Jake

I see Hahn's comments as being consistent with a number of things, including bringing in a bigger fish for RF, adding someone who is more like a platoon partner, and/or bringing in a big name at some other spot (probably SP)

One thing I think about with regard to whether Mazara's past is going to predict his futureis this: If he was signed out of the DR at age 18 and had just worked his way up to the majors last season and put up those numbers, people would be pretty intrigued by what he might do at age 25 in MLB. But because his prior experience was actually in MLB, people look at him as unlikely to progress — and maybe he won't. I know the lack of long-term team control limits his full upside in terms of contract value, but in terms of deciding how he will play for the next 2 years, I think it's worthwhile to cut him a little slack compared to most other players who haven't broken out in 4 years of MLB experience.

I don't like trading Steele Walker for him, although I do agree with many others that it's more likely than not we never hear about Walker again. That being said, if the Sox talent evaluators are convinced Mazara is going to be a productive player, it's hard to blame them going out and getting him.

Well I will say this: I think Avi Garcia is clearly a more attractive option if you want to maximize the probability of having a player who produces more than 1 WAR in RF without vastly overpaying for it. Castellanos and Ozuna are both solid players but each has some problems and you'll be eating a lot of risk to bring them in. I don't think the Sox are well-situated to absorb some of those risks but I won't be mad if we do go after them.

In fairness, the choices available for offensive signings are not super attractive

I should also say that it seems inaccurate to call him left-handed Avi Garcia because Avi is clearly more accomplished and a safer bet. If handedness isn't an important consideration, I'd happily give Avi a two-year deal to fill that hole and fix the mistake we made in cutting him last year.

And if he plays well, then who cares if you have too many good players? But more likely that Vaughn isn't ready to go until partway into the final year of control for Mazara anyway

Let's find out the price before we go crazy here. What do you like more, 5 years and $100 million for Nick Castellanos or Kodi Heuer for 2 years of Mazara (second year non-guaranteed) at a maximum of about $16M? I think it's quite plausible we could roll the dice on a guy like this *and* bring in a Castellanos or JD Martinez type player who you plan to DH but could go to RF if Mazara doesn't work out

People act like the Sox think that the way he has played is good and that it's what they hope to get from him. Acquiring him is taking a bet that in his age 25 season he might tap into some of his physical gifts. It's not that complicated and it's not that crazy of a bet.

Yeah there's just no way they're going to give up a talent that good just to get rid of Price's contract. You'd still be looking at a Madrigal or Vaughn going the other way, I think.

No clue why people think we would get Benintendi in a deal with the BoSox

Give them Kodi Heuer or Gavin Sheets or something and I think it's worth a shot. I just would want the Sox to figure out a backup plan if he doesn't meet expectations.

That's how you get good players without giving up good players. Another plausible alternative that adds less to the payroll is also getting Jackie Bradley Jr although I think the Red Sox have a little less incentive to move him for nothing since he isn't earning as much.

I'd guess Sox going after Price and JD Martinez for minimal talent going the other way is more likely than taking one of their cheaper players.

What I like about Ryu is you can be reasonably confident that when he's pitching, he's going to be really good. That's the kind of upside I think the Sox should be looking for.

I suspect Grandal is wondering whether he made the right choice to sign so soon after seeing the contracts the starting pitchers have gotten

I'd be much more interested in scrutiny of Ozuna's bat which has shown more variation than his defense, which multiple metrics have shown him to be average or better at over many years.

-2 + 3 + -1 = 0 0 = average He was randomly varying around a long-term norm of being an average outfielder

Let's go back to operating in the world of facts. Until last season, Baseball Savant's outs above average had Ozuna as exactly average defensively and that metric as mentioned compares him against outfielders at all positions on the field. Other metrics have always liked his defense. As far as I can tell, this bad-defense narrative exists only because of the couple terrible plays at the wall he had. Worth noting that he at least used to have a strong arm but played through a shoulder injury in 2018 and said he didn't have his strength back in the beginning of 2019 following his offseason surgery.

Their offense is terrible. I hope I never hear another word about the crazy aggressive defense because for now it's doing fine. I'd like someone to figure out why a team with a bunch of shooters can't shoot.

Lauri has taken a number of very ill-advised attempts at dunks where I doubt he could have made them even without the defender due to his distance from the basket. Refs not eager to bail him out because of it although my only guess is he's trying to dunk rather than shoot to initiate more contact

It was a hell of a gamble Boylen took down the stretch. After a 13-point 3rd quarter, he says screw the defense I'm going with 4 guards to try to get some offense. And, of course, the defense was indeed screwed down the stretch (allowing 41 points in the 4th) by playing so small...but they did get 47 points in the 4th quarter as well. And yes, the main problem with the team in my view is Lauri. I don't think his effort level is low, but something's wrong with him. I don't know if it's physical, mental, or what. I remember hearing he was going vegetarian at one point, so I always wonder if he's not actually well-nourished for the grind of the season. But if he just made open outside shots, we wouldn't really be talking about this. His shooting problem may very well be physical, but I don't know that it's physical in the sense that if he got stronger/healthier it would improve...it might just be technical.

Bulls player ratings per Nate Silver's new RAPTOR statistic, which is particularly strong at quantifying defense (compared to all other alternatives):

Coach of the year!

I don't think the "chase the two" kind of thing is all that uncommon. My first college start, the senior catcher told me "chase the two" (or some other number) with a man on second and once I looked at the signs I had to call him to the mound and ask him what the hell it meant. So at a small school, we had been using that sort of thing for a while. That general type of thing is not much different than the "indicator" most 3B coaches use to relay signs to batters.