moonslav59

I missed that, but you might be onto something. Before tonight, his K rate was actually down (12.5%> 11.0%> 10.2% last 3 years), but he now has 4 in his last 9 PAs. He also had 8 Ks in 33 PAs from July 30th to August 8th. In between, he had zero in 20 PAs. Combined, that's 12 in his last 62 PAs (56 ABs). That's a 21.4% K rate in his last 12 games.

Just mentioning Devers with these guys is an honor. cp is right. These historical posts are priceless.

If Pedey was back, we could rest Bogey or sit Moreland. The real comp is do you prefer Pedey over Moreland or a slumping (maybe) Bogey in the line-up?

Price's contract just about cancels Stanton's. If the two prospects were Travis and Beeks, I'd surely do it (this winter). If the two prospects were Groome and Chavis, I might do it, but we'd have to sign a SP'er either way. I'm thinking we lose Bogey in 2.3 years anyways. ERod is tough to part with. I'd hand Price away for nothing. Note: Miami will NOT WANT PRICE!

What matters most with Segura's $70M/5 extension was his production before the signing, the buyout of 2017, the $3M bonus and 5 years with a team option for 6 at $17M ($1M buyout) extension. Segura's history: He was 27 when he got the 5 year extension. He will turn 32 during the 5th year. He began playing FT at age 23 and played 4 full seasons before 2017. OPS .752 .614 .616 .867 (.803 so far in 2017) WAR B-R/fangraphs 4.0/3.5 0.6/0.0 0.0/0.3 5.6/5.0 2017 2.2/2.3 Segura played 3 full seasons before his first arb year and made $2.6M his first arb year (2016) and was making $6.2M this year (2nd arb of 3). It's hard to compare Bogey with Segura due to a number of things: 1) Bogey was younger when he started. 2) Bogey has not finished this year, next year and half of 2019. 3) The "going rates" might change in 2 years. Bogey made $4.2M in his first arb year out of 3. He will turn 27 just after his last arb year (close to JS) He started playing FT at age 21. OPS .660 .776 .802 2017: .729 so far WAR 0.3/0.3 4.6/4.3 3.7/4.7 2017 0.9/1.8 Tough call for me to make. Bogey might make $6-8M next year (2nd arb of 3), and depending ho well he's doing, he could make much more in 2019.

You're right. John Henry pays DD and others to "care one big s*** load" about the budget and taxes, so he doesn't have to. I think it's more of a pride thing than an unwillingness to totally open up the wallet and give our GM total free reign to sign anyone and everyone he pleases. We saw how just about every non-Yankee fan hated the Yanks even more for outspending everyone by oodles and oodles. Saying he "bought championships" took away from the perception that he was a good business manager/owner. I don't think JH wants to be thought of as the new George Steinbrenner. (Note: I have absolutely zero evidence to support that idea, but I do think that us straddling the luxury tax line for years indicates an unwillingness to spend more and more until he becomes the new GS.) In my opinion, we will see the budget go about $19M over the luxury limit this winter, or we may save some room for summer spending.

That's different from leadership. Pedey has a strong competitive drive. In some ways that's "leadership" by example. I just don't get a strong sense that Pedey does anything beyond his intense on-field attitude (that I greatly admire, I might add) to "lead this team". We're not privy to much of what goes on or is said in the clubhouse and hotel rooms between players, so I'm not taking a stand on anyone's leadership or poor attitude arguments, unless clear evidence is presented.

To be accurate, I see "fire and desire" now that Nunez & Devers have joined the team. I did not see it before. I'm not talking running out to congratulate a player on a walk-off hit. I'm talking about energy and enthusiasm in between walk off hits. I'm not asking for fake rah-rah emotions and constant dugout cheering or intense looking focus every second of every game by every player, but am I really alone in seeing more mental mistakes with this team than at least any other team in the Henry era? Fundamental running mistakes beyond just very high aggressiveness. Fundamental fielding mistakes (not out of lack of physical skill sets). Farrell, himself, coming out of the dugout to make a pitching change no allowed by the rules. Only the fact that we are still winning despite all the blunders is what is preventing just about all fans from going totally loco on JF's ass. Now, I do see a crazy looking bull pen somehow leading the league in many tough statistical areas. I do see one returning every day player doing better than last year (Vaz). I suppose JF should get credit for that, at least. I know managers are by-and-large judged by wins or losses, but to me, it's always gone far beyond that. On a personal note, I'm usually the last guy calling for a manager's removal. (Bobby V and Tito were two examples.) I think Joe Morgan was the last guy I could not support for most of a season. Yeah, I complain about line-ups and general philosophy, but I rarely use a microscope on every in-game decision. I give the manager the benefit of a doubt in those areas for the most part. I even defended the decision to leave Pedro in the game. I rarely even visit the game threads, in part because knit-picking irritates me and prevents me from enjoying the game. It's really a rare thing that I thrown blame at any one person in a baseball organization (player, coach, manager or GM). As much as I have criticized moves made by DD, I'm not even close to calling for his removal. Not even close to close. I am sure of one thing: I do not think JF is a net positive on this team. I do not think he does enough to be proactive about preventing blunders. I know players should not need to be motivated, but a good manager can and will notice when a team is losing focus or losing enthusiasm and will do what it takes to keep the team positive, focused and enthusiastic.

I'm not actually "for" publicly "calling out" players, unless it's a last resort, and you have some idea it might have a positive influence on a player. My point was that JF is willing to "call-out" a player for a poor performance or even for some unknown reason, but he won't when certain players make multiple mental mistakes within short periods of time. I'm just not sure there is any accountability on blunders. Maybe there is. Maybe JF is very good at secretly addressing this issue, but nonetheless the mistakes keep piling up at a seemingly increasing rate.

Hmmm.

I agree. Paying big money is one thing, but to give up the budget AND top young talent is a double whammy. One major reason I loved the Chris Sale deal was that his contract is relatively low for 3 years.

Yes, I read somewhere that the new CBA specifically addressed this type of situation. In the new baseball agreement, the Red Sox "would have the average annual value of Castillo’s contract (around $10.4MM) counted on their luxury tax calculations through the end of the outfielder’s deal in 2020, even if they called up Castillo for even just one day... Castillo may not have a clear path back to the bigs at all for over three years." Here's the link: http://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/redsox/2017/06/22/rusney-castillo-reborn-but-also-stuck-pawtucket/WXXV4C6o8xF3h4zCC5q6KL/story.html Note: Castillo has an opt-out after 2019. Perhaps we can make some sort of agreement the Player's Association will be okay with that allows him to find another place to play and take some of the money loss away.

We'd have to give even more in talent by making any team take on Price, HRam and Castillo. Miami doesn't want any of those three. If they do trade GS, it will be for at least 4-5 top quality young players or prospects.

How about kudos to JF for calling out players making bonehead plays instead of merely performing poorly? It hasn't happened (that I know of). It's more than just base-running blunders, and I'm not talking about being a little over-aggressive at times. It's fielders forgetting how many outs there are, throwing to the wrong base, and allowing players to go from 1st to 3rd on a simple passed ball by just jogging back to the back stop and casually turning to look to see if the runner is blitzing to 3B. Lots and lots of little things that can and may end up biting us in the ass when it really matters.

Teams know, if they claimed him and offered nothing in trade, the Marlins would just pull him back off waivers. That's why nobody claimed him. Now that nobody claimed him, any team can work out a waiver-wire deal. I doubt Miami would offer to pay any of his salary. That's the only reason they might have to trade away the only real big fan appeal player they have. I doubt he gets traded this August. I'd put the odds pretty low for a winter deal as well. With budget issues on the Sox horizon in 2019 and 2020, I seriously doubt we even kick the tires. My "offer" was somewhat tongue and cheek and was meant to give an idea of what a starting point to any trade might be.

When was the last time anyone on talksox or in the media said, "you know, those guys won because the manager made some great moves." I heard it said of Tito. I praised Tito a lot, before the team went AWOL on him. I didn't really "blame" Tito for that either as he certainly had reasonable distractions going on in his life. This team has not gone AWOL, but there does not seem to be any accountability with repeated bone head plays. The "fire and desire" are back, and I thank Nunez and Devers (and Beni- bonehead plays and all) for that.

Of course other managers make mistakes. Of course other teams' players make mental mistakes and blunders. I get that. I've just never seen so many bone-head plays by Sox players in a long, long time. Yes, the players have to take responsibility, but a manager does have a role in teaching, re-teaching and demanding good solid fundamental baseball. There's been a clear lack of focus, when you see multiple instances of players not knowing how many outs there are, or when it's okay to gamble on trying to go to 3B. I've watched just about every pitch of every Sox game for decades, and I've never seen anything like this. It actually seems to be getting worse, even as we are winning. To me, that indicates there seems to be no consequences for lacking focus. I know it's not easy to stay focused 100% of every moment of every game, but a severe lack of focus is surely a reflection of the manager. Yes, "fire and desire" comes from the players, but JF is certainly not known for inspirational skills. He looks like a bump on a log all game. I saw more fire and desire last year. I'm seeing it now since the Nunez trade. Devers' call up and heroics helped as well. I'm hopeful I won't have to say it's missing the rest of the year.

He's made some "plus plays" for sure. I like what I'm seeing on both ends.

Great point. Also, with 4 errors in 141 innings, we can see why there was a little concern over his readiness on defense. I love the call-up. I said all along, I trust Sox management to know when "when" is. I think they nailed it dead on. Sure, one can argue about how badly our 3Bmen did before the call-up. We can all wonder "what if..." until the cows come home, but we're in first place. Devers looks as comfortable as any mid-season call up could possibly look. No complaints here.

Who cares? Nunez at SS and Price for ERod.

Yes. I'd do it, if the contract does not go too much past 34 or 35 years old.

Stanton passed through waivers. Would Bogey, ERod, Groome, Chavis and Travis get the talks started?

Sad.

One could have argued we waited too long to bring Rice & Lynn up. Devers is doing great. I'm fine with the way things have turned out with this choice.

JD Martinez and others...