SoxBlanco

And he skipped AA and AAA.

I don’t look at it as a Jose/Vaughn swap. I think of it as replacing Jose and Sheets with Vaughn and whichever outfielder we sign. When you take defense into account, I think it’s a nice swap. And if you think Vaughn will continue to improve at the plate like I do, that makes it even better.

Does our front office agree with that assessment?

No, but they did with Springer in 2014.

I appreciate the numbers crunched here and the work you put into it, but it completely takes the human element out of things. Who knows what could have happened if the team stayed healthy, won more games early, and then got some momentum and came out each night with energy. Maybe they get some momentum and everyone starts playing better. Hitting a baseball is very difficult, and it becomes even more difficult when you start pressing (or when the whole team starts pressing). Hell, maybe Cleveland doesn’t win as many games if they weren’t playing from the top spot in the division for as long as they did. The bottom line is that it’s a complete unknown. Maybe everything I typed it BS, and eliminating the injuries wouldn’t have mattered. But I do know the game of baseball is not as simple as adding/subtracting WAR to a win total.

If we sign Conforto for $14M and let Abreu walk, we’d still have around $15M to sign another SP, right? Then let the young guys battle for the 2B job.

If they did want to sign Turner, I think they’d trade Anderson. That won’t happen either, but I think that’s more likely than keeping both, especially with Anderson getting closer to free agency.

Just finally got a chance to listen to this interview. I was down on Lucas so much this past season, but it’s hard not to love him when you hear an interview like this.

Some Benintendi talk happening in the manager thread right now, so I figured we should bring it over here. How would everyone feel if he was our outfield acquisition this offseason? I would obviously prefer Nimmo, but he seems more of a long shot. Given our recent history of doing nothing, I think I would be satisfied with Benintendi. Would you guys prefer Benintendi or Conforto, if you had a choice between those two?

That's fair. I am cautiously optimistic with the Grifol hire. But I tend to be a glass half-full kind of guy, and I am already getting excited for next season.

Just curious: Are you just annoyed at that choice of words to describe Grifol? Or do you not like the hire?

Doesn’t tell me much of anything, actually.

I hate to defend Hahn here, but this continues to be overblown. He listed characteristics of what he's looking for in a manager. He then conducted an extensive interview process and hired who he thinks is best for the job. Yes, it's possible the best guy for the job doesn't have those characteristics. I mean, how likely is somebody sitting around that checks all those boxes? I have absolutely no problem with Hahn saying those things and then hiring Grifol.

Ha, I was just wondering what the point of his post was. Thanks for asking.

I beat @Sleepy Harold at posting a tweet! I can die a happy man now.

What's not true?

No

Long and Getz the most likely at this point?

Sounds like we have no choice but to sign Nimmo.

Is this in reference to something you heard? Or in reference to the current candidates being discussed here?

If offered both jobs, do you think he’d choose the Sox over Miami?

Yep. There’s a quality/characteristic in players that is hard to describe or quantify. Not just the cliche “TWTW”, but a certain attitude that comes with the way you play. Some guys want to win more than others, demand accountability, and do the little things (baseball smarts) to make it all happen. And I hate to say it, but Elvis Andrus was the closest I saw to that type of guy all year on the Sox.

Here’s a number for you: Just when you thought the season couldn’t get any worse, the Sox actually scored a negative amount of runs in their last inning of the year.

The luck evens out there. Brutal call, but Cleveland was so god damn lucky on those last two at bats. The location of both grounders was insanely lucky for Cleveland.