Dojji

Quite happy with Rafaela as an every day shortstop BTW. We need to figure 2B out, but at least for this year I'm not in favor of sending cedanne back into the outfield unless it's necessary. He's obviously raw but the talent is pretty obvious. here's hoping he develops.

We're about as inured against injuries as a team can be with multiple starters predicted to trickle back over the next month. It all comes down to what we get out of Murphy of course but right now we're mostly looking for a 5th starter unles a great deal lands in our lap.

Crazy trade proposal time! Yorke, Rafaela, Duvall to the Marlins Jesus Luzardo to the Red Sox This is actually a trade that potentially makes both teams better both now and over the next multiple years. Luzardo is a stud and he has 4 years of team control after this one. If you trade top prospects like Yorke and Rafaela in a blockbuster, he's who you target. Meanwhile the Marlins are quietly trying to contend too and Rafaela and Duvall both represent upgrades to their current roster. Rafaela would jump right in and probably play center for them, and Duvall would add offense from the outfield that Miami isn't getting now. So this is actually a trade that would put both teams in a stronger position both this year and going forward. The Marlins add 2 top prospects and a rental bat, and we get probably our #2 starter with 4 years of arb control..

yes and no. With Kutter rounding into shape we could definitely still use a guy, but we actually have 4 good starters (or 3 good starters and whatever the hell Pivetta is). If we can take Murphy out of the frankenstarter role we'll probably be better for it, having bullpen games every 5 races is going to be hard on the pen. But we do have some guys coming back soon, especially Chris Sale, so that should help.

I could learn to love that unit. but there's gotta be an argument for trying Rafaela at shorstop, at least to give it a chance to fail, especially because you have the luxury of a guy like Chang as a late inning defensive replacement

Happy to hear that. Not that I want him back or anything but at least that should mean a better life after baseball.

You have to deal someone, and if you want quality back, it has to be someone you probably didn't want to get rid of. Yorke is in that sweet spot where he has obvious value but the team doesn't really, truly, absolutely need to keep him

We're up against the cap. If we want a starter who costs money, we're going to trade money. Duvall is obvious cap money to trade. Everything else is, of course, purely speculative.

My crazy deadline theory: Duvall to the Brewers for RP Bryse Wilson The Brewers could use a rental bat and their offense from the outfield is abysmal. They're trying to compete for the division championship and duvall represents a shot in the arm offensively for them. Meanwhile Bryse Wilson is a good young arm who can pitch multiple innings and would upgrade our fragile bullpen. He could even be another good opener for us. Might take some middling prospects like Kavadas or Drohan to make up the weight for Milwaukee but the core of the deal works for both sides, the Brewers have a surplus of good arms, and are desperate for offense, especially outfield offense. Nick Yorke to the Padres for Seth Lugo Lugo is exactly what we need. A quality arm that can go deep into games. His contract is almost exactly the same size as Duvall's, meaning that this would be a cap neutral series of moves. I believe Lugo is slightly more expensive than Duvall which makes it a good thing that we cleared some of Kike's money a few days ago. Yorke, our #5 prospect, is just about right for gaining a quality rental, and Lugo has a player option for 2024 which we may be able to parlay into a reasonable extension if we so chose. If we did extend him he'd probably move into the rotation spot being vacated by Paxton, but for this year, we'd have bothh of them.

So what I'm hearing here is, Sandy Leon was a hell of a backup catcher.

A bit dramatic, no? The beauty of Rafaela is that if Story does need to slide down the defensive spectrum, Rafaela could step up and play short. Also, it's hardly "throwing his value in the trash" to play a SS prospect at 2B. Second base is a very high leverage position, second only to shortstop itself.

I actually see a potential future where Rafaela is our second baseman. Our OF is fine at the moment, Story is probably our long term SS, but Arroyo is just about replacement level, not hard to see Rafaela outshining him to fill that hole. If he can play shortstop he can learn second so that's not likely to be an issue. It just makes sense over the next 2-3 years to see if Rafaela can be the star at second.

Love Connor Wong. Got a bright future. Gonna be an all star in the not too distant future.

Wouldn't mind giving him a shot if we feel we need a backup 1b this September. I don't see him coming up before then.

or like punching a runner out and making base stealers think twice like Connor Wong just did.

If we're that desperate for a middle infielder, why not call up Rafaela and see what we have there? Costs us nothing.

Gio is a pipe dream and I have no interest in Lynn. If we're going for a trainwreck starter I'd rather have a young trainwreck like Brady Singer from the Royals, who would probably take a haul of medium prospects to build up their farm depth. Singer's FIP suggests he's better than his KC track record indicates. IF we can spare the pieces he might be a useful add for rotation depth going forward, dude isn't great but he eats innings and that makes him useful.

Kutter Crawford exists. I think he has #3 ceiling, which is exactly what we'd need him to be. A big budget team can usually figure out the bottom of the rotation as long as the first 3 spots are solid. If Kutter can round into the shape I think he's capable of, we should be there.

He might be but that start didn't prove anything one way or the other.

Probably a lot of 'em I left out, but my apologies to Jim Rice. by the time I appeared on the scene as a baseball fan he was a DH and Gator patrolled left at Fenway.

Te reason why I disagree is that it's an ongoing, interesting thing that's happened over several games now, and because it doesn't really fit either in the "rotation" (which Pivetta is arguably not part of) or "bullpen" (which Pivetta is also arguably not part of). Might as well break it out as a standout event.

He would not be the first Red Sox left fielder to not be very good defensively. From Teddy to Gator to Manny to JD to Yoshida. Yaz, though, Yaz was a great defender.

I didn't like the Vaz trade eihther but it's clear that the team saw something we didn't. In his prime Vazquez was an elite catcher they moved him at the right time. especially since it got Connor Wong a chance to show us what he can do. Wong has been a very pleasant surprise for me, I didn't see him coming at all which is why I was a skeptic of the Vaz trade in the first place. Now that I know what Wong is, and he looks like a competent starting catcher, I take back most of what I said about that trade at the time. He was ready. I just didn't know that. BTW I enjoy Wong's interesting framing technique. He sets up with his glove way outside the zone, then pulls it back in, drawing the umpire's eye in towards the strike zone. I never thought of that before but it's an interesting technique if you can trust your pitcher to know your actual spot without telegraphing it with the glove.

our core is about 1-2 years too young to be in a 2021 position right now. They're figuring it out rapidly but would benefit from another year before trying to go all in. When these guys do get it alltogether it's gonna be a hell of a thing, and they're really close. Seeing a lot of flashes of the kind of team they will be. If we get 75th percentile luck we could win it this year. I just don't think you could count on that.

Whatever allows him to get into a groove