KBX

And they've had the resources and the effort. LA has been going for it hard every year for as long as I can remember, and they went 30 something seasons between titles. There's a lot more luck involved than anyone thinks about. The Braves just won a fluke WS out of nowhere after they went 1 for 14 in the Bobby Cox era. Once you have a competitive run, you also need guys who just get it done in the playoffs and you can't really control that too much. The Dodgers and Braves didn't have that, certainly in part due to their HOF aces being generally worse pitchers in October than they were in the regular season. Those teams were based on Maddux and Kershaw. You can't replace those guys with some other HOF ace. But it's hard to win it all when your ace gives up 5R in 5 2/3 in a pivotal game 5. When that happens regularly you end up scratching your head how you only won it 1 time, or not at all. One of Cease/Kopech/Giolito needs to be a Josh Beckett type in the playoffs. You need someone to win 2 games in a series.

'Comforto'

Story's got to be going to Houston where he can play his position.

Well, we have two good 2B. Put Story in right. How hard can it be?

Wasn't that because he's thicc, so it was a question of his physical conditioning vis-a-vis his injury tendencies or something like that? I actually liked his vibe in that Houston game. I was thinking if he's 100% this could be a 1-0 win.

Half-tank is better word I guess. No one thinks Rodon lacks effort or anything like that.

You mean be overworked and then throw a half-hearted start in the ALDS? I think Kopech can handle that.

According to a tweet I saw back in February, the Sox have been linked to Conforto so he's as good as here IMHO.

Only Toronto got better of that group, and I don't think they have the pitching to be all that fearsome. As for Glasnow, he's probably out till 23. There's definitely room for the Sox to win the AL by general improvement. In the firstp lace, their whole idea of a championship window or multiyear run hinges on getting a lot of excess value from young stars. Last year that was stunted by injuries. This year it could swing hard in the other direction.

I called a few days ago that he was Rosenthal's son. This is even worse.

No idea if this has any substance

At least the talent movement has been pretty diffuse, lots of mediocre teams signing guys. Correa going to our division helps in two ways. It puts pressure on the Sox, and it makes Houston noticeably worse. For a bad offseason this has been okay in some ways.

If Correa only gets 3 years, and Conforto is 2/3 the player Correa is...

'He's gonna be a star hitter' + 'he's not a bad fielder'? He here. Look on the bright side — we've got a 130 wRC+ lefty. His name is Gavin Sheets, son of Larry.

Stone reads this board confirmed. How else could he know that we have too many right handed hitters?

Liking a baseball player is not a personality.

Why is that crap still going on?

Neither one is about 'what they have done,' but what they might do. Sheets hit RHP very well last year. He hit a bomb of Lance McCullers in an elimination game. You act like it's an outrage that he should be strongly considered as a DH/1B.

I remember him being a pretty dopey romantic. Is that sexism now?

With Kopech they appear to be verbally committed to managing his innings in such a way that he could potentially be in a playoff rotation. I don't remember if they said similar things about Rodon but then didn't commit to it.

I never thought he was an option here. Too pricey and potentially risky due to his home/away splits. It's a good comparison because we know TA and probably haven't seen Story play. The FA market seems pretty bad for a lot of guys, so I think Story either has to prove himself outside of Denver on a 1 year deal or take 2B in a place like Boston.

Hernandez is one of those guys where empirical, tangible reality is sometimes ignored in favor of alienated metrics. Leury was much more of an asset than Hernandez in October. Even if you change that big HR to a gapper, it's still true. Make no mistake I'm not happy about 2B but Hernandez is garbage.

Why would Story need to play 2B? Anderson: -9 DRS, -23.4 UZR, -5.5 UZR/150 Story: 9 DRS, 15.4 UZR, 2.8 UZR/150 Story's question mark is his bat outside of Denver.

If going after superstars, I'd always take the LH bat and the less injury-laden position of RF over 3B. They're about the same WAR, but Harper is in that GOAT tier of hitter some years, and Harper will almost certainly be better overall in his 30s because there's less attrition playing RF. In that time I'd have gone hard for Harper and then look to deal from OF strength for a 3B with plus glove/average offense. I think he's capable of one more pretty solid defensive year if has health and buy-in. I think he is pretty excited to be here, so I would expect effort to be there at least.

There are Sox fans, and then there are Sahx fayans. Colas is being penciled in as the 2020s RF by at least 1/3 of the fan base