jung

This is a chicken and egg argument though. Teams are going to use the controls afforded them in the CBA to keep cost controlled player salary at a minimum just as players are going to use the rights afforded them in the CBA to cash in on a big payday. I don't see anything particularly regal or high minded in the positions of either party. They both take advantage of the tools afforded them. It might however be worth noting that every time the ML players have had an opportunity to cast a vote that would increase the meager incomes of minor league ballplayers that were not on the 40 man roster by even a laughably small amount they have shunned that opportunity preferring to not allow a single penny to make its way down to guys that are really making peanuts. In fact, while there are some salary related issues that would seem to divide the highly paid superstar ML ballplayers from the rank and file MLer, one issue they appear to be like minded about is the issue of minor league salaries. None of the MLers appear to have much of an interest in seeing those guys making any money playing minor league ball. Minor leaguers can hardly feed themselves on what they are paid even during the months when they are playing. There is likely an indirect benefit though. Ballplayers probably have an additional incentive to play college ball instead of playing minor league ball. That is a pretty decent silver lining as they end up with an education that might surely come in handy.

I am hoping the Sox are just kicking the tires on Kemp.,,,another broken down vet as far as I am concerned.

I really don't think it unusual for a ballplayer to be something of a mercenary in this day and age. Chances are pretty slim that a player starts and ends with one team. Once you are resigned to the notion of moving around, how important is this year's laundry anyway. I tend to think the other guys wearing the same laundry in any given year are more important to a contemporary player than the laundry itself. The money really does overarch everything now. There is money available to these guys that is life changing. The ballplayers of old were not in that situation. Heck they worked in the offseason just to make a meaningful full year income. So my expectation is for ballplayers to be mercenary. You can credit the players on the 2013 Sox for believing that the best way to satisfy their individual, mercenary goals was to play as a team. However I would not credit them for being any less mercenary than any other group of modern day ballplayers.

I honestly think it more likely that they do in fact start the year with Bradley in CF than they bring Choo in here. I also think they will be reluctant to move Vic to CF. Vic is already showing signs of aging. Moving him to CF will weaken the outfield defense further and tax him more. This team just won a WS. While I don't expect that means they simply take a year off I also don't expect them to dance around that much trying to fill slots when they do have players in the system within a year of being fully ready. I just think it more likely that they would gamble on JBJ for half a year before they would try to fill the slot from outside the organization with a costly option for half a year. Funny how people were clambering for JBJ at the start of last year and now we want to hold him down on the farm a year later.

Most time worn phrase used to describe any team in any sport: "there is just something special about this bunch a' guys"

Where there is the way the catcher sets a target for the pitcher and there is the way he frames the pitch thrown. Salty does not do either one worth a darn. As we have often commented here, He often has the mitt just the least bit left or right of the middle of the plate which is not for the most part where the pitcher wants to throw it unless he has a death wish. As for how he frames the pitch, Salty is constantly stabbing at the ball. While it is almost unfair to compare Salty to Molina, it is worthwhile just to discuss doing it right vs doing it wrong. Molina positions himself and his mitt so that he barely has to move himself or the mitt to receive the ball that is thrown where the pitcher intends it. Salty is very often lurching after the ball, carrying the ball out of the strike zone even if it was border line to begin with....just terrible. Sometimes he looks like he is about to topple out of his crouch to catch the ball. The home plate ump is not likely to call a pitch a strike with Salty lurching, stabbing and barely retaining his balance back there?

True but the bottom third of "some version of good" is the top half of "just plain average" and when you are playing things as close to the vest as BC did in building the 2013 team, you could just as easily have had a plausible argument for just about any of these versions with or without injury....that so as long as you could pitch. That team sure as heck could pitch. No knock on BC intended. I admire what he did and am happy to suggest that while it appears that he had the religion before the 2013 season drilled into him by bearing witness to the excesses of the past, he must really be a true believer now. At this rate he will end up with his own flock to shepherd.....Praise the Lord!!!

Well I know where the fire and brimstone is going to come from but I am a little short on the eternal damnation.

Vasquez arm from behind the plate is nothing short of incredible. I don't think the rest of his catching tool set is up that standard but that is an incredible standard. If I had to guess, it would be that he will make more strides around the rest of his catching tool set going into 2014. His hitting might be something else again. I don't think there is enough info there to even make an assumption at this point. I would love to be able to fast forward to the start of the 2015 season to see where he will be at that point.

With so much money at stake I expect FA's to be willing to wait a little longer than normal....guys will be inclined to wait for the player at the top of the pyramid for a particular position to sign so that he can be used as a benchmark I think.

As I said earlier, I would find it hard to believe that as long as he has played, nobody has at least worked Beltran out at 1st base. Plus even with is advanced years Beltran still fits the "lets get players that can play more than one position approach". I think Beltran could play Fenway's LF although I would not want to see him playing Fenway's RF in anything other than an emergency. I can see it on a short term deal if the Sox can't get Napoli to come back. I do think Naps lands back here if for no other reason than I think Naps wants back and I think the Sox want him back. Seems to me that unless somebody offers Naps something stupid on the open market, both parties find a way to make it happen here.

If the Sox are serious about Beltran they must be thinkin' LF at this point. I can't remember at this moment if he has played any 1st at all but you would think somebody would have tried him there by now. If he could play 1st it would be helpful to the cause even if the Sox did not intend playing him there. Sox have done a great job of implementing roster flexibility in 2013. I would guess they would like to continue that for 2014.

Glad the Sox are hunting Hart. I don't know if it has been reported here as yet but while I was down in the shop working with the radio going, I heard that the Sox were in hot pursuit of Beltran.

For example, Ells at least right now has both excellent speed and acceleration. Both of those are athletic skills. Yes, they translate to an ability to track down balls in the outfield, steal bases and stretch singles into extra base hits. What does Ells replace his speed and acceleration with as they decline? Why do you think so much of the discussion regarding Ells and years has focused on the subject of what you do with a player that depends so much on his legs as a key element to his game, once he starts to age and his legs start to go? or Are you going to contend that his speed and acceleration are simply not going to decline as he ages? If that is the case, good luck with that one. I am inclined to think he will retain enough speed, acceleration and hitting skill to remain a lead off hitter. However if playing CF does take too much out of him athletically over time, not at all an unusual occurrence for a CF, then he may not be able to lead off later in his career. He may have to drop down to the 2 hole in the batting order or even lower. He does not appear to be a guy that can hold down the 3, 4 or 5 hole in the order. So if he has drop lower than 2, he is going to drop to 6 or lower in the order. So, today whoever signs him has a lead off hitting, base stealing, extra base stretching CFer that covers an incredible amount of ground in the outfield. However three, four or five years from now, they may very well have a LFer, hitting out of the 2 or 6 holes, not nearly so valuable an asset. That is why there is so much focus on what you are paying for Ells in the out years and how much you are willing to risk on a guy who's legs are such a big part of his game. The offset for the right team might be that Ells will be on the cover of their program starting in 2014. That is an additive feature that another team might value in Ells The Sox won't IMO pay a penny for that. That might in fact be one of the differences in what another team will pay and what the Sox will pay for Ells. The Sox already have their face of the franchise, Pedey.

Simple...Ells game is far more dependent on athleticism that it is on specific baseball skills. This is not an unusual nor even rare phenomenon as it relates to baseball players. However as his athleticism declines it is more telling for a player like Ells because he does not have assets to replace it. Ells can easily turn into a very mid-pack average player, way overcompensated as he ages and his athleticism declines. In part this is why somebody commented about not seeing many players not named Ricky Henderson that were that reliant on their athleticism to carry their baseball careers that remained effective enough to justify big paychecks later in their careers. Does Ells look like he will turn into a 3 or 4 spot hitter knocking balls out of the park late in his career for example?....No. Can he throw, allowing for a transition to RF making him more valuable later in his career as his athletic skills decline?.....No. Hitting the ball out of the park is a baseball skill more than it is an athletic skill. Throwing the ball is more of a baseball skill than it is an athletic skill. Ells can't throw because nobody bothered to teach him how and he never learned. All you have to do is watch him throw to know that.

Even if you decide that Ells injury history is freaky which I at best only in part believe might be true, you have him playing CF. While CF is a big piece of the total value package Ells represents, CF chews up the best athletes in baseball. It grinds them to dust over time and there is little that I see in Ells that tells me he will avoid that. CF compounds the problem of basically relying on his athleticism to such a great degree. Athleticism is part and parcel of the game that Ells plays. As such while 29 sounds young, ain't necessarily so for a CF that is as reliant on maintaining his athleticism as Ells. If he had an arm, then he could transition to RF when he was done with Center or I should say when Center is done with him. As it is now, its basically LF for Ells when he is done in Center.

To me, Ells strengths as a player are his weaknesses as you consider how many years of effective play he has in him while trying to justify a super big money deal at anything like 6-7 years. CF is known to take it out of a player but CF is also where he offers the most value. He is clearly one of the most athletic players we have ever seen in a Sox uni at least for any length of time. However even now, clearly into his middle career, he still relies mainly on that athleticism to get things done. What happens to him as that starts to decline? I have not gotten myself convinced that he adapts well over time. That is not to say that my opinion is worth anything in the world of the MLB GM. But there it is. What incentive will he have to buck that tide of age if somebody does sign him for six or seven years? He clearly will not be the same player at 37 than he is at 30 even more so than your average superstar big money contract player. I don't see a ballooned up Ells cracking 20 dingers a year at that age. However I also do not see the exciting speed demon we currently love. For Ells and players like him, this is also where the PA's inability to develop a formula that drives more of the money deeper into the roster comes home to roost. Yes he is a superstar or at least a star. But without big power and with the salary gap that exists between the stars of the league and much of the rest of the rank and file, you can envision buying what Ells could very well end up being at age 35 and 36 for way less money than his big money contract would cost a team in those out-years. Ells probably knows this better than anybody and with two championships under his belt, if somebody tosses 6-7 years down that will probably suggest to him that such a contract takes him to the end of his effective big contract negotiating life as a player. 5 years leaves him in decline, not ready to give up the game but in a lousy position to negotiate that last deal. So, I think Ells ends up really favoring whichever teams or team tosses down 6-7 years covering those last two years at a very attractive income for him based on the player that there is every chance he might be at that point.

I think you are right and I also think some team, maybe more than one is going to go out to 6 if not 7 years. Somebody will do it....I am convinced.

Wouldn't that require some sort of amendment to the current CBA? If so I cannot imagine there would be the votes to approve making an amendment, let alone the votes to decide on a particular amendment. Anything LT relates has got to go back to the CBA I would think.

You are making it sound like it is just this simply and it is not. It is the years for Ells even more than the money that the pragmatic BC will find hard to swallow and there is nothing about the trade of off JBJ plus Ells vs JBJ, Gomes and Nava that will make that easier to swallow. If the Sox could have one more year of Ells I would expect they would do almost anything to get it as it fits nicely with the end of Lester's contract...but a short term deal of any kind for Ells is not going to happen under any circumstances.

Not sure you can really say that with regard to Salty vs Vasquez until Vasquez actually faces ML pitching.

I can't admire BC's pragmatism on the one hand and then expect him to swim against a tide that must flow that way in his own mind on the other. At the end of the day that is likely what will create a gap in what the Sox offer and what Ells and Boras can get in the open market. Plus for an agent, any reduction in the player's salary probably hits him harder than it hits the player in terms of how the agent views it versus how the player views it. Clearly the agent must adhere to the player's wishes. But the chance of Boras "recommending" that Ells take less money from anybody is likely none and none...let alone slim and none.

Did not mean to take anything from those "teams". The distance between them and the Sox as a team was what was remarkable though. The Tigers for example had great individual players which in the end did not mean much. With the Tigers, the dif was most striking with regard to defense. The Sox defense was just light years better. The Cards came the closest to a "team" effort but in the end they really could not compare to the Sox and their team wide resolve either. Most telling was the way the Sox worked over the data accrued during the first Wacha meeting and used it to work him over something fierce the second time around. Myself, I could not identify anything the Cards did that came close to that.

The ownership team "appears" to have learned to keep its nose out of Baseball Operations. I do think BC knows what he is doing and deserves the faith of both ownership and the fan base IMO. Almost amazing that BC stayed with one organization so long without rising to the top job earlier. However he is now in the unique position of knowing this organization like the back of his hand, knowing every job there is in Baseball Operations and having personally witnessed every banana peel they slipped on over all these years. We are very lucky to have him I think.

If Henry has any brains at all he won't let BC out of sight. Very lucky to have him.