moonslav59

A contending team not up against the luxury tax limit. Without putting much thought into it, here's a list of teams with their 3B OPS to date: .645 LAA .678 SEA .701 WSH .720 BOS .736 AZ How about DH? .760 CLE .764 LAA

Of course our statements are just opinions, and I'm not sure if we should have to preface every statement with, "In my opinion..." To me, it's really not even about whether our ex-prospects do well or not. I'd have traded most of them anyway, but for different players. I'm happy DD created a 4-5 year window, but I wish some of the players we traded for had more than 2.5 (Pom) or 3 years (Kimbrel) of team control. I realize my "wish" might not have been possible,but that's what we are here to talk about: ideas, alternative ideas and what not.

We have less than $2M to spend this summer. Beltre will be owed about $6M at the deadline. We might need the Rangers to pay about $4.5M out of the $6M to make it work for us. We'd have to sweeten the pot to get them to do that. Other teams can offer a lot without demanding money. Another choice could be to shed some salary before acquiring salary, or to trade someone like JBJ for Beltre. JBJ would have about $2M owed to him, so Texas would only have to pay $2.5M not $4.5M. On the $40M penalty level: It's really not as bad as it might seem to be. We're already paying a big tax on the $38M we are spending over the limit. The tax on a few million more is not a deal breaker. The draft pick penalty of moving down 10 slots may seem like a deal breaker, but is moving down from 27th to 37th really a horrible thing? There are some options, but creating new holes in our system to patch one we think is too big to overcome is not what I think is a good strategy.

It won't come close to doing it. Chavis was a huge question mark before the PED discovery. Mata holds some value, but he's so young, I'm not sure how much the Reds value him. Beeks, Shawaryn, Johnson? I don't think so. Groome is hurt. We probably need to keep Velazquez to take Wright or Pom's place next year (assuming Wright becomes the #5). I seriously doubt we have the prospects needed to get Scooter, and besides, do we really want to trade away the remaining best 3-4 prospects and totally ruin any chance at getting the youth infusion we will need around 2020 or 2021 and beyond? I still think we'll make the type of trades we made last summer- A Reed and E Nunez.

Right about the time some were advocating benching, platooning or demoting him to AAA.

Pom for Scooter? You're high. Pom is a rental and may not pitch this year. The Reds will want top young talent. WE DON'T HAVE ANY we can part with. Get over it. We are NOT GETTING anyone big.

Folly is in the eye of the beholder.

...and why wouldn't we expect Torres, Andujar and maybe others to start slumping during their first few hundred PAs?

Maybe that's why you missed my point. It wasn't yours to begin with.

4 in 15 would sound nice!

Save it for an off day, or better yet, for the allstar break.

Of course, there isn't. I was mocking the folly of missing HRam.

The only real trade chip I think the Sox might have is Pom, and it would take a lot to happen in the next 6 weeks for his value to come up. The main thing about trading Pom would be the money freed up for another trade for a salary dump sort of player. Pom is under an $8.5M contract and trading him at the deadline would free up almost $3M for us to add elsewhere. I just don't see us trading for anything significant, but last year, we did get Nunez and Reed without giving up too much.

I'm not for trading any bull pen help, unless it is for an upgrade.

How about it? He was .638 with SF last year. He's got 11 HRs and 45 RBI in his 315 PAs in his second stint with the Giants. .710 OPS. (Pablo is .757 in his last 365 days.)

Red Sox projected to win 100. Astros 105. NYY 104. No NL team over 93.

It's kind of funny to me that only 2 or 3 posters have an issue with us DFA'ing HRam, when the numbers show that letting Pablo go might have been a bigger mistake. 2018: OPS .882 Moreland .798 Pablo .708 HRam .705 Devers 2018 vs LHPs .854 HRam .728 Moreland .585 Pablo .559 Devers

How about Kimbrel, Workman, Velazquez and maybe rehabbed Thornburg and/or Pom. 2018 Red Sox Pitching Starters: 3.62 ERA 1.203 WHIP .673 OPS against Relievers: 3.03 ERA 1.195 WHIP .648 OPS against Yanks Starters 3.76 1.176 WHIP .670 OPS against Relievers 2.87 1.116 WHIP .618 OPS against Astros Starters 2.97 1.048 WHIP .623 OPS against Relievers 2.75 1.044 WHIP .615 OPS against Pretty close between all 3 teams with the 'Stros looking best, so far.

No, but I miss those numbers. I missed them more in the second half of '16.

Age & OPS Less than 350 PAs in career before 2018 Yanks 21 .892 Torres 23 .820 Andujar 25 .734 Sanchez 25 .759 Torreyes 26 .953 Judge 26 .751 Austin (Side note: should Jacko expect a "sophomore slump" for some of these guys next year or could some hit a rough patch this summer?) Sox 21 .705 Devers 23 .925 Beni 25 1.118 Betts 25 .857 Bogey

Our 6-9 hitters were not far from our other hitters last year. I'd venture to say they were closer than most teams could say. We added JD and lost Pablo & Young. One could have easily expected a much better showing from our 6-9 slots. Now, onebigreason that is ture is that our 1-5 slots were not that great. I'm still expecting better, and we've seen some life from those slots recently. 2017 0-1 slot .779 3-6 slots .744 7-9 slots .698 6 .750 (Bogey 173 PA, 118 JBJ, 76 Moreland, 73 Devers) 7 .693 (JBJ 149, Devers 69, Moreland 63, Vaz 57, Young 56, Rut 54) 8 .741(Leon 190, Vaz 174, JBJ 50, Pablo 46) 9 .640 (JBJ 148, Marrero 137, Vaz 67, Leon 61) This year: 1-2 slots .920 3-6 slots .828 7-9 slots .604 6 slot .747 (Devers 141 @ .879, Nunez 80, Moreland 34) 7 slot .609 (Nunez 116 @ .546, JBJ 63, Holt 48) 8 slot .571 (Vaz 104 @ .603, JBJ 71, Leon 43) 9 slot .623 (JBJ 85 @ .662, Vaz 62, Holt 39, Leon 38, Lin 32) With Moreland slumping, our 5 slot is in danger as well. We really could use Pedey's bat or a Nunez/Holt duo to hit over .750. While these numbers don't look all that good, they are better than what we've seen so far, except for Holt & Devers: Last 28 days: .719 Vaz (.915 last 14 days) .691 Holt .666 Devers (.847 last 14 days) .664 JBJ .659 Nunez .632 Leon

I miss the 2017 Pom and the first half 2016 Pom. He's struggled to return from his injury, but he's still a quality pitcher, when healthy. I was never too worried about our starter depth. Maybe, it's because I've always been high on Wright. Yes, Sale is still our ace, and the records I posted shows how little wins and losses judge how well a starting pitcher has been doing. Right now, I'd say our playoff rotation might look like this: Game 1: Sale Game 2: Price Game 3: Wright Game 4: ERod Porcello on the outside looking in. Much can change between now and then.

Who'd have thunk we'd be tied for first place with our two best 2017 starters, Sale and Pom, combining for a 12-11 record in games they started?

Team Record in Starter Starts 13-1 ERod 10-4 Price 9-6 Porcello 8-7 Sale 4-4 Pomeranz (22-10 last year) 2-0 Velazquez 1-0 Johnson 0-1 Beeks

I thought you'd be Ben.