vjcsmoke

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.

delete

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.

Benitendi is having a solid rookie season. Not as awesome as expected but any rookie will have ups and downs. Certainly the sun-bright glare of Aaron Judge's rookie season has him a shoe in for rookie of the year. Anyways back to Devers. His power is the real deal. I could easily see him turning into a regular all-star at the 3rd base position if he continues on his current trajectory and just works on improving every day. Yes 1st base is still a bit of a concern but not a huge one. Mitch Moreland has been solid if unspectacular. And HRam can cover 1st base at times. We might need to upgrade in the future but it isn't a gaping chest wound like the 3rd base position was until we called up Devers.

Well Price could always pull a Lackey and turn back into a good pitcher. It is concerning to hear health issues are popping up for him at this age though. I wouldn't actually be averse to the Red Sox trading Price. But only if we got a good return. Lately he seems to be snapping under the pressure in Boston. But Price has at least been MLB average and an innings eater, even if he hasn't been the Ace we imagined we were signing when handing out the mega contract. With the huge struggles of last year's Cy Young winner - Rick Porcello - does anyone know WHY he's struggling so badly? -- It looks like we will have to hold onto Price for now. But I wouldn't be surprised if he were gone next season to a pitching starved team as long as we could get a reasonable return for him.

Well it's too late now!! His value has tanked! If we had traded him at the end of last year we might actually have gotten VERY GOOD TALENT in return. Last year his value was at his highest. It would have been best to move him on for a really good MLB ready 3rd baseman. But nope. Now we have to let him find his bat again. That's something the Sox struggle with at times is identifying when is the best time to move on from talent and get something great to very good in return. They need to take a page from Bill Belichick. He moved on from Lawyer Milloy, Tebucky Jones, Logan Mankins, Chandler Jones, etc. at the right moment AND got some compensation in return.

Trading away Shaw was one of the biggest MISTAKES of the offseason. We have a gaping hole at 3rd base. And how the hell were you counting on Fatso Sandoval to fill that hole? Even if he comes back healthy, he's a mediocre player. Look at what Shaw has done this season: .281 BA 9HRs 34 RBIs .540 SLG http://www.espn.com/mlb/player/_/id/32890/travis-shaw .318 OBP doesn't show much discipline but when overall you are getting an .858 OPS player, well it was one of the worsts moves of the offseason. -Almost- as bad as trading for Drew "damaged goods" Pomeranz last year. Sandoval's terrible contract continues to haunt us. And David Price has yet to pitch this season despite his mega-contract signing. Red Sox continue to waste money and talent. Is it that surprising that we are mediocre? We made the mistake of not replacing Big Papi. Could have easily signed a premier power bat for this season to shore up the lineup. Instead we have to watch Jackie Bradley Jr. whiff over and over again. How do so many "smart" people continue to make so many huge mistakes? It's a long season. But this has just been really frustrating to watch.

Benitendi just went 5 for 5 against the Orioles. I see why he was the #1 rated prospect. Maybe the Red Sox kept the best 'top prospect' after all. If Chris Sale solidifies himself as the Ace of the staff. It looks like Dombrowski made the right moves this offseason. Probably his only big mistake so far is Pomeranz for Espinoza. But you can't get them all right.

You know what I first voted for Sale. But thinking it over it should be Porcello. He's the reigning Cy Young so it makes it a much easier excuse to give him the nod without the other big pitchers getting jelly. It also sends a message. Hey Rick was the top guy in the AL last year, you want to take that #1 spot, you gotta beat him out. Competition is open, but until then... prove you deserve to be #1.

Naah it's time for Buccholz to go. It will be a good thing to start the season under the luxury tax, as repeat offenders get hit even harder. He's not worth 13.5M PLUS the luxury tax hit. I'm not going to miss his maddening inconsistency. We have enough depth in the starting pitching now with Erod, Steven Wright, Pomeranz, and Joe Kelly for the back end of the rotation. I'm going to miss Koji Uehara and Tazawa, our japanese duo of relievers. We'll always have 2013. But it was time to move on. That's part of successful baseball as well, knowing when to move on. I really hope that Sandoval has turned the corner. When in shape he was an actual contributor for a WS winning Giants team. And we're not going to move him without eating a lot of money at this point. So it's better to hope he's gonna turn it around.

Sale Porcello Price Wright Eduardo Rodriguez That would be my guess. But our top 3 are pretty much all ace quality so that is really nice since each of them has won a Cy Young or been in the top 5 running for a Cy. Any one of them could take the #1 spot.

Not a sexy move. But a decent bandaid at 1st base unless his production suddenly falls off a cliff. career average-wise he appears good for 20 dingers per season and a .750 ops. Considering we want to avoid the luxury tax, this seems like a good stopgap acquisition until Sam Travis is ready to crack the bigs.