moonslav59

They are one team that might settle on "just prospects", but I'm not sure I want to trade away the rest of our farm. As flawed as signing FAs is, I think that's our best shot at finding a difference maker.

Good point, and maybe we don't need one of the top 2-3 FAs power hitters (JD, Moose or Hosmer), but I do feel we an opportunity to make a significant improvement in power at 1B with Moreland becoming a FA. Depending on HRam's ability to play 1B or the willingness to move Devers to 1B, perhaps too early, we could seek a big fix at 1B, 3B or DH. We could even look to improve 2 of those positions marginally, instead of one great gain. I'm not sure signing Duda, Nunez and maybe a 4th OF'er like Beltran would be enough to push us on further.

Rings with Sox: Theo: 2/9 (.222) Ben: 1/4 (.250) DD: 0/2 (.000) These numbers aren't everything. I get that. Playoff Appearances: Theo 6/9 (.667) Ben: 1/4 (.250) DD: 2/2 (1.000) This has great meaning, too. Also, what was the state of the team and farm when the GM took over, and what was the state when they left? None of these GM inherited a horrible team AND farm. Some had more of one than the other. This is a bit more subjective when judging.

Our farm is certainly much weaker than when DD took over the reigns. Despite the low draft picks and restricted international signing abilities, I was rather impressed by the players we picked up this year. I still think we will hit a cliff in 2-3 years, but I like some of our young prospects...most are far away from the bigs. Age Prospect 16 Daniel Flores & Danny Diaz 18 Bryan Mata 19 Jay Groome, Cole Brannen, Alex Scherff & Roniel Raudes 21 Tanner Houck, Josh Ockimey & CJ Chatham 22 Michael Chavis & Bobby Dalbec Years of control for these young players: 5+ years Devers (20) 5 years: Beni (22) 3-4 yrs: ERod (24) 3 years: Betts (24) 2 years: Bogey (24)

Trading for Abreu opens new holes. I already posted the numbers on JD's lack of seasons with 123+ games played. I also posted the low OBP numbers by Moose. Every acquisition has its faults.

The Dodgers are snake-bitten. Cubs in six.

I'd love to have Abreu, but why trade for someone just marginally better than Moustakas or JD Martinez. Of course, we are not the guaranteed winner of their sweepstakes, so he should remain an option.

I share your concerns on our extended future due to the near total emptying of our farm's best prospects. We still have one of the youngest rosters in my memory, and even though many will become free agents too soon for our own good. I'm one who believes in "the cliff", but I will say, I liked our last draft and international FA signings. We have some nice young talent now, but most are too far away to help within "the window" or bring much via trades. I suppose we could hope Travis, Chavis, Marco Hernandez or someone else gives us an unexpected jolt, but we cannot make our plans based on that. DD has his work cut out for him.

Good points. I'm not going to go on a Ben rant. I've made my position known too often already. DD has done a good job quickly building the team up to being very close to a top contender. There's not much left on the farm to trade for the next big piece we need. We can't easily trade a starter without opening a new high need area as we have no premier bench players that can step up. As much as I have railed against large and long FA contracts, and how they almost all fail, I don't really see any other way. I'm thinking we may need to spend close to $40M and maybe make a trade as well to truly become a top 3 or 4 contender. Even being a top 4 contender guarantees nothing- just ask the Guardians.

I don't think these three were who he had in mind, but I'll let him speak for himself. (He has mentioned Abreu.)

Sometimes reality can be so depressing!

No Pujols. No AGon. No Miggy.

To get a really good clean up hitter, we'll need to give more than ERod & Chavis- add Groome or Mata and maybe more. If you trade for a big contract to lessen what we need to give up, then why not just sign someone? (And Cobb)

Yes, that was my point.

Donaldson dipped some last year and has one year left. If the Sox shed JBJ's arb (or Bogey's) , they can afford 2 big salaries and still stay below the second penalty phase limit.

How's this... Sign JD Martinez to play LF. Move Beni back to CF. Trade JBJ , Hembree, Marrero & Chavis for Donaldson. Move Devers to 1B. Sign Nunez as the super sub. Let Pedey, Nunez and HRam share DH duties. 1. Bogey 2. Betts 3. Beni 4. JD 5. Donaldson 6. Devers 7. Pedey-HRam-Nunez 8. HRam-Nunez-Pedey 9. Vaz

I doubt DD would have taken the job, if Larry was to remain as his "overseer."

Does your team have a 25 man roster crunch? The Sox may be looking to trade 2 or 3 from Johnson, Hembree, Marrero and Swihart for 1 or 2 prospects or players with options remaining. Suggest a trade match.

Man-O-Man, Bird, Sanchez and Judge. Damn it!

I've always held the Gm to be the ultimate one to blame of give credit within the framework of the budget given to him. I will say, DD has had the advantage of not having Larry to "go through."

I'm too old and out of shape. Besides, I couldn't even hit well enough to play college ball, so you can have my slot.

I know you were never high on Swihart, but as we saw with Vaz this year, catchers sometimes take large leaps at later ages than other positions. I'm not overly confident in Swihart making a big leap next year, but I hate giving up on him. I guess I had higher hopes than others and you.

Ball was a high draft pick, but I don't ever remember anyone saying he was "can't miss". Johnson still has a shot, and I think he was always looked upon as a 3-4 starter, at best. I also think we've had better luck with our best prospects than maybe you are giving them credit for. I'm not against trading prospects. We may have to do so to win in this window.

I wrote Mike over at soxprospects,com about the player options listed on the site. He wrote back and told me he has not updated that page yet, but here are the lists of players who burned options and did not burn options last year: Players who burned options: Brian Johnson Tzu-Wei Lin Austin Maddox Deven Marrero Kyle Martin Henry Owens Robby Scott Steve Selsky Blake Swihart Ben Taylor Sam Travis Hector Velazquez Brandon Workman These players were optioned, but did not "burn an option": Roenis Elias Marco Hernandez Robbie Ross That basically leaves these 25 man roster "bubble" players with these amount of options: Zero Wright Hembree Leon Johnson Marrero Swihart Rutledge (non tender?) One (with player permission) Workman Holt One (with no permission needed) Thornburg Maddox Taylor Velazquez Travis Elias Owens Two+ options remaining R Ross Hernandez Scott We might try to trade Marrero and Johnson rather than lose them. We will likely trade Leon or Swihart, since I doubt we go with Swihart as our utility/3rd catcher player next season.

While I agree, I do think he can hit better than HRam and Moreland. He might also hit better, if he wasn't hurt so much. That being said, I agree. He is not what I'm hoping for from our DH position.