a700hitter

Yes, with Dempster being available in relief if Doubs runs his pitch count to 100 after 4 innings.

It's the Mets. Anyone they get is likely to be the answer to a trivia question some day. LOL! The don't sacrifice the future argument is bogus when it is used as a blanket excuse for doing nothing. Every team makes trades. most trades involve some prospects if you want to get an established guy in return. You are always trading on the future. The key is to be good at it, and try to keep most of your best prospects for your own team. The problem is that we have not been very good at this for several years.

I don't know what is wrong with the guy, but it has been broken since September 2011. He's not a top of the rotation pitcher. In the playoffs if we get there, Buch starts game 1, Lackey game 2. Game 3 is up for grabs.

Exactly, which is why I find the whole don't sacrifice the future argument excuse silly whenever it is used. Most trades for established players involve prospects. I prefer to use them to get big names that will produce for a few years, not bullpen arms for 2 months. I think it is a higher and better use of those assets to get an established player for a year or two. All of that being said, the Red Sox hadto get a guy for the bullpen and that is what Thornton cost. It would be great if we could land Lee, because Lester is just not getting it done at the top of the rotation. Lee, however, is a pipe dream.

There is no narrative. I'll say it once again. I would have made the trade, but we did not give up no value. As Ital said, I'd like this trade if I was on the White Sox side too. What narrative are you arguing with me? I would have made the trade. What's your point? It's not the trade of the century for us.

And that is the nail on the head. We needed the bullpen arm, and they got a guy with some potential.

And isn't he still in the Tampa system? This is more s*** at the wall. I said that I would have done the trade, so I don't know why you guys are arguing with me. Are you against the trade?

For 8 ABs. You are throwing s*** at the wall with this argument. Jacobs is not close to ready for a 25 man roster spot in 2014.

Not with a guy from A-ball. It is just not done.

This doesn't hang together logically

Not the same. Not even close. He suck, but has proved to be serviceable at the MLB level. Plopping a guy who is not even a top 200 prospect on an MLB roster for an entire year is quite different. Not to mention how sitting on the bench it would negatively impact his development. He was not going to be on a 25 man roster next season.

Agreed

I didn't say that it wasn't logically sound. I said that I would have made the trade. We just can't discount this kid as giing away zero. Bagwell was also blocked, probably more so than Jacobs.

If he is good enough to have a 33% chance of sticking on an MLB roster next season, he probably should have been put on the 40 man roster at the end of this year, because we a few guys on the 40 man who would not stick on any roster. Also, if he is good enough to stick on some team's 25 man MLB roster, maybe we should have done better than Thornton.

I am just pointing out the parallels to the Bagwell trade are there. No one blinked when we traded him for a bullpen arm. Jacobs could be pumping gas in a couple of years, because most prospects don't make it. Or he could be starting in someone's OF. We just don't know. The Sox needed a bullpen arm. Cherries got one. It is the right move for this roster, but I am not going to pretend that I know how this will work out in the end. I am fine with this deal. We need a bullpen pitcher now. I'll also be fine if we move a big prospect to get a big stick. Others will squawk about that, but the big prospects are not the ones that always make it. Guy like Jacobs make it too. In 5 years, when I am saying that we need to make a trade, people may be telling me that I am short-sighted using the Jacobs deal as an example of past short sightedness. LOL!! I am fully aware that he may be a good MLB player some day, and I still would have made the move for Thornton. You seem not to want to acknowledge the fact that Jacobs has potential. He's far from a busted prospect or a dud.

If he is good enough to hold down a MLB roster spot next season on some team, we probably should have given him a spot on the 40 man roster. He is not going to be on anyone's MLB roster next season.

The Sox needed an extra arm without question. Thornton should fill the bill.

Do you think that some team was going to keep him on their MLB roster for an entire year in 2014? I don't think there was any chance of that, so they would have to give him back.

Jacobs is 22. He had just been promoted to AA. He has hit well throughout the lower minors. He has speed and a little pop in his bat. We have no idea what he will become.

Yes, they were stuck and they needed the extra left handed arm, but I am not going to pretend that this was some great maneuver or trade. We will not know that for some time. Jacob still wears the tag of "potential". Brandon Snyder does not.

A one year commitment at $13 million is not a big deal even if he doesn't turn his game around. Someone in the rotation will need to get traded if they want to give one of the kids a chance next season. I don't know who that will be.

If MLB wanted to handle this PED issue once and for all, all they would have to do is ban a couple of these guys like Braun and ARod and payoff their contract the Union has nothing to say about it. That message would be heard loud and clear. After that, players would be getting their trainer's approval to drink coffee. Ban a coupe of these cheaters. That is what thy need to do. Since the mid-90's none of MLB's stats have any integrity. They need to get the playing field level again, or they just let them do whatever they want. This half-assed enforcement system only penalizes the clean guys.

Without his slider, he is just not a reliable pitcher. My recollection is that his slider was devastating. It was his out pitch.

I don't think Jacobs is just a junk prospect. He got some good press for his skills a couple of years ago. I remember when we got Larry Anderson (a much better reliever than Thornton) everyone said that we got him for a guy that we had no use for-- Bagwell. There were two young guys ahead 0f him on the depth chart at 3B. Boggs was only 32 and we had young Naehring and Cooper all ahead of Bagwell who had no future with the Red Sox. How did that turn out? This could be one of those deals. The high profile prospects are not the guys tht always make it big. Look at this dollar store reject Nava. No one would have given $2 for the guy and he has been outstanding. I am not opposed to swapping prospects for immediate help, but if all we are going to get in return is an aging reliever that isn't that great, we should only be dumping a busted or aging prospect-- Snyder or someone like that. If you are going to trade guys who are young with some potential (package a couple of them together with 1 top guy), they should be angling to get an impact player-- not a 4th option out of the pen.

Nice work!!!!