TheFutureIsNear

I just hope Burger hits well enough to force the release of Luery. Burger, Romy, Marisnick, and Seby would be a decent bench.

Never going to happen, but wish they would just eat the $ and cut Luery. HE’S the 1 that is the clog. Would be nice to have Elvis and Romy both on the roster with Sosa waiting at AAA. Luery is really just in the way and doesn’t contribute anything

Regardless of what the actual truth is (we’ll probably never know), MLB is going to suspend Clevinger a good chunk. This has gone too public for them to turn a blind eye. It would be a PR nightmare. The more that comes out the more this reminds me of the Zeke Elliot situation from a few years ago. NFL was post the Ray Rice fiasco so maybe that was a big influence, but they suspended Zeke more than a 1/3 of the season without any real evidence and a questionable victim

Would have been a nice minor league signing for the SP depth we need.

This is why I just can’t be as doom and gloom as 98% of this board is. Don’t get me wrong, the front office has royal F’ed a lot of things up…but at the core there is still a lot of really good talent in this organization. Things aren’t as bleak as most would lead you to believe. No denying depth is an issue tho.

Could be worse things to gamble on to help the rotation right? Try to recreate magic with the 2023 version of Cueto

Yeah it definitely depends on perspective…personally I don’t view every team that doesn’t win the WS as a “dumpster fire”, that’s reserved for a few franchises. Not teams with a betting line around 84-85 for wins. Honest question- if the Sox win 90 games and make the playoffs but lose in the 1st round would you call the season a dumpster fire result? As far as the 1st part of your post- If an obviously disingenuous man hands you a glass of Kool-aide and you choose to drink it, whose fault is it? I’ve resigned to the fact that the Sox are most likely never going to win another WS under Jerry. Is that ok? No. Is it sad? Yup. But also hard to ignore reality.

If the Sox are a dumpster fire how do you describe the A’s, Pirates, Rockies and Reds? Things went horribly wrong last year and the team finished .500. With a change of manager and hitting coach plus some better injury luck a 10 game swing is definitely a real possibility. Im not delusional enough to think things are going well and this team is a WS contender, but a dumpster fire is a pretty far reach.

This team isn’t as much of a dumpster fire because the dumpster fire that was/is TLR finally got put out. Im not going to pretend like the sky is falling because of the Clevinger situation. It’s unfortunate, but life goes on (for the team, hopefully Clevinger gets what he deserves). I still believe this team is firmly in position to win the Central.

I hate what Hahn has done to this organization in terms of player personnel moves as much as the next, but at this point I’m expecting this board to start blaming him for inflation, the war in Ukraine, and any/all world problems. The idea that Hahn was so infatuated with a back end of the rotation SP like Clevinger that he willingly chose to ignore these types of allegations is bordering on tinfoil hat type conspiracy. It just doesn’t make sense

My point is if there are people employed by the Sox to do background check type work and they gave Hahn the all-clear because there was no criminal investigation then what is Hahn supposed to do? Again, I’m not saying there isn’t blame somewhere, but for people to act like Hahn purposely ignored these types of allegations is a bit crazy and only reactionary to past failures.

While this was definitely an organizational f*** up, and there’s no real excuse for it…But do people really think it’s Rick Hahn’s job to do background checks on players? This is a billion + dollar MLB franchise that employs a lot of people, I highly doubt the GM is the one to check into a players background. I know it’s easy to pile on Hahn because of the horrible job he’s done the past 3 years or so, but seems like he’s become the scapegoat for just about everything.

Just what the Sox need…a guy that can’t manage a .300 OBP. Other than name Mondesi isn’t any better than guys that got NRI deals

What prospects? Obviously that’s a self inflicted issue, but still a huge 1 none the less. The inability to develop talent has for sure been a bigger hinderance to this franchise than spending $

Did the team ever have a leader? As much praise as Jose got the clubhouse seemed to be in constant turmoil over the past 2-3 years. And the play on the field reflected it, almost 0 accountability.

Not that I think he’s a good player or that he will even contribute to the big league roster…but people should look at Hansel Alberto’s #’s and then compare them to Andrus. Madrigal and whatever other mediocre/bad 2B option people are bringing up too. Alberto is the most likely the 2B if all other options fail. Hell, I’m not sure if Burger attempting to play 2B is a worse option than Andrus/Madrigal.

While all of that sounds well and good…it is a bit disingenuous to not acknowledge the high risk factor of turning a 24 year old into a starter from essentially scratch. He had all of 12 starts across 3 years in college and 0 as a professional. Fact is that he IS a reliever that can MAYBE start. Can he be affective sitting at 94-96 rather than blowing people away at 99-100? Can his changeup develop into a reliable and consistent 3rd pitch? Not saying he can’t do those things, but it for sure is a risk that is going to take a year and a half + to find out.

The obsession with former players is really weird. Forget a guy with legit potential like Sosa…I’m not even sure there’s any guarantee Madrigal would be more productive than Hansel Alberto next year. IF (he doesn’t) Hahn wanted to give up assets for a 2B he could do a lot better than Madrigal

Strengthening and stretching his arm out is 1 thing…but he would also have to develop a consistent 3rd pitch at the same time. He’s been pretty much a 2 pitch pitcher since college. Not saying it would be an impossible task, but just saying that I don’t think endurance is his only hurdle.

I understand it’s Fegan saying it and I’m also not claiming to be an expert…but I find it hard to believe both Kopech and Clevinger won’t be expected to be a full go for this season. Obviously whether it actually happens once the season starts it’s a different story. But Clevinger is almost a full 2 years removed from TJ and threw 115 innings last year. Why would he be on a limit of any kind? And an early October 2022 meniscus surgery is going to interrupt Kopech’s ability to pitch in 2023? If so there’s a much bigger problem, I don’t see how meniscus surgery could be that big of a deal. Don’t get me wrong tho, our SP depth is alarming regardless and Hahn should 100% be doing something about it.

So Jazz possibly became available…did the Sox suddenly gain something to trade? It would make 0 sense to empty out what little assets we have in the minors for a 2B that doesn’t make us a WS contender.

Pretty good twitter thread from Jordan Lazowski from Soxon35th breaking this down

He’s 30 now so doubt there’s any potential left, but Chad Kuhl is a name I wouldn’t hate being brought in on a minor league deal. Was once 1/2 decent and I always liked his stuff…although I see his FB has already dropped a couple MPH so maybe there’s a reason he’s been bad. Joe Ross is another. Had his 2nd TJ in may of last year so who knows what you would get, but if he can pitch in AAA by June/July it might not be the worst gamble.

Honestly don’t know how it works with announcers, but do both guys have a contract? Is it normal for a team to announce that their broadcasters are coming back? Seems like it would be implied unless theres a bigger issue (like Stone retiring) that we aren’t aware of?