moonslav59

LOL. It's not like Dalbec vs Voit is going to make much of a difference. It's kinda like Dalbec vs Cron.

Indeed, and in a punt season like 2024, bettering our budget situation in future years might have more value- assuming JH spends more, later.

Why do you keep acting like I'm saying we will or probably will sign Monty. I've said countless times we will not. I'm just saying we have the cap space to do it, if we wanted to do it. Those are two different positions that have nothing to do with each other. Monty is not coming to BOS. We have the great Chase Anderson. Can we move on?

Luke Voit released. Is he a better option than Dalbec, despite no utility value and no 3B experience?

Again, I do not think we sign Monty or even offer a deal more than $22M x4 or so. I was just saying what I think he'll get, somewhere (else.) I do think we could work out a way to make the deal have a lower AAV, so as to give us wiggle room, but even so, I doubt our plan includes adding AAV during the summer. If anything, we will shed salary- like Jansen, martin, O'Neill, Pivetta and maybe McGuire, Ref and others not part of the long term outlook.

Many extensions don't kick in for a year or so.

I appreciate when posters make comments about players they went and saw play for a game or more, but we are not trained scouts, that I know of. That being said, I'm kinda high on Campbell, Slaten & Sandlin. Weissert, Judice and some others may surprise. While Criswell is not a prospects, he has less than 38 IP in MLB, so maybe counting this 27 year old in the acquisition mix is possible.

I see this as a major area of possible improvement, despite us raiding the pen of multiple arms to become starters. Not counting Reyes, we used 27 pitchers in relief in 2023. We used 23 for over 6.2 IP. If can bring both of these numbers down, significantly, it might allow for some slight improvement. The area for big improvement will be improving on the numbers from these guys: IP/ERA 48 Murphy 4.91 (on IL) 45 Schreiber 3.83 31 Bleier 5.28 30 Lloveria 5.46 25 Jacques 4.26 (still in the system but hopefully will not pitch in '24) 23 Walter 6.26 (still in the system) 21 Brasier 7.29 19 Ort 6.27 17 Garza 6.23 13 Kluber 9.45 11 Robertson 6.55 9 Weiss 2.08 8 Barraclough 12.91 7 Sherriff 2.70 Moved to rotation:(These are the hard 100 IP to replace.) 56 Pivetta 3.07 22 Crawford 1.66 20 Whitlock 4.95 Who takes their places or pitches more than 2023? Campbell Slaten Anderson Weissert Criswell Mata Fitts, Luetge, Guerrero, Gambrell (not on 40) More IP: Joely Bernardino Z Kelly

Even if we saw him pitch 10 times, would that matter much?

I don't think the Sox sign Monty. BTW, cots has us $29.5M under, so we could squeak him in- maybe with a minor tweak. If we sign him, it might be more like $25M x 4 with a 5th year option and $4M buy-out making it $26M x 4 or something like $25M x 5, with no opt-out.

Agreed. Bernardino will have plenty of chances to earn a slot.

I think there should be a marked improvement. I'm guessing from #30 to maybe #14-19th. Most importantly, our up-the-middle defense should be way better: By projected innings: SS: 2024: 1300 Story, 140 Reyes 2023: 480 Kike, 310 Story, 260 Chang, 210 Reyes, 90 DHam, 90 Rafaela/Arroyo/Dalbec 2B: 2024: 1200 Grissom, 140 EValdez, 100 Reyes 2023: 440 Arroyo, 360 EValdez, 210 Urias, 200 Reyes, 130 Kike, 50 Turner, 50 DHam/Rafaela/Wong CF: (Hard to project with rafaela's offense in question) 2024: 1000 Rafaela, 240 Duran, 200 Abreu 2023: 560 Duran, 480 Duvall, 120 Rafaela, 90 Kike, 90 Abreu 70 Refsnyder, 40 Tapia C: (not sure we can expect improvement, here, but normally catchers reach their defensive prime after age 26-27) 2024: 900 Wong, 500 McGuire, 30 Heineman 2023: 950 Wong, 430 McGuire, 50 Alfaro/C Hamilton Corner positions? 3B: same (We can hope this is an up year for devers) 1B: same (I think casas will improve, but with no Turner as back-up, call it a push.) LF: Better (No Yoshi has to make this a plus over 2023. Duran looked okay in LF.) RF: same? (Will it be Abreu, O'Neill or both? I hope it's not Duran.) Let's say a slight improvement on corner D.

He did, and so did Bernardino... ST 2024: Weissert: 8.1 IP, 5 H, 3 BB, 10 K: 1.08 ERA Bernardino: 6.2 IP, 3 H, 2 BB, 5 K: 0.00 ERA 2023 MLB: Weissert: 20 IP, 21H, 8BB, 22K: 4.05 ERA Bernardino: 50.2 IP, 48 H, 18 BB, 58K: 3.20 ERA Career: Weissert: 31.1 IP, 27H, 13B, 33K: 4.60 ERA Bernardino: 53 IP, 51H, 20BB, 58K: 3.23 ERA

I kinda felt Ben was all set to make some trades, right before he left Boston, too. I guess we'll never know. Brez made trades for Fitts, Weissert and Judice (Verdugo) Campbell (Urias) Slaten (Ammons + Cash)

Who is Kennedy?

I'm not sure why Weissert got the nod, here.

The most optimistic part of those "glimmers" is the fact that there are many of them, and we might just need 16-20 to come through with full and healthy seasons 7 vets: Devers, Story, Yoshida, Jansen, Martin, Pivetta, O'Neill 7 entering prime: Whitlock, Crawford, Houck, Duran, Wong, McGuire, Bernardino 8 pre-prime: Casas, Bello, Grissom, Winckowski, Campbell, Slaten, Abreu, Rafaela That's 22 with role players like Criswell, Refsnyder, Reyes, Weissert, Joely, Kelly and others.

You had to go back 6 years to include Bard. Here are the 4 year breakdowns (best 4): Draft/IFA/Rule5/MiLFA/Trade for prospect Theo 2004-2007: Buchholz Doubront Masterson (traded) Bard Theo 2008-2011: Montas (traded) Barnes Workman Wilson (traded) Ben 2012-2015: ERod Brian Johnson Jalen Beeks (traded for Nate) Kopech (part of Sale trade)/ Espinoza (traded for Pom-Pom)/G Bautista DD 2016-2019: Bello Crawford Houck Wikelman/ Perales/ Murphy/Walter/Monegro/Bastardo/Mata/H Velazquez Bloom 2020-2023: Whitlock Winckowski Bernardino Z Kelly/ Drohan/ Gambrell/ Guerrero/ Dobbins/ E R-C/ Paez/Hoppe Breslow (1/2 year) 2024 Fitts Slaten Sandlin Judice Let me know if I missed a top 4 pitcher, somewhere. Pre-2004: Lester Papelbon Anibal Sanchez ______? (Fossom in '99)

Stroy could be the STORY of the season!

Maybe ... $29M $27M Opt out $25M $23M 5th year option: $21M with $4M buyout. $56M/2 if opts out ($28M x 2) $108M/4 if bought out ($27M x 4) $125M/5 if no buy out ($25M x 5)

So, 4 years with an option wth hefty buyout? He would likely get an opt out, too.

To me, it's never been about his stuff. It's always been about his healthy and durability. Once he had that hip surgery, I figured he should stay in the pen and maximize his changes at making meaningful contributions. He looked really good, yesterday, and pretty much all spring.

I hope Whitlock can keep it going. He's always had the stuff.

I'm not so sure any of these guys would have rocked it with other systems, but certainly they had no favors done for them. I think our pitching selection decisions are half the issue.

Whit went 6 and his only BB was a bad call. 3 H 1 ER 1 BB- 6 K His change-up was awesome, tonight.