Hugh2

I think you can permanently move Houck into the pen here, and that's a good thing. I think he can be elite there.

German was literally called up because the Sox think he could be in their plans next year. I thought that was obvious. Soxprospects have him projected as the WooSox closer so he could be first arm up. But I suspect he’s still going to need to prove himself in spring training.

It takes most prospects 3-6 years to be contributors at the MLB level, and closer to 6 when they are Highschool talent, which Bloom has leaned heavily towards in the top of the draft. Bloom has had the minors for 3 seasons, so we’re not even at the beginning of expecting a Bloom farm to start contributing to MLB success.

Now that I think about it, I have no ideal how long the Sox have been doing this but I know if you ever buy your ticket in a secondary market (Stub Hub, Ticketmaster etc) it's been this way for a LONG time.

Personally, I want to see the Sox bring in someone like Soler or Garcia from the Marlins and buy us some pitching by taking on their salary. I'll be beating this drum all offseason folks.

Casas and Hosmer are good enough......good enough to where you want to be spending your money on RF/SS/C starting pitching and relief pitching. WHen you have many holes to fill.....Casas/Hosmer is good enough. Also, sometimes the only way to hit MLB pithing is to hit MLB pitching. Look at Dalbec, he's been MASHING the ball at the AAA level. If we didn't know any better we would think he needs to be in the majors, he has nothing to learn at the minor league level, it's MLB pitching that he has had a hard time adjusting too and he might not ever...that doesn't mean Casas won't but at a certain point sometimes you just have to let guys sink or swim. Sometimes they are never able to put it together (think MIddlebrooks) and at other times it's all worth it (think Pedroia). I'm not worried one bit about Casas.

It's almost as if supply and demand effects prices......weird.

Well Devers is going to get a hefty raise, and if Bogaerts resigns he's probably getting a 5-10 million raise. We can expect both combined to cost an additional $15 million a year or so.

My prediction on Bogaerts is $207/8 on the high end and $178/7 on the low end.

If fans are going to be upset if he signs for more than 150-170 and are also upset that the Sox don't resign him, then be prepared to be upset no matter what.

That's the point, which is why guys go to FA, it takes two to tango. Sox can't just magically sign whoever they want.

Yes we are all entitled to our own opinions, but some may be more realistic than others. You may have the opinion that $10 million is too much for Kike, and others have the opinion that he is worth that. Again, we are all entitled to our opinions, but the facts and the statistics that show what players of his caliber typically get seem to support one opinion over another, and that's reality....opinions aside. It could be in my opinion that paying $25,000 for a brand new Honda Accord Ex is an overpay, but the data would prove my opinion is not shared by many others at all. $10 million for Kike is a good deal.

Hey .240 is average!!!! I would have taken that this year.

Adam Frazier isn't a bad comp, if we're talking purely about value. Their stat lines are very similar, with Kike you're going to get a little more SLG, and with Frazier, you're going to get a little bit more AVG. I'd say that when it comes to defense Kike is better, 7.3 career DWar to Fraziers 2.5, but Frazier is still a plus defender and as pointed out even provides positional versatility that Kike does too. It's a good enough comp to say if Frazier can get 8 million in arbitration, that 10 million for Kike is a good deal. I think most view it as a good deal. Maybe he spends all year on the D.L. and it looks bad in hindsight, but if he's healthy for even just most of the seasons, he's going to be worth a lot more than 10 million dollars.

You could argue Kike is better, despite a marginally better WAR (maybe games played close the gap) but if you're more of a BWar guy for position players Kike is clearly better. Also, he offers more positional flexibility than Frazier does. Kike could have done better in free agency, and there's a ton of value tied to a 1 year deal opposed to being on the hook for multiple seasons.

So now Bloom bad because he couldn't pay hypothetical guy? Just name one guy? Almost NO ONE is bashing the Kike deal. You want an upgrade? you will pay 2X to 4X that amount if you're rolling Nimmo/Judge out there and that eats up all your budget. Not great, just ok starters are getting 10-15 million per year easily. Last year 1 WAR averaged 5.9 million in salaries which go up about 10% yearly which if holds true means 1 WAR gets you 6.5 next year. This makes Kike worth the following in years past. 2022 $5.85 million 2021 $31.85 million 2020 $7.15 million 2019 $13 million 2018 $22.75 million So if he as a good year, it's an insanely awesome deal, if he is injured for 1/2 the year it's an overpay of $4-$5 million dollars. If there's a better option out there for 10 million. I'm all ears.

Ok, but we needed a CFer and a RFer, and still need another outfielder. So if 10 million is too much for Kike, and we are "cost conscious" here, what would a better move have been??? Anyone better than Kike is going to be asking for more per year and more in years. He's being paid to be a 1.5 WAR player, which if he's healthy he will easily be.

You know it's the easiest thing in the world to drop the name of someone who will get $15-$20 per year and say they'd take less somehow.

Ceddanne is the guy who I'm really interested in during the 2023 campaign aside from Wong and Casas who I anticipate should or could contribute in 2023, but Rafaela is a guy I expect to see in the minors next year but could be knocking on the door later in the season. We know his defense is going to play, and that gives him a high floor, but if he can't hit he will just be another JBJ (but with the plus of positional versatility and more speed). But if he can sharpen up his plate discipline and learn to not expand the zone so much, he could be much more. 1 Walk during the entire month of December, this concerns me. I just fear he hits his way into the majors but when he's facing better pitching he's going to see more pitchers who can spot stuff in the strike zone but aren't great pitches to hit and as a result, his AVG/OBP will take a big hit. If he doesn't take this leap, he is still a very valuable guy. A super utility guy who can add plus D at most positions and add value on the basepaths with his speed. That has value on a 25 man roster, but his raw tools has us yearning for more.

This is completely conjecture but he passes the “eye test” in my book. I saw him a dozen times while he has in Portland and when he steps in the batters box it looks more like he’s IN THE BATTERS box and the pitchers are stepping up to the mound to face him. Will this translate to MLB success? We will have to wait until next year to have a more well informed answer, but I know we’re all rooting for him.

We think of Bogaerts power outage and Devers slumps and one has to wonder if they could have had better numbers with a longer lineup. A healthy Story, and a non regression from Dalbec would have gone a long way.

Depending on how you want to define service time you could say the Sox had a bunch of “Sophomore Slumps” this year. To me the most disappointing was Bobby Dalbec, I thought for sure he was destined to be a regular .800 ops guy in this lineup. I wasn’t concerned by a slow start because he always struck me as a streaky hitter but the dude had not one hot streak in him this year. Sox should have kept him on the mound hahaha.

I don’t think Casas is the type to hit the ground running, and he still has some kinks to work out (vs. lhp) sometimes, guys have to work those out at the MLB level, sink or swim. I’m a lot higher on Casas than I ever was on Duran, and I’m not worried about him, if anything THIS is the time to get some of those kinks out. I think he’s going to be a solid .800 ops guy with some .900+ years in his prime. Not the Ted Williams some here may expect but certainly better than we’ve had at the position for some time. I think he’s going to be a regular staple in the this lineup come next June, we won’t even be talking about whether or not he’s ready…..or not.

Not everyone makes their debut and is an all star right away. Sometimes the only way to tell if someone is going to be the next Pedroia or the next Middlebrooks is to just roll with them and see how they develop. Also, if you recall, it’s been said for the last several years how weak the Sox system is. Well, this is what happens in a weaker system, you have less MLB guys coming thru the pipeline. That’s changing in Boston, but some of those guy won’t be ready for another year or two and as we all know…..some of them won’t pan out

No one who matters at least.