SoxFanForsyth

Yuck. Moving Carp, IMO, is not a good move. He posted a .296 average and a .885 OPS last year. His 162 game average for counting stats was 17 HR, 82 RBI. As a bench player, that's an extremely valuable bat. Plus, we don't have any backup 1B other than people who are already in the starting lineup (Nava, Ortiz) Keep Carp. If JBJ isn't ready yet, you can move Vic to CF, Nava to RF, and slide Gomes into LF. But regardless of that, it's not going to be a 2 week try out for JBJ. If he gets benched or sent back down, it won't be until Memorial Day, at which point you will have had some time to turn a deal for someone if need be. But don't get rid of Carp because a kid struggled coming out of AA and going straight to the MLB. Player A AAA Stats: .288/.374/.409, 164 G Player B AAA Stats: .275/.374/.469, 80 G Player A Stats in 1st 31 Games of MLB (Age 22): .191/.258/.303 Player B Stats in 1st 37 Games of MLB (Age 23): .189/.280/.337 Player A is Pedroia. Player B is Bradley. You need to learn to have patience when players struggle after getting called up. Every player has their lumps they have to go through. There's a reason that you look at a players minor league track record and his ability to adjust rather than just looking at numbers from 37 games of his initial year at the highest level of baseball, freaking out, and making a bad trade.

Multiple reports out that Tanaka will not be posted. This hurts the Yankees. A lot.

Hearing that the Angels could be getting Skaggs and Cahill for Trumbo. This is mind boggling. I cannot comprehend how the free agent market for starting pitchers is so horrible yet the trade market for SP (after the Fister deal and now potentially this deal) is so insanely weak. If that's the type of return were looking at for a starter, no thank you, I'll keep my depth.

I understand what you mean by reclamation project, just not sure where you stick him. Portland?

As of today, although I think the Sox pick up Drew. But until then... Vs RHP 1. Victorino 2. Nava 3. Pedroia 4. Ortiz 5. Napoli 6. Bogaerts 7. Pierzynski 8. Middlebrooks 9. Bradley Vs. LHP: 1. Victorino 2. Bogaerts 3. Pedroia 4. Ortiz 5. Napoli 6. Gomes 7. Middlebrooks 8. Ross 9. Bradley These lineups will score a lot of runs

Where, though? The AAA rotation is already set. Ranaudo, Barnes, Webster, Workman, Hinojosa (that Cuban kid they signed back in October during the WS). Plus RDLR, too. And Owens is probably only 1/2 of a season away from Pawtucket. Not sure where you would stash a reclamation project without hampering your prospect development.

As a side note, I'm seeing reports that Rajai Davis will sign soon. Reports are that it's between the Orioles and Red Sox. Really hoping it's the Sox. If they can get Rajai and Drew, I call it an offseason.

I agree. Having high quality positional redundancy is one of the major ways the Sox won the WS last year. They didn't get smoked by injuries because there wasn't a huge step down in talent. Since Middlebrooks is making league min, they can afford to keep him and Bogaerts and Drew.

Part of the reason the Sox signed Badenhop and Mujica (two RHP) is so they can let Workman start in the rotation because they see him, long term, as a starter. Britton, I agree with, but Workman they certainly see as a SP

Why? Workman, Ranaudo, Barnes, and potentially even Webster will all be better than Williams or Hanson as depth. And that's not even mentioning Owens, who is starting in AA and can be up by July a la Workman last year. Not sure I get that move. Plus we signed that Cuban kid who could give innings too. This is as deep as the starting rotation as been in as long as I can remember. I don't think we need to address the rotation or depth at all.

True we lost 3 starters, but I don't expect any drop off at SS, minimal dropoff at C (I hate the guy but at least he makes contact). Certainly we will see a drop in CF, but I think that's the only big drop we will see. As of today I still see this is a 94-96 win team. Bogaerts and Middlebrooks are the wild cards. If Middlebrooks can hit .265/.310/.470 with 25 HR, that's a huge improvement over last year. And Bill James system projects Bogaerts with a .357 OBP and a .450 SLG, with 19 HR. So the loss from Ells could be made up somewhat with those numbers, along with Peavy rather than Dempster in the rotation.

Yup. To me, this points to the Sox trading for Kemp, but only if the Dodgers agree to the Sox terms. If not, no big deal. I do hope that they haven't given up on Rajai Davis, though.

How does that work?? If he is currently essentially on 1/16 and it gets bumped to 2/16.5, I can't understand how the guaranteed year doesn't affect his AAV. Do you have a link by chance? I'm very curious. I talked to Lucchino about this when I gave him a ride and he said that they didn't want to lock into the extra year for no reason since they weren't up against the LT (at the time) and they didn't want to piss him off by making him play for league min. But he never mentioned that it wouldn't affect the AAV, which I mentioned in my question when I asked him

If the Sox do indeed trade for Kemp, I think it will be after they sign Drew and then feel comfortable adding Middlebrooks to a deal

Of course they are. It has such a low impact on them since they stayed under in 2012 and 2013. Plus they can easily either 1. Dish Dempster or Peavy for relief, or 2. Exercise Lackeys option and that takes his AAV from 16 down to 8.25, so that provides ~8mm in relief. But it doesn't matter, they won't care to exceed the LT. They never have before, either

Well to be fair, the Sox won 97 games last year. If JBJ can put up a 2-3 WAR, which, given his defense isn't crazy by any means, the Sox would lose 3 wins, and still gives them 93-94 wins. So they can certainly go in as constructed and would still be the favorites to win the East That said, I agree that they need to get another stick for CF.

Yup. I'm beginning to believe they make this move so much that I won't be surprised at all if or when it happens. Agree, depends on the price. If they can get him and not give up anything more than Middlebrooks and potentially Workman, but get him for 6/90, I'm all for it. Although I love Workman. Hopefully Ben can work something out better than that

Rajai Davis hit .319/.383/.474 vs LHP last year, and you'd get those wheels back that you lost w Ells. Wouldn't be the worst pick up the Sox could make, but again, I would like to see a little more pop from the OF

Sean McAdam reporting deal is 2/32. Funny because after Grandersons deal, Farrell said 'sounds like 16mm is this years 13mm'

This is AWESOME.

Per Bradford and all the other writers, the Sox have resigned Napoli. I hated the K's last year but with Salty off the time, I can take it. Good signing. Terms unknown right now

Sox resign Napoli per Bradford

If you can get his deal down to 6 years, 90mm, that's not a huge paycheck. And you're not giving up a ton of talent. Nothing elite. Some solid talent, yes, but if you get the deal down to a much more managable 15mm/year, then it makes sense.

Gomes/Nava posted a 2.8 WAR together last year.......over 240 games and 902 PA. They are projected by ZiPS to post a 1.2 combined WAR in 2014. Nava 0.8, Gomes 0.4. Not 3. Not sure how you can project the Sox to get a WAR of 3 in a LF platoon when they couldn't produce that last year with over 900 PA last year. Not to mention, Kemp provides 25-30 HR pop with the ability to hit 40. If you're going to have JBJ in CF, you need that extra pop in LF. Kemp can also play CF if JBJ isn't working out or needs development time and you don't have to take Victorino out of RF.

He was hurt last year, and he's healthy now. He posted an 8.4 UZR in his last fully healthy season. In 2012, when he missed almost 1/2 of a year with a shoulder injury, he still posted a 3.2 WAR. With a 146 wRC+. Extrapolate that over a 150 game season, and he was on pace for around a 4.7 - 5.0 WAR season. If you can get a 4.5 - 5.0 WAR player for $15-16mm/year, particularly one who has the upside to post an 8-9 WAR season, that's a good investment IMO. Certainly worth more than Dempster.