Timmy U

I am excited to see a lot of guys who have barely played in the minors like Braden, Bonemer, Mogollon, Hagen Smith, Nick McClain. I want to see development in Zavala, Antonacci,, and Ronny Hernandez. I am excited to see the young guys try to hit in the majors like Colson, Baldwin, Quero, and Teel. It would be cool to see pitchers like Adams, Iriarte, and Burke grab starting jobs at some point. So a lot of individual player stuff.

I am not thrilled with the Vargas news. Dude is a DH. Rojas is only a 2-3 WAR player if you maximize his glove at 3b. Sox do everything possible to make sure their defense sucks every year.

I know it is one spring game, but really want Rojas at 3rd rather than 2b. Finding where to hide Sosa gonna be rough. Not great at 2b but brutal at 3b.

Deep draft class without a real superstar. Not a terrible year to pick 1-10 and 2-1 (41). They ought to be able to get good players with both picks. Maybe not franchise altering players, but good ones. He has Dumesnil at 41. I doubt that severely, but him at 41 and Willits at 10 would be a good haul.

Thank God they have Clevinger to step in and be the closer.

Lefty who likes the fastball down. No shocker.

HR Colson.

This is why I don’t want them to trade Robert right away. They have exactly one decent position player and three years of control. I would like to watch him.

Or prior to 1980. Aside from ‘77, late 70’s were pretty bleak.

Sad about Chapelli, but you could see the handwriting on the wall. Just not a lot of slots for second base types in the org right now. They have a lot of them.

The exemption was granted by SCOTUS.

Maybe the mystery minority owner he partied with during Covid is Jerry Reinsdorf. Technically he does not own a majority of the shares.

Sox already have to find innings to ramp up 16 guys to starters in Spring. I have no idea why they would do this. Oh well, add it to the 99% of reality that I get no say in.

Crochet’s a bad example. The league adjusted to his slider after like 5 starts last year and he started to get hit. He then worked with both Katz and Bannister to change his arsenal, including adding a cutter to work both sides of the plate and took off again. When it comes to pitch shapes and developing attack plans for pitchers, coaching does matter. That’s why pitching labs aren’t just a radar gun and a box of balls.

I just don't know what else Getz is supposed to do. He very well may be a terrible GM, but given the crater left when the last rebuild failed so spectacularly and the structural mess that was the Sox org, whoever tried to step in faced a humongous project. I would have preferred Theo Epstein or someone like that, but so far Getz is making a lot of solid moves structurally. Everyone here knows how much I despised the Vargas trade from the second it was announced, but other than that, it's been about what you'd expect.

Walker was the Sox first pick (Comp round overall 47) who was a huge surprise when selected from a Utah CC. Literally no one thought he was a first rounder but Kenny saw him play one game and came away convinced. Centerfield tools, could run pretty well, but couldn't really hit. I believe these days he's like a fireman or a paramedic or something. Not his fault that Kenny drafted him that high, but kind of symptomatic of how the Sox weren't like other orgs in a bad way.

And yet, to baseball purists, every roster combo will be somewhat offensive.

I wonder if they’ll give Gallo Mike Moustakas’ old locker,

I wish nothing but the best for Eloy, but it's really gonna hurt if he hits 40 bombs.

Agree 100%. Plus, you got guys like Carela and Gowens in AA while we all know that Schultz and Smith will have guaranteed opportunities and Taylor could be right behind them. I would love to see what we have in this wave of prospects this year, given the fact the Sox will lose >100 games this year no matter what veterans they sign.

If they start trading guys like Burke with less than a year of service time, you're really looking at an endless rebuild. My issue with pitching depth is similar to getting even more second basemen -- there are not slots for them in the minors. If they get high-upside A-ball guys, great. Mid-rotation AA guys would be of no use because Birm and W-S are jam-packed right now. I am team Hold Robert to the Bitter End. You feel otherwise. I respect your opinion and you may be right. I just feel like they need to start getting players who project as 4+ WAR guys or they are going to suck forever.

With the limits on total players and the depth of the Sox system right now, I'm not sure that a couple 40+/45 players are that much better than nothing. If you get Tibbs, with the depth of the W-S OF, he likely plays 1b/dh. The last thing they need is depth starting pitching. I think the only upside play is keeping Robert. Best case scenario, he is capable of down ballot MVP votes. If you can't get at least one player whose FV is in that tier, I don't think the downside risk is that great.

If you can't even get Tibbs for Robert, why the hell would you trade him? Tibbs is a a bat-first player who may have to move to 1b who did not hit in his pro debut. Jordan scares the bejeezus out of me. There's not a lot in that system that I'd want. I'd take Josuar Gonzalez, but that's about it. There is almost no upside there.

My general feeling is bleah. But I actually want to watch Robert play some before they decide to lean even further into the suckitude. I thought the 121 loss season would have taught them not to sign a bunch of washed up vets on their last contracts. Guess I was wrong. But Taylor can also play LF against lefties to spare Benintendi the humiliation., so there’s that.

The Barons crushed him in my one look, so I may not be as high on him as others, but is it wrong that his hair is a dealbreaker for me? You got a first round bonus. Spring for some conditioner.