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Normally I'm out on most of the guys you bring up as posting (though I love the posts), I'm very in here. Does he hit the ball on the ground ?

It's like reading early 2000 forward chain letters

Abrams is a good prospect but he only completed half a season at AA and then broke his leg. It was a good season, but it wasn't amazing given the league. If this prevents shoring up additional pitching I think it's a bit too all or nothing. But I get the idea. I do wonder if you half-life Hosmers contract at what point is he fine. He goes down to $13 mill next year. I'm assuming at 6-7 million he becomes a decent possibility. But the most hilarious thing about Hosmer is his fielding metrics are horrendous now. Like maybe a team like boston goes cheaper at 1b and takes Hosmer if he was a good defensive player, and likes his LH bat in fenway, but meh.

yeah pretty annoyed.

Ohh I wasn't even thinking for sox sales. I mean if phils would be interested in a Kimbrel for Segura swap, freeing the position to go after a top IFer like Semien while locking down the bullpen. He has stuff that is good (high contact) but stuff that is bad (also very groundball heavy). But their salary matches and he has 1 year left on his deal.

Scherzers spittle is actually regenerative.

Yanks will swim in same waters as us apparently.

what teams do we think are offseason sellers? It may be a tough offseason to buy via trades. AL Buyers (or "not sellers") in my estimation: Yankees, Red Sox, Rays, Blue Jays Tigers, Sox, Royals (in their own way) Mariners, Angels NL Buyers: Mets, Braves, Phillies Brewers, Cards, Reds I would say aren't "sellers" Giants, Dodgers, Padres And the talent on the rangers, dbacks, pirates, orioles is now atrocious. Weird year. So I guess if you are someone who thinks there could be ML player for ML player swaps, this would be the year.

crazy. I'm 150,000% team scherzer. I like Semien though.

That's true, he does give you some more professional ABs by chasing fewer pitches than our team does on average. But he definitely feasts on FBs.

Yes, Zaidi is clearly very good at PD. If you aren't imitating him, you should be less confident. The stuff on their batting practice vs heavy sliders instead of cookie fastballs is not groundbreaking but something this team especially needs to find new ways to work in. It feels like all of our hitters have gravitated to the same place.

I know offense is more fun, but genuinely interested in understanding where this board thinks the biggest impact would be, knowing that neither will happen.

I do think there is quite a bit more juice to squeeze out of the talent of this roster through player development and coaching. The sox have really leaned into some volatile players and played into their strengths and lived with their weaknesses. But now we see how magnified some of these weaknesses can become. Especially the wildness when we face more disciplined teams. For pitching though, I think we do need to diversify with some different pitcher types. I hope players like Marshall bounce back, because we miss some different look guys, but we had so few that could throw a damn strike. Thank goodness for Tepera. Pretty much every team in the playoffs has the discipline to say "okay we'll be able to hold off on your off speed and go after fastballs" and the velo did nothing. When they sat fastball they could hit it. But with hitting...there is no way some of these players need to be as GB heavy as they are. I think with TIm...he probably will be. But anyone else...sox need to help them. I don't think we need to bring in hitters specifically who elevate, but if the sox think they need to bring in josh donaldson to teach our hitters how to...then what are we doing here.

9 2b being available at the trade deadline is more than any other position save RP, and whatever odds you are discussing aren't any better in Free Agency or trade currently, so going to bat for a promising 2b prospect who showed versatility and power makes sense when money is valuable.

I think he's a victim to the garpax strategy of "throw a lot of young talent together with poor coaching and see what sticks". Even last year, there was a lot of priority put in trying to find White and Lauri's fit, and guys like Gafford and WCJ to me suffered because they are guys who as big guys can thrive earlier on a team with defined roles. Well on the bulls everyone was defining their role. I'm not sure Donovan's "prove it" strategy where he basically asked WCJ and Gafford to be the version of themselves where they would be a lead in the offense brought out the best in them, and they did pretty damn well post-bulls. But whatever, still hopeful we find something interesting out of Troy Brown Jr.

Yes, should not be hard to add a reasonable 2b at the deadline. The 2b additions did reasonably well Using OPS+ since fangraphs maddeningly never splits out team additions like baseball ref does Harrison on As - 79 Escobar on Brewers - 113 Turner on Dodgers - 152 Schoop (unmoved) - 95 ( ish) Iglesias on Red Sox - 142 Baez on Mets - 141 Frazier on Padres - 86 Story (unmoved) - 120 (ish) Hernandez on White Sox - 69 (nice) Red sox acquired Schwarber (154 OPS+) for their 19th ranked relief prospect and picked up Iglesias off of waivers. Better scouting is needed, but how much are we willing to pay? The true upgrades will require substantial cost. If they go for a top guy like Semien, I'm all ears. But if you were to throw a bucket of escobar, leury, iglesias, galvis, etc in a bowl, I wouldn't say with certainty anyone provides meaningful upgrades over what the sox got out of Leury this year. And I think it's reasonable Romy could pace that on 550k. And if he doesn't, go trade for Jose Iglesias again, nobody seems to want his very good production plus defense ever.

Why can’t Romy be the answer?

Dude just rakes at every level. Too bad he wasn't signed by the Rays.

just a beautiful trade James McCann to White Sox Dallas Keuchel to Mets

I put together a google sheet each year that puts all salaries and free agents in a place where you can pick up options, free agents and a trade center and see total salary. I'll probably put that together rightafter WS.

I am incredibly excited for this season. That of course makes me nervous.

Well, this has to be the team. Tampa is excellent, but the game plan against them has been to surrender the run (because they are amazing) and throw at some beat up corners. I do not have heavy confidence in this staff to get him prepped best for this gam.e

Sox were 5th in ERA this year. 162 games. In February/March, gospel around here was our offense would crush but we were severely challenged for depth in the pitching staff. Would love to go back and time and ask if the sox finished 1st in pitching WAR and 5th in ERA if they think that would qualify the pitching coach to have done a good job, or if the better evaluation is to be traumatized by a playoff series. For all the talk of cutting the legs out from under the offense to get better at the margins, the pitching staffs no control/ all velo approach seems like the better place to optimize for the playoffs. Getting a guy like Joe Kelly (curveball heavy) or McHugh (slider heavy/cutter) are interesting players to add and Kelly is never fazed in the playoffs.

I have to say, I'm more confident in fields but this feels so much like the 2017 bears, and I just want to breathe a relief where he just puts a whole game together with like 250 yards and 3 TDs. That bears team also felt like it would move it into the opponents territory and stall over and over at the 40.

Yeah you guys are starting to way overthink things. It's a 1 year deal regardless. Kinda sucks for carlos having to make this decision right before CBA.