kenmeister

My vote is for Lin I do think Betts to second when playing in a National League Park has merit.

Wow! Did not realize that. Okay, okay so these two guys are the brittle twins. You could try the following: Wright & Buchholz platoon a spot in the rotation. One pitches 6 innings, the other 3, and they just alternate from start to start. It could possibly work and keep both healthy. But that said, I'd rather see Johnson & Velazquez do that

I *so* want one more .300 season out of Pedroia.

My thoughts: 1) I don't think his numbers are as good if he pitches in the AL. 2) He'll conveniently get injured either right before, or during, a Yankees start. 3) I'd like to see Johnson/Velazquez/Wright develop further. 4) And yes, his contract size makes a difference. Major league minimum is tempting, $13 million is not. 5) Eovaldi and Kelly are the priorities.

Sooo excited! Pearce is my favorite player on the team now.

Yeah I couldn’t even jokingly put him in the list. The others you could make a case for; particularly Lowrie to play 2B and Miller as a reliever.

Anibal Sanchez; I forgot about him. Let's do the all-ex-Sox signings: Sanchez, Lowrie, Miller, Iglesias.

Curious about your thoughts on Hector Velazquez.

I'm even more pessimistic, honestly. After these players depart we may have to wait for the next young core to emerge.

Speaking of which, I can't believe that the Kansas City Royals actually won it all in 2015. I can't name a single player on that team.

I suppose Jalen Beeks could/would have been the farm system’s contribution for 2018, but we flipped him into Nathan Eovaldi. Which is why it would be really nice if we resign Eovaldi. It will make it ‘seem’ like we didn’t trade a guy with 6 years of control away for a half-year rental.

Well, Johnson got a more prominent role, and if he's allowed to pitch more than 4 innings I hope he could blossom. Velazquez is from Mexico rather than "the farm" but he's essentially a new arm to the team, as is Brasier. I don't know the story of how we acquired Brasier, but presumably we traded pieces from the farm to get him? Hopefully all 3 of Johnson, Velazquez, and Brasier are under team control for a while.

Hence my hope that Lin gets a shot and earns the 2B job. But yeah, the positional player cupboard seems barren. But to say "2018 yielded no fruit" ignores some nice pitching talent.

Actually I meant no one has signed anywhere, not just the Sox. I don't expect the Sox to make many moves. There's just no actual baseball news to read about. But I did read this from Joe Kelly: "It’s one of those things where I don’t even feel like a free agent because I still feel like I’m a part of the Boston Red Sox. I still feel like that’s where I’m going to be for the rest of my career. When people bring up free agency it’s like, ‘Oh crap, I am a free agent.’ And I happened to pitch well in the postseason and now teams are going to want me to play for their team. It’s one of those things where it still — I just got back to California a couple days ago, my wife just drove in with our dogs from Boston, she made a long three day drive, which God bless her heart — So it’s one of those things where we just got back, so free agency right now is just me just coming back to California, just relaxing, having a good time with my family. Like I said deep down inside I still feel like I’m on the Red Sox even though technically I’m not. So it’s one of those things, it’s going to be fun to see what teams are interested in me, and hopefully I can be a Red Sox through the rest of my career."

We've officially reached the part of the offseason where it's all speculation and nothing's happened. In short ... I'm bored. Wake me up when someone signs somewhere...

I think both teams will regret those contracts. Both of these guys are over-valued.

Yeah I'm looking at Lin's AAA this past year Games 68 OBP .362 SLUG .448 Not too shabby But agreed, maybe Pedroia comes back?

My prayers & thoughts are with you that’s quite a scare.

Why doesn’t Lin get consideration for 2B?

Hey all this is a great discussion. Duquette being the last Sox GM to not win it all; what a great trivia question! All I can add to the conversation is ... don’t listen to me. I was the one who wasn’t happy with the Beeks for Eovaldi trade. Now of course I’m like, “Resign him! Yesterday!”

I just read that he rejected $300 million for 10 years. I can't wrap my head around this. I realize OPS isn't everything, but ... 2012 .817 2013 .854 2014 .767 2015 1.109 2016 .814 2017 1.008 2018 .889 If he was over 1 every year I'd say maybe, depending on his defense, but he's actually only cracked that level twice, and conversely his other 5 years were all under .900. I just don't see why he's so good to command a 10 year contract. He's a lifetime .279 hitter who has cracked 40 home runs once; this isn't Hank Aaron here. And to think that he actually got offered one, and he turned it down!

I'm cautiously optimistic that one of Barnes, Kelly, or Brasier can step up and perform the job. But old friend Andrew Miller is a FA again too I believe.

How often does a team win when one player makes so much? As good as Betts is, it's a team sport and committing so much to one player, gosh guys I don't know. We clearly screwed up the Lester contract extension, but we shouldn't go too far in the other direction.

Given Sale's issues with being able to start for a full season, is it crazy to think about moving him to closer?

Personally, I like keeping guys that show they can play at a high level here in Boston. I think of Clement/Renteria/Melancon and others who couldn't seem to shine here, but did elsewhere. Or guys like Price and Lackey that took a couple years to settle in. Eovaldi and Kelly are already part of this magical team; I think we recognize the "something special" the team has and resign them. But then again, it's not my money.