bmags

Tonight will be interesting without Vuc. So much of the offense goes through him, through pick and rolls. Will be interesting to see how they adjust (like maybe moving Williams to 5 and starting caruso?)

I don't disagree. I think he benefitted a lot however from Cubs showcasing his positional versatility. He really is a tremendous athlete. I wouldn't want to pay bryce harper money for Bryant. Really the best case scenario with him is you get a large contract with an opt out and he plays amazing and opts out. But more likely he injures his arm and you have a start to gulp pretty quickly. You do worry he ends up as this Evan Longoria type for years, but so hard not to look at and think each year they go back to that bankable production.

I am not someone that thinks the sox need to hit the perfect equilibrium of player to position. Sox may need to discard Kimbrel, Keuchel salaries, but they don't need to discard of anyone just for balance/playing time. They can just add more players.

The Astros and Dodgers who have owned the last 5-6 years have done a good job of balancing their team to be able to counter any one trend. They have guys that throw hard, they have guys that throw all offspeed. They have power, they hit for contact. In 2015, the astros stormed to a WC birth behind the cy young Keuchel season. In 2016, they either re-signed or re-added that with Jason Castro, Colby Rasmus, Luis Valbuena and Carlos Gomez. Castro had years of high obp, but had 30% Krates. Rasmus K'd 30% of the time. Gomez was not always that bad Krate wise but under astros was 30% krate. Valbuena high 20s. They had a powerful lineup that could not make enough contact. They didn't run from power, but that year signed McCann, Carlos Beltran, Josh Reddick, Nori Aoki and Yuli Gurriel. McCann with a 15% career K-rate Beltran with a career 17% krate (and wasn't good with Astros) Reddick with a career 16% krate Aoki with a 12% k-rate (again, not a great player) The previous year, signed 32 year old Yuli Gurriel out of Cuba who has had a career of 12% k-rate. Obviously, 2017 cheating, fun stuff, I've tried to bring in their pre-acquisition historicals or overall career. The sox could have had a path where the team they put together had all the right trends that year in route to a world series, and may have not been able to keep that level again. The cubs are a great success story, but I think people think of that. The nationals had years of talented teams that couldn't find right balance. So I think the things we are pointing the sox to improve are important, and the lack of power the sox showed in the playoffs would have not been as big of a deal had we had more players who could be more likely to make contact (sequencing improvement) but especially contact not in the ground (gb rate), and better odds vs LHP. But, what I think is dumb is thrashing against the good players that the sox have just because they didn't carry over the series. Or looking for things that show they weren't as good as we thought. Raising your sight from winning a division to winning the world series is exciting and discouraging when you realize there was farther to go, and still can make mistakes. But this team is good, could do more things to shore up weaknesses but that needs to happen while protecting strengths. And needs luck. Like the sox had to face the astros dominant McCullers twice, the braves/red sox didn't. He was particularly fucking ridiculous vs. us.

I feel like if we are doing the "with no FA budget what are the additions to SP, 2b, RF, DH that most improve the sox" I think it's SP: Scherzer 2B: Seager RF: Bryant DH: Schwarber

I would guess people on the low-end for Conforto might have pictured like 4 / 55 or /65 (the AJ Pollock deal), but I think in general people think he would be expensive but also a long term solution. With so much of the league circling the infielders, hopefully a guy like that falls through to us. But also just want to stress, the sox have some pretty specific needs in hitters. If you make a list, there are not that many hitters with great vs RHP splits, good at contact/obp at either RF/2b positions. You are going to get a lot of board consensus there.

I also see him pressing for an opt-out

I get things might have soured, but I don't see Gallo as a guy the Yankees are going to veer from. They definitely want more contact, but also to be more LH. I suppose he could force his way out, but to me I feel like they are going to prioritize their middle infield, catcher, DH spots to diversify their contact, handedness issues rather than trade out Gallo.

I feel like if what @Harold's Leg Lift says it's true it's because Jerry will have bent the will of the CBA toward his favor. Always feels like pre-contentious CBAs he'll make a big deal of staying within the rules, then post CBAs he'll go to the organized top end as a sign of like, good will. Take for instance the sox spending all of their draft capital after years of staying into the slotted amounts. Or Albert belle signing post 94. Just a thought.

ha, I didn't see that that's not what they predicted.

I've wondered if Bryant could play 2b. My guess is he wouldn't want to, and I can't think of many 2bs as tall as him. I think he's headed for a weird offseason of suitors because of his versatility.

I think in general the board underestimates contracts around this time of the offseason, but I still think MLBTradeRumors is way overshooting there.

So, you bring up strength of schedule, someone counters with Braves an 88 win team in a bad division that had a worse strength of schedule than the sox, and you say "well at least they were chased by the Phillies", the 82-80 Phillies. The 80-82 Cleveland team "chased" the sox in that case, the sox just unfortunately won 5 more games and did it early enough not to get the extra credit I guess.

This is blaming the Sox for sprinting 20 games above .500 and not meandering earlier in the year so they could be “chased” by the Indians and Tigers. If the Sox weren’t up 9 games in late July, Eddie Rosario wouldn’t be in the braves

He’s left handed, plays 2nd base, has high contact rates and doesn’t hit the ball on the ground. I’m sorry his performance with your favorite team traumatized you but that’s a short list of players and him sucking with your favorite team is probably good for acquiring him.

Well moving on from Grandal must have made them advance through playoff rounds right?

Depending on how on tilt Preller is, maybe Frazier becomes available again.

Another raptor could’ve Boucher

So yeah his name would be Cesar Hernandez

White Sox winning one ALDS game in the playoffs: trash team that can’t compete. Brewers winning one NLDS game: model org to try to live up to

Jerami Grant?

Oh so three examples jfc caulfield

If he’s going to paint them into a corner, glad it’s the one where he needs to spend. That said, he always seems to gravitate toward spending on DHs and Closers, that’s where his ideal top contract tends to get top of market.

I feel like our bench better got the assignment that Ayo knew in game 1, these dudes aren’t coming into to shoot, they are in to run like hell and be maniacs on defense. Man I love Javonte Green, and that lineup of Caruso, Lavine, Ball, DDR, Vuc with more time can be lethal. Still vulnerable to size, but should be able to shut down perimeter.

Unlike other teams, the Astros players say they work hard for their success. We will never try that.