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The goal posts are moving. First of all, a lot of these guys were the result of going cheap. Second, a much bigger number of them are not working out. I mean, Taijuan Walker has been worth 1 bWAR over 2 years in Philly. Carlos Rodon has been worth a total of 1.1 bWAR to NY. Did Boston really cheap out and miss these guys, just because they make less money? Do we need pitchers averaging less bWAR per season than Cooper Criswell? The Sox haven’t gone crazy buying an “ace.” But they did land Crochet and already had Houck. I am not wild about Buehler, but they did land rest of this staff is looking better. And it’s only Christmas. Oh, and Merry Christmas!

Whatever your theory, for the first 54 games of the season, Fox got nearly if not all the save chances. Whether or not they decided to go with him all year is moot. After 54 games, they acquired Byung-Hyun Kim. The bottom line is there was never a committee. A committee by definition is “a GROUP of people appointed to a specific function.” And the definition of a group, per Merriam-Webster, is “(n) Chad Fox”.

I’m not wild about Bregman, but he’s a better option than Arenado, whose last two seasons have shown OPS+ of 108 and 101. Bregman will cost a lot and decline the last few years. But getting the shorter Arenado contract is like deciding “ok let’s skip the early, productive years and jump right to the last few when he’s expensive and mediocre.” Id’d just assume hand 3b to Vaughn Grissom. Or just leave Devers and get elite production on one side only. Now if STL takes Yoshida in this deal for some reason, that’s different.

I’m not wild about him either. And it doesn’t help that he sucked last year. But as long as they have the depth…

The counter argument is how good is it going expensive? Especially on starting pitching? Price and Sale cost the Sox about $305, if you only look at Sale’s extension and remove COVID money plus money paid by LA and Atlanta. And for that $305mill, the Sox received a grand total of 12.3 bWAR. For 8 seasons of pitching, they got roughly twice what Sale gave Atlanta last year. Nate Eovaldi signed a 4 year $68mill contract, which became a 3.4 year $57mill deal. Eovaldi gave Boston 7 bWAR in 3.4 seasons, making him, by averaging just over 2 bWAR per year, the best starting pitcher free agent in team history The Sox dont have many long term free agent pitcher contracts in their history. Since Duquette extended Pedro, they’re sparse. After Price and Sale, the only other one that leaps to mind is John Lackey. Now as Lackey had a great postseason in 2013, he’s remembered as a success, and not as a pitcher who was mediocre his first year, horrible in his second, and didn’t even pitch in his third. Lackey was worth a total of 3.9 bWAR for his 4 and a half seasons in Boston, all for the (definitely not at the time) low, low price of roughly $80million (And Lackey was also the subject of an urban legend regarding threatening to retire instead of playing his contractually obligated minimum wage year; he did earn minimum wage in St. Louis in 2015.) Not so sure spending heavy on Fried/Burnes/whoever does anything more than keeping fans from calling the FO cheap…

The “closer by committee” is right up there with beer and chicken along side “bridge year” as the most ridiculous controversies in recent years. The committee was Chad Fox. And no one else. Just Fox. But as Fox was an inconsistent pitcher capable of highs and lows, if the Sox said “Chad Fox is our closer,” many would have thought “but he sucks!! He’s wildly inconsistent!!” And they’d have been right. But since the Sox called it “closer by committee”, it then impugned an entire strategy that can actually work pretty well, and everyone ignored that the committee was just Chad Fox…

You did leave out the extremely unoriginal Death Valley image…

Because Refsnyder is worse at outfield defense than Stephen Hawking is at ballet. And just because Anthony isn’t starting in April doesn’t mean he is off out of the picture. Platoon Yoshida at Ref at DH Platoon Abreu and Grichuk in RF. Until Anthony comes up at some point. And yes, get a catcher !! (The Sox could trade Abreu for a catcher and solve this logjam as well.) There is some merit to keeping Crawford in the rotation and moving Bello to the bullpen into a high leverage role. But don’t post about out or else the guy who came up with it will let it go to his head…

If the Sox signed Grichuk to platoon in RF with Abreu, that would make sense. Grichuk crushed LHP last year and is a capable OF who’s played all 3 positions (and isn’t a defensive wasteland like Refsnyder). Ramon Laureano also makes sense as a RF weak side platoon/4th outfielder. Neither should be a full time starter in Boston. But platooning with Abreu, who cannot hit LHP? They fill a NEED…

Or he could replace Buehler should he go down before Sandoval is fully healed…

.852 OPS on the road last year, as opposed to his .632 at home. So, yes. Not surprising splits for a lefty pull hitter in that ballpark in SF, with its deep Death Valley in RF.

They had to replace Buehler with Snell. Otherwise that rotation would have lead MLB in sutures…

No catcher?

No one will remove them. You will learn to live with your shame…

The Sox bullpen last year relied on Jansen, Martin, Slaten, Weissert, Bernardino, Kelly, Winckowski and at one point, Chase Anderson. This year they have Hendriks, Slaten, Chapman, Whitlock, Wilson, Adams, Guerrero and maybe Fulmer. It might be better. It might be worse. It’s definitely been overhauled…

And a RP that has never pitched for the Sox before but has had a season as high of 3.2 fWAR…

Not the worst idea. Although I still have faith in him as a starter…

A lot of people might not realize it, but Rickey’s baseball career ended only 19 years ago. He retired from MLB after the 2003 season, but played 2 more years of independent league ball, in which he stole 53 bases and was only caught 4 times. He was ages 45 and 46 for those seasons…

And Abreu, the Unloved Gold Glover. That they’re talking to Grichuk could mean Abreu is still the opening day RF…

That means he’s either got garlic in his soul or termites in his smile. Either way it leads to having all the tender sweetness of a seasick crocodile…

It seems odd to replace our most durable pitcher with one of the least durable ones in all of MLB. But the reality is this team is already better than the one that finished 5 games out of the postseason last year…

His metrics have him roughly average, but he’s only logged 548 innings at 3b over 4 seasons. I think Devers is the 3b next season, much to the chagrin of the pitching staff. That so many in the org want Bregman for 2b just re-enforces my belief that Cora cares very little about defense…

Given now that the rotation has Crochet, Houck, Bello, Buehler, Giolito, and Crawford, maybe one of them is the new RP. Or trade bait for a catcher or 3b..

If we’re going internal, go with Romy. Which, if he can maintain last year’s exit velocity, might not be a bad thing. Although I’m fairly certain he had a disproportionate number of plate appearances against LHP. Grissom might work, too…

The Sox can get Bregman for 3 years. Just let him sign elsewhere and then trade for him in four years. Or they could just trade for Arenado now…