moonslav59

The only way this deal might not look so good in hindsight, might be if Trumbo or Napoli sign for dirt.

There's a bit of a misstatement in the article regarding signing a big bat. What Farrell actually said was that he didn't see the Sox signing a big middle of the order bat UNLESS, in a couple of weeks, guys like Napoli or Trumbo were still available and scrambling for a place to play in 2017. If this is happens, then signing Moreland was a mistake. Also, on the broadcasting front, Jerry Remy is coming back in a multi-year deal. I've lost my appreciation of Remy to some extent.

Elias may end up our #7.

Did the RS jump on Moreland too soon? I don't think so. I think they set $5-6M as their limit and wanted someone that could allow HanRam to DH some.

Devers will need to be added to the 40 man roster by December, but I don't see us rushing to add him for the 2017 season, until after Pablo, Holt, Rutledge, Hernandez and maybe even Dominguez get a look-see first. Here's next year's Sox Rule 5 Players: Victor Acosta, Yoan Aybar, Trey Ball, Gerson Bautista, Jalen Beeks, Danny Bethea, Jordan Betts, Ty Buttrey, Jamie Callahan, Rusney Castillo, Harrison Cooney, Jake Cosart, Enmanuel De Jesus, Rafael Devers, Jhonathan Diaz, Jake Drehoff, Willis Figueroa, Pat Goetze, Daniel Gonzalez, Taylor Grover, Juan Hernandez, Darwinzon Hernandez, Bryan Hudson, Dedgar Jimenez, Raiwinson Lameda, Tzu-Wei Lin, Nick Longhi, Isaias Lucena, Austin Maddox, Danny Mars, Algenis Martinez, Kevin McAvoy, Daniel McGrath, Ritzi Mendoza, Simon Mercedes, Mike Meyers, Mike Miller, Derek Miller, Samuel Miranda, Joseph Monge, Ben Moore, Jhon Nunez, Yankory Pimentel, Jordan Procyshen, Hildemaro Requena, Jeremy Rivera, Jake Romanski, Dioscar Romero, Ramses Rosario, Chandler Shepherd, Josh Smith, Teddy Stankiewicz, Cole Sturgeon, Carlos Tovar, Sam Travis, Jantzen Witte

Honestly, Moonslav, our bullpen looks better to me than it did AT THE START of 2016. At the start of 2016, Carson Smith was not expected to miss the whole season. Tazawa was questionable after a decline in 2015, but he was not bad. Ross had showed consistency and Barnes promise. Layne and Noe Ramirez were no different from Abad and Hembree are now. Plus, there were less questions about Kimbrel last spring than this one. Feelings at the start of the season.... 2016 >= Kimbrel > Kimbrel Uehara = Thornburg Smith > Smith R Ross Tazawa > Hembree Barnes Layne = Abad N Ram (Now, if Pom or Wright are added to the pen, that changes things, but unless we add a Ziegler, like we did last year, I like last year's pen better (on paper) at the start of the year and more so, after we added Ziegler. Kimbrel is not the world's best closer, but he ought to be more than adequate, and there's something to be said for stability in the closer's role. Felt better about Kimbrel last March than I do now. Moreover, going into 2016 we thought our setup man was Tazawa, and actually got lucky that an aging Uehara held that role together as long as he did. Going into it this year we aren't trusting to luck nearly as much, Thornberg is a very solid Plan A, and any of Barnes, Ross, or Smith could step into the role, or at least hold onto it for awhile while we sort through our options in trade. That's a hell of a lot better than a burnt-out Tazawa and a Koji held together with spit and bailing wire. Also other options such as Barnes, Ross, and Hembree, are much better-known quantities this year than they were at this time last year. Thornburg and Smith both have exactly one very good season under their belts. Smith may take 1-2 months to return. I think you are down playing the expectations we had for Uehara and Taz last year. Going into the year we have some good power arms to look at for middle and late innings, including any or all of Barnes, Ross, Hembree, and Kelly out the gate, and Smith down the road. That's a damn good place to start assembling a 7 man pen and I'd be willing to bet at least 18 teams in baseball are jealous of our depth of options. And that's of course figuring without whatever the 6th starter does in a bullpen role. I've said I do NOT think our pen is weak. I just said I think it is our weakest area (next to maybe 3B). I expected 2 solid acquisitions after losing 3 key relievers. We got 1 and hopes for Smith to be 2. Starting the year this is what we look like: Kimbrel Thornburg Ross Hembree Barnes Kelly (probably Pomeranz) If you look at the CV's on these guys, any of the 7 could deliver sub-4 relief in any given year, and many of them are good for sub-3 more often than not. Kelly's a wild card, but Kelly is going to be a work in progress and probably near the bottom of the depth chart in the pen anyway. We HOPE for good things from Kelly, but we are not actually in a situation where we have to DEPEND on good things from Kelly -- which from the standpoint of an experiment like this is exactly where you want to be. We have a lot of promise, no doubt, but we are short on RP'ers who have done well in something as simple as 2 of the last 3 years in the pen: Kimbrel & Ross are it. Now that said I fully expect the team to need to add to the pen from time to time. Injuries happen, roles shift around, underperformance is a thing that can affect anyone at any time. But guess what? We can add to the pen without spending assets, because waiting in the wings to finish his recovery from elbow surgery is Carson Smith, and even better, we don't have to throw him right into regular bullpen duty if we feel he isn't ready, because we ought to have 7 options ahead of him in theory, all of which are good enough that even if they struggle at first they're worth working with rather than making a panic move. I'm not suggesting a "panic move". I haven't even said we should overpay for a FA RP'er right now. I'm fine with waiting to see if we can cobble together 3-4 solid arms out of the 5-7 promising ones. I'm high on Thornburg, Kelly, Barnes and Hembree, and I'm hoping Ross remains consistent, but I'll take 2016's expectations of Uehara, Ziegler and Taz over these guys. Are there a few bullpens that are better at the top than ours is? Oh yes. Closer is one of the closest things we have to a weakness in the pen on paper, since Kimbrel had a down year. Is there a bullpen I'd take over Boston's 1-7? Maaaaaaaybe Cleveland, and that's mostly because of Miller. Maybe the Cubs, although not so much post-Chapman. Not too many others If our bullpen is the closest thing we have to a genuine concern or weakness, this is going to be one hell of a baseball season. I agree, and I've said this in similar words. Our weakest link is not really "weak". I look at how 2016's season ended with our pen, and it was all about Kimbrel, Uehara, Ziegler, Taz, Kelly and Ross. Three of these guys are gone, and Kelly's great sample size in September was tiny. Sure, we have plenty of p[promise. I'm looking forward to seeing how it all shakes out. We also have Scott and others in the minors that could solve any problem areas, if they arise, so the pen is not a weak are right now, but I'll bet we start looking for the next Ziegler before the deadline.

Agreed. These Sean O'Sullivan/Aaron Cook types rarely make a difference.

First Kyle Kendrick to a $1M minor league deal, then this from MLBTR... Red Sox signed righty Erik Cordier and lefty Cesar Cabral, per Matt Eddy of Baseball America. The hard-throwing Cordier, 30, will return stateside after a brief and unsuccessful stint with the Orix Buffaloes of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball in 2016 (10 runs in 12 1/3 innings). Cordier has long battled control issues but has shown a consistent ability to hit triple digits with his fastball in the past. His last Major League stint came in 2015. As for Cabral, the 27-year-old former Rule 5 pick has averaged about a strikeout per inning throughout his minor league career but has yet to find success at the Triple-A level. He pitched just 8 1/3 innings last season, all with the Orioles’ Triple-A affiliate, and allowed nine earned runs on 13 hits and four walks. He’s logged 5 2/3 innings in the Majors in his career but has never been able to stick on a 25-man roster.

Maybe not the best choice, but we need depth. I hope we have better in the works.

You have the numbers that include pitch framing...some letters before W-A-R?

Castillo and Craig are no surprise. Devers and Travis are going to get a good look but nothing brewing for an opening day slot. The others are just window dressing- split squad fill-ins.

I hear you. Our starters actually went deeper than the the league average (6.0 IP to 5.7 per start) last year. Price 6.8, Price 6.6 and Wright 6.5 were the only three over the league norm, so if Wright ends up in the pen, that addition of Sale will have a minimal affect on lessening then pen's IP. We will need ERod 5.4 and Pom 5.2 to step it up to make a major impact (or Wright to start and do as well as 2016). Yes, Farrell should be be able to use his relievers the way he wants, but his choices are not as good (on paper). The other concern is how we can handle an injury. When Kimbel went down, Uehara stepped it up. I like Thornburg, and hopefully Smith can get back into form quickly, but there's gotta be concern. Again, I don't see our pen as weak, but there are a lot of questions and concerns to be dealt with. The good thing is, we have spending space to help, if the concerns turn into issues or problems. .

I think the last hit (and rbi) was a grounder, but yeah, he certainly could have been taken out earlier, and maybe his PO ERA would be lower now.

Absolutely no Red Sox fans would have traded playoff rosters with the Guardians before that series, especially the starting pitcher set-up, so I find criticizing who we ended up putting out there rings sort of hollow.

Yeah, and I believe Price had struck out the side in the 6th. Looking at Price's playoff WHIP compared to his career regular season WHIP, he basically has let up 1 more walk or hit per 9 innings, although his HR/9 goes from 0.9 to 1.6 (or 2 HRs per 2 games to 3 HRs per 2 games).

Yes, I know, and I was adding to the silliness of the whole idea of benching Price.

I have that feeling about 1B.

JBJ is 1 for 10 in the playoffs. I guess he should be benched as well! Pedey's almost 100 points lower in playoff OPS than REG season OPS. Should he be benched too? Buch has a 1.500 WHIP in the playoffs, so maybe we should have put our whole rotation in the pen last fall.

Maybe, if Beni looks real good, we go to this and "lengthen the line-up": 1) Beni 2) Pedey 3) Betts 4) HanRam 5) JBJ/Young 6) Bogey 7) Moreland/JBJ 8) Pablo 9) Leon-Vaz I wouldn't mind seeing Pedey up 5th: 1) Beni 2) Bogey 3) Betts 4) HanRam 5) Pedey 6) JBJ/Young 7) Moreland/JBJ 8) Pablo 9) Leon-Vaz

Is this what you think Farrell will start with? 1) Pedey 2) Bogaerts 3) Betts 4) HanRam 5) JBJ/Young 6) Moreland/JBJ 7) Pablo 8) Leon-Vaz 9) Beni

"Clearcut?" LMAO! It's not even close to beginning to even think about the possibility of even considering a remote possibility of a tiny chance of Price not starting in the playoffs.

Good read. I wonder if the change of catcher moving from SD to BOS made any difference. I say this because he had a wild differential in SD while putting up those great numbers in 2016 there. with Derek Norris:1.56 ERA and .499 OPS against in 313 PAs against w. C. Bethancout: 6.00 ERA and .738 OPS against in 98 PAs against 2015: w S Vogt 3.16/.576 (202 PAs) w Phegley 5.22/.778 (134)

Porcello will be fine too.

I've been preaching for years that the bloated contracts and aging Yankee roster was going to catch up. It took a lot longer to "fall" than I expected, and it wasn't a bad a fall as I expected, but it's taken way shorter for you guys to look promising again. If I were Cashman, I'd look to sign some guys to one year deals with the idea of trading them at the deadline for more prospects.

We're better, but our pen is worse (on paper). Our pen was not very good for much of last year, so it worries me, if we go down that path again and don't have Uehara and Taz to pull us up. We all were left feeling good about Kelly, Kimbrel, Scott, Ross, Barnes and Hembree, but we all know they went through tough times. I'm not crying chicken little here. I love our roster as is, but at this time of the year, it's hard to avoid looking for the weakest link, even if it's not really "weak" at all.