Nick

At this point we need to stretch out Whitlock and Houck. I'll believe it when the contract is signed or a trade is completed. Until then 1 Bello 2 Sale 3 Pivetta 4 Kutter 5 Houck 6 Whitlock Wake me up when something happens....

We agree on many things. Some posters are near sighted. We will have close to $140M to spend for 2025 assuming all FA for the Sox after next season (ie Martin, etc)are gone and Sox does not pick up Sale' s option. Why not blow past the tax limit for 2024? Go spend $140M. We can reset after 2024. It can be done.

Not sure it's been dicussed. Cora when asked about Sox outfield going forward he mentioned Duran, Abreu and Rafaela. Duran will get a long leash from Cora. He loves Duran' s speed. Cora said Abreu has strong arm to go with his offense. He also thinks Rafaela's defense will balance out his offense at the start but says he needs a look.

I try to watch every game Bello starts. That's what gets me excited. Wong Casas Devers Duran Rafaela Abreu Bello Houck Whitlock And I'm perfectly okay players above getting 'replaced' by better talent. Go get 2 top of the line starters..... I will judge the new 'regime' by one thing. Produce in-house starters. Trade top young positional players for top young starting pitchers.

Is he any good? per overthemonster "It’s hard to say for sure, owing to the fact that he doesn’t have much of a track record yet, but he looks promising. Campbell has pitched just 28.2 Major League innings in his career, having made his debut last July. Prior to that, he was a four-year college pitcher who missed significant time due to Tommy John surgery, and then spent an additional two-and-a-half years in the minors, so it’s not like he’s some young phenom (he’ll be 26 on Opening Day). But having said that, the 28.2 innings he pitched last year were pretty good ones. He gave up just two homers and struck out 33 hitters while posting a 2.83 ERA. He throws a mid-90s fastball, a slider, and a sweeper, with the slider being a very effective wipeout pitch that yielded just a .137 batting average and .157 slugging percentage against. Where he struggled last year was with control, as he walked over four batters-per-nine-innings. But what’s notable about that number is that it represented a marked jump from his time in the minors, where he kept that number down to 2.5 over the course of 89.1 innings. If he can figure out how to keep getting hitters out while limiting the free passes, he can turn into a very effective late-inning reliever for the foreseeable future" Lots of ifs but maybe promising. Still need another lefthander in the pen.

Is there any evidence that teams actually use BTV as an analytical tool to evaluate trade possibilities? I'm with Old Red on this......I have no interest in it.

I will be first Duran fan to scream out "bench him" if he's not doing his job. But he has some unique skills that make me want him to succeed. His 4 doubles game without a ball ever getting to the fence was incredible.

DH'ing by committee. Cora will have 1)scheduled day off or 2)scheduled defensive day off but DH'ing.

Until transactions take place, our OF right now looks like LF Yoshida CF Duran RF Verdugo OF Refsnyder Of course I want it to be LF Duran CF Rafaela RF Abreu OF Refsnyder DH Yoshida Traded Verdugo Nothing has happened yet other than Turner and Duvall leaving.

Exactly. If Rafaela and Abreu moves up I'd imagine AAA team will need some depth piece.

Yep, you just keep complaining about him. You do know that he makes $30M right? Glad you're not in the Sox front office.

Yes, Sox should just put him there and let him bat 9th. That's what the Big Red Machine did with Dave Concepion at short. His bat eventually caught up. Rafaela I think has much higher offensive upside.

I always thought good defense up the middle was the first need. CC Wong...check SS Story...check 2B ?????...???? CF ?????...???? I wanted hitters in corners with power 3B Devers....check 1B Casas.....check LF Yoshida....nope RF Verdugo...nope Any questions?

Devers also won a Silver Slugger in 2021. This season, he led the Red Sox in games played (153), hits (157), HR (33), XBH (67), total bases (290), runs (90), RBI (100), SLG (.500) and fWAR (3.1). He was one of only three AL players with 30 homers and 100 RBIs, along with Seattle’s Julio Rodríguez and Texas’ Adolis García. Devers led AL third basemen in slugging percentage, OPS, extra-base hits, homers, RBIs and total bases, hitting .271 with 33 homers, 34 doubles, 100 RBIs and an .851 OPS. He was also nominated for the All-MLB team at third base. He starts his 10 year deal in 2024. He's my third baseman. Keep working with him on his defense. How about some analytics? Where's his weakness? If he was our #1 worry, we should be winning 110 games.

Boston Red Sox Wikelman Gonzalez, RHP (No. 9) Luis Perales, RHP (No. 10) Angel Bastardo, RHP (No. 16) Shane Drohan, LHP (No. 18) Eddinson Paulino, INF (No. 21) Allan Castro, OF (No. 30) Will they all be protected by being on the 40 man roster?

Yes...quit messing around with mediocrity. Was Paxton really a bargain? We paid him while he rehabbed in 2022.

Stop it Moon. Are you satisfied with mediocrity? That is what you are proposing. Getting rid of these 3 will allow us to target 2 top tier starting pitchers to go with Bello, Sale and Kutter. Why keep Pivetta if that's preventing us from acquiring a second top tier starter? Aren't you the one that PREACHES replace #1 and #2 and not the #5? Which is it? Quit pussyfooting around. State your preference.

It's in the $30M range, the guy is only 25 right?

We're at $49M per Cot's with following salaries included. 1 $9M Verdugo 2 $8M Pivetta 3 $5M Urias So pitching and right handed bat is needed. Per MassLive, Sox was looking to mover Verdugo at trade deadline (no I didn't make it up). Without the three, we have $70M+. I don't see why we can't get 2 top tier starters ($30M + $25M), and spend $15M on a right handed bat. That's a risk I'm willing to take as a new GM. What are we afraid of? Signing 3 FA won't weaken our farm. QUIT f***ING NICKEL AND DIMING STUFF, GO SIGN A LEGIT STARTERS. IF THEY GET HURT, THEY GET HURT. WE CAN'T FINISH LOWER THAN WHAT WE DID THIS YEAR. MAKE A BOLD MOVE OR TWO. ps. by the way, I'm as excited as a White Sox fan having Beni back as much as Verdugo coming back.

I read today that working as assistant GM in Chicago, he basically did his job from his home. I found that odd. I have no issues with him in his new job. Working from home....?

If he finishes third, he gets us an international pick?

So Rookie of the Year merits a 31st pick? And second and third place finishers would garner Red Sox extra international draft picks? I know about Casas but does Yoshida qualify here? Is it different for a 'rookie' from another country? Obviously he was not on anyone's top 100 prospect list.

MLB Traderumors projects Verdugo will earn $9.2M. I don't really care what we get for him. I think there's better use of that money.

MassLive positional review, Catching WHAT’S COMING FROM THE MINORS? "The Red Sox believe they found their catcher of the future in the draft, as they selected Virginia standout Kyle Teel with the 14th overall pick. Teel, already ranked as Boston’s No. 5 prospect by SoxProspects.com after raking (.363 average, .977 OPS) in his first 26 pro games and reaching Double-A, is the Sox’ best catching prospect in years and could be ready to impact the major league roster at some point in 2024. The Red Sox are also excited about 18-year-old Johanfran Garcia and also have Nathan Hickey, Brooks Brannon and Stephen Scott in the system. But Teel is the star of the catching ranks and the organization’s future plans at the position revolve around him. Wong’s season was generally impressive. Though he posted just a .673 OPS and struck out 134 times, he showed some pop (25 doubles, 9 homers) and the Red Sox believe there’s more in the tank offensively. Wong, however, was most impressive defensively, ranking fourth among all catchers with 4 defensive runs saved (DRS) and throwing out 21% of would-be base stealers (league average). For most of the season, he ranked among the top of the league in many defensive metrics." Definitely we saved money here trading Vaz.....twins are obligated for 2 more years at 10M per year. And look what we got in return for a 3 month rental. Good job, Bloom. Any questions? next...

Are we now saying that in order for us to win the World Series, we'd win despite having Devers and Casas? The guy we gave $300M and the guy more likely to get a long term deal in near future? We also gave a long term deal to a shortstop who hasn't played much and doesn't know the strike zone if I drew it up? Or another long term guy who hits for average but has no power and a liability in left field? So much so that instead of paying JD $10M but now we will pay $18M to fill the DH slot. My head is spinning.