maxjusttyped

Seby and Dwight Smith both looking brutal defensively

I'd love to be proven wrong here, but arguably the smartest organization in baseball is not going to trade a 26 year who won the MVP 2 years ago for 1 year of Craig Kimbrel.

The Braves weren't even close to the best team last year, particularly after all of their injuries. You don't have to be the best team to win, but not having as many holes as the Sox do now would obviously make things much easier. Particularly when right now we're just focused on the roster, but once games start again, we'll be reminded this team plays every game with 1 hand tied behind their back because of the La Russa.

Katz deserves an enormous amount of credit for turning around Rodon and Cease. I would give the front office credit for hiring him as pitching coach, even though it didn't sound like he was their first choice.

I think Seby and Collins are both lost causes at this point. Collins is a sub replacement level player until there's an automated strike zone and Seby will be too if the Sox give him enough playing time to to prove it. Perez supposedly is a strong defender and running that low of a strikeout rate for a catcher makes him interesting, at the very least. I think he may have been Rule 5'd if the draft wasn't cancelled this year.

My guess is that by the end of May, either Carlos Perez or random vet waiver claim will be the backup C. I'd be fine with going cheap there if money was spent actually filling holes at 2B, RF, or in the rotation.

If other people are clinging to Conforto, I will keep clinging to Bryant, when by all indications neither has any real shot of happening

It's Hector, so take this FWIW

I loved the Vaughn pick, and the thought of trading him away makes me sick to my stomach. But I think there's a rational argument to be made that the best thing for his development would be playing every day in Charlotte and not having to face a level of pitching he might not be ready to have success against yet.

Expecting Engel to hit *and* for his body to hold up playing every day feels like a fools errand. He shouldn't be counted as anything more than a 4th OF, platoon bat, defensive replacement, etc.

Just assumed this had been posted already

Devoting way too many resources to the bullpen again? What a shocker that would be

Too bad there isn't a fit for Voit on the Sox because he's going to be a steal for someone.

Interesting how much lower their projections are on the Tigers than conventional wisdom

Given the extensive injury histories, both of their bodies seem like ticking time bombs. I don't blame you. But for any team with farm system depth, I think trading for 1 year of Judge would be a great move.

Doesn't sound like the Yankees have discussed an extension with Judge at all. He's 1 year from free agency. If there is uncertainty with how many games he'll play this season, I wonder if trading him becomes a consideration if he won't get vaxxed.

Unvaccinated players aren't allowed to enter or play in Canada. Since the NYC vaccinate mandate came up, I figured that would be worth mentioning in case anyone wasn't aware of that. Whether or not the mandate will still be in place when the Sox visit there this year or in a hypothetical October playoff series, who knows.

On an extremely unrelated note, I found it amusing that old friends Jake Lamb and Mike Wright signed Minor League deals with the Dodgers today.

You don't put any stock into Fegan and others reporting the Sox surveyed his market before picking up the option? Or the fact Hahn is openly talking about dealing him when normally the Sox play everything so close to the vest? I think your argument for whether or not Kimbrel has surplus value makes sense, but the Sox are the same organization who didn't want to risk ending up with Rodon on a 1 year deal. And devoted significant resources to Graveman & Joe Kelly. Why would they do that if they weren't confident they could get off the Kimbrel money? It just doesn't make any rational sense to me.

The additions of Graveman and Kelly don't make sense if you aren't going to trade Kimbrel. I'm giving them some benefit of the doubt here, but maybe I shouldn't.

If Kimbrel is still going to be here (unlikely, imo) then I'd rather have Greinke or Tyler Anderson as SP depth than Joe Kelly. Keeping Keuchel as an expensive 6th starter isn't ideal but it shouldn't be the end of the world.

I think he's a better version of Keuchel, but I get the comparisons. I think pushing Keuchel and Lopez further into depth roles would have been a good idea.

Won't happen because he isn't a reliever, but I would have been fine with signing Greinke on a 1 year deal to be the 5th starter.

Just trying to think rationally, I don't think they would have picked up Kimbrel's option without knowing he has some trade value. Fegan & others have reported they surveyed the market on that before officially picking it up. However, I don't think the way they value relievers is rational at all, so maybe they're fine with ultimately keeping him.