moonslav59

Wow, that's cheap. You usually bash us for suggesting such light offers.

Moncada started the last third of the season and posted a +0.9 WAR in 54 games. Prorated to 162, that's 2.9. That's way better than "replacement" level. He's a starter. Again, I'm fine with not playing it halfway, but I'm also not going to deny the long term effects (not that you are). When we traded away almost our whole pitching staff years ago, I was fine with the idea. We were losing those guys anyway. What I disliked about the return we got was that I felt Ben played it "halfway". I felt he should have tried for higher ceiling players rather than established ML players and fully ML ready youngsters.

He can "demand" all he wants. If nobody offers more than 4, that's what he'll settle on. My guess is he gets 5.

Yes, the Ellsbury deal was worse. I said at the time, "I wouldn't have paid him half that much."

HRam, Holt & ERod for Braun, and then we sign Arieta or Cobb..

The Brewers no have a couple OF'er they are shopping. I wonder, if a team looking at JD might turn to the Brewers, instead.

Good points. His positional player acquirements and Sox OPS are... .892 Nunez .773 Young* .769 Moreland* (only starter wire-to-wire) .595 R. Davis .577 A Hill * Only two signed in the winter.

It's early on judging the players traded away, but Moncada and Margot are both starters. He also traded post-prospect Travis Shaw- a starter.

No. It was not good.

In all fairness, Groome was a high school pick and has less than 65 innings pitched in pro ball. His not being a top 20 prospect at this age and point in his career is not necessarily a ding on DD's record. CJ Chatham was the 51st pick in 2016. Not many of those rise to the top 100 in less than 2 years. The 2017 draft is too recent to judge. Sure, some draftees from 2017 made the top 100, but I'm not sure how many lower picks made the list. I'm cautiously optimistic about our picks over the last two years, but your point is well taken. Nobody has jumped out as being something very special in a limited time period. Maybe someone will this season, but I doubt we come anywhere near as strong as our farm was 2-3 years ago for quite some time.

Kinda reminds me of the fools who signed Ellsbury.

You mean Swihart, Marrero & Johnson won't get it done? (LOL)

He'll be a horrible signing for any team at the price he will get. Being the top Red Sox fan in the world makes me rank the Sox 30th in deserving of Hosmer & his bloated & lengthy contract.

The system was different under Theo's reign and a little different under Ben's. No more swooping in and drafting better players with lower picks due to signability issues with poorer higher picking teams. No more unlimited spending on international free agents. No more stockpiling comp picks. If we keep winning and spending, we will get lower draft picks. We will pay more and more in taxes. We may face penalties, including having our picks lowered further and pool money reduced. There's no guarantee our farm is doomed until we lose more than we win, but it won't be easy. Losing Flores so tragically hurt. Trading so many once highly ranked prospects in such a short period hurt our future badly. I'm not upset by this. I would not have gone so far, but I understand the idea of not playing things halfway. Top prospects traded recently, as ranked by soxprospects.com (highest ranking while here): 1 Yoan Moncada 3 Manuel Margot 3 Anderson Espinoza 5 Michael Kopech 7 Luis Basabe 9 Mauricio Dubon 13 Logan Allen 18 Luis Basabe 20 Carlos Asuaje 21 Victor Diaz 24 Josh Pennington Other lessers 3 Cecchini 6 Javier Guerra 9 Nick Longhi 11 Coyle 12 Wendell Rijo 13 Pat Light 30 Aaron Wilkerson

MLBTR projected $70M/4, so it's about what was expected. Wade Davis is the only other top 10 FA to sign, and he got more total money than projected, too.

Hosmer to anyone but the Sox is reason to rejoice!

Agreed. Finally, a good haul.

At $80M/5, I guess we can dispell the rumors of owner collusion to drive salaries down.

No and no. Salazar makes $5M this year and has 2 arbs. JBJ makes $6.1M and has 2 arb years left. I don't make the trade without JD. With JD, I'm on the fence. I'd prefer something like JBJ, Johnson, Marrero & Hembree for Salazar and Meritt or Anderson.

I don't really want to trade JBJ for Salazar, but if we get JD, it's a close call. DH: JD CF: JBJ Bench: HRam or Moreland vs LF: JD CF: Beni DH: HRam HRam is probably a better hitter than JBJ, so we don't lose the full value of JBJ by trading him. Yes, we lose on D, but gaining in the rotation is major value added.

Well, JBJ's stock fell after last year, too.

Yes, Theo and Ben built the farm up nicely, but as of right now, we have 0 in the top 80 according to BA and 1 in the top 75 by ESPN. Recent grads will carry us for a while, but when their prices get higher, we'll need some fresh and inexpensive young players on the roster. How many of our prospects will give us significant value between 2 and 4 years from now? This is what is concerning to some of us.

There's been rumors for years. They have a couple fine young pitchers that have done well when called on to start. As starters... Ryan Merrit 3-0 1.82 in 5 career starts Mike Clevinger 12-7 3.66 in 31 starts

Most of our best talent was or is in single A. That makes it hard to judge. Groome, Mata, Brannen and Houck can rise in the rankings with a good year. Ockimey is a bit of a wild card. Chavis could rise with a second strong year in a row. Travis, Shawarayn and Beeks are older and maybe topped out.

True. Zero in BA. 1 in the top 75 on this ranking (the pessimist's view).