jacksonianmarch

If he was an RB or DB like Bo or Deion, I'd say yes. But as a QB, he cannot have his heart in two places. You have to lead your squad and I doubt he will do that well if he is in Oakland through October

Sox save $2 mil on Thornburg and Smith. Consider $6 mil more saved on the pre-arb end as 15 of those players will be in the minors on minor league deals. Add in Eovaldi and Pierce at $22.9 mil for 2019 and you're up to $234 mil. Top penalty mark is $246 mil. How much do you want to save for the deadline?

It's not just your nemesis, it's your nemesis who won 100 games and in most seasons would have won the division. It's also your nemesis who is likely to improve dramatically this offseason while you're trying to keep the band together.

Not the history of the game, but pretty weak. Think about it, you dealt away everyone, you didn't draft well, you didn't develop well, and the two guys who ended up rising in rankings got hurt or busted for PEDs. Now you get to draft at 40 and have restricted funds for IFA while developing the crap that is there now. The farm resembles the Yankees farm pre-Cano. Pretty dead

Nick, there is absolutely no way on God's green earth that DD deals away Betts. You have to see what the ownership wants, and they want to sustain winning. Once they show a need to blow it up, DD will be long gone, so he isn't gonna deal away Betts unless the sox flop in 2019, which I don't see happening. I do think Eovaldi has as much to do with Sale and Porcello as it does about 2019. The sox are trying to prop open a window with a guy who's elbow has seen two reconstructions and, up until his injury shortened contract year, was an enigma. This is a huge outlay for a guy who doesn't have a great track record. That being said, it was an absolute necessity for Boston to do. If they stayed with 4 lefties in the rotation and had to face off with a now primed NY team with an addition of another generational talent and more left handedness to their rotation and depth to their team, they would have fallen. Eovaldi, assuming good health, evens the playing field as his RH power arsenal matches up well with the Yankees RH dominated lineup. We don't hit RH power well at all. We absolutely murder everything left handed. Heck, if Eo stays healthy and the sox and yanks square off in the ALDS again in 2019, I wouldn't be surprised to see Eo be the game 1 and game 5 starter

We will trade Gray, but I can almost exclusively guarantee that we will deal him for guys far off from the bigs. Cashman is the king of dealing for value and getting guys lower down in the farm that end up doing something for the big league squad. My guess is Gray goes to Milwaukee for one prospect we heard of and 2 guys with insane stuff or raw skills in short season who are too far below the radar to be anything but a lottery ticket. Cashman has seemed to turn those guys into something, though. Also, one must remember that we have reinforcements coming after the ASB. Jordan Montgomery was really good for us in 2017 and started out on fire in 2018 before undergoing TJS in May. At the very least we have a big league caliber starter waiting to come back while we have Loaisiga and Adams in AAA with Cessa and German on the big league roster capable of filling in. I see no reason to go past 5 spots in the big league rotation with guaranteed outlay. With this method, though, this frees up a lot of guaranteed money going forward for one of Harper or Machado. While I think Machado makes the most sense positionally, I would like to see what Harper could do in our lineup in our stadium.

Ottavino has a better season than Kimbrel in a harder place to pitch. The prediction on him was 3 yrs $33 mil.

Now the focus is shifting to Happ. And while Happ is certainly not a top notch, ace level pitcher, he has been really good and consistent the last few seasons. The bugaboo is his age at 36, but he has stayed relatively healthy and while he's been around awhile, he doesn't have the innings totals you'd expect for someone who has been in the league for as long as he has. He isn't a 7IP 1ER kind of pitcher, but he is a 5-6IP 0-2ER pitcher and he has really gotten good at being less efficient and more effective, if that makes any sense. His K rates have risen and his walk rates have dropped, but he has for the most part tried to stay away from contact. His HR rate last year really bloated what was an excellent season. At his age, we might only see a 2 yr guarantee and likely not for more than what Eovaldi signed for. His left handedness really plays well in YS too and he'd slot in as our #4 starter. After missing out on Corbin and Eovaldi, this is the next best option as the AAV might be a bit painful, the years wont be and if father time catches up to him, we can cut him loose before we need to start allocating money to our kids. The one thing we will need to tighten up if Happ is re-signed is the pen. Happ and CC in the rotation will give us a 4-5 of guys who max out at 6IP. We will need to replace Robertson with someone of reliability so we can effectively bridge 2 games out of every 5 with guys incapable of seeing the 7th inning and if they flop, likely unable to get past the 5th. I wonder if the idea was to get Paxton and sure up the top of the rotation then see if we could get Corbin and really tighten it up. If unsuccessful, go back to what worked and flesh out the pen to cover for the lack of depth. There is still chatter that Ottavino ends up in NY, which is a name I would certainly gravitate towards, but if I am gonna get an early 30s reliever for a 2 or 3 year deal, I'd try and re-up KRob first as he has had success here.

It isn't Hal. Cashman has been the one to hold back on big deals only to have agents go over his head. In the recent struggle for power, Cashman essentially made it clear that he would leave if that happened again. This is Cashman's club and with how he rebuilt our team into a 100 win team, you have to trust him

I think the prediction going in was 6 yrs $125 mil. The Yanks were right at the prediction in terms of AAV, just not in the years. The Nats surpassed the prediction by another $15 mil. Who knows if the Nats would have gone higher. I liked Corbin a whole lot, but I also like that the Yanks weren't suckered into a longer term deal than they thought was worth it on a player who really has a single year of dominance at the end of an up and down career. The Nats paid him like he is a Scherzer yet he's had one year of ace level production. Now, if Corbin was the only option, then you gotta go where the market dictates. But with the trade market open, with Paxton in the fold and with there still being some good left handed options available, passing was a reasonable thing

I think they’ll be in on a top notch starter next year. They’ll let Sale walk and likely chase Bumgarner and fall back to Porcello if they can’t lock him up. I sincerely think DD is letting Sale walk

I’d be cool with a reunion with Happ or signing Kikuchi. Corbin got a lot more than most people thought after a singular great season.

You deal Mookie, you better not miss on who you get. Also, it ain’t gonna happen. Dave isn’t up for breaking up the band. He’s gonna prop this window open as long as he can, and once the window closes, he’s riding off into the sunset.

The Cards gave up next to nothing. A backup catcher who cannot hit and a starter who has trouble with the strike zone. They’ve got Yadi for now and their rotation is 8 deep. They gave up nothing they will feel and got an MVP caliber bat for a season. BTW, I expect Eovaldi to sign. If he’s healthy and the cutter works long term, he’ll be a good addition. He is one of the riskier options on the market, but with the sox Chief rivals being susceptible to power righties, it makes sense

Rumor of a 4 yr $17 mil AAV or more negotiation

Rumor that the Sox are intensifying their pursuit of Eovaldi. Sounds like a deal is close

Cervelli gets on base. Always has.

Also the idea of a dynasty nowadays with the playoff structure and financial constraints is a white whale. There’s a reason the last real MLB dynasty concluded their run almost 20 years ago. It’s a rare entity. Even the Giants who won 3 titles in 5 seasons missed the playoffs in the years in between titles and even had a sub .500 season interspersed.

We need left handed balance. I know Sabathia is there and will likely cede his role to JMont, but the Yanks have always had success with left handed starters, especially in our park. Might as well see if this kid can do it

You really can't. Ben never would have pulled the trigger on Sale, Price or Kimbrel and without either of those three, you don't have a ring

You can win and have a good farm, you just need great scouting and development. We won for years in the 90s-00s with problematic farm systems because there was no major deterrent beyond money for spending big. Then it was following the Theo method and acquiring sandwich picks and turning them into good players. Once the sandwich picks got harder to get, it was about using your draft pool well. Now, with the draft pool tightened considerably, it is about the INTL market and how best to allocate your money. The Yankees have done well in the INTL market over the years, mostly because of a continued presence throughout Venezuela, DR, Colombia and elsewhere. The sox have shown had some good signings as well. But nowadays it is about depth. You cannot just have 3 top prospects, you need to have 3 top prospects with 10 guys poised to take their spots and 10 guys behind them. With the injuries and higher velocities, hitters are failing at high rates and pitchers are getting hurt. You need to be able to weather the ebbs and flows of a farm to stay on top. The Dodgers have done that very well over the last 10 years. The sox did it well until DD took over. The Yanks started really getting good at it after George died and once we started to take a downward turn in the early 2010s.

Yup, and at DD's age, once the cliff arrives, he will ride off into the sunset and you'll be blaming his successor for a sustained run of mediocrity. DD played his hand perfectly

That was surprising, and interestingly enough, admirable. Pearce could have ridden his hot 2018 and his WS MVP into a starting gig on a lesser squad and a larger guaranteed payday. At his age, the guarantee is all that matters, years are irrelevant. I thought he was staring a Chris Young style sox contract in the face around 2 yrs $15 mil. Him taking a 1 yr $6 mil deal definitely sold himself short.

The Yanks have essentially come out against Eovaldi for 4 or more years. I truly wonder if we fill that final spot in the rotation with Happ or if we make another deal. I'd be fine with dabbling on Kikuchi as well. We just need to have one more. Relying on CC for more than 5th starter duty is not ideal in the least

And that is a legitimate argument. My question for you Larry is, would you take a 5 year run of consistent winning with at least 1 title knowing you'd have a 3 year or so down phase where you didn't win?