kleedawg

That top 5 pick has had 2 achilles tendons repaired, he no longer has that value.

Abreu finished second in RBI and hit 30 homers while playing banged up all year and with long periods of his protection being out with injury...I'll take that underperformance all the time. Moncada played banged up all year as well and was disappointing offensively.

So we get worse defensively at 2 positions (2b, & 3b) and move Moncada to a more physically demanding position for a guy who gets ouchie a lot. All for Burger's small sample size of hitting well in the big leagues means he will continue to hit. This is ignoring that right before he was sent down he was having trouble laying off/hitting sliders. Burger's value will likely never be higher than it is now. Trade him in a package with Keuchel to get rid of dallas and bring back a defensive 2nd catcher and or relief pitcher.

Gomes or roberto perez (if cleveland doesn't pick up option). would be good. Also, if our corner of spot does become a serious issue I'd rather trade for an Rf at the dealine then sign conforto. consider Kris Bryant, Starling Marte, joey Gallo, Jorge Soler, Eddie Rosaro, & Joc Pederson where all available at the deadline and none seemed to be an exorbitant cost in prospects.

Consider Kopech basically threw 2 pitches as a relievr and may have been tipping them off. As a starter he has 4 + pitches ( I mean they are all + pitches not that he has more than 4). Yeah young pitchers are like that sometimes (cease). He has improved every year.

I think Lopez is your 6th starter, long man, spot starter next year (With off days in April and rainouts you won't need 6 starters for example). But I think we must sign a legit starter next year whether thats Rodon, Scherzer, Gausman, Desclafini, Verlander, Darvish, etc. Not sure I'd put gray in same category as quintana or hill.

I didn't say I had no issues with the defense. I did say u can mitigate the deficiency, play him a Dh, and even have him improve his defense with work. It can be done. But sure couch it like I do not think defense is important. And it does help with the budget some as you are not paying all of Dallas's salary and you would be filling the defensive 2nd catcher hole as well.

Nope, I think you can fairly easily trade Keuchel and burger in a package to a rebuilding team (even easier if the new CBA has a salary floor) for the one commodity contenders need that rebuilding teams do not...relievers. Obviously we will have to eat some portion of that salary however. Guys like keuchel have value to rebuilding teams. 1. They mentor young pitchers (like nova, & shields did in our rebuild, an no not worth the tatis trade). 2. They eat innings protecting their young starters and bullpen. See Detroit where skubal * mize were just throwing 3 to 4 innings despite doing well because they innings were capped. 3. They can the use guys like kuechel as currency to get more prospects if they rebound. Imagine if we were rebuilding waht we could have got for Dallas if we traded him after he started, what? 7-1? Traded at the end of May not at the deadline. A trade could look something like this: Keuchel + Burger+ Collins + money to Texas for Jonah Heim (or there other catcher) and Barlow 9 or some other reliever. Or Burger and Keuchel = Money to balt. for Frye or plutko or Burger and Keuchel + Money to Arizona for Carson Kelly

1. Giolito 2. Kopech 3. Cease 4. Lynn If Rodon stays that will take at least 18.4 mil on a qo. Keuchel is no longer a viable option and will probably be traded. We should have 6 as Kopech's innings will be curtailed and so might rodon if he re-signs.

Yes and no. There are lots of rookies that flash greatness and then the league adjust to them and the find holes in their swings. Gavin could fall in that category, sure, but for the reasons I enumerated earlier I don't think this will happen. Gavin has a great hitting approach and as many have previously stated, he hasn't had any power until recently. This is not a worry for regression. This is normal for good young hitters. Power is developed later. Part of it is simply filling out an becoming a man. So many hitters lacked power in the minors and slugged in the majors. Gavin can hit and you cannot teach hitting (I can already see posters coming out of the woodwork saying what is a hitting coach for then, lol) . A person either has the innate hand/eye coordination to hit a round ball with a round bat or he doesn't. But what you can do is be able to teach a hitter to hit better. You can fix mechanics, create better balance, improve swing path, approach, pitch recognition, and even vision, but if guy can't hit he can't hit.

Yeah this topic has kind of meandered over multiple pages with multiple posters dissecting both pro and con different aspects of the debate.

I love Semien but I really love Jose Ramirez who is a FA the following year.

How is the Gavin Lux experiment going in CF?

He can just DH. I'm fine with that (even better). But Then eloy is in Lf and Vaughn in right. Which I'm fine with. Conforto may be a slighty upgrade but the juice isn't worth the squeeze in my opinion. I don't think the money required for conforto is worth it for the sox. That money needs to go to a starting pitcher and a 2b. Plus we have bullpen needs.

In an above post I explain why I think Gavin might be special and not a candidate for major regression. I never said I was against improving the position or having an insurance policy. I'm against Gavin as just a bench/ph hitter because we won't learn what he is in limited playing time. Full disclosure, I considered conforto for next year as a rf answer when I saw a list of probable free agents before we brought up Gavin. But, I saw conforto has the best left hitting option available, but not necessarily a good option. I see Conforto as a high "floor" person not a high "ceiling" person. I would be all for sign a better left hand hitter FA rf he was out there for this year, but he is not. Someone like Benitendi, harper (duh), verdugo, carlson, etc. This is my opinion, I could be wrong as could any to which I am debating. Which is great a healthy debate. Being a defensive liability is a great point. One I feel can be mitigated in various ways. What frustrates me is a couple of things. 1. Too many of us seem to see players in a vacuum. He sucks or is great now so he will always suck or is great (think how many suggested luis Robert was a bust after 2020). If a player is bad its always some trend not that he was playing hurt, his wife divorced him, his brother died. No he is bad. This is not to make excuses for players but there is a bigger picture that stats don't explain. 2. Statistics are an important tool that are often mis-used and misunderstood. 3. I have seen the sox go through a bevy of adam, Dunn's, Larouche's, etc looking for a lefthanded hitting slugger and when one may finally fall in our lap's we are so quick to dismiss him. I don't want to have the Tatis regret with Gavin when he his hitting 35 bombs and batting 2.80 for the A's (no I do not think his talent is anywhere near Tatis, just that people will be bitching how shitty the organization is for letting Gavin go, because we knew all along how good he would be..like Tatis)

No way is schwarber better, Also Schwarber was craptastic is rookie year in the of and improved somewhat. Appatently for some reason sheets will always be what he is for some reason. Schwarber has also quite a few years at the plate were he sucked. Sheets was pretty good in a small sample size. He may not be as good as schwarber, he may proove to be better, We simply do not know yet. What we do know is Gavin gives lots of indications that he could be special such as: Despite being a low ball hitter, he hits good high fastballs well. He doesn't try to pull everything. For a young hitter he doesn't chase many pitches that are clearly balls. He is short to the ball and long through it. He has a good approach and is willing to situational hit. Let me also ask you this about is short time in RF how many games has he cost us with bad defense? How many has he won us with his bat? The sox could also just DH him while going with eloy and vaughn playing the corners. Yes range is sacrificed some in rf and eloy won't win a gg ever. But no team is going to both good offensively & Defensively at every position all the time. Plus we will limit our exposure to poor of defense with engel, hamilton etc. playing after the 6th inning, starting them in Detroit, etch. Ironically Gavin has made more miscues at 1b than rf

oh plz, Swarber is about as bad as a fielder as there is. Was it a fire-able offense for the Cubs, Nationals, & Red Sox to play him in the field? The red sox are even finding out he is bad at 1b

I know that, I'm saying free agency for the following year (s) where different options are available. I'm going to learn what Sheets is this year at the minimum.

That's fine. I wouldn't. I want to learn what Sheets actually is before I replace. Then, if he is not the dude I think he is going to be I can replace him with potentially a better left-handed stick than both conforto and sheets. In the present I feel $$ can be better allocated for more pressing needs such as 1. starting pitcher 2. 2b. 3. Bullpen replacements for Kopech, Kimbrel, and Tepera...or re-signing tepera. Crap Ron's quote about rather having conforto should go here.

no doubt, but if they are due to injury they should be reduced when healthy, no? If they are caused by overzealous framing thats easier to correct then poor technique...no?

/agree. Also some of Grandal's problems (especially early in the year) can be attributed to playing a demanding position while injured. Sometimes, comically Grandal misses a ball because he he is trying to frame it so hard.

so? Conforto bloomed earlier. It took Gavin longer but he clearly has gotten better. Why do you think he will stop getting better?

Let me save you some time: Rick Hahn: It was a wonderful and exciting year but it didn't end the way we wanted it to. Our goal is to win the the world series every year. I'm proud of the the team, the way they fought, how they played together as one family, and overcame the numerous injuries that plagued us. But we didn't get it done, no excuses. We will evaluate what changes need to be made and make them. You fans were awesome. I can't wait to get going next year so exciting for the future...blah, blah, blah

Correct, because our pitchers have been bad at holding runners for quite some time. Mcann & Yaz are both strong throwing catchers. The question is why organizationally is this true? Some possible explanations may be: 1. emphasis on getting the hitter and not being distracted by runners. 2, Teams for a long period subscribing to "billyball" and not running. 3. Eschewing slide steps for max velocity/spin rate

no, a catcher can give a sign to throw to first, but the responsibility to hold runners is the pitchers. He can throw over whenever he wants regardless if he gets a sign or not. He should vary how long he holds before going home. He should vary the speed in which he throws over. If he is a lefty he should have multiple moves. He should vary how many times he looks at 2b. Above the high school level, you always steal on the pitcher, not the catcher. The pitchers deserve 99.99% of the blame on any steal in the majors.