moonslav59

Abad is healthy, but it might not make much difference if he was or not..

At least Miley sucked after the Carson Smith trade, so it probably wasn't much of a loss, however, keeping Miley might have prevented the Espi-Pom deal.

One could maybe blame the DD administration for not making sure Thornburg understood what he was supposed to do.

Apparently, Thornburg was not damaged goods when we got him. He messed up on our winter instructions and hurt himself.

soxprospects.com on Chatham.... http://news.soxprospects.com/2017/03/chatham-using-size-to-his-advantage-at.html

With Price and Carsson Smith on the DL and Thronburg likely to join them, this should be the opening day 25 man roster: Porcello, Sale, ERod, Wright, Pom Kimbrel, Kelly, Barnes, Hembree, Ross, Abad, Scott Leon, Moreland, Pedey, Sandy, Bogey, Beni, JBJ, Betts, HanRam Vaz, Rutledge, Holt, Young

mlbtr... Tyler Thornburg Likely To Open Season On DL By Jeff Todd | March 28, 2017 at 9:59am CDT Red Sox righty Tyler Thornburg is likely to open the season on the disabled list after an “upper right trapezius spasm” prevented him from taking the mound yesterday, as Ian Browne of MLB.com was among those to report on Twitter. It’s not clear that the trap issue is a significant one; far from it, in fact. But he will go for an MRI, per Jason Mastrodonato of the Boston Herald (via Twitter). Even if it turns out to be a blip, though, a DL stint seems the likely result. Thornburg has been slowed throughout camp as his shoulder strength has failed to catch up to speed. With the anticipated absence from Thornburg, and without a clear indication to when he might be able to return, the back of the Boston relief corps seems noticeably less potent than had been expected. Still, president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski says he believes there’s sufficient depth on hand, as Mastrodonato reports. “Well, I think we’re fine,” Dombrowski said. “Some guys have to step up is what it comes down to. You go through these type of things in any particular year. I’ve done it every year in my career.” With uncertainty also best describing the current status of key lefty David Price, though, Boston’s pitching depth chart will be tested early. The club did announce that it sent veteran righty Kyle Kendrick to minor-league camp this morning, which suggests Drew Pomeranz will be ready to join the rotation. But it still seems possible the organization will look to make a depth move of some kind with roster churn happening around the league.

True, but I doubt Castillo would do it. He could have refused his assignment and become a FA and lost the money. Nothing the union could do about that. Then, he could have sought out the best deal.

I remember reading it somewhere, but it could have just been GM doublespeak.

MLBTR... The Red Sox announced a number of roster moves this morning, including their decision to option Blake Swihart to Triple-A Pawtucket. The team also optioned infielder Deven Marrero to Pawtucket and reassigned catcher Dan Butler and first baseman Sam Travis to minor-league camp. Swihart had a strong spring, batting .325/.386/.400, but both Sandy Leon and Christian Vazquez were out of options, and it’s not likely the Red Sox would want to lose either one.

Rumor was the Ben was super high on Rutledge. I'm not sure why. It's weird that the obsession has carried over to the DD regime.

How about Leon and Abad for a better BP arm?

There was a rumor last year about SF being interested, but they denied it. If Pablo does well, someone might take him for half of his salary, but if he's doing well, we probably will need him. I think Marco would be okay on defense at 3B, and he can't be much worse than Pablo was on defense in 2015, but he might not be as good as Pablo now.

I think we'll try hard to avoid trading a catcher. Swihart is no sure bet to succeed at the ML level, just because he did well this spring. We may find a way to put a catcher on the DL or a rehab assignment while Swi gets his chance. If that can't happen, I can see us trading Vaz or leon. My bet would be on trading Leon.

His ML number sample size is puny. The guy has a nice pop time and a good arm. He's had 61 ML SB attempts. If you think that's a large enough sample size to make a definitive determination that he is way worse than Vaz, then I don't what to say?

Swihart has a 39% CS rate in the minors. Vaz is 38%. Leon is 43% in MLB and was 45% in the minors. (Note: I do not value CS% as much as many do. It is a just a small portion of the overall defensive value of a catcher.)

I feel the same way. I wouldn't be upset, if someone else legitimately overtakes him in the depth charts.

I doubt the player's union minds that Castillo is making $70M+ to play in AAA for 6+ years.

But an added issue is that, if paying part of Castillo's salary prevents us from resetting the luxury tax, then future taxes would offset any gains Henry made from his own wallet this year. There could also be other future non-monetary penalties depending on how much we go over. I don't think this scenario could ever happen, unless we still remain under the limit after the trade.

We did release these guys (DFA), but nobody claimed them, since they did not want to pay. So, we decided to keep them in our system, since we were paying them anyway. I still think there's some gray area on trading these guys. If we trade them while they are not on our 40 man roster, and later on someone adds them to their 40 man roster, I don't see why that should affect us. However, if we pay a portion of their contract, then it gets sketchy, if the player is not on the 40 man roster of the new team but then is added later.

I suppose if adding Craig or Castillo in order to trade them mid season still keeps us under the luxury limit, and savings Henry realizes may be worth it. An interesting scenario could arise where, if Henry trades Craig or Castillo and pays part of one's contract, he might save more than what the tax might be, assuming he goes over by a little. However, not resetting the tax may result in future taxes (and even stiffer penalties in some cases) that tip the balance the other way. I seriously doubt either one gets traded or called up, unless it's an emergency, and it's just for a few days or weeks. Even then, we should have better options, unless one of these guys is killing it in AAA.

So, it is doubtful we trade either of these guys, if the portion we have to pay endangers us going over the tax limit. These two are in purgatory until their contracts run out.

Holt has played 1B in his career (120 innings). He also hits lefties slightly better than righties but probably not better than Rutledge. Rutledge has never played 1b in MLB.

Rutledge is getting some reps at first base, I guess to see if he's a possibility. Holt's played 1B before. I doubt we see Rutledge there. My thoughts on next year was that hopefully Devers would be ready and we'd see Pablo move to 1B vs RHPs with HanRam at 1B vs LHPs and DH vs RHPs. It's too bad Pablo and Moreland both suck vs lefties, so no 1B platoon with those two this year makes any sense, even if we decide to use Hernandez as out FT 3Bman. I think Travis looks like the best option at 1B vs LHPs , if HanRam never recovers enough to play there. I think JF might go with Holt vs LHPs.

But then if they are on the other teams 25 man roster, wouldn't the portion of their contracts we pay then count against our luxury tax limit? If so, they won't be traded, unless the other team pays in full...not likely.