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Post by greatscottcooper on Apr 29, 2024 7:57:39 GMT -5
When it seemed that the season may have been lost because the injuries kept piling up some key bats really stepped up. Devers is heating up, Yoshida has turned it around, now Refsnyder and O'Neill have both returned and are hitting well. Conor Wong is on pace for about 30 HR's this year. I've been very happy with the catching position this year.
Casas was a big blow, and Whitlock looks like he's going to be out for a little longer than we thought, but everyone else seems to be coming back soon. Winning cures a lot, and bouncing back to take 2 out of three from the Cubs is a good look.
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Post by greatscottcooper on Apr 23, 2024 13:26:11 GMT -5
I have seen some pretty weak Yard Goats minor league teams in the past in Hartford but this year's version should be a very good test for the Sox top minor league team. According to mlb.com, Colorado has 12 of their top 30 prospects including 4 of the top 6 in Hartford currently and they are 2nd in the division behind Portland in the early going. www.mlb.com/prospects/rockiesSuch a beautiful stadium in Hartford. I always make it a point to go when the Seadogs are in town, but this is the year I think I just start going to games.
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Post by greatscottcooper on Apr 8, 2024 13:17:24 GMT -5
Wasn't the plan to have Rafaela play 1-2 days a week at SS anyways? so seriously what is the big deal about adding two days to that? you can still start him in CF 2-3 days a week and put Reyes at SS when you want to go RH heavy and Ceddanne can play CF to rotate days off for Duran/Abreu.
This is really the best option the Sox have that in my opinion doesn't give them that much of a step back.
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Post by greatscottcooper on Apr 6, 2024 10:08:54 GMT -5
I know the severity of a dislocated shoulder can vary greatly. When I dislocated my shoulder I was back at 100% in the gym in less than two weeks. It was looking like Story was healthy, and I had faith that bat was going to warm up eventually. Here’s hoping it’s something minor.
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Post by greatscottcooper on Mar 28, 2024 16:31:43 GMT -5
Some people are disappointed we didn’t get Ohtani. Some people are disappointed we didn’t get Yamamoto Some people are disappointed we didn’t sign Montgomery Some people are dissatisfied in the roster construction. We didn’t invest in pitching, we didn’t trade for pitching. Henry is cheap! Maybe, maybe some people think we are enabling a cheap front office by buying tickets, attending games and tuning them into our TV and radio devices.
I. DONT. CARE. Baseball is here.
As far as I’m concerned this team hasn’t lost one single game yet. They play them for a reason. I am excited for baseball. I’m fully invested in this season; for better or worse.
Happy opening day all.
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Post by greatscottcooper on Mar 11, 2024 12:45:01 GMT -5
Not that this is good news for the Yankees in any way, but they probably don't have to exercise that option at the end of his contract now to stop him from opting out if Cole ends up being out for the season.
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Post by greatscottcooper on Mar 7, 2024 12:45:51 GMT -5
You dream big on Bello and get reminiscent of wishing we locked up Bogaerts longer when he was in his 30’s and hit free agency. Honestly, I like that model a lot better on the pitching side of things.
I’m a fan of this deal.
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Post by greatscottcooper on Mar 5, 2024 12:23:59 GMT -5
I've been sort of a late bloomer on the Wilyer Abreu boat. I've seen athletes go pro who performed better than their amateur counterparts (who outperformed them) because they just had that "step up" factor. It's hard to quantify someone's ability to grow mentally and how that meshes with their determination and hard work. Physical tools are so much easier to evaluate.
I like Wilyer, I'm hoping he can be a .780-.800 OPS guy who plays above average defense in RF. I know he has platoon concerns, but I'm really rooting for him now to prove himself as an everday player. I think he's at the very least been playing his way into getting an opportunity.
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Post by greatscottcooper on Feb 27, 2024 14:51:17 GMT -5
I'm only able to use gameday because I'm at work so I can't speak to it's accuracy, but it was nice to see him take a called strike that appeared to be a borderline pitch. Given his speed/power potential, one has to think his production has the potential to rise more than most if he could make real sustainable changes to his approach......which is probably one of the hardest things to do as a hitter......besides actually hitting a baseball. Not sure how Gameday showed it, but it was not a close pitch. Still, obviously important that he lays off, he was expanding the zone a lot on those outside pitches when he was slumping the last couple weeks last year. It showed a ball he took for a called ball, I think it was the third pitch. Yeah, that's way outside the zone, but the pitch I was talking about was a called strike, Looked to just be touching the strike zone. I think it was strike 2. Of course, it's one pitch in spring training, lets see him do it a lot and form a habbit. Kind of hard to see him making a drastic change but then again....I never thought Duran would look good in the outfield.
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Post by greatscottcooper on Feb 27, 2024 13:16:29 GMT -5
I'm only able to use gameday because I'm at work so I can't speak to it's accuracy, but it was nice to see him take a called strike that appeared to be a borderline pitch. Given his speed/power potential, one has to think his production has the potential to rise more than most if he could make real sustainable changes to his approach......which is probably one of the hardest things to do as a hitter......besides actually hitting a baseball.
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Post by greatscottcooper on Feb 23, 2024 8:20:21 GMT -5
I'm old enough to remember the first Xander extension Even more pertinent to this thread how about when Lester signed a 5/$30m deal with a $13m club option that went through his age 30 season? And that one was after his 3rd season in which he won 16 games with 210 IP and a 144 ERA+... I hope we're at least exchanging frameworks with Bello, and Casas, and Grissom, but Bello should have more incentive to lock something in than the hitters do at this point so I'd hope we're trying to lock in one or two more club option years than he wants. I don't even know what people expect to hear, if he was happy with the terms offered he'd be signing it not taking questions about the negotiations, good news to me to hear they're talking. Didn't Lester also still have two years of team control, and we are factoring in over a decade of inflation at this point. I always get weary of matching up other contracts because it's never truly apples to apples when ages, time of signing, years of control etc all vary greatly. But I agree that I hope they're exchanging frameworks, teams need to be willing to pay these guys more money to buy out their prime years and players need to forgoe the possibility of a big pay day at year 7 to sign up for the pay day today and forgeo the performance/injury risk over the next 3-5 years.
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Post by greatscottcooper on Feb 22, 2024 11:15:39 GMT -5
EDIT: Does anyone know what a "moderate right posterior capsule strain" is? Where is Craig Breslow's medical background when you need it Not that I think you were seriously asking, but a guy who studied molecular biochemistry as an undergrad is about as far away as it's possible to get from having insight into "ow my shoulder hurts". I dunno, I think having a degree in art history would take you much further away from at least having a science based degree. Point is, I could get you much further away than that.
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Post by greatscottcooper on Feb 21, 2024 13:55:29 GMT -5
Cora mentioned Jorge Benitez as having really good stuff (not the word he used lol) today. I wonder if he had an outside shot of making the OD roster. They probably need a second lefty out of the pen and will have a 40 man spot available once Hendriks goes to the 60 day. I thought it would be Luetge or Murphy but if he looks really good in spring maybe he gets a chance first. Does Murphy have options left? He should have two option years left after burning his first one last year.
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Post by greatscottcooper on Feb 18, 2024 9:37:11 GMT -5
Curious where he will rank here to start, I’m gonna guess in the 16-22 range, but I suppose it depends on the reports of his stuff currently. We should start taking bets on this stuff. I’m more bullish than you, I see him in the 13-16 range, and if I had to pick a definite slot I’ll go 14.
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Post by greatscottcooper on Feb 15, 2024 8:29:53 GMT -5
Always a good sign after 4 months off…. Not downplaying the concern here, but after so much time off one can easily hurt themselves trying to ramp back up. Said injuries can be bad, or literally practically nothing.
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Post by greatscottcooper on Feb 9, 2024 13:48:34 GMT -5
I'm not sure spending more money will help at this point. How many starting pitcher contracts for pitchers >30 have worked out? Its a crap shoot at best. Sale for example, was pretty healthy in his 20s and did help us to a series win, but the last few years were a huge overpay. Price was a disaster. Beckett was probably the best case. Paying high price free agent pitchers on the second contract can supplement a strong pitching staff, but it can't be used to build one. Our offence has always been pretty solid, and this year should be no different. But sox pitching, especially starting pitching, is weak and likely to keep us out of the playoffs. And short-term prospects don't look great. Only 2 of the top 10 prospects and 4 of the top 20 are pitchers; 20% where it needs to be 50% or more given the failure/injury rate of pitchers. I think ownership recognizes this hence bring in a (hopefully) pitching guru in Breslow. A steady flow of pitching prospects, a few of whom end up as solid contributors, is the only answer. Adding Theo to the mix can only help. He has a strategic view and the hope is he will help guide the building of a consistent winner
Expect the Sox to have a draft such as the angels one year. Draft nothing but pitching.
How did that work out for the Angels? I’m not opposed to taking an extra pitcher or two in the draft and drafting some of those guys earlier as well, but drafting all pitching can fail quite horribly.
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Post by greatscottcooper on Feb 9, 2024 13:41:21 GMT -5
Signing Chapman and moving Raffy to DH may be the best way to improve the lineup/defense tbh And before I get the $300 mill DH stuff his bat needs to be worth like 3 WAR to make him worthwhile. Super doable for him. Defense actually hurts his value. It’s not happening though I’m not super against this, but Chapman is going to get paid, not like he otherwise would given his age but I think he still gets a higher AAV for 4-5 years. As good as he is, at his age he can slide downhill fast. I’d still be ok with that, but moving Raffy his 2nd year into a 10 year extension isn’t a good look. Even if you don’t hope his defense can return to average(ish), you still lose out on a chance to improve your defense in other areas by ensuring Yoshida is playing left field. I dunno, I feel like it should be pitching or bust at this point IMHO
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Post by greatscottcooper on Feb 9, 2024 8:15:07 GMT -5
If Snell and Montgomery are holding out because they want more money that isn't there for them, at this point what is additional holding going to do?
Could they possibly be waiting for someone to get desperate once spring training starts and someone goes down? Seems like a big gamble to do with two guys.
I would still really like Montgomery at a reasonable price.
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Post by greatscottcooper on Feb 6, 2024 17:16:09 GMT -5
Dodgers resigning Kershaw WTF?? I didn't hear a single report about Breslow being in on Kershaw!! Do they even care?? The guy is a first-ballot HOFer and still had enough in the tank to clock 4 WAR last year!! Reports say that LAD only gave him a year and a player option -- Breslow couldn't do better than that?? I bet Henry wouldn't open his wallet!! What a joke!! This is an insult to RSN!!Before I realized this was all italics I was thinking. Bro he hasn’t even had a full offseason yet, let alone a trade deadline and a draft. Then I saw the italics.
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Post by greatscottcooper on Feb 6, 2024 8:38:07 GMT -5
I keep on trying to decipher who the Sox are going to sign by who is left and who is still looking for pitching. I'm left with, the Sox are holding out for Montgomery, who is holding out for Texas to see if they can give him more money. If they don't get him they move on to Clevinger, but there's also this growing feeling in me that it's going to be no one, they're not signing anyone else.
I don't really think that, I think another starter gets added by opening day but....I don't really know anything who knows.
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Post by greatscottcooper on Feb 3, 2024 11:30:06 GMT -5
I do all the hiring for my company, so I'd like to think I have some valuable input here. Yes, It's not the Boston Red Sox but I feel it's still relevant. I put ads out on various sites such as Indeed. Every single person who applies for the job applied for the job. Every single person I decide to interview expressed interest in my company first. I can imagine that if I didn't hire that way, but rather I went out of my way to try and poach people who already had jobs and aren't actively out shopping for other positions I would get a lot of no's. What precedent to we really have to judge whether or not the amount of people declining to interview was above or below average. Maybe there's one I'm not thinking of that's an apples to apples comparission, but I'm guessing there is NOT one. The narrative that "no one wanted the job" was one that I believe was completely invented by the media. Negativity sells. I do this as well. What you're saying is true. It costs more to poach for sure. The problem is that some of these people are without contract and in the "job market". Some of these candidates, the Sox job would be considered a promotion. Negativity sells and usually the media reports would be BS, however isn't it strange how they've more or less been on the money with this offseason? People knew the Sox weren't spending back in November when we were all getting amped up about adding at worst 2 starters. I don't find it that strange at all, predicting that a 78 win team who has openly said they're not spending, has a history of not spending on pitchers over 30 isn't exactly an earth shattering prediction. Must people saw this coming, the lone exception to me was Yamamoto, who I thought the Sox would/should go big for, but know it's obviously that pretty much no one other than the Dodgers really had a chance.
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Post by greatscottcooper on Feb 3, 2024 11:16:59 GMT -5
This post is the definition of editorializing and making things up. So Henry didn't sign Devers the day after the Winter Classic? Multiple GM candidates didn't decline to interview with Boston? The spend hasn't been trending downward? I must be mistaken then. Its okay to call out ownership. I don't think you'll offend JWH. Hell he probably doesn't even know anyone on this team outside of Devers. If we've literally heard reports about this team that they need to move Jansen or Yoshi to make a move, that again is not a Breslow thing. This team is better with a Montgomery/Jansen combination than just Montgomery and prospects. Again none of this inactivity should fall on Breslow, just like the inability to spend the last couple of years should fall on Bloom. People in baseball know stuff. The writing was on the wall when multiple people declined to interview. The Sox job is viewed as a no win situation and unstable. Infact I think that was an anonymous quote. So normally you take those things with a grain of salt, but all of these reports from reporters this offseason have been correct. Its just that this board is kind of moving into the acceptance stage and trying to cope. I do all the hiring for my company, so I'd like to think I have some valuable input here. Yes, It's not the Boston Red Sox but I feel it's still relevant. I put ads out on various sites such as Indeed. Every single person who applies for the job applied for the job. Every single person I decide to interview expressed interest in my company first. I can imagine that if I didn't hire that way, but rather I went out of my way to try and poach people who already had jobs and aren't actively out shopping for other positions I would get a lot of no's. What precedent to we really have to judge whether or not the amount of people declining to interview was above or below average. Maybe there's one I'm not thinking of that's an apples to apples comparission, but I'm guessing there is NOT one. The narrative that "no one wanted the job" was one that I believe was completely invented by the media. Negativity sells.
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Post by greatscottcooper on Feb 3, 2024 10:43:42 GMT -5
In Pete Abe's piece this morning in the Globe, he mentions near the end that he sees Epstein and Kennedy as principal owners of the team at some point in the future. The idea of two Brookline kids blowing off homework to go see Silence of the Lambs and talking about how mad they're going to get seeing Dwight Evans wearing an Orioles jersey while having no idea that they'd both eventually own the Red Sox is pretty cool. Every bit of reporting I've seen hints at Kennedy's frustration with Henry and Werner. Anyone know if Theo joining would actually impact cash flow and financial "flexibility" given the amalgamation of resources. I honestly have no idea how that part works when a new minority owner is brought in. Would be pretty sweet if it would give them the juice to spend up to the tax threshold, but, again, I have no idea if that's moot. I really really doubt Theo joining affects budgets and/or payroll at all outside of any strategic guidance he provides. He’s definitely rich, but not independently own and/or finance a baseball team rich. I agree with this, in general. Theo shouldn't be running the Sox, otherwise they should have hired him to be the POBO. Maybe this is pure conjecture on my part but I also don't think a budget is set in stone on this team, it's more amorphous with the ability to expand or contract under the right circumstances; pretty much the entire past under this ownership proves this so maybe it's not conjecture. I'm certain there are circumstances that a GM/POBO, even those who are generally given free reign to run a team, have to go to the owner to ask for more money. "Hey, I know the budget was set at 200 million, but this guy might put us over the top and adds value for the next 5 years, and we can stay under the cap or reset next year" I view Theo as being the guy who is the one to say yes or no in that situation on behalf of John Henry. I don't think John Henry doesn't care about this team, and I also think he understands that he can't just make money in perputuity based on past success, and I do think he understands that investing in the team can ultimately lead to higher net income. But perhaps this move is an admittance that he doesn't have the time anymore to be that man for this team with everything else he was going on with FSG. I view Theo as being the guy who SHOULD be approving big time decisions such as going after Ohtani, dishing out the money to extend Mookie Betts, going over the luxury tax at the deadline to make a championship run etc etc. Theo is in a better position to evaluate those decisions than John Henry is, and If I'm right on this then it's a very good sign that John Henry trusts Theo Epstein in this capacity. Side Note. I have a 5 year old son named Theo. Yes, I partially named him after Theo Epstein. The man who helped break the curse and bring a world series to this franchise after 86 years.
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Post by greatscottcooper on Feb 1, 2024 8:20:17 GMT -5
Is Romy Gonzalez going to be a part of The Core? Probably not any more than Zack Weiss was expected to.
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Post by greatscottcooper on Jan 30, 2024 13:38:53 GMT -5
To be fair I have seen reports that Snell prefers to play on the west coast. That was early in FA.
To be fair, that’s is not the same as saying “Snell doesn’t want to come here”. Two different statements.
Snell is going to whoever offers him the most money. That West coast preference might matter if he’s weighing two similar offers
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