moonslav59

They can't afford a penny more for pitching, but are looking at the OF. They should just hand the CF job to Rafaela and or Abreu. I can see why they wouldn't want one riding the bench for most games, but if they trade Refsnyder and use Yoshida at DH near FT, we should be able to find enough PAs for the 4 we have: LF: Duran/ Abreu (Yoshida) CF: Rafaela/Abreu RF: O'Neill/Abreu

We all know Cora loves to sit players for rest at least 8 games a year. All I'm saying, is that when he sits players, he should try to do it on the better handed pitcher splits days. Casas is not one of the major split differential players, but why not? .777 v LHP .858 v RHP Even "recently, it would be better for him to sit v L: 2023: .871 v L .865 v R

I never said platoon Casas. I said when Cora chooses to rest Casas, it should be vs a LHP. Why twist everything up like a pretzel?

Many blamed Bloom for "choosing not to spend." It's funny how now, some see it was JH, all along.

Indeed. Being an emergency back-up is not the same as being a back-up. Every team has a 3rd catcher on the 26, even if the guy never played catcher. The idea of casas as an emergency 3Bman was based on the idea that Cooper was added to back up 1B. Reyes would be the back-up 3Bman, and Casas might be the emergency guy at 3B. Yes, big difference..

Polanco traded to Mariners.

I love the signing, day one. And do the Sox really need another DH? No, not with Yoshida in the mix.

I get the gaining of a control year on the back-end of a young players time with a team, but this year seems perfect for allowing Rafaela and Abreu a solid chance at proving they belong in the bigs, or not. I agree, though, sitting on the bench behind Duran, O'Neill and Duvall does neither any good.

Kinda, but Casas did play 72 innings at 3B in the minors.

A 128 OPS+ is good enough, for me. It's a little better than casas at 121 v L (much better than his career 87)

Maybe the best part of Rafaela in CF is that it forces Duran to LF and Yoshida to DH, more often.

How about handing Refsnyder a 1Bman's mitt?

At this point, I'd be fine giving Rafaela a long look at CF, with Abreu as his back-up (AAA?)

If all we are looking at is LH'd splits, how about this guy? .350/.409/.450 (.859 OPS) 136 wRC+ at min wage? Career v LHP: .273/.338/.517/.855 Okay, Dalbec can't field for s***, but still....

This does seem to be our best hope for a surprisingly good season. We can hope for a healthy Story. We can hope for career years from Devers, Yoshida, Duran, O'Neill, Wong and McGuire, and big improvements from 2023 with some pitchers, but I do think the kids offer our best hope. Casas Grissom Rafaela & Abreu EValdez (long shot) Bello, Crawford, Campbell, Slaten, Mata, kelly and a few other pitchers.

He'd just be the emergency back-up, in case reyes covered 3B and got hurt in the same game.

What is a better overall OF? LF: O'Neill CF: Duran RF: Duvall LF: Duran CF: Michael A Taylor RF: O'Neill Subs: Refsnyder LF, Rafaela CF, Abreu RF

Maybe not having to run so much in the tiny RF at Yankee Stadium will give him that extra energy he needs to run out grounders.

Cooper just turned 33 and has been in decline for several seasons, in a row. He was a decent hitter: he may not be, anymore. .852 '20 .845 '21 .752 '22 .724 '23 (as a 1Bman, that is low.) He did still hit .904 vs lefties in '23, so let's hope Cora schedules the Casas days off when we face lefties. (He was .666 vs RHPs.) Career: .756 v R .816 v L (per 650 PAs: .286 26 100 w/ .338 OBP)

Must be- short term. (Maybe Casas in a pinch.) Long term? Meidroth? DHam? Jamie Westbrook?

Well, the guys we had were proven to suck, so there is that. It's very hard to imagine Grissom will be the second worst defensive 2Bman in MLB and hit just .663. Just average D and a .713 OPS (a 50 pt increase) would give the team a big boost at a key position on the diamond. I would not be surprised, if our 2B defense ranks 10-15th and Grissom hits .763 or more (a 100 point plus improvement.) .

Yes, they've said a lot of thing. Many times full contradicting other statements. I don't doubt we are at or very close to our budget, right now, but I'm holding out a little hope, that if a bargain comes along, they may go over where they want to be. They may also try to trade Jansen, Yoshida or someone else to add some space, but I'm not sure that would make us any better.

What else? Grissom for the clown carousel at 2B Innings at 2B in 2023 442 Arroyo 357 E Valdez 209 Urias 196 Reyes 131 Kike 49 Turner 18 Chang 11 Rafaela 11 DHam 5 Wong 1 Dalbec OPS at 2B: .663 OAA Rank: 29th in MLB (-13 outs) Sale had 20 starts in 2023: Paxton had 19. Combined they had 39. Gio is expected to get 32-33, so he almost covers for both. The rest will come from more starts by Bello, Pivetta, Crawford, Houck or someone else. They also have to cover for Kluber's 9 starts and 16 by openers and pen game starters. The other "additions" are from within the system or returning players expected to be healthier of mature enough to play more often in '24 than '23. I'm not trying to sound happy about any of this, but there will be some new faces and more views of faces we barely saw in '23. Will it work? Can they replace JT, Dugo, Duvall, Sale, Paxton, Kluber and others no longer around? In theory, we could see this (or course, we will not have perfect health, all around.): GS '23 to 24 (63 GS to replace from '23) 0> 32 Giolito +32 16>32 Pivetta +16 21>28 Houck +7 23>28 Crawford +5 28>31 Bello +3 We had 28 pitchers with 2+ IP from the pen. If we can bring that down to 18-20, we can replace some really bad pitchers. We pitched 656 Innings from the pen, last year. I hope we don't tax it as much, in 2024. Let's say we pitch 650 in 2024 and replace the following 270 IP: 56 Pivetta 3.07 (moves to rotation FT: this one hurts) 31 Bleier 5.28 30 Llovera 5.46 25 Jacques 4.26 23 Crawford 1.66 (OUCH!) 21 Brasier 7.29 19 K Ort 6.27 17 Garza 6.23 13 Kluber 9.45 11 Robertson 6.55 11 Joely 6.55 9 Weiss 2.08 8 Bearclaw 12.91 7 Sherriff 2.70 3 Littell 9.00 3 T Scott 6.75 2 Lamet 13.50, Faria 22.50, Reyes 4.50 Added 270 IP... 83>90 Wink +7 51>51 Martin 48>48 Murphy 45>45 Jansen 45>65 Schreiber +20 42>62 Bernardino +20 20>70 Whitlock +50 23>23 Walter 9>42 Kelly +33 0>50 Campbell +50 0>40 Slaten +40 0>50 Mata, Criswell, Weissert, Fitts, M Castillo +50 Replacing the PAs (I wont get into innings on D): 626 Turner .800 602 Dugo .745 353 Duvall .834 323 Kike .599 206 Arroyo .638 112 Chang .552 109 Urias .698 26 Alfaro .368 & C Hamilton .167 That's about 2350 PAs to replace. JT and Duvall won't be easy, but some bad hitters are gone, too. Add these PAs 0> 500 Grissom +500 168>618 Story +450 89> 439 Rafaela +350 85>435 Abreu +350 502>652 Casas +150 362>512 Duran +150 149>299 E Valdez +150 580>630 Yoshida +50 185>235 Reyes +50

We don't really know what the budget will allow. I'd much rather spend anything available on SP'ers, but Duvall should be a help. If we have to trade Jansen or Martin to make his contract fit, no thanks.

I didn't say you should remember. I just corrected your false statement about me not saying it.