moonslav59

We have 4 catchers right now, and if Swihart wasn't on the DL, we'd be talking what to do with him. I do not see catcher as being even close to our highest need area. Unless Milwaukee will take Hanigan (with a prospect) to help offset Lucroy's contract, I doubt we'd even consider trading for him. We need pitching first, pitching second, pitching third, then maybe LF... not catching. Plus, Lucroy will be very costly. Milwaukee will not want overpayed players in return (like Hanigan). I guess they may take Leon and prospects, but I still don't see the Sox looking at him for an offensive boost.

I'm not sure I agree that we rushed Betts. The kid was killing every level he moved up to from day one. Plus, we called him up in 2014 when we were already out of it, so what was the need "rush"? His .812 OPS in MLB those 2 months in 2014 is not evidence of being rushed. On Leon, I wouldn't be so quick to say his offense has "obviously gotten better" based on just a tiny sample size of 35 PAs. I'm not saying he can't be improving. Of course, he can be. It's natural for players to slowly improve over time, especially at, before and around the age that Leon currently is (27). Leon has been in professional baseball since age 18. That's 10 years! I'm sorry, but I'm not buying the idea that suddenly, 10 years into his career, he suddenly found the magic potion. Sure, I'm fine with slower growth, and there are cases where players have seemingly vastly improved almost overnight without apparent PED use, but more times than not, what we are seeing from Leon recently, turns out to be no more than a "flash in the pan". The odds are Leon will return to numbers much closer to his career norms (.580 MLB OPS in 270 PAs/.654 minor league OPS). One reason I am not a believer just yet, is that Leon had a .655 OPS at AAA this year in 115 PAs. This was nearly identical to his minor league career OPS, so one could argue he showed no signs of improvement prior to his call-up. However, I would argue he has shown improvement in recent years, but just not on the scale of these 35 PAs. Leon was first called up to AAA briefly in 2012 after a very lack-luster .614 OPS at the AA level in 510 PAs. Here are his AAA numbers since 2012: 2012 1.026 in 64 PAs (2013: he was returned to A- and AA ball with a .542 OPS at AA) 2014: .692 in 193 PAs/ .447 in MLB (70 PAs with the NATs) 2015: .676 in 111 PAs/.439 in 128 PAs with BOS 2016: .655 in 130 PAs at Pawtucket He's consistently been over his AA OPS every year at AAA, so I do see strong signs of improvement, but nothing massive. I think Leon projects at about .650-.675 in the bigs, and that may be generous. Can he do much better? Yes, of course he can, but I wouldn't bet on it.

What's the latest on signing our 1st round pick?

From what I've heard, Moncada has the tools to be a plus defender but is still far from plus at 2B, the position he has played for quite a while. How long would it take him to pass Shaw or Devers on defense at 3B? (Maybe too long.) It's not like plus skills in LF are wasted either.

Did you forget Uehara?

SP'er WAR: 8.8 CLE 7.8 CWS 7.2 NYY 7.1 HOU 6.9 TBR 6.5 SEA 6.4 BOS 5.9 TEX 5.9 DET 5.4 TOR 5.3 OAK 5.2 MIN 4.6 BAL 4.3 KCR 3.4 LAA RP'er 3.9 NYY 2.1 BOS 2.0 BAL 2.0 HOU 1.6 CLE 1.6 KCR 1.6 CWS 1.6 TOR 1.3 TEX 1.3 OAK 0.9 DET 0.8 SEA 0.8 LAA 0.6 MIN 0.5 TBR Pitching Total WAR 11.4 NYY 11.1 CLE 10.4 CWS 9.4 HOU 8.5 BOS 7.4 TBR 7.2 TEX 7.2 SEA 6.9 TOR 6.8 DET 6.6 OAK 6.6 BAL 5.9 KCR 5.9 MIN 4.7 LAA Do these numbers shows it's all smoke and mirrors with BAL or good coaching can make a difference?

I'm starting to entertain the idea of us becoming sellers this July. The thing is, the guys I'd put on the block are either on the DL (Holy & Swihart), severely overpaid (Ramirez), booted off the 40 man roster (Castillo & Craig), just plain unwanted (Buchholz, Brentz, Kelly, Owens & Johnson) or a combination of these situations (Sandoval).

How about Kelly, Craig and Castillo for Sabathia? Just kidding.

The Pirates mat become sellers, and Liriano may be available, although he's having a rough stretch.

I'm not saying Gray's stock has not dipped this year, but I think sometimes posters overestimate how much a player's stock rises or falls dues to a short-term injury or short period of struggles. One example I like to use is JBJ. Many Sox fans all but wrote him off, and I will admit his sample size of weak hitting was getting close to definitive, but when GMs called the Sox last winter, rumor has it they asked about JBJ. GMs are not as fickle as fans. The haul of prospects needed to get Gary may be more in July than it would have taken in January, due to the desperation of so many ball clubs today.

True, only if they are high salaried or over payed. Maybe an older pitcher on a team looking to get younger.

I could see Moncada in LF and Devers at 3B in 2-4 years, but we could also see Moncada or Devers at 1B. How well Benintendi does may force that hand.

Possible trade partners- teams that are out of it: ATL- Tehera (25) & RP Vizcaino (25) [1B- Freddie Freeman (26)] PHI- Nola (23), Eickoff (25), Velasquez (24), Hellickson (29), RP J Gomez (28) & H Neris TBR- Archer (27), Smyly (27), Odorizzi (26), Moore (27), Andriese (26) SDP- Pomeranz (27), T Ross (on DL), RP F Rodney (39) & R Buchter (29) [1B/OF W Myers (25), and salary dumps: M Kemp (31) & M Upton (31) OAK- S Gray (26), R Hill (36), RP R Dull (26), Doolittle (29) [OF Reddick (29)] AZ- RP B Ziegler (36), T Clippard (31), D Hudson (29), [1B Goldschmidt, 3B Jake Lamb (25), OF Y Tomas (25)] CIN- B Finnegan (23), D Straily (27) [J Votto (32), OF J Bruce (29), A Duvall (27)] MIL- Z Davies, J Guerra (31), RP T Thornburg (27), [OF R Braun (32)] NYY- Sabathia (35), RP Miller (31) & Chapman (28) [OF C Beltran (39)] COL- RP B Logan (31) [OF Carlos Gonzalez (30) & C Blackmon (29), 3B N Arendo (25) Then there's salary dump Verlander f the Tigers.

I know I may be dreaming, but I'd really want a pitcher who will be with the team for at least 2 more years after this season. And, I don't mean a 4/5 slot pitcher.

They can have Owens and Johnson. I'm done with both of them!

Young had an MRI on Monday that showed the injury was worse than first believed. Looks like he might not be back for a while longer.

I don't think Swihart's stock has fallen other than maybe a short-term injury concern. I'm jst about done hoping a Sox pitching prospect ever makes it big, and with Kopech's attitude issues, I have no issues trading him. I love Devers, but I see Moncada as taking the next available IF position that opens up, and then holding it for 18 years.

Young may be out longer than expected... MLBTR reports... ...outfielder Chris Young underwent an MRI in Boston on Monday, and the test revealed “a little bit more injury” than Young’s initial tests did...

It's hard to say with these DH first type guys who can pretend to play 1B well. To his credit, he has improved at 1B, and he's actually been plus over the past two years at 1B in UZR/150, but his career mark is -7.7 at 1B, -11.6 at 3B and -743. in LF. The guy has been a beast at the plate hitting over 34 HRs for the last 4 years in a row (21 so far this year). He's been over .890 in OPS for 5 straight years, counting 2016. I guess if we can trade for a cheap but top quality SP'er, we can afford to sign EE.

I'd love his bat on the Sox, but with limited financial resources next winter, I think the money would be better spent on a SP'er and 2-3 RP'ers. With Pablo returning, and Moncada, Benintendi & Travis knocking on the door, I think we'll go with what we got with non-pitchers. Here's how I see next year's depth chart position by position minus Papi: C: Vazquez, Hanigan (option), Swihart, Leon, Romanowski, Procyshen, Moore, Rei 1B: Ramirez, Shaw, Travis, Holt, Sandoval, (Moncada),Witte, Longhi, nOckimey 2B: Pedroia, Moncada, Holt, Hernandez, Rutledge, Marrero, Miller, Coyle, Rijo 3B: Shaw, Sandoval, (Moncada), Hernandez, Holt, Rutledge, Marrero, Devers, Chavis SS: Bogaerts, Hernandez, Marrero, Holt, Rutledge, Dubon LF: Young/Swihart, (Moncada), Benintendi, Holt, LaMarre, Castillo, Basabe CF: JBJ, Betts, Benintendi, Young, Holt, (Moncada), Castillo, Basabe RF: Betts, Young/Swihart, Benintendi, (Moncada), Holt DH: Ramirez/Sandoval/Swihart/Moncada, Pedroia (t rest some), Shaw, Young, Witte, Devers Here's the pitching staff: SP1) Price SP2) ________ SP3) Wright SP4) Porcello SP5) Erod/Kelly/Elias/Owens/Johnson/Kopech/(Barnes), Cuevas Closer) Kimbrel RP2) _________ RP3) Smith RP4) _________ RP5) Hembree RP6) Ross RP7) Kelly/Elias/Barnes/Layne/Owens/Johnson, Workman, N Ramirez, Light, Martin, Jerez

Hill would be a 2 month rental, so yes, you are talking in circles. I'm not sure I'd give up Devers for Hill, even if he agreed to a 2 year extension at $6M a year. He's old and too unreliable. We need a solid, durable top quality starter (maybe two).

He might be slow getting his timing down.

Sox OPS after tonight's game: 1.111 Ortiz (1st out of 77 AL players with 250+ PAs) .950 JBJ (6th) .889 Bogey (14th) .832 Betts (25th) .818 Pedroia (28th) .793 Shaw (46th) .761 Ramirez (49th) Under 250 PAs .846 Young (would rank 22nd) .664 Holt .554 Vazquez Low PAs 1.283 Leon .950 Brentz .733 Rutledge .720 Swihart .704 Hernandez .479 Hanigan If you lower the PAs to 140, the AL sample size grows to 143 (9 players x 15 teams =145.) 1) Ortiz (+.124 over 2nd place Altuve) 6) JBJ 16) Bogey 29) Young 34) Betts 40) Pedroia 52) Shaw 68) HanRam 139) Vazquez WOW! 8 players in the top half of the AL.

You can't judge a pitcher by just a third of a season.

Pretty amazing that Archer, Smyly and Moore all have ERAs over 4.70 this year.Archer ans Smyly still have high K rates (over 10/9IP), and I think they both could easily improve over the second half. Smyly's still got two more arb years left, so he's appealing. Archer would cost much more in prospects due to him having 5 more years of team control at a great rate. Archer's luxury tax hit would only be $4.25M until 2020 when his $9M option is available. Even his $11M 2021 option looks to be a steal. The one good thing about the Rays, is that they may value long away prospects more than "win now" teams. That means guys like Devers and Espinoza could have more appeal to them than other teams looking at 2017. Maybe we could offer Swihart (as a PTBNL until he's off the DL), Devers, Espinoza, Travis, Kopech, T Ball and Owens or Johnson for both Archer & Smyly. If they want Holt or Herandez, include them as well. That's probably wishful thinking, but we can probably get one from the Rays. I like Sonny Gray, but hesitate to pull the trigger on him. Even if his injury is not a long term concern, pitchers from the A's rarely continue their productivity after being traded. I've never been that high on Paxton, and the M's may not be sellers this July. His WHIP has been around 1.500 since the start of 2015, although the sample size is rather small (just 19 starts). His 3 arb years remaing is a plus. What are your thoughts on Eickoff and Nola from the Phillies? Also, Vincent Velasquez?