SoxFanForsyth

lol.

Nice analysis.

I don't think any of the salary dump pitchers are going to be any better than what we have in our rotation right now. Certainly not enough of an upgrade to merit taking on the salary or giving up any prospects.

So good to see vintage Phelps last night.

No way the DBacks trade Goldschmidt for 1 year of Lester.

The Red Sox have a $13mm club option for 2014. They'll certainly exercise that, then assess where they are at in terms of prospects going into 2015. By 2015, guys like RDLR, Barnes, Webster, and Ranaudo will all be ready to be inserted into the rotation, if they stay on track. Plus, Henry Owens will likely have a year of AA under his belt, and will provide a lot of depth. I think they'll let Lester walk after the 2014 season.

They will go all Donner Party and eat each other. I'm torn, though. Would CC be the last one left, or the first to die?

And just to be clear, UN, I really do like reading your posts and point of view on these things, so don't take any of these arguments as anything personal, you're one of the posters I enjoy conversing with. Just wanted to be clear on that so as not to give you the wrong impression.

It comes across as extremist because it sounds like you're not willing to take on any more big salaries, because you're gunshy after seeing a couple big contracts blow up in our face last year. Lee is still very much an elite talent. He's got a 2.55 era, 5.19 K:BB ratio, and looks as strong as ever right now. Generally speaking, I agree you don't want to pick up the last 3 years of an aging pitchers salary, but Lee is one of those special talents who seemingly only gets better with age. It seems like a lot of people are afraid of getting burnt by big contracts because of what happened, but you have to take gambles. I know the Sox were very much in on Lee this past offseason, and I certainly think they'll be checking in on him at the deadline. Whether or not he's available, who knows, but they certainly should check on him. You definitely have to pick your spots, but they built this prospect depth and left themself with a lot of financial flexibility (almost 30mm from the cap right now) so that they could make that move to give this team a really good chance at winning a championship. And if you don't think that a rotation of Buch Lee Lester puts this team as a WS favorite (for this year and next year as well, and potentially 2015), that's crazy. Not to mention by the time his salary may start to hurt (2015), you've got Ortiz and Lackey off the books, all while giving yourself a really good shot at winning a lot of games and a World Series title for the next 2-3 years, and not mortgaging your future.

While I agree with your point, you're only instigating more crap.

This is a very extremist point of view. One of the biggest advantages of having prospect depth is not so you can watch some succeed and some fizzle. It's so that you can use them as pieces in deals that make your team competitive while not mortgaging the future. If the Red Sox give up Webster and Cecchini for Lee, they still have RDLR, Barnes, Workman, Ranaudo, Owens, and now Ball all coming through the system for SP depth. You don't just hoard prospects, you utilize them to get proven pieces. Adrian Gonzalez wasn't the reason we had 2012. Josh Beckett, Carl Crawford, and Bobby Valentine are the reasons we had 2012. And Josh Beckett also led us to a WS Championship in 07, too, so dishing HanRam and Anibal Sanchez for him and Lowell wasn't a bad deal either.

Absolutely it is, especially when we watch he and Salty repeatedly K with RISP and less than 2 outs

Don't worry guys. Strikeouts are overrated.

Batting Nap and Salty back to back is so idiotic. You're just asking to kill rallies with strikeouts

This ump has been extremely inconsistent

That ball by Pujols carried. And carried. And carried. Off the bat it looked like a can of corn

Fair enough, agree to disagree.

Well, considering its almost exclusively driven by OBP, which doesn't diminish like power or speed, I certainly think he can keep it up. His contract runs through his age 35 season, it's not an awful contract at all. It's not like he's going to be getting paid through 42 or something like ARod or Pujols. Age 35 is a very reasonable age still to put up monster numbers, or, at the very least, well above average numbers

The entire premise of this is that he would be our 1B going forward (meaning in 2014 and forward). He could still catch 20-30 games though, if he had to for IL games with Ortiz at 1B

Huge offensive outburst today. Sox win 14-4

Mauer's wRC+ last year (140) would have ranked 3rd in all of baseball for first basemen. His wRC+ this year (148) would rank 5th. He would be an elite 1B, I don't know how his value would be all that diminished. A 140 - 150 wRC+ guy at 1B is a 20mm+ player.

The Brewers were good only a couple years ago. I have no idea why Felix is still in Seattle, that seems very dumb to me. Who expected Adrian Gonzalez to be traded last year? He was a major face of the Red Sox in 2011, and he was gone 8 months later. And no, no sig bet. I said it before, I don't think he will certainly be traded, but I also don't think it's a certainty that he won't, which is what you were saying

Mauers power went down because he's an opposite field hitter and Target field is death to LF, not because of anything else. I don't want Mauer as a C going forward, I want him as a 1B, which would protect him from injuries and keep him on the field (a la Napoli). For a guy who will hit you 45-50 doubles a year, get on based at a clip of over .400, and play 1B everyday, 20mm isn't a bad contract. Like I said, I'm not certain that he will be available, I just think its ridiculous to call him a certainty to not be available. I don't know if anyone will certainly be available this deadline other than maybe a Matt Garza type who is in the last year of his deal on a losing club. If the Sox offer the Twins a good deal in terms of prospects and eat most of his salary, I'm sure the Twins would at the very least negotiate. Whether a deal gets done or not, who knows. He's not a guy I "mentally masturbate" over, like Bogaerts or Stanton, he is a guy who I think would fit in perfectly with the lineup and fill a huge void at 1B that we really have nobody in the minor leagues to fill. And in a couple years, after Ortiz leaves, he can split time at 1B/DH, as he gets older. The good thing about Mauer is that he is an OBP machine, and that isn't something that tends to drop off significantly with age like power or speed. So he would still be a very effective player at the end of his deal if he was in a modified DH/1B role.

Right. That was this past offseason. You know who else wasn't available this offseason? Stanton, Lee, Papelbon, among many others, who are all anticipated to be available at the deadline. Mauer had exactly ONE year where he wasn't able to stay healthy. He played 147 games last year and 55 this year. That's just lazyness from you for not looking this up. It's virtually the same as saying you wouldn't trade for Pedroia because he got hurt in 2010. Get your facts straight. Saying a player won't be available in June because he wasn't available in December is outrageous. He may not be available, but to say that he certainly won't be? That's absurd. And yes, I knew that they asked about him this offseason, along with Lee. And we're rebutted the same. But somehow, Lee isn't an outrageous fantasy but Mauer is? Contradicting arguments. You're wrong on all aspects that you came up with man.

Yeah that Mariners lineup is one tough lineup to get through