Will617

Neither Navarro nor Lin sound like much more than 4th outfielders/5th infielder types. Same goes for Reddick, although I still think he could have a decent career (but I doubt most people that follow baseball would). I've never even heard of Rice.

When was the last time a young, 5-6 win player that played a position nearly every team needs help at, was available and cost a package of players like Navarro and Reddick? At the very least, I would imagine both Iglesias and Doubront would go. Or, possibly Lowrie and lesser pieces. Reyes will definitely not be a rental. I'd have no doubt that if the Sox traded for him, he would be extended. But I doubt they pony up the pieces to acquire him. They do have money after this season, but that is probably needed to address areas like a 5th starter, DH, some bullpen help (Papelbon in particular) and arbitration raises.

I believe it's planned for him to play in the OF by the end of the month (in the minors). I think that we might see him this year for a little bit more than just a September call-up, I think the Sox would like to take another look at Kalish before they figure out their strategy for RF next offseason.

I think CarGo's contract bought out multiple years of arbitration as well as a couple of free agent years, his first four years cost $24 million, and then the next 3 cost $56 million. So, it's not as if he's not getting a good deal in this too. And, in some ways he's an unknown commodity - he basically played a replacement level half-season, a decent half-season, and then broke out last season, while Ellsbury is a fairly known commodity. The Sox seem to have faith that athletic players will age well, given Crawford's contract. And I'm not sure that Ells' arm would be that big of a liability if he were forced to move to LF or RF - 1. I'm sure Crawford could switch to RF as well, and 2. CF is pretty big. If Ells projects as a player that needs to move to a corner spot, I think the biggest problem is that he would prevent the Sox from signing a better offensive player for a corner spot.

Because calling him the better baserunner sounds as if his skillset has been better than Crawford's over this period of time. Crawford undoubtedly has the better skillset, but Pedroia has gotten better results.

The Sox have $94 million committed to 2014, which is when Ellsbury becomes a free agent. That rises to about $107 million if Lester's option is picked up (although that option is apparently void if he finishes 1st or 2nd in Cy Young voting in any year of his current contract). They also would have to deal with the 3rd year of arbitration for Bard, Lowrie, Saltalamacchia, and Aceves (assuming all are still with the team), which will probably cost a decent chunk of money. They then have some major holes to fill from now until 2014, assuming that there are no adequate in-house candidates: RF, DH, 3B, closer, and a 5th starter. The Sox won't spend past the luxury tax, which is somewhere aroud $165 million this season. That will undoubtedly rise, giving the Sox about $80 million that they can allocate in 2014. They need to commit that money towards 4 starting positions, probably 3-4 arbitration cases, and then Ellsbury. (Assuming no one gets hurt and needs to be replaced, and that no prospects can fill the void). So, if the Sox need to acquire one or two marquee players between now and 2014, they should have plenty of money left over to retain Ellsbury. However, if they need to make more big signings than that, money is probably going to be stretched (some would need to be allocated to the bullpen) and make it tough to keep Ellsbury around. I think that the payroll situation makes it pretty easy to afford Ellsbury. The only question is whether Boras' asking price will be too high (or another team were to overbid, like the Phillies did with Werth). The number of years shouldn't be a problem, since the Sox seem willing to sign athletic players to long contracts (Crawford).

Expanding the league doesn't solve the basic problem of the fact that the AL East is still 3-4 teams fighting for one spot, and then the losers fighting for the Wild Card. I think that's also what they want to do with the 5th team - they don't want, say, the AL Central to end up with no teams in the playoffs.

That doesn't mean that Ellsbury couldn't work on it. His on-base skills are fine but not great. Of course, if he keeps hitting for average like he is this year (yes, he does have a high BABIP but he's also making much more solid contact) I don't really care if he never improves his walk rate.

Mark Kotsay has negative WAR. He should be paying us for the privilege of playing for us.

Whoa, what? How'd Dipre get himself banned? Fighting on the forum?

I would not call him up for a lengthy time unless I was sure he was ready. It's always good to see progress, but 3 starts are just 3 starts. Personally, I think the more likely route is a September call-up and probably competition for the last spot of the rotation next year.

When are we planning on doing a new power rankings/voting thing? Was there one planned around midseason?

Advised by Boras, firm commitment - I think he's the one that circulated a letter asking teams not to draft him because of his commitment.

Shouldn't this be a reason against calling him up? The Sox would know where he's at in his development best, and leave him where he is. Also, Cameron plays at least league-average CF, has some power, has a .170 BABIP, is the fourth OF, etc etc etc. There is literally no reason to rush his development for very marginal potential returns.

Just because the deal is worth the money, does not mean that they necessarily recouped the money already. The marketing presence that the Red Sox got from the deal will (I think) benefit the team in future years, even past Daisuke's contract. I probably could've worded it better, but what I mean to say is: Contract was a good move, they may not have made back all the money yet but they probably made back a good chunk of it, Daisuke was not terribly overpaid going by his salary alone.

I think K-Rod could be an ideal target if the Sox can free up some payroll/get the Mets to eat money/still need a reliever - the Mets are in deep financial trouble, not close to contending, and saddled by that terrible contract. If they could give up K-Rod and his contract for free, I think they would. I forgot about Type A free agents - that would really increase certain relievers' value. Still, it would depend upon the reliever in question.

That's news to me.

Depends on a lot of factors, including reliever salary, number of years left on the contract, etc etc. IMO, no good relievers were traded around the deadline last season, and the Twins drastically overpaid for Matt Capps, whereas the Yankees got someone like Kerry Wood (who isn't that far from Capps in terms of talent, IMO) for next to nothing. The Sox could probably flip Lars to the Mets for a reliever like K-Rod. It became pretty obvious last season when the Blue Jays asked for Iglesias and Montero for Scott Downs, that they were out of their minds and weren't going to get that sort of package. So it depends, but I really doubt that you'll see a lot of top-5 prospects being moved for relievers.

Something about Lebron.