Mookie Betts figures he should always use his b

LOS ANGELES (AP) — aseball success to give back to the world.Even in the middle of the World Series.The Boston Red Sox slugger was surprised to find himself in the spotlight this week for a late-night good deed. A few hours after the Red Sox won Game 2 on Wednesday night http://www.bluejaysfanproshop.com/authentic-curtis-granderson-jersey , Betts and his cousin were spotted providing hot meals to the homeless outside the Boston Public Library, braving temperatures in the 30s to feed dozens of people.Former Red Sox infielder Lou Merloni, now a radio host on WEEI, was tipped off about Betts’ distribution of several trays of hot food. Merloni publicized the good deed on social media , leading to widespread acclaim for the probable AL MVP.“It’s pretty cool,” Betts said in the Dodger Stadium visitors’ dugout before Game 3 on Friday. “I’ve been blessed with everything I have, and I might as well share it.”Betts, who batted .346 with 32 homers and 80 RBIs during the regular season, never intended for anyone to find out about his good work in the community. He and his cousin went out in hoodies with no fanfare, providing steak tips and chicken to anyone trying to make it through Massachusetts’ brutal cold.Betts simply feels an obligation to do what he can, whenever he can, for the less fortunate.“It’s not the first time I’ve done it,” Betts said. “It wasn’t supposed to get (the attention) it got.”Betts is taking care of his work on the field as well after a slow start to the postseason at the plate. The 26-year-old outfielder went 4 for 8 in the first two games of his first World Series, boosting his postseason average to .255.Betts also fed untold thousands in a decidedly different way Tuesday: By stealing a base in the World Series opener , Betts triggered Taco Bell’s famed “Steal a Base, Steal a Taco” promotion, providing everybody in the country with one free taco available Nov. 1.Betts’ charitable nature even caught the attention of Hank Aaron. The Hall of Famer was in Los Angeles to present the Hank Aaron Award, given annually to the player selected as the best hitter in each league — to Boston’s J.D. Martinez and Milwaukee’s Christian Yelich.“No question about it, yes George Bell Jersey , he’s a role model,” Aaron said of Betts. “When you think about who he is, where he is, he certainly is a role model.”Whether it’s good food or good fortune, Betts said he has one rule.“Don’t waste it,” Betts said. “That’s what my dad told me: don’t waste it.” An updated snapshot of where the team stands"With 17 days left before the first official workout with Pitchers and Catchers, it’s time to check in on how the Diamondbacks off season has been going.A week after the world series ended Zach Buchanan of the Athletic wrote:Hazen’s goal is to improve a roster that finished a disappointing 82-80 last season, that was the most expensive in franchise history, that is getting older and that is losing several key contributors to the open market. He wants to do it while simultaneously safeguarding the organization’s future. Oh, and that roster needs to be a bit cheaper than it was a year ago.After the recent signing of Wilmer Flores, Hazen also indicated that they were most likely done withposition player and rotation additions to the team but they will still look to add a bullpen piece or two.More thoughts on that later.....It’s important to note that this is a snapshot in time. There is still much to be determined and much we do not know.A lot can and will change. Of course we can never know which players will stay healthy and who will get hurt.We have little inkling of what moves, trades, or signings may still occur with this front office.They run a very tight ship when it comes to leaks.And try as we like, projecting even healthy performance is very difficult and can only be approximated. However we have to start somewhere, and what follows isa decent BASELINE to help us understand the team and how the off season moves have effected the organization to date. The individual player projections are a combination of the rate from Steamer and ZIPS projections, and are applied to my own playing time projections. In a few cases a player projection may not have been available from one of the systems.I made a few minor technical or subjective adjustments where needed, but no large impacts resulted from those. Salary figures are actual and confirmed numbers for all arbitration eligible and guaranteed contract players.Pre arb player estimates are based on service time, league minimum, and will be within 10-20K depending on time on the MLB roster. So with those caveats and explanations Dave Winfield Jersey , lets take a look at where they stand.Topline Summary firstLast year the team opened the season with approximately a 130M payroll, and ended around 140M.So barring any last minute surprises, the team will have accomplished the goal of coming in a bit cheaper than last year.The wins projection is based on total WAR projection + replacement level wins, and suggests a .500 team.So the improvement part of the goal is not looking so great, which shouldn’t be too surprising. They have added some decent young players, but there have been no “marquee” additions to replace the losses ofPaul Goldschmidt , AJ Pollock , or Patrick Corbin .PITCHING STAFFRotation: The first thing you might note is that the above projection is based on good health and few missed starts for the top 3 starters.Zack Greinke is not only the highest paid player on the team, but he also has the highest projected WAR total of any player on the team, hitter or pitcher. I’m showing new additions Luke Weaver and Merrill Kelly getting 24 starts each, and they are projected to be above replacement but slightly below average.Taijuan Walker is not expected back before June or July, and I presume his innings will be protected, so his innings projection is very conservative.Replacement Starters willmost likely be some combination of pitchers such as Jon Duplantier, Taylor Widener or Taylor Clarke.Of course if/when there are injuries and depending on the severity,we could see a lot more innings go to replacement starters. Bullpen:EDITHat tip to ubersnake for alerting me to the info on Roster Resource regarding player options. Correcting the article based on that info. Last year the team had limited flexibility due to an almost all veteran bullpen in which most of the relievers wereeither out of options, or having guys that they were unlikely to “rotate” using minor league options. The notable exception was Silvino Bracho of course.This year, while Archie Bradley and Yoshihisa Hirano still have options, it seems unlikely either of them would ever be sent down just to “give them a break”.Andrew Chafin and Matt Andriese both still have an option as well. They could possibly be swapped out for someone like Yoan Lopez or Robby Scott down the line at some point in the season.Mike Hazen has indicated that he will probably add a bullpen piece or two. Who he adds, and what kind of options and flexibility he might have remains to be seen. POSITION PLAYERSFor the position players Jack Morris Jersey , I did not use generic “replacement” players, I inserted actual player names and projections.Of importance:1.) I have no idea who is going to get hurt, so I am projecting good health for the most part for the obvious starters.However there is very little chance that the D-backs actually have 7 guys qualify for the batting title. (502 PA)In fact in team history, the most they’ve everhadwas 6, which happenedjust 3 times, in 2001, 2005, & 2010.With 88 batting title qualifiers in 21 years, the average is just barely over 4.So the chances of having 7 are remote.But for the sake of this exercise, I simply did not feel comfortable randomly picking guys to be injured. 2.) There is a very interesting roster conundrum brewing.Lets assume the team opens with 12 pitchers and 13 position players,(8 starters and 5 bench players.)The 8 starters are fairly obvious. How do you make out the bench?The team is committed to carrying 3 catchers again, so there will be 2 catchers onthe bench. Now we are down to 3 open bench slotsJarrod Dyson is signed, and assuming he is healthy and ready to go on opening day, the 4th outfielder slot is his. So now we are down to 2 bench spots.I can’t imagine the team does not carry a utility infielder, and in my playing time projections, I assigned that role to Illdemaro Vargas.I am open to suggestions as to who else might fill that role in 2019, but it seems pretty clear to me that it’s Vargas.Torey likes him a lot and I just don’t see other MLB ready options at this time. Which leaves us just one spot remaining. Socrates Brito and Christian Walker are both out of options.If the team wants to carry Walker to platoon with Lamb and be a RH Pinch Hitter, then there is no spot for Brito.As I mentioned in comments section of previous articles that would mean he is either traded or DFA’d, and only able to be kept in the organization if he clears waivers http://www.bluejaysfanproshop.com/authentic-curtis-granderson-jersey , which seems somewhat unlikely.Brito could get a reprieve if Dysonis not quite ready to open the season after recovering from a second groin surgery.So it could be we won’t know the answer to this question until the very end of spring training. And again, injuries WILL happen. It’s pretty unlikely that every player gets through spring training unscathed. So we’ll see.Finally, I’ll leave you with one more chart. This is the position player playing time projection.The way this works is first I project the starters at each position and estimate games started. Then I start to fill in games started for all positions from players other than the starters.Total games started are then multiplied times the PA/GS, which are higher for players likely to bat near or at the top of the order vs. lower down. After that I need to come up with 260 Pinch Hit Appearance and another 70-80 “Substitution”PA’s to account for those PA’s that occur when a player enters the game as a defensive replacement and later gets a PA, or stays in the game after pinch hitting and bats again. These are based on historical norms. SUMMARY:By now if you have followed this to the end you probably see an obvious problem. While the team win total is projected to be around 81 wins, that’s based on almost no major injuries and pretty much a best-case scenario with regards to health and DL avoidance. In order for this team to reach a high 80’s win total, and have a shot at the wild card, not only do they need unprecedented team health, but they are going to need more than a few breakout or career year performances above what is projected here without any major negative regression seasons to counterbalance those career years. In other words, if everything goes perfect, nobody gets hurt and they get career years from half a dozen guys, they might make the playoffs. Maybe.But if they have any key injuries, the depth just does not appear to be there to keep the team above .500, let alone competing for a playoff spot.The off season isn’t over yet.Maybe they do something really surprising, but I’m not counting on it.They got cheaper. And notably have not traded any minor league prospects away as they continue to build the farm. But I am hard pressed to see where they got better.