What are you looking forward to in ‘23?

phineas gage

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Jan 2, 2009
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The guy has been screwed by this fanbase, and I'm sorry... it's mostly due to shitty media coverage that doesn't consider the context.
Very much agree. And the success of the other local teams has also played a role. Pretty hard to pillory the Celtics and Bruins right now. The Patriots had a bit of a down season, but the media has long since learned that criticizing Belichick is the equivalent of ramming their heads against a brick wall. Someone has to be crucified for ratings and clicks, so that leaves Chaim and the Sox.
 

Cassvt2023

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Jan 17, 2023
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1.) Yoshida, Casas, Turner, and Verdugo grinding out at bats
2.) Kiki at SS and Duvall in CF
3.) Raffy entering him prime with his future secure and hitting bombs
4.) Bello, Whitlock, Houck and maybe Mata continuing their development and becoming dependable arms
5.) Veteran SP's Sale, Kluber and Paxton staying healthy and bringing experience to the staff
6.) Jansen closing out games and no more revolving door at the end of games
7.) Cora on an F you revenge tour against the world. The guy has a chip on his shoulder
8.) which 2 of the 3 catchers to emerge to start the season.
9.) Will we see Ceddanne, Valdez, Hamilton, Walter or Murphy get a call up at some point?
10.) Can Mondesi get/stay healthy and reach has vast potential at 27?
 

KDAWG

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Aug 4, 2005
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1) Devers - With an extension to play for the Sox for the rest of his career, it will be interesting to see how his motivation plays with his immense talent.
2) Yoshida, Casas, Bello, Mata(?) For reasons stated, this is the immediate young core(with Mayer, Rafaela, etc. to be added in soon)
3) Bullpen - To me, the most underrated improvements of the offseason. Take away just half of the blown saves away from an inept bullpen and they were a playoff team last year even with key injuries and below average performance from JD, 1B, RF.
4) Rafaela - Because Mayer has become pretty projectible with high floor, high ceiling, I feel Ceddanne has the most importance in the upcoming season. As gifted as he is defensively(both CF and SS!), if he is able to unlock 20-20 or even 30-30 numbers as a MLBer in the next 2-3 years, that is essential to the kind of player the team needs for the next multi-year contending team. an up the middle of Ceddanne, Mayer and Story with Devers at 3rd would be immense. Then add in Casas, you have a projectable core for some time. To me, blocking out obvious body builds, his ceiling KIND OF reminds me of Andruw Jones. Very good power and speed, elite defense. Pitch selection remains the main obstacle but hopefully that works itself out. He seems to be a hard worker so hopefully he can develop some plate discipline.
 

simplicio

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The big stuff's already been mentioned, but I'll add that we got some pitchers that really don't walk people, and I'm excited to watch them not walking people.
 

joe dokes

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One semi-related other thing: Although I saw Pink Flamingos on my 17th birthday, I don't ordinarily watch people eat shit. However, I would like the Sox to do well, because there wont be enough ESPNs to cover all the people that will have to eat shit.
 

thisyearisthe

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Honestly, I'm eager to see how Ceddanne Rafaela's game translates to the majors. I'm higher on him than most and hope he isn't traded away, especially since his name always seems to be floated around as a good bargaining chip that we can nonetheless afford to part with.
Was going to say something similar. I’d love to see him make the team and play his way into the lineup regularly either at short or second. Or third- give Raffi some DH ABs.
 

JM3

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JOELY!!!

J/k. Mostly. My favorite parts are probably seeing how right/wrong I am about things & hopefully see players doing things they haven't done before, especially younger players.

Plus, this season my favorite thing may be the 78th win.
 

nighthob

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I’m most excited about the development of Marcelo Mayer and the hope that he will break camp with the big club next year as the starting SS. Probably a stretch but that’s what excites me.
I'm pretty sure that there's close to a zero percent chance that happens unless he hits so well this year that he ends it in Worcester. Simply put while I'm sure he'd eventually catch up if he broke camp with Boston next year his odds of winning RoY would be minuscule at best. And there's just too high a reward for teams to throw high end prospects to the wolves anymore. It's pretty much a lock that they bring him up in late August of '24 to get his feet wet in preparation for a '25 RoY campaign. Because if he wins they pocket an extra high pick and bonus draft money to go along with it.
 

Monbonthbump

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Staying up too late to finish a game, the inevitable bursts of euphoria and frustration, the surprises and disappointments, the anticipation for the next contest as the summer and (hopefully) the fall stretches on-in short, the rhythms of my life for the past 70+ years.
 

Reverse Curve

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Staying up too late to finish a game, the inevitable bursts of euphoria and frustration, the surprises and disappointments, the anticipation for the next contest as the summer and (hopefully) the fall stretches on-in short, the rhythms of my life for the past 70+ years.
Beautiful. Thanks for this...
 

lexrageorge

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I am looking forward to Yoshida disproving the lazy media takes (aka, the "worst free agent signing in MLB history" takes that CHB keeps touting).
 

Merkle's Boner

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I'm pretty sure that there's close to a zero percent chance that happens unless he hits so well this year that he ends it in Worcester. Simply put while I'm sure he'd eventually catch up if he broke camp with Boston next year his odds of winning RoY would be minuscule at best. And there's just too high a reward for teams to throw high end prospects to the wolves anymore. It's pretty much a lock that they bring him up in late August of '24 to get his feet wet in preparation for a '25 RoY campaign. Because if he wins they pocket an extra high pick and bonus draft money to go along with it.
As someone said earlier, it would be the same trajectory as Julio Rodriguez, who had no AAA at bats before last year. And of course he won ROY. I don’t know whether a Julio comp is a stretch, but I’d like to believe Marcelo is a generational talent who can make the jump. You may be right that for reasons other than what we see on the field the Sox don’t allow it to happen, but I’m excited to see Marcelo force them to make a difficult decision.
 

brienc

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I am looking forward to Opening Day. Because everything is better during baseball season.
Staying up too late to finish a game, the inevitable bursts of euphoria and frustration, the surprises and disappointments, the anticipation for the next contest as the summer and (hopefully) the fall stretches on-in short, the rhythms of my life for the past 70+ years.
These posts perfectly sum up what I’m looking forward to. I am also really looking forward to watching games where the pitcher isn’t scratching his ass for two minutes in between every pitch. Bring on the pitch clock!
 

brandonchristensen

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I think I’m most excited for Yoshida because he’s this great unknown. He could boom or bust and neither would surprise me. I’d love to have a fixture of the lineup for the next handful of years that puts up professional quality at bats. Feels like we don’t get enough of those anymore.

Having moved time zones I’m not looking forward to slightly later start times, 4PM was the best.
 

walt in maryland

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Yes the 2013 team also had the good fortune of having a competitive team when the rest of the AL East was scuffling and I don't see that happening in 23 but I guess it is within the realm of possibilities. I'd hate to see this team trade off assets in hopes of grabbing the final WC spot to play a one and done game. If they somehow are up 5 games in the East at the trade deadline I'd likely change my mind but I think the true core of this team is a season or two away and I'd rather see an early to mid 2000s approach of building a strong home grown squad of cost controlled players sprinkled in with FA/trades vs. trying to buy a championship where you go first to worst repeatedly like we've seen the last decade.

Obviously you want to win the WS every single year but if my choices after that are:

A. 5th place finish and we trade Jansen, Sale, Kluber, Duvall, Paxton, Turner for some blue chip cost controlled prospects
or
B. 2nd place finish lose in WC play-in or WC round and we trade some future assets to make the playoffs

I'd take A in a heartbeat as I think the future of this team is bright this just isn't likely the year.
I'm not counting on anything resembling 2013 either. But in both cases, the Sox focused on smaller acquisitions (in both years and dollars) and resisted the temptation to trade any of their top prospects.
 

EyeBob

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Dec 22, 2022
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These posts perfectly sum up what I’m looking forward to. I am also really looking forward to watching games where the pitcher isn’t scratching his ass for two minutes in between every pitch. Bring on the pitch clock!
The pitch clock will also limit those dumb between pitch hitter's rituals.... a lot....like the rule where they were not allowed to step out the batter's box was supposed to help with. Seriously (Pedroia was the worst), no amount of batting glove adjustments, helmet adjustments, or touching your junk between pitches improves your at bat. Stay in the stinking box, windmill your bat a few times and let 'er rip.

Bring on the pitch clock! (and the robo home plate ump for balls and strikes!)
 

LogansDad

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The pitch clock will also limit those dumb between pitch hitter's rituals.... a lot....like the rule where they were not allowed to step out the batter's box was supposed to help with. Seriously (Pedroia was the worst), no amount of batting glove adjustments, helmet adjustments, or touching your junk between pitches improves your at bat. Stay in the stinking box, windmill your bat a few times and let 'er rip.

Bring on the pitch clock! (and the robo home plate ump for balls and strikes!)
I saw in interview with Scherzer the other day, and he made a good point, saying that in a lot of cases the slowness was due to the hitter, because the hitter has always been able to dictate when he steps in the box. Scherzer is really looking forward to being able to be the one who determines the pace of play. It should be fun.
 

nighthob

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As someone said earlier, it would be the same trajectory as Julio Rodriguez, who had no AAA at bats before last year. And of course he won ROY. I don’t know whether a Julio comp is a stretch, but I’d like to believe Marcelo is a generational talent who can make the jump. You may be right that for reasons other than what we see on the field the Sox don’t allow it to happen, but I’m excited to see Marcelo force them to make a difficult decision.
That guy is far more likely to be Bleis than Marcelo. I like Mayer, and think he has a great future, but whereas Rodriguez was destroying pitching at A+/AA, Mayer is slightly more human. Part of that, of course, was that Rodriguez was older that year thanks to Covid-19 interrupting his minor league career proper (and spending a year at the alternate training site, which clearly worked well for him). Mayer's going to have a bigger adjustment curve.

Bleis wrecked FCL pitching as an 18 year old and only failed to make A because he was shutdown as a caution. He will likely be playing A+ ball this year and should start '24 in AA.. So if you want a guy that makes an early jump, he's your guy.
 

The_Dali

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Jul 2, 2021
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The pitch clock will also limit those dumb between pitch hitter's rituals.... a lot....like the rule where they were not allowed to step out the batter's box was supposed to help with. Seriously (Pedroia was the worst), no amount of batting glove adjustments, helmet adjustments, or touching your junk between pitches improves your at bat.
Perhaps you don’t remember a certain “Nomah”.
 

patinorange

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As far as optimism goes, I have none for this team. It will be a miracle if they sniff the playoffs.
But I will be there for the San Diego, Arizona, San Francisco, and as usual, Anaheim, road trips. Maybe Oakland if I feel adventurous.
The worst Red Sox team is still fantastic. It's baseball.
 

BuellMiller

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Mar 25, 2015
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I’ve never started a thread, but that would be a fun one: Where will Yoshida’s deal rank (WAR/$) among Boston’s largest (>$50M) FA deals?
Using bWAR and salaries paid (I subtracted about half of the last year if traded during season), and in order of best to worst.
Manny: about $4.2 m/War (33.2 bWAR, 138M (bref lists 147M, with 19M in last year, so I subtracted 9)
JD Drew: about $6.2/WAR (11.3 bWAR, 70M in salary)
JD Martinez: about $8.1/WAR (13.6 bWAR, 110M in salary
DiceK: about $11m/war (9.3 bWAR, 103M including the posting fee)
Lackey: about $14.6M/WAR (3.9 bWAR, 57 M (including splitting 2014 with StL)
Price: about $17M/war (9.7 bWAR, 169 salary (including the 48M in payments to LA)
Crawford: about $28m/war (0.9 bWAR, ~25M in salary)
Rusney: about $45m/war (1.6 bWAR, 72.5M salary)
Hanley: about $55M/WAR (1.6 bWAR, 88M salary)
Pablo: about $-59/WAR (-1.6 bWAR, 94M including buyout and release payments)

(The two best contracts (Manny and JD Drew) by raw numbers probably should also be reduced a little due to inflation)...but it isn't a very high bar for Yoshida to clear to make it near the top. I think between the two JD's would be a reasonable floor, assuming health. (say $7M/WAR, which would be about 2.6 WAR per year)
(Did I miss any others among deals >50M? Technically Yoan Moncada was paid 63M with the 100% penalty, but obviously his 20 PA stint with the Red Sox hardly should qualify him for this list, without doing some gymnastics to include some of Sale's WAR.
And Story's contract is still a WIP.
 
Using bWAR and salaries paid (I subtracted about half of the last year if traded during season), and in order of best to worst.
Manny: about $4.2 m/War (33.2 bWAR, 138M (bref lists 147M, with 19M in last year, so I subtracted 9)
JD Drew: about $6.2/WAR (11.3 bWAR, 70M in salary)
JD Martinez: about $8.1/WAR (13.6 bWAR, 110M in salary
DiceK: about $11m/war (9.3 bWAR, 103M including the posting fee)
Lackey: about $14.6M/WAR (3.9 bWAR, 57 M (including splitting 2014 with StL)
Price: about $17M/war (9.7 bWAR, 169 salary (including the 48M in payments to LA)
Crawford: about $28m/war (0.9 bWAR, ~25M in salary)
Rusney: about $45m/war (1.6 bWAR, 72.5M salary)
Hanley: about $55M/WAR (1.6 bWAR, 88M salary)
Pablo: about $-59/WAR (-1.6 bWAR, 94M including buyout and release payments)

(The two best contracts (Manny and JD Drew) by raw numbers probably should also be reduced a little due to inflation)...but it isn't a very high bar for Yoshida to clear to make it near the top. I think between the two JD's would be a reasonable floor, assuming health. (say $7M/WAR, which would be about 2.6 WAR per year)
(Did I miss any others among deals >50M? Technically Yoan Moncada was paid 63M with the 100% penalty, but obviously his 20 PA stint with the Red Sox hardly should qualify him for this list, without doing some gymnastics to include some of Sale's WAR.
And Story's contract is still a WIP.
Pedroia's 110M contract generated 13.9 bWAR, so $7.9M/WAR. Not sure if you are counting that as it was an extension.

Overall it's a horrific group, with the only two contracts that were above average efficiency covering players in the steroid era (ish). 97.4 bWAR for $1.036B, or $10.64M per win. Manny and JD Drew are responsible for nearly half of those wins though, so if you look at 2010 and beyond it's much worse: 52.9 bWAR for 828m, or 15.65m per win.
 

JM3

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David Ortiz signed a 4 year $52m contract covering the 2008 to 2011 seasons. During those 4 seasons he put up 9.2 bWAR ($5.7m/bWAR).
 

simplicio

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Lackey gets a pass from me for pitching clearly broken in 2011 and then being nails in 2013. $/WAR doesn't quantify everything.
 

BornToRun

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Lackey gets a pass from me for pitching clearly broken in 2011 and then being nails in 2013. $/WAR doesn't quantify everything.
Him and Price and Dice K. All three were key contributors in securing their respective World Series titles and any expense is therefore justified in my book.
 

Trapaholic

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Him and Price and Dice K. All three were key contributors in securing their respective World Series titles and any expense is therefore justified in my book.
Shane Victorino comes to mind for me. I believe he signed a 3 year deal in 2013? That year he played excellent defense in right field. Some of the best I have seen during a single season. Had a .351 OBP and a 6(!) bWAR. He had a clutch grand slam in the ALCS, and big hits in the World Series. The last 2 years we did not get much, but man was he good that year.
 

lexrageorge

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Using bWAR and salaries paid (I subtracted about half of the last year if traded during season), and in order of best to worst.
Manny: about $4.2 m/War (33.2 bWAR, 138M (bref lists 147M, with 19M in last year, so I subtracted 9)
JD Drew: about $6.2/WAR (11.3 bWAR, 70M in salary)
JD Martinez: about $8.1/WAR (13.6 bWAR, 110M in salary
DiceK: about $11m/war (9.3 bWAR, 103M including the posting fee)
Lackey: about $14.6M/WAR (3.9 bWAR, 57 M (including splitting 2014 with StL)
Price: about $17M/war (9.7 bWAR, 169 salary (including the 48M in payments to LA)
Crawford: about $28m/war (0.9 bWAR, ~25M in salary)
Rusney: about $45m/war (1.6 bWAR, 72.5M salary)
Hanley: about $55M/WAR (1.6 bWAR, 88M salary)
Pablo: about $-59/WAR (-1.6 bWAR, 94M including buyout and release payments)

(The two best contracts (Manny and JD Drew) by raw numbers probably should also be reduced a little due to inflation)...but it isn't a very high bar for Yoshida to clear to make it near the top. I think between the two JD's would be a reasonable floor, assuming health. (say $7M/WAR, which would be about 2.6 WAR per year)
(Did I miss any others among deals >50M? Technically Yoan Moncada was paid 63M with the 100% penalty, but obviously his 20 PA stint with the Red Sox hardly should qualify him for this list, without doing some gymnastics to include some of Sale's WAR.
And Story's contract is still a WIP.
Beckett signed a couple of extensions with the Sox, which totaled $72.9M from 2007-12, over which he put up 19.5 bWAR, or $3.73M/WAR.

Also, w/ Dice-K, including the posting fee is not necessarily the best way to judge his contract. Posting fees are one-off expenses and are budgeted very differently. Much like the minor league development costs of a home-grown player or pre-arb player are similarly not counted, although they are substantial in their own right. Same would apply to Yoshida, although lazy mediots like CHB will keep reminding everyone of the posting fee ad nauseam.

Anyway, there is no $/WAR trophy, so the Sox will always have contracts that look bad. Those 4 trophies since 2004 still sit in their respective display cases.
 

Minneapolis Millers

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Him and Price and Dice K. All three were key contributors in securing their respective World Series titles and any expense is therefore justified in my book.
Agree, for the most part. Also, Lackey begat Craig and Kelly. Although Craig was a bust a Kelly generally disappointing, Kelly did inspire the Fight Club and was also nails for a couple of months en route to the ‘18 WS.

Honestly, if Yoshida put up a 6+ WAR season and helped propel us to a WS win this year, then got injured and was never heard from again, I think we’d all agree it was a good signing. I was just thinking of ways to quantify how relatively good/bad the signing was, moving forward.
 

BornToRun

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Shane Victorino comes to mind for me. I believe he signed a 3 year deal in 2013? That year he played excellent defense in right field. Some of the best I have seen during a single season. Had a .351 OBP and a 6(!) bWAR. He had a clutch grand slam in the ALCS, and big hits in the World Series. The last 2 years we did not get much, but man was he good that year.
Yep, he definitely fits too. Hypothetically, If you sign someone to a 5 year deal and only one of those seasons is a good one but it goes towards helping to win a title, then I call that a good signing.
 

JM3

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Shane Victorino comes to mind for me. I believe he signed a 3 year deal in 2013? That year he played excellent defense in right field. Some of the best I have seen during a single season. Had a .351 OBP and a 6(!) bWAR. He had a clutch grand slam in the ALCS, and big hits in the World Series. The last 2 years we did not get much, but man was he good that year.
Victorino's was a 3/$39m from '13 to '15. He did 6 bWAR, then 0.5 bWAR then 0.4 bWAR ($5.7m/WAR).

So not a bad contract regardless of how you look at it, but obviously anytime there is a championship involved, it makes it all that much sweeter. Those #s also don't factor in playoff $tat$. For example, in the 2013 playoffs, Victorino had a total of 0.59 win probably added as a hitter, which has significant value as well.
 

BuellMiller

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David Ortiz signed a 4 year $52m contract covering the 2008 to 2011 seasons. During those 4 seasons he put up 9.2 bWAR ($5.7m/bWAR).
I’m guessing if we’re including extensions over $50M, Pedro’s that he signed after his trade here takes the cake. (Looks like less than $2M/bWAR)
 

JM3

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I’m guessing if we’re including extensions over $50M, Pedro’s that he signed after his trade here takes the cake. (Looks like less than $2M/bWAR)
Well, if extensions work much better than signing free agents, that's definitely something to consider. I just mentioned Ortiz in light of the Pedey addition.

But yeah, in December 1997, Pedro signed a 6/$75m extension which covered the '99 to '04 seasons. During that time period, Pedro put up 47.6 bWAR for an average of $1.6m/WAR.
 

nighthob

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Technically Yoan Moncada was paid 63M with the 100% penalty, but obviously his 20 PA stint with the Red Sox hardly should qualify him for this list, without doing some gymnastics to include some of Sale's WAR.
Mloncada was a free agent in the same sense that Miguel Bleis was. They didn’t have bonus pools in those far off days and Boston spent the money on him because it was going to be their last opportunity to use financial muscle in signing an international prospect.
 

simplicio

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The Athletic just ran an article (centered on Sean Murphy) about how catcher back picks are going to be much more important this year, as they aren't subject to restrictions like pitcher pick-offs. I looked up some numbers and it turns out Jorge Alfaro was tied for the second best pop time in baseball last year, with the second best arm strength to go with it. So yes please?
 

Big Papi's Mango Salsa

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Yep. Next offseason is going to be very interesting.
From a "2023 Red Sox Major League Baseball" standpoint, Casas and Bello are absolutely the things I'm most interested to see.

2023 and 2024 are pretty much all geared toward finding out whom is part of that next Red Sox core, as far as I'm concerned.

So I want to see as much MLB run as possible out of Casas, Valdez, Rafaela, Bello, Whitlock, Houck and Mata as their health will allow (and I don't care about performance in that I want them taking their lumps against MLB now when it doesn't really matter in terms of wins and losses - at least in my opinion - because I see no difference between finishing 83-79 and missing the playoffs or 60-102 and missing the playoffs). I put Yoshida in this category as well, simply from an "unknown" standpoint, but with that contract, he IS part of the core, no matter what.