Hitch

It's always a lottery with prospects. I remember my first reaction after the Sale trade was - Christ, that's a steep price. Turned out to be a total bargain.

Agreed. Out of the big 3, I think Mayer is the one I'd be okay with us trading. I'd rather we kept Antony and Teel. Bleis I'm really excited about, but we need another year to know for sure after his injury.

Heyman reporting we are 'very much in play'. So almost certainly ********. Especially as Spier and Cotillo have said we're all but out.

In the last 24 hours, between the journos, the Sox have been: only lurking for Imanaga, long shots and now one of the favourites. The amount of BS around at the moment is a sight to see.

I don't agree at all. Any team would snatch our hand off for him.

I suppose one reason is because no prospect is a lock and Teel, Mayer and Antony are hugely coveted right now. If any of them drops off significantly, we'd have wished we pulled the trigger. Also, there's nothing saying we won't trade for two starting pitchers a top of rotation type and a 3/4. Unlikely. But you never know. If you want to go full kool aid, maybe we're doing a Dodgers and keeping our powder dry for Soto ha!

Imanaga looks set for SF. A lot of journos tweeting Monty wants to go back to Texas. Can't see us going near Stroman or Snell. Looks like trade only, is most likely. In terms of trades, Dodgers are coming up in a few people's idea of a good trade partner for Jansen. I wonder what we'd look to get back in that deal.

Trading him after one season will not be a good look to other Japanese players in the future, either.

What is everyone's feeling on Yoshida in general? I can't personally see how that contract works out long term.

Yes, but it's not the Sox actively exploring this 'Several teams have inquired about Yoshida, and while the Red Sox do not appear to be actively shopping him, they are open to virtually any idea as they seek to build a better roster.' Pretty straight forward stuff. As the late great Dombrowski said: everyone is available for trade under the right terms. If someone offers you two Mike Trout's for one, you take it. That said, I'd highly recommend not trading two Yoshida's for one.

I think it's almost certain the rotation is going to be in a much better shape in a month (hopefully within a week). There's just too much talk (from Breslow and the journos) that the Sox are in on virtually all the pitchers available for trade and some of the free agents ones. I'm expecting us to get one for sure, possibly two. My feeling is, Houck, Whitlock and Pivetta are all going to the pen. Hence the comfort with trading Jansen. And the rotation will be something along the lines of - #1 (trade) #2 Bello #3 Gio #4 Imanaga (or another) #5 Crawford That would be pretty decent with an excellent pen. At a push, I think we'll add a power bat in the outfield, too. If (and big IF I grant you,) all that comes off, how would you feel?

The Imanaga links have never gone away. They seem likely to be in on him.

Fair enough. I don't think fans' expectations will ever be lowered when it comes to the Sox. The ownership has made A LOT of mistakes, but it feels like a section of fans have now decided the owners are the absolute worst with the worst intentions, and those fans are ready to die on that hill. Short of the kid being a bust (which we can't know) and/or Sale staying healthy and pitching back at a high level (seems unlikely), there is no prism to view this trade logically and conclude it is a bad one. I've not seen a single commentator say as much, and they're laying into the Sox right now.

Moon is Red. The forum is Andy. Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane.

Why? If we weren't adding anything when Sale was here, we weren't competing. If we don't add anything with the kid, we're not competing. I'd rather have an exciting kid in at 2nd base for 6 than Sale for 1 in either scenario. This trade makes sense on every level. I'm not sure why people are tying themselves up in knots to argue it doesn't.

A lot of good stuff here.

Feels that way, with an infield prospect involved too, I would imagine. Got to get that starting pitching somehow.

All fair. But I think the Dodgers are just as special a case as the Rays are. They have a conveyor belt of talent coming off that farm, and then usually invest smartly to amplify that talent. The Dodgers and Rays for different and similar reasons are the best run clubs in MLB. Models to learn from and emulate. Baseball is different now. It's not like it was 25 years ago when the Yankees (or any big market team) could outspend everyone and blow them away, winning WS after WS. Spending means little without a very well run organisation, with analytics levelling the playing field. The Mets and Padres have been going crazy with their spending, both failed. The Yankees have been at the top of the spending lists forever, can't win it all. I wonder if Henry was simply thinking, 'I am not paying out these massive contracts when our farm/development isn't up to scratch to supplement them.' (I accept this is me totally guessing and I could be way off). I think he hoped Bloom was the guy that would start bringing that to the fore. But for all the things Chaim did which I thought was good, he seemed paralysed on times with indecision around major moves. The last two trade deadlines being exhibit A and B. To further my theory, if Henry does believe all the above, you need someone with similar philosophy that is not afraid to back him/herself. Bres certainly fits so far. We should be acting like a big market team (and none of this forgives the Betts mistake), but personally, I think we also need(ed) to get A LOT better as an organization from top to bottom, among other things in terms of scouting and development and not being afraid to make big moves. There are shoots of hope in the last year, or two at least.

Yeah I remember your reaction to Mookie. Fair to say that's when it broke for you? I've been impressed with Breslow so far. I like his decisiveness, willingness to use the trade option and apparent courage to make big moves. Henry, proof will be in the pudding I guess. He's a billionaire through being smart. I understand why he's looking at the Rays and thinking why the f*** am I spending all this extra money? And this isn't a new thing after courting Beane. But that doesn't give him a pass for some of the bad decisions in recent history.

This is why a lot of owners tend to stay away from the media. Werner clearly run his mouth without thinking, nore likely wanting to signify that they were going to shake things up. Now that quote is being used by every baseball writer in America.

No, I get that. It wasn't a criticism of how people spend their time, I was more just thinking out loud.

Definitely not. As I've been at pains to point out when making counter arguments - I totally get why there's an almost constant negative slant on every dissection of our moves. It'll likely take a while before any sort of trust is won back. If at all.

That's.... interesting.

Obviously impossible to know, but we forget these guys aren't robots. Divorce and being forced to moving your life to a new place - two of the more destabilising and stressful events of your life. Trying to predict what Gio will give us is a massive waste of time.

Perfect.