harmony

Perhaps Jenrry Mejia will replace Steven Wright on the 40-man roster. Seriously.

I don't think Steven Wright's $1.38 million contract is guaranteed yet: http://m.mlb.com/glossary/transactions/non-guaranteed-contract

I don't think Steven Wright's $1.38 million contract is guaranteed yet: http://m.mlb.com/glossary/transactions/non-guaranteed-contract

FanGraphs columnist Jay Jaffe discusses Craig Kimbrel and the Red Sox: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/the-separate-paths-of-craig-kimbrel-and-the-red-sox/

Monday's mail delivered my tickets to the Sunday afternoon game between the Red Sox and the Seattle Mariners on March 31. The Sox should have four regular-season games under their belts by the end of the month.

Over the past four years Xander Bogaerts has posted fWAR of 4.6, 4.8, 3.2 and 4.9 with Steamer and ZiPS projecting 2019 WAR of 4.1: https://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=12161&position=SS

Over the past three seasons Xander Bogaerts has posted 12.8 fWAR in 441 games while shortstop Jean Segura has posted 11.8 fWAR in 422 games over the same period. Segura signed a five-year, $70 million extension that started with his final arbitration season in 2018. In his first season in 2020 as a likely free agent Bogaerts will be only six months younger than Segura was when the latter started his extension. Bogaerts will be a free agent with no final arbitration season to buy out, but nine years and $216 million seems a bit high for Bogaerts. Or not.

Houston and Minneapolis have contrasting summer weather.

The Cincinnati Reds signed Jose Iglesias:

I remember standing outside Fenway Park in high humidity and near-100 degree weather in July 1973 as a 17-year-old hitchhiker who had grown up with the muggy summers of the Mississippi Valley. I remember driving with friends through a torrential rain in Rhode Island en route to a Red Sox game at Fenway in August 2010. The usher in the bleacher section at Fenway left a positive impression by toweling off our seats.

Off topic, but from Monday's MLB Trade Rumors chat with Tim Dierkes: https://www.jotcast.com/chat/live-chat-with-tim-dierkes-4747.html Would the Red Sox go there?

I prefer the drier summer weather on the West Coast to the muggy, rainier summer weather in New England.

I suspect the South and West produce more MLB players per capita than New England.

The Pacific Northwest is football (soccer) country.

We probably all know that person who lives paycheck to paycheck, never saving a dime and never planning for the future. I used that analogy back in 2013 when the Houston Astros were losing 111 games a season-ending payroll of only $29.3 million. The Astros could have spent all of their revenue-sharing money and still not come close to being competitive. Instead Houston patiently let its young players develop before investing in higher-paid veterans. The 2017 Astros won the World Series with a payroll of $140.5 million and ended the 2018 season ranked seventh among all clubs with a payroll of $187.4 million. https://legacy.baseballprospectus.com/compensation/cots/al-west/houston-astros/ In short, the Astros saved their money until it was prudent to spend. Houston benefited from some high draft picks but endured the disappointments of No. 1 overall picks Mark Appel and Brady Aiken. The Astros have reaped the rewards of No. 1 pick Carlos Correa, No. 2 pick Alex Bregman, No. 11 pick George Springer and No. 41 pick Lance McCullers Jr. https://www.baseball-reference.com/draft/?team_ID=HOU&draft_round=1&draft_type=junreg&query_type=franch_round

Going into Sunday's game Michael Chavis had faced Spring Training pitchers who on the average played just below Double A last year: https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=chavis000mic See OppQual score of 6.4 in 2019 Spring Training stats. On Sunday Chavis faced pitchers who have 24.2 and 46 innings of MLB experience, stroking his fourth home run of the spring. As points of reference, entering Sunday's games Mookie Betts and J.D. Martinez had OppQual ratings of 8.4, or just above Triple A on the average.

Jenrry Mejia will lead the Red Sox in saves this year. Or not.😋

For the record: In the past decade the Red Sox have as many last-place finishes as the Houston Astros.

What teams consistently put "poor quality on the field"? The last winning season and last postseason appearance by each team: Atlanta 2018, 2018 Arizona 2018, 2017 Baltimore 2016, 2016 Boston 2018, 2018 Chicago Cubs 2018, 2018 Chicago White Sox 2012, 2008 Cincinnati 2013, 2013 Cleveland 2018, 2018 Colorado 2018, 2018 Detroit 2016, 2014 Houston 2018, 2018 Kansas City 2015, 2015 Los Angeles Angels 2015, 2014 Los Angeles Dodgers 2018, 2018 Miami 2009, 2003 Milwaukee 2018, 2018 Minnesota 2017, 2017 New York Mets 2016, 2016 New York Yankees 2018, 2018 Oakland 2018, 2018 Philadelphia 2011, 2011 Pittsburgh 2018, 2015 Saint Louis 2018, 2015 San Diego 2010, 2006 San Francisco 2016, 2016 Seattle 2018, 2001 Tampa Bay 2018, 2013 Texas 2016, 2016 Toronto 2016, 2016 Washington 2018, 2017 Most laggards have shown the willingness to spend money.

One FanGraphs measure has the Red Sox fourth in projected WAR: https://www.fangraphs.com/depthcharts.aspx?position=ALL&teamid=3 A year ago the defending World Series champion Houston Astros were the apparent favorites to repeat ... by a significant margin: https://www.fangraphs.com/standings/playoff-odds?date=2018-03-28&dateDelta=

I suspect the Starting Five is an outdated concept. Teams will use their pitching staffs in more creative ways.

It could be worse. The Seattle Mariners jettisoned the top five fWAR producers from last season's bullpen, including the All World Edwin Diaz: https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=all&stats=rel&lg=all&qual=0&type=8&season=2018&month=0&season1=2018&ind=0&team=11&rost=0&age=0&filter=&players=0&sort=18,d The Seattle bullpen ranked fifth in the league in fWAR last year but is projected to finish 14th this year, three slots behind the Red Sox at No. 11: https://www.fangraphs.com/depthcharts.aspx?position=RP

Each individual deals with each death differently. When my sister died unexpectedly I figured she would want me to keep working. Two weeks later I took a long weekend to fly back to speak at her memorial service. Her husband and in-laws, who lived locally, took care of arrangements. I was a professor on a research semester with no classes when my father fell ill and died a few months later. I did not get much research done that semester and may have confused my unhappiness about my father's declining health with unhappiness about my job. I interviewed for another job one week after my father's funeral and decided to leave when I probably was not in a good state to make that decision. Thirty years later I am blessed to be where I am but I'll always have second thoughts about that move from a bucolic town in the nation's least populous state to the largest metropolis in the nation's most populous state. My current employer was gracious when my mother was in failing health 15-20 years ago. My oldest sister was my mother's primary caregiver but I would travel halfway across the country three or four times a year to help out. I was with her in the final days of her life but stayed for only two days after her funeral before returning to work. I'm not ashamed to say I had a great time at the funerals of my sister, father and mother. I enjoyed sharing stories with people I had not seen for years. I hope family and friends celebrate my life when I die. Did I share too much information?

The current SoxProspect write-up of Michael Chavis includes much information that had been reported earlier: http://soxprospects.com/players/chavis-michael.htm Not right or wrong but merely curious. Regarding the "Consensus top 100 prospect entering 2018 season" reference, Chavis was ranked among the Top 100 prospects by Baseball America, MLB.com and Keith Law but not by Baseball Prospectus and John Sickels at Minor League Ball.

How about righthander Kyle Zimmer, the fifth player taken in the 2012 draft and a four-time Baseball America Top 100 prospect? https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=zimmer000kyl Zimmer has yet to make his MLB debut.