moonslav59

Personally, I would not have done the Kimbrel and Pom trades. I would have tried to offer some/most those players for Quintana. Had we done that,w e wouldn't have had tos pen on Price. That would have made our long term financial outlook much brighter. It may seem contradictory, but my views on those trades have been clear. Once the trades were made, I realized we were looking at a 3 years window. The Sale trade only reinforced the improved window and the lower after window odds. I thought we might have been able to find a way to win now while still keepinga couple more big pieces to the extended future. Maybe I'm wrong. I've never pretended to be smarter than Theo, Ben or DD. I've never been down on Kimbrel, and I had nothing against Pom. Both trades have greatly improved our 2017 odds--no doubt. I'm enjoying the ride, despite thinking Id' have tried to do things differently. I'm just not going to go into denial about what these moves is highly likely to end up doing to our longer term future. I'd rather not have traded that much of out future, but if it helps us win a ring or two, it will be worth it. I think we have a decent shot this year, and if wec an get a clean-up hitter next year, and we stay healthy, we should have better odds. I'm okay with going all out to improve odds then taking a "cliff" break or trying to stay pretty competitive all the time, but not like the pre-2004 Sox take-you-to-the-doorstep for decades and decades teams. Either way, I try to recognize it for what it is and not try to sugar coat reality. BTW, I'd make 3 Sale trades in a row. You don't pass on chances like that.

We could promise him 550+ PAs. He could play half the games at 2B while Pedey DHs. The rest he could play DH, 3B, SS or LF. The problem is where's our new clean-up hitter going to play, especially if we further crowd the DH slot with Pedey and HRam already there. If we sign Nunez and pick up a 1Bman or 3Bman (Devers to 1B), I'm not sure we can fulfill a 550+ PA promise to Nunez, unless we dump HRam.

With so many players hurt, I'm fine with Bogey at 1. Besides, last 14 days: .365 OBP. Last 7 days: .433 (more PAs than anyone else in this sample) .

The Yanks suck! Their manager is even worse than ours! Their youth and inexperience will show. We're 5 and 5 vs those clowns in our last 10 games. We can and will beat them easier than the Astros and Guardians.

I'm totally with you here. I get how it's hard to think of winning this year without Kimbrel, Pom or Sale. We can't go back in hindsight and say, the one trade we shouldn't have made was the Thornburg trade. That was actually one I liked anyways. I can see the argument how taking away just one of the Kimbrel, Pom or Sale trades would be an even worse strategy, because we'd still have traded away enough of the future to really hurt, but not enough to give a very strong chance to win now. In a sense we'd have been playing it halfway which would likely lead to no rings in "the window" and no wins beyond either. I totally get that argument. I don't even necessarily disagree with that philosophy or plan either. I like winning now. I'm okay with winning every few years, if it takes losing in between some, too. Ideally, I'd love to win every year or be highly competitive every year, at least, but that is probably unrealistic. We wouldn't have been highly competitive now if we took away 2 of those three trades...maybe not with just 1 of the 3 taken back. I'm okay with the cliff, as long as it doesn't last too long. I don't think it will or can as long as we are continuous big spenders. To me, trying to pretend what we did is not going to affect our future in a very significant way baffles my mind. I realize there's a chance we could rebuild while winning, but the odds are very much against us. It is what it is.

I like the line-up, too. I think JF has done better recently. I'd probably have Devers higher, but I'm happy with the past few line-ups.

So, if you only look at who are the best clean-up hitters on the market, regardless of position, I'd rank them this way: 1) JD Martinez (despite injury concerns) 2) Mike Moustakas( despite playing a position we have a 20 year playing right now) Distant tie for third: Upton, Duda, Santana, Hosmer, Morrison, maybe one or two more I forgot

Maybe, if he was hitting real well, and they benched him at the end of the year just a few ABs away, he might have a case, but I think we could do it without raising red flags. The issue would be how it might affect future signings, especially ones with vesting clauses or injury clauses.

We could tempt Nunez with the FT 2B position and let Pedey DH and HRam play 1B FT. Nunez could float to other positions and allow Pedey to play 2B whenever he can. This does nothing to solve the clean-up hole.

I don't want to move Devers either, but I'd rather have Moustakas or Machado than Hosmer or Duda. I do think Devers would be a better defensive 1Bman than 3Bman over a short time, but I have not given up him as a 3Bman. That being said, he has not looked very good at 3B so far, but his range sure beats the heck out of Pablo & Co.

I know they don't want to move Devers to 1B, but his defense was why they kept him in the minors for so long, and if a better clean-up hitter can be acquired by signing a 3Bman over a 1Bman, I'd consider the move and think the Sox might CONSIDER it as well.

No, but he gets hurt too much. A secondary concern is when we play in an NL park. To play JD, and OF'er needs to sit, unless he can play 1B and HRam sits. I'm fine with signing JD. I'd rather have a 1Bman, but I don't like the 1B FA choices that much.

I just don't want to push HRam to 1B- that's my main concern on signing JD.

He also needs to pass a physical to get the option, and if his shoulder is the mess it seems to be, maybe that will save the day. We'll have to be careful not to flunk him on the physical for bogus reasons, but the chance is there.

What makes you think he's a good defensive 1Bman? I'm open to the idea though. I think he has the best chance at being a great clean-up hitter next year, and he won't cost us any prospects or draft picks by signing him.

If we release him, I'm not sure if that frees us from the vesting option, if he goes elsewhere and gets enough PAs.

There really aren't many big bopper 1Bman FAs this year. Moustakas is probably a better bet (for power) than Hosmer, Duda, Morrison, Alonso or any other FA 1Bman. Machado is available next winter. Normally, you are right, good 1Bmen are a dime a dozen, but we need more than just "good", and I don't see any, unless we make a trade. I also don't think signing an OF'er (JD Martinez) to be a DH is better than finding a 3Bman or 1Bman. It would force HRam to play 1B FT... Yuck!

I've said all along "Nobody knows for sure." Even if Sale decline, we'll still need to replace him with an ace. If we have to do that through free agency, we can't keep all of our core or maybe even most of it. Yes, Chavis, Mata, Flores and I'll add Groome can help or provide trade pieces, but the pool of top prospect talent is smaller than it might have been. By trading away so many prospects, we have a significantly smaller chance of getting multiple trade pieces or cheap young infusion into our 25 man roster by 2020 or 2021. I've never said we will completely "stike out" in 3-4 years. As long as our budget is near the top, I can't see us ever being projected to finish last, and that's why I've brought up the subjectivity of the word "cliff". To me, the "cliff means we are likely, not surely, not going to be HIGHLY competitive for at least a 2-3 year window beginning in 2020 or 2021. Others may think worse. Many think we'll do better.

We'll knock of Houston for you, if you knock off Cleveland for us. Deal? It would be fun to see a BOS-NYY AL Championship series again. Too bad for you, you get swept!

The good thing is, every player we lose this winter is not a very essential piece to 2018 success, except maybe Nunez. $6.5M Young $6.0M Davis (but we pay about 1/3) $5.5M Moreland $4.2M Nunez (but we pay only about 1/3) $2M Abad (Fister & Boyer) All together this is a significant amount of money coming off the books- maybe close to $18M. Option and Arb raises will eat up just about all of that, if not more. The hope is Henry is going to open up the wallet and allow us to go significantly over the luxury tax limit, since the tax is now reset. That should be enough for one mega signing- most likely a clean-up hitter that plays 1B, but it could be a DH type or a 3bman, if we deccide to move Devers to 1B over the winter.

Who is panicking. The panic comes if 3 years. 5 of the 9 positions you listed will be up for free agency before or at 3 years. Here's the staff years: After this year... Years 0 Fister 1 Pomeranz 2 Sale 2 Porcello 3 Wright 4 Rodriguez 5 or 1 if opts out Price Pen 0 Reed, Abad 1 Kimbrel, Kelly, Ross 2 Thornburg, Workman 3 Smith 4 Barnes, Hembree 4+ Scott, Maddox It;s going to get very expensive trying to keep all the best ones.

I'm happy with this year's draft picks, but it's way too early. I think we did very well with international signings, considering the new restrictions. (I've felt good about other drafts and signings that have not worked out well.) I'm hoping like hell I'm dead wrong about the cliff. Nothing is certain in baseball- you just go with the odds and hope for the best. You try to improve your odds on paper ever winter and sometimes at the deadline. But, the game is played on the field, and anything can happen.

I'm not in denial that these guys brought us great talent for a 2-3 year window. Some seem to be in denial about how losing these prospects will affect our long term future. I'm not lamenting anything. I'm enjoying the ride. Personally, I think we went too far and we'll feel the effects later. I'm not sticking my head in the sand. I have also said again and again that I was not against trading top prospects, especially ones blocked by others. I suggested trading Moncada for Sale many times long before it happened. I suggested trading Margot, Espinoza and others for Sale and/or Quintana. I'm not for keeping each and every prospect, but it is nothing short of astounding the sheer number of top prospects traded in a very small time frame. I'm not crying about it. It is what it is. We almost certainly sacrificed some of our future for a 3 year window. I've seen teams do it for a one year window. I'm glad we didn't do that. I'm not upset. I'm going to love watching the Sox over the next 3-4 years. I'm going to watch them afterwards, God willing, and I hope I can enjoy them as much as I will from now until 2021, but I'm thinking the odds are stacked against us being as good as we are now.

Some of the names on the list are not big names, some were better prospects when we traded them, some were better long before we traded them. What's astounding to me is what a tight time frame all these guys got dealt in, and how some seem to feel trading all these guys will barely affect our long term outlook.

Well, if Price had a season close to what Sale is having, we would have still been a strong competitor. Nothing wrong with having 2 or more aces has always been my mantra. Pedro/Schilling Beckett/Shilling Lester/Lackey