moonslav59

Maybe we have all been too quick to downplay he return we got for Buch... The Red Sox freed up some salary by dealing Clay Buchholz to the Phillies, but Boston also likes the prospect (Josh Tobias) they got in return, WEEI.com’s Rob Bradford writes. Tobias, a 10th-round pick for the Phillies in 2015, was one of 10 names targeted by the Sox as they looked through Philadelphia’s system. Red Sox director of pro scouting Gus Quattlebaum describes Tobias as “having potential as a versatile, switch-hitting guy with make-up and a feel to hit. Whenever you can find someone who can hit, that guy is going to standout.“

Yes, he was...and 94 too. Pedro: 14-10 3.51/ 1.151 WHIP 13-19 3.70/ 1.195 17-8 1.90/ 0.932 Sale: 12-4 2.17/ 0.966 13-11 3.41/1.088 17-10 3.34/1.037 Pedro:'95-'97 16.7 WAR 71 ERA- 1.08 WHIP 27% K 8% BB Sale: '14-'16 16.1 WAR 74 ERA- 1.03 WHIP 29% K 5% BB They look pretty close, so I'm not sure why I wasn't quite as high when we got Pedro as I feel right now. We can only hope Sale preforms like Pedro did for us.

Again, I see a big loss putting one of those three in AAA, so the choice is primarily about who is the better two starters, and secondarily about who is best for the pen. Personally, I like ERod best of the 3 as a starter, but I realize it is close, and a case can be made for each one, but I also have ERod listed as 3rd out of the three for the pen, so to me the choice should be beween Pom and Wright for the pen. Pom and Wright have recent pen experience.

I knew Pedro was really good at the time of the trade, but he only had one great season under his belt. There was also talk of him being too small and frail to be a starting pitcher for a very long time. I loved the trade at the time, but didn't think of it (at the time) like this trade for Sale.

I pitched a knuckleball in slow-pitch softball for many years. I seemed to do best when I was pitching into a wind (yes wind blowing out). Lots of Ks- lots of long fly outs- lots of solo HRs, but overall, I did pretty well.

To me, 4 years to 3 tipped the balance to Q, but I'm not complaining. The Sale trade is the type of trade I have dreamed of for 45 years. In hindsight, had we not traded for Kimbrel and traded for Pom, maybe we could have traded for both Sale and Q.

Sarcasm at its very best!

Yes, but I always thought that had to do with no wind. His worst career ERA month was May. Tow of his best 3 were June and July. His 3.29 ERA at TB makes us remember his dome advantage, but he also had... Away ERA: 4.52 8.44 HOU -MinMaid 4.91 HOU- Astrodome 4.54 MN Metrodome 4.65 YOR Skydome 9.54 SEA Kingdome 3.43 SEA Safeco

Unless one believes that JBJ has played over his head, and his stock has "peaked", there's no way I see any reason to trade him

Q has very similar numbers to Sale, but he has... 1 more year of team control no weird delivery that hints at a higher injury probability

Not me. My guess is the guy who wrote that choice into the poll.

Wake seemed to do better when sweat was dripping off his face.

To me, the only real roster issue is concerning Abad and Hembree's lack of options. Since Abad has just one year of team control, and his arb cost is estimated at $2M, trading or cutting him would not be a huge loss. I mean, we traded Pat freakin' Light for him last summer. We can trade for someone like him again, if needed. I can see us trading Abad near the end of ST'ing for a RP'er with options, if a roster crunch materializes. Assuming no injuries at all, which is highly unlikely, so all this roster crunch debate would go down the drain the second one or two pitchers go on the DL, here's how I see it. Smith will not be on the opening day roster, so that prolongs one decision. Locks: Kimbrel & Thornburg Near locks: [Pom or Wright], Ross 2 options, Kelly 1, Barnes 2 That leaves room for one guy out of... (options remaining) In order of skill level, in my opinion: Hembree 0 Abad 0 Scott 3 Elias 1 Workman 2 Martin 3 Johnson 1/Owens 2 N Ramirez 1 Ysla 3 I know it's the time of year with not much to talk about, but is keeping Abad really all that important? I could see a benefit of trading him, and adding $2M to out spending budget as worth more than he is regardless of a "roster crunch". Someone will get hurt. If not, someone can go on the phantom DL. The real roster crunch may come when Smith is ready, but again, someone will be hurt by then.

I totally agree. I know that Pom and Wright had excellent first halves this year, but to me, ERod is the #4 on paper right now.

I don't think so. He had pitched many innings in previous years on the farm. He's in winter ball now.

Wright had an awesome first half too, but in the AL in the toughest division in MLB. Only Kershaw and Bumgarner had a better 1st half ERA- than Wright.

I agree and have said that all along in the ERod to AAA debate, which is where this statement's context lies. If Ross or Barnes struggles in ST'ing or has a little nagging injury, I could see us wanting to keep Abad and Hembree on our roster somehow-someway. I don't think there's a big step down from Abad/Hembree to Scott/Workman, so losing one is not a big deal to me.

Agreed. I'm just saying that going into this winter, I expected more pen building. I'm not complaining about our 25 man roster construction. We have a tremendous opening day roster on paper. The pen is still a concern (second to 3B), but adding Thornburg was a big boost. One big aspect to this year's pen is, assuming at least 5 of our starters stay healthy, is that we should not need as many innings. If we can count on Pom or Wright to stay in the pen most of the year, then we look fine. We also have decent ML ready farm depth in Scott, Workman, Martin, Ramirez, Olmos, Ysla and maybe Owens or Johnson.

Swihart doing well at the plate in the context of being "rushed twice" is what has gotten us all believing his bat is not the issue. He looks great at the plate- nice swing. Good contact hitter for a catcher is a very good start; you are right. I'm not trying to rain on Swi's parade, but the small sample sizes make me still open to the chance that his offensive projection could be over-rated. Certainly, I see his chances at plus offense as greater than Vaz/Leon, but there's still a lot of questions on all three of these guys- offensively and defensively.

I'm with MVP on this one. I kind of expected more than Thornburg to replace Koji, Ziegler & Taz. Yes, Smith should return, but there might be a long period for him to get back to where he was with Seattle, and besides, it's not like he has had many very good season. Yes, Kelly looked good down the stretch. We said the same about him after 2015's end of season stretch. Is adding Pom or Wright to the pen as a swingman really going to be an improvement on the 2016 Wright in that role? We went into this season with a pretty good looking pen: Kimbrel (top 3-4 closer in MLB), Smith (coming off a good season in SEA), Koji (still looking like a force), Taz (no reason to expect decline), Ross (had been very consistent), Layne (had been a good LOOGY) and Wright (with Barnes in the wings). Going into 2017: Do we feel better about Kimbrel now as compared to April 1, 2016? I don't. Thronburg/Smith vs Smith/Koji? With Smith's status unknown, I like how I felt with Smith/Koji better. Taz/Ross/Layne/Wright/Barnes (as we felt opening day 2016) vs Kelly/Ross/Barnes/Pom or Wright/Abad orHembree? Pretty close here.

He only hit for .795 vs LHPs for us in 2013. That surprised me (.745 vs RHPs). He was even worse the next year (.743 vs LHPs). He was at .783 vs LHPs with KC in 2015. His overall .526 OPS in Japan last year leads me to think he's done, but I'm fine with a minor league deal.

. I totally agree. What about this though: Let's assume, for argument's sake that Swihart is a 3 on a scale of 1-10, and Vaz and Leon are both 7's. Can't we assume that as Swihart catches full time somewhere and improves from a 3 to a 5, that it is also likely that Vaz or Leon playing FT somewhere are still young enough to improve from a 7 to an 8 or 9? Swihart could improve his defense and still never gain ground on Vaz/Leon, if they improve at the same rate. While Swihart has a much better MLB OPS (small and scattered sample sizes for all three), he didn't hit better than either of them in AAA. What I'm saying is that we all seem to assume that all Swihart has to do is close the gap on defense to win the job, because he is clearly a much better hitter, and I'm not so sure that is a proven point just yet. If you asked me to project career OPs for these three, I'm all on board with the rest of you guys in that Swihart should be a better hitter, but there really is not much evidence to support this, except tiny MLB and AA sample sizes. The AAA small sample sizes support Vaz & Leon.

That is the scenario that would open up a can of worms. If Swihart is tearing up ST'ing and/or AAA, but has shown little progress on defense, how do we justify keeping him at catcher in AAA for too much longer? There's LF vs LHPs (assuming we might think of platooning Beni/JBJ). There's 1B, if they want to teach him yet another position before exhausting the catcher chance. There's DH, which is not ideal for an athlete like Swihart, but for one season or part of a season, sometime you have to do what is best for the line-up, and to hell with the growth model set up for Swi to become a capable catcher. If Leon or Vaz are struggling, calling him up would be easier, but both Vaz and Leon are out of options. We'd have to be pretty sure Swi "is the man" to trade away Leon or Vaz. I guess we could invent a DL excuse, but how long can that last? I know Sox management is committed to giving him every chance at catcher, but thinks happen that change plans.

Your point is well taken, but I don't think ERod will be on an innings limit this year, so the only purpose for starting ERod in AA, apart from him sucking in ST'ing, would be to allow us to keep out-of-options pitchers like ABad or Hembree. Sending Barnes or Ross down could accomplish the same goal. ERod> Barnes ERod> Ross In my opinion: ERod> Wright & Pom

True, and neither have Wright and Pom.