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So apparently David Price has been diagnosed with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. But he's still gonna pitch against the Blue Jays. *shrugs* Well David, if you clicked on less porn, and worked on your arm more, maybe you wouldn't be in this pickle?!

Is David Price washed up? I was hoping he would eventually rebound like John Lackey did. But he owns a 5.11 ERA through 7 starts and now got the hook for a numb hand? What is going on here? Imagine if we had just kept Lester and paid him the money instead of making him an insulting contract offer and watch him leave town. If we had Lester, we would never have signed Price to that ridiculous contract.

Well do you think we could get a top 3 type starter in return for JBJ or would we strictly be looking at prospects coming back?

Spanking the Yankees and beating them in a series. There's no sweeter feeling! Pinstripe fans must be in meltdown mode right about now. Haha!

I feel like we could have gotten a real ransom for JBJ last season. Not sure how good a return we would get this year. His OPS dropped to sub .700. That's not a playable player even with the PLUS-PLUS defense that he gives. If he picks it up and gets to around a .750 OPS then we have a commodity that we can move if we need to. But what would we even trade him for? What is the Red Sox biggest position of need now when everything is pretty much rosey for us right now?

I know it's a small sample size but 10-2 to start the season? That's amazing! I thought we would be improved, but I didn't think we were going to be -this- good!! Less than 10% of the season gone, I know but that's on pace for 134 wins. Which is INSANE!! I'm just going to say at this rate, which is unsustainable, this is still definitely a 95+ win team. I feel like 95 wins should be enough to win the division this year. There are going to be some ups and downs, but whatever we have going on... it's working and I'm Loving It!!!

The Red Sox finally got their man! I'm ok with the opt out clause. After 2 years, the market will be different, new players will become available, and even farm prospects might become legit big league options. All in all, not too shabby 5 years 110 for an aav of 22m. And JD gets paid more richly up front. Win-Win for both sides. I'm satisfied with the look of the Red Sox offense for 2018. Now what do we do about our relief situation?

I feel like it is more likely that today's MLB baseball is juiced to increase the homerun rate. Ever since the steroid era of baseball so many athletes were disgraced I don't think anybody would risk getting caught 'juicing' anymore.

Well when the Red Sox signed JD Drew it worked out pretty well for us. And when the Red Sox signed Victor Martinez he played great in Boston as well. Add it all up and signing free agent JD Martinez should be a guaranteed awesome signing for us!!

Latest rumor I'm hearing is a Jackie Bradley Jr for Kyle Schwarber swap with the Cubs. Opinions? http://boston.cbslocal.com/2017/12/11/kyle-schwarber-red-sox-trade-rumors/ Schwarber hit 30 homers last year but only batted .200. If he doesn't fix the hole in his swing he is going to get a lot of hate from Red Sox fans. Stats: https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/s/schwaky01.shtml Wow if Ozuna is available, I'd much rather give more to get him than Schwarber. Ozuna has put it all together.

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Yeah Stanton had a short list of teams he was willing to waive his NTC for, the Red Sox were not on that list. Stantan had also previously turned down two different trade offers that the Marlins accepted already. He was clearly holding out for... the damn Yankees to make an offer. Unfortunately this is the reality, Yankees still get first shot at premier player targets in most cases.

This "trade" unfortunately reminds me of the Lakers ripoff of Pau Gasol in his prime. It then fueled another 2 championships for the Kobe-led Lakers. Judge and Stanton together for the next 5 years? Lord help us!

Oh well I'm over him now. At least he didn't choose the Yankees. Who knows maybe he will help the Angels give the Astros a run for their money in the AL West.

Stanton to the Yankees for peanuts. And the Yankees only eat 250/295m of his salary. Ruh oh! Are we in trouble?

Red Sox have a need for Stanton but he has a hefty contract. Also what would be the price for the trade? It all depends. I haven't heard any noise yet of a Stanton to Sox move. I suspect we hear more news after the winter meetings in a few days.

Can the Red Sox even afford Stanton? And how much are we still paying fatty Sandoval to play for the Giants?

LAA makes sense for Otani because he has the chance to become their Ace. Their starting rotation isn't exactly full of world beaters. And they are willing to DH him on off days. LA market is also a pretty big market. And for some reason Japanese like West Coast better. The weather, maybe or is it just easier to fly home over the holidays?

Thanks for the sox international cap update. Yes, 400k is not a lot too offer in terms of a bonus. Can the Red Sox trade in money from next year to this year to sign Ohtani? There is one article that suggested the Red Sox could do something like that to sign the released Braves prospects: https://www.overthemonster.com/2017/11/28/16709134/red-sox-offseason-kevin-maitan-dave-dombrowski And as someone mentioned Scouts believe that Ohtani has 3 plus pitches, his fastball and 2 offspeed pitches. I feel like AL is best fit because you can just slide him to DH to get him some at bats easily. Red Sox actually need a good DH/power bat so if Otani develops he could be a 2 for 1 deal! The kid hit for over 900 ops in each of the past 2 years in Japan although it's a lower league, if we saw those numbers in triple A or even double A we would be pumped about that hitting prospect! I hear Fred's concern about Matsuzaka. But DiceK never had the velocity this kid does. Over in JP DiceK was hitting around 94 mph with his fastball. Meanwhile Otani, who is now 6-5 btw, has hit 102mph on the radar gun! He averaged nearly 12 K's per 9 in JP. So he is not going to have to nibble around the corners to get outs and hope his breaking ball hits, he can be the flamethrower type who gets a lot of outs with his fastball first, and then use his breaking stuff to get nasty cos they are afraid to swing late on the heat. Because of this I project Otani to more of a Darvish type, who is a 4 time all-star in the AL, thus more likely to make it in the MLB.

I have read an article that the red sox have been trading slots to acquire international money and can offer around 8m dollars which would be competitive with a Yankees signing bonus offer. As long as money is relatively close, it's probably going to come down to fit and who Otani believes will give him the best opportunity to succeed. IE recruiting, recruiting, recruiting. Sell him the dream, Dombrowski! More Otani news: https://bosoxinjection.com/2017/08/25/red-sox-gearing-run-shohei-otani/ "The Red Sox started with a bonus pool of $4.75 million and have added to it through trades this season. Jon Heyman believes that the Red Sox have been adding to their bonus pools in preparation for an Otani sweepstakes this offseason. ... Teams like the Red Sox and the Yankees have around $8 million dollars available as opposed to the Dodgers’ $300,000 cap." Will landing Otani be about the money or the dream? Can Red Sox end the Yankees recent monopoly of high end Japanese talent? https://sports.yahoo.com/shohei-otani-will-leave-hundreds-millions-dollars-table-play-mlb-next-season-063136007.html

I proposed a solution for your concerns. His initials are SO.

Shohei Otani is the latest japanese superstar to be made available via the posting system. He is just turned 23. So he is young with plenty of room to grow and improve. He has been recorded with a 100 mph+ heater in a pro ball game. Average velocity is going to be lower, but he has the capacity to throw serious big league heat. Japan's exports have been up and down a bit, but the one skill that seems to translate across leagues is pitching. We're not looking at a pitcher who needs to get by with off speed stuff and trying to throw the pitch off the plate and get a swing and miss. This young man can throw the real heat and thrive in a fastball dominant pitching league. He's more comparable to a Yu Darvish in that respect, and thus I believe he can succeed and adapt to the MLB. Next is the fact that the posting system is a lot less outrageous these days. Bid the 20 million dollar max, and from then on it is up to your front office to convince him to sign because I'm sure at least 3-4 clubs will post up the max bid. The Red Sox pitching was pretty good last year, but it was by no means the best in the league. I have no idea if Price will rebound correctly. Or if Porcello returns to 2016 Cy Young form. We need insurance in the pitching rotation. We could do a lot worse than promising a #5 spot to a possible future top 2 rotation pitcher in Otani. Look I'm just saying if we sign him, give him the #5 spot for now, if he can't handle it, pull him after a few weeks. But this calculated risk would be worth it imo. Pitching simply wins, especially in the postseason. Of course our #1 priority this offseason will still be a top hitter/slugger, but I'm saying the Red Sox shouldn't ignore this opportunity to pick up prime pitching talent for basically just cash. Dombrowski has drained the farm a bit for necessary trades -- the Sale trade still stands as one of his best yet as our GM, and the Pomeranz trade finally paid off handsomely last season. But here's a chance to acquire talent without expending farm assets, I think we should take it. What's 20 mill for a franchise like the Red Sox? Just an added bonus -- If Otani's hitting form is big league good, he could fill both the DH and pitching role for us. A two for one acquisiton. Something to think about. Otani Scouting Report: http://m.mlb.com/news/article/254954096/scouting-report-on-japanese-star-shohei-ohtani/

Sale looked GREAT tonight. 8 inning shutout baseball. He's the type of pitcher who WANTS the ball when the division and the pennant is on the line. I say give him the ball. He's our best hope! Once we clinch, rest him a couple of days. Let him get 1 start before the playoffs so he doesn't get too rusty. But we don't have luxuries right now. The lead is not so great that winning the division and making the playoffs is assured!

Let's not forget that Pomeranz was the player with the injury concerns at the moment of the trade, not Espinosa. I will say that Pomeranz has had a fantastic turnaround season though after sucking during the half year that he was initially with us after the trade. Maybe a lot of that had to do with his injury. And this is what we get with a healthy Drew Pomeranz. What I see in Drew is a pitcher who reminds me of how solid Derek Lowe was for the Red Sox. Drew is still young enough to further perfect his craft and boost up his ability to a strong #2. DD took a gamble by trading for Pomeranz and for Sale but so far those look like two stroke of genius trades. We would not be anywhere this season without Sale to anchor the starting rotation and Pomeranz to further solidify it. The only obvious DD gaffe so far is trading away Travis Shaw. But he more than made up for it by acquiring Nunez. One of the more underrated moves before the trade deadline. Of course the Red Sox free agency has also sucked - Price and Panda were lemons and we spent mega bucks on them. But if we can improve our performance in that area next year, I see good things in store for us. Most of the other moves made by the Red Sox front office have looked pretty good to date.

A panic move? Devers was the best option we had. Yes selling Travis Shaw was a big mistake. But Devers has been anything BUT a mistake since coming up to the BIGS. Homerun with his first big league hit. First Red Sock to do that since Tony C in 65. Currently sporting a whopping 1.2 OPS after a big 4 hit night that helped power us to another win, this time over the Guardians. Red Sox were STAGNANT before calling up the kid. Devers could be exactly the shot in the arm the Red Sox need. Yes, he is currently the YOUNGEST player in the SHOW this season. But if you're talented enough to play, you're talented enough to play. PERIOD.