Emp9

Ha! A sneak attack, take them by surprise!... 'cause ya' know, apparently it's really easy to sneak up on someone who lives in a f***ing desert.

Massarotti is the worst. So whiney. So entitled.

As long as he doesn't get all drunk and coked up and crash his speed boat into a pile of rocks, he can cut up all the throwback jerseys he wants.

I respectively disagree. It's the perfect time to trade for Sale. What other time would there be? When the team has less of a chance to make the post season? I feel like the argument here is ...We're good, so by all means, lets not get better. He's not redundant. I don't believe it was a good time to stay status quo. I don't believe we were strong WS contenders. How were we WS Contenders when we're down Ortiz and our most likely competition is up Salazar & Carrasco? Without the Sale deal mind you. He's not a luxury. I'm of the opinion Starting pitching does win Championships if you have a balanced team in all/most other areas. Defense, Offense, relief pitching, base-running, good bench, probably coaching ( a good manager helps)... Starting Pitching alone doesn't get you there. One has to look no further than the Mets. Great SP, but bad defense, shaky BP, & inconsistent hitting. I can make a similar argument about the Tigers' recent failures. They weren't that balanced a team. Looking at the 2017 Red Sox from 50,000 ft (not literally), I'm a tad worried about our offense (without Ortiz), but our young core could prove me wrong and continue to get better. With the addition of Sale, we shouldn't have to score as many runs to win games, so Sale should offset losing Ortiz in theory. That's important, so let me stress that: WE DON'T HAVE TO SCORE AS MANY RUNS AS WE NORMALLY DO TO WIN GAMES. I love our defense. I love our base running (we were the most efficient team in base running last season, last time I checked), besides maybe one more RP I love our BP (that will work itself out over the season), our bench is ok (I like Holt and Hernandez, and our catchers as a group interchangeably), and our manager is no rookie and has won before and in different roles. Before Sale, I simply didn't have a lot of confidence in our Starting staff in a post season environment, with good reason. We can hand the ball to Sale 6 times in the post season if need be, instead of a lesser pitcher. I'm not guaranteeing anything. I don't think we're a lock. I just think we got a s*** load better in an area I had the least confidence in, an area that also happens to be the most important in trying to win a WS. Cough (Yes, our long term future is worse off.) cough

At least it's the last year they have to pay him anything.

Price may of pitched his best post season game vs the O's in '14 (Gm 3). Gave up 2 ER but s***.. he went 8 Innings. In '13 the Sox vs the Tigers, the Tiger's BP did them in, it wasn't their SP. Price of course wasn't on either team then, but the Tigers rotation was just as stacked. Can't have your BP give up 2 grand slams in two different games and expect to win the series. The take away for me is in '13 their BP cost them and in '14 the other teams BP cost them (A.Miller). Yeah, I guess the worst case scenario for us is that all of Price, Porcello, and Sale have lousy post seasons and nobody else steps up like ERod, Pom, or Wright, or Buch (if he's even on the team) or at least not enough. It could happen I suppose. I still don't think "The Playoffs are a crapshoot, why get Sale?" is a good argument for not getting Sale.

Maybe, maybe not. I do look for the Sox to have a more consistent offense and pitching this year that I hope carries on into the playoffs. Sale should be a huge upgrade, and another season of experience (post season experience included) should help our younger players focus. It won't be so new to them, less playoff jitters. I'm also curious to see how Cleveland responds from losing a WS. Could motivate them or not. Do you see the Guardians signing a big bat even if they don't bring Nap back? A Bautista or a Encarnacion?

Who is? I'm Thinkin' you read my post wrong. That's exactly why I asked... 'Who's the best team?" when it was said the best team doesn't always win. LOL It's exactly why I keep saying the Guardians are looking to only get better by getting 2 out of their top 3 SPers back next season. We couldn't beat them when they had just one of them. I don't believe Sale is a luxury. I don't think acquiring Sale only minimally helps in some meaningless 1 extra win in the standings way. I do think getting Sale helps a lot, along with a few other reasons, in why I might now slightly favor the Sox vs the Tribe.

If we're lucky, the farm can be rebuilt from the draft over the next 3-4 years and by the time we need to restock the larder from the farm, the prospects are there. I don't see us rebuilding too much from the next 2-4 drafts. I think the only way we rebuild the farm is by trading players from our major league roster to other teams (that are trying to get in contention) at the right times. Buch, Pom, Sandoval, HanRam, XB, Kelly, JBJ, Porc, etc. If it makes more sense to resign or extend a player, sure, do it, but if it makes more sense to deal them and get some decent prospects back (and of course try replace them with a reasonable replacement) if the opportunity presents itself. It'll be tricky since I think they'll be in contention as well, but... this is the only real way to keep a stocked farm and compete at the same time. Recycle.

And who's the best team I might ask? lol So, I think it does because you have to look ahead to what your competition is. Competition we already faced first hand. Our 2016 playoff Starting Rotation just simply wasn't good enough and I had no reason to believe it would be good enough going forward. Especially when the team we would have to go through to get to the WS will theoretically get better by getting 2/5th's (2/3rds of their top 3) SPs back. How does having arguably the 2nd best SP in baseball (top 5 at least I think anyway) not help your Play-off rotation?

Swihart it is then? LOL

Oh, there's no doubt we traded a lot of our long term future away for the now and the more immediate future and it's significant. I'm hopeful on the prospects that are left like Swihart, Devers, Groome, Travis. I haven't even gotten too down on Owens because of his age and his frame. Also, some decisions are hard to project and I have always been doubtful we extend/re-sign all three of Betts, XB, and JBJ. This past year of trades doesn't change that. There were always going to be those looming decisions in our future. Performance and timing are everything. For example, Let's say all 3 of Sandoval, XB, and Devers come close to their ceilings at the right times (before the beginning of '19). We may be able to trade Sandoval as more of a salary dump, trade XB (w/ a year of arb left before FA) for some higher tier prospects that aren't too far away (I'm thinking 2 years away), plug in Devers at 3B and sign a more defense oriented SS on a modest contract. Before Moncada, Devers was projected to have the most power offense-wise out of all our prospects the past few years. I know, best case scenario if they wind-up not keeping XB (Him and JBJ are Boris clients, so I'm skeptical on them both long term), but, I mean, something like this could happen. It not out of the realm of possibility. The Qualifying Offer rules have changed and for good reason, so we might have to re-think the way we look at our players nearing free agency. And yes, I say 2019, shouldn't we be one of the teams in contention since we're supposed to be going for it all? Why dump XB then? Well, we traded Nomar and got two pieces back (OC& DM, Not Prospects). Maybe we get a nice prospect and capable major leaguer to fill in a gap? Maybe one of our starting 2019 players gets hurt and it makes even more sense to make a trade like that? Who knows. I feel like I'm rambling now. But yeah, there should be some ways to build back the farm a little as we go along. I do agree we'll probably not see a farm system like that for a very very long time. How much that affects the major league roster is yet to be known.

I'm a Mookie fanboy. He's the type of player you try and build around and go for it while you can... for this fan anyway. I'd hate to look back years down the road and think of what if we traded this or that prospect (that wasn't ready yet) for a player that could've put us over the top and could've sealed the deal at the time. I like the young core group we have on the major league roster. Without them, none of these recent moves make sense. I wanted to trade for someone like Sale well before the Kimbrel trade. To have that many good prospects graduate and have so many more left over that if we didn't trade for a TOTR SP it would've been a ridiculous disappointment IMHO. To not trade for an aspect (#1 SP) that we all know the Sox have trouble developing themselves would've just been simply unfathomable to me. Especially now that we're in striking distance to another WS Championship (if things go right) within the next 3 years and looking at our competition (Tribe/Cubs). Thing is, I loved the Sale, Ziegler, and Thornburg trades, but the Kimbrel and Pomeranz trades were lacking. If there's any regret from me it was from the Kimbrel/Pom trades. Even though the Kimbrel trade makes more sense now and the Pom trade makes less sense now. All in all, even with our future in jeopardy, I still think if there was a time to go all in, now would be the time.

That's when we fire DD and hire BC back or maybe Theo by that time? (Larry's gone now anyway).

Without the Sale deal, the Sox were Play-off contenders. With Sale on board, they could be World Series contenders. This writer seems to forget that the Sox didn't win a game against the Guardians. Does anyone think the Guardians will be easier to beat in '17 when both Carrasco & Salazar are back to join Kluber? I have this strange feeling that Sale won't be a "Luxury" when/if we have to face them again in the Post Season.

but the Sox were also trying to graduate parts of the farm at the same time for long term gain. It was in flux as well as poor performances and poor roster construction. Despite those last place finishes there was a lot of effort dedicated towards building the roster we have now. That s*** takes time.

Wright was rumored to be able to pitch in the ALCS if the Sox went that far. That was the last I heard of his progress. There was no mention of any setback as far as his shoulder was concerned, just him trying to get back into pitching form due to his long layoff of not pitching. We'll see soon enough, like always.

To be fair, the Kimbrel trade was the worst way to build a championship & empty the farm at the same time. The Thornburg & Sale trades have been the opposite of that. I still hate the Kimbrel trade to be honest. You won't hear me complain about these last two trades, except that still ... it's 7 - 2 as far as what we got back. DD gets his man, not much else, but gets his man.

Maybe if Price pitches well enough to opt for FA and Groome is good enough to start on a ML rotation? I'm mean, ther's really just 3 contracts that are hampering our payroll right now. Price, Sandoval, & HanRam's. As far as I can tell. Our future depends on Groome & Devers panning out when the time comes, Having Price opt out, having Sandoval increase his trade value, maybe trade HanRam like the Yanks traded Beltran (unless it makes more sense to keep him if they're making a post season bid).

Ok I gotcha. Yeah, just saying, things can always be worse. I try to look at the absolute worst & best case scenarios (not just in sports) to keep me balanced. Lol

Not sure if speeding and crashing your boat into some rocks while high on cocaine and drunk is "blind luck", but...

Things could've been worse. DD could've made better moves, earlier, and we'd have traded for Jose Fernandez. Or is that the wrong way to look at things? I'm not really sure anymore.

Hanley is a good candidate for this when & if the time cones. I mean, just look at what the Yanks got back for trading away 2 months of Beltran.

yeah I wonder who the Sox wanted in return? To me it's a perfect opportunity to cut some payroll and net a mid-level prospect.

I still consider Beni, Swihart and Vazquez prospects in most ways. Add them to Groome and Devers and we're not as bad off as it seems. What it will really come down to is when DD decides certain players nearing free agency are worth keeping or worth trading a year or two early to get value back. We just have to wait and see.