SoxBlanco

When exactly did the doctors recommend surgery?

What were the net hitting and pitching differences between the two teams going into last season?

Both of those guys are making close to what Liam makes. Would that even be considered a salary dump for us?

Huh?? It was a hypothetical. Did you miss the word “If”?

And sometimes players can play through injuries, which is exactly what he showed in his rehab stint. Should we have shut down Hendriks also because of his UCL?

I feel like this is easy to say in hindsight. They were attempting to make a comeback in the division. They needed a lefty bat with some pop. During Grandal's rehab, he had a combined OPS of 1.235 between Birmingham and Charlotte, and it looked like he had some pop. He hit a few home runs during his short, 12-game rehab stint. There was no indication that he was toast, and the Sox really needed his bat. The year before, he came back from an injury in late August and completely carried the offense for the final month of the regular season. It was worth taking the risk that he could do it again. Yes, it turned out that it was a horrible idea, but at the time, I don't think it was a bad decision.

Phenomenal response. Much appreciated.

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.