moonslav59

Would anyone be interested in trading for Lowrie (.805 OPS) & Doolittle (0.689 WHIP/12.8 K/9)? It might not be as costly as other options out there.

It's not comparable, because they've made the MVP into the top hitter award. Cy Young= Best pitcher Silver Slugger= Best hitter Gold Glove= Best fielder MVP= Best player. If someone wants to credit an everyday player more than a SP'er who usually has faced over 800 batters, that's okay with me, but to leave Pedro off the ballot all together made the award useless to me. I just don't care about any of these awards anymore. The Gold Glove award is an even bigger joke. They gave the award to a DH one year, for God's sake!

I realize it's my opinion, but the Sox have held pretty steady near the same distance from the luxury tax every year since Henry took over. We never go way over: we never go way under. It looks like a budget, smells like a budget and feels like a budget. I do agree that Henry can spend an almost unlimited amount, if he chooses to do so. He's wasted money left and right, so that does give the impression that he's willing to spend anything and everything. Your position has supporting evidence as well. I'm not claiming to know everything. I can't imagine us losing Lester and not wanting Scherzer. I'm pretty darn certain that after we spent on HRam & Pablo, the "budget" kept us from signing Scherzer. I can't prove it, and I respect your opinion to the contrary.

If we had no budget, Lester would still be here. If he wasn't here, Scherzer would be.

Neither did Pablo.

I hated the move from the first minute. That being said, I think they hoped he recent decline was not a sign of what was to come, AND his playoff heroics would come in handy. Maybe Sox management believes like some here, that there is such a thing as a "clutch hitter". He was a horrible signing. I remember I heard about HRam first and figured he'd play 3B. Then, shortly afterwards, I heard we signed Pablo, and I said out loud, "WTF!"

I'm pretty opposed to pitcher MVP's myself. They already have the Cy Young award which position players are ineligible for. Batters have Silver Slugger awards that no AL pitcher can ever win.

It's not so much about games: it's about PAs. I've never bought the 162 games vs 33 game argument. Here's why... Pedro 1999: 835 batters faced 2000: 817 batters faced No batter ever reaches over 800 PAs.

Clemens made me aware of how much pitching mattered, but that stretch by Pedro was Herculean.

Ding, ding, DING! We have a winner!

Maybe there are multiple reasons for slowing his promotions. Maybe most scouts and player evaluators in the system are in agreement on not promoting him swiftly. I trust they know what they are doing. It's not as easy as just looking at the numbers.

Any trade of Devers would be a "premium" one. He's the #5 prospect in all of MLB. I hope we don't trade him, but if we do, it should be for a high impact player and probably for 2+ years of control.

Yes, I believe some writers didn't even have Pedro on the ballot. Pedro's season was so dominant when compared to other pitchers in the hitting era. On top of that, a .914 OPS, even by a catcher, was not all that great during that era. Pedro's 2000 season was even more "off-the-charts"! A review of Pedro's dominance in 1999 and 2000: AL comp 1999 ERA 2.07 Pedro 3.44 Cone 3.50 Mussina 3.75 Radke 3.85 Rosado 2000 ERA (This blows my mind!) 1.74 Pedro 3.70 Clemens 3.79 Mussina 3.79 Sirotka 3.88 Colon 1999-2000 ERA- Leaders (split seasons) 35 Pedro 2000 42 Pedro 1999 73 Cone 1999 74 Mussina 1999 75 Radke 1999 76 Rosado 1999 76 Sirotka 2000 (Looks like 2000 was even more dominating.) K/BB 8.88 Pedro 2000 8.50 Pedro 1999 5.35 Wells 2000 4.57 Mussins 3.64 Milton 2000 (Pedro was more than twice as high as the number 3 guy both years!) WHIP 0.74 Pedro 2000 0.93 Pedro 1999 1.19 Mussina 2000 1.21 O Hernandez 2000 1.23 Milton 1999 FIP- 30 Pedro 1999 48 Pedro 2000 68 Mussina 1999 73 Wells 2000 (Weird factoid: Pedro's BABIP: .325 in 1999 and .236 in 2000.) Best ERA+ of all time (post 1920) ERA+ 291 Pedro 2000 271 Maddux 1994 260 Maddux 1995 258 Gibson 1968 243 Pedro 1999 (Pedro is also 10th at 219 in 1997.) FIP (Baseball ref) 1.395 Pedro 1999 1.685 Gooden 1984 1.775 Gibson 1968 1.811 Kershaw 2014 1.852 Koufax 1963 WHIP (ALL TIME) 0.737 Pedro (2000) 65th .0923 (1999)

LOL. My post was made with the "here and now" crowd in mind.

I forgot about the day-night double header vs the Yanks on Sunday. My guess is, no matter what, Tuesday will probably be Fister's last start. (Assuming no injury.)

When Pedro was robbed of the MVP, I gave up caring about such awards.

I've said basically the same thing. I was against trading away our 8 year window for a better 4 year window, but now that we did what we did, I'm not for standing pat as a philosophy. I'm hoping we can make some minor tweeks to improve 3B & set-up man. I'm hoping we can do so, without losing Devers or Groome. Try like hell to find a couple good deals, but if massive overpays are all that are out there, then I'd be okay with us making no deals. I'd also like to keep Travis, as he might be a cheap replacement for Moreland. I'd like to keep Chavis, as he represents our best power prospect and may eventually be our 1Bman or DH, but you have to give quality to get quality. My attitude has changed slightly, once I realized the draft pick penalty of luxury tax overage is set at $40M not $20M. I'm not sure our extended future is as bad as it looks. Being able to go over by $39M gives us a lot more wiggle room.

Judge will slump: Sale will get even better.

Moreland is slumping badly, Prado covers 3B for a couple years, and Phelps gives us a high K set up man. I'm not saying I want to make this deal, but was responding to a poster who spoke on how the Marlins are looking to dump players. Bour has seen his OPS rise significantly every year in the majors. He's at .924 now with 20 HRs. He has 3 arb years left, Moreland is a FA after this year. THe window is 3 more years after this. There are some pluses to the idea. I'm not for trading Devers, but if we do, it should be for a high quality player with several years of team control. BTW,

True enough, and their children are old enough to be fans of other teams as well or don't live in the area. I live in the Houston area now, and you see a lot of transplants here, but many are having families. The parents are Sox fans, but the kids are Astos fans.

On the farm... All top 5 farm teams won by allowing a total of just 2 runs. AAA Brian Johnson: 7 IP 3H 0 ER 2 BB/ 2 K Maddox & Workman 1 IP 0H 0 ER 0 BB AA Chavis 0-3 w BB D Mars 1-5 w HR A+ Ockimey 1-2 w HR (9th) and BB Raudes 5IP 4H 0ER 2BB/ 3K

4.9 BB/9 is scary as hell. Would the Marlins take.... Devers, Travis, Beeks, Lakins and Marrero For Bour, Prado & Phelps ???

Top Individual SP'er Rankings by WAR in MLB BOS 1) Sale 5.3 25) Porcello 1.9 27) Pomeranz 1.9 85) ERod 0.7 86) Price 0.7 WAS 2) Scherzer 4.4 10) Strasburg 2.9 39) G. Gonzalez 1.6 73) Roark 1.0 110) J Ross 0.4 LAD 3) Kershaw 3.7 8) A Wood 3.0 18) B McCarthy 2.1 63) K Maeda 1.1 75) R Hill 1.0 126) Ryu 0.2 CLE 4) Kluber 3.4 13) Carrasco 2.5 45) T Bauer 1.5 72) J Tomlin 1.0 82) Clevinger 0.9 108) Salazar 0.4 HOU 12) McCullers 2.7 23) Keuchel 1.9 81) Morton 0.9 121) Fiers 0.2 Cubs ** 22) Quintana 2.0** (with CWS) 33) Lester 1.7 45) Arrieta 1.4 93) Hendricks 0.7 97) E Butler 0.6 135) Lackey -0.1

Team Rankings according to fangraphs... Offense SS: 3rd RF: 6th CF: 10th LF: 14th DH: 8th out of 15 2B: 19th 1B: 22nd C: 26th 3B: 28th Defense RF: 1st 2B: 2nd 3B: 7th (shocking, isn't it?) 1B: 8th C: 8th CF: 11th SS: 11th LF: 24th (Fenway hurts the D metric) Overall WAR RF: 3rd SS: 3rd 2B: 8th CF: 14th LF: 19th 1B: 22nd C: 24th 3B: 27th Pitching WAR Sox are 3rd SP'ing Sox are 4th RP'ing Sox are 6th

And, if the Astros and Guardians make moves to improve, I guess it's okay with some that we stand pat.