SoxBlanco

Do you have guesses on who runs that Twitter account?

The Grandal signing made perfect sense because we desperately needed a guy who could work counts and take walks, and he has given us exactly that. Yes, his defense is not what you would hope for in a catcher, but if it was that detrimental to a team, Grandal wouldn’t have made the playoffs 7 straight years before 2022.

Maybe if we started hitting more home runs that would be different.

This is honestly the most concerning thing with Grandal. He might have been the slowest runner in the history of baseball last season.

I haven’t seen anything, but I’m not claiming he WILL bounce back. I have no clue, and you have no clue. What I do know is that Grandal is only 14 months removed from a time when he was completely carrying the team on offense. I don’t expect to see that Grandal again, but I do think a wRC+ in the 105/110 range is more likely than the 68 he put up last year.

You are assuming he can’t play on a major league roster based on last year. If we are willing to give up major assets to help the team, I’d rather give up those assets for a different position. That doesn’t mean I would hate a Murphy trade, but I would need to see all the corresponding moves before fully getting on board.

Grandal's number the past two years are pretty crazy: 2021: 375 PA, 158 wRC+ 2022: 376 PA, 68 wRC+ Seems impossible to fall off a click that badly unless injuries are a significant factor. So the question becomes whether those injuries are lingering/permanent now. None of us know the answer to that question.

Is that 1.000 career BABIP sustainable? If so, I'll take him.

Correct.

No he didn’t.

Absolutely. And I'm not convinced Grandal is completely washed. I don't think he will ever be what he was in his prime, but I expect him to be much better than last year if he can stay healthy (yes, I know that's a big "if"). Hell, we're only about 14 months removed from a time when Grandal was completely carrying the offense.

When I read that tweet, my first thought was… ”Nice, Hahn is already trying to get inside the agents’ heads by making it seem like we don’t need to sign any outfielders.”

This is simply false.

Since the debacle last season.

Zero chance it’s Pederson over those 4 guys. His defense is terrible.

Yep. Colas and one of Nimmo, Conforto, Benintendi, Gallo. Let the young guys battle for the 2B job, and sign a SP. It’s a pretty simple offseason, actually.

I almost forgot about him. When is he scheduled to be fully healthy, and what’s the plan for him this year?

Bryan Ramos, José Rodríguez, Yolbert Sánchez, Luis Mieses and Kade McClure.

Totally agree. The power rankings don’t bother me at all. In fact, they deserve a shitty power ranking. I do think the team will use that as motivation. Combine that with new coaching, and I don’t expect anybody to be sleepwalking through games next year.

I still like the Sox to win the division next year.

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.