moonslav59

All Price has to do is pitch a couple gems and the media will shut up (at least until his next bad start).

Yes, and I seriously doubt the Sox top brass thinks Devers is ML ready but are holding him back to gain a year of service. Too much is riding on the success of this year's team. The window is short- perhaps 2-3 more years after this one. If Devers was ready, he'd be here now, IMO.

I would not trade Kelly. I'd say he's our back-up closer. We don't know how well Smith will pitch when he returns. (Note: He hasn't even touched a ball in 10 days. He may not return this year.) If we trade anyone, it will be prospects for a proven 3Bman or SP'er. Kelly would be someone you trade to a contender.

Look how this town changed its opinion on Lackey after his great season. I think Price could do the same with a great finish this year or a near CY Young season next year. I hope he wins the Cy Young next year and opts out. (Highly doubtful.)

The same pro-rated min salary Devers would be making if he was called up.

Thanks, so Devers has already passed the super two date for this year and would not lose a year, if he is called up now. Perhaps the Sox are looking to call him up after 60 days of the 2018 season.

Note: Bogey ranked 49th out of 49 3Bmen from 2013-2014 in 3B UZR/150 at -31.8. That's Pabloesque! Pablo ranks 52nd out of 52 in UZR/150 from 2015-2017 (-21.8). The lack of much 3B practice might account for some of Bogey's shortcomings at 3B but not all of it.

His history is bad, but he was only given 10 games at 3B before the call-up. He only ended up with just over 400 innings at 3B from 2013-2014, so it's kind of hard to judge. Your point is well taken. Going from 18th out of 20 at SS to #1 might not outweigh the loss we get on defense at 3B by too much. My hope would be that Bogey could improve more at 3B than he has shown at SS, but that could be a baseless hope, and if it ticks off Bogey, the scales tip the other way. Again, I am not for trading for Iggy or moving Bogey to 3B this year. I will say, I'd rather have Iggy at 3B than Lin/Marrero, but I wouldn't trade much to get him as a 3Bman.

Well said. I think we either bring Devers up when we know we won't lose a year of control or make a minor trade for decent 3B rental.

Now, I hear it's on his throwing hand, so the "pansy" label might be too harsh.

Nobody "misses" a single A prospect in the here and now, but Espi's trade value and tremendous upside potential staying in our system are not something you really "miss" years ahead of his ETA. I could be very wrong about Espi. Our system has had far too many flame outs over recent years, but we've never had a pitcher in the system so young and so highly ranked. Yes, the young part makes his value highly speculative, but that doesn't mean the value is not real and substantial, even if in a later, possible, subsequent, larger package trade.

When looking at Iggy, the comp should not be Iggy vs Bogey or other SSs, it should be about Iggy vs our current 3B situation. Clearly, Iggy at SS and Bogey at 3B is better than Bogey SS and Marrero/Lin 3B. We gain on offense (60+ points in OPS) and the improvement in SS defense, IMO would outweigh the drop in 3B defense due mainly to the sheer volume of plays at SS vs 3B, and Iggy's range is tremendous, which would allow Bogey to play a half step closer to the 3b bag.

Shaw was my "sleeper prospect" many years ago, but I guess I never really saw him as an answer to 3B. I saw him as a plus fielding 1Bman who might never hit well enough to play 1B FT. I liked the trade, more out of my perception that our pen was our weakest (no weak) link. We had lost Uehara, Ziegler and Taz, and there was no way to know that Kelly's one good month to end the 2016 season was going to continue. Also, I don't think anyone expected Kimbrel to pitch like he did with the Braves. Barnes and Hembree and others have all done better. In hindsight, the trade looks "unbelievably horrible" right now, but let's wait and see how Shaw finishes out the season. The Thornburg injury was not really foreseeable, but when judging by hindsight, GMs often look bad.

I think we could call Devers up before September and not lose a year of control in his prime. I'm not sue how many days he can be on the ML club before we lose the year. Anyone know?

No, but he's number one in SS defense this year according to fangraphs while Bogey is 18th out of 25. His .620 OPS this year is not very good, but it's over 60 points better than our .558 3B OPS this year. No joke!

I totally agree. It's not happening this year. It's extremely unlike over this winter as well.

Great post. I'd add Beni was considered "rushed" by some and seems to be doing fine at a much needed, super low budget cost.

Let's assume DD will keep Devers and Travis, since 3B and 1B will be big holes next year. Let's also assume we keep Groome as good SP'ers are always in need. Here's what's left: Chavis 3B/DH/OF/2B? (Does seem like the most likely trade bait this summer or winter, despite the lack of power in our system at this time.) Chatham SS (Bogey may bolt to free agency at the time CJ is ready.) Ockimey 1B (If Travis stumbles, we may want to keep Josh around.) Lakins RHP (Is not having a good year.) Dalbec 3B (If Devers stumbles, Bobby might be our next best internal hope at 3B/1B.) Longhi 1B (Could be trade bait.) Anderson, Shawaryn, Mata, Hernandez, Beeks, Raudes P (One or two could be trade bait)

If his target time is late 2019 or 2020, there may be an opening at 2B by then.

I actually expected Pom to be a decent pitcher, but I still hated the trade and still do.

It's not a certainty. I could see Price pitching like a Cy Young candidate again, before his deal is over.

I wonder if Pedey could play 3B, but then again, we have no 2Bman then.

There are plenty of acceptable options at 3B without getting exotic. We don't need an all star and don't really have the assets to obtain one. What we need is adequacy at the third base position. An all star would be great but all we need 3B to be is something other than a sucking chest wound. Going back to an offseason idea of Moonslav's, picking up Todd Frazier from a White Sox club going nowhere would be a solid idea, I doubt he'd be too expensive considering he's on the last year of his deal on a losing team and the White Sox are considering a transition to Yoan Moncada at his position, and we've proven we can make fair deals with the White Sox. That looks like a deal that ought to be doable for a reasonable price in assets. Heck maybe the White Sox think they can save Blake Swihart. I'm not longer a supporter of trading for Frazier. He's having a bad year, and he's historically a much worse second half hitter. His defense is still solid. He's probably better than what we have, assuming Devers is targeted for 2018, so if we could get him for cheap, which is doubtful, I might consider him. Adrian Beltre is also a solid choice if the Rangers will spare him, he's made a strong return to their lineup after his injury and I think it's fair to say he's likely healthy, and he's been highly productive in Boston before. The Rangers are 1 game over .500 and not too far off wild card pace and they may consider themselves in contention, so that may not be an option at the deadline, but if they take a dive in the standings between now and 7/31 that becomes an option. Will be way too costly. Basically there's a couple things we can potentially do to increase our left side of the infield offense without screwing over an elite SS. If they fail then maybe it's time to go exocit, but the best roster moves are the ones that are least disruptive to the team, adding the most while subtracting the least, and if a veteran 3B is available, getting a SS instead fails that test. I'm not advoacting moving Bogey to 3B, like I was when we had Iggy, but a chance at greatly improving SS defense is nothing to ignore either.

You're ignoring the problem of maintenance. Staying at an acceptable level defensively takes a certain work ethic when you're not naturally built for the position. I think the scouts and I were wrong about Bogey not "being built to play SS." He has not "filled out". His current body type should not be a factor in improving his defense at SS.

The point was that he was horrible for most of the season. The word "most" might be debatable, but in my opinion, the word "horrible" was an accurate description of Shaw's play at the end of the season last year. His defense was surprisingly decent last year at 3B, but I'm not sure one could expect that to continue. By the way, his UZR/150 this year is at -9.3 (third worst in MLB). He really is much better at 1B. Here are his numbers: 2nd half: 59 games/193 PAs .194 7 23 (.619 OPS) Our 2017 3B numbers right now: 75 gams/286 PAs .198 7 29 (.568 OPS) Yes, Shaw looked slightly better over this year's clown carousel, but not by much. (Note: 59 games is not "most of the season".) Now, if you tighten up the sample size to just August and September, Shaw was no better than this year's 3Bmen: AUG: .542 OPS SEP: .602 OPS That was 150 PAs of .570 batting (.184 4 16). It's hard not to call that HORRIBLE!