Emp9

You mean they did the exact same thing they're trying to do to sign Groome, essentially? The Red Sox are guilty of allocating. Lol I'm mean, I haven't heard or read anything other than every team in the league does this, but somehow the Red Sox are the criminals. The kicker for me is that I've been all for an International Draft, which would regulate all this nonsense (atleast bring it out of the shadows), but MLB seems to be dragging their feet.

A's just signed AJ Puk, 6th overall $4,069,200, slot value of that pick.

I know we may not see a Sox vs Cubs World Series. But its looking like a Sox vs Cubs All Star game. I'd say thats a big improvement from last year. So, things aren't all that bad.

No. Not really. A Realistic view would find the Sox being an above .500 club that's leading the Wild Card race. We need one good SP, another good RP, and to sort out who's our #5. Our #5 won't matter that much if they make the post season anyway. Things haven't changed all that much. Realistically, most of us knew this even after we signed Price. Price& Kimbrel were a good start, but most of us knew it wasn't enough. Trades are starting to pick up now, should be a busy month. We'll see what pans out.

Our offense has been pretty good for a year now, between this season & last. I'd hate not to atleast try to correct our pitching woes. As bad as things seem, we're not THAT far off, or THAT far back yet.

Rich Hill is scheduled to start Sat. I can't imagine the A's demanding a blue chip in return for half a season of Rich Hill. I wld think, if he pitches well of course, they'd like to get a return on him 'cause thats what the A's always do.

I hear ya' on that. I'd give up alot for Atl's RP Vizcaino, he's not a rental. Pomeranz wouldn't be a rental either. Those are the type of deals we need to make long term anyways, wether they save our season this year or not.

I'm not a big fan of Fernando Rodney, but he's having quite a 1st half. Marlins gave up their 2015 8th Rd pick. For what it's worth....

Marlins just traded for Rodney and it was said they're looking for another SP and are linked to Odorizi & Pomeranz. If Pomeranz is available, I'd like the sox to kick the tires on a trade for him. Trading for him wouldn't even be about this year necessarily.

It's kinda weird though. I've read conflicting opinions that the Red Sox organization has one of the best, most modern, and knowlegable medical staffs & facilities in all of MLB. Players are really impressed when they sign with us. Yet, they seem to botch a lot injuries from the get go. ERod's knee for example. Maybe their overall care, when all is said and done, is top notch. But their initial diagnosis seem lacking.

I remember liking Miller for the Closer role equally or better than using Koji there. Still not knocking that trade (even tho it's not helping at the moment), I just wish we re-signed Miller in FA. With what Miller has done for NYY since, I feel a bit justified in thinking that.

What was his initial test though? An X-ray? X-rays are good for the average person who's livelihood doesn't depend on being a pro athlete. Sometimes I think they should just not pass GO & go straight to the MRI.

This is true. It varies from player to player, from severity and symptoms. That's why I thought it has it's own type of DL, no?

HanRam & Shaw are pretty even on the season. HanRam is having the better month, better last 7 games. I might say tgat he should be though.

Your right to an extent but most of them are very recent. Travis is gone for the year, no? Kopech was suspended & then broke his hand and has just recently come back. Trey Ball IS in fact doing very well as of late. He seems to be finally progessing to the point where I'll let myself be a little optimistic. I would say Dubon & Hernandez have been the highlights of the group going back last year. I hope a few of these guys are attractive enough to other teams as throw-ins to tip the scales on a trade but it's been slow going. There's also the question of how well they stack-up with other teams mid-tiers. It wasn't my intention to turn this into a prospect thread. I just thought it was common knowledge enough that our lack of mid-tiers has also contributed to a difficult trade market on our end these past few years. Enough that it's worth noting.

Of course other teams would want the best prospects they could get, and the more the merrier from their perspective. No, I'm talking about Boston's side of things. Over paying is easy. I'm saying our lack of mid-tiers affects our ability to negotiate properly. On Volquez.. I agree. I wouldn't give much for Volquez (I'd value him as a #5 or the occational #4) but the blogger seemed to want the world for him. There seems to be a huge disconnect lately on what a quality SP is. I'm aware it's a Pitcher's market, but lets be serious. There's delusional opinions outside of Boston too. I can't unread what I read, no matter how much I would like to.

Right, I agree. Would you trade Devers for a rental? (Hint: I sure as f*** would not)

Right, I was assuming you wouldn't. Rest assured that no is the correct answer. To your question. That's difficult to say, as you know. Someone slightly better than Buckholz, or Owens, or Kelly, or Elias??? ... Look, I was merely pointing out that we have had very little wiggle room when it comes to trades these past few years due to the consensus that our farm system is extremely top heavy. Take away the piss poor FA options, and the league parity, & the poor SP climate out of the equation, the lack of mid-tier prospects makes it that more difficult. I read a blog that the Royals would do well to consider an early rebuild. The blogger also said he would demand nothing less than a top prospect back for Volquez. I'd be interested in hearing any thoughts from anyone on TalkSox about such an example. I personally wouldn't give up one of our top prospects for Volquez, and yet I find myself hard-pressed to make a hypothetical trade proposal given what there is to work with after Devers. Any thoughts?

Would you trade Moncada for a rental?

No. I never said "none". I said "very few". And Yes, the farm gets very thin after our blue chip prospects are counted. Ot's been like this for years now. It seems to paints us in a corner for a bluckbuster trade or nothing. Or a really dumb, short-sighted, sure to be regretful, short-term fix.

One of the main problems here is that the Sox don't have very many mid-tier prospects. The kind of prospects you don't mind risking letting go for short term deadline rentals.

Yeah, Benny is only 5' 10" ppl. I'd try not to judge a book by it's cover.

Regarding the '2003 List', I really don't put that much stock into it. It's not the end all-be all that I thought it once was. 1) We don't know what exactly they tested for. 2) We don't know if they took into consideration any of the various Meds one might take at the time. 3) As far as I know, they did NOT test for false-positives. 4) We don't know if the clean players tried to fudge the results to get more testing, as was rumored. 5) What they did test for weren't actually banned at the time of testing. It was a litmus test. I did and still do somewhat appreciate the 2003 List because it beat the grass to startle the snakes, so to speak. However, I still need more information, and the best way for more information is for a player, any player, to test positive post-2003, and/or have a suspect paper trail, or phone records, or electronic documents,or direct witness testimony (players, family, coaches, trainer, etc), some or all the above. This isn't the NFL. It is my belief MLB has put forth meaningful testing since first adopted. It may have not put a total end to all of it, but it certainly has landed a serious blow to the PED culture. It's a cat & mouse game now of smarter testing vs smarter drugs, but it's the best it's ever been and that's including every baseball generation before it. Hands down. As far as fan bias goes... I can only point to Manny Ramirez as going from one of my favorite players of all time to one of my favorite PED users of all time. It had very little to do with the partial 2003 List leak. It had everything to do with what eventually happened years later. I may well be more forgiving than most. Suspicions are duly noted, but for me, suspicions need to be confirmed. The 2003 List just doesn't automatically confirm it for me. Sorry.

Lol. That's it. Rusney Bastillo it is then. How did we miss this?

I seriously doubt Moncada will stick at 2B. I've also never read or heard that he would stick there, and it has nothing to do w/ being blocked. Maybe they'll wait until his promotion to AAA to try him at other positions?