RH Bat

There's not really a roster spot for him now, so you have to be bringing him in on a minor league deal. Your bench is already full of RH bats with Vazquez, Holt, Young and Rutledge. Maybe Weeks is an upgrade over Rutledge vs LHP, but i'd rather have Rutledge at a cheaper price, and with more upside than a 34 year old Rickie Weeks

Weeks' defense is truly atrocious these days at any position. He's basically a PH/DH bat vs LHP, and nothing more. Definitely not someone you'd bench benny for.

But yeah, ideally the RH 3B/IF bat would be a little stronger than what we currently have in Rutledge, who isn't even a plus defender.


I think his concern is that Young will be in there vs. every LHP (often at DH), and yet we'll still be a little light against them due to the 3B and LF/CF situations.

Weeks is interesting but previous comments already explained how bad he has been defensively in the outfield let alone him playing 3rd.

I happen to think JBJs defense and ability to at times hold his own against lefties is enough to leave him in the lineup 3/4 of the time against LH. Benintendi looks to have the contact profile to be ok against lefties most of the time, however his defense in center hasn't really been tested in season and Young isn't what he once was obv ( Although I, as a fan was happy with how he handled LF in his first year). Really it just seems more advantageous to have a top 5 centerfielder in baseball playing defense for you everyday.

The real problem lands with Moreland and Sandoval and if they can stay in the lineup against lefties. People have brough up Valencia before, but who would you take off the roster?

IMO this situation is the kind of thing where is should be addressed if it ends up being a problem.



If JBJ bottoms out, and Benintendi struggles early we have a couple RH bats in AAA to play the corners or left in a pinch (Craig, Travis) and if action needs to be taken maybe somehow getting a Brett Lawrie/David Freese type. But the season is coming up quick. I'm fine with What we have. We aren't devoid of RH depth, considering we have 4 of the better right handed hitters in the league. ::praying for a Sandoval Surprise and us all jumping back on his bandwagon and pretending we didn't question his weight/work ethic/skill last couple years::

Yeah, I'd like someone who could play second and third base and has some pop in his bat. The problem is, that player is commonly referred to as someone's starting second baseman. The team is only carrying four bench spots. One is the backup catcher, and the other is eaten up by the Moreland/Young platoon. In those two remaining spots, versatility is key. Holt is a really nice tenth man, and Rutledge is a slightly-above replacement player for very short money who gives the team the flexibility to run the Ramirez/Moreland/Young DH-1B set-up as planned. If they can find a cheap upgrade from Rutledge that would be neat, but I wouldn't take Weeks or Valencia there.

Now if you're being creative and decide to go with an 11-man staff you could bring Selsky or Brentz and an all-field/no-hit middle infielder instead of Rutledge and Abad. But if you're gonna carry a 12th arm then you need that flexibility of Rutledge or his equivalent.

Byung-ho Park DFA'd today by the Twins.



Dealt with injuries last year but definitely someone who'd be worth a chance. Recent Fangraphs article shows that the guy has immense power-

www.fangraphs.com/blogs/dont-quit-on-byung-ho-park/

Brentz hit .250/.278/.402 in AAA last year and he's not a good fielder or baserunner.  He's not going to be on the major league bench unless horrible things have gone wrong.

Where did the power go though?  Hasn't been there in years.

this brings up an interesting discussion on whether the sox carry 11 or 12 pitchers?

The 6 starters and kimbrel, thomberg ,kelly, barnes and ross I think are givens. Heath and abad maybe in limbo. Maybe trading one of these two gives the team a chance to pick up a rhh infielder type. wright gives them some flexibility to cover both starters and relief. Erod probably starts the year in AAA. Maybe abad is gone. Will they keep barnes, Kelly and heath. Maybe just 2 of the 3. Maybe the vechile to build some depth back in the farm system.

It's still going to be 12 if not 13 pitchers. Doesn't matter if it SHOULD be, it's what Farrell is going to want.

I do not know what should be. Farrell's management of innings will be key to the number of pitchers and the number of guys on the bench. Hopefully he gives the starting positional players some rest so that they can maintain a high level come sept/oct. The bench now has more flexibility with no papi at the dh.

I thought our lineup was too right handed? Now we feel like we need another right handed bat.... truthfully, I don't think this team needs anything right now. The best thing they can do is leave as much flexibility as possible (that includes money and prospects) to evaluate the team once games are actually being played. That way you have as much ammo and room as possible to fill in any perceived holes. No team is perfect and there are always areas that can be improved but you get to a certain point where we are nitpicking and it's more valuable to keep as much remaining flexibility as possible to see what comes of things.

For example, third base is a position where it would be nice to have more certainty, but it's certainly possible Pablo bounces back and plays well. If so, then you've wasted resources trying to marginally upgrade your back up option of Holt.

What if Travis is raking from the get go in AAA?

On the flip side, what if one of our starting outfielders suffers a major injury? Young can be an adequate fill in for a period but maybe they want to go get a Jay Bruce or someone for a more permanent role.

If there is one spot, I would want to see an addition it would be another reliable bullpen arm, but that's not worth while right now. Better to evaluate Smiths recovery and how Kelly handles full time duty.