jacksonianmarch

The need to buy an ace was apparent. This is Papi's final season and the offense is good even with laggards like Pablo and Hanley. You had a pen with 2 nice pieces and then you went out and added a shutdown relief ace. The only major weaknesses on this team were starting pitching and defense. Your defense should get a boost from Vasquez returning, although the Hanley experiment at 1b could be a plus or a minus onto 2015, we'll see. Regardless, you're kinda stuck with your offense as is. The only major spot for upgrade was the rotation. Now you have 1. Price 2. Buchholz 3. E-Rod 4. Porcello 5. Miley If you cannot find a taker for Buchholz, you kinda have to roll with him. Now that you've added to the top, you can at least rely on a guy to be a stopper. Is your rotation great or even above average? On the whole, probably more the latter but not convincingly more than average on the whole. But it's no longer abhorrent. That means your dynamic offense and now strong 7-8-9 should allow you to win games you were losing last year. As it stands right now, the sox have probably jumped into the lead in the division IMO as it stands right now. The one thing this also does is give you time to acquire another pitcher. You have the means to roll into 2016 and should Buch go down again (more like when) you'll only have to deal for one starter, and it won't have to be an ace

For who? Who would you target? The only guy I'd go after on SF is Bumgarner and he ain't moving. Our offense is what it is. We have to subtract to add. To this point, there's no deals that are hot. We have a surplus of young, high ceiling pitching. We haven't seen anything like this before. At the same time, we don't have a David Price. We don't have an ace. We need a guy who can lead this rotation and be reliable. We don't need more wild cards. We need a stopper, a 200IP stopper. If we cannot afford or deal for one, then adding more inexperienced pitching isn't necessary. We are flush with options. We are flush with ace ceiling options. We just don't have an ace right now. We have 4 guys who missed time with elbow issues in 2015 (Eovaldi, Nova, Pineda, Tanaka). What are the chances all 4 don't need surgery? Probably low. We have 7 legit big league options if you include CC. We just don't have a CC from years past. If we can't get one, then you hold pat with what we have

Be wary of Miller. St Louis couldn't fix his mechanics and kept dropping him from playoff rotations and all of a sudden he goes to Atlanta and reemerges as an ace level pitcher. Atlanta always seems to reclaim pitchers and then when they sell them off again, they suck

The sox had to do this. There is no question. Will he be an albatross in 4 years? Probably. But will he be immensely helpful in 2016? Absolutely. Dombrowski was brought in with one mission, win now. And you should do that. I still think you need one more pitcher, but as it stands, you're definitely playoff contenders and maybe the favorites in the ALE

Don't consider him a "backup". That's the problem Girardi got into. He is not a backup. He's a starting OF vs lefties. Otherwise, he's a bench warmer. His splits v righties are so bad that you'd be MUCH better off throwing Holt in the OF than playing Young. Young should only face righties in blowouts as he is an auto out vs them

Gardner seems like he is hurt a lot, but he has played 145 games or more in 5 of the last 6 seasons. His WAR has been 3.3 or higher in 5 of the last 6 yrs as well, peaking at 7.0 in 2010 and at a low of 3.3 in 2015. He is adequately transitioning from a speed first slap hitter to a patient power-ish hitter all the while playing GG defense in LF. He still steals 20+ bases. He has hit 33HR the last 2 seasons. The guy is signed to a pretty nice deal paying him $13 mil a yr for the next 3 seasons with an option year for a 4th. His value the past 3 seasons has been $25.3 mil, $25.9 mil, and $20.4 mil. The guy has a LOT of value. He wont get us what we really need, which is a innings eating ace, but he could be the headliner of a deal for one

Yes, he was 4 WAR because he was playing a position where offense isn't common. No matter how s***** his defense was, a guy who OPS'd .800+ at it was going to be worth something big. The problem is, he doesn't have a position, has a reputation as a clubhouse killer and is coming off an injury that sapped his power without actually fixing it, per se. Right now, youd have to give him away.

You have to use him right. For some reason, Girardi kept throwing him out there against righties. The guy had a .182/.246/.339 split vs righties yet he batted 165 times vs righties. He literally needs to be replaced when a righty comes in. His K rate goes up 9% and his OPS drops 400 points when going from a lefty to a righty. If Farrell doesn't get enamored with his pull swing and try to fit him in vs righties, he will be a great signing. If Farrell puts him in at all vs righties, then he will be a waste

This is interesting for sure. I loved Young and thought he was a great fit for our mostly left handed hitting outfield. He's not really a CFer anymore, so maybe he's a platoon mate with Bradley and covers RF against lefties?

I think expectations are linked to media hype, payroll and ticket price. If a team comes into a season knowing they are going to suck and their ticket prices go up, fans have the right to be upset.

Pal, you have to remember Hanley not only slid off the rails offensively, but he is without a position and is known as a clubhouse killer. You would have to pay to give him away. Your best bet is to hold onto him and see if he can recoup value at 1b before sliding into DH for 2017

We have plenty of young starters with upside. We need a 200IP starter capable of leading the staff. Think about it Meh. Tanaka, Severino, Pineda, Eovaldi, Nova, Warren, and Mitchell. Most teams would love to have this problem. The thing we need is a guy like CC from 6 years ago. We need a staff leader who can be relied upon. This usually trickles down to the rest of the staff and helps develop other guys along the way. Consider it an investment in the now and the future

Why the hell would you deal a perennial 3WAR OFer for a young, unproven pitcher when we are chock full of unreliable young options with higher ceilings?

Looks like Zimmerman has agreed to a deal with Detroit

You need Price plus one more pitcher. I think you'll still need to retool the pen, but with Kimbrel assuming the top spot, you don't have a lot of work to do. You need a 1 and a 2. The rest of your depth will sort itself out after that

He is similar to Buch in his frequent DL trips. Where he isn't similar is the types of injuries. Clay has had shoulder, elbow, back and esophageal issues whereas Nova has mainly had elbow trouble. That it took this long to perform TJS baffles me. He should be fully healthy come ST

Exactly. You have a fluke WS around 3 last place finishes. Kimmi wants a dynasty, but they don't really exist anymore.

Me too. I think he hasn't been truly healthy in 3-4 years. Now he is. We have redundancy, but at his best, he's a 3 win pitcher. That has a lot of value on this team

Nova is kinda like Buch. At their best, Buch is better, but the same problems with health apply. The issue with Nova has mainly need his elbow, though, and that should be fixed, whereas Buch has been out with all sorts of ailments

Yankees are letting teams know that Nova is available. He is one guy I wouldn't deal unless blown away. He has had 2 3+WAR seasons mashed around one below average season and 2 injury plagued years. Thing is, the guy hasn't eclipsed 170IP in a season due to lingering "forearm" and elbow pain and finally TJS, something he needed for 4 seasons. Guys aren't back to 100% until 18 months after their surgery. I think he is going to have a big year, especially since his stuff rebounded, but his command was shoddy. I would deal him only if you get the type of return you should get for a 3 WAR pitcher. As it stands right now, our rotation is as such... 1. Tanaka 2. Severino 3. Pineda 4. Eovaldi 5. Nova I get the idea of dealing one, especially with the Yanks linked to top notch starters and having a lot of redundancy on that back end (CC, Warren, Mitchell, etc). But dealing Nova when his value is low and expected to rebound is dumb, and Cash isn't dumb

Spud, you have to focus on the 1. If you are able to keep tabs on the 1 while locking up the #2 then so be it. If Lackey is all you get, you guys aren't going anywhere. I think you have one 3 and a bunch of 4s and 5s. The ceiling of your 3 is a 2, but the ceilings of the 4s and 5s are probably not much higher. You are going to need a lock down #1.

Depends on what you need. If you are going into 2016 with your rotation as is, you gotta take Buchholz. He has the higher ceiling and since you'd need top end performance over endurance due to the shitbums occupying the rotation, you'd need to roll the dice on performance. If you end up getting a legit 1 and 2 with ERod and Porcello as the 3 and 4, then Miley is your guy. You would need a steady presence rather than a top notch starter

Hanley was used improperly. I think he could be a good DH. Who knows what he can bring at 1b, but it is at least a reasonable thing to expect rather than a conversion to Fenway's LF. Panda is probably done. His bat looked slow, his legs looked slow and his glove was made of stone. I think you ran into fatassitis. It eventually sneaks up on all overweight professional athletes.

It isn't like it's some national secret. Dombrowski has made it a point to have a headliner atop his rotations. He has had one everywhere he has been. Typically a large, high velocity starter capable of eating innings. Price was that guy starting off the year. He might be that guy again. The sox have a gigantic hole in the top 2 spots in the rotation. You could drive a bus through the hole. You have to take care of 1 before you can take care of #2.

Sanchez is our backup. He is the heir apparent. Zunino is garbage. No need to waste time on him