moonslav59

When are the international restrictions lifted from the Sox? I thought we got hit with 2 years.

I like Turner and Jensen, but I don't think we will pay what they want.

I'd like to stick to Red Sox baseball on this thread. I was hopeful the luxury tax might go to $210M next year, but it looks like it might be closer to $200M. With our luxury budget looking to be around $185M, we'll have some tough choices to make. Since Henry will be paying Castillo & Craig $22.2M this year "off the books" so to speak, I'm not sure how willing he will be to pay a %50 tax on anything over the new luxury limit. A few million will probably be okay, but I can't see us signing EE and a RP'er or two. We may not even want to sign Beltran and two good RP'ers. We may look for a cheap 3B bridge and use Pablo and Young as a DH platoon, or we could sign a cheap platoon DH and hope one of our in house 3Bmen rise to the challenge. Either of these would allow us to spend on the pen.

...but why the hell would you need to when you have one of the largest payrolls in the league? It's precisely the fact that we have one of the largest payrolls in the league that we look for ways to save as Henry is surely instructing his management team to do. People can cry all day about Henry's immense wealth and his ability to go way over the luxury tax (at %50 this year), but until we see it happen or he says he's willing to go way over, most of us are operating on the assumption that we will continue staying very close to the luxury limit like we have for many years. If the limit goes up to $200M, we'll have about $15M to spend without paying $1 on every $2 we spend. That's not even including what we are paying Castillo and Craig to not be on the 40 man roster and subject to massive taxations.

We lose Clay B and Young next year, saving close to $20M. Fernado Abad is the only player becoming FA after 2018 assuming we pick up the club option on Kimbrel and Price does not opt out. Pomeranz, Kelly and Ross are all FAs after 2018. HanRam has a vesting option that is guaranteed if Ramirez has 1,050 plate appearances in 2017-18 and passes club physical after 2018 season We need Moncada and Kopech to step in by 2018 to provide some cheap alternatives as our arbitration numbers continue to grow. In reality, Price opting out may not be the worst thing to happen. That's why I'd like to see Sox extend Pomeranz. Buy out two years of FA years. Why not give him a 4 year deal right now (2 arb years plus 2)? How much are you suggesting we offer? Isn't extending Bogey, Betts & JBJ a higher priority? I'm at $185M assuming $22M for arbitration players, $12M each for rest of 40 man squad and benefits. Assuming luxury tax is raised to $200M, we only have $15M for FA signings. Trading Clay B would relieve another $13M but I don't see that happening until August assuming Wright, Pomeranz and Rodriquez are all healthy and pitching well. We can't even get Beltran for $15M, so I think we'll either go over the luxury limit again (I think at a %50 cost) or dump some salary. I think we may look to trade Buch this winter, but we'd have to find some sort of veteran 6th starter at a cheaper price. The other option is to try and trade Pablo and maybe save $5-8M a year off the budget. That would allow us to maybe sign Beltran and a cheap RP'er or a cheaper platoon DH type and 2 good RP'ers.

Being a RP'er is a different mentality. I'm not sure about trying to have Kopech try relief pitching at this point. What will we really know, if he fails? Also, sometimes RP'ers overthrow due to the fact that they know they are only in for an inning or two.

I'm happy about our OF too, although our OF depth is a little thin with Young under contract for 1 more year and Holt being more of a daily fill-in type guy. Basabe is the only OF prospect with significant value. The larger package thing will always be speculative, unless we hear about some specific offer on the table before he was traded. The reasons I mention Moncada being moved to LF are that I'm not sure he'll ever be decent enough at 3B to be "ML ready", and there's been so much talk of every team wanting JBJ, that one has to think he may be traded someday- like it or not (I don't).

It's easy to rank these tardes as good for the Padres from their point of view. I get why the Sox did them, but I think Margot and Espi are going to make the Padres look very good years from now.

Not even worthy of answering.

Yeah, that proves killing people solves lots of problems. Good one.

Either a sick joke or a sick person.

We could use a Pablo-Young platoon at DH, but then 3B is more of an open book.

Then I'd rather sign Beltran for $1M more a year than VMart makes, since it won't cost us any prospects. I think Beltran will sign for $36M/2.

Plus, he was in decline before the signing, but if he can return to what he was in SF during the regular season, he'll still be grossly overpaid, but much better than what we have right now.

MLBTRs... Red Sox center fielder Jackie Bradley Jr., right-hander Clay Buchholz, left-hander Drew Pomeranz, corner infielder Travis Shaw and catcher Blake Swihart could end up on the move this offseason if president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski tries to upgrade the team’s roster through trades, writes Jason Mastrodonato of the Boston Herald. The soon-to-be 27-year-old Bradley is easily the most appealing member of the group, and his name came up in trade talks involving White Sox aces Chris Sale and Jose Quintana over the summer. Another member of the potentially rebuilding White Sox – closer David Robertson – could pique the Red Sox’s interest this offseason, suggests Mastrodonato, who wonders if Chicago would accept Swihart in return. If the CWS do go into rebuild mode, I still think they match up very well with our biggest needs: 1) Quality set up guy (Robertson) 2) One year 3B bridge to Moncada/Devers (Frazier) 3) Ace upgrade (Quintana or Sale) If Swihart is a match for Robertson, they may like 5 years of team control from Shaw for 1 year of Frazier, if we add 5 years of Hembree (out of options). That leaves what to give to get Quintana. I think they'll demand JBJ, but if we can sign Beltran, we can move Beni to CF. Add Moncadaa nd maybe Pomeranz or Buch, who they could flip for more prospects, and I think we'd be close to a deal. 1) Beni CF 2) Pedey 2B 3) Betts RF 4) Beltran LF/DH 5) HanRAm 1B/DH 6) Frazier 3B 7) Bogey 3B 8) Pablo DH/Young LF 9) Leon/Vaz C Utility: Holt & Hernandez SP: Quintana, Porcello, Price, ERod, Wright, POm or Buch RP: Kimbrel, Robertson, Smith, Ross, Kelly, Barnes, Abad

Teams rarely trade away players right before their recently signed extension takes affect. Many feel the Rays won't trade int he division either. I think we'd have to blow the Rays away to get Longoria and a pitcher, especially if it's Archer. That being said, Longoria will make $13M next year. That's a great deal, but it's still a lot for the Rays. It's 20% of their projected 2017 budget. They need help at a lot of positions, so a massive quantity for quality type trade might make some sense for the Rays, especially when everyone they get would have 4-6+ years of team control. Players like Moncada or Devers, Ockimey, Shaw or Travis, Basabe, Dubon or Chatham and guys like Owens, Johnson, Barnes, Hembree, Scott. To get Archer added to the deal, we'd have to include Kopech and/or Groome plus others.

As much as I disliked the Espi trade, I still like Pomeranz. I'd certainly kick the tires, but the guy has only had a half season of top of rotation-like pitching. I'm not sure how much to gamble on his future. He'll turn 30 just after his last year of control with us (2018). I might look for a 2-3 year extension, but I'm not sure at what cost. $10M a year?

When comparing the Tigers prospects to the Sox prospects from 2002 to 2015, I couldn't help bu be amazed at this: From 2003 to 2014, the Sox had at leat 8 of their top 10 prospects reach MLB status.http://www.thebaseballcube.com/prospects/byTeam.asp?T=5 The only players not to make MLB were: 2003: Billy Simon (7) and Josh Thigpen (10) 2004: Chad Spann (6), Juan Cedeno (9) 2005: Luis Soto (7) 2006: none 2007: Bryce Cox (7), Jason Place (10) 2008: Oscar Tejada 99) 2009: Westmoreland (7), M Almanzar (8) 2010: Westmoreland (1), D Gibson (10) 2011: none 2012: Brandon Jacobs (6) was traded for Matt Thornton 2013: none 2014: T Ball (10) 2015: R Devers (6)- will probably make MLB. The Tigers have had this... http://www.thebaseballcube.com/prospects/byTeam.asp?T=11

Okay, no problem. When you countered my post using the word "obsession", I assumed you were responding about me and not just to me and others.

The Sox have had 4 players ranked in the top 10 since 2002: HanRam, Buch, Bogey & Moncada. They've had 42 different players in the top 100 since 2002. The Tigers: 16.

I did a little research, and I apologize if it is not as complete as it should be, but these are the top prospects DD acquired while with the tigers from 2002-2015: 6th C Maybin (10th pick of 2005 draft) 8th Verlander (2nd pick of 2004 draft) 10th A Miller (6th pick of 2006 draft) 21st Porcello (27th pick in 2007) 21st Jacob Turner (9th pick in 2009) 35th J Zumaya (320th pick in 2002) 36th Kyle Sleeth (3rd pick in 2003) 47th Michael Fulmer (44th pick in 2011 by NYM) 47th Casey Crosby (181st in 2007) 57th Granderson (80th pick in 2002) 65th N Castellanos (44th pick in 2010) 74th Av. Garcia (not drafted) 76th A Jackson (259th pick in 2005) 84th Devon Travis (424th in 2012) 95th B Rondin (not drafted) 98th Brent Clevlen (49th pick in 2002) Notables never ranked in top 100: 20th pick 2013: Jonathon Crawford 21st pick 2008: Ryan Perry 22nd pick 2015: Beau Burrows 23rd pick 2014: Derek Hill Prospects inherited: J Bonderman, O Infante, B Inge 68th pick 2010: Drew Smyly

I've never defended his attitude or his weight issues. I absolutely hated the signing from the first second onwards. I'm not letting that hatred of the signing or his weight issues or attitude issues interfere with my opinion on what to do going forward. Releasing him at this point throws away a chance, however remote, of him being our best option at 3B next season. Travis Shaw is a huge gamble. Holt's failure at 3B was a major reason we signed Pablo in the first place. Trading him and paying $30M or his $58M owed might not be a bad idea with the luxury tax increase likely not to be a much as expected, but even that might be a pipe dream. It looks like we might be only $15M under the new luxury tax. Adding $4-6M to that is not going to net us a difference maker. As much as it might suck, waiting it out on Pablo seems like our best chance at fixing the 3B issue, or maybe at least filling the LH'd platoon DH slot opposite Young. I'm not holding my breath. I'm not counting on anything from Pablo. I've suggested numerous trades and signings to net us a 3Bman.

How many great prospects did DD ever acquire while with the Tigers? I don't know, but if it was only a handful, and he traded some away in bad trades, then it make him look much worse than if he has 15 great prospects and only made one bad trade from the whole group.

I just don't get the obsession with assigning blame. If you feel the need to do so, I can understand why the buck stops with the man. What matters to me, is where he's at right now, and if his head is in the right place. We're paying him mega bucks, so it's worth giving him a look & see this spring. It's not like we have any great options at 3B right now anyways.

My guess is, if we got Longoria, Moncada would be part of the deal along with Swihart. To expand the deal to get a good starter, we'd be talking a blockbuster package.