Eminor3rd

That’s gotta be the worst defensive OF config in the league this year.

Just keep chucking sliders out of the zone and we’re good.

It takes a lot of coincidences for the tigers to score 5 runs

Hoping to witness a sweep this weekend. But not the one people will expect from me.

Of those, only Kaz Matsui, Hideki Matsui, and Seiya Suzuki were actually "expected" to be real impact players. Maybe Fukudome as well. People often assume that any player who comes over is the best that Japan has to offer, but it's most often not the case. Aoki and Akiyama are examples of great players who were clearly past their prime and everyone on both sides of the water knew it, Taguchi and Iwamura were examples of players that were "above average" NPB players at the time but were more like top 50-ish players than elite in that league. In other words, Kaz Matsui was certainly a bust, maybe Fukudome was. I think the jury is still out on Seiya. Hideki had a good career. The rest may have been disappointing, but were never really expected to be anything other than average-ish players anyway. It's really difficult not to think of NPB as just another minor league, but the reality is just that there are so many political and developmental differences that you just can't compare the players and opportunities apples to apples with other prospects/international signings, etc. The pitchers tend to get posted at the "right" time much more often than the hitters do, for sure. Which is probably part of your point.

Haven't read the FG article, but: Murakami is a generational talent, but he's a pure slugger and actually less athletics than Matsui was at his age. If the Swallows post him in the next couple years, he has a chance to be a star hitter in MLB. But if he doesn't come over until 29, he may look a lot like Matsui did. Which is fine, but not terribly exciting. The next name to watch for this offseason is Kodai Senga. I'll probably start a thread about him like I usually do, but the TL;DR is that it's the best raw stuff from a posted NPB player since Darvish. Can touch 100 mph, high spin, with three pitches (Fastball, slider, splitter) that should be plus in MLB. The command is NOT a plus, it's passable but can abandon him at times. On average, he is wild in the zone but has been overwhelming to hitters here for a long time. He's been long-sought by MLB teams but the Hawks refuse to post anyone, so he's had to wait until free agency despite having been telling the media he's wanted to be posted for the last four or five years. I think he's the safest bet to be successful in a long time simply because if he can't cut it as a starter, the stuff is so good that he could absolutely fallback into a high-leverage relief role. I think every team is gonna kick the tires and I think he's going to make a lot of money. If he would have been posted when he wanted at 26, he'd be a no-doubt $100mm+ contract. Now he's 30 and has been a bit banged up, but the stuff has generally held and the injuries have been scattered around his body and not elbow-related. Sasaki is the only player in Japan with better raw stuff than Senga, but he's 20 and a phenom and very popular. He'll come over but it won't be for a while. He's also still a prospect. He's already thrown a perfect game, but will get tagged for 5+ sometimes when his mechanics are off. He'll be a thing for MLB fans soon, just not yet. He'd go 1:1 in the draft if he was available. Yoshinobu Yamamoto is also super young and is a thousand times more polished. Mid-90's when he wants to, 4 or 5 good pitches though usually only 3 are on at once. I expect he'll be next in line after Senga.

That pitch right there to Sheets. That’s the season for me.

I should caveat this with, Abreu needs to transition to a 50/50 share of DH and 1B with Vaughn in my scenario. Eloy has no trade value, and thus needs to hit enough to keep his glove out there or needs to go, IMO.

Keep Abreu, keep Vaughn, and go sign a player that relegates Sheets to “depth in Charlotte.” That shouldn’t be very difficult, honestly. Eloy needs time to recover so that he doesn’t reinjure himself. Hopefully that happens over the offseason. If he can’t play the OF without getting hurt, he hasn’t shown enough to be rosterable as a pure DH. He needs to keep getting opportunities in LF until he plays himself out of those or he gets replaced by a better player. The latter scenario might need to happen sooner than we want it. But if it does, that’s fine. Eloy can go back to Charlotte and try to climb the ladder again. If he’s as good as we hoped, then we won’t have any problem getting another shot if he can stay on the field.

If “real” is a roughly replacement level player, then yes. ~110 wRC+ with poor defense is sort of how most of us always pegged him, though, I think.

Super excited to see Trout & Harper versus possibly four of the most talented arms Japan has ever produced: Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Kodai Senga, and the next phenom, Roki Sasaki. I don’t know if Samurai Japan has ever had four 100mph, high spin arms at the same time before.

Better and more exciting than MLB, by far, to me.

I’ve heard rumblings that Jeff Lunhow is thinking about getting back in.

They didn’t, haha

This is the quintessential example of a stopgap solution. It’s fine and makes sense. Romy and Sosa will get long looks to break camp with the team next year.

There’s no reason not to pick him up for a month. If he’s bad or complains about playing time, you just release him. Same money to the roster spot either way. It won’t end Sosa’s playing career to get optioned, but it could potentially help the team eke out an extra win, which is likely to be significant in this dumpster fire of a division race.

I got nothing on this guy, sorry.

I’m not sure if you remember the relationship that Chris Sale had with our FO

Is THIS post a math joke?

Generally speaking, wearable giveaways, bobbleheads, fireworks, and milestone ceremonies move the needle

I’ve been as down on the FO as anyone over the last few years, but I don’t think the window is closed quite yet. i do think the coaching staff has to change. Even if you’re a TLR defender still somehow, there needs to be a fresh vibe, if for no other reason than to signal to the players that dumb shit might stop happening (even if it probably won’t). It’s insane that, as horribly as practically EVERYTHING has gone for the Sox this year (other than Cease), they’re only three games out of first. That’s why the window is still open. If even two or three of this seasons epic disappointments had just turned out like expected, the team would be in first even despite the terrible FO decisions. There is still room for some thing to break the right way next year, even if the FO can’t be expected to make significant improvements.

No I’d rather waive Zavala to keep a decent defender on the roster for a season for once.

Sox talent eval is so advanced, give ‘em credit: they were among the teams that recognized there was value in trying to add the reigning AL mvp.

Only good defensive catcher the Sox have had in like a decade. I know I’m overreacting to this one. Seby Zavala is ok or whatever, McGuire wasn’t hitting, etc., but Rick Hahn is the absolute lord of robbing Peter to pay Paul. Of all the ways to land what he needs, he always finds SOME way to open up another hole at the same time. It’s just hard to believe there wasn’t another way to get a mediocre lefty RP

“This is what three consecutive years of dogshit decision-making can do to a promising rebuild”