Nick

I tend to be optimistic. We'll find out shortly what JH's plan is going forward. If they come out and say that our starting pitching is fine with the following; Giolito Bello Houck Kutter Fitts Well you know then we'll be treading water for foreseeable future.

I simply do not want to say "we need pitching" the entire season in 2025. LOL

funny

Not everyone can play 162 games. As athletic as Story is, his approach is 'violent' defensively, he goes after it on every play and I doubt he can sustain that for 162 games. He needs rest. I agree with you on Casas. Not a great athlete but he plays within his physical limits, thus he can play 162 games, especially at 1B. I think that position requires more 'mental' than 'physical'. Just to follow up on your thread, Brez was quoted in a recent article that because we have cheap controlled players in our organization, maybe it's time to go after premium FA (I am paraphrasing). C Wongs 4 (starting in 2025) 1B Casas 4 (feels like he'll test FA) 2B Grissom 5 (just picking him out) SS Story (3 + option year) 3B Devers (9 years) LF Duran (4 years) CF Rafaela (7 years) RF Abreu (5 years) DH Yoshida (3 years) Throw in guys like Hamilton (5), Valdez (5), Gonzalez (4) along with our fabulous 4 (all with potential 6+partial depending on call up date), we do indeed have plethora of controllable position players. On the pitching side you'd have to start with Bello (5+option), Kutter (4), Tanner (3) and Whitlock (2 plus 2 option years). You might as well throw in Fitts (6 yrs). The bullpen is in shambles. Not sure if anyone has established themselves. Too me, it's a complete rebuild even though some will be retained. I AM NOT SURE WHAT WE ARE WAITING FOR. IT'S TIME PUT THE CHIPS IN THE MIDDLE. THE PITCHING WILL NOT COME FROM THE ORGANIZATION.

I did not imply Story was a dime a dozen defensive shortstop. My point was he did not deliver the offensive numbers that one would expect from a $20M+ player. We would have been better off to get a defensive shortstop and a starting pitcher than Story.

Exactly. Contracts overlapped one year to assure that we had a replacement already in place. But again we failed because not only the injury but Story's lack of plate discipline compared to Xander's excellent strike zone control. And his contract was no chump change. If we just wanted a defensive shortstop, those are dime a dozen. Again the issue with Sox organization is allocation of money. We don't spend the money wisely. I'm pretty sure someone is pointing that out to JH. Story and Yoshida money could have gone to someone else.

Isn't QO up to $20M? Who in the hell would give an injury prone player that much money? He's not that good. At most half as much and even at that Sox won't go for it.

Why is that when top OPS #'s are presented our players seem to score high. Are we that bad defensively?

I'm more in the line of "you're dead to me". That's I feel about all the injured players. Giolito? Who really knows when he returns. Guys not on the roster when the season opens in 2025 are meaningless. Quit feeding us the BS.

I have always said that...

I like to see Campbell at 2B. I believe there's enough at bats for our top 4 prospects. Sure would like to keep Hamilton just for his speed. I'm okay with a full time DH but I believe he has to be able to play in the field from time to time. Yoshida is such a liability in LF and is so limited athletically along with lacking raw power, he is only ideal to be a DH because he can't play anywhere else.

Hey Moon can you start a new thread just for discussing the playoff situation? The schedule, the contenders. Looks like there are 5 teams vying for 2 spots or 4 teams for 1. Thanks.

I may want to see our young players (and Devers) rotate in DH positions. Can we eat $10M of Yoshida and trade him for someone useful?

I wonder what warning labels will show up in the left corner for the Netflex series? Defensive Horror Low budget owners Untimely offense Explosions in bullpen

Moon, you need 172 days on MLB roster to earn 1 year of service time. Majority of teams open on March 27th and end on September 28th. That is total of 186 days. According to my math, rookies can debut on April 11th and will be denied one year of service time. (they will end up with 171 days, too bad!) In essence, we can have team control on our fabulous 4 for 7 years if we wait until April 11th call up. Of course they will be eligible for 4 years of arbitration instead of 3. That to me is not a big deal. It's just few more millions.

thank you.....yep I can't get to the previous or any pages on my phone but on my desk top I see all the pages. Technology is hard on dumb old guys.

How do I get to previous page? I can get to the first and last page but I don't see going to a specific pahe.

Moon I don't see Giolito in your budget. Surely he will exercise his player option. We paid the guy $35M for 1 year, assuming he is ready to go on 4/1.

Cora definitely sees Story as a fixture in short. That means Rafaela can play centerfield where he has crazy runs saved metrics. Injury just plays a big part in a successful season anymore. I don't remember season ending injuries as frequent back in the 70's.

According to Cot's, Sox are $106M under the salary cap for 2025. Baked in to that number are following players. Pitchers, Giolito, Bello, Whitlock and Liam Position players, Devers (3B), Story (SS), Rafaela (CF), Yoshida (DH). You have 3 Arbitration 1 players in following; Houck (1/3), Kutter (1/4) and Duran (1/4). I'm going to guess their combined salary will be less than $20M. Thus we're now down to $86M in spendable money relative to the cap, assuming that is our budget. We also have following pre-arbitration players that will cost less than $1M. Wong (C), Casas (1B), D Ham (2B) or equivalent, and Abreu (RF) for say $4M. We now have all the positions covered (will add 4 utility players). Our starting rotation (covered by payroll) has Bello, Kutter, Giolito and Whitlock. By my count, assuming all the extras, 4 positional and 9 pitchers will have a starting cost of $13M. Thus we are left with $69M to upgrade our 'existent' 26 man roster. Surely that's enough money to acquire 4 quality pitchers. And that's without making any trades. Come on JH. Open your wallet.

Only way we can trade Yoshida and get something in return is to eat $13M of $18M contract.

4 in top 26 is pretty damn amazing. Help is on the way!!! lol

Baseball America updated its Top 100 list Tuesday and it has Red Sox center field prospect Roman Anthony ranked No. 2 overall. Boston landed six players on the list. Shortstop Marcelo Mayer is ranked 11th. Center fielder/shortstop Kristian Campbell is ranked No. 25 and catcher Kyle Teel is No. 26. Outfielder Braden Montgomery, Boston’s 2024 first round pick, is ranked No. 61. Shortstop Franklin Arias is No. 94. Good news. Unfortunately no pitcher.

Moon I don't see Giolito in your budget. Surely he will exercise his player option. We paid the guy $35M for 1 year, assuming he is ready to go on 4/1. Good start Brez.

This was the year of discovery. Sox has several decisions to make regarding positional players including the big 4 in AAA. Or they may just sit on their hands and do nothing. I am not getting too excited about this winter. Their moves have been underwhelming.