moonslav59

The future of the Sox by age... (Best bets) 17 Jordan 18 Yorke, Bonaci 19 Lugo 20 Casa, Jimenez, Rosario 21 Mata, Potts, Arauz 22 Downs, Groome 23 Devers, D Hernandez, Ward, Song 24 Verdugo, Chavis, Duran, Houck, Wong, Seabold 25 Beni, Dalbec, Munoz 27 Bogaerts 29 Vazquez 31 Sale

It's fun reading all this. Thanks guys. You are bringing light to an otherwise very dark time in Sox fans' lives.

Agreed. Play Dalbec, Munoz, Arauz & Chavis as much as possible, so we can get a better feel on who they are. A few weeks is not enough to know anything, for sure, but knowing more can't hurt. I'm not sure I need to see more IP from anybody on the staff. I see little hope anyone will do enough to instill much confidence for 2021 and/or beyond.

Winning on Vaz's legs and Munoz's bat is something I'd never have expected.

Dalbec has only 1609 career PAs in the minors. That's like 2.5 full ML seasons. The 480 K's are awful, but with nearly 190 BBs, and an OBP over .360, it might not be as bad as can be imagined. 169 XNHs in 1609 PAs is better than 1 every 10 PAs or 8 ABs. He deserves a long look. We hear comps to Middy as we did with Chavis. Here's a look at the 3 players' minor league totals: PAs Player OBP/SLG and K% 2795 Middy .325/461 and 25.1% 1757 Chavis .325/.471 and 25.6% 1609 Dalbec .362/.505 and 29.8%

It does seem like a very strange thing to do as you are very close to making it on the bog roster. Maybe this will be the first real gem we've been hoping Bloom would find. The kids is off to a fantastic start.

Not that soxprospects,com is the foremost authority of the subject, but they project these prospects to be at these levels, next year: MLB: 1B Dalbec CF Duran IF Chatham UT Munoz AAA C Wong 1B Ockimey 2B Downs SS Arauz 3B de la Guerra LF Puello CF Matheny RF Wilson SP Ward, Mata, Seabold, Hart, Kickham RP Houck, Mazza, Poyner, Bazardo, Stock, Shawaryn, Leyer AA C Pereda/Rei 1B Casas 2B Netzer 3B Potts SS Fitzgerald LF Rusconi CF Rosario RF Espin DH Castellanos SP Politi, Shugart, D Reyes, Raudes, Haworth RP Ayabr, Lau, Crawford, Martinez, Gomez, Schellenger, Browning, Kent

I agree. He was great defensively and had a much better bat than JBJ.

I could be wrong, but I don't think anyone on this list played more games with the Sox than JBJ. Still, pretty impressive.

My top 15: 1. Casas 2. Mata 3. Ward 4. Downs 5. Jimenez 6. Song 7. Dalbec 8. Duran 9. Groome 10. Houck 11. Rosario 12. Potts 13. Seabold 14. Yorke 15. Lugo

He was hurt. The offers were likley not very good and had the expectation that we'd pay a big chunk of his remaining contract. If Eovaldi bounces back, next year, maybe we get more by trading him, then. MAYBE!

If Henry opens the wallet after the reset, he could, but I think he waits a year or two to "pounce." He will try to sign players that can be part of the rebuild, and who will be around in 2-3 years, but I doubt he goes after Bauer or Springer.

Some guy named Evo-something or other.

Yes. We will sign a big FA at some point. I think we'll wait until we think we are one stud away from being a top contender before doing that, so now is the time to find some hidden gems and low cost - team controlled role players that can get us closer to the "pounce time."

I never even knew he'd come back.

The money. Fans expect players getting paid that much to do as well or better than they were doing before the signing, even if that is unrealistic. I was okay with the signing, as I felt he was likely the best or one of the best FA Sp'ers on the market for a 5-7 year stretch. We needed an ace. There he was. Had we signed Scherzer the prior season (instead of Pablito and Ramito), the fans would be happier. Many felt the deal was too long, but a necessity to land a gem like him. We expected he'd give us some great years early on and then probably be a burden towards the end of the deal. It turns out we mitigated some of the back end losses, but paying $16M a year for nothing is still a large sunken cost. Now, did he give us even close to what we expected for the first 4 years? I guess it depends on each of our expectations, but I think it's safe to say almost all of us thought he could have given us more. Without that playoff performance, we might be nearly unanimous on this (year, right!). I won't dive too deeply into the numbers, but he gave us 98 starts and 588 IP in 4 seasons That's about 24 starts and 147 IP a year. While that doesn't seem awful, the guy had been a horse before the signing: GS/IP (reverse order before our signing him) 32/220 34/248 (led league in both) 27/187 31/211 34/224 (led in GS) 32/209 (He did lead the league in IP his first year with the Sox, but the 358 IP the last 3 years combined really hurt. That's less than 120/yr.) ERA/WHIP 3.38/1.199 first 4 years with TBR 2.90/1.087 middle 4 years with TBR & DET/TOR 3.84/1.204 with Boston ERA+ 117 first 4 133 middle 4 118 last 4 I realize it's not all about numbers, but I for one, expected better in those 4 years. He wasn't bad. It wasn't a bust, but at the price, Price was not worth the price tag.

Sox Prospects just updated their list by adding the prospects we traded for and shuffling a few here and there. Here is the updated list: https://soxprospects.com/ 1. Casas 2. Downs 3. Mata 4. Duran (up from 7) 5. Song 6. Dalbec 7. Jimenez 8. Groome 9. Ward 10. Houck 11. Rosario 12. Seabold 13. Yorke 14. Lugo 15. Potts

I will add, I think it's a close call, but at his age and with his injury history, I would not sign him as a FA for what he is still owed by the Dodgers.

Finding gems in the dumpster was supposed to be Blooms strong area. He deserves more time, but it would have been nice to see some results, already. Perez looks like a nice get, but $6M is not really dumpster diving. Besides Valdez and Osich, here's an incomplete list of "dives:" Chris Mazza Mike Kickham Kevin Plawecki Jeffrey Springs (for S Travis) Matt Hall (for Jhon Nunez) Cesar Puello Kevin Pillar (since traded) Jonathan Lucroy Collin McHugh Josh Osich (since traded) Jhonny Pereda (for Lakins) Zack Godley Dylan Covey Stephen Gonsalves Robert Stock Christian Arroyo Pivetta & Seabold (for Workman & Hembree) Potts & Rosario (for Moreland) PTBNLs (for Pillar & Osich)

I would not sign Price for what the Dodgers are paying him and still owe him. IMO, it was a net gain for us by losing him and half his contract, by itself.

Is this guy the only silver lining we have left for the 2020 season? (Perez? Verdugo?)

I think the assumption was they'd be over the cap after 2021.

I'd have liked someone different, too. I'm glad we ended up with a ring, or DD would be roasted alive. I'm just saying I think pushing Ben aside too early was the bigger mistake. Had we not won a ring under DD, then I'd change my choice.

There's just never any consistency on these last second foul calls.

Agreed. I say it every year, but this is the worst Sox staff I've seen in decades. Injuries are part of that point, but even a healthy ERod, Sale & Eovaldi still leaves our staff seriously lacking.