moonslav59

The Red Sox have hired Tim Hyers as the team’s new hitting coach.

JD Martinez is not a QO free agent. I don't think Santana is either. The Sox reportedly asked about Darvish last deadline. He's not a QO guy ether.

I'm fine, if we kick the tires hard and lose out. Guys like GS don't come along often.

I never like him, and I used to get the Globe everyday for decades. I don't know about other people's complaints about him. I don't live in New England anymore and haven't since '04.

It's more than that for us... If the signing team paid the luxury tax in the previous season, the team gives up its second-highest and fifth-highest draft picks and $1MM of international bonus pool money in the next int’l signing period (which opens on July 2). One reason to trade for Stanton or sign JD who is not a QO free agent.

I never said I felt GS would end up here. I'm fully aware of his right to veto a deal. He may not want to come here, and the fact that we have not reached out to his agent does not concern me. (Wouldn't that be collusion anyways?) My point is, we can afford him. He might want to come here to win a ring. He might prefer LA or SF. We have other options, but I'd at least do my due diligence on GS before moving to someone else.

We got Pom for Espinoza. Long-away prospects have value.

They reset the luxury tax for a reason. It's spending time. The window is closing in 2-3 years.

I stopped reading this fool years ago.

If Ben wasn't in on the HRam and Pablo signings, then he wasn't even the real GM. I do think upper management signed off on the 5 year plan idea, and Ben would have eventually traded several prospects, but you are right. He was supposed to stay competitive during the 4 years. Finishing in last for 3 years outweighed the ring, and it became Ben's fault when HRam & Pablo failed, and Porcello peaked a year too late.

Is this an option? Trade JBJ for prospects and trade prospects for Stanton ($18M luxury tax bump). $14M Cozart (Bogey to 3B and Devers to 1B). $7M Shaw

I disagree. While "most teams" can theoretically "afford" Stanton, they will not even kick the tires. His contract would be 20-40% of their payroll. They just won't do it. $25M is not that much for the Sox luxury budget. He's worth more than that. I'm thinking we may spend near $40M this winter as the luxury tax has been reset. We could afford Stanton, Santana and Shaw, if we traded JBJ for a low cost SP'er.

This is where the Sox could gain on other competitors. They can afford his $25M luxury tax cost while other teams look at his actual cost of about $30M x 9 years. We can offer less by taking the whole contract.

Groome has a lot of value, but it depends on the receiving team's timeline plan. If a team is looking to build for a win in 4-6 years, then Groome would be a good choice. I'm not sure what the Marlins' plans are, but they say they want to hold onto Ozuna and Yelich, so maybe they are looking at 2-3 years.

I have no problem letting Devers stay at 3B to see how much he can improve, but we should not expect him to be anywhere near plus by the end of 2018. The learning curve could hurt our chances the next 2 years.

Duda on a 1 year deal gives him incentive to have a big year. If we get JD and let him play 1B when an OF'er is not resting, Duda could probably play 30 games at 1B and 80+ at DH....more if HRam flames out. If there's an OF or 1B njury, Duda plays FT.

If we are over the luxury limit, I'm not sure signing two big names is out of the question. I've mentioned Duda several times. He sucks on D but has great ISO numbers. At $6M/1, he's a great signing compared to Hosmer, Santana or Morrison. I could see us get JD, Duda and Shaw or Moose, Duda and Shaw. We might sign a mid level pitcher, if we don't sign JD and another big named 1B/3Bman (Cobb, Lynn, Holland...).

You make some great points, but to me, there are too many aspects of their signings that point to Moose being the better pick. Assuming MLBTR projections are in the ball park, here's what I see: 1) Moose with 5 yrs vs 6 for Hoze. 2) Moose with $85M vs $132M for Hoze[. 3) Moose at 3B & Devers at 1B is a much better defense than Devers at 3B and Hoze at 1B. I'm still not convinced on the offense, as our biggest need is power (look at the ISO differential) and not necessarily the OBP, which is normally viewed as much more important. I'm not downplaying OBP. I still think it'e more important than SLG%, but our need for a solid clean-up hitter is very significant, and when viewed as who is the better clean-up hitter, the choice is a lot closer. (Personally, I'd take Moose in this role over Hoze.) Also, with players in their prime, like both are, I tend to pay much more attention to the player's last 2-3 seasons and not earlier one. Hosmer has much better numbers 4+ years ago, and I'm hesitant to choose him over Moose due to what both did 4-6+ years ago. The numbers are very close from 2015-2017. One good thing about looking their stats is that they played on the same team, in the same park and basically faced the same pitchers. Stat Moose Hoze WAR 6.6 7.3 wRC+ 118 120 OPS .824 .822 OBP .359 .329 (The above numbers favor Hoze slightly, but our great need for power, might be enough to tip the balance towards Moose) Stat Moose Hoze ISO .221 .169 (a massive .052 differential) SLG .496 .463 (about the same differential as OBP) others... BAbip .273 .330 (Is this differential sustainable?) K% 13.8 17.2 D. R. S. -3 -12 UXR/150 + 5.3 -42.3 (OUCH!!!!) I still see Moose as the overall better choice, even before looking at the money and years. If MLBTR is close with their projected salaries, Moose is my clear choice by a wide margin. I'd still rather get JD or Stanton, despite their longer and more costly deals. We made the bed with the 3-4 year window and we're now down to 2-3 years. We can't change strategies mid stream and end up with worst of both worlds: No rings and a bleak(er) future outlook.

I could be wrong, but I think his contract lowers the return significantly.

Some interesting numbers from 2014-2017: (198 players with 1500 PAs) ISO .301 Stanton (1st) .274 JD Martinez (4th) .242 Lucas Duda (13th) .224 Jose Abreu (24th) .221 Todd Frazier (26th) .220 Jay Bruce (27th) .201 Mike Moustakas (46th) .199 Santana (50th) .196 Morrison (52nd) .187 Moreland (64th) .160 Hosmer (115th) OPS 4. Stanton .939 7. JD Martinez .936 16. J Abreu .883 40. L Duda .818 48. Santana .808 53. Hosmer .799 2015-2017 (232 players with 1000+ PAs) ISO 1. Stanton .316 3. JD Martinez .284 14. L Duda .248 34. Moose .221 59. Morrison .206 65. Santana .200 74. Moreland .197 125. Hosmer .169 OPS 7. JD Martinez .943 9. Stanton .934 44. Moose .824 48. Hosmer .822 52. Santana .813 54. L Duda .812 2016-2017 (155 players 900+ PAs) ISO 1. .309 Stanton 2. .305 JD Martinez (The two biggest power hitters are available)

1) Trade JBJ for prospects & Trade prospects for Stanton ($18M to luxury tax). 2) Sign Santana $15M x 3 3) Sign Bryan Shaw $7M x 3 1) Bogey SS 2) Betts RF 3) Beni CF 4) Stanton LF 5) Santana 1B 6) Devers 3B 7) HRam DH 8) Pedey 2B 9) Vaz C

See the post right before yours. Just don't make Hosmer your plan B.

3 team trades are not that complicated. Or, we just trade JBJ,and maybe Hembree and/or Holt for prospects and then trade prospects for Stanton, perhaps including one or two we picked up in the JBJ trade.

The only thing muddying the water is the fact that the idea of grabbing Moustakas and sliding Devers over has a potentially higher upside. Moonslav is right, that would be a savvy move, and it would probably give us a substantial improvement in overall infield defense to go with the modest offensive upgrade. The issue with Moose is, the offensive upgrade would be very modest indeed. Moose isn't nearly the hitter Hosmer is at his best, and we struggled all year long at generating offense, which is why we're looking for a big FA upgrade in the first place. -DOJI I understand how the 38 HRs by Moustakas this year could be viewed as an outlier, but Hosmer is not the model of consistency, and his 2017 season is kind of out of whack with his career, too. OPS is not everything, and OBP is more valuable than SLG, but we really need slugging. OPS 2017: .882 Hosmer (.179 ISO) .835 Moose (.249 ISO) 2016-2017: .830 Moose (.250 ISO) .822 Hosmer (.173 ISO) 2015-2017: Moose .824 (.221 ISO) Hosmer .822 (.169 ISO) It looks like Hosmer's 2017 could be more of an outlier than Moose's. All in all, Hosmer looks like a better all around hitter than Moose, and he's about a year younger, but we need a clean-up hitter with power, so I like Moose over hoze. The money and years commitment makes it a no brainer, to me.

Dyson as the 4th Of'er....maybe there are better choices.