jacksonianmarch

Sacks packed, one out, Gleyber up. Big spot

Littel was with the Yanks for a bit. We dealt Pazos for him then we dealt him for Lance Lynn last year. He looked scared out there

What the what? One batter for Ottavino? He does know the game is 9 innings long, right?

Polanco and Cruz are the only guys who looked comfortable vs Paxton. No way I leave him in vs them with the tying run on base. Oh well, this game isn’t gonna end 4-3, so we have to hope the pen earns their keep

Called it. He shouldn’t have faced Polanco

Long AB and Cruz on deck. This is his last hitter

Cashman saved Paxton, lol. His analytics dept rep and Cash told Paxton to throw more curves and boom, he goes 10-0

Surprised Paxton stays in here.

Paxton has been pretty good. Berrios reminds me of Severino in the WC game last year. Pitching not to get hurt. It can work, but his stuff is good enough to do what Verlander did and that’s challenge the hitters

It’s funny how we have the ability to sit Didi but opted to use him for defense and the shifted D caused an error. I am shocked Ford didn’t make the roster. Just blown away. Kid has a near 1.000 OPS and is LEFT HANDED! The Twins aren’t starting any lefties!

Shoddy D on both sides. Paxton starts slow always and then usually finds it. We need one more inning but may get two from him. Got to add on

Pitching duel. Glasnow and Verlander

I know they're not 7 year deals. You have 3 more years of lux tax hell as it stands. Having $77 mil AAV locked up in 3 unreliable and injury prone starters isn't a great way to build a good team. Especially if those starters end up trending down in production when they are healthy.

EVERYONE overhypes their prospects. But, it doesn't mean those prospects are useless.

You won 4 titles and yes eliminated us twice. We decided to copy your plan and hence have created a well built and deep AL East champion with a pretty deep farm. You guys decided to copy our past plan and spent ridiculous and blew through your prospects like a coke fiend on payday. The depths you’re gonna fall to will be deep. You haven’t experienced this since the 90s. Enjoy it. You’re now the 2013 Yanks. Bloated contracts, no hope. And you don’t have a Cashman to dig you out.

This might have been the one time I didn't counter a comment with something the Yanks had done, but since you asked... The Yankees developed an ace and a mid rotation starter on their current team. The mid rotation starter happens to have been on shelf due to TJS. How have the sox done again in the pitching development realm? The sox massively overhype their prospects too. EVERYONE overhypes their prospects. The one thing the Yanks have done that the sox refuse to do is to deal their prospects for other prospects or their good looking rookies for other young players. The sox fall in love with their prospects when their farm is good. The Yanks may hype them and deal off the ones who they dont see as being impact guys. We made out well with these moves. The Voit trade. The Tauchman trade. The Didi trade. The Hicks trade. We have been moving pre-arb players for arb or earlier players for years and have used it as a way to restock the farm or build depth. We have also used our depth to deal off guys who wouldn't make our 40 man for long term prospects. That is how we got Juan Then (the guy we used to get EE) and Luis Gil (for Jake Cave).

GM didn’t pick the manager. Similar issues abrewin in Boston too

Won't predict my own team. As much as I want the Rays to win and as plucky as they are, I think the Stros steamroll them. Stros in 3

I also go Nationals. Corbin, Strasburg and Scherzer is daunting. But so is Buehler, Kershaw and Ryu. I just think the Dodgers haven't faced as complete a team in the NL playoffs as the Nats are. And the Nats have been hot for 4 months now. I think the winner of this series is going to the world series. I go Nats in 4 In the other league, I don't really care who wins to be honest. I don't like to sleep on the Cardinals, because they always seem to represent well when they make the playoffs. The Braves have the offense and some pitching. The Cards have the pitching and some offense. Regardless, I think this matchup is just going to be fodder for whomever comes out of the LA-WAS series. I guess I'll go Cards in 5

I agree, let's go Rays.

Betts' QO is only useful to the sox if they get under the lux tax limit. The difference is 100 spots in the draft order. Listen, I have sat back and read all the garbage about the sox being the best talent evaluators and have laughed my ass off. The sox have, going on a decade now, been abysmal at drafting and developing pitching. There is a reason they had to go outside of the org for all 5 of their SPs from your 2018 WS run. There was a time when Buchholz wasn't made of glass and Lester was roaming these parts. They are the last 2 to be brought in as amateurs and grown into big league arms. So to say the sox have been the best at recognizing talent for the last 16 yrs is an absolute lie. The Red Sox were able to shift the game in their favor when only the small market clubs gave a s*** about amateur talent. They were the rare large market club that actually gave a s*** about drafting and developing. Hence, they accumulated those Comp A draft picks. Heck, when the sox let Smellsbury and Damon go, they would get a 1st rounder AND a supp pick. Since spending limits didn't exist, they nabbed all the high signability guys (read top 10 talents who wanted tons of money) and they drafted them in the 20s-30s and signed them all. They rigged the game. Then they spent a ton of money on their big league rosters and voila, they had a good big league roster with a deep farm to draw from. The rules changed, but even with the rule changes, the sox were very good at drafting and developing hitters. They no longer got the 1st round selections, but still got some supp picks for players departing. Then came their couple down seasons where they accumulated high picks and Ben guided the farm to a #2 ranking before DD came in and changed it all. The sox enjoyed gaming the system, then two last place finishes plus a robust IFA factory in the islands or in South America. DD came in, the islands were out, they went to Venezuela of all places and their drafting of good hitters fell off. Their pitchers they drafted continued to get hurt or suck and then boom, your good prospects at the top level are all dealt off. This leads to a talent void, especially now in the upper levels when you need them the most. The sox aren't the best at identifying talent. Everyone has their hits and misses, but they aren't even close to the best at identifying talent. They are also not the best at developing that talent, especially on the pitching side. They just can no longer game the system and with 3 ALE titles in their pocket, couldn't draft highly enough to get anyone of impact

They don't have to finalize rosters until tonight I believe. Rumor has it that Voit is gonna be left off. He has been atrocious since coming off the IL and likely is gutting it out until he has surgery on that sports hernia. EE is expected to be off the IL for the game. Paxton is going game 1, I would assume vs Berrios. Game 2 will probably be Tanaka vs Odorizzi. Game 3 will most likely feature Severino, his opponent wouldn't be clear. Gibson and Perez sucked ass down the stretch. Their best pitcher by peripherals is suspended (Pineda). Game 4 if necessary will be a tale of two shitbums or a yankee pen game vs either Gibson or Perez Our lineup has finally come back together. I would assume we will look like this 1. Lemahieu 1B 2. Judge RF 3. Stanton LF 4. Sanchez C 5. Gregorius SS 6. Torres 2B 7. Encarnacion DH 8. Gardner CF 9. Urshela 3B

Nope, as the Sox aren’t a revenue sharing recipient and are over the threshold, they get a 4th rounder https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.mlb.com/amp/news/mlb-qualifying-offer-rules-explained-c259650658.html

In order to keep a farm from dying when you are sending out any prospect that has value above AA, you cannot whiff on an IFA season or a draft class. Beni was big for 2015, but the rest of the draft is a whiff. 2016 outside of Chatham has been a total bust (Groome might change that). 2017 is what is killing them. A good 2017 draft would have them in a reasonable spot, but they whiffed on that. And essentially since they signed Devers in 2013 their IFA signings has been abysmal. Absolutely horrendous.

A Betts trade isn't going to come together that rapidly, IMO, unless the sox have already gotten an offer they love. Post season failures could drive the price up for a team like the Nationals or the Dodgers who are at the end of a long run of success.