KBX

That can't happen. Because if it does, we're screwed.

I'm kind of okay with the roster as is, meaning we just see what happens with all this young talent instead of making costly KW trades. Cease and Kopech have CYA arms, Giolito hasn't peaked yet imo. Then you have Robert, Jiminez, Moncada, Vaughn, and my boy Chipper Sheets. If you're not gonna just buy Conforto or whatever, then I'd rather they stand pat.

The inability to develop a 2 win middle IF to hit 9th and make the league minimum is really bad in itself, and spending this much on two utility guys is mind boggling. This team is stacked with old trade hauls and a few good Cubans, and outside of that this pretty much the Royals. I don't understand how Hahn could be so good at sell-side trading and so bad at the buying side and these smaller finishing moves. Player development has to turn around quickly or else the franchise will fall from contention in a couple years. But you expect that they'll trade away more prospects or younger assets both now and in July. So e.g. you wouldn't be all that surprised if instead of having a future of Vaughn and Sheets as a young/good/cheap combo at 1B/DH, they'll both be moved in trades and then of course they'll re-sign Abreu.

Florida won the WS with Bonilla at 3B and Sheffield in RF. Sheffield is the worst fielder of all time by DRS. Not just the worst RF, the worst fielder. He robbed a homer in that series. So we got that going for us. Which is nice.

Yeah, I'm not gonna analyze things like there is no logic what's going on. Right now Hahn is banking on the young stars coming into their own and aside from that he's trying to put together a shutdown bullpen that is also deep. We just don't have access to their long term strategic thinking. Guys like Robert, Jimenez, Moncada, Anderson, Cease, Kopech can all potentially be here for a long time, and you'd like the FO to be in a good spot to replenish in FA the older guys who are gonna be dropping in the next couple years. It's also important to get good production from guys like Vaughn and Sheets who don't cost you anything. I'm not necessarily excited to see those guys traded for #3-4 starting pitchers..

Hot stove has been more like nuking ramen in a mini microwave inside a dorm room. Looking forward to the season to start, and to finally judge the FO's offseason.

I'm surprised that so few people are skeptical of the media-intel-military complex waving blue/yellow flags after having seen its geopolitical handiwork for the past few decades.

Some of these predictions are lofty. I'd be happy if he was more Mike Cameron than Mike Trout. I think he's somewhere in between on average, and that's pretty good. He just needs to stay healthy and be in CF for many years because that's a very important anchor for this org. I don't foresee many problems with corner power hitters and starters, because they've been good at that over the years. The stars they have now are due to starting pitcher prowess of a decade ago, after all.

His total 21 numbers might project to MVP. He'll definitely have to rake in order to beat out Guerrero, whom everyone has decided is the future of the American League. Robert has a big defensive advantage since he is good for 2 wins with his glove, while Guerrero is negative. If Mookie Betts can put up 10 WAR one time, I'm pretty sure Robert can put up 7 mulitple times. He already runs 7.1 WAR/162 and he hasn't really dialed it in yet. If the post-injury guy is the real guy, this is far and away the best CF this team has ever had.

La Russa pointed a bony finger at Freddie Freeman and said: "right field."

Yeah but the most common outcome is we get nobody. And when it's the middle of March it's still more likely that we get nobody. Why is there something rather than nothing? Who created God? I'd say because he's unproven and further he's a righty power hitter which doesn't serve an urgent need. We might as well pre-retire his number because he sounds really good.

Some historical boards have been mostly meta morale stuff.

Harrison is here, he's our guy. We ride with him and Leury until death. Way it is.

It seems a long shot we get any FA to fill RF, but to me Suzuki is the least effective add, given that he's another RH slugger. The good glove is nice and all, but it's pretty normal to have deficiency in corner OF. That doesn't mean we can put Gavin out there, but you know what I mean. They're having a collective tantrum because of the 23% league minimum raise. No one saw this cold market coming. We all thought there'd be a flurry of activity to provide some relief after the excruciating February of following tweets about all those shitty, unproductive meetings. Vaughn got a bad deal, at least so far. I'd be fine if they traded him now for a big need. Or in another scenario, they could let him rake in AAA for a bit, then move him. You could let Gavin DH/1B with Abreu, let him hit 8th, and assess from there.

Moncada .372 Anderson .350 Robert .394 But they're all in that range from year to year. You can maintain high-.300s BABIP if you spray the ball and with good velocity. Jimenez is the same way. His BABIP was only .293 so I'd expect that to go up. Hell it could go up 100 points. I'd honestly be shocked if the offense weren't dramatically better this year. One thing people need to bear in mind is that a lot of our expectations come from a reasonable prediction of young star development. The Sox are hoping to get this collection of young studs to peak around the same time and ride that to a title. That's why I'm not dismayed by the offseason. In a similar vein I'm high on Sheets partly because he would figure to be our #8 hitter or something, and I wouldn't exactly be stunned if he put up a similar wRC+ to Conforto, wherever he might be. You also want to see non-#1 draft picks pan out and become major contributors because that gives you further advantage payroll wise.

A moment of anticipation as a tweet loads and it's some fluff piece.

The Sox org is pathological about free agents. Reliever spending is back-door and low competition. The thing is, if they do get lucky with performance then in the last analysis you will say that they took the next step and turned a first round team into a championship team. There is enough bullpen talent that they don't all need to have great years, but if 4 of them do, that's an awesome bullpen.

The lone run in the last elimination game was the Sheets bomb that put the Sox up 1-0, which was followed by 10 unanswered runs. So he was the only guy who 'came ready to play' as Jerry Manuel would say.

I've always wanted them to find a place for Schwarber on this team. Stick with Schwarber and Sheets and trade Vaughn. Idk, I'm a Sheets respecter. I'll stand by that and eat shit if I have to.

Starting to think if the Sox are gonna do anything exciting it'll happen in the coming hours.

I like the additions of Kelly and Harrison on a qualitative basis. They bring some energy that could be positive.

That's a good article. It loos like there's no statistical signature that either rules out or predicts a repeat performance. In his rookie year he is not a dead pull hitter and shows some signs of selectivity and adjustment. He hits a variety of pitch types out of the park. He can pull letter high 95 mph and he goes down in the zone to get sinkers or changeups. He nods his head as he swings. I could see him reducing head movement. Hitting depends a lot on proprioception and not just vision, i.e. tracking the ball all the way to the barrel. One qualitative thing I like is his stance and presence. He looks like Chipper Jones. With this upright, open stance he looks like has an idea of who he is and what he can do. You don't bat like that in little league, you develop a quirky stance by thinking and adjusting.

It is actually weird how often media people badly overlook basic details about this team.

'I am not fundamentally hostile to the idea of making the club better.' — Rick Hahn, by way of Steve Stone, PhD

According to Stone, all we need to be a WS contender is for Eloy to hit the cutoff man.