SoxBlanco

If they moved the fences back to 450 feet all around the outfield for every stadium, and then I claimed Judge would only hit 3 home runs next season, would you respond to me by saying, “Why would you think that? He literally just hit 62 home runs. You do realize that baseball is not played on paper or spreadsheets, right?”

I hope Bobert catches on like Corlas did.

Agreed. And I wouldn’t even want to. I want to sign an IF/OF so that we can see what we have in Colas. I’d feel differently if Conforto wasn’t coming off the injury. He’s not a sure thing.

@bmags, Can you provide us with a solid scouting report of Perez’s defense? I know we can look up vague scouting reports elsewhere, but I want to hear from someone who has watched him a lot. What are his strengths/weaknesses in terms of framing, blocking, arm strength, arm accuracy, etc. (Feel free to do offense also, if you’re up for it.)

Grandal probably talks about his training sessions with Paul Goodman and how he’s in great shape now.

Question about Grandal here: Is it unfair to list his 162 game average fWAR since catchers play less games than other positions? Or is that already built into the WAR calculation for catchers?

Alright, be honest… Before posting the Hendriks/Jansen trade idea here, you went to baseballtradevalues.com and you were surprised that the gap was so big. Then you threw in Jose Rodriguez and Jared Kelley to close the gap.

Good call. I think it’s a very solid poll now. I’ll go with Eloy and Grandal, respectively.

Awesome. Thank you. It’s really tempting to choose Kopech for most confident based on those numbers. I’m debating between him and Eloy. Least confident has to be Grandal based on those numbers.

Wait, if we want to trade Liam for Jansen, we actually have to give up two prospects to make it happen? What??

That’s an important distinction if you are basing it off of their 162 game average. I agree that’s the way to go, though. You mind posting the numbers for each in your original post?

I like those rules. We should calculate each player’s career average fWAR.

But how are you defining a good season? Is it relative to their past performances? Or just relative to the rest of the league at their respective positions?

Tough to answer because it’s all relative. How are you defining most/least confident? Confidence in what?

Offensively, he’s horrendous.

He was one of the worst players in the history of baseball last year, but he’s a useful bench player if he can hit like he did prior to last year. (And if the manager uses him properly)

I don’t recall what you’re referring to, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. There was a game against Cleveland where we were down 1 in the middle part of the game. He led off an inning with a single and then stole second. We ended up scoring 3 runs that inning. Later that game in extras, he was on first with one or two outs and we trailed by a run. He stole second again, and then Abreu tied it up with a single. I’m pretty sure we lost that game anyway, and that’s just one example that sticks out, but I just always got the feeling that he was one of the smartest players on the field…a guy you just want on your team. But I’m admittedly going off of a gut feeling, rather than something that can be measured.

I would only want him if the price was right, but I loved what I saw from him last year in terms of intangibles and baseball smarts. We need more of that type of player on the team.

This would be my 2B plan moving forward: 1. Explore the trade route and hopefully something comes along that’s worth pulling the trigger on. 2. If we’re moving into February and nothing has come to fruition on the trade front, then see if Drury or Andrus are still available. They are not players I’d sign right now, but if there’s not a market for them and they can be signed late in the offseason for less, then I would pull the trigger. 3. If neither of the above works out, then just go with Sosa/Romy/Popeye. It’s nice that there are multiple internal options because even if one of them struggles, hopefully another will step up.

Thank you. I understood the benefit of the larger bases, but I wasn’t sure why people were referring to the plural form of the word “rule”. I forgot about the pickoff attempt rule.

I keep seeing people reference the new base running rules. Did I miss a new rule, or are you just referring to the larger bases?

Anymore? Was there a time when he COULD hit? Love the guy, though!

The beauty of signing Drury is that if Colas was indeed ready, then Drury just moves to 2B. Drury has now become my top target. A week ago, a friend of mine asked me how I would feel about a Drury signing. I said that if he was the only “outfield” addition, I would hate it. But if we signed him in addition to a true LF like Benintendi, then I would be ecstatic. Well, we’re halfway there on that plan now.

That’s a fair guess. I actually think he’ll get to 20 playing at the Rate, which is why I’m not as concerned about a lack of power.

Let’s say Benintendi plays 140 games for the Sox in 2023. How many home runs would you predict he hits?