Juan Soto

So you think it's a good idea to have Grissom and Campbell both in the 2024 starting lineup, neither of whom have played a full season in the majors, make up for O'Neill's production not being here?

If you're expecting to be 81-81 again, or are aiming to be a draft lottery team, that's fine. But if we're serious about making the playoffs it's ludicrous to have both of them in the lineup.

Anyways, let's get back to Soto this isn't the place for this argument.

Full vjd

Speaking of narratives, one that cracks me up is that "he's a MFY, so they have the inside track."

I was just scrolling thru his BR page for the helluvit and one stat that stuck out to me was this:

Games Played:
WAS = 565, including one WS ring
SDP = 214
MFY = 157, plus one WS appearance in which he was about the only guy who hit and the rest of his team (especially the Ruth to his Gehrig) embarrassed themselves.

Just imagining Aaron Judge showing up to make a pitch to him makes me LOL.  "C'mon bro!  Remember how great the WS was? I whiffed four times a game!  Let's do it again!"

Thirty-two pages of hype and wishful thinking is making it tough to resist. I’m doing my best not to get my hopes up. Recent off season disappointments impact my generally optimistic view of the Red Sox.

But this is a free agent I reeeeeeally want the Sox to get. I’ve always loathed Mark Texeira since he played the Sox after 2008 and signed with the Yankees and I deeply don’t want to view Juan Soto that way. I’m sure it was just hard ball negotiating by Texeira and he was using the leverage of multiple teams to increase his contract. That’s a smart thing for his agent to do. But I’m not some neutral observer. I’m a passionate fan who wants his team to win the World Series every year and field a team with nine gold glove, silver sluggers, an MVP, and a Cy Young winner. It irritates me that the Dodgers lineup features three MVPs. I want that! One of my favorite stats ever is that Bill Mueller won a batting title in 2003 mostly hitting EIGHTH. More of that. More 108 win seasons. More dancing in the outfield. More idiots. More bearded bands of brothers. Cowboy up John Henry!

I completely understand Theo’s contention that it’s important to resist the temptation to try to build a super team. That’s a smart thing for baseball executives to do. But please, pretty please, with sugar on top, drop bank vault on this perfect fit of a baseball player and make this signing happen. Cowboy up Red Sox!

There was also friction between the Duquette Red Sox and Teixeira when the draft was going on IIRC so Teixeira was already not big on the Red Sox even though it was a different management group by then.

Yes to everything else you said.

The 04, 07, and 13 teams werent uber teams. They won 98, 96, and 97 games respectively.

The 2018 squad played like an uber team, not that there was anything wrong with that, lol. I'd still take the 04 or even 07 squad's rosters over the 18 roster but I certainly could be persuaded to change my view on that with the right argument, lol.

I'd like to muddle that argument even more with debating how great the 2025 - 2030 squads are. I'm ready for that.

My head says Fried or Snell, Crochet or a guy in the Buehler tier, 2 solid relievers, if not 3, and a RH bat for a year, although I do think theyd try to out flex LA for Teoscar.

My wish list is Soto, Burnes or Snell or Fried (interesting that Big Papi prefers Fried), a Crochet deal that involves Abreu and preserves the top 5 farm guys and allows them to keep one of Arias or Password, a Sasaki signing, a Crawford deal for a closer like Helsley, although if healthy maybe they sign Romano, and/or a Yates or Scott.

Thats a a huge wish list, so I expect to be disappointed and will have to deal if Soto returns to the Yankees, a distinct possibility some here dismiss because they simply hate the Yankees as if going (and losing) the Series in the 1 year with the Yankees would be a deterrent, compared to the Sox not having even made the playoffs in 3 years. If he goes back to the Yankees or more likely grabs Cohen's money bags, I have to remember that the Sox can still have a transformative offseason.

Kind of like 04 when there was a bitter disappointment that the A-Rod/Manny deal and corresponding Magglio Ordonez/Nomar deal fell thru and worse, A-Rod wound up in pinstripes.

Of course at that time both Jon Lester and Brandon McCarthy were seen as comparable pitching prospects, but while McCarthy had some good moments, he was very brittle and Lester wound up being a big game workhorse.

It's very fortunate that both deals didnt go through or it's very probable the Sox dont win in 2013, without Lester.

So I'll ride the roller coaster of this offseason, get upset when Soto goes elsewhere, and remind myself that he cant pitch anyways and that's theres more money available for pitching and that Vlad Jr who hates the Yankees, would be a helluva consolation prize the next offseason.

He will in totality because of the age difference. Ohtani was 29 I think when he struck his deal. Soto will be doing this in his age 26 season where you're talking about the signing a contract in which you'd be getting 3 more prime seasons of HOF worthy performance.

Yeah, that's what I was awkwardly trying to say.

Boggs? (Not trying to hijack the thread and make it about the best Sox hitter since Williams kinda thing. Had to throw this out there.)

How confident are we that Juan Soto is actually as old as he says he is? Sometimes DR birth certificates can be sketchy. I don't know anything about his family or his lifestory so maybe he's solid. However, his free agency takes on a different dimension if Soto is entering his age 28 or 29 season, rather than his 26. I'm certain the Red Sox have looked into this and feel good about it so I'll trust in that.

How many players actually get found to be older than people originally thought? There's been a seemingly small handful in the last 20-30 years. Most of which happen after the first couple years they signed as IFA. Absolutely nothing anyone should be concerned with on Soto IMO.

I don't know how prevalent age cheating is these days, or how stringent the safeguards are, but a high profile prospect recently got caught & where there's temptation (ie $$$) there will be cheaters. 

Chances are extremely slim. If he was older, there would have been something that would have come up by now. Also, I really don’t like these narratives about how foreign players lie about their age. It very rarely happens nor does it really matter in the grand scheme of the player’s performance.