moonslav59

If this was the Philippines we could just have the whole family taken out.

The one thing about option B is that 5 divisions would create a way for 3 wild card winners and none of that awful play-in game crap. I'd also seed the playoffs based on W-L records not division winners getting higher seeds than better WC teams.

I felt the same way. His K rate in the minors was a big warning sign. I'm not sure I have ever suggested more possible trade scenarios for any single player than Middy.

I seriously doubt Young gets $7.5M from anyone

That could very well be the direction we go, and I wouldn't disagree depending on what the cost would be for a RP'ers vs a 3Bman. DD has a pretty bad record with RP'er recently. He trades- they go on the DL. Kelly has done a very good job as our set up guy, but his K rate is so low, that it is hard to compare him to other top contenders' lights out middle men. Hembree and Barnes have also done well, but does anyone really have a lot of faith in either of them? Remember, the reason we traded for Thornburg in the first place was to help ease the loss of Koji, Ziegler & Tazawa plus the skeptical nature of Carson Smith's health status.

Chavis may end up at DH or LF or 1B. I wouldn't be so quick to trade him, just because he has struggled on defense at 3B.

I'd maybe consider Young next year, but I'd rather get a LF'er that can play 1B and/or 3B as well. If we trade for Prada, then we won't need Young. Harrison can play LF as well, but not very well. Young is getting older. He might want a chance to play more and make more than we are willing to pay.

I gave up on him long ago, but he has looked like he deserves another shot. I don't see it happening here, unless there's an injury to one of our 4 OF'ers.

Ooops. I'll edit.

I'd do it this way: OPTION A: 6 divisions of 5 teams EAST: BOS, NYY, NYM, PHI, BAL SOUTH: WAS, ATL, TBR, MIA, KCR NORTH: TOR, PIT, DET, CLE, CIN CENTRAL: MN, MIL, CWS, CC, STL SouthWest: TEX, HOU, COL, AZ, SD WEST: LAD, LAA, OAK, SFG, SEA Schedule: vs own Div (4 teams) x 18 games= 72 games vs own conference (10 teams) x 6 games= 60 games vs other conference (15 teams) x 2 games= 30 games Option B: 5 divisions of 6 teams (no AL/NL or 2 conferences): East: TOR, BOS, NYY, NYM, PHI, BAL South: WAS, ATL, MIA, TBR, TEX, HOU North: PIT, DET, CIN, CLE, CWS, CC Central: MN, MIL, STL, KCR, COL, AZ West: SD, LAD, LAA, OAK, SFG, SEA Schedule: vs own div (5 teams) x 18 games= 90 games vs 3 other divisions (24 teams) x 3 games= 72 games

Or, 4 divisions of 6 teams: TOR BOS NYY NYM PHI BAL WAS ATL HOU TEX STL KCR PIT DET CIN CWS CC COL AZ SD LAD LAA SFG SEA Schedule: vs own DIV (5 teams) x 18 games= 90 vs others (18 teams) x 4 games= 72 Here's how I would do 6 divisions of 4 teams: TOR BOS NYY NYM PHI BAL WAS ATL DET PIT CIN CWS ______ CC STL KCR COL TEX HOU AZ SD LAD LAA SFG SEA

It was a pretty small sample size, so we'll also never know if he really had anything to even have a chance to "get it back". He sure had a nice stretch. I remember trying to give him a nickname to stick: "Will-da-beast". I had the T-shirt printing presses all lined up. Then again, I also suggested we trade him for several different players- one was Gavin Floyd. LOL

I wouldn't either, but I'd like to have a better 3bman and a lights out set-up man. This won't be cheap, so maybe we'll have little choice but to stand pat or grossly overpay by further depleting our extended future's chances.

...and the Rays and A's.

I corrected this for you. '10s > '00s ' But, Betts shouldn't be in the '00's range.

He had a .373 OBP and 82 RBIs in 2004. We currently have a .625 3B OPS (.287 OBP).

No need to do it until we want to or need to call Brentz up.

Can't argue with this.

Bellhorn had an .817 OPS in 2004. I'd be thrilled to get a .717 OPS from 3B this year. Mark also had 3 HRs and 8 RBI in 14 playoff games.

We can "prevail" with a weak link or two, but teams in the hunt often try to improve their odds of winning, even if slightly, at the deadline. We're not the favorites right now. We're not even the favorites to win the AL, and you can bet your bottom dollar the Astros, Guardians and the top NL teams will all be in the hunt for usable talent at the deadline. Most teams strive to improve their weakest links, even if their weakest link is near league average. 3B is clearly a weakness for us- not just our weakest link. We can hope and pray that Lin/Marrero keep up their recent pace, but I feel like the odds are greatly against that happening. I was one of the last to give up on Pablo, and I hope he's not part of any plan at 3B for the second half of 2017. We might see Rutledge or Holt back to help out at 3B, but none of these guys appear to be enough to bring us near average at 3B. I'd love to see Devers get a chance, but I really think that if he hasn't been given a chance so far this year, with all the great need we've had there, why would a few more weeks suddenly make him ML ready. If Sox management does plan on bringing Devers up to get a legitimate shot to win the 3B job, I hope they do it before the deadline or at least before the waiver wire deadline, so we have a chance to pick someone up before it's too late. I'm fine with standing pat, if Devers is in the 2017 plan, but if not, I'd try hard to find a deal where we do not have to overpay for a 3B rental. If none are out there, then doing nothing is not going to crush me. I DO NOT want to overpay for anyone this deadline, so maybe doing nothing is the best choice. Let's see what offers are out there and go from there.

All time Red Sox Rushmores... Pitching: Young, Pedro, Clemens, Grove (Tiant, Lester) Batting: Williams, Yaz, Ortiz, Boggs (Evans, Speaker) Overall: Williams, Young, Yaz, Pedro (Clemens, Ortiz)

Speaking of Mount Rusmore, here are some arbitrarily picked 10 year spans in Sox history and my choices for rock faces: 1963-1972: Yaz, Petrocelli, Tony C, Lonborg (Smith, Scott?) 1973-1982: Tiant, Lynn, Rice, Evans (Bill Lee, Eckersley?) 1983-1992: Boggs, Clemens, Rice, Hurst (Stanley?) 1993-2002: Clemens, Pedro, Nomar, Vaughn (Valantin?) 2003-2012: Manny, Ortiz, Pedro, VTek (Lester, Schilling, Pedey, Beckett, Paplebon, Wakefield, DeLowe?) 2013-2022 (projected): Betts, Bogey, JBJ, Sale (Pedey, Price, Kimbrel?)

I agree. VTek was very important in getting the best out of those pitching staffs. Pedey has been solid for a long time, but VTek was a huge part of those two rings.

That could happen, if an OF'er gets hurt, but by keeping Selsky on the 40 man, we have both him and Brentz as farm depth to the end of the season. Brentz becomes a minor league FA after this year.

I listed Bowden, but left severaal non factor players off my list. It wasn't meant to be a list that showed the percent of supplemental- picked players that helped, but rather it was meant to show that we did get some good players by letting player go to free agency. In my opinion, Theo did a fantastic job at knowing when to let our big players go. A few turned out to be questionable, most notably Beltre, VMart & Damon, but even in those cases, an argument can be made that the right choice was made. I was very happy with Theo's drafts, and many of those drafts were successful as a result of those supplemental picks. The 2005 draft, which is widely believed to be one of our best ever, was almost totally supplemental picks: 23 Ellsbury (OCab) 26 Hansen (DeLowe) traded with Manny for Jason Bay 42 Buchholz (Pedro) 45 Lowrie (OCab) Trade for Melancon who was traded for Holt 47 Bowden (DeLowe) 57 J Egan (Pedro) Theo did have a stretch, where most of his first picks were from #25-55, that did not look that good: 2006: 27 Jason Place 40 Kris Johnson 44 Caleb Clay 71 Masterson 2007 55 Nick Hagadone 62 Ryan Dent 2008 30 Casey Kelly 45 Bryan Price 2009 28 Reymond Fuentes 77 Alex Wilson 2010 20 Kolbrin Vitek 36 Bryce Brentz (Supp pick) 39 Anthony Ranaudo (Supp pick) 57 Brandon Workman (Supp pick) The turn around begins: 2011 (Note" all supp picks!) 19 Barnes (Supp) 26 Swihart (Supp) 36 Owens (Supp) 40 Bradley Supp) The Ben era begins 24 Marrero 31 Johnson (Supp) 37 Light (Supp) 87 Callahan Theo drafted Pedey in the second round of 2004, but how many other great picks in the top 80 did he have that were not supplemental picks? His highest draft picks from 2005 to 2011 (his last draft with the Sox) 19 Barnes 20 Vitek 26 Swihart 27 Place 28 Fuentes 30 Kelly ' From 2006 to 2010, Theo's draft picks were far from "impressive". Without the supplemental picks, his overall draft record would be unimpressive.