KBX

Honest to God I think in the wake of having to hand the players a little bit of inflationary raise this one time, which they'd hitherto avoided, they're all shell shocked and worried about the future, kind of bitter about writing checks right now.

The Hahn end-of-lockout smirk will go down in the history books. In that smirk lay Conforto, Story, and a big trade for a TOR pitcher. But lo, nothing came.

There is a handful of young players who can realistically produce a lot better this year, just due to experience. If they all improve concurrently this will be a significantly better a team. The bullpen has potential to be outstanding. The offseason isn't over. Most teams seem reticent to make big impact moves, not just the Sox.

If they're both with the club this November, I think we might like them both at 1B/DH, and let Abreu's 16 mil go in order to address other needs. It's kind of an awkward roster. Sheets to me just a good swing, a good presence. When he gets a hold of one it goes a long way. His big league sample is good for whatever it's worth, but to me he just looks like a big league hitter. I don't generally like to go any further than that. Honestly, we have no idea what the FO is gonna do because they're always pretty mum about everything. There may be a big trade or signing, or both, tomorrow.

I've heard he's a 'long covid guy.' He sure raked in 2020 even if long covid is a thing.

Staff ERA+ was 125 and they won a lot of 1 run games. In 2006 it went down to 103.

What if the Sox signed Molitor and Stewart in 93 like Toronto did? 'Eh we've got 4 good starters in their 20s. We're gonna be like Atlanta.'

La Russa's vintage A's era black-dyed mane looks kino af

That was a really flat offensive year for him. That shows you how good he is. Most guys who put up 4-5 WAR seem like they're locked and loaded.

To be fair, many less talented teams have won it all on the strength of a shutdown bullpen, and this one certainly has potential to be great, not to mention a kind of Nasty Boys type thing with some edge and drama. I'm excited to see how that plays out.

Vinnie and Chuck are both cringe. I've never understood the water-carrying culture. It's not casual baseball skeptics tuning into offseason analysis podcasts. You can tell it like it is, even with a slightly optimistic bent. You'd probably do a lot better too.

Was there an uptick in injuries that year?

If Vaughn shows he can rake, especially along with Jimenez and Robert, then Abreu looks like a no brainer to trim, and Vaughn is a 1B by trade. But I do think the org is prone to keeping him around until he retires though. Then again, he might regress starting this year, and guys like Vaughn, Jiminez, Robert might come around and leave no doubt as to whether we'll have power going forward.

All I know is this too is part of the long play for CONFORTO. The whole offseason is a saga that culminates in CONFORTO.

His speed and reads somewhat canceled out, and he had a left-fielder's arm. I'd believe it if he were above average at the LF position. But no one was really using advanced metrics then.

Vaughn panning out would allow them to let Abreu walk after this year. They're gonna be flirting with the CBT for a few years here, and they'll have a lot of contracts and regressions to deal with over the next two years, so having a guy who can match or eclipse Abreu's production at a low cost would be pretty damn clutch insofar as a 'sustained run of success' is concerned. Not to think too far ahead but I'd hate to see the FO hasten the return to vintage Sox ball, scrapping for 83 wins and a WC3 slot.

It's not like he's hitting .350. He'd have to hit about .350 in order to get on base around .387. Yet usually with an undersized grindy type like this, people say 'we don't need em to hit home runs, we just need someone to get on base.' Madrigal always baffled me as a first round pick. He looks like he'd be a sparkplug with all the fundamentals down, but he only has the contact tool, and that should've been evident in his NCAA career. What did MLB scouts see in him? This is the kind of guy a really good org develops out of nowhere to fill out the bottom of the lineup but doesn't use a #1 pick to get him, and then also doesn't trade him for an overpriced and largely superfluous reliever. Moreover a low cost #9 hitter with some upside is usually a desideratum for a team with frugal tendencies like the Sox, so getting rid of Madrigal was to me just as puzzling as spending a #1 pick on him in the first place. In the end, I still think Harrison will be an alright fit for this team's needs and is probably a slightly better defender in spite of the age difference.

I don't see this org ever signing a guy like Conforto when they're already stacked. I could've seen the Sox signing him in 2018 or something, which means I expect him to go to Arizona or Miami rather than a team like ours. Conforto and Castellanos seem to be marginal improvements over the RF collective, and that improvement is probably purely defensive.