royals won without it.

At some point, the Sea Dogs might take over that role.

14th is runs scored is not great, but the D has been the killer.

Here is a look at our worst pitching staffs, since 2003: ERA- 120 2020 111 2012 110 2022 105 2005 104 2015 102 2006 100 2014 100 2023 3 of our worst 10 defensive (DRS) seasons since 2003 were 2023 (6th worst) 2022 (7th worst) 2020 (10th worst) Our best ERA- seasons since 2003: 82 2017 83 2007 84 2018 89 2004 89 2008 90 2013 It's no fluke that the 4 ring seasons were in the top 6 staffs of the last 21 seasons.

We put starting pitching and defense on the back burner, after the Sale & Nate extensions. I think that is the main reason. We can blame JH, Bloom, Brez, Cora, the system or whatever, but the fact is, these areas have been in a pretty steady decline for over 5 years. It's not like our hitting has been great, but we've avoided investing in pitching, and when we did invest some, we swung and missed more than we hit.

I'll keep watching, especially the younger players. There should be a lot of fun moments, but not a lot of wins. I'm thinking we sell off all 1 year players, this summer, and a 2 year guy or two. I'm wondering what happens, this winter. I don't think Sox Nation will tolerate another "Full throttle" sham.