SoxFanForsyth

I still think they should trade for Lee, dish Lester, and give yourself another 2 years with a top of the rotation ace (Lee) while your prospects develop, but don't handcuff yourself with a 5-6 year deal on a guy who is going to have 1,600 innings on his arm before he starts his contract.

Ok so here's the thing. XB isn't a star right now. The good news? Neither are the Red Sox. So why trade XB for Stanton when Stanton isn't going to give you anything at all this season? Why would you trade a cost controlled future superstar for a current superstar who will cost you 8/$200mm? Not only that, but you put that on the books and then what do you do with Lester? And if you don't sign Lester, who do you have pitching for you? Who do you have at SS and 3B next year? Trading for Stanton has a huge domino effect.

So you want to give up Bogaerts, a potential superstar, for the rights to negotiate with Stanton and give him 8/200? So, pay your best prospect to have exclusive rights to pay Stanton enormous money and buy out his two arbitration years? Doesn't make sense. Wait until he hits FA at this point. If he had 4-5 years of team control left, fine. But otherwise you're paying for him twice.

The problem is that you've got 2 years of Stanton left before he hits FA. Compare that against having Bogaerts for 6 years. If you cut a deal with Stanton, you wouldn't be getting him for 2 years of arbitration money because, if you're giving up Bogaerts, you better have a 8 year deal cut out with this guy. So now you're looking at 8/180 or 8/200 for him, and no Bogaerts. It's not just talent for talent.

Well let me ask you something. How do you feel about JBJ? Before you answer, let me give you a few stats. 1. Since 6/19 (he changed his stance back to his comfortable stance), he's hit .308/.358/.369 over 70 PA. 2. This season, he's hit .297/.370/.438 with RISP.

Oye. You cannot possibly be seriously judging a player based on this few of games. You have to give him a chance to adjust to major league pitching. The move to 3B probably took some focus away from his hitting and we both agreed it was a bad move to sign Drew. But by all means, it's absurd to even have a sliver of doubt on Bogaerts. The kid is 21 years old man. He's going to be a superstar. He's going through an adjustment period and it's not going to be long until you eat crow on these statements just like you had to do with RDLR. You need to give prospects more time to adjust. They're not going to all come out and be superstars right off the bat.

Brock Holt: .327/.371/.463 JBJ: Elite, elite defense. Since changing stance before OAK series (starting 6/19): .308/.357/.369. Certainly big progress. RDLR: 6 GS, 2.89 ERA Vazquez: Elite, elite defensive C. Very good approach, going opposite field. Hitting .455 in his 3 G so far. Betts: Started the year in AA. Was just coming out of low A this time last year. Now in MLB. I think you're underestimating the progress of the youngsters thus far. Progress does not mean all star level production, it means progressing and getting better. All of the guys above are doing just that.

wassup homes?

I agree, and I hate the idea. The Sox are finally rolling again and it's going to get all sorts of thrown out of whack. If it wasn't for Betts, the Sox don't make that late comeback against the ChiSox. Not sure who else they can send down though.

I guess. If you're going to give Hamels 4/90 with a 5th year club option to make it 5/110, why not just give Lester 5/120? At least you know what you're getting and you have a history with him. If they're going to go this route (trade Lester and trade for a different SP), go after Cliff Lee and limit the years on the books to 2.

Not sure how a deal of Swihart, Owens, and Ranaudo wouldn't get Stanton? That's 2 top 15 prospects. The best LHP prospect and the best C prospect in baseball, plus a guy with a 2.62 ERA in AAA right now. That's a better package than any other team can or will throw at the Marlins. The only teams that have better top 20 prospects are the Cubs and Twins, and they're not dishing Addison Russell, Kris Bryant, Javier Baez, Buxton, or Sano. So yeah, the Sox can get either A) get Stanton for the above deal or sign him as a FA as the Marlins aren't trading him because that offer would not be beaten by any other team.

A better question is "Would you trade Owens, Swihart, & Betts for Stanton"? And the answer is still no. I would give two of those 3 plus a guy like Ranaudo or Webster. But Owens, Swihart, and Betts were all top 15 guys on the midseason top 50. (Betts wasn't ranked because he was promoted, but BA writers said he would have been #12). Swihart was #14, Owens #15.

Who goes down when Victorino comes back?

Nope. And I love Stanton. 6 years of a power hitting SS at league min/arbitration > 2 years of Stanton. If you want him, work out a deal not involving Bogaerts. Otherwise, sign him when he hits FA. He'll be a very young FA since he came up so early.

Good job by the Sox on absorbing those lumps with JBJ and letting him find his stroke. With his defense, he's a perennial 4+ WAR player.

Dunno, could be an "out of the box" thinking - run prevention rather than scoring. I'd go after Walker before anyone over there, though.

They have DJ Peterson, a 22 year old 3B. Between A+ and AA, he's hit .319/.372/.595, 21 HR in 78 G. But the Sox need a power hitting OF, not 3B. Of course, he could shift to LF if he's athletic at all.

The Mariners have got to be dying to make a trade for one more starter. They'd be dangerous with one more. Wonder if they'd bite on Lackey?

this might be the most fun this team has been to watch all season.

Koji: He's repeating his performance from last year right now. That's not overachieving. That's just "achieving". Victorino's WAR was primarily based on DEF rating when he moved to RF, bumping his DEF rating to 19.5 (CF moving to corner outfield positions usually see a big bump in DEF rating). That's where his value came from. His OFF rating (14.8) had been replicated in 3 of the prior 5 seasons. He also went to hitting RH only, which absolutely made a difference, particularly in his power. Again, there is a reason that his numbers went up. It's not a fluke when there is a reason. Napoli's line last year? .259/.360/.482. Napoli's career line? .260/.360/.497. Please explain how that's "overachieving". This may have been your worst argument. A lot of people expected Lackey to break out now that he didn't have a torn UCL in his elbow. Oh, and did you see how much better shape he was in? Yeah, when you lose that much weight and get your elbow fixed, generally you're not fighting yourself or your injury as much and you can see big improvements. Buchholz overachieved for 1/2 of a season. That's it. He was also out for the 2nd half of the season. So regardless of how good he was in the first half, he only provided value for 1/2 of a season. The Sox won the WS last year despite Buchholz's injuries, not because of his strong first half. And I'll leave the crow eating to you, since you don't seem to understand "overachievement" and continue to make yourself look foolish.

I absolutely hated this signing from the get go, and I got crushed for expressing my displeasure with the move, saying I only hated it because I didn't like him on a personal level. Seems like I wasn't the only one. http://www.weei.com/sports/boston/baseball/red-sox/rob-bradford/2014/07/10/aj-pierzynski-problem-was-worse-anybody-could Maybe when a player is voted the most hated player in the MLB, it's for a good reason.

And no AJP IN THE DUGOUT (or even better, on the field)!

Good point. Victorino's fWAR was extremely defensive driven because he moved to a corner OF slot where your def rating skyrockets (See: Brett Gardner), and thus your fWAR skyrockets.

Let's not act like all of these are completely ridiculous or unexpected. -Koji had a 2.36 ERA from 2010 - 2012, he was (somehow) completely underrated. -Victorino had the exact same WAR in 2011. He was literally 1-year removed from that exact same WAR. It wasn't his career best. He played as well as he did, LITERALLY, 2 years prior to that. -Napoli had the 2nd highest WAR of his career because he played 1B, not C, where he played more games. Believe it or not, Games Played are a major contributing factor in WAR. -Ortiz had (nearly) the same WAR as 2011 (3.9 to 3.8). And guess what? His 2012 WAR was 2.9 over 90 games. Over the same 137 games he played in 2013, that would be a 4.4 WAR. So, this is again a garbage statement. -Pedroia's UCL affected his SLG. His WAR is always impacted strongly by his defense, and he has always always been the best defensive 2B in the MLB, that didn't change, that's not playing above his head. That's not overachieving. -Buchholz posted a 3.2 WAR. He pitched 108.1 IP. To say that he "overachieved" when he was hurt for literally 1/2 of a season is grasping at straws. -Lackey had TJS, and he's a better year this year than he had last year, based on FIP and xFIP. Drew and Nava played well above their heads. But the rest? That's you grasping at straws man. Thats you bitterly grasping at straws, trying to manipulate statistics (i.e. referencing WAR without referencing games played as the main deterrent), and laying out complete BS.

this has been a really fun game to watch, with all the kids in there and the late comeback. Love this stuff.