moonslav59

Me, too, but if we are in the race in July, I could see us acquiring someone who puts us over, and we reset in 2021 (Bye-bye Betts).

I don't see people just starting a post on Ben out of thin air, too often. It's usually after a "Thanks Ben" comment or a blast about him not drafting any good pitching or signing too many clowns. I will say, there have been many unsolicited posts bashing DD, so not much is changing on that front. I guess it goes with the business. You are right- way too much chatter on GMs, but there's not much else to talk about when we have a vacancy there now.

Very well said.

Awful hard to double Devers. Maybe getting 3 guys half as good would add up to 1.5 Devers.

D Hern is a possibility. Austin Maddox was pretty good but has been hurt. Buttrey (RP) is good but your guy traded him away. Same with Kopech & Allen. I'd say ERod, Kopech, Allen, DHern and Buttrey are a better 5 than DD's top 5 prospect gets, and it's even better than Theo's last 4 years. (Last 12 years broken into 3- 4 year equal sample sizes), yet all you talk about is ben's inability to acquire top pitching prospects. I've never once heard you talk about DD's lack of acquiring top prospects or young pitching or Theo's last few years. (Maybe I missed those posts. My apologies, if I did.)

Usually, those defending Ben are responding to someone talking about only the bad he did- like the horrible draft he had while signing Devers and DHern in the IFA market. Nobody is saying Ben was even near perfect. We all know he made some major blunders, as did every GM we've had. Both songs are tiresome, and not many sing a balanced tune.

Such "...great and unmatched wisdom..."

Too bad we didn't trade Betts, Bogey and Devers while they were at Portland.

I'm not for handing him away. I think other GMs see that value and will give something for it. I like Dalbec better- both on O and D. I suppose, if a GM would give more for Dalbec, I'd look at that instead.

His bat will likely be good enough for 2B, but I doubt his glove can keep him a plus there. I doubt his bat will ever be good enough for 1B. I might try and sell high on Walden, too. Maybe Walden & Chavis for a better pen arm.

Except when I say, "My senarors suck" when speaking about the 2 senators from Texas.

I think the Yankee streak ends tonight.

I didn't think of that. I actually thought Chavis looked okay at 2B, but it could have been a mirage. I'm not thinking Dalbec-Travis or Dalbec-Chavis platoon at 1B.I'm thinking Ockimey or a cheap FA. Chavis might share time at the 1B platoon vs LHPs, and maybe play some 2B vs RHPs. I'm not super high on Chavis, and he did better than I expected. In my mind, trading Chavis makes more sense than trading guys coming off down years (Beni or Barnes), and since Dalbec is a better defender, I'd keep him over Chavis or Travis.

Wasn't he a major factor in the Schilling deal as well? The Beckett & Lowell trade?

I don't either, but did Sox fans "tolerate" trading Lester, Lackey, Peavy, Doubront and Andrew Miller, and we won a ring shortly after those trades. Granted, these guys were not traded for prospects, except for the Miller-ERod and Peavy-Hembree/Escobar deals, and those were for near ML ready prospects. Sox fans tolerated trading AGon, Beckett & Crawford. (I not only tolerated it, I called it one of the greatest trades in Sox history.) I don't see us dealing JD, Betts & JBJ for top single A prospects or the like, but I can see a chance of a major overhaul on the scale of the two instances I mentioned.

Ditto.

I'd rather we not have to go that far, but it's hard to know, if we'd have won in 2019 without going "overboard." It's easy, in hindsight, to say, we could have won without the Thornburg, Pom, Reed & Kinsler trades, so we went too far overboard, but we had pretty close to the same team for 3-4 years and only won once. I've said I wouldn't have gone so far, but it worked. We won. It sucks we're paying for it now and maybe for a couple more years, but I'll take a ring every 4 years anyway we can get it. Sure, I'd prefer winning every 4 years and leaving a decent future afterwards- like Theo and Ben did, but I'm super glad we won that ring last year. I'm not sure anyone can prove we win without Sale, Price, Kimbrel, Eovaldi or Pearce.

I agree, but sometimes, to make sure you get that ring, you go a little overboard and may have to pay the price here and there. You and I were both happy with Ben, but he gave us 3 "lull years" out of 4- not "busts" but not great either.

You seem pretty sure on Dalbec being traded, and I can see the point about his value at 3B is worth more than to us at 1B. I've never been high on Travis, and he didn't help himself out this year. Your scenario makes sense, especially if we want to give the perception we will try to win a ring sans JD & JBJ.

LOL. We had some big guys on the bench, so maybe they were better at fighting than B-ball.

I'd like to see a Dalbec-Ockimey platoon with Chavis taking over, if one fails or another 2Bman squeezes him out of that job or platoon.

I agree. I'm not sure Duran is ML ready, so I think signing a cheap defensive whiz to play CF (maybe part time) next year might make sense. Assuming no bring back lost FAs and no JD & JBJ... I'd like to see Dalbec be Devers' back-up and play some 1B. I'd like to see Ockimey get a legit shot at making the team as a platoon (vs RHPs ONLY) 1B/DH. I'm not saying he deserves a slot, but he rakes righties, and let's find out what he can do. I'd like to see Travis get a shot, but honestly, I don't have hardly any confidence in him being a useful piece to a championship team. He may just fill a role, next year and then be gone. I'd let Chavis fight for the 2B and 1B job and maybe DH some. He would not be guaranteed a job going into spring. He was sub .700 after his first 3 weeks in MLB. I'd like to see Chatham, Marco and Lin fight for the 2B/utility IF job. I'm not sure there is room for two, especially if Chavis is going to play a lot at 2B. I'm fine with letting Duran have a go at it, but I think he needs another year in AAA. I'm not sure we'll need Leon to be Sale's binky anymore, but I don't see playing Centeno as revealing anything about our future, so either way is fine with me. If the budget permits, maybe we can bring up Castillo and do him a favor by letting him set some value for his upcoming FA season. As for the pitching, obviously I want to see more of D Hern. I'm not sure Houck is ready, but I trust the Sox to know when he, Mata, Feltman and Ward are ready. I'm not sure anyone else peaks my interest, so the bulk of innings should go to Sale, Price, ERod, Eovaldi and the same pen we had this year plus maybe one FA. I'm okay with signing a one year 5th starter type, especially if DHern is marked for the pen.

Fall/Winter League Update... http://news.soxprospects.com/2019/10/fallwinter-league-roundup-houck-leads.html

I'd be thrilled with Friedman. If it comes down to dollars, both owners can bid and bid and bid more.

I never said they would. Here's how I'd try to handle a rebuild: I'd trade JD, JBJ & Betts, then re-sign Betts. I'd sign some stop gap guys to keep us from being horrible, but nobody to longer term deals, unless I felt they'd be part of the next competitive team (2021? Not likely. 2022? Maybe.) I remember thinking we had a pretty good team in the spring of 2012, 2014 and 2015 (and 2019), but we sucked. It's all about perception.