jacksonianmarch

I loved that guy when we had him. Always gave a good AB. Not the best defender, but solid. Was able to play 3b and 2b, and heck we even put him in the OF a few times. Made good contact, hit to a decent average, had some pop.

It's not the bats, it's the approach. When I was coming through, you learned how to hit to the count. You get 2 strikes, you shorten up and make contact. Nowadays, 2 strikes is treated the same as no stikes, just grip it and rip it. We are seeing more homers, but also a massive amount of K's. The all or nothing approach

Dewey, if you deal Devers, you better get an all-star back. You can get upgrades for nothing but cash if you wanted to.

You don't need to get Frazier. You could get Prado for literally nothing but money. Prado can move all over the diamond too and be some insurance for Pedroia next season if Devers ascends.

Midseason top 100 from BA 3. Gleyber Torres 36. Blake Rutherford 49. Clint Frazier 56. Chance Adams 71. Estevan Florial 73. Justus Sheffield 89. Dustin Fowler

Drew Pomeranz is a number 5 starter. He gives you 5.1IP a start and usually spends a ton of pitches per inning. He limits runs, which is good for you guys, but he is a bear on your pen. I get the trade. You deal for a guy who looks good now for a kid who might be great in the future. If Espinosa does end up dominating 3-4 years from now, but Pom is a key contributor during your window, then most sox fans would probably not give a s***.

You will need to part with something to get Frazier. Frazier had an abysmal start to the season with sub .200BA's and sub .704OPS's in his first 2 months. But since June 1, he has hit 9HR and slashed .256/.373/.558. Even including his abysmal start, he is still at 1.3WAR and if the past 6 weeks is any indication, he might add to that considerably. Putting his power in Fenway would be interesting, especially in a lineup where he will have to be pitched to. The White Sox lineup has had him protecting Abreu, but he has absolutely no protection either. He is due to shatter his career high in walks.

You can have Devers plus a veteran. Get the vet for now. If Devers outplays him, then bonus. If you don't get a vet and Devers struggles on promotion, then you're stuck

I made this post to show why your team shouldn't stand pat on your weaknesses. Your window is three years and wasting one with an auto out at a power position is assinine

He seems like a really nice kid. His story is a good one. He's adopted and is a gentle giant. He's actually the second adopted player on the Yankees 40 man after Rob Refsnyder

Betances and Chapman got back on track today. Big big win

Pretty sure you don't know the first thing about the word you just typed

Theo can build a system but also wasn't afraid to trade from it. Ben was paralyzed when it came to dealing prospects. That's okay in a small market. It's not okay in Boston

You're not getting it. The reason I bring this up isn't because I've got a boner for cliffs and windows. It's because you're within your window and addressing glaring needs shouldn't be pushed off because you "should be ok".

Met the guy a few times. I know his family well. He will be missed

He has the quickest hands of anyone I've seen in years

Frazier becoming an instant hero. Atta boy kid!

The sox missed big time on this pick. Everything I read about him at the time of the draft had him with a mid 90s fastball and instead he shows up and is this pusballing lefty without command. To think he was picked well before Judge in the same year...

Tanaka has been pretty bad this season. With the elbow concerns and his poor performance, I don't think he opts out. He would be doing us a favor in allowing us to go after Darvish

I have talked probably ad nauseum about the "window" for the sox. We all are in agreement that the sox are inside their window right now. I would assume that everyone feels the window will extend a few seasons. Here are a few reasons why the window looks to close in 2020. I am assuming the sox re-sign all their big producers Craig Kimbrel becomes a FA after 2018. He is probably the best reliever in baseball right now. Re-signing him with likely start with Chapman money, which is $18 mil per season. Let's say the sox do that Xander Bogaerts becomes a FA after 2019. He is intent on going year to year. Even with his power outage, he is on pace to set a high watermark in WAR at 5.4. If he continues producing at this level, and with Boras as his agent, there is no reason to think he cannot get $25 mil per annum on the open market. Per fangraphs projections, he has been worth nearly $70 mil the last 2 seasons and this yr he is on pace to be worth $40 mil. Now while I don't think that's reasonable in this market, I do think $25 mil per annum is about right Jackie Bradley Jr. becomes a FA after 2019. He was worth $38.8 mil last yr and is on pace to repeat that this season. Once again, I think it is unlikely he sees that amount, but I think $22 mil per season on the open market is reasonable for a defensive whiz at a premium position who can hit for a mid .800s OPS with 20HR power Chris Sale becomes a FA after 2019. He will turn 31 in ST in the first year of his new deal. He already took a discount. He isn't taking another one. With Price and Kershaw resetting the market north of $30 mil per annum, by 2020, we might be talking about $35-$40 mil. For this projection, lets use $35 mil per year Mookie Betts becomes a FA after 2020. On his current pace, he is looking at an arb total above $22 mil for his final season of arb akin to Harper's deal for 2018. After 2020, he is looking at a deal akin to Harper's in FA which will clearly reset the market after 2018. Benintendi will be in his first arb year and likely making $5 mil or so David Price- $31 mil Dustin Pedroia- $13 mil Kimbrel- $18 mil Bogaerts- $25 mil Bradley- $22 mil Sale- $35 mil Betts- $22 mil Beni- $5 mil For 2020 alone, the salaries above total out at $171 mil with Betts and Beni looking at bigger money in 2021. By that point, Pedroia will be doing his Jeter lap and Price will likely be your #5 starter. By 2020, I believe the number is $210 million. If the sox want to keep the band together, they will have a mere $39 mil to fill out the rest of their pen aside from closer, 3 rotation slots from 2-4, C, 1B, 3B, and DH. I know the lux tax limit isn't really a limit, but Boston hasn't proven to be willing to shoot past that number aside from a few mil here and there. While I expect NY to be above that number by 2020, NY and LA have proven to not really care about lux tax when it comes to financing a winning team. Hence the window. It helps to have kids playing in those spots, but with the damage done to the farm by DD in going for it and the end of the round draftees the sox are looking to have due to their success, the likelihood of bringing in premium talent through the draft will be difficult. So that means filling the rest of your team out with free agents. They are expensive and typically older. You're looking at 4 position players, 3 starters and at least one higher priced reliever to tandem with Kimbrel, assuming nobody fades due to injury or ineffectiveness. It's a hell of a problem to have, having your core be young together, but it also leads to what NYY dealt with after 2000. Young stars got expensive, we picked later in rounds and didn't develop well and ended up having to fill our needs with high priced FAs. Payrolls bloated with diminishing returns. The money be damned approach extended our "window" really through 2012, but our special team from the 96-01 seasons were well past their primes or retired by then. This brings me to the point about 3b and the need to maximize your success in your window. You've got 2 more years after this one assuming you re-sign Kimbrel. You don't waste 33% of your window because you're afraid to deal for the one or two critical needs your team has now.

Slav, you're on the right page. Yes, your window is 3-4 years long. But your GM has decimated your system to win NOW! Sacrificing a season in the middle of a window is unacceptable. You have a need. Do you need an MVP candidate at 3b? No. But if you can get a veteran who can hit reliably at the bottom of the order, do you do it? Heck yeah you do. I'm not saying deal Devers for a rental. I'm saying at least get a guy like Prado who should come cheap and gives professional AB's up there without giving up too much

His career has looked good so far! I am getting ahead of myself, I am just saying that kids making their debuts are utterly unpredictable. A great player could come up and suck for a bit. Judge was awful last year. This year, he is working on a triple crown. Relying on Devers to be an integral part of your potential championship team is unfortunately, a major risk

Slasher, I am not mad, just realistic. You cannot have an auto-out at a power position and expect to beat good teams in the playoffs. The bottom of your order is an abject joke and beyond Sale, your rotation isn't much to look at in a short series. You guys will win the AL East, but your team is not the juggernaut it was made out to be in ST. The loss of Papi looms LARGE on your offense and you need to spread the offense out. Having Marrero at 3b doesn't achieve that.

Judge is having a transcendant year. Lost in all of this losing and Judge love is the fact that we have re-developed a core and have a rookie/soph class that most teams would kill for. I had limited expectations for this season, and if prior to the season you told me Tanaka would go into the ASB with an ERA over 5 and Betances would have a BB rate near 9, I'd say we were in last rather than clinging to a wild card spot. Judge is becoming the face of the MLB. His stature and his hitting capability this season have been second to none and makes missing out on Mike Trout (he was taken with our pick by the Angels when we signed Tex) less painful. Gary Sanchez is quietly putting up another solid season. .876OPS and 13 homers after missing a month is great from the C position. We all know he can get hot. Aaron Hicks finally hit his stride and prior to getting injured, was getting on base at a .398 clip Starlin Castro was hitting .313 with 12 HR before getting hurt. Didi Gregorius missed the first month, but he is hitting .300 with 10HR from the SS position. Those are 5 young guys locked up at least through next year who are forming the core of our lineup. In the rotation, Severino is an All-Star who is pitching like a near ace. Jordan Montgomery has been incredibly solid as a rookie, giving a reminder of what a young Andy Pettitte looked like. We developed a core and added two kids to the rotation who will likely be there for a long time. We arrived a year early, and with our veteran woes this year, we are lucky to still be over .500. Pineda sucked the last 6 weeks. Tanaka sucked for 6 weeks. Betances has the yips. Chapman has been hittable. Clippard is near DFA status with as bad as he has been. Our bridge and our stopper exploded. We have the depth in the minors to see who can replace them, but that takes time. Cashman needs to be patient. Adding to this time right now could just be re-arranging the deck chairs on the titanic. Another reliever or another starter won't be enough if we don't get some consistency from our stalwarts. If they continue to blow in July, I say we sell the vets, play the kids and go big into FA this offseason

Acevedo is huge like Betances, so it's easy to make that correlation, but Betances never had Acevedo's control or his change. The change is the toughest pitch to teach. A breaking ball will come. Injuries will be the only thing limiting Acevedo long term. Also, I think Florial will rise faster than you think. He's going to be in Tampa soon. If he shines there, he could debut in AA next yr and receive a call up in 2018. Depends how he adjusts to the new levels, but his talent is astronomical