Hugh2

Did the Sox front office ever actually say that though? It was reported after the Sox shed some payroll in the Sale trade, and after it was reported they were trying to move other players. But as far as I can recollect that never came from the FO. It feels like pure conjecture, conjecture that could be absolutely true by the way. It's hard to argue with this offseasons results so far.

You know things are bad when you start convincing yourself that Garrett cooper would actually be a decent pick up. But.......he may actually be a decent pick up. He had a .904 OPS against LHP last year. If the Sox use him to spell Casas at 1B vs tough lefties, and play some outfield when they need another righty in the lineup he could make for a valuable bench piece. Sox now have their back up 1b. As far as I can gather.....he can not pitch.

zips and steamer projections are more for O'Neill than they are Verdugo, because if healthy "the juicer" actually would be an upgrade not a downgrade there. If O'Neill goes down then I presume Abreu/Rafaella come up each of whom may add equal or greater value...or not. I expect the same production in LF/CF with the slight chance of improvement out there. Story will upgrade SS, Grissom will upgrade 2nd. Honestly, this feels like an 82 win team. That could break one way or the other depending on how much goes right/wrong. A major pitching upgrade would have many feeling much better about the team, that's for certain.

Tuesday morning rumor is that Justin Turner has signed with the Toronto Blue Jays. Jays fans on Twitter are pissed about the move.

I think the position side looks pretty darn good, it's the other side of the ball I find concerning.

For the rotation to look good, you're going to need two out of the Wikelman/Perales/Fitts group to pretty much hit their ceiling. I'd be happy with one, and this is assuming Bello/Crawford can be a 2/4 type each. Next years free agent pitching class looks good, and fairly deep, but with a lot of teams seemingly sitting out on the Snell/Montgomery sweepstakes I feel there will be a lot more top dogs bidding on pitching next winter. I think the FO should still strongly consider these two this offseason if the price is reasonable.

After this season the Astros will lose Jose Altuve Alex Bregman Justin Verlander Ryan Pressly Two big bats up an ace and their closer. They also have zero top 100 prospects. I'd much certainly rather be any one of the Dodgers or the Braves right now than the Astros. Even the Orioles, if they ever decide to spend....look out.

They sign extensions early, buying out more team-controlled years. You take a big paycut but you take guaranteed millions with a chance of still hitting free agency around 30. A lot can happen in 5-6 years so that has appeal to a lot of players. There's risk there for the team too.

Exactly, this is why I think this year is going to be different. Erod got 80/4, how much better is Montgomery really than EROD? He's worth more than that but not much more, maybe a hair more AAV and another year. Snell is harder to predict, because he could be the best pitcher in the game, or not there but he's still probably going to get around $150. I think if another team throws out the contract he rejected from the Yankees he might bite, unless there really is some mystery bidding going on behind the scenese. I don't think that's happening this year. For all the talk of Boras knowing what he's doing, people also forget about the years he misreads the market for his clients and they have to go play overseas for a year. I'm sure if Michael Conforto could turn back the hands of time he'd have accepted the METS QO in 2021. He would have gone into free agency the same exact year and be $19 million richer.

That's just the thing I'm wonder, yes everyone needs pitching, but I'm not really sure who out there is going to go desperate for Snell or Montgomery. They both projected to receive 200/150 respectively. I think they end up seeing about 75% of that. Bold prediction here that Boras hold outs will end up with a rare depreciation in value by holding out.

Next years pitching class has some interesting names in it as well. Brandon Woodruff Max Scherzer Justin Verlander Shane Bieber Zack Wheeler Max Fried Walker Buehler

I don't think Montgomery is going to get the $150 million MLBTRADERUMORS, and certainly not the $172 million he is looking for in free agency. If he can be had in the $90-$130 range (depending on years) Sox should bite

If the kids play like Casas did we would be in the playoff picture. I don’t think we will be sellers.

Nate was pretty good in 21 as well, he had that one bad apparence out of the pen in game 4 of the ALCS, but besides that he was good.

I think this is actually a much under appreciated way to get wins during the regular season, with the right guys as you say. I wouldn't hate it.....but I still think you need a top of the rotation starter to go deep in October.

Breslow is going to look like a genius when he waits out the market and signs Jordan for $125

Some might say we need to move money to be able to sign a pitcher. I'm not sure who you would need to make room for other than Snell/Montgomery, and I don't think anyones one year contract is preventing that. Ownership is just disinterested in moving in signing big money contract to pitchers. I'd trade Jansen in the right deal, heck I'd throw in money if we got back legit prospects. But I do that if we were signing a Montgomery type and pushing someone like Houck to the pen. I have no problem waiting until the deadline. Good bullpen help never hurts a team and certainly commands a fair payout at the deadline.

I'm actually rather optimistic on the defense improving in 2024, I just won't be completely surprised if it's over subpar again. They should certainly have more depth options with guys like Rafaela being more ready and able to fill in at CF/SS

I've put my personal opinions aside on the issue and don't want Bauer here. Right or wrong, it doesn't matter, the reality is he's a PR nightmare.

Now, unfortunately these types of cases are very much so he said/she said and there's just never enough proof to convict someone. Another reason for that is because victims of sexual assault both woman and men often wait years and years to come forward because they live many years in shame, or fear, or even confusion, which is unfortunate because the number one reason why men disbelief woman is because they often wait years to come out. I really don’t want to dive into my personal experiences again, because I harbor guilt, it almost makes me feel like a phony using it as some kind of bullet point but I know for a fact when victims see these types of stories it can cause them to relive some of that trauma. I was 100% percent against Trevor Bauer when the original story came out, it made me relive many of my own past traumas, but new evidence came out that makes it look painstakingly obvious Hill was trying to extort money out of Bauer. The proof is literally in her text messages. But this is the tragedy of the world we live in today. Once the stone is cast, the ink is dried and the opinions are set in stone and men can’t even debate a real topic, with real conflicting reports, with real new evidence without being called some kind of sexists. Facts aren’t sexist, they're not femine, they're not masculine, they’re not good, they’re not bad, they are what they are. Those 10% of men deserve justice, just as much as the 90% of men and woman do who are victims of sexual assault.

I'm educated on this way more than you can ever imagine. Believe me.

Right, because there are only woman victims.

SMH. Men can't even have a conversation about facts without being insulted. Men have literally turned into giant vaginas.

WHat makes you say I'm a low life? I was the biggest hater of Bauer when it looked like he was a scum bag. Then new information came out and I changed my mind. I suppose that is beneath people like you. Not once in your post did you dispute the facts. Did you even look them up? or are you still living in the world of 5 years ago.

What is highly frustrating is seeing how much poor defense hurt last years team and improving the defense this year will largely revolve around relatively unproven talent, bounce back seasons, and better health.