moonslav59

That's a tough one. With 3B and 1B seemingly our weakest positions over the next few years, I'd hate to trade Devers, Travis or Chavis. I doubt they'd go for Ockimey, Dalbec and Owens. Maybe they'd take Ockimey, Chatham and Lakins, but that might be too much for a 2 month rental. Our farm has already been nearly gutted.

Of course, we'd rather have Moustakas, but I feel his cost will be too high. If he'd agree to an extension as part of thed eal, maybe we'd go for him, but I'm not sure we can afford to pay him on a large and long deal and then keep others.

I should have highlighted Hernandez even though he is only 20, but Pimental is not going to be taken. Who are the 10? Plus, I count at least 10 guys we lose to free agency or we can trade/cut: 1. Moreland FA 2. Young FA 3. Abad FA 4. Kendrick FA 5. Boyer 6. Noe Ramirez 7. Marrero 8. Velazquez 9. Selsky 10. K Martin We could also trade these guys and barely miss them (maybe a 3 for one type trade): Workman Owens Ysla B Taylor Plus.... Holt may retire. We may trade or DFA Pablo.

Several of the players I added to the roster would never be drafted, because they are not ML ready and would not be kept on anyone's 25 man roster for a full year. Plus, I didn't mention dumping Elias. This is the least roster crunch winter I've seen coming up in years.

I could see us trading something like this: Ockimey and Owens for Todd Frazier I'm not saying I like this, but this is something like what I see happening.

Has Farrell lost it?

For sure.

I'd have gone with Pablito

There are different ways to win, even if we have yet to discover them.

Even if he agreed to an expensive extension, it's bad math.

Yes, it could. If Travis flops, we may see Devers or Chavis moved to 1B, especially if HRam and or Pablo can't play there next year. It would be great, if Travis could play FT 1B next season and Devers FT 3B. HRam could DH and maybe play 1b in NL parks and Pablo could try and get some ABs at 3B, 1B and DH, if he's still around. The money "saved" by not having to replace Moreland and Young could cover arb raises and maybe go towards extending someone early, if possible. C: Vaz-Leon(Swihart AAA) 1B: Travis (HRam/Pablo) 2B: Pedey-Rutledge or Marco 3B: Devers-Pablo SS: Bogey- Holt (or Marrero AAA) LF: Beni CF: JBJ RF: Betts DH: HRam (Pablo) SP: Sale, Price, Porcello, ERod, Pom, Wright RP: Kimbrel, Smith, Thornburg, Kelly, Hembree, Barnes That could be a solid 25. the rest of the 40 man... 26 Swihart 27 Johnson 28 Hernandez 29 Ross 30 Scott 31 Workman 32 Marrero 33 Taylor 34 Owens 35 Elias (or + J Cosart-Rule 5) 36 Martin (or + J Callahan- Rule 5) 37 Velazquez (or + T Ball- Rule 5) 38 Ysla (or + Lin- Rule 5) 38 N Ramirez (or + T Buttrey- Rule 5) 39 +J Beeks (Rule 5) 40 + N Longhi (Rule 5)

It costs a lot for even a 2 month rental, especially if it is the high impact bat people are saying we need. I don't see a roster crunch this winter. We lose Moreland, Young, Abad, Kendrick & Boyer. We've already added Moreland's replacement, Travis, to the 40 man roster. My guess is Devers will be added this year or over the winter. He may replace Young's bat but not Young's OF depth. , KendrickAbad & Boyercan easily be replaced by someone already on the 40 man roster. We also have "fluff" on our 40 man roster that could easily be traded or DFA'd: Noe Ramirez Ysla Martin Velazquez Selsky Maybe Marrero Maybe Holt retires. Maybe we find a salary dump taker for Pablo. Our Rule 5 situation is not an issue, as there are more players easily replaced than ones in need of protecting. Rule 5 next winter: From soxprospects.com... "The following players will be eligible for the December 2017 Rule 5 Draft if they are not added to the 40-man roster by November 20, 2017: 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, Mike Meyers, Mike Miller, Samuel Miranda, Joseph Monge, Jhon Nunez, Yankory Pimentel, Jordan Procyshen, Hildemaro Requena, Jeremy Rivera, Jake Romanski, Chandler Shepherd, Josh Smith, Teddy Stankiewicz, Cole Sturgeon, Carlos Tovar, Jantzen Witte "

I once met an old blog buddy from the other site for a Sea Dogs game. That was fun.

Only my wife is allowed to call me Charlie Brown!

I'm not sure DD views any prospect as "untouchable". I could see us trading Chavis.

I'm sure the coaching at Porland can help address any defensive shortcomings Chavis might have at 3B. I think the main thing keeping Chavis at Salem is the fact that Devers is blocking him at Portland. Moving Devers up would allow for a clean promotion of Chavis. The Sox don't seem to like moving a player off his comfort position. It's been sort of a pet peeve of mine, as we seem to keep having to move a prospect to a new position for 10 games before calling him up to play a new position of need. (Although a quick move worked for Betts, I feel like the moves of Bogey to 3B, Swihart to LF, Beni to LF, Moncado & Marrero to 3B were needlessly rushed.

I was down on our pen prospects before the season began. I didn't think Thornburg was enough to compensate for losing Koji, Ziegs and Taz. When we lost Thornburg, I had little hope our pen would be even average. Then, we lost Robbie Ross. Kimbrel has been a God send. He's pitching like the old days. Hembree, Barnes & Kelly have all done better than expected. Scott has done well. If we can get Thornburg or Smith back and pitching well, we should be fine, even if someone doing well slumps a little.

Iguess the coaching at Portland may be better suited for bringing along Devers' defense, and with devers staying at Portland, I can see why they don't move Chavis up to Portland. I'd just like to see, maybe for selfish reasons, how Devers and Chavis hit at a higher level. If the plan is to bring Devers up in September, or earlier if there is an injury, then why not let him face some older pitchers closer in skill level to MLB pitching?

Agreed. I suppose one of Betts or HRam could "get going" along with JBJ having one of his torrid stretches, or maybe Pedey or Beni catching on fire. We could also just see everyone stepping it up just a little bit all at the same time. Something has to change for the good.

It looks like our best and most likely trading chip this summer would be Vaz, Leon or Swihart. Vaz probably would bring the best return, but that doesn't mean that's who gets traded. I really don't want us to trade Devers, Travis or Groome. Those three represent our best three best chances at substantially filling future key roles at a low cost, thereby allowing us to keep as many of our younger stars (and Chris Sale) as possible.

I think they have wanted Vaz at catcher all along. In that light, both moves make total sense and does not appear to be "panic" in nature. Saying Swihart is now only a catcher seems to go against that idea, but I think things have changed. I'm no longer so sure Sox management is sold on Vaz as "the guy". I get the sense Vaz was in some sort of psuedo-dog house last year and to start this year. They may also have returned Blake to catcher-only duty to raise his trade value or to make it possible to trade Vaz or Leon for something we need.

According to Baseball Reference: 2.5 Sale 2.3 Betts 1.7 JBJ 1.7 Kimbrel 1.3 Bogey 1.3 ERod 1.2 Moreland 1.1 Kelly 0.8 Pomeranz 0.6 Beni 0.5 Johnson 0.4 Pedey & Barnes 0.3 Travis 0.2 HRam, Abad & Marco 0.1 Porcello, Hembree, Workman, Boyer,Vaz, Leon, d'Arnaud 0.0 Price -0.1 Young & Ross -0.2 Marrero & Rutledge -0.5 Kendrick -0.9 Pablo

Moreland has been a bright spot in the line-up that seems to be underperforming. According to fangraphs, here are our current leaders in WAR: 3.6 Sale 2.2 Betts 2.2 Bogey 1.9 Kimbrel 1.2 Porcello 1.1 JBJ 1.1 Moreland 1.0 Pomeranz 0.8 ERod 0.7 Hembree 0.6 Beni 0.6 Pedey 0.4 Kelly 0.4 Vaz 0.3 Barnes 0.3 Scott 0.1 Leon 0.1 Johnson 0.1 Kendrick 0.0 HRam 0.0 Ross 0.0 Abad & Boyer -0.1 Price -0.2 Young -0.4 Pablo

We've had some nice comeback wins this year. We've had a few late game heroics. We can't seem to put together anything long-lasting. Maybe last night's win will spark something substantial.

Good points. I'm hopeful he turns things around very quickly.