Paul D

Sorry if I made it seem that way. I was trying to say that many of the top choices in the draft who came out of good conferences may end up playing AA ball their first year. Of the top 14 picks for 2023 #1 Paul Skenes (LSU) pitched in AA, also #2 pick Dylan Crews (LSU) played in AA, #3 Max Clark was a HS pick, #4 pick Wyatt Langford (Florida) made it to AAA, #5 Walker Jenkins was a HS pick, #6 pick Jacob Wilson played JC, #7 Rhett Lowder came out of Wake Forest as a pitcher and did not play any minor league games, #8 was Blake Mitchell a HS draftee, #9 was Chase Dollander out of Tennesee was a pitcher who didn't play in the minors, #10 Noble Meyer was a HS pitcher, #11 was Nolan Schanuel from Florida Atlantic who actually played Rookie, A, AA and finally 29 games with the Angels, #12 was Tommy Troy (Stanford) played Rookie and A+, #13 Matt Shaw (Maryland) made it to AA and #14 Kyle Teel from Virginia made it to AA. In just about all the cases of players who reached AA they only played a handful of games at both Rookie and A or A+. Of course this is the cream of the draft, but you can anticipate that if your team has a pick in the top half of the draft and are college juniors or seniors, that they may end the season in AA or higher. Also teams are being cautious with college pitchers and some teams will not assign them to a minor league team if they feel they have already pitched a sufficient number of innings while in college. Sorry that I didn't make my comment clear.

I think because of the improving quality of major college baseball conferences that scouting directors are placing their level of competition comparable to AA baseball. That changes a lot of drafting strategy because you are looking at high school players needing 4-5 years in the minors normally, all the way to major collegiate juniors/seniors needing 1-2 years. FO personnel who are feeling the heat will be more prone to draft players needing 1-2 years to reach MLB, while successful programs can choose the best players and allow them time to work through the minors.

Drafting is an inexact science, but drafting in the top half of the first round should dramatically increase your keeper rate. Drafting a player in the 1st round who will not make it to MLB is a huge blunder. With the emphasis on payroll, your only success can only come from the draft or adept trades. Now that the Twins are in playoff contention and down the draft list, scouting and development become significantly more important.

This is the 3rd consecutive season that I have been hoping for a Duvall signing. He fits all of the criteria the Twins are looking for as a depth addition: 1) bats right handed, 2) can play CF, 3) no long term committment, 4) 20+ home runs are a given, and 5) won't break the bank. Let's sign him for 2024!

The interesting fact is that Catcher make great managers! There are a load of catchers who have developed into good managers including a few recent managers: Bruce Bochy, Bob Boone, Joe Torre, Bob Brenly, John Gibbons, Joe Girardi, Gene Lamont, Jerry Narron, Bob Melvin, Johnny Oates, Mike Scioscia, Jeff Torborg, John Wathan, and Ned Yost plus a few old-timers like Al Lopez, Ralph Houk and Yogi Berra. Many catchers call pitches and therefore spend a lot of time preparing for games. Also they are in position to see the entire field during and game which helps them to know what all the other players are doing (much like a manager or coaching staff). They probably control the game more than any other position player on the field and since most catchers do not play every game, are in the dugout listing to conversations about game strategy and potential moves. Catching is a specialty position and therefore there should be a coach totally dedicated to working with the catcher on the team. I think adding a successful defensive catcher is a great idea, as long as he can teach and communicate.

I would lose all credibility if I omitted him.

Of all the professional sports, no sport seems to have as many and as many colorful nicknames as Major League Baseball. This was especially true in the early years of the sports. Some nicknames were so attached to the player that when they were inducted into Baseball’s Hall of Fame, their nicknames were included on their plaque. Most nicknames have a known beginning, “Dizzy” Dean’s resulted from an incident in his military career when a sergeant found Dean throwing potatoes against a garbage can and yelled at him, “you dizzy son-of-a-bitch!”. Satchel Paige received his nickname when he had a job of carrying passengers’ bags (satchels) at the train station in Mobile. Lawrence Berra received the nickname “Yogi” from his friend who, after seeing a newsreel about India, said that he resembled a yogi from India whenever he sat around with arms and legs crossed waiting to bat or while looking sad after losing a game. Here are a few Hall of Famer nicknames: James “Cool Papa” Bell, George Herman “Babe” Ruth, Grover Cleveland “Old Pete” Alexander, Adrian “Cap” Anson, Luke “Old Aches and Pain” Appling, Frank “Home Run” Baker, Albert “Happy” Chandler, Ty “The Georgia Peach” Cobb, “Wahoo” Sam Crawford, Joe “The Yankee Clipper” Di Maggio, and Bob “Rapid Robert” Feller. I have nicknames of other Hall of Famers listed below: If you are interested in trying to see how accurate your guesses are leave your answers in the comment section: 1) The Human Rain Delay, 2) Sandman, 3) The Wizard, 4) The Man of Steal, 5) Captain Hook, 6) Double X, 7) Hoot, 8) Big Six, 9) Ducky, and 10) Old Hoss. Try without using the internet. In addition to researching nicknames on plaques I discovered a few facts that I was completely unaware of. These are the real first names of some of the inductees: George “Ken” “The Kid” “Junior” Griffey, Harry “Doc” “Roy” Halladay, Umpire Harold “Doug” Harvey, Dorrel “Whitey” Herzog, Monford “Monte” Irvin, Larry “Chipper” Jones, Santurino Orestes “Minnie” Minoso, John “Buck” O’Neil, Alan “Bud” Selig, and Lynn “Nolan” Ryan. Some nicknames had relevance to physical descriptions of the player, such as: Don "Ears" Mossi, Walt “No Neck” Williams, and Ernie “The Schnozz” Lombardi. Do a search on each of these player's images to quickly see how they "earned" their nicknames. You can add to that list Robert “Lefty” Grove and Vernon “Lefty” Gomez who were left-handed pitchers and Mordecai “Three Fingers” Brown who lost most of his index finger in a farm accident when he was a kid. Baseball also has nicknames that are interesting or unique: Ron Cey – The Penguin Marc Rzepczynski – Scrabble Ted Williams – The Splendid Splinter, The Kid, Teddy Ballgame, The Thumper Frank Thomas – The Big Hurt Randy Johnson – The Big Unit Jimmy Wynn – Toy Cannon Pete Rose – Charlie Hustle Bill Lee – Spaceman Mark Fydrich – The Bird Will Clark – Will the Thrill Don Mattingly – Donny Baseball Rusty Staub – Le Grand Orange Steve Balboni – Bye Bye Shane Victorino – The Flyin’ Hawaiian Kenny Rogers – The Gambler Vince Coleman – Vince Van Go Hideki Matsui – Godzilla Phil Rizzuto – Scooter Carlton Fisk / Ivan Rodriguez - Pudge Don Zimmer – The Gerbil (given to him by Bill “Spaceman” Lee) During the discovery part of this article, I started questioning how some nicknames came into existence. Some of these are very interesting. Willie Mays – Say Hey Kid – He used to greet everyone with “Hey” when he saw them Jim Hunter – Catfish – Given to him by Charlie Finley because he thought he needed a flashy nickname Leo Durocher – Leo the Lip – Based on his constant baiting of umpire from his position in the dugout Harold Traynor – Pie – As a child he would often frequent the grocery store and ask for pie. The store owner would eventually call him Pie Face which was shortened to Pie. Frankie Frisch – The Fordham Flash – Attended Fordham Prep and Fordham University where he was a track star as well as playing baseball, basketball and football. Walter Johnson – The Big Train – Given by sportswriter Grantland Rice because of his size and because the express train was the fastest vehicle known at the time. Denton Young – Cy – Shortened from Cyclone because of the speed of his fastball. James Gavin – Pud – Writers said he made hitters look like pudding. Edward Ford – Whitey – named for his light blond hair. Leo Hartnett – Gabby – named because of his shy, quiet manner. Richard Marquard – Rube – His sweeping delivery reminded a sportswriter of Rube Waddell. Walter Maranville – Rabbitt – He said it was because his penchant for bounding and jumping, others said it was because of his protruding ears. Lewis Wilson – Hack – He was 5’ 6” and weighted 195 lbs. with an 18 inch neck, and feet that fit into a 5 ½ size shoe. A teammate said his build resembled Hack Lewis, an outfielder for the Chicago Cubs. Enos Slaughter – Country – Grew up in Roxboro, North Carolina Joe DiMaggio – Yankee play-by-play announcer compared DiMaggio’s speed and agility to that of the new Pan American airliner “The Yankee Clipper’. Another story equates DiMaggio to the beauty and grace of a clipper ship. He also had the nickname, Joltin’ Joe. Domenic DiMaggio – “The Little Professor” - He looked like a college professor because of his size (5’9”), wire-rimmed glasses. John Odom – Blue Moon – As “Blue Moon” explained, he had a classmate in the 5th grade who started calling him “Moon Head”. A few days later he changed it to “Blue Moon”. He hated that nickname, but later really liked it. Pedro Sandoval – Kung Foo Panda – Given to him by Barry Zito after a play at the plate where Sandoval jumped over the tag of the catcher. Dennis Boyd – Oil Can – According to Boyd, “growing up in Mississippi there was a woman who supplied the town with moonshine. When I was 7 I started drinking it myself. One day someone caught us in a tin shed drinking Big Momma’s whiskey out of oil cans, so my friend Pap started calling me Oil Can.” Sal Maglie – The Barber – Named because he pitcher inside to batters, giving them close shaves. The Society for American Baseball Research penned an article “An Analysis of Baseball Nicknames” . From 1871 to 1968 these were the most popular baseball nicknames: 1) Lefty, 2) Red, 3) Doc, 4) Bud/Buddy, 5) Dutch, 6) Big, 7) Mickey, 8) Whitey, 9) Chick and 10) Kid. There is a lot of interesting information contained in their article. While nicknames are not as common now as in the past and there is no question they are more PC, but here are a few current players who have nicknames: Pete Alonso – Polar Bear Noah Syndergaard – Thor Shohei Otani – Sho Time Blake Snell – Snellzilla Todd Frazier – The Toddfather Brandon Belt – Baby Giraffe Jeff McNeil – The Squirrel Carlos Carrasco – Cookie Sean Manaea – The Throwin’ Samoan Finally, a number of Minnesota Twins have had nicknames. Here are players that had nicknames given to them: Rocco Baldelli – The Woonsocket Rocket Doug Mientkiewicz – Eye Chart Josh Donaldson – The Bringer of Rain Harmon Killebrew – Killer Kirby Puckett – Puck Jim Grant – Mudcat Tom Brunansky – Bruno Rod Carew – Sir Rodney Gary Gaetti – The Rat Kent Hrbek – Herbie Torii Hunter - Spiderman Frank Viola – Sweet Music Willians Astudillo – LaTortuga (The Tortoise) Nelson Cruz – Broomstick Luis Arraez – La Ragadera (The Sprinkler) Chris Paddock – Sheriff Feel free to comment and include some unique nicknames that I failed to mention.

I think Miami will be a frequent trade partner, especially with the Lopez/Arraez trade.working out for both. They have pitchers, we have hitters, so its a natural. They also seem to like Latin players since their fanbase is made up of a large Latin contingency. Only changing leadership, as they did in 2023, could change that course. I once thought the Mariners were our natural partner, but trader Jerry is looking more for trade wins and pushes.

The 1961 American League season was unique because for the first time since the turn of the century the league was not made up of 8 teams. Not only did the Senators move from Washington to Minnesota, but the league added 2 expansion teams, the Los Angeles Angels and the “new” Washington Senators. Originally the expansion teams were supposed to be located in Los Angeles and Minneapolis-St. Paul, but Calvin Griffith, the owner of the Washington Senators, asked for and received approval to move the Senators to Minnesota, giving Washington the expansion team. Even though the Senators had a hard time getting fans to attend, the baseball felt that because of baseball’s anti-trust issues that it was best to have a team in the Nation's capital. Up until the Senators moved to Minnesota there had only been 5 teams that had pulled up stakes in one city and moved to another. They were: 1) in 1953 when the Boston Braves moved to Milwaukee, 2) in 1954 when the St. Louis Browns moved to Baltimore, 3) in 1955 when the Philadephia Athletics moved to Kansas City, and 4/5) in 1958 when the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants moved to Los Angeles and San Francisco, There would be other relocations after the Twins: 1) in 1966 the Milwaukee Braves moved to Atlanta, 2) in 1968 the Kansas City Athletics moved to Oakland, 3) in 1970 the expansion Seattle Pilots moved to Milwaukee, 4) in 1972 the Washington Senators moved to Dallas/Ft. Worth, 5) in 2005 the Montreal Expos moved to Washington, D.C. and 6) in 2024 the Oakland Athletics moved to Las Vegas. When the Washington Senators relocated to Minnesota in 1961 they brought with them a team that had finished the 1960 season with a 73-81 record, good for 5th place in the 8 team American League. This was their best finish in 6 years - 1946 4th 1947 7th 1948 7th 1949 8th 1950 5th 1951 7th 1952 5th 1953 5th 1954 6th 1955 8th 1956 7th 1957 8th 1958 8th 1959 8th 1960 5th Not only were they in the 2nd half of the 8 team division in standings, but here are their attendance standings. 1946 5th 1947 7th 1948 6th 1949 7th 1950 6th 1951 6th 1952 6th 1953 6th 1954 7th 1955 8th 1956 8th 1957 8th 1958 8th 1959 8th 1960 8th Their attendance for the 1960 season at Griffith Stadium was 743,404 (9,655 per game), which was the lowest in the American League. When they moved they brought with them their Owner and General Manager, Clark Griffith, Farm Director – Sherry Robertson and Manager – Cookie Lavagetto. Cookie would only last 59 games into the season when he was fired with a 23-36 record and was replaced by Sam Mele who would be 47-54-1 for the season. Their overall record was 70-90-1 good for 7th place (out of 10 teams). Both the expansion Senators and the Angels would finish behind the Twins in the standings as well as the Kansas City Athletics. The Twins attendance for the season was 1,256,723 (an average of slightly over 15,000 per game (3rd out of 10 teams). How much better was it to receive a team as a transfer rather than an expansion team? If we examine the 8 teams that relocated between 1901 and 1968 you will see that many of them had early success that may not have happened if they had received an expansion team. Here is where those 8 teams finished in the standings in their first five years in a new city. Team Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5 1953 Milwaukee Braves 2 3 2 2 1 1954 Baltimore Orioles 7 7 6 5 6 1955 Kansas City Athletics 6 8 7 7 7 1958 Los Angeles Dodgers 7 1 4 2 2 1958 San Francisco Giants 3 3 5 3 1 1961 Minnesota Twins 7 2 3 6 1 1966 Atlanta Braves 5 7 5 1 5 1968 Oakland Athletics 6 2 2 1 1 It’s really interesting to note that there have been a total of 8 franchise moves listed above and 6 of the teams won a league championship within 5 years of moving. Here are the first five years of every expansion team. Team Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5 1961 Los Angeles Angels (of 10) 8 3 9 5 7 1961 Washington Senators (of 10) 9 10 10 9 8 1962 New York Mets (of 10) 10 10 10 10 9 1962 Houston Colt .45s (of 10) 8 9 9 9 8 1969 Kansas City Royals (of 6) 4 4 2 4 2 1969 Seattle Pilots (of 6) 6 4 6 4 6 1969 San Diego Padres (of 6) 6 6 6 6 6 1969 Montreal Expos (of 6) 6 6 6 6 6 1977 Toronto Blue Jays (of 7) 7 7 7 7 7 1977 Seattle Mariners (of 7) 6 7 6 7 6 1993 Colorado Rockies (of 7) (of 4) 6 3 2 3 3 1993 Florida Marlins (of 7) (of 5) 6 5 4 3 2 1998 Tampa Bay Devil Rays (of 5) 5 5 5 5 5 1998 Arizona Diamondbacks (of 5) 5 1 3 1 1 Of the 14 expansion teams listed in the table only the Diamondbacks were able to finish in 1st place in their division (3 times). Only the Diamondbacks, Kansas City Royals and Colorado Rockies experienced moderate success. 1960/61 Expansion Draft to stock Los Angeles Angels and Washington Senators In the very first expansion draft an existing team had to make available seven players from their active roster as of August 31, 1960 and eight others from their 40 man roster, with a maximum of seven players that could be taken from each existing club. The Angels took Eli Grba, Jerry Casale, Duke Maas, Tex Clevenger, and Bob Sprout with their 1st five choises, while the Senators took Bobby Shantz, Dave Sisler, Johhny Klipstein, Pete Burnside and Carl Mathias with their choices. The Senators/Twins would lose Tex Clevinger, Hal Woodeshick, Hector Maestri, Rudy Hernandez, Johnny Schaive, Faye Throneberry, Julio Becquer and Joe McClain. 1997/98 Expansion Draft to stock the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and Arizona Diamondbacks In the most recent expansion draft each existing team could protect 15 players. All players in an organization were eligible to be drafted except with those with no prior major league experience who had less than 3 years of service. A team could lose no more than 1 player per round, with 28 selections in rounds one and two, and 14 selections in round 3. After the first two rounds a team could add three more players to be protected. The Devil Rays chose Tony Saunders, Quinton McCracken, Bobby Abreau, Miguel Cairo and Rich Bulter with their 1st five choices. The Diamondbacks chose Brian Anderson, Jeff Suppan, Gabe Alvarez, Jorge Fabergas, and Karim Garcia with their choices. The best player taken in the draft would turn out to be Randy Winn taken from the Marlins by the Devil Rays in the 3rd round. The Twins would lose Brent Brede (1B) and Damian Miller (Catcher). Conclusion Clark Griffith did the fans of the Twins a great service by moving his franchise to Minnesota in 1961, rather than giving Minnesota an expansion team.

Tar Heel - The player is Eddie Robinson 1st Baseman for the Yankees, card #302. As I mentioned in the article, I would draw beards on Yankee players and that included Mantle and Berra. Fortunately, Robinson was not a pricey card. As others mentioned, sometimes the Yankees would get clothespinned to my front wheel to try and sound like a motorcycle!!

I lucked out. Went in the Army but when ai returned they were all intact. Fortunately my dad collected with me so they were safe.

Growing up in the 1950’s was so different for those of us who loved to play baseball. Today you can drive past a ball field during the summer and find it empty. With us we needed to rise early in the morning, have a quick breakfast and ride our bikes to the closest field hoping to be there before another group staked its claim. And besides bringing your baseball equipment, you needed to have a lunch with you. If you didn’t eat lunch at the field you took a chance that the field wouldn't be empty when you returned. Of course our equipment was different. My glove was a Rawlings John Groth model (outfielder for the Tigers). The glove was small and the web was barely large enough to contain the ball. Only the catcher and first baseman had the "big gloves." The ball we used was probably coming unstitched and was dark and dirty. If the stitching was too far gone, the ball was covered in electrical tape, normally the shiny kind. Lastly, we probably only had one or two bats between us and in most cases the bat was probably broken and was held together with either a nail in the bat, or more electrical tape (the non-shiny type acted as a nice grip). Batting gloves were not thought of at this time, and would have been perceived as unmanly. We didn’t need adults to organize us, and we didn’t need rides to get to the field. Most of us played Little League, but usually we were all on different teams. The good players make the “majors” at 10 years old, the lesser at 11 or 12 (12 year olds were not allowed to play in the “minors”). Our Little League uniforms had been used for a number of years and the knees on our pants probably had a patch or two on them. The shirt and pants were made of flannel, so they lasted for many years, but during the heat of the summer, they were really hot. Our hats and stirrups were made of wool and the stirrups usually needed an elastic at the top of them to stop them from drooping every time you ran. We had batting helmets, but they were not really helmets, but earmuffs. They were made of leather and came in a couple of sizes. But baseball was king. There was no organized football for us and very few options for playing basketball. Most football was one or two hand touch and played in the street. Living on a quiet street was a huge plus because you wouldn’t have to keep stopping the game to let cars pass. Basketball rims were at the playground, but many of us hung a basket from our garage and played in our driveway. Most of us collected and traded baseball cards. Buying cards was convenient. During the school year, we would walk past two stores near our school that sold baseball cards and penny candy. During the summer our neighborhood was serviced by a traveling store. The vehicle was about the size of a self-contained RV and was like a convenience store on wheels. It came by 3 days a week, and always stopped in our neighborhood, because most of our families were Italian and we had to have Italian bread with our supper. You could buy cards two ways, for one cent you could buy a pack with one card in it, and for five cents the pack would contain 6 cards. There was no such strategy of collecting stars. Your goal was to have a complete set, and if you needed to trade a star for one of your missing commons, you’d do it. Of course we all had a favorite team. Living in Rhode Island there were two options: you rooted for the Red Sox and hated the Yankees, or you rooted for the Yankees and hated the Red Sox. A lot of friends started out as Red Sox fans, but changed their allegiance because the Yankees always won and the Red Sox never did. I would collect and hoard Red Sox players and draw beards and mustaches on Yankee players. I can’t image how many Mickey Mantle and Yogi Berra cards I had were ruined because of beards. Cards were for collecting and making complete sets. Doubles and triples were used for pitching. Pitching cards was a school yard activity. You would take your extras to school and either at recess or after lunch you’d find an empty area with a wall. Because you were pitching these cards against a wall, there were no cards in mint condition. They all had rounded edges from colliding with a wall, or have creases because you bent the card as you were picking them up off the ground (usually cement or asphalt). We played three different games and who ever won the previous game would pick the game. The first game was “farzees (pronounced far zees)”. The game was not limited to one player against another, you could put together as large a group as you could find. With farzees you would pitch your card (one toss per player) and the person who’s card stopped closest to the wall would win all the cards. On occasion the card would stand up. A standing card would beat any other card that was tossed. The second game was “standeez (pronouced stand eez)”. With standeez the person choosing the game would stand a card up against the wall. It would be at about a 30 degree angle. The game would end when someone tossed their card and it knocked the standing card down to the ground. If you knocked the card down, you would win all of the cards that had been tossed up to that point. Baseball cards were severely damaged in this game. You never wanted to hit the standing card and not knock it down because you didn't toss your card hard enough. The last game was “topzees (pronouced top zees)”. With topzees the person choosing the game would pitch a card out in the playing area, trying to keep it away from any wall. The winner of the game was the person who would toss their card and it would land on top of any of the cards already on the ground. It didn’t have to cover a lot of the card, just some part of it. The winner would pick up all of the cards that had already been tossed. Because most of us “pitched” cards, finding cards from the 50’s or early 60’s rarely came in mint or excellent condition. We never anticipated that our cards would ever be worth anything and that the stars would be worth more than the common. We loved our cards because they were play things, never investments. Please feel free to leave comments on this article, especially if you are at an age where you may have pitched cards also. My blog will try to recreate loving the game of baseball and what it was like playing and watching the game in the 50’s and 60’s.

Rocco is facing an audience that: 1) doesn't want him to use analytics, or 2) wants him to use it. It's unlikely both sides are content. He has a well oiled clubhouse. He effectively platoons and pinch hits when situations arise. No player is relagated to the end of the bench, everyone gets in every 2 or 3 games. No player is overused and runs out of gas for the playoffs. He is consistent in his platooning and pinch hitting so players can anticipate being needed. He fulfills the FO philosophy. And he adjusts to his players, such as keeping starters in longer when he has a good staff and steals bases when he has guys that can run. Oh, and I love his use of the safety squeeze.

I had thought that the Twins would match up with the Red Sox because the Sox have no useful second baseman on their roster. There have been Merrifield rumors, but I have yet to see anything on Polanco. I did make a comment on the Red Sox page of The Athletic and Jen McCaffrey commented that the Sox are looking for a good defender. To my eyes it looks like Polanco fits the bill, but she stated that his analytics have him as below average. I'm guessing that this may be contributing to the lack of activity at this point.

No question that the FO has done a great job putting together a starting nine both in 2023 and the future, but I'm not nearly as optimistic that the SP and RP will be good enough to support success in the playoffs. Now that they have full stocked the position players, its time to draft heavy on pitchers, both college and high school. Early round collegiate pitchers are normally the closest to.contributing (and many have faced better.competition than A and maybe AA players). Take college pitchers in the early rounds and then lottery.ticket high schoolers after that.

Fits a major need on the team, but comes with a hefty price tag. He is either looking for a multi-year contract in excess of an AAV of $15M or is looking for a 1 year pillow contract to let him get back into free agency with a proven record of better health. In a normal off season this would be a reasonable signing, however with the Pohlad's worrying about finances this signing may not happen unless we can move a combination of Farmer, Polanco, Vazquez, Kepler. If we can't sign Hoskins we are probably looking at a Miranda/Kirilloff platoon.

There are no 2B in Free Agency except for Whit Merrifield. While he can provide versatility, his career is on a downward spiral. There are a number of teams looking for infield help, but Jose's name is not often mentioned as a possibility. I am thinking mostly the Red Sox who have no one to play second base and are looking for someone who can help their pitching staff by providing above average defense. There has to be some conversations going on between these two teams. The Sox don't really have anyone pitching or RH hitting outfielders available, but I think someone like Jarren Duran may make some sense. He does hit left handed, but provides coverage in CF (platooning with Buxton) and can play LF. His forte is that he is a proven base stealer.