moonslav59

Put the leading OPs guy 9th? Now, I've heard everything. Lord, take me now!

I didn't want Cole for that reason and his steep contract, so I don't think I'm ignoring anything. My pint was that if we could have gotten Hammels for Devers, Kopech, Chavis and Light, certainly we could have gotten someone very very good for 6 of the 8 guys I mentioned. I also pointed out that we could have made it a 6 for 2 deal by taking on a big contract. I didn't really consider Tyson Ross and ace, but I think he could have been picked up, if we took on M Upton's deal or maybe even Kemp (and not signed Young). I'm glad we didn't get him. I didn't consider Shields an ace, but he'd have been a nice pick-up. I guess that's going off topic here. I do think Swihart and Devers had very high stock numbers this past winter. Catchers are rare these days. I heard rumors that Cleveland wanted JBJ and more, and I'm glad we didn't trade Jackie. I do agree that Cleveland and the White Sox were not in rebuild mode, so trading 6 prospects was not enticing to them. Sonny Gray will eventually be dealt, but last winter was probably not the time to convince Billy to take 6 kids. Maybe involving a third team would be needed to take all or some of the prospects and give up a major league piece to the Guardians or White Sox or Mets. I had suggested soem deals involving Cincy and their third baseman going to Cleveland with prospects going to Boston and Salazar coming here, but those deals are hard to make.

Doesn't look too painful to me. Besides, the Sox had better prospects than the Rangers. I think we get way way more for my suggested offer than Devers, Kopech, Chavis and Light.

The Cole Hammels deal shows otherwise, although his contract was steep. I don't disagree that these deals are near impossible to find. Many felt Salazar, Carrasco and Quintana were not ace material, and I was talking more about getting one of those guys than Sale, Gray or a Mets starter. I consider the former 3 aces. We got Pedro for two prospects, but that was long ago. We got Schilling for quantity. I'm not saying it's easy, but I think we may have been able to get Salazar for Holt, Swihart, Devers, Guerra, Margot, Johnson or Owens. When I suggested a deal like this, most posters felt I was offering much to much!

I'm confident JBJ can stay hot for more than a month. He's had two "sick" months over his short ML career, and the rest has been pretty much horrible offensively.

Yes, Shaw was my sleep prospect pick for a couple of years way back when, I lost faith after his series of bad stretches as he reached AA ans AAA, Now, I'n torn.

Updated team OPS leaders: 1.035 JBJ (has now passed Papi!) 1.033 Ortiz (on pace for 3rd best OPS of his career & best since 2007) .979 Rutledge (only 30 PAs) .926 Shaw .884 Bogey .828 Pedey .824 Ramirez .822 Betts .722 Young .664 Holt .626 Vazquez .541 Swihart .533 Hernandez .490 Hanigan Betts is .006 from 5th place now. He's .062 from 4th and 1.004 from 3rd.

I never mentioned the Mets as a candidate for a 6 prospect for an ace deal.

Betts is making a big push to make my first projection a reality.

I think trading 6 of the best guys on my list would hurt like hell. It's hard to build up the farm these days with all the new restrictions on richer teams. I think there must be some 6 for one trades in ML history, especially when most of the players do not need to take space on the 40 man roster, but we could have made it a 6 for 2 deal with maybe the 2nd guy being a salary dump type guy.

The situation has changed in MLB. With so much parity, and some teams going from last to first and first to last nearly every year, hardly any teams can be considered in total "rebuild mode". Maybe a team like the Braves might be considered a team looking 3 years away, but even they were a 90 win team in 2012 and 2013. Plus, they were trading prospects away in some deals last winter. No doubt, it's hard to pry a quality young pitcher from any team these days with just a group of prospects, but teams today are also valuing young talent more and more as richer teams are facing tougher and tougher rules on drafting, international signings and more. I'm done complaining about the Kimbrel trade, but I am totally convinced that a package like the one listed below could have gotten us a very fine pitcher under team control for 3 or more years at a reasonable financial cost. (Not all oif these guys, but depending on who we are asking for 6 or 7.) Holt Swihart Devers Guerra Margot Asuage Logan and one or two from Owens, Johnson and Kopech The other alternative was to try for a deal where we take on salary from a team looking to dump a player(s). An example might have been Jamie Shields with M Upton or Kemp, or maybe trading for Verlander (not off to a good start so far). Even these types of deals are hard to find. The best options seem to be for someone like Sonny Gray or Jose Fernandez. Names like Quintana, Carrasco, Salazar and Kluber were floated around last winter, but it's hard to know much those rumors were real. We may have tried very hard to find a deal for an ace, but I doubt we offered Swihart and Devers plus more. I was very much against trying to get Cole Hamels, because he was getting paid near FA money, and Philly wanted too much, but never the less, he was traded away, so it can and does happen.

Me too. Holt has flamed out. That's a bit premature. He's in a slump. Slumps happen. Whether that slump turns into a death spiral or not remains to be seen, I think he should still be good for a couple good spurts of hitting before we really really need to replace him. I'd bench him as we see what Castillo can do. My guess is Holt would still get another chance to show a hot streak, even if Castillo plays very well.

Me too. Holt has flamed out. Young has improved after a horrible start, but Castillo should get the nod any minute now.

Just so ironic that JBJ has this hit streak and they're comparing his to Dom's and Nomar's and Wade's...and he's hitting for power...two years ago this guy was a bum and some wanted to give him away. Just a cautionary tale about patience and young players. I think sometimes all we fans are a little quick to pull the trigger on a guy. Watched Mets and Wash. for a while last night. Think I heard Mets were down a catcher, former starter out for rest of year? Think they said he'd lost his starting job, but they may need someone. Think we could do anything there? When I hear "catcher down" I immediately think maybe a trade is possible. Mets usually have pitching--don't know about their minor league teams. While some posters were calling JBJ a bum, many GMs kept asking for JBJ when trade talks took place.

You might be getting a little caught up in the numbers-- on pace almost never means anything and certainly not this early in the season. I didn't mean to imply that I expect any of these guys to reach 4 x their current numbers; I only meant to show the pace and balance of so many players on our team. During ST'ing I tried to argue that we had less holes in our line-up than nearly anyone else plus a great bench in case anyone faltered. Well, Sandy and Castillo are not even part of this and 8 guys are on pace for 80+ RBIs! Wow! What a start! I seriously doubt we continue like this, but I'm sticking with my top 3 offense projection.

I don't disagree, but how much longer do we stick with Holt? He's 1 for his last 21 with just 1 BB and 6 for his last 40 with a .200 OBP. What's up with Castillo?

You're probably right. You convinced me. I think Shaw likely gets over 85.

I agree, but it's hard to demote anybody right now. I might try: vs RHPs 1) Betts 2) Bogey 3) Ortiz 4) Ramirez 5) JBJ 6) Pedey 7) Shaw 8) Vazquez 9) Rutledge (LF?) vs LHP 1) Betts 2) Bogey 3) Pedey 4) Ortiz 5) Ramirez 6) JBJ 7) Shaw 8) Vazquez/Hanigan 9) Rutledge

My eyesight is poor, so the bold helps. I don't mean to offend.

We are a quarter of the way through the season and Shaw is tied for 9th in RBIs in all of baseball. If he continues to bat fifth in that line-up all year, he would need to get injured not to reach 80 RBIs! Do you know something about his health that no one else does Moonslav? Lol I can certainly see him getting over 80, but I think he will slump, and I think the Sox will not continue at this scoring pace, so he will not have as many opportunities. Note: I would not bet on my hunch.

It might have been just hot air, but there were several rumors about Cleveland shopping Carrasco, Salazar and possibly Kluber. I remember one rumor involved JBJ, but I'm not sure if that deal included one of those top 3 SP'er.

Here's two things I think will happen this year: 1) Betts ends up with a top 3 OPS on the team. (He's currently 7th and about 240 points behind the current #3 guy.) 2) Out of the 8 guys currently on pace for 80 RBIs, only 6 will reach that number: Ortiz, Ramirez, Betts, JBJ, Bogey & Pedey (not Shaw & Holt).

Quintana and Salazar were two pitchers I hoped we'd go hard after. Instead of trading for Kimbrel, I thought we could have offered that package plus Holt and Swihart and/or Devers and got the deal done.

Holt has 3 arb years after this season. That makes him valuable to teams looking to compete now, next year and teams looking 2-3 years out.

I have never argued Holt by himself would bring back a quality pitcher. My suggested offers were not even with Holt as the headliner, and some had him as the 3rd or 4th piece.