moonslav59

Certainly, some of the players that look good or promising, now, may not be doing well in 2-3 years. Certainly, some of the prospects that look promising or very promising, now, will not come through, as hoped. What encourages me is that we have someone (or two to three) at nearly every key position, except the rotation. 2025-2026: SP1 _____ SP2 _____ SP3 Bello SP4 Crawford SP5 Houck (Fitts, Wikelman, Perales, Gambrell) RP1 Whitlock RP2 Winckowski RP3 Schreiber RP4 Fitts/Wikelman/Perales/Mata RP5 Bernardino RP6 Campbell RP7-8 Weissert/Slaten/Guerrero/Kelly/Murphy/Walter Monegro/Benitez/Oliveras C Wong, Teel (Hickey) 1B Casas (Jordan, Kavadas 2B Grissom/Story (Yorke) SS Story/Mayer (DHam, Romero) 3B Devers (Meidroth) LF Duran, Refsnyder (Rosier) CF Rafaela/Anthony RF Abreu (Castro) DH Yoshida/ EValdez

Back to the age thing. I'm not bragging on the "foundation" like it is stacked with studs or promising studs, but when you look back at the rosters of 2020 and even 2021, the lack of young and promising players was pretty noticeable. When I am talking about foundation, here, I'm not talking foundations of core studs like Betts, Bogey, JBJ and Devers. I'm talking about depth of a roster of decent players, role players and organizational depth that can support a winning team, if a few holes are plugged with stars- perhaps added from outside the organization at key moments. It's not the best "foundation" in MLB. It's not good enough to carry a team void of enough stars to be fave for the playoffs, but IMO, it is pretty good, and it's better than we had before. Many of these foundational players have 3+ years of control and are in prime, the beginning of prime or are pre-prime. There is a chance enough improve as they near or go through prime to create a situation where our FO gets off their asses and realizes a couple key additions could get us to some sort of glory, again. (That's not a prediction or projection, or even an expectation, but I do hope that day comes, sooner rather than later.) I laid out the core of younger pitchers- homegrown and otherwise, by age, but here is a look at the whole roster by age: Pitching: 24 Bello 5, Mata 6, M Castillo 5 25 Winckowski 5 & Murphy 26 Slaten & Campbell 5 27 Crawford 5, Houck 4, Whitlock 4 & Walter 6 28 Schreiber 3, Kelly 6 & Weissert 5 (Most with 4-6 years of control) 30 Pivetta (1) Everyday "core" 23 Grissom 5, Rafaela 5 24 Casas 5, Abreu 5 25 E Valdez 5 26 27 Duran 5, Wong 28 Devers 10, McGuire 29 30Yoshida 4, 31 Story 4 I left out all the prospects, but there are plenty that could add to this core- just not many pitchers.

While Gio might be an innings eater, he won't even replace Paxton + Sale's innings. We are left with Bello, Gio and 3 tweeners, again. Maybe Pivetta can give us 170-180 IP and it's 2 tweeners- all better utilized in the pen and likely wasted as SP'ers.

Or, in neutral, which is not good for the car's engine.

It's like a slight improvement on Kluber, Wacha/Hill, Richards and Martin Perez- like it's by enough to fool us, again. NOT!

We've heard a lot about the "state of pitching on the farm," and I totally agree with the belief that it is in shambles and needs to be a top priority by ownership. Perhaps a change has already begun, but this is te type of thing that takes years to even notice improvement and then a few more to see tangible results. Our winning teams dating back to 2004 were largely made up of SP'ers and closers acquired by trade or free agency. Nothing has come close to the years of Clemens, Hurst and Tudor. The Lester, Buchholz and Masterson stretch seems like an outlier. Not much has changed, in this area. I will say that, as bad as our farm looks, right now, for pitching, we do have a nicer core of young pitchers on the MLB staff that are homegrown or who came to the system as prospects. It might be the best core in a decade or more. 24 Bello, Mata 25 Winckowski, Murphy 26 Slaten 27 Crawford, Houck, Whitlock, Walter 28 Kelly Plus some added as non prospects: 24 Max Castillo 26 I Campbell, 28 Schreiber, Weissert 30 Pivetta We've had better pitchers than the 5 I highlighted, but when was the last time we had 5 that were all as good as these 5? Now, 5 is not nearly enough, but it is better than we had before

The "full throttle" statement was the dagger in the heart, and it might be the pinnacle of all sham statements made in the last 4-5 years. To me, for this ownership group to get back some of the trust of the fanbase, they need to have a deep dive huddle and come to a consensus on what the plan is and then aligning the messaging with that plan, whether they think the fans will approve or not. The gigi is up on these guys. They simply cannot keep believing the fans are buying their BS. It has to start here.

I can see both sides to this issue and kind of agree with both. I was a big Brewers fan starting their first year in Milwaukee, where my family and I lived. I became a huge Tommy Harper fan, and when he was traded to Boston, not long after my family and I moved to Maine, I switched to being a Red Sox fan. Players and stars do matter. To me, they matter a bit more when your team is losing (as in not winning rings.) It hurt like hell, when the Sox dismantled that team of the mid to late 70's. Not winning as many games, seemed to hurt less. I remember, on that "other site," a guy named softlaw was irate over the dismantling of the 2004 championship team and called for Theo's firing. He berated the rest of us as being "Theo apologists" and the whole pink glasses thing. While many fans did not like seeing Sox stars go elsewhere, the new rings sure quieted them. The 2013 ring season is the epic example of a team, nearly completely overhauled from previous seasons, yet we hardly heard a peep from those of us who "love stars" and long term players with one team. When teams lose, it comes out. Many other issues come out, as well, like not spending. Funny how that 2013 had just dumped a massive amount of contract costs on LAD and spent about $20M less than 2012. Who complained? It mostly comes out, when we lose. I loved watching that 2013 season by Vic, Napoli and other non stars. As much as the idea of boycotting the Sox in 2024 has appeal, I'm going to watch every Sox game, again- just like I have for decades. I'm going to root for every player. I'm going to get excited and optimistic about some of our younger and improving players. I'm going to be pissed, when we lose, and that should be more often than I had hoped for, after last season. While I know nothing is for certain about prospects, I like what I see. I wish we had more young pitchers on the farm, but I do think the core or pitchers on the big club that started in the Sox system or came to us as prospects i as good as its been, in a long time. I know that is not saying much, but I think we have a decent core of younger pitchers, but still have several gaping holes in our rotation. This team is pretty young. We have several promising young and pre-prime players, as well as nationally ranked top prospects. We can choose to be optimistic about that or not. We can choose to point out the long range hole in the pitching area. I won't argue there isn't one. We can argue other teams have more young stars plus prospects than we do, but I truly believe we have more than we did a few years back, and that is a sign of moving the team in the right direction, despite JH seemingly sabotaging the teams of today. I'm not forgiving him for this, or turning the other way. It sucks what he's doing. I can feel optimistic about the extended future while being disgusted by the here and now, without being hypocritical- I think.

They should just go total sell off, at this point. It's all out in the open. No need to hide, anymore, turtles. No need for the sham, anymore.

That's all factored in. (Yes, I should have added the words "modern day" or "metrics.")

MLBTR mentions Bloom... As Jones notes, the comments from Mozeliak serve to highlight the club’s recent hiring of former Red Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom in an advisory role. While the hire was only announced earlier this week, Mozeliak indicated today that Bloom has been advising the several months and that the club’s acquisitions this offseason have been “bounce(d) off” the club’s new hire. Mozeliak went as far as to note that Bloom has factored into discussions with chairman Bill DeWitt III regarding the future of the baseball operations department following Mozeliak’s eventual move away from leading the club, though he went on to note GM Mike Girsch and scouting director Randy Flores as other potential candidates.

A team doing much better than the Dodgers, and who went with a Rays guy for a while is the Astros. 7 straight playoff seasons (8 of 9) 7 straight ALCS appearances (3 wins) 2 WS rings in 7 years They have let the following players go- many via free agency: Correa Springer Verlander Cole Morton Greinke Keuchel Word around here is they may not keep 2 or 3 from Bregman, Tucker and Framber Valdez.

The 3 holes is widely viewed as the 4th, 5th or 6th best slot to put one of your best hitters.

I'm not trying to downplay the lack of young pitchers on the horizon. It sucks. I did not mean to imply you think the farm is not improved. To me, we should be using the improved farm to trade for better SP'ers, until we find a way to improve our homegrown pitching production. It's what we've done since even before Theo (Pedro under Dan D.) DD proved the farm has more value than just providing talent. (Sale, Kimbrell, Pomeranz)

With dollars so precious to JH, signing Soler is a nonstarter, to me. Even if we trade Duran, I'd spend on Clevinger or even Paxton, instead. Yoshida can play some LF, as they rotate out the DH slot, some. Refsnyder can play LF vs LHPs. O'Neill or Abreu can play LF, when the other is in RF.

I think the value of Bleis will increase, this year, so I don't like the idea of trading at lowest stock price value, but I'd probably do it. I think Luzardo is better than Garrett, and BTV agrees, but I like Garrett's 5 years over Luzardo's 3 years. I love to find a way to trade Duran and Yorke (3 teams) for one of these two. I'd add Wikelman or Perales, if needed to get tem to take Yorke over Bleis.

I'm not a big Duran fan. I've suggested dozens of Duran trades on BTV. I've said I think BTV over values him. I still think he's worth more than a pitcher who walks 6 guys every 9 IP. I agree on LF only, and we already have 3-4 guys who look best in LF or DH.

Yes, Mookie not Sale. My bad. My point was the moment of change as right after 2018, not after 2019. The near trade of Mookie in 2019 is evidence the change had already started. It's my opinion that was one of the bones of contention thought to have occurred between DD and the Sox FO. I can only imagine how DD would have acted, had he stayed on for 2020 under the same circumstances forced on Bloom.

DD deserves all the praise he gets. He made a lot of great signings and trades. That 3 year stretch was amazing. He did sacrifice some of the future, but it was worth every bit, and as it turned out, he mainly kept the best prospects and traded the duds.

I'd prefer we let Soler sign elsewhere and trade Mayer and secondaries for Luzardo or Garrett. Give them the SS they need. Roll the dice with Story and Grissom as our MI'ers for the next 4 years and hope the pitcher we get stays healthy and flourishes. (I'm not against trading Duran, but I do see the chance he can become very special.)

Similar to what/who? Duran? I'm not saying ECab won't work out, but why do seem so confident, he will? (Or, are you just so low on Duran?)

DD nearly traded Sale at the 2019 deadline. He was not allowed to bring back Kelly and Kimbrell, unless you think he chose not to. The embarking began before DD's last year, here.

Yes, and I am offering more for Garrett or Luzardo than I would for ECab. I think Duran for ECab is an overpay. If they threw in Berti, I'd still probably say no.

The Marlins churn out SP'ers like nobody else. They traded Pablo Lopez, recently under the same circumstances as now. It has been reported they will listen to offers for Garrett or Luzardo. They await the return of Alcantara, maybe the best of the whole group. If ECab is as good as you seem to think he is, replacing Garrett or Luzardo with him, while adding Duran and Kim to their line-up looks like a decent idea. They also have one of the best young SP'ers in MLB- Eury Perez. BTV AFV (yrs of conrol) 115 E Perez 6 103 Garrett 5 91 Luzardo 3 57 Alcantara 4 39 Cabrera 5 33 T Rogers 3 I doubt any MLB team has 6 MLB pitchers with an AFV of over 33. (LAD come close.) The Sox 90 Bello 5 43 Crawford 5 39 Giolito 2 16 Pivetta 1 14 Walter 6 ATL 266 Strider 6 41 Elder 5 37 Fried 1 37 Sale 2 33 Smith-Shawver 6 12 Morton 1 LAD 526 Ohtani 10 (has DH value included) 159 Glasnow 5 132 B Miller 6 60 K Hurt 6 59 E Sheehan 6 31 G Stone 6 16 Gonsolin 3

Post of the day.