jung

When any one of those three win 3 MPV's let us know.

As hard as I am on Beni in these pages he has more upside, certainly more than JBJ. I would keep Beni and hope that with a 2 year contract under his belt he stops trying to hit everything over the fence. He is not a MLB HR hitter and trying to hit them destroys his swing. I agree, that Beni has to stay in LF. He would not be a good CF and would probably hurt himself literally trying to play in our RF.

Sox got a WS out of it but boxed themselves into a corner between 2017 and 2019 that there was no real good way out of other than moving Mookie. I don't see much chance of bringing him back to Boston. Boston won't IMO pay him what he can get elsewhere. But at least there is some hope now that we can get on track in the near term. Does not take much to get on track given the sludge that is MLB these days.

The all LH hitting OF could be interesting. NOT!!! If they were as thoughtful, hardworking and as talented as Ted Williams it might be but of course they are NOT. The Sox probably have to make yet another deal to bring somebody that swings from the Right Side in though they really need to focus on pitching.

So, are we really going to have an all left hand hitting OF for 2020? I guess that might be OK if they were all as thoughtful and hardworking as Ted Williams. But of course NONE OF THEM ARE! Actually I don't think it much matters. 2020 is done before it starts. Could be interesting to see how that effects the gate and viewership for the average fan.

I don't know who would even try to make the case that Downs and Wong fix our farm problem. But you have to start someplace. Its that bad as it stands right now. We need pitching in the minor league system as well. The whole farm as it stands today is a black hole. Part of the reason this trade is happening is that we really don't have enough players or any for that matter that can really play at a MLB level while making league minimum but one and that leads to two things: - Teams rape you for even middling talent because they know you don't have players that can come up and actually play for league minimum - you are left dealing with the certain knowledge that if all your players are making coin you have some crap underperforming contracts in there. It is virtually impossible in today's MLB to have all performing contracts. Heck you might be lucky these days to have 60% of them being performing contracts given injury, extended terms and the fact that every damned one of them is guaranteed. We are in decent shape sort of for everyday player contracts other than the ones we have for players that don't play for us at all. Most of that has been washed through the system. We have a great budding star in Devers at league min. IMO Chatham and Dalbac will be up and playing whether they are ready or not this year unless we want to see more of Lin. They are really the best we have down there I think. But my word the amount of money we have in pitching and what we have to do to make that work!

If you can't even hit middling FB's this late in a career then I don't know what there is for Chavis to figure out. Heck virtually all of us that played any sort of serous organized ball as everyday players can hit FB's to some extent. Chavis can only hit hung sliders right dow Main St and badly through Change ups. That is not much of a recommendation for a MLB hitter. I know Chavis is young in MLB terms. But it is way late for him to look that feeble against even middling FB's.

Wong and Downs with Verdugo....now that finally makes some sense.

Downs would appear to be a good add for the Sox

He is not in college any longer. He is swinging wooden bats now against MLB pitching. He needs to keep his stride short and his swing compact. In fact he is likely to hit more HR's that way than he is TRYING to hit them. You want to look at the greatest LH swing that ever existed. Look at Ted's. He stands upright in the batter's box, takes a short stride, keeps his hands inside the baseball and PLACATA. Now look at Beni's run of the mill MLB swing. Again my hope for Beni is that the 2 year contract in his pocket cures him of constantly trying to hit HR's only to land on the warning track even with the rocket ship baseball.

Gonsolin would be a nice addition. But he does not solve the problem of nobody backing up the front 9 that can actually come in and play. I don't see a miracle like the Chapman deal the Yankee's pulled off around the corner either. Chavis is not Holt if anybody is wondering. Lin isn't anybody as far as I am concerned.

Somebody convinced Beni that he could be a MLB HR hitter and he's just not. If he simply would stop widening his stride which leads to his elongated and useless big swing, he would be in much better shape whether batting from lead off or anyplace else for that matter. Even when the Sox manage to shorten his stride it just creeps right back out there again. My hope for Beni is that the two year contract in his pocket cures him of trying to prove that he is something he is not.

This trade is going to go through IMO. But the offense will only be fine until guys in the front 9 start going down. There is nobody backing these guys up, NOBODY. And if Mookie isn't leaving a hole what are we willing to give him 12/420 for or God forbid, 13/400 or whatever is a "teen" number.

Oh I think Mookie would play for the Sox and play well. Doesn't change what a cluster this has been. I am not buying any of the hogwash that has come out of Fenway since this whole meshugas began certainly as it relates to the status of Gatorade.

My view of it is the same as it was when this mish-mosh first hit the news wires. I suspect nobody is clean in this. Either there was involvement much deeper in the Houston organization that has been exposed in the League report or a purposeful lack of curiosity by execs that should have been curious enough to try to understand what the heck was going on in Houston baseball ops and in their dugout.

Beni's biggest challenge has been batting lead off. I struggle with putting him back there now that Mookie will be out of the batting order. My only real hope for Beni batting lead off in 2020 is that having a contract at least takes that pressure off of him. Maybe and I do mean MAYBE he will do better from the 1 hole given he has a two year contract under his belt. Though their inconsistency does not take the same form Beni from 1 reminds me of JBJ from ANYWHERE!

I don't know why we would think the Padres have any shot here. Is it because of the Myers/Bloom connection? I don't know what else it could be.

I agree to a large extent. The Angels are yet another f***ed up clueless organization. Look how long they hung onto Mike Souza as their manager. Want to explain how that made any sense? "Oh he is respected". Ah-huh. So is Buck. Who cares. Time has passed them by and not just recently. That said they STILL make money and they are quite willing to make one baseball player almost their entire marketing effort. What else are they going to do if they really do not feel capable of or even have the incentive to compete for Championships. If the Angels ever win anything again it will be as much luck as anything else. Maybe Manfred will send all the good teams off to foreign lands to play mid-season. They will all get coronavirus and end up in quarantine leaving the Angels to play the Marlins for the 2020 Championship. That is about the only shot the hapless Angels have. BUT, THEY STILL MAKE MONEY!

Said it early on....its on the Sox and Dodgers to recover this deal. I don't see other interested parties having much impact here. One unfortunate consequence of this mess is that if the actual trade particulars are accurate, everybody knows what the Sox and Dodgers were willing to do. I don't see how that plays to the Sox advantage. I still think this will end up being something the Sox and Dodgers work out. However, the Sox really don't have much leverage here. On the bright side, players on teams have become somewhat minimally important. They play for the MLBPA now. All by way of saying that in the old days the deal blowing up and the Sox having to take Mookie and Price back would have had some impact on the players involved. Mookie will go out and try to have a great year regardless of where he is. Price for his part might just be mouthier than normal in the press, alternately mouthing off and going silent enough to be his normal bound to be a jerk self. It should not take much to get this done assuming both sides are still amenable. I have little doubt the Sox want to do this deal and I have little doubt that the Dodgers want to do the deal as well.

You are right...., Its VC not Boras

By "just like that" I was referring to the fact that at least Mookie counter-offered. That should have been worth a counter from the Sox. By all accounts they did not counter but traded instead, errrrrr......tried to trade instead, errrrrrrr.......are in the middle of a trade instead, errrrrrr...........

My numberS, MY NUMBERS for Mookie were 10/330 which likely translates in MLB terms to 10/360. Not a penny more, not a minute more and THAT IS AN OVERPAY IMO.

Plus I don't know why we have suddenly gotten convenient memory for who Mookie has as an agent.

Now I am depressed! You are of course correct. I just was not in the mood to be reminded.

I don't have an issue with building the farm. You just cannot go forward in the modern game with absolutely positively NOTHING down there. The rest of baseball knows it when you don't have anybody that can come up and play making league minimum which means you really don't have the means to fill in around the guys you are actually paying the big money. At that point MLB punishes you by making you overpay for middling talent, let alone prime players. Either that or you get lucky enough to get into the situation the yankees were in with Chapman and you rake in a haul for the one player. I just wish we would get somebody with a balanced approach. Lately we either end up with somebody totally into building the farm or somebody totally committed to using it up to the last man. Somebody in the middle would be a pleasant surprise.