Dojji

Depends on what they mean by gaps. We don't really have prospects right now that project to cost controlled regulars in the near future, with the possible exception of Devers, but like I said, we have some pretty decent potential roleplayers (Hernandez, Travis, Ysla) that could plug holes. So yeah, if we're talking about key franchise pieces we have a contradiction, but if all we need is people to putty roster holes as needed, we still have plenty of that, and we have far fewer holes to putty than we did last year at this time.

I don't see why not. If the blue chips were more useful in terms of raw value, and the second tier prospects are useful because of the role they can play, I don't see a dichotomy in being fine with trading blue chips and hopeful for the future roleplayers. After all, Brock Holt came off the black chip pile and he's been moderately useful.

Dominguez is an solid insurance move. I don't expect him to play at all in Boston, but he's nice to have if we need him on an emergency basis.

And you might be right -- but if you are, so much of Espinosa's development will have been handled by some other franchise that we had no way of knowing how he'd do here.

It's a really interesting question which of Pomeranz, Wright and E-Rod you want in your starting 5 right now. MHO is, Wright and E-Rod. If not for their own vitrues, because Pomeranz has more experience as a highly effective reliever/swingman.

I think if there's any need to address 3B we'll see it dealt with at the deadline.

Yes you are, you just don't realize it. Prioritizing the farm during a time when your team is at its competitive peak is a misallocation of resources. You can only do so much, can only prioritize so many things at once.. Insisting on preserving the state of the farm as a major priority while the team is at its competitive peak reveals a rigidity in priorities that will do the team no favors in trying to climb to the top of the mountain. There will come a time when we aren't quite at our competitive peak that it will be time to take a Theo style hybrid approach, or even a time when we're struggling for a few years that the time comes to prioritize the farm again.. This is not that time. This is the time to load up, arm the team for bear, and try to strongarm our way to the top. If it fails it fails, but I'll still applaud the attempt.

The farm is never less important than when you currently have a stacked roster. Like I said, Theo torched the farm in 03 and 04 to stack up and try to get this team over the hump, and he did, and the farm system recovered in time to refresh the roster and win again in 07 after one rough year in 2006. It's absolutely possible to put the farm system back on track by the time it matters that the farm system is on track. For the record, I don't think 07 or 13 were necessarily "planned wins" or GFIN years, but 04 absolutely was. I think Theo got fooled by 07 into thinking he could win and farm at the same time -- that's true only sometimes, as he found out to his cost in the slow decline of the big league roster in 2009-2011 that ultimately cost him his place here. You absolutely cannot win all the time and build the farm into a juggernaut, both at the same time. There will come a moment in any given season where you have to pick one or the other and let that define your season. Are you stocking resources this year or are you using them to win? DD is using them. It's the right time to use them. When it's the right time to stockpile, we'll probably see him stockpile. Theo's making exactly the same kinds of decisions in a very similar situation in Chicago. And it was the refusal to do the same here (stocking for the sake of stocking) that cost Cherington his job. You HAVE to be able to tell the difference between save-time and go-time. This is absolutely, completely, 100% go time.

I wouldn't say never, but if there's a time for a team to GFIN, it's probably the point in a team's lifestyle that we currently occupy.

Why borrow trouble? Embrace the team we have now and deal with the aftermath when it's gone. It's DD's job to worry about the future, not ours.

The big thing we lost when we lost Papi wasn't the clutch hitting. It was having that guy who's been there for all 3 of our modern-era championships. That kind of institutional memory breeds a confidence all its own that I really hope has spread to the youngsters that will now have to carry the team on their own backs.

Then you should rejoice because the vast majority of this team is homegrown. The vast majority of that huge prospect pool weren't traded but GRADUATED. They're not prospects anymore because they're on the team. Betts. Bogaerts, Bradley, Benintendi, Barnes, and several people whose names do not start with the letter B. these guys were all top prospects 24 months ago and now all of them look to be big league regulars. We lost far more of our top prospect pool to the Boston Red Sox over the last 2 years or so than we did to the White Sox, Padres, Brewers and Mariners combined.

TBH with those options I'd be perfectly fine with Hernandez as the go to behind the Panda.

I am concerned. But not enough to fail to recognize that DD did what he did for a very good reason and that it was probably the right thing to do. Basically he hit fast forward on the timetable we'd had for several of our prospects and replaced them with young, cost controlled, skilled players instead. He did this for a very good reason, because the team was ready to compete now and there was no reason not to pull out all the stops and give us the best possible chance to compete for a title. If DD had gone after aging stars or guys with limited control left, I'd be concerned about the price he paid, but what he's actually done is line up a 3 year playoff window during which this team is going to be at its maximum potential competitiveness. Instead of perennial contention and creating a rolling peak with a few guys peaking ay any given time, as Theo liked to try to do in his later years here, DD's lining up a max peak team, the way Theo did in 04 and the way Theo did again for the Cubs in 2016. Theo seems to agree that that's a good ploy to play when you're a new GM coming into a market and trying to make an impression. We'll pay for it on the back end, and DD is probably full aware of that, just like Theo was in 04 (05 and 06 were not particularly fun, then the farm system recovered and delivered us a huge win in 07) and probably is with this Cubs team. but I'll take it if it gets us another banner, even if it means some poor years in 2021 and beyond.

The more I look at Frazier the less excited I am about going after him. He seems like exactly the kind of all or nothing guy that comes up small when the pitching gets tougher. I'd rather just put a good glove at third base and not worry about trying to get a middle of the order bat in every position, than go after Frazier.

I just don't see a fit here.

Uhh, no? Moreland throws left. Lefthanded throwers never play infield positions other than first base. Throwing left puts your throwing arm on the wrong side of your body to play defense at second, third or short. It demonstrably takes a fatal extra half second for a lefthanded thrower to make throws to first at these positions.

About time. Everyone else is getting paid, why should relievers be magically immune to salary increases?

You know, I have to think that this may not be all that unusual. A new GM comes in with different priorities of exactly which kinds of prospects he likes to favor, so he comes into an organization whose top prospects favor a different style and he doesn't regard them as highly as his predecessor, and since they have value but don't match his favored style and therefore are not untouchable, he trades them for the players he does value.

DD knows what he's doing. Dave Dombrowski is one of the most experienced general managers in baseball and his teams usually win far more games than they lose. His Tigers had several shining opportunities to land the big prize. They never closed the deal, but that's not the GM's fault, all he can do is make it possible, the players are the ones that need to execute the plan. I get that we like the sustainable philosophy of a guy like Theo, but DD is also a very competent GM, even if his management style is radically different. Consider -- when DD took over the Tigers in 2002, they were coming off a 119 loss season. 4 years later the Detroit Tigers lost the World Series in 6 games. Also people forget that DD *HAS* won a World Series ring -- with the Florida Marlins even, in 1997. Then he took over the Tigers and turned one of the most hapless franchises in baseball into a perennial contender. And now he's here. And I will also add, it is nice to have a unified voice coming from the front office for once. Theo never managed that, and BC only managed it until he started drawing ire from Henry over the lack of performance of the team on the ground. A unified strategy and everyone moving in the same direction is always superior to a schizophrenic mess.

And I didn't think we'd trade for Chris Sale Never underestimate DD's willingness to pull the trigger if he feels he's got the right deal in front of him. This ain't your slightly older brother's Red Sox FO.

We'll see. But I think the opportunity to clean house and bring his own trusted people in may actually wind up serving DD well.

Things have changed.. we have to be all in on the Panda now because it's obvious DD is... it's either him or Marco Hernandez covering third base for us all year. So forgive us for exercising a certain necessary optimism, under the circumstances. Besides, a Panda comeback is hardly impossible, and good things will happen if he can manage it. I mean this is the "realistic views" thread. Realistically we now NEED Panda to be good to go.

Great post. This rotation was pretty exciting before Sale... now you just have to sit there wondering what's going to go wrong and rob it of its potential -- because unless something does go wrong, this coming year looks pretty legendary..

See, this is why I wasn't too broken up about losing a lot of our scouting and development people. Our bust rate has been embarrassingly high in the last few years, especially on the pitching front. I'm personally just fine with losing those people and bringing in new ones under the circumstances.