moonslav59

Then, right after we sign him, he becomes the best ever!

I don't disagree, but for a "hack," a .282 BA and .335 OBP is pretty damn decent. Here's a narrower look: ages 22-23 only: Betts: .306/.353/.508/.861 Devers: .304/.355/.550/.905 The BA and OBP are nearly equal!

His defense and base-running will never match Mookie, but the bat could. Here's a simplified look at the two at certain ages: OPS/Level Age Devers 20-21 1.006 AAA/.944 AA 20 .819 MLB (started MLB a year earlier than Betts) 21 .731 MLB 22 .916 MLB 23 .864 MLB Age Betts 20 .923 A and A+ (lower level than Devers at age 20) 21 .920 AAA/.994 AA 21 .812 MLB 22 .820 MLB 23 .897 MLB 24 .803 MLB Total Ages 20-23 (Mookie 21-23) Devers: (1616 PAs) .282/.335/.505/.840 Betts: (1597 PAs) .304/.355/.500/.855 (Betts had an .803 season at age 24, so Devers could easily pass him, next year by putting up a .880+ season.) Let's see if Devers explodes on offense as he enters prime. His defense has shown signs of becoming plus, but he's has seen too many backslides, mostly with throwing, to show GG hopes. His base running instincts do not look promising. It's hard to compare the two, and one could argue they shouldn't be compared, but Devers may end up the better hitter of the two, when all is said and done.

Our pen is pretty close to needing a total re-haul. It looks like only D Hern, Barnes and Valdez have much hope. Our rotation hope lies mainly on health. If Sale, ERod and Eovaldi don't gives us much, next year, all we have is Perez, who may have just seen a somewhat outlier half season. In reality, to be a very competitive team, we might get by with just 2 meaningful SP'er additions, but we likely will need 3-4 new and good pen arms to make a difference. 6 pitchers out of 13 is not "from scratch," but it's a major overhaul.

IMO, Bloom is going to spend like he has never spent before, so it's hard to know what he will do. Lord knows we have a very weak 40 man roster, starting from about #15 to 18. He could spend on 12-18 players and "spread the wealth," or he could spend larger on a smaller group of player. He could seek as many shorter terms/higher cost deals as possible. He could identify up to a handful of players he sees as being part of a longer term rebuild and spend large and long on them while trying to back fill the remaining holes from within a thin ML ready system. If he ends up with $70 to maybe $90M to spend, dividing that money by 5 to 7 players versus 10-14 0r somewhere in between will show us more about Bloom's spending philosophy- something hard to get a read on with his history at Tampa Bay. Since his M.O. seems to be doing well with finding cheaper gems in the rough, it might make more sense for him to spend larger on 6-8 players and then try to find 4-6 "cheaper gems" to fill the slots our system does not appears to be well positioned to adequately fill, right now. One could imagine a competitive team by signing an ace, 2 top RP'ers, a swing man and a CF'er. That's just 5 players. He'd have to strike gold on almost all 5 AND hope for good health from others to be highly competitive in 2021, but building a deeper lasting core would, at worst, be a stepping stone to a solid 2022 team, when more money will be freed up to fill the remaining slots, and a better understanding of which farm hands can be counted on (or not) will be known. Lets go with 5. SP1 __________ SP2 ERod SP3 Eovaldi SP4 Perez SP5 Pivetta>Sale SP6 ________ (Pivetta) Godley/Weber/Mata/Ward/Seabold) RP1 ________ RP2 ________ RP3 Barnes RP4 D Hern RP5 Taylor RP6 Valdez RP7 Brewer/Brasier/Brice/Covey/Mazza/Houck C Vaz & Plawecki 1B Dalbec (Chavis) 2B Chavis/Munoz/Peraza/Lin/Chatham > Downs 3B Devers/Arroyo SS Bogaerts LF Beni/Puello (Chavis?) CF ______/Duran (Lin) RF Verdugo/Wilson DH JD

I thought the deal was the best we could expect, despite not prying a prized pitcher from the pitcher-stocked Dodgers. Unlike many here, I think dumping $16M a year from Price's salary made an already good deal even better.

I'm not sure it matters when he makes the jump. It matters how well he does, if and when he arrives.

Here is next year's Sox pitching staff: 1. Stroman 2. ERod 3. Eovaldi 4. Perez 5. Pivetta>Sale 6. Godley/Seabold/Mata/Ward (Pivetta) Closer: Treinen RP2: Colome RP3: Barnes RP4: D Hern RP5: Taylor RP6: Valdez RP7: Brewer/Brasier/Weber/Houck/Covey/Brice/Walden Maybe we sign Brantley for the OF or Springer, if we miss out on Stroman.

They are all "make believe" pitchers.

I'm not sure it matters.

Yes, I read that in the article I found. He chose to not get paid. I still think it makes the trade look better, along with Verdugo shining brightly.

Sox OPS after tonight's game: (1.177 Moreland) 1.118 Dalbec 1.040 Munoz .884 Verdugo .869 Bogaerts .864 Devers .836 Plawecki (.795 Pillar) .761 JBJ .717 Vazquez .672 JD Martinez .622 Chavis .617 Peraza .547 Arauz .546 Arroyo .478 Lin .478 Beni

I read Price gave up the $12M (pre-rated pay) to opt out. He gets nothing, this year.

True, but not paying $16 or $32M due to him opting out makes the deal look better. Do players who opted out really get nothing at all?

baseballtradevalues.com has Devers ranked 24th in MLB... 24. Devers 83.9 26. Moncada 83.6 47. Verdugo 62.3 118. Bogaerts 33.7 136. F Montas 30.6 153. M Kopech 27.9 156. J Downs 26.4 183. T Casas 22.2 216. Dalbec 19.7 238. Chavis 17.6 284. Vazquez 14.4 313. Mata 12.4 319. Duran 12.1 365. D Hernandez 10.5 367. E Rodriguez 10.5 414. J Taylor 8.5 415. Jimenez 8.5 522. Lugo 6.0 547. Perez 5.6 ... Betts 5.4 JD M -8.6 Price -11.8 Sale -20.0 Eovaldi -21.0

Does that mean we paid nothing, at all? If so, I like the fact we dumped him even more.

Cots shows $16M for 2020. I figured $217M minus $48M ($16M x 3)

So, to change subjects, if you look at the Price trade as a push- not needed as part of the Betts trade, we basically end up paying him $169M/4. That's over $42M a year for 4 years.

Good points, but I still feel the same as Kimmi on this issue.

I could see us rolling the dice with Chavis, Arauz, Lin, Chatham and Peraza and using all available resources for pitching and OF.

Star not "stars "(Devers).

I doubt we trade any of the future for a 1 year pitcher.

Aristides Aquino

It looks like we called him up precisely at the right time.

Yes, this was just a possible starting framework. Chances are we leave some budget room for the summer. We may even not spend large, this winter, but I think we will. We could spend big on someone like Springer, then go for a SP'er the following winter.