moonslav59

Working well for the top pick.

A serious prankster?

Workman should be traded for the best we can get, even if it doesn't seem like enough. He's a FA after this year, so bye-bye. JBJ is likely untradeable, but if we kicked in some cash, maybe we'd get something. Pillar might get us something- maybe more in a package. I'm not sure how much Eovaldi's stock has risen, but if we can dump his salary, I'd trade him in a flash. I like Vaz a lot, but the numbers he gets with the staff have not been as good as Leon's were. Next to Pedey, Vaz has the longest tenure with the Sox than anyone else. He's got 2 years left after this, but if we think we will not be highly competitive in 2021, one could view him as only having one "meaningful" season left before free agency. I'd trade him, but only if the offer was a good one. I'd trade everyone who will be a FA after next year, except ERod, since he's hurt: Moreland, Barnes, Hembree & Perez. I don't see JD as part of our long term plans. I'd add some cash, if we could get something useful for him. (Freeing up budget space could help us add younger players to the budget.) The only players on the 40 man roster I would not actively seek trading, although I'd listen to offers on anyone, would be Devers, Bogey, Verdugo and Sale. (ERod)

Trade 'em all. (I'm not joking.)

Good point. I've lost touch with MLB, this year.

I've always liked Dalbec, and certainly more than Chavis, but it is certainly unclear if he might be someone we "build around" or call our "core." I probably should not have used the word "core," but what I meant was that they are who I consider "keepers" as much as I think nobody is really untouchable. My guess is Wong becomes our #2 catcher at some point in 1-2 years. (Not really a "core" position) IMO, our best chances are Ward, Downs, Casas and Mata with Jimenez & Song close. I'm not high on Duran, Groome or Houck, but one could surprise. By the end of 2021 or 2022, this could be our core: Devers Bogey Verdugo Sale DHern Casas Downs Ward Mata That's a 9 player core from within our current system. We'll have JD, Eovaldi, Beni & Vaz for 2021 & 2022, but they could be gone afterwards, so I don't count them as "core" to our long term future. Maybe for 2022, we can count these 4 and have 13 that one year. Of course, we'll likely have in-system role players like Dalbec/Chavis, Wong, Lin/Chatham and guys like Duran or Wilson, but I would not guess any of them become "core," except maybe Dalbec. We may be lucky to have 10-11 solid players from our current system for 2023. Hopefully, our farm will look better, and we'll have several players looking ready for 2024>>. We have a lot of serious acquisitions to make to get us out of "cliff" status, but we should have $70+M to spend, this winter and some more after 2021.

You'd rather wait until after next game's 3 IP 6 ER? (BTW, I was half-joking. I would not trade Eovaldi based on one game, but I would entertain offers as I wanted before last night's gem vs a horrific team.)

Ward, Chatham & Wong will likely get some time in the bigs by 2022. Feltman- maybe, if he improves. I mentioned Downs and Casa as possible mid season 2022 contributors, which may be a stretch, agreed.

They should trade Eovaldi, tomorrow.

Is 2022 the "near horizon?" It's only about 200 games away. Look, I agree our best prospects are farther away than 2021, and our top draft picks from this year and next will be even farther away, but if I end up wrong on Casas, Ward and Mata, someone else will likely surprise us with a strong showing. Plus, some of the "farther away" prospects could be traded (not that I want them to be). I don't agree with soxprospects.com's projection of Casas and Downs being starters in 2022, but they may contribute some by the end of 2022. Here's our top prospects by age (soxprosects ranking): (Remember DHern is 22, Devers 23, Verdugo 24 & Chavis 24. They are younger than several of our current prospects.) 25 Dalbec 5, Chatham 14 24 Houck 10, Wong 17, Wilson 26 23 Song 4, Duran 7, Ward 9, Feltman 28, Aybar 29 22 Downs 2, Groome 8, Murphy 16, Zeferjahn 18, Cannon 21, Arauz 25, Castellanos 30 21 Mata 3, Bello 22, Liu 23 20 Casas 1, Jimenez 6, Decker 20 19 Lugo 12, A Ramirez 15, J Rodriguez 24, Flores 27 18 Yorke 11, B Brainer 19 17 Jordan 13

Soxprospects.com has these projected rosters for 2022 and 2023 (assuming no acquisitions and with appropriate disclaimers): 2022 2023 Sale-Sale Eovaldi-Song/Zeferjahn Mata-Mata Ward-Ward Groome-Groome DHern-DHern (Closer) Houck>> Taylor>> Brasier>> Feltman>> Shugart>> AYbar>> Osich-Bello Mazza-Murphey/ARamirez Vaz>Wong Casas>> Downs>> Bogey>> Devers>> Beni>Duran Duran>Jimenez Verdugo>> JD>Dalbec Bench: Wong>Pereda Chavis>> Chatham>> Peraza/Lin>Lin Dalbec>Cannon Wilson>Wilson To see 2024 and 2025, too, click here: https://soxprospects.com/future.htm

Thanks. People sometimes call me the "copy and paste" king, but I mostly do all this from scratch.

Thanks. I did mention Jordan as "fringe," and it would be great if he moves up the list.

You are correct, but I think I was thinking more on the lines of who we should keep to build towards a competitive team 2-3 years down the line. It's not that I would not trade Casas or Downs for the right player(s), but they have the best shot at being key players for us down the line than others I listed.

To me, anyone can or might be traded, and I'm sure my views on who should be kept unless blown away by an offer differs from Bloom & Co. Here is what I consider the core of our future. It does not mean these players are off limits, but all are under team control for 3 or more years, unless noted. 3B Devers SS Bogaerts OF Verdugo 1B Casas 2B Downs SP Sale (likely not tradeable right now) P DHernandez, Mata, Ward Fringe: Positional: Dalbec, Arroyo, Arauz, Jimenez, Lugo, Duran, Chavis, Yorke, Jordan, Chatham, Wong Pitchers: Song, Taylor, Groome, Valdez, Houck 2 or less years (2021 & 2022) FA after 2020: JBJ, Workman, Pillar FA after 2021: Pedey, ERod, Moreland, Perez, Barnes, Hembree FA after 2022: JD, Beni, Vaz, Eovaldi, Peraza, Plawecki on 40 man roster but expendable: Positional: Lin, Wilson Pitchers: Walden, Brasier, Brewer, Weber, Triggs, Hall, Osich, Hart, Aybar, Godley, Brice, Springs, Covey, Stock

The trade simulator accepted this wild deal: Bogey, Chavis, Hembree & Eovaldi to SF Ramos (OF prospects valued at 31.0), Yastremski, Dubon & Crawford (No valuable pitchers in return could be found.)

I offered Beni, Chavis and Hembree.

It might be a bigger crap shoot than normally, but it has to help to be picking 1-3 in every round.

Good to see you here, Maz. Yes, pitching, pitching and then, more pitching. The return of Sale may help late 2021 or 2022. ERod and Eovaldi may help. A major pick-up should happen this winter or next summer/winter- maybe 2. We have 4-6 gaping holes for 2021, but we also have $70-90M to spend and Pedey's deal going away, soon.

We'll be in the playoffs by 2022, if the virus or climate hasn't done us in by then.

Not a bad idea, but if we see someone we think is the real deal, and looks better than any FAs from the following year, we may want to pounce on one.

Hmm... The Red Sox are set to add first base prospect Triston Casas to their 60-man player pool, Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com reports. He’ll head to their alternate site. As Cotillo notes, Boston’s pool is at capacity, so it’ll have to make a corresponding move once Casas is officially part of it.

Yes, rebuilding the farm takes time and is much more difficult than it was under Theo, when supplemental picks seemed designed for richer teams, top players fell in the draft due to signability issues and Int'l signings were not restricted. Many of us tried to say rebuilding the farm was not likely going to happen under DD. 1. We were winning "now" and so our draft picks were lower. 2. We were trading tons of prospects almost every year. 3. The rules changed to hurt big spenders and winners. We were both. 4. We got caught cheating and lost a year of Int'l signings- an area we used to do well. I actually think we've done a good job, considering where we drafted and under this new system. We still are no where near as strong as we were under Theo and Ben, but we are better than we were 1-2+ years back. The farm got better with the Betts trade, and we should improve with next year's draft. Most of our best prospects are 2-3 years away, so maybe we should shoot for respectability in 2021, competitiveness in 2022 and ring competition in 2023 or 2024.

I agree. I do think we'll at least get close to the tax limit in 2021. We do want fans to be in the seats and people watching on NESN. It might make more sense to hold off on the tax for one more year, but we could still spend big on players who will be under team control beyond 2021. We could also free up some salary by trading JD or other big ticket players that don't look to be part of our longer term plans (2022 and beyond). For example, we could trade JD & Eovalid and sign Bauer and Springer. We'd still be way under the tax, so we could add a few mid level players, which is what Bloom may be best at acquiring. Then, go large again after 2021 and go $19.9M over the tax,

"We will rebuild the farm." "Henry will spend what is needed." "There is too much money at stake to allow us to suck for even a year." "There will be no cliff."