moonslav59

Agreed, but Renfroe and Dalbec do so badly vs RHPs, I question why one is not on the bench and Arroyo, Marwin or yes, even Cordero is not playing instead. OPS vs RHPs, this year: 1.253 Santana 1.092 JD 1.058 Devers 1.014 Bogey .881 Verdugo .787 Kike .697 Vaz .688 Arroyo .657 Plawecki .557 Renfroe .554 Marwin .516 Cordero .550 Chavis .462 Dalbec Ok, OK, Renfore is actually doing better than Cordero & Marwin but not Arroyo.

"People"- LOL. Look at the numbers some players got who were worse than Betts and older. I guess I should say there "should be no doubt," because someone always doubts everything, whether it is worthy of doubting or not. Is your position the pandemic did not lower his amount received- even by a little? Does anyone hold that position?

Recently updated mock drafts (July 13): MLB.com 1. Mayer HS 2. Lawlar HS 3. Davis Louisville 4. House HS 5. Leiter Vandy 6. Rocker Vandy Baseball America 1. Lawlar 2. Mayer 4. Leiter 7. Rocker Prospects.live 1. Lawlar 2. Leiter 3. Mayer 4. Rocker 5. Jobe 6. Davis 7. House mymlbdraft.com 1. Leiter 2. Lawlar 3. Rocker 4. Mayer 5. House 6. Davis Fueldedbysports.com 1. Leiter 2. Rocker 3. Lawlar 4. Mayer 5. House 6. Madden 7. Davis

I don't think there is any doubt, for his age and his history, he was expected to make more- before COVID hit.

I was with you the whole way on this one. If someone took him, so be it. Finding a replacement as bad ...errr, I mean as good as him is easy.

Kinda shows he's not all that good. We can't even give him away!

Well said, and it appears that is what they are doing.

Maybe not "heavily influenced," but to some extent, I feel it must have.

I agree, and honestly, I have no idea when he will be "deemed" ready. IMO, his bat is ready to be tested at the ML level, but part of that decision involves evaluating a player's confidence, ability to handle set-backs, ability to make adjustments on the fly, and other aspects none of us may be aware of. His defense almost certainly needs more time, but they might think it's not a big enough drawback that would drag down the plus his bat projects to be. Again, they might also be thinking about how he might react, if he makes a couple costly errors or gets roasted by the media for "taking wrong routes to the ball" or whatever. I'm not sure any of know about his emotional and psychological make-up- not that the Sox know it all, either, but that is one area that may or may not be a big concern. I remember seeing Devers come up and thinking, "nothing phases this kid," and I mean that in a good way. He could make 3 errors, and still hit the winning HR in the 9th. I think that was one reason they had no problem fast-tracking him to the bigs- that and the fact that throughout his whole professional minor league career, he was the youngest player at every level.

To definitively grade a draft going back 5-15 years is still not enough. I'd say when a player's team control runs out, he's ready to be graded as a draft pick. That is more than 5 years back.

Cordero has massive "holes" in his swing, too. I have total confidence that when Duran is called up, he'll be as ready as he needs to be.

That would not surprise me, but if Duran keeps raking, and Cordero keeps whatever he's doing, it could be sooner.

I saw that, but one point is that top players taken in the last 1-4 or even 5 years might still amount to something decent of even special. I'd look back at the 5 to 15 years ago sample.

We might get JD to restructure his deal, where he gets more years at a lower AVV.

And Cruz only got $13M per.

It is impossible to quantify, but you can figure we'll get a few players every year as the "offset." Also, don't forget the mighty Connor Wong!

No, but $16M is a lot of money. I doubt it affects how Henry plans to open his wallet 2 years later, but it doesn't hurt. Losing Pedey's contract will help. Here's another look at next winter's finances: Contracts expiring (or options/opt outs where noted) in Lux Tax Dollars: $22.0M JD (opt out) $13.8M Pedey $10.0M Richards (team option) $8.9M Ottavino $8.3M Rodriguez $5.0M Perez (team option) $4.5M Barnes $4.5M Vazquez (team option w $500K buy out) $3.0M Gonzalez $2.8M Beni $1.9M Andriese (team option with $250K buy out) Major/minor Santana After 2022 (all option players kept listed above, including JD, Richards, Perez and Vazquez): $20M Bogaerts (opt out) $17M Eovaldi $16M Price $7.0M Kike Hernandez 4th arb Plawecki $1.2M Sawamura (team option with $600K buy out)

Big series coming up. The schedule gets extremely difficult for two months starting with the Astros next week. I’ll be at the Tuesday game. I usually go twice with two sets of friends, but this time I’m combining groups as the wives are staying home. Let’s start a streak!

Yes, and we also did not have to pay $16M to Price.

Good points all around. Hopefully, Bloom & Co. we have turned the corner on finding and developing good pitchers. That doesn’t mean we should take one at number 4, but there is less fear than before. It’s always a gamble, and I trust the Sox will take the best player available at #4. Who we take in the later rounds may be just as important, so it’s nice to be picking 4th every round.

This has been said numerous times, but I think it needs to be said again, there is no way we’ll ever know if he would have re-signed with us. The trade was officially for one year of Betts, and it turned out to be a 60 game season lost.

I wouldn’t say Betts is just “built for speed.” If he wasn’t fast we might be comping him with Aaron or Mays

Yes, for 2 weeks, so Cordero May just have 2 weeks before they deem Duran “ready.”

I get that, but they do the same thing almost every year, so I can’t see it being lucky.

The Jays would win the AL Central and maybe another division or two. I think they finish over 500, but if the end up near 500 it’s because they are in the ALE.