moonslav59

Exactly. Without us having AGon, we'd have never dumped CC and Beckett, well maybe Beckett could have been traded on his own, but we'd have probably had to pay part of his deal. AGon did well after the trade, but he had three straight years over .900 and 4 over .870 before going to LA. (.957 first year with Sox and before the contract kicked in) His contract year OPS numbers were... .806 .803 .817 .830 .784 .642 .672 Pardon me, if I think these numbers were disappointing or below expectations.

I loved AGon and was thrilled we got him. I never cared about any of the rumors of clubhouse strife attributed to him. My position has always been that large and long contracts rarely work out- many times from day one. The AGon case worked fine for most of the 7 years of the deal, but it ended badly, most probably due to injuries. Iloved the Manny signing and still do, but that one ended badly as well. I hated the Dempsey & Masterson signings, and although they were not long term, they are white. I lived in Mexico for over 4 years and am married to a wonderful Mexican woman. I've marched for civil rights as fa back as my childhood days in Milwaukee with Father Groppi. Maybe you didn't mean to imply I had racist motives, but your reply made me feel like I had to respond like this.

I've always liked Workman and hoped he'd make it as a starter. I'm glad he's looking good after missing so much time with injuries. Let's hope some of the other returning players do as well as Wright & Workman. We just got Betts back. Pedey may or may not return. Thornburg was just called up. Pom, Smith, Maddox and Walden still out. Scott and Beeks available. I'm not sure we'll need tomake a trade, if we can just get near 90- 95% healthy.

16 straight games, a day off and then the Sox for 3 as a start of 15 games in 15 days. 31 games in 32 days. The last 11 are on the road before the All Star break. Looking way ahead, starting September 3: 9 game west coast road trip (3 @ OAK, day off, 3 @ SEA & 3 @ MN) another day off 9 at home (3 vs TOR, day off, BOS & BAL) 7 on the road (4@TBR & 3 @ BOS) 16 of last 25 on the road.

ERs allowed recently... 9 IP 2 ER (Porcello, Barnes, Hembree) 9 IP 0 ER (Wright, Velazquez, Workman) 9 IP 1 ER (ERod, Hembree, Barnes, Workman, Poyner) 9 IP 7 ER (Beeks, Johnson, Velazquez) 9 IP 1 ER (Sale, Hembree) 9 IP 2 ER (Price, Kelly, Barnes, Kimbrel) 9 IP 4 ER (Porcello, Hembree, Workman, Barnes) 12 IP 0 ER (Wright, Kelly, Johnsonm Workman, Hembree, Kimbrel) 66 IP 17 ER 2.32 ERA Take away the Beeks game: 57 IP 10 ERs 1.58

Yes, somehow oh for 12 worked!

Big run!

Now, come on JBJ! Shut everyone up!

holt!!!!!!

No Betts in the 1 slot anymore.

Devers!

I think the answer is to put Bogey 2nd and flip Beni & JD 3rd and 4th depending on what handed pitcher starts. Moreland up 5th.

A Golden opportunity lost.

Just caught up. Brian freakin' Johnson???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

Does that make Larry Henry's puppet?

Which means even at pro-rated numbers adding Castillo and trading JBJ for no salary would come pretty close, if not put us over, unless we wait until August.

Porcello had a lot more bad luck in that game beyond what you mentioned, but he's had a lot of run support this year, so I guess "luck" is relative.

I loved the Porcello signing at the time, and love it more now.

Holt actually hits very close to the same vs LHPs or RHPs. Career: .692 vs LHPs .717 vs RHPs

All of this is true, but the system has changed radically since 2010-2011. We can no longer draft good players with signability issues with lower picks. The comp pick system has changed. The international bonus pool has tightened. Look at 2010: We had 4 picks in the top 57, despite losing pick 29 and 80 for signing Lackey and Scutaro. Yes, we missed with Vitek & Brentz, but we got Robbie Ross for Ranaudo and still have Workman. 2011 saw us get 4 picks in the top 40, and we still have JBJ, Barnes & Swihart on the roster. It will be hard to stockpile picks like that again while signing new free agents to replace those departing. In 2012, we got 3 picks in the top 37. In 2013, we got 2 in the top 33, including Kopech as a comp pick that was essential in bringing us Sale. From 2014 to 2018, we've done no better than 2 in the top 51 picks. That avenue has dried up. The IFA avenue is much harder now. Our budget is maxed out for signing FAs. We won't be getting a number 7 pick (like Beni) in the immediate future. Our farm shows no sign of having high impact players available by 2019, 2020 or 2021. I'm not saying it can't happen, but the context has changed sharply.

I have us being only $2-3M under the $40M mark, when you figure in benefits costs.

It really is a sad looking farm system, although had Devers never been called up, it wouldn't look so bad.

I'm not too optimistic with TT, but certainly there is hope he can step in and hep us in a big way.

Groome's injury and Mata's age is the major factor in Houck's rise to #2, but your point is well taken.