moonslav59

If Devers can replace HanRam, Travis replace Moreland and Groome replace Pomeranz, we can probably afford to keep our young stars as their arbs rise or one or two get extensions. Replacing Sale,Porcello, Kimbrel and lots of role players may not need a farm like we had 2-3 years ago, but we'll need a lot. How many Prices can we keep signing and stay near the tax limit? Plus, with our track record on big FA signings, I'm not sure we should even try that route. That leaves the farm or trades.

I'm fine with trying to win now, too. I think we went farther than we had to (Pom & Kimbrel), but I loved the Sale trade and understand why we signed Price. My point was to call it for what it is. We sacrificed the future for the present, yet some seem to think we'll be able to rebuild the farm quickly and to a high quality status. I do think we could possibly do well enough with lower draft picks and restricted international signings to stay competitive, but one main reason we are competitive now, is because we kept Betts, Bogey and JBJ who give us great production AND allow us to stay under or near the luxury tax.

2021 If we still have Price $30M and Pedey $13.75M and try to extend or replace Porcello, Sale, Kimbrel, Thornburg and other vets plus try and keep our young stars like Betts, Bogey and JBJ, our budget will be just about tapped out. We will need to fill out the other slots on the 25 man roster with probably more than the two quality players a year as you suggested. Yes, with the 12th pick we might be able to do that with picks like Groome & Dalbec, but even getting two from last year's apparent good draft might not actually work out. The odds were much better when we had 3 or more ML ready prospects to choose just about every year. My main point is that it will be harder to do once we start getting picks in the mid to late 20's. K

Plus Ross and Elias.

This is an impressive list that will be very hard to duplicate: Top prospects kept since 2014: Betts (1) Bradley (2) Bogaerts (1) ERod (1) via trade Swihart (1) Vazquez (9) Barnes (2) Owens (2) Johnson (5) Beni (1) Devers (2) Groome (3) Travis (4) Hernandez (6) via trade Dalbec (5) Prospects or recent prospect grads traded recently (highest soxprospects ranking): 1 Moncada 3 Espinoza 3 Margot 5 Kopech 6 Guerra 7 L Basabe (the greater) 9 M Dubon 12 T Shaw (not a prospect when traded) 12 W Rijo 13 L Allen 13 P Light 18 L Basabe (the lesser) 20 C Asuaje 21 V Diaz 24 Pennington 30 Wilkerson 40 J Almonte I'm not trying to say losing all the players on this list was a horrible thing. Some have dropped sharply in league rankings (Guerra & Rijo), but in totality, this is both a strong and deep list of young talent that will be nearly impossible to approach starting with our next draft and Int'l FA signing period and going forward. How difficult is up for debate. How close to impossible might be up for debate, but I can't see how anyone can have reason to think it will happen between now and 2021 or whenever doomsday is predicted. We can find other ways to stay competitive, such as signing better FAs or going over and staying over the luxury limit despite serious taxes, but it will be hard to build a farm that comes close to what we see above.

And losing guys like Guerra/Basabe/Asuaje/Allen/Diaz/Light/Rijo will have zero impact on the MLB roster. Who knows what they might become and what are needs will be. They might have played a significant role, but I agree that as of now, it looks unlikely, except for maybe Allen or the better Basabe, as we are weak in OF depth.

I said from here on out. I counted Groome in the plans. Groome was a 12th pick. It is not likely we will be picking that highly until the day Kimmi speaks of. I guess we could, but it is not likely, and even if we do, I'm not sure we can expect a guy like Groome to be there our next 12th pick. My point was, I think everyone can agree that it is not likely we can have a farm like we did 1.5 to 3 years ago under the new MLB rules set-up. Our farm was both strong at the top and deep with quality. Do you really see a way for us to get to where we were in the immediate future? I think that even if we get lucky with lower draft picks, just the international signing restrictions is going to make it almost impossible to even come close to where we were.

Yes, we have a $200M budget, but if you look at how we are able to pay guys like Price, Porcello and others so much money, it's because we are also getting some great production from very low cost players. These players came from the farm. They have performed much better than most teams. For that to continue, our farm has to keep producing low cost quality players to "fill out" the roster. Right now, we look fine, and we have 3 big prospects that happen to match up (not by accident) with our probably highest need areas in the immediate future: 3B, 1B/DH and P (Devers, Travis & Groome). However, once Betts, JBJ and Bogey either leave by free agency or get massive paydays, we probably won't get the influx we have been getting from the Theo-Ben regimes. I think that's probably an agreed upon fact. It might not be as bad as some say it will be, but it is going to be difficult to draft and sign good players with much lower draft picks, and the new rules make signing international players much harder. This is an area we have made major acquisitions from, including Moncada that helped us get Sale. We may evolve and make changes to keep in the forefront of these changes, but it's not going to be easy to stock the farm with so many good to great prospects as we have had over the last 2-3 years. Besides Betts, Bogey, JBJ, Beni, Swihart/Vaz and recent players like Groome, Devers and Travis, we have traded away all these guys: Moncada Espinoza Kopech Margot Guerra Basabe (both) Dubon Asuaje Allen V Diaz Light Rijo and more

...and (by soxprospects.com)... Kopech Reddick Johnson Kalish Rizzo B Moss Shoppach C Merideth

Never thought of it that way, but you're right.

I'm hopeful that Kimbrel can at least move towards what he used to be and improve on where he's been since joining the Sox. The fact that he has not reached expectations, so far, makes me dislike the trade even more than I did at the time. There's still more than half of his control years left, so there's still time to turn thing around.

One could argue, we don't now. Kimbrel is ranked 29th in RP'er WAR since 2016 among 138 RP'ers with 50+ IP

Yup. I'd have traded scraps for KRod and signed Clippard. With the prospects "saved" we could have reconfigured some trades or waited for a blockbuster. With the money saved, we could have upgraded elsewhere or for example, kept a guy like Uehara or Ziegler.

I didn't even know there was one. Thanks for the input.

soxprospects.com... The number eight prospect in the SoxProspects rankings, Nicaraguan right-hander Roniel Raudes, started for the High A squad. Raudes’ command was off in the first and he got punished for it, giving up four hits including a double and a triple. Raudes sat 88-90 mph, topping out at 91 mph, with the pitch showing some cut on occasion. He showed the ability to locate it at times, but when he missed up, it was very hittable. Raudes mixed in all of his secondaries, a short slider at 84-86 mph, changeup at 82-84 mph, and curveball at 74-76 mph. His curveball and changeup both flashed average-to-better during this outing, but his slider lagged behind. His feel for his curveball has improved since he entered the organization; he has solid feel for it and snaps it off well with long, 12-to-6 break. He also showed feel for his changeup, which showed late fade, throwing the pitch with deceptive arm speed. His slider had short break but lacked depth and was inconsistent. Raudes is the type of pitcher who must be judged as the sum of his parts, as he doesn’t have a carrying pitch and only tops out in the low-90s at best. None of his offerings project as plus, so he will have to rely on fastball command and his ability to keep hitters off balance by mixing pitches to succeed. Raudes has the ceiling of a back-end starter, but there is a fair amount of risk as he doesn’t have much margin for error and his stuff is unlikely to profile in a bullpen role.

Maybe this had something to do with it... By Shaun Sutner TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF Dr. William J. Morgan, the former Red Sox team physician who gained national fame for repairing pitcher Curt Schilling’s torn right ankle tendon so he could pitch in the 2004 playoffs and World Series, has indefinitely given up his right to practice medicine while state officials investigate him for unspecified allegations. Dr. Morgan, 57, a hand surgeon and longtime Auburn and Boylston resident, was also head physician for the Worcester Sharks minor league hockey team from 2006 until he resigned last fall around the time he surrendered his medical license. He also left St. Vincent Hospital at Worcester Medical Center. Dr. Morgan was chief Red Sox doctor from 2001 until 2004 when he was replaced. He was arrested in Worcester for drunken driving in 2003. Dr. Morgan and his lawyer, W. Scott Liebert of Boston, could not be reached for comment. Dr. Morgan had most recently practiced with the Fallon Clinic. An employee who answered the phone at Fallon’s Summer Street office said Dr. Morgan is no longer with the clinic. On Sept. 20, Dr. Morgan entered into a voluntary agreement with the state Board of Registration in Medicine not to practice medicine.

There were not many good closers on the FA market that year, but it was before that cost exploded. I think Clippard was the best to sign. There were a ton of trades involving good to very good RP'ers that winter. None cost as much as Kimbrel, but at the time, he was viewed as a top 3 closer. I realize great closers are a big boost to a team's chance of winning, but I've never been for overpaying at that position. At the time, Kimbrel was making near top dollar already as a closer. Yes, I'd have signed him to that contract. Yes, I'd have just barely traded those 4 prospects for a cheap Kimbrel (because I thought he would remain a top 5 or 6 closer for the 3 years). No, I would not have done both.

Not sure, I would think so.

MLBTR The Red Sox have placed center fielder Jackie Bradley Jr. on the 10-day DL, as Ian Browne of MLB.com was among those to report. Bradley was diagnosed with a knee sprain caused by a misstep while running the bases. An MRI did not reveal more significant damage, so the hope is he won’t miss much more than the minimum.

He's probably still a top 10 closer, but for what we gave up and for what we are paying him contractually, we should have expected top 5.

It seems like we've had these medical staff issues since I started following the Sox in the early 70's!!!

He was hurt for part of last year and has done worse than any year in his career. His ERA has been about double what it was before Boston. I gave him a "D" based on "expectations". If I graded based on how he does as compared to other closers, he'd get a B- or C+. We gave up 4 prospects and paid FA like money to get a top 3-5 closer. So far, that's not what we got. The jury is still out, though.

Me too, and for the record, my dislike for the trade has nothing to do with any negative feelings toward Pom. I like him and think he'll be fine. I just was super high on Espi.

3B in recent years... 2016: .686 (Shaw, Hill, Rutledge, Holt and 4 others) 2015: .693 (Pablo, Holt, Marrero and 4 others) 2014: .580 (Middy, Bogey, Holt and 5 others) 2013: .683 (Middy, Iggy, Holt and 4 others) 2012: .703 (Middy, Ciriaco, Youk, Punto and 5 others) UZR/150 +2.6 2016 -20.9 2015 -9.3 2014 -15.4 2013 -4.5 2012 What a mess!

First, we need to get some semblance of our team on the field at the same time.