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I won’t say Atlanta plays in a weak division. I would also say this format favors teams from weak divisions, as they had 76 games against weak opponents to bulk their record. Cleveland and St. Louis just didn’t capitalize on that opportunity…

3 years $30mill. Not one penny nor one second less. Just putting my agent hat on…

So… two healthy years? He’s still going to get older and a significant chunk of the 10 year $350mill contract there the Yankees eventually sign him to might wind up being a bit of an albatross. He stands a chance to be a far greater albatross if Boston were to sign him, however…

I would imagine he’s lost some up on his fastball in the 50 years since he died…

Not like GMs or executives make player money. Those guys get fired mid-contract all the time…

True. Lefty probably would have settled for a $7,500 salary and a bucket of whiskey. Although I’m not so sure he can physically sign anything these days…

The Marlins will probably just try to move Lopez, s as he has the least control left. As other team that might have a pitching firesale is Milwaukee. Burnes, Woodruff, Houser, Lauer and Lindblom are all arbitration-eligible. They’d probably like to hold on to Burnes and/or Woodruff, but the others will very likely be available. They can keep Lindblom…

So is Lefty Grove. Should we sign him, too?

Yeah that’s not what he said. And you don’t do a good job refuting it by turning into the very fan you think he’s calling out…

Also true. The way I see it, if you win a title the way DD did, with big contracts and removing lots of farm, you’re simply going to have to pay the piper with some down years, like the Sox are doing now. That’s why I hate seeing the Sox go big on free agency. The titles aren’t guaranteed, but free agents adding and declining is…

He’s only 20 or so and would normally be a sophomore in college, but a lot of people gave up on him kinda fast…

4-7 years is a pretty crazy range to broadcast considering players who will be 23 seven years from now are just learning to drive. Casas and Bello can hopefully contribute next year. Rafaela, Mata and Ward are not far behind. Wong and Valdez on the bench. That’s a decent amount of r rookies for one season. The following year, maybe Mayer and Abreu or whoever. It’s only going a few per year, assuming they’re not traded…

He definitely did, but not by trading starts just by sending away any minimum wage talent that would have made it possible to retain a lot of the more expensive players, something that probably gets overlooked, because it leaves the team in a position to spend to fill more holes than necessary. And it creates a situation where the team has very little support for when the highly paid players start to age and decline. Not to mention the players he added to the farm haven’t provided much outside of Houck, although Casas and Bello both certainly look promising so far…

Not to mention his normal habit of missing substantial time with injuries. He’s not likely to have fewer in his 30s…

Yes .. hardly a rarity. The Sox have had one season turnarounds in 3 of their last 4 previous last place finishes. No reason to think they can’t do it again…

In the last 5 years, Verlander has made 3 postseason starts against the Sox and 1 relief appearance. In those games he was the pitcher of record all 4 times with a 3-1 record and 3.92 ERA. His best postseason outing against Boston was back in 2013 when he was outdueled by John Lackey in a 1-0 Sox win decided by a solo home run off the bat of current Cubs first baseman coach Mike Napoli…

2013? 2016? 2021? Three of the previous 4 last place finishes for the Sox have been followed up by a postseason appearance. One of those was a World Series title…

Exactly. In MLB, the worst teams win about 40% of their games and the best teams win about 60% of them. A major turnaround in one season is nearly a rarity…

So … any of the Miami guys not named Sixto?

As for pitching: Sign Wacha, Fulmer and Montero. I do think the Sox will still need another SP, however. Paxton is certainly an option. If the Padres do make Snell available, go for it. Or one of the Miami starters like Lopez, Rogers, Luzardo, Cabrera, Garrett, or Sanchez…

If the Sox go against my advice and keep Hosmer in the DH mix from the left side, Dalbec is certainly a viable RHH option. But a much better choice is Miami’s Garrett Cooper. A moderately down season combined with an expected arbitration raise certainly makes him available. If Bogaerts doesn’t come back, which I suspect, I like the idea of targeting Ha-Seong Kim from San Diego. If Tatis returns, he moves to the bench and should also become available, since teams looking to extend Juan Soto printable cannot afford $7mill utility infielders. I do hope Bloom avoids Miami’s Miguel Rojas as a starting shortstop option. I mention him because, much like Reese McGuire and Jacob Stallings before him, the defensive metrics this past year for Rojas are just flat out spectacular. Like Andreltin Simmons good. However his offending numbers are just a as equally unimpressive, and he’s like 34 years old, so he’s much more likely to lose a step defensively than he is to have any sort of offensive epiphany. Haniger is the brew Rocco Baldelli. The guy can pull a quad while brushing his teeth…

You’re coming up with your own definitions here. The Sox did promote the marquee talent prior to DD being hired, but he dealt away all the fringe talent that the team still needs because of their minimum wage…

It’s not that none of them have planned out. Margot, Moncada, Espinal, and Beeks are all major leaguers with multiple seasons each. The bar was recently raised to “none of them are stars”…

I’d take Seabold over Downs. But solely because he’s a pitcher…

I was just mentioning farmhand from that time frame…