moonslav59

I'm not doubting you, but I wish you could find the link.

I doubt they trade Swihart coming off an injury, but you never know I guess. I'm not sure an injury like his will significantly affect his value, but I can see us waiting on Swihart before making a deal. (That's one reason I mention Holt as a trade piece so often.) They definitely won't turn him into a utility player at this stage of his development. The only way he makes the big league roster coming out of spring training is as the starting catcher, which is obviously unlikely. He'll play every day somewhere. My guess would be the starting catcher in Pawtucket. I do think he starts the season at Pawtucket. I'm not sure the Sox are locked into making him their catcher. (That's one reason I have mentioned trading him.) I still think they like Vazquez more than Swihart, and Leon has knocked them both down a notch. Assuming Swihart gets healthy and he's living up to his offensive expectations, and he could learn to play 1B, I think he could get 500+ PAs without owning a position. Anytime an OF'er gets hurt or needs a rest, Swihart could play LF or DH (where ever Young does not play). He could DH or play 1B vs RHPs (where ever HanRam does not play). Even if he doesn't play 1B, he could DH vs all RHPs, if he proves he can hit well enough. If he can't, then trading him won't be a huge loss in the long run. He could catch here and there. I'd prefer to keep Swihart over Holt, but I doubt we trade either of them.

No, he's not. It's definitely a different mentality playing with the Sox rather than the Marlins or Dodgers. HanRam has matured a lot since the days we traded him.

I'm not for handing them away for nothing. I'm for trading from an area of duplication for an area of high need. We have Vazquez and Holaday. We have Hernandez, Young, Rutledge, Shaw, Moncada, Pablo and maybe eventually Dubon and Travis. We need better pitching.

Beni is left-handed. Or, were you thinking Pedey, Bogey, Betts, HanRam? We could try to stick JBJ in the top 4 somehow next year. Counting on Beni or Moncafa to be successful in a top 4 slot may be asking too much, at least to start the season. How's this? Pedey Bogey JBJ (vs RHPs) Betts HanRam\ we could slide Betts to 3 vs lefties and Young to 4th.

I'm not sure why we haven't used Hernandez more. He's shown he can hit everywhere, but has not had a large enough ML sample size to know. I think we keep Leon and Vaz, but we might have Swihart as the #3C and #5 LF'er plus maybe teach him 1B. He could DH, if his bat progresses. Shaw makes the team unless traded. I'd put him at 3B, until Moncada is fully ready to play there. I suppose Pablo could beat him out, but I seriously doubt it. So, counting Young as the DH/4th OF, Vaz and Swi, that's 11. That leaves room for 2 more out of Holt/Hernandez and Moncada/Pablo with Sam Travis as a possible mid season addition. I think it makes sense to trade Holt or Swihart, but not both. I suppose we could trade Moncada in a package to get an ace, but I don't see that happening.

I don't think we need to spend big money to replace Papi or to upgrade our rotation, besides, there's no top quality FA starters on the market. I think we can spend the money on the pen and maybe only the pen. That might mean we don't have to trade for a pen arm. I get what you are saying about the "crap shoot" aspect of acquiring relief pitchers, but getting RP'ers with better histories does improve the chances they do well with us. Stockpiling a few extra can't hurt either, since many of our pen arms still have options, so we can start them in AAA for later use. I'd still like to see an upgrade at SP'er. I like Pomeranz, but he wasn't my idea of a building from the top type move. I think we might see a trade involving one of our starters plus Holt or Swihart and maybe Devers or Moncada for a much better, proven SP'er under team control for several years. I could see something like ERod, Swihart, Devers and maybe Dubon or Owens for Sale or Quintana.

I'm very happy, but that doesn't mean I can't point out one downside to the placement of Pedey at the one slot. I said below that the speed is not related to his superior batting skills as a lead-off hitter. Certainly, I would not put Holt #1. Ideally, next year, I'd like to see Beni get his OBP near .380+ and lead off. That would allow Pedey to fill a key slot at #3 or 5. (I like Bogey 2nd>)

I don't see it that way. Pedey and HanRam have a lot of value to many contending teams. Of course, contending teams will not give up a quality ML player in return, unless they have duplicated value at a position, and not many have too many aces. Neither Pedey nor HanRam would net us an ace anyways, but as part of a larger package they might. More likely, they could be dealt for some top prospects, and then thos prospects could either be flipped or used to replace some of our prospects that are traded for an ace from a non-contender (like Sale). I see two players on our team that probably have more value elsewhere than here: Swihart and Holt. Both would get way more playing time elsewhere. I would try to trade one, but not both, as one will be needed for LF added depth.

Carl Crawford was also in tremendous shape. His off season workout regime was among the most strenuous in all of baseball. Look, I'm not writing off HanRam. He has been and still can be a great hitter. He's had injury concerns. He's had off years. He's had issues with defense. I realize every player is a "risk" to some extent, and I have no issues with those who feel the chances are good that he continues doign well for us over the remaining 2-3 years of his contract.

...and if Moncada gets a lot of playing time, we could see 20+ there too.

Worst of any realistic alternative on the team: Betts, Bogey, JBJ...maybe Beni, Holt or basically anyone but Papi or Shaw. Fangraphs base running index: 2016 -8.9 PApi -3.3 Pedey -1.4 Shaw -0.5 HanRam (Betts +9.4, Bogey +4.8, JBJ +4.7, Holt +2.6, Beni +0.9) I'm not saying these guys are better batters in the one slot. I was just commenting on the downside of putting a worse runner in front of our best 2 runners in the line-up. It's not just the numbers. I watch every game, every inning, every pitch. Pedey is not the runner he used to be years ago. 2015-2016: -14.0 Papi -5.3 Pablo -4.4 Pedey -3.1 HanRam -0.5 Shaw 2014-2016 -21.0 Papi -5.6 Pedey Last 5 years: -35.0 Papi -6.3 Pedey -5.3 Napoli -5.3 Pablo -3.1 HanRam -3.0 Middy -2.8 Vaz 2006-2011: 22.4 Ellsbury 19.2 Crisp 9.2 Youk 4.3 Pedey

I'd be happy to never see Hill play again for us. From day one, I thought Bogey would be best at #2. He lacks the power of Betts, Papi, HanRam & JBJ. I was fine with Betts at #1, because I do not like the idea of putting one of our worst runners (Pedey) up first. I still think batting JBj 8th or 9th is a mistake. I'd go with Shaw/Hernandez at 3B with Holt my choice before Hill. I hope Beni wins the lead off slot next year. That would go a long way at lengthening our line-up with the loss of Papi looming large.

I'll put our 6-9 hitters up against any other teams' 6-9 hitters. This one of the most balanced line-ups I've ever seen with the Sox...maybe the one with Hobson hitting 30 HRs from the 9 slot was more balanced. And, this isn't a "hitter's era".

I take thousands of positions. I'm bound to get a lot wrong. I get a lot right too. I was all for the Porcello extension and reminded people last year that the extension started in 2016 not 2015. I stuck with him all along. I have always said that I felt Wright would be successful, if given a chance. I thought he'd get it last year, but he got hurt before his chance. He fell into a chance this year and did great. I never gave up on JBJ. I called his sample size too small to judge even when it was over 500 PAs. I hated the HanRam and Pablo signings- too much--to long. I liked the Napoli signings but not the Vic, Drew and Dempster signings. I was dead set on not bidiing high for Ellsbury. I can name a lot of stuff more I got right, but I'm not afraid to admit when I'm wrong too.

Huge win! Porcello is doing so well. It would be nice for him to win the Cy Young, but I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't.

I'm not sure if I can go back to BDC to look, but I think I picked us to be the best team in the AL. I think I might have said 98 or 100 wins. I really don't remember. I'm not trying to hide anything. In 2013, I projected failure and we won it all. In 2014 and 2015, I projected winning the AL east. I'm oh for 3 going into this year.

Losing Papi's power is going to hurt next year, but we still have the makings for a decent power team. 31 Betts 28 Ramirez 25 JBJ 2o Bogey 16 Shaw (in just 506 PAs) 13 Pedey 9 Young in 206 7 Leon in 251 If you replaced Papi's 34 Hrs with someone who hit 16, we'd still be a plus power team this year.

Punch my ticket for the roller coaster Moon, it don't look THAT scary. I'm fine with the idea of keeping him, and I can see why just about everyone agrees. I said I think there's about a zero % chance the Sox trade him. I don't want to talk badly about HanRam at this point of the season. He's doing a great job this year. He's not that scary, but at $22M per and entering the wrong side of prime, I'm thinking two things: one- we can get something very goof for him without paying anything towards his salary and two- we could use the $22M towards something very special, less risky and less scary....maybe. Saying you want to trade someone is not the same as saying you don't value that person. Look, let's be happy with what we have right now. The off season will be full of ideas to debate. I'm glad we have HanRam. He's doing very well with us.

I can't remember my projected win total, but I thought we we a top 5 fave in MLB and were as good as anyone else in the AL.

Yaz was amazing. His 1967 season was legendary. I know different sites use different methods for determining WAR, but fangraphs has Yaz's 1967 season listed as the 20th best WAR season by a non-pitcher. http://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=all&stats=bat&lg=all&qual=y&type=8&season=2016&month=0&season1=1871&ind=1&team=0&rost=0&age=0&filter=&players=0 Ruth had 5 of the top 6 seasons with Barry Bonds at #5. Others listed ahead of Yaz (some with 2 or more): Gehrig 1927 Hornsby 1924 Wagner 1908 Williams 1946 (& 1942) Mantle 1956 Cobb 1917 Foxx 1932

I've been saying that for weeks.

It's not BA. It's Baseballranks

OPS last 28 days (40+ PAs) 1.192 HanRam .953 Pedey .940 Young .914 Ortiz .839 Holt .787 Betts .769 JBJ .751 Bogey .742 Shaw .620 Leon less than 40/ more than 10 1.128 Beni .700 Holaday .566 Hill .513 Moncada

Agreed. However, you have a lot to look forward to, something not so easy to think a few months ago. I remember I got a lot of flack for saying the Yanks should and would be "sellers". maybe I said it too early, but it did come true. They did a great job on getting top return on their trades. With Tex and ARod gone next year, they'll be room for additions or more youth. I knew the Ellsbury signing was a mistake. I'm glad you guys made it and not us. Will you guys trade Gardner?