Nick

I agree somewhat but I was all in for Schwarber. I really didn't see the downside.

Signing Corbin Burnes would go long way in getting the Sox Nation excited. Anyone hear me? Bueller? Bueller? Bueller?

So the Orioles are again two and out despite leading AL East at some point. I still say we made a horrible mistake letting Schwarber go despite having to carry him and JD Martinez for another year. That would have stopped us from signing Yoshida. Ugh We simply have not made good choices. It's not always about money. It's about how and where we spend the money we have.

Is there any point in giving Grissom at bats when Campbell clearly has more athleticism and power bat already? I would start Anthony and Campbell out of spring training. Play the high ceiling guys and let the chips fall.

OF: Jhostynxon Garcia, Red Sox (No. 12) A/A+/AA: .286/.356/.536, 107 G, 23 HR, 66 RBI, 78 R, 33 BB, 99 K, 17 SB, 151 wRC+ Like Campbell, Garcia began the season unranked on our Red Sox Top 30 and finished it as one of the most productive hitters in the Minors. He hit balls harder than ever and did a better job of launching them in the air in 2024, setting career highs in almost every category and pacing Boston farmhands with 23 homers -- more than double the 11 he totaled in his first three years as a pro. This kid made the All-MiLB Prospect 1st Team along with Campbell and Anthony.

Projected Opening Day Payroll 2024 $175M (cash basis, no benefits) Projected Opening Day Payroll 2025 $106M (cash basis, no benefits, no arb and non arb players) Let's say JH tells Bres I want the Opening Payroll to be the same. That means we have close to $70M to spend. Duran, Tanner and Kutter will cost around $12M more in 2025. I will guess $8M for remaining minimum wage guys. That leaves us with $50M to 'upgrade' the team. Starting Pitching, 2-5 should be set with Houck, Giolito, Kutter, Bello, Fits and Cooper. We need #1. Question. Can we secure someone like Corbin Burnes for $30M and still have money left over to improve the pen and get a quality right handed bat? We start the pen with Liam Hendricks, Whitlock, Fits, Cooper and other pre arbitration guys. If we can't have it all, will adding Burnes and the return of Giolito along with Liam and Whitlock get us going in the right direction with the playoffs the goal? We'll have full year of Story, Casas and Grissom in addition to possible addition of our fab 4. T

Great point.....4 year window for the management to surround more good players to 'go for it'. No point in extending every player 10 years, a la Devers.

PASS...BIG TIME PASS...GO WITH WHAT YOU KNOW. ANOTHER RISKY CONTRACT, UGH WE STILL HAVE STORY AND YOSHIDA ON THE BOOKS FOR 3 MORE YEARS.

Obviously location and movement factors in. Supposedly, Guerrero's 4 seamer tend to rise into right handed batters. He wants to throw it up high in the strike zone.

MassLive had an article on Luis Guerrero who spent last 24 days with the Sox. His 4 seam fastball averaged 97.5 mph, placing him in top 94th percentile. The club was 25th in average fastballs in 2023 and made it priority to improve in this area for 2024. But their ranking only improved to 20th this year. The article states Luis has chance to open with the Sox in 2025. What other bullpen arms do we have with elite fastballs?

I always think of luxury tax payroll. I believe the Management always deal in cash outlay payroll. Bello's high salary per luxury tax is not part of 2025 payroll. His cash payroll is.

Great starting point for discussion, Moon. Brez has the same information that we have as of now. When will he meet JH?

Moon, it's time for the Realistic View 2025, Part I Start with what we have, our probable 26 man roster, maybe our 40 man roster. Thanks

I thought 2024 was the "Year of Discovery". We found out that Duran is a real deal. Rafaela defensively alone can make him a legit center field in the majors. Abreu becomes a 'great get' for Valdez rental. Hamilton with his speed alone has a place on the roster as a utility guy. Wong will be serviceable 1 or 2 behind the plate. Also Houck, Kutter and Bello can be a legit 2, 4 and 5 guys in the starting rotation. My issue is couple of things. Introducing Mayer, Anthony, Teel and Campbell in 2025 will extend the "year of discovery". They look to be major league ready but we will not know until we see them on the field. With that, I'm not sure trading away Abreu is a good move. Oh I have no issues with getting rid of Yoshida. He does not fit in. We don't need a .280 guy who can't play the field and has no real power. The issue is other 29 teams also know it. At best we can get rid of few million dollars off of our payroll but I would not count much of a return in player(s) unless we eat all of his contract. He will become addition by subtraction. He needed to go yesterday. Another 5 year, $90M deal that John Henry can wrap around his middle finger to the fan base.

IP and fwar tie w Yankees stand out to me. Obviously our bullpen imploded. Any #"s there Moon?

I hate to think the'd lie to us but maybe that is the plan.

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.