moonslav59

I'd sneak Rosario into that last group- maybe Potts, too.

I don't view Casas like I did Devers, and I'm not sure anyone does.

17 starts would be great!

Why not? He has options left and his rule 5 status is gone, now.

Bazardo is 6th, so we won't be DFA'ing him for a rule 5 pick (or two). He would only be DFA'd, if we add 6 players to the current roster. Is there someone you dislike more?

I think we will add a 2Bman- maybe CF/2B, so I think we won't need both Chatham & Arauz. If we don't add an IF'er, I'd keep both, for awhile anyway.

True, but I still view the $16M as money we'd not have to spend, had we not traded him- assuming we have a set spending limit. I'd rather have Morton at $15M than Price for 2021.

I thought about Mazza, then forgot to list him. I agree on Valdez, but I like him more than anyone on my list. (Bloom may not.)

Well, we know he wouldn't sign a bunch of high-priced FAs. If he tried to "win now" he'd have to trade somebody without opening new holes on the ML roster, so maybe not Casas or Downs, but some prospects would likely be gone. Yes, speculation and up for debate.

I mostly give him a pass, because he did what Henry signed him to do, but getting almost all pitching was also commendable. A side note: he did trade a lot of pitchers, too: Kopech (Sale), Espinoza (Pompom), Allen (Kimbrell), Beeks (Eovaldi), Buttrey (Kinsler), Bautista, Nogosek & Callahan (Reed), Anderson & Santos (Nunes). The only mostly non pitchers given up deals were the Sale (Moncada & Basaabe) , Kimbrel (Margot, Guerra & Asuaje) and Thornburg (Dubon & T Shaw).

I think Rosario & Potts could be the real sleepers. Jimenez could jump once we get a larger sample size of viewings. I agree on all your "high" and "low" comments. (I like these rankings more than soxprospects.com.)

I think Brice will be nontendered. It's not just rule 5 draftees, but any FA signing will necessitate a DFA or trade. Brice may end up at AAA, if he cares to stay here. I doubt anyone claims him. Most other teams have more pressing 40 man roster issues than us. My order or let go's: (Recently- claimed Joel Payamps has no remaining options. I'm not sure we keep him on the 40 man all winter.) 1. Brice 2. Springs 3. Aybar or Wilson 4. Walden 5. Chatham or Arauz 6. Bazardo 7. Grullon

According to many here, we were never going to sign Betts. (I still think we could have, but the risk of keeping him, in hopes of signing him were too great. The whole "He's going to become a FA thingy turned out to be false, so it's hard to know anything about this.)

Like we'd have had a parade keeping Betts?

The difference between keeping him and trading him is $16M per. Had we kept him, we'd have $16M less to spend, in theory.

Good stuff, MVP. Thanks.

DD would have already traded Casas and Downs plus more. With a small spending budget, he'd be lost.

It seems like DD had that mentality from day 1. I still think Ben would have begun to trade some prospects- not on the scale of DD, but he was not given another year or two to find out. It seems like Ben was the only recent Sox GM who left the farm better off than when he became GM. (I'm not complaining. I was and still am happy with all our last 5 GMs.)

I guess it's natural to move towards a more "win now," or "we just need one more player" strategy. At least, it seems that way.

No, and that should be part of the equation when judging Ben's whole body of work those 4 years. Also, Theo spoke about moving away from their success model in his later years with the Sox.

Fantastically great return, yes! Price is not worth $16M/yr. (Morton just signed for $15M/1. That's just one guy.) 4 years of Verdugo. 5 years of Downs & Wong.

One might call Eovaldi's "bad," too. 2 more @ $17M If Sale can't regain.... I shudder to even think about it.

Those farms certainly had some low points, but under Theo and Ben, there were some rock solid ones, too. The year you speak of, 2010, was not the worst. #1 Kelly was highly regarded and was part of that AGon trade with #3 Rizzo. Kalish was #3, Iggy #4, Doubront #5, Reddick 8, Workman 19 and Westmoreland- a very sad case. After that trade, our farm hit one of its lowest point in the last 2 decades, but soon Bogey and others beefed it back up. Here's a sampling of a few select years top prospects (soxprospects.com): 2003: (farm left to Theo) HRam, Youk, Lester, Freddy Sanchez, J de la Rosa, Shoppach, David Murphy, Delcarmen 2004: Lester, HRam, Youk, Papelbon, A Sanchez, Moss, Shoppach, Delcarmen 2007: Ellsbury, Buchholz, Pedey, Masterson, Lowrie, Moss, Reddick, Gabbard, Doubroint, Bard 2012: (farm left by Theo for Ben): Bogey, Barnes, Iggy, Alex Wilson, Middy, Kalish, Ranuado, Swihart, Brentz, Lava 2013: Betts, Bogey, JBJ, Barnes, Vazquez, Iggy, Workman, A Wilson, Margot 2015: (the farm left by Ben for DD) Moncada, Devers, ERod, Margot, Espinoza, Beni, Kopech, Allen, Chavis, T Shaw, Dubon, J Guerra, B Johnson 2018: Dalbec, Groome, Mata, DHern, Casas, Beeks, Chavis 2019: (the farm DD left Bloom): Casas, Mata, Groome, Jimenez, Dalbec, Duran, Houck, Song, Chatham, Ward

That's why I left Casas and Downs off the list. I included Duran, because I don't share the same optimism on him as many here. Maybe Bloom disagrees with me, and I trust he knows more about him than I do. These are just my opinions. For all we know, Chavis, Chatham and Duran could end up being better than Dalbec, Downs and Casas.

Agreed, but if Bloom really likes Downs and sees him as part of the future "foundation," he may be near "off-limits." That's why I listed him separately. Keeping your best 2-3 prospects is usually, but not always, part of a plan to rebuild for long term success.