moonslav59

But, if nobody picks him up, which they might not at $2M, I think we still pay him, and his salary counts against the luxury limit. I could be wrong, and would love it if I am. I thought $2M was too much.

Agreed on Travis for 2018. Losing Moreland and Young should give Travis a shot at a FT job. I had us at about $11M under the limit.

MLBTR.... Sandy Leon tells Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe that even though he’s been characterized as a lock to make the Red Sox’ Opening Day roster, he’s not assuming anything in Spring Training. Leon, who has been optioned to the minors six times and designated for assignment on multiple occasions in his career, tells Abraham, “I don’t know how to think that way,” adding that nothing should be considered guaranteed. The 28-year-old Leon had the opportunity to play for his native Venezuela or his wife’s native Colombia in the World Baseball Classic but passed on both opportunities to better prepare for the 2017 season with Boston. Leon’s breakout season finished with a prolonged slump, though Abraham notes that Leon played 53 games in Winter Ball before the regular season and was working a starter’s workload for the first time in 2016, which may have caused him to wear down. Leon logged just four Winter Ball games this offseason and figures to start for the BoSox on Opening Day in 2017.

If you meant Sox players, I don't think those numbers have been reported yet. Most will be about $575K.

I think Trout got $1.1M

Except he still gets paid, right?

I'm very concerned. It could turn out to be minor, and maybe I'm being pessimistic, but this doesn't look good.

Young is our 2nd best hitter vs LHPs (to HanRam). If he's not DH'ing vs LHPs, he has to be playing somewhere every time a lefty starts. If he's not at DH, which OF'er are you going to sit? I can see sitting Beni vs some tough lefties, and JBJ has struggled vs some lefties, but how can anyone suggest a platoon or partial platoon with him? I like Travis and want to see him do well, but he's got a long way to go to prove he's better than Young vs LHPs. Young's .875 OPS vs lefties is the 24th best in MLB among players with 350+ PAs over the last 3 years. His .985 OPS over the last 2 years (250+ PAs) ranks him 5th best in MLB! Sitting him vs lefties is insanity. The guy should bat 3-5 in the line-up vs LHPs.

If we discount Beni, I agree, but Beni is still considered a prospect. The 3 other top prospects all are earmarked to fill our next voids. After that, we are desolate. I think our ranking of 21st is about right, even with Beni counting. Once he becomes a non prospect, we'll probably be 24th or lower. "Good shape" is clearly hyperbole.

We'd probably have to have added Devers or Travis.

With Price's health in doubt, I can't help but look at how much luck and/or rotational health seemed to influence our championships. Here's a look at how many starts our top starters got over the years: 2003: 29 Pedro 33 DLowe 33 Wake 30 Burkett 14 Fossum/10 Suppan/13 others (4) 2004: 33 Pedro 32 Schill 33 Lowe 30 Wake 29 Arroyo 4 others (3) 2005: 11 Schill 32 Clement 30 D Wells 32 Arroyo 33 Wake 16 W Miller & 8 others (4) 2006: 33 Beckett 31 Schill 12 Clement 8 D Wells 23 Wakefield 15 Lester/10 Snyder/6 DiNardo/6 Tavarez/ 6 J Johnson/ 12 others (4) 2007: 30 Beckett 24 Schilling 32 Dice-K 31 Wakefield 11 Lester 23 Tavarez/7 Gabbard/ 4 others (2) 2008: 27 Beckett 29 Dice-K 33 Lester 30 Wake 7 B Colon 15 Buch/9 Masterson/8 P Byrd/4 other (3) 2009: 32 Beckett 32 Lester 12 Dice-K 24 Penny 16 Buch 21 Wake/8 Smoltz/6 Masterson/6 P Byrd/5 others (2) 2010: 21 Beckett 32 Lester 33 Lackey 28 Buch 25 Dice-K 19 Wake/ 4 others (2) 2011 31 Lester 30 Beckett 28 Lackey 14 Buch 7 Dice-K 23 Wake/12 A Miller/8 Bedard/9 others (2) 2012: 33 Lester 21 Beckett 0 Lackey 11 Dice-K 10 D Bard 29 Buch/ 29 Doubront/18 Cook/9 Morales/2 Stewart 2013: 33 Lester 29 Lackey 16 Buch 27 Doubront 29 Dempster 10 Peavy/7 Webster/6 Aceves/5 others (3) 2014: (Mid season purge) 21 Lester 21 Lackey 28 Buch 20 Peavy 10 Doubront 15 Workman/ 18 de la Rosa/11 Webster/10 Kelly/7 Ranaudo/1 Wright 2015: 28 Porcello 18 Buchholz 32 W Miley 25 J Kelly 9 Masterson 21 ERod/ 11 Owens/9 Wright/9 others (4) 2016: 35 Price 33 Porcello 21 Buchholz 20 ERod 6 Kelly 24 Wright/ 13 Pom/ 10 Others (3) It's not a perfect correlation, but our winning years saw many more starts from our top 4-5 starters than our losing years. 2004: 158 starts from our top 5 starters. 2007: 117 from our top 4 starters (24+ GS'd from our top 4 starters). 2013: 27 or more starts from 4 of our top 5 starters.

You think we could have gotten Quintana for Espinoza, Margot, Guerra, Logan Allen and Asuaje?

Ooops. Went back and edited. Thanks.

MAAAAaaaarrero looks like he'll never hit well enough for the bigs.

Cecchini was traded for cash in December 2015. I'm fine with taking him off the list. Yes, Coyle was released. He should not be on the list. Plus, he was DFA'd in the summer of 2015, so he's outside the time range anyways.

Exactly. They'd probably do the same with even a lesser talented player with several years of team control.

MLBTR... Dating back to last summer, the Red Sox have lost high-level prospects like Yoan Moncada, Michael Kopech and Anderson Espinoza in trades, and president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski isn’t ruling out further deals, he told Evan Drellich of the Boston Herald. At the same time, Dombrowski is aware that “you have to quit trading young guys” sometime. With the Red Sox’s collection of “good young players” in the big leagues and the minors, Dombrowski believes the team has the “foundation to be good for a long time.” Here's a list of Sox prospects traded away since last year (highest ranking on soxprospects.com): 1 Moncada 3 Espinoza 3 Margot 3 Cecchini 5 Kopech 6 Guerra 7 Basabe 9 Dubon 11 Coyle 12 W Rijo 13 Logan 13 Light 17 Basabe (the other one) 20 Asuaje 21 V Diaz 24 Pennington 30 Wilkerson 40 Almonte 43 Cuevas Plus vets... Buchholz T Shaw

I don't think the pen is a good idea, since it lends itself to the desire to over pitch (throw too hard) to get that "big out". I do think holding him out of a few starts might end up being part of the plan, or just limiting his innings until he shows he's strong enough to go more and more.

MLBTR... By Connor Byrne | March 4, 2017 at 6:10pm CDT There was fear this week that Red Sox left-hander David Price would need elbow surgery, but those worries were put to rest Friday. It turns out that elbow experts Dr. James Andrews and Dr. Neal ElAttrache diagnosed Price with a mild flexor strain and some bone spurs, industry sources told Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe. That Price dodged a more serious injury surprised the doctors, the ace revealed. “They said it multiple times; we expected this to be a lot worse than what it really is,” said Price, who added that Andrews and ElAttrache informed him he has an “extremely unique” elbow. “It’s found a way to kind of heal itself,” he continued. “It’s pretty neat, bionic elbow.” Although Price avoided a season-ending issue, he’s still likely to begin the campaign on the disabled list and miss a to-be-determined amount of starts, according to Abraham. How much time Price misses will largely be up to him, though, as the doctors want the 31-year-old to map out his own recovery program. “I’ll know when I feel good enough to go out there and throw a baseball,” declared Price.

He must think Papi was worth 10+ wins.

I am not for trading away our remaining prospects plus ERod, Pom or Wright. I just said, that's what it would take to even start a conversation. Trading one of ERod, Wright or Pom would improve the rotation but not the depth.

Agreed. I have a sneaky feeling this issue will come back at some point in the next year or two, if not in a few weeks.

Yes, Price was the "safer" gamble but at a larger cost.. In theory, I hate these type of signings, but I was okay with this one due to our enormous need for an ace and Price's long record of success and health. Plus, it looked like we'd get about 3-4 years of prime out of the 7, and he wasn't going to be 40 his last year.

They could take Wright or Pom and flip them to another team for decent prospects.

I agree. I did not like paying that much money for that many years for any pitcher, but if you are ever going to take a big gamble, a guy like Price was the one to do it with. Once we lost Lester, we needed an ace. I big gamble was called for. I had hoped for a lesser cost gamble like Cueto, but Price rated to be better (and healthier) going forward.