moonslav59

Even if he comes back and hits .250 25 90, it could be just enough to put us over the top.

Thanks. He's my #4 right now.

Sox prospects traded in the last year: Mid-season Baseball America Rankings: #1 Moncada #15 Espinosa #39 Margot #87 Guerra (52 to start the season/right after the trade) #93 Kopech Highest soxprospects.com ranking: 1. Moncada 3. Espinoza 3. Margot 3. Cecchini 5. Kopech 6. Guerra 7. Basabe 10. Dubon 12. T Shaw (not a prospect when traded) 12. Wendell Rijo 13. Logan Allen 13. Pat Light 14. Edwin Escobar (claimed off waivers) 18. Basabe (the other one) 20. Carlos Asuaje 21, Victor Diaz 21. Jonathan Aro 30, Aaron Wilkerson 40. Jose Almonte

Plus, don't forget Guerra was ranked 52nd prior to 2016 and 87th mid season. That's 5 in the top 93.

That's how they became billionaires in the first place. The new contract not only would apply a hefty tax on anything over the luxury limit, but we'd also lose out on revenue sharing money. Obviously some owners don't care, but owners of companies making ungodly profits all over the world make similar decisions everyday.

Updated... 2017 Red Sox Luxury Tax Budget 148.875M Signed (9): $31M Price, $22M Ramirez, $20.625M Porcello, $19M Sandoval, $13.75M Pedroia, $13.5M Buchholz, $10.5M Kimbrel, $6.5M Sale, $6.5M Young, $5.5M Moreland $25.9M Projected Arb (10): $5.7M Bogaerts, $4.7M Pomeranz, $3.3M Bradley, $2.6M Kelly, $2.2M Thornburg, $2.0M Abad, $1.8M Ross, $1.7M Holt, $1.3M Leon, $600K Workman $11.235M Others (21 x $535M minimum MLB salary): Betts, Benintendi, Rodriguez, Wright, Vazquez, Swihart, Smith, Barnes, Hernandez, Hembree, Owens, Johnson, Scott, Elias, Marrero, N Ramirez, Jerez, Brentz, ______, _______, _______ Total: $186.01M minus $250K frm Atlanta paying Kimbrel’s bonus= $185.76M Add $12.9M to player pension fund and the total is: $198.66M That’s just $3.66M over the new luxury tax limit. One has to think we could get below that number without too much difficulty. We could trade Abad and save about $1.465M and Workman and save $65K. That’s about $1.53M total. I can’t see any other easy way to save another $2.13M. Trading Pablo (and cash) is highly unlikely now that Shaw and Moncada are gone, unless we acquire a 3Bman somehow. Trading Buch makes the most sense. We could use most of the money saved to find a cheaper SP for depth and maybe another pen arm, or we could keep below the luxury limit, so we could make a deal at the dedline without worrying about going over. Conversely, we can afford to wait until the deadline and trade Buch then at a pro-rated savings of about $4.5M. The only other way I could see us going would be to trade Pomeranz and save about $4.7M.

Resetting the luxury tax will "come in handy" for years to come.

Come on. Like 12 prospects in a year. It's a certain as certain can be. Look, I'm fine with the deals, but they are what they are. We sacrificed some of our future for the 3 year window of Kimbrel (2 more), Sale & Thornburg.

I feel your pain, and I wish we didn't have to give up Moncada and Kopech, but I thought it would be JBJ and/or ERod. I'm hoping we hold onto Beni, Devers and Groome, but certainly our extended future took a major hit today.

Next year's market is a good one. One could say our roster looks set enough that we won't need anyone and can reset, but I think it would be wiser to find some salary to shed this year, so we can make a move next year, if needed. I'm thinking Buch will be dealt...maybe for a prospect to replenish part of the farm... maybe for a Rp'er at a lower cost.

$6.5M C Sale $5.5M Moreland ~$2.3M Thornburg (1st of 3 arbs) Total: $14.3M I had us $10M under the luxury tax limit, so we over the limit, unless we dump some salary. It's not much of a tax, but not resetting the tax could cost us bigtime in future years.

I don't believe winning now and winning in the future have to be mutually exclusive. Well, trading away a dozen prospects in a year certainly lessens the chances of winning once the three years runs out on Sale & Kimbrel.

The Red Sox have agreed to a one-year deal with first baseman Mitch Moreland, FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal tweets. The deal is pending a physical. Moreland will receive $5.5MM, Rosenthal’s colleague Jon Morosi tweets. Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported earlier today that the two sides were in talks. Moreland is represented by RMG Baseball. That puts us over the limit.

2018, we lose Buch and Young and maybe add Devers and Travis. Sale, Porcello, Price, ERod, Wright Pom Kimbrel, Thornburg, Smith, Kelly,Ross, Barnes C Leon-Vaz-Swihart 1B/DH HanRam 1B Travis 2B Pedey-Holt SS Bogey-Hernandez 3B Devers DH/3B Sandoval LF Beni (Swihart?) CF JBJ RF Betts

I think Ben was building up for a big signing like Price and a mega prospect deal, but we'll never know for sure.

No, but I was in on that conversation and brought up some of DD's moves with DETROIT as well. BTW, I'd still take back the Espi-Pom trade, even if we didn't get Sale. I'm okay with the Kimbrel deal now. I think we're co-faves with the Cubs at this moment.

I doubt DD makes the deal, if he knew he'd be landing Sale a few months later.

1, 5, 7, 9, 21 and 27 traded away. I guess that leaves this: 1) Beni 2) Devers 3) Groome 4) Travis 5) Johnson (ouch!) 6) Hernandez 7) Dalbec 8) Chatham 9) Ockimey 10) Chavis 11) Longhi 12) Raudes 13) TBall 14) Ysla 15) Shawaryn 16) Martin 17) Lakins 18) Anderson 19) Cosart 20) Shepherd 1)

The hidden gem in this trade is that although sale will be paid between $12-$14M each of the next 3 years- still a great deal- his luxury tax costs us only $6.5M a year. This value is only a value to a handful of teams up against the luxury tax limit. That's one reason why I thought it made sense for Sale or Quintana to be dealt to us and not some team far away from the luxury tax. Those teams can just sign an ace next year, or they could have last year.

I've never been against trading top prospects. I've suggested dozens in recent weeks. I didn't like the idea of trading 4 prospects for a RP'er making near FA market money, and I didn't like trading possibly the next Pedro for a number 3 SP'er, but the Kimbrel signing and Price signing look much better now with Sale and Thornburg on board. I had thought we were trying to play it half way- stay competitive enough to keep fans happy but hurting the future too much to have a real shot then as well. These moves clearly make us a top contender. That makes the Kimbrel deal acceptable to me, and with closer costs going through the roof, $10.5M off the luxury tax is looking pretty good right now for a new closer. I've spent my life dreaming of trades like this. I was just criticized for playing a fantasy baseball GM.

He's my number 4 right now, but opening day is a long way away.

More huge news!!!! WEEI's Rob Bradford reported that Rusney Castillo will begin playing in the Puerto Rican Winter League beginning on December 8.

The only reason I'd start ERod in AAA is if we gained another year of control by doing so. Anybody know, if that's a possibility? If yes, how long would he have to remain in AAA for us to gain the year?

Okay, I've had more time to process this shocking move, and here's how I feel about the whole situation: 1) As most of you know, I hated the Kimbrel deal and thought signing Price was too much money but we needed an ace. My main beef was that we spent big money and gave up prospects for a significant improvement to our team, but not really enough to go over the top. 2) I liked the idea of the 2012 purge, because we were losing these guys to free agency anyways. I disliked the players we got back, for the mosyt part, because I felt we were "playing it half way"- not rebuilding but not going all out for 2013 either. We ended up winning in 2013, so it just goes to show how GMs deserve a longer look before one should criticize them to the point of calling for their removal. 3) I disliked the Espi-Pom trade, because I saw enormous upside potential in Espi and didn't think Pom was enough to get us over the top. Again, playing it halfway. 4) Now that we have Sale and Thornburg, the Kimbrel trade and Price signing makes more sense to me. I may even stop bitching about the Kimbrel deal, so that should be a relief to some of you. I'm still scratching my head about Pom, but DD didn't know Sale was going to fall out of the sky and land in his lap. (I will add that trading Moncada, Espi, Basabe and Diaz for Sale and not Kopech, instead of Pom would make our future a little brighter, but we'll never know if that was a possibility.) 5) I went from disliking most of DD's moves but willing to keep an open mind- like I did with Ben- to thinking he's done a good job. We still have JBJ, Bogey and Betts. We still have Beni, Devers and Groome. We gained an ace, a top set-up man and are still under the luxury tax limit.

I'm fine with 5 LH'd starters in my rotation, as long as they can get righties out better than our righty can! Sale can! I'm fine with trading Buch or Pom but not ERod. Buch would clear up more budget space for this year- Pom for years to come.