moonslav59

I looked at that box score after 5. The Braves had reached base 23 of their first 37 PAs!

I've been JBJ's biggest fan since before he was even called up, but I'm not sure he'll be the best option going forward, even at $10M/2 or $15M/3.

If the Sox were willing to pay JBJ what he got this year, we may be the top bidders next year, too. He's not making $11M/1 anywhere. I doubt he makes more than $7M1, $12M/2 or $15M/3.

Agreed. The deals I did not like at the times were the Kimbrel and Pom trades. The Pom trade looks fine, since Espinoza has lived on the IL. I still think we overpaid for Kimbrel and his contract, but he did well for us, and we needed a closer. I loved the Sale trade.

It's pretty sad state of affairs, when the only thing to get a little bit excited about, this year, are tiny sample sizes by Munoz and Dalbec, and maybe Perez's whole season.

Dalbec is making a strong play for the 1B job in 2021. There's still a long time to go for that to be a sure bet. He won't even get as many PAs, this year, as Middy got before he flopped.

It's not like we have avoided drafting or signing IFA ( only top bonuses listed unless notable)pitchers. Here's a list with what draft pick they were: 2006 1. Daniel Bard 1. Kris Johnson 1. Caleb Clay 2. Justin Masterson 3. Bryce Cox (5 of top 7 picks were pitchers) IFA 4. Conuegra, 5. S Pimental 2007 1. Nick Hagadone 3. Brock Huntzinger (3 of top 5 picks were pitchers) IFA 4. Roman Mendez, 5. R Velette 2008 1. Casey Kelly 1. Bryan Price 3. Stephen Fife 3. Kyle Weiland (4 of top 5- pitchers) IFA 1. Junichi Tazawa, 5. Luis Diaz, 14. Wm Cuevas 2009 2. Alex Wilson (1 of top 2) IFA 4. Raul Alcantara, 5. Mario Alcantara, 6. R Betancourt, 15. Frank Montas 2010 1. Anthony Ranaudo 2. Brian Workman (2 of top 4) IFA 3. Edwar Garcia, 4. Edwin Osorio, 4. Jose Espita 2011 1. Matt Barnes 1. Henry Owens 4. Noe Ramirez (2 of top 3) IFA 4. D. Romero, 5. Daniel McGrath 2012 1. Brian Johnson 1. Pat Light 2. Pat Callahan 3. Austin Maddox 4. Ty Buttrey (8 of top 9 picks were pitchers) IFA 1. Jose Almonte, 6. Gersson Bautista 2013 1. Trey Ball (7th pick) 2. Teddy Stanki. (4 of top 5) IFA 1. Dalier Hinojosa, 3. E De Jesus, 4 J Diaz, 10 D. Hernandez 2014 1. Michael Kopech 3. Jake Cozart (3 of top 5) IFA 2. Anderson Espinoza, 3. C Acosta, 4. J Espinoza 2015 6. Lakins 7. B, Taylor 8. L Allen (0 of top 4) IFA 1T. Cesar Gonzalez & J Figuero 2016 1. J Groome (12th overall) 3. Shaun Anderson 5. M Sharawyn (4 of top 6) IFA (penalty) 1. Hector Velazquez 2017 1. T Houck 4. J Thompson (4 of top 6) IFA: 7. B Aquino 2018 3. D Feltman 5. T Ward (2 of top 5) IFA 7. G Jackson 2019 3. Zeferjahn 4. N Song (2 of top 4) IFA 5. Nathan Cruz, 6. Cesar Ruiz 2020 4. Wu-Yelland 5. S Drohan (2 of top 4) IFA Projected: 4. Alvo Mejias & Peyton Nunez

No, it's not easy, but other teams do it, and some teams, even winning ones like the Dodgers keep churning them out left and right. You'd think we could have at least gotten lucky, once. Maybe it's our development more than our picks. We also have struck out on IFA pitchers. The last notable ones were DiceK and Okajima.

I don't fault him for it either, but I responding to trades "I'd take back."

That's a very long stretch and a gaping hole in the system that doesn't seem to have been addressed.

I liked the Thornburg trade, at the time, but I'd do that one over, too.

Let's hope Dalbec is for real and not the next Middlebrooks. That HR to RF was mammoth!

It was a spectacular year, and many of DD's "smaller moves" turned out to be as important, if not more important than the Kimbrel, Sale or Price moves. DD deserves all the props he gets. That was the greatest season in Sox history, if you take away the emotion from the curse-breaking 2004 season. To me, the cliff we are living, now, was well worth it. I'm glad we hired Theo, Ben and DD. I'm hopeful Bloom will join the club, but only time will tell.

I'd say the value of Price is hard to measure. DD left Bloom with the full contract. What Bloom did with it can be measured separately. If Price sucks, Bloom "saved"us $15M a year. One can view the Price deal as part of the reason we traded Betts. The fact is, DD left Bloom with the whole Price contract, and a hell of a lot more money on the books in Price, Sale and Eovaldi than what HRam, Pando & Castillo. Sure, those 3 gave us nothing and even negative value, but the value of the three DD left us vs the cost can be viewed as worse in net value, or at least close to the same. It's not an easy comp, and I can't see either side being a slam dunk. On the farm value issue, there is no debate. Ben left DD a way better farm (on paper) than DD left Bloom.

He'll certainly ask for more, but I doubt anyone gives much more than $15M/3 or $11M/2.

True, but then maybe it's a bit too early to call some of his other dumpster dives failures.

At the time of those deals, I said he was playing it "halfway," and I agree, he should have gone more towards youth and team controlled players. They did get Kelly in the Lackey deal, and he was controlled and very promising. We got Hembree and Escobar for Peavy. They were young. I do agree with your point.

Quintanna was traded away shortly after Sale.

Here's a look at the top prospects over the years: https://soxprospects.com/history.htm The October 2015 list included: 1. Moncada (Sale) 2. Devers 3. Margot (Kimbrel) 4. Beni 5. Guerra (Kimbrel) 6. Kopech (Sale) 7. Johnson 9. S Travis 10 Marrero (Josh Taylor) 11. Chavis 12. Basabe (Sale) 13. Allen (Kimbrel) 17. Marco H 18 Dubon (Thornburg)

Sounds about right. I'd shoot for $9M/2 with a team option for $5M and a $1M buyout.

I was only rating the bottom of our 40 man roster. Casas is not on the 40 man roster.

I was clearly talking about only the money, as in bloated contracts handed over to the next GM.

My guess is Chavis, Arauz & Lin all have a better chance of playing 2B or being our utility IF'er in 2021 than Chatham. Downs will likely pass him at some point in 2021 or early 2022.

He did acquire the contract of Craig, though, but the deal also shed some money (Lackey), so it wasn't as bad as it looked. Although many of the prospects Ben handed over to DD have not looked all that great, at the time, they were rated highly and many brought back nice returns via trade due to that perceived value. The farm DD handed over to Bloom is so far below what Ben handed to DD, it's not even close. The bloated contracts look to be about even. DD handed over more money owed, but the players were not complete deadwoods like HanRam, Pablito & Castillo were.

Yes, I admit I distorted it by calling 2019 part of "the cliff," but I did not distort the things Bell was talking about in this response. Near bare cupboards & bloated contracts handed over to Bloom.