GreenSox

Why is it too late?

Like one of the 4 young players/major league ready prospects they have and accept below par hitting, if necessary. Meanwhile, they have 1 real outfielder on the roster.

3 WAR for Lux with those numbers looks straight out of the WAR factory (Eaton is a proud graduate).

I like the idea of Conforto on a 1 year.

Just glancing over the 40 man, they could easily make room for 8-10 guys that need to be protected.

They've got 4 minimum salary guys they can play at 2b. All are reasonably well regarded in the minors. Plenty of good teams let young players play even if they struggle some. The Astros do it, the Phillies do it, and the Sox...sign Josh Harrison to get that proven production. 2B is really down on the list of trouble spots (catcher, OF, SP, e.g.)

That may be, but at least let him show his full value on offense, whatever it may be, before trading him, rather than trade him under current depressed value conditions. Plus, the "sign Abreu-trade Vaughn" scenario depresses Vaughn's value even further, as any trade leverage Hahn has is further neutered by that latent announcement "We need to trade Vaughn." (Hopefully he doesn't blatantly announce it like he did with Kimbrel). On other matters, if there's one place they should use the young guys it's at 2B; they have like 4 ML ready (or close to it) 2nd basemen, and trading/dumping them, only to trade for yet another average veteran would just be more of the same. Of course, I see this year as a reshuffle/retool year; I just don't see how they can overcome Hahn's effups from last year in one offseason.

I look at Nimmo and I see that gaudy 5.4 WAR, but then the raw numbers suggest he's basically an OBP guy. $25 is quite the price for an OBP type hitter. Now, I realize that OBP guys are in short supply (nonexistent) on the South Side, so maybe we should just pay-up for one. But we're also a place where OBP goes to die.

While the 2nd paragraph is a grave concern, I don't find the Royals' decision to pass him over particularly troubling. After all, they are the Royals.

I don't think they quit. I think they just an out of gas after game 3 of the Astros' series. They were done. LaRussa was a problem, but the roster probably wasn't any better than an 85 or so win roster. Montoya was announced around the same time as Grifol. If anyone knows, is Montoya someone that they mutually agreed upon prior to the announcement of Grifol. Or was it a FO thing and Grifol said okay; or vice-versa, where he's Grifol's guy and the FO said okay.

Leury, Joe Kelly, Graveman (all 3 probably above 10%). Perhaps even Hendriks.

I remember a people saying/posting that the Sox, to compensate for being such a clown organization, needed to offer at least 10% above the market to get FAs. And, frankly, that's basically what the Sox did for most of the the FAs that they signed.

Personnel decisions were the weakest aspect of Ozzie: he wanted a team full of hackers. Erstad ("like a .400 hitter"), Wise (and as leadoff hitter); and as someone reminded us yesterday, he had Jerry Owens for CF, with Quentin in the minors. He also had no patience with young players.

And not "wasting" at bats by walking (not that that was much of an issue last season).

I've seen nothing tangible to back that up. I look for tangible evidence over the last 10 years that Hahn wants a modern baseball front office; surely he could have built a nifty analytics department, surrounded himself with some outside baseball minds, and the like. He hasn't. The only and the only bit that I can see, and it's not a lot, is hiring Katz. But heck, he hasn't even fired Frank M. yet.

Or maybe he did and Ozzie's who they come up with. The evidence that Hahn is some outside-of-the box, modern analytics thinker is scant at best.

Who do you think it is?

You can't get a more Hahnish committee than one composed of his hand-picked top Front-office lieutenants Getz and Haber A committee composed of only Hahn and 2 lieutenants is as insular as it could be And then Hahn, the guy that the bloggers insist is a new-age thinker being held down by KW and JR, has apparently interviewed Guillen.

What are they waiting on? Sox (and most teams) hire the coaches separately from the manager. Don't need to hire a manager before dispatching this Frank M. Unless....

Is this the Phillies' hitting coach? Well maybe he can give Frank some tips on how to coach hitting.

Getz is Hahn's guy, so my first thought that is that moving him to manager would at least put to rest the idea that Hahn has no power. But the next move would likely be to put W Jr. in charge of the farm, which will wash that down the drain, and will resurrect the bloggers' theme that the "hand of KW controls all." And DA could certainly be right that Hahn, not one to hire "premium talent" for FO positions, might do this because he sees Getz as a threat.

Yes, you (and others) are certainly right about that. I don’t know what I was looking at. He belongs in that “premium talent” category.

Looking at the Phillies further reveals how stupid Hahn is with his budget. The Phillies use minimum salary players at C, SS, CF, 3B, none of whom produced particularly well. They didn't spend much on the pen. But they spent their money on 2 good hitters (Schwarber and Castellanos), on "premium talent" in Wheeler and esp. Bryce Harper. The Sox signed no "premium talent", and poured money into the bullpen, 2B, UI and C. Most of those players figured to be nothing but hole-fillers anyway; the only compelling signees were Lynn, Grandal and Hendriks. Sox had a stronger base to start than the Phillies, and should be able to do what they did while spending less.

It wouldn't surprise me if they make moves for salary reduction. Something like Hendriks or Lynn for a C prospect; not pick up Giolito's option. That sort of thing. I don't think they'll move the overpaid and hopeless, as that will require attaching an A prospect to the stiff, and receiving a C in return. RH gets riled up and mad from reading twitter, so I doubt he's interested in those comments live and in person.

Exactly what it sounds like.