SoxFanForsyth

You have to double his line drive hits if you're going to slice his infield hits

wat?!?

KRod to the Orioles. He was one guy I was hoping the Sox would acquire badly

The Sox aggression on the base paths is going to come back and bite sometimes. Given, you have to pick your spots better than that, and the Ortiz blunder tonight was awful and inexcuseable, but overall the 3B coach has not been bad at all IMO.

Extremely dumb baserunning. Line drive made Ortiz freeze and the play in front of you?? So dumb.

Funny isn't it? At least Red Sox fans have accepted that Lester just isn't very good anymore, at least not consistently. He can flash his old self, but Yankees fans are now going through that same transition w CC

It's almost as if old players are more susceptible to injuries, and injured players are likely to have set backs. Weird.

Red Sox are 2-0 in games where I mail it in early.

Turning it off already. This team has come out into the 2nd half flat and uninspired. Two throwing errors in the first inning today and 3 baserunning mistakes yesterday? Not even close to the team we watched in the first half.

Just disgusting man. Why the hell can pitchers not throw to 2B?? That's disgusting. This game is already over w CC on the mound and you know Dempster will give up at least 7 in 5 IP

Pretty self explanatory. I'll start it off. 1. Mike Napoli tears the cover off the ball in the 2nd half and ends the season with 28 HR 2. Buchholz gets more bad news on his shoulder, doesn't return until early September. 3. Due to said bad news, and a very slow start to the 2nd half (for the Phillies, pushing them into sellers), the Phillies trade Cliff Lee to the Red Sox for Middlebrooks, Barnes, and Coyle. 4. Xander Bogaerts is your third baseman on August 7th. He goes on to hit .272/.342/.448 with 7 HR to finish the season. 5. John Lackey actually gets better. As a second half pitcher his whole career, he continues the trend and posts a 2.45 ERA in the second half. Wins comeback player of the year. 6. Stephen Drew hits the DL two more times. 7. RDLR comes up and gives the bullpen a huge boost. 8. The Red Sox win 96 games and take the AL East by 6 games. The Rays win the 2nd wild card over the Orioles on the last game of the year when the Red Sox beat them in Baltimore. I know it's late (3 hours until game 1 of the second half), but with the deadline coming up and a lot of prospects showing a lot of potential, I thought this would be a fun thread

He certainly seems to have made the appropriate adjustments at AAA, to the surprise of nobody. From 6/23 - Yesterday: 82 PA, 71 AB, .310/.402/.535, 11 BB, 10 K, 5 HR. For the sole purpose of showing how dominant of a run that is (i.e. - not projecting this, just putting it into terms that are easier to understand), that's a pace of 41 HR, 138 RBI, 90 BB, 82 K. Again, not projecting him to do that. I just find it easier to understand how dominant of a run someone is on when the information is extrapolated over a full season.

How does the labrum relate to all of that? When I was in HS, I had a partially torn cuff and a torn labrum. Not sure if they're always related, or just sometimes, or if it could be a labrum and not a cuff (not that it would be better if it was). Just curious. As a side note - wouldn't they have seen a torn rotator cuff in their initial MRI's and testing?

You do realize that Michael Young has a -16.6 UZR/150 at 3B this year, and had a -35.0 UZR/150 at 3B last year, correct?

By early August, Bogaerts can likely give you a slash line of .265/.335/.450 at the MLB level. That's 1. as good or better than what you'd get from Young (certainly more pop), 2. Free, and 3. You get a bonus of giving your top prospect significant playing time this year. There is no reason to go out and pay for Michael Young when you've got internal options that are likely as good or better than him. And Youngs defense is just horrid.

....5 minutes later.... Jung - I agree w UN - I like reading your posts but they're often overwhelming in size and I end up not reading them because they're just too long.

The current 40 man roster has about 4 guys who should be off by next year: Hanrahan, Ellsbury, Snyder, and Drew. With Aceves off of it, that leaves 5 slots. Bradley, Bogaerts, Cecchini, Workman, and Ranaudo are locks. Almanzar is a very interesting piece that they could dish, as well as Bryce Brentz. Vinicio is a guy I've heard they're big on. Chris Hernandez is in AAA right now, struggling a little but could be an add on.

http://insider.espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/9483033/byron-buxton-minnesota-twins-new-no-1-prospect-baseball-mlb Need Insider for access.

I could see that. Not sure who their Rule 5 eligible players are, but I can certainly agree with this.

Yeah - the money exchanged would have to be fairly significant, perhaps around $15mm coming back with Lee to take his salary down to $20mm/year for the Sox. But I still think it would be a deal that the Sox would be willing to make. They've got significant SP depth to deal from, and with the strides that Iglesias has made (even if he's just a .260/.320/.360 hitter), his defense will make him a 2-3 WAR player, and you're still getting tons of pop from the left side of the infield. Not to mention, if it doesn't work out with Iglesias next year, you've got Cecchini who will be ready to take over at 3B by 2015 (moving Bogaerts to 3B), and Marrero coming up the system by the time Bogaerts will need to move to 3B, and Cecchini could then move to 1B.

On Keith Law's midseason top 50, he's got Bogaerts (3), Cecchini (20), Bradley (24), and Owens (31). He's also got Swihart as an honorable mention. Four prospects in the top 31 is outstanding.

The only gripe I have with this comment is your assessment of Bogaert's patience at the plate. He's posted a 12.6% BB rate in AAA this year, which is outstanding, particularly for a 20 year old. Eric Karabell said he's very similar to Manny Machado, but with better OBP (I think he's got more raw power, and Machado has better speed and D, but that's neither here nor there). He's got 50 walks already this year. League average BB% at the MLB level this year is 7.8%, and for comparative purposes, David Ortiz has a 12.7% BB rate and Pedroia has an 11.8% BB rate. Now, his plate discipline took a huge step forward this year, something he's been working on quite a bit, particularly with pitchers pitching backwards to him and throwing a lot of offspeed in fastball counts. But he's adjusted to that, something that was very influential in his promotion to AAA. Either way, I can definitely see WMB traded, perhaps a deal of (1 of) Barnes/Ranaudo/Webster + WMB + Coyle for Cliff Lee.

Honestly, you're not going to be able to find a short term 3B that gives you much more production than either A) Drew gives you at SS (moving Iglesias to 3B), or Bogaerts would give you at 3B.

Will Middlebrooks is NOT a first baseman. Your next internally generated first baseman would be Garin Cecchini, IMO. Other than that, we will need to look externally for a quality 1B.

Buchholz had yet another set back, and he'll throw another side session on Thursday. Makes you wonder if the Sox will be in on Garza. Would you be willing to give up Middlebrooks for 1/2 of a season of Garza? I would imagine that would be the asking price since the deadline is such a sellers market now.