moonslav59

Good points. Imagine if we end up platooning HanRam and Pablo at DH for the remainder of their contracts! $41M total for only a fraction of what Papi gave us. It could happen, as nobody will want these two in trade, unless we pay most of their contracts. It basically may come down to the determination of how much value they have as platoon players to us vs how much we can save by trading one or both. For argument's sake, this could be what the "choice" comes down to: $41M for a DH platoon of Pablo vs RHPs with some use at 3B and 1B and HanRam vs LHPs with some use at 1B. vs. Pay $30M for both to play elksewhere and sign Encarnacion for $25M a year x 5-6 years. So, basically, it could be $41M Pablo/HanRam vs $55M Encarnacion. Is Encarnacion worth the $14M upgrade at DH? Maybe for a year or two, but then what? Pablo and HanRam's deals would have been over in 2-3 years, but then we'd have an aging Encarnacion to deal with at $25M+.

Workman, Rutledge and others could begin the season on the 60 man DL, thereby creating roster slots for borderline players.

I seriously doubt they brought Vazquez up before they felt he was physically and mentally "ready". I'm not even sure they felt any "urgency" to get Swihart out of the FT catcher role. After all, he did pretty well last year after obviously being called up "before he was ready". Maybe the larger part of the equation was that Sox management felt Swihart needed more work to "get ready" than Vazquez. Vazquez was not "rushed " in 2014. He was apparently "major league ready" then. Only his injury kept him from being the FT catcher in 2015 as Swihart would have remained in AAA maybe until September of 2015. I'm not arguing who was going to be better, and I never use tiny sample sizes to say, "see, he was ready" or "see, he wasn't ready", but to me the call-up of Vazquez was always about when he was deemed recovered from his injury and major league ready health wise and not developmentally wise. Maybe they still felt Swihart was not developmentally ready to be a FT catcher at the major league level. Obviously, Vazquez has offensive issues. He pretty much always has. I feel the Sox have known that all along, but they were willing to look beyond his offensive deficiency in order to realize the defensive advantages. They probably didn't expect him to do that badly at the plate, and with the size of the sample size, we'll never really know the reason Vazquez sucked at the plate. It could be any of these reasons or something else: 1) He just plain sucks on offense at the ML level and always will. After all, his 2016 OPS is only .034 lower than his 2014 OPS- pretty darn close. Maybe it is just "who he is." 2) He just plains sucks at the ML level but will someday improve enough to be capable or decent. His OPS at AAA is .704 this year and .711 over 2 years at AAA. (.731 in AA) 3) His injury affected him more than Sox management expected, and MAYBE, not certainly, he needed more time to recover and find his rhythm on offense. 4) It was all just an ill-timed slump. I don't think anybody knows for sure, if he was "rushed" or not. We do pretty much know Swihart was "rushed" last year. The choices Sox management made this year between these two guys are very complicated and nuanced. I find it hard to be critical on their choices, so far.

What if he needs him to pitch 4-6 innings? Wouldn't pitching him 1 Friday night make that difficult?

Now that we have Pomeranz, I think the bull pen may be the top priority of the winter plan to acquire quality talent. We have enough money to pay for 3 top RP'ers. Add Carson Smith to that number, and we could be very good in the pen. I'm not sure what top non-closer RP'ers are available, but if we sign 3, we should be all set. Closer: Kimbrel RP2: ________ RP3: ________ RP4: C Smith RP5: ________ RP6: Barnes RP7: Ross/Kelly/Hembree/Abad/Elias/Owens/Johnson/Workman

He was never called up in 2013, so how was he "optioned" to Portland? Maybe there is a rule on years of service forcing a player to burn an "optioned" without without even being called up, but I am unaware of it. soxprospects.com has him listed with 1 option remaining.

Lots of teams still in it. The Sox are up 2 on Baltimore, but 5 teams are within 3 games of Baltimore: -1.0 DET -2.0 HOU & SEA -2.5 NYY -3.0 KCR Counting the Sox, there are 6 teams within 5 games of each other. The NL has 5 teams within 4 games of both wild card slots. Only 5 teams in MLB have a better record than the Sox. They are one game from being tied for the 4th best record in MLB and 3.5 games away from the second best.

Funny how everyone thought Prices was pitching poorly then all of a sudden, boom. Quality start. He wasn't pitching "poorly", but he certainly was not pitching as well as expected. I wasn't happy with his early season productivity, but I never felt he couldn't or wouldn't turn things around. Maybe it was just an adjustment period. Beckett had a longer one than his. Maybe he just had a rough stretch, and now we'll see 10 weeks + of brilliance.

These numbers are what concern me the most. Runs scored at home:404/67 gms (6.0 runs/gm) Runs scored away: 296/62 gms (4.8 per gm) Runs allowed at home: 320/67 gms (4.8 per gm.) Runs allowed away: 259/62 gms (4.2 per gm) We all know Fenway is a hitter's park, but that doesn't explain why we score 1.2 runs more per game at home than away, but only allow 0.6 more to our opponents. Maybe our pitchers are "built to pitch in Fenway" or maybe our hitters are "built for Fenway". It's good to see we still outscore our opps on the road, and we are 33-29 on the road, but we have been getting into real hitting funks on the road lately.

Hope the two hits by JBJ is the start of something.

Jeff Todd: Red Sox setup man Koji Uehara hasn’t looked like a sure bet to return this season since landing on the shelf with a strained pectoral in late July, but there is progress on that front, per Scott Lauber of ESPN.com. Uehara threw 53 pitches off a mound “with good intensity” Friday, said manager John Farrell. Uehara will throw again Monday and is “making some pretty good strides,” Farrell added. With a 4.50 ERA to accompany a bloated home run to fly ball rate (16.3 percent) and a minuscule ground-ball percentage (19.0), the battle-tested Uehara hasn’t been nearly as effective in 2016 as he was in previous seasons. On the positive side, the 41-year-old has posted outstanding strikeout and walk numbers (12.75 K/9 and 2.25 BB/9) across 36 innings.

I had a strong feeling we were going to "explode" tonight. Let's hope the pen is good enough tonight.

We got Duffy's league leading ERA over 3.00 tonight. I don't often call one game events, and when I do, I'm not right that often, but I had a feeling the home cooking was going to kick in tonight.

So - Moncada could theoretically be added on the last day of the season to the 40-man and then be playoff eligible as a replacement for Sandoval. I thought a player could be added in an emergency for a player recently injured-- not someone put on the 60-day DL months ago.

soxprospects.com has Vazquez listed with 1 option left. I'm not sure the "rushed Vazquez". Just because he struggled, doesn't mean he was rushed or "not ready yet". I think Sox management has always doubted Swihart's defense/staff-handling skills. I think there plan all along was to bring up Vaz when he was ready. He was playing in AAA, so I feel they thought he was the better option. As bad as he did offensively, it still might have been the right choice. I'm glad Leon took away the choice that will eventually still have to be made. Leon's great play has allowed us to further evaluate Vaz and Swi. Too bad, Swi's injury has hindered that ability.

I'm not. We only have 39 guys on the roster and have never had a roster squeeze this year. He's a very good fielder. We do not have much defensive depth at SS.

You know im not big on defensive metrics. Ive watched every game and Hanley doesnt hurt us at all defensively...Hes made a couple blunders, sure, but for his first year hes done well. No denying that. like I said, he doesnt hurt us and isnt a liability. Shaws offense so far doesnt warrant a ft position there. Maybe I was spoiled by Youk, AGon and Napoli's fine defense at 1B, but I've watched every pitch or every game and think HanRam has been below average to maybe even bottom quarter tier. I'm totaally convinced Shaw is the better fielding 1Bman, but I share your concerns about his offensive value at 1B. Although Hanley is having a bit of a down year with the bat and was out with a shoulder issue last year, Id still choose him over Shaw just based on history offensively and how well hes done his fist year at 1b with the glove...right now, to me, Shaw is a bench guy for 1b/3b. Agreed. As you cans ee above, I have HanRam ahead of Shaw at 1B, despite my belief that he is a worse fielder there, but there is an opening at DH, so if the best three we have at 3B, 1B and DH are Moncada, Shaw and HanRam, I'd put HanRam at DH--assuming Moncada is capable at 3B. Even if Pablo comes back, I might keep HanRam at DH, although Pablo could be better there. Although i believe they should just have kept him in at 3b and let him work through his struggles and the adjustment he needed to make...the Sox can sometimes be a bit impatient with young players like they were with Xander at SS in 2014...Do you think if they left Shaw alone at 3b he would have worked through things? I do. At least if they let him work through it he couldve upped his value in a trade. Now he looks like a bench player when im no so sure he is. I've never been convinced Shaw was for real. I know if you add last year to the start of this year, the sample size of decency was getting pretty large, I still never was sure of his "arrival" as a FT'er. His play the last month or so has shown I had reason for concern. I am still not convinced that Shaw can be anything more than a decent platoon player at 1B or 3B, but if he does play, it should not be at DH while HanRam plays 1B. Maybe we will pick up someone else, but with Young available as a DH vs LHPs and Pablo still a possibility at least as a platoon vs RHPs at DH, 3B or even 1B, I think we'll go into next year with what we got. Shaw and HanRam have the inside shot at winning one of the three slots, and if Moncada is ML ready, I think he'll beat out Pablo and Hernandez as the starter.

That's not what bothers me about HanRam. It's his up and down career and his possible loss of focus sitting on the bench all year.

I don't have serious doubts like some seem to, but not every player is cut out to .be a DH. HanRam could be made for DH, but he might also lose focus by not being in the field and lose some of his offensive focus and abilities. I think he's our best option at DH right now, but I am not sure of his further success. I never was a HanRam fan

Now let's look at the 40 man roster. Currently, we 39 players on the roster, and the following players will be free agents: Ortiz, Uehara, Tazawa, Ziegler and Hill. Buchholz and Hanigan have options. That creates 5-7 more slots plus the open slot already there. I think we can assume Moncada takes one slot. Here are the Rule 5 players for this winter (I highlighted possible players needing protection by adding to the 40-man roster): Luis Ax. Basabe, Danny Bethea, Ty Buttrey, Jamie Callahan, Carlos Coste, Allen Craig, Jake Drehoff, Jeff Driskel, Jeffry Fernandez, Pat Goetze, Reed Gragnani, Taylor Grover, Justin Haley, Juan Hernandez, Dedgar Jimenez, Raiwinson Lameda, Angelo LeClerc, Tzu-Wei Lin, Deiner Lopez, Austin Maddox, Kyle Martin, Mike McCarthy, Daniel McGrath, Simon Mercedes, Mike Meyers, Mike Miller, Yankory Pimentel, Tim Roberson, Javier Rodriguez, Jake Romanski, Dioscar Romero, Ramses Rosario, Robby Scott, Teddy Stankiewicz, Aneury Tavarez, German Taveras, JT Watkins, Jordan Weems, Jantzen Witte, Luis Ysla I doubt we add Romanski, even if we let Hanigan walk, but we might. Haley, Ysla and Stanki might be long shots. Martin might be the only guy I'm pretty sure will be added. We might risk losing Basabe, since he's not really close enough to ML ready for a team to commit to keeping him on their 25 man roster all year. He's got a lot of promise, so maybe we add him. This is a year, where I see little issues with protecting Rule 5 players or squeezing a promising player off the 40 man roster. In other words, the bottom of our 40 man roster is as weak as I've seen it in years. Not only do we seem to have plenty of room for borderline Rule 5 players, but we have several players already on the 40 man roster, that I do not feel have a whole lot of ML promise. They are (in reveres order of importance): Bryce Brentz Brandon Workman Noe Ramirez Williams Jerez William Cuevas Then, there are the Buchholz and Hanigan options and the possible DFA'ing of Pablo, Holaday and/or Abad. These are the sure "keepers": Betts, Bogaerts, Bradley Price, Porcello, Pedroia, Kimbrel Moncada, Benintendi, Swihart, Rodriguez, Wright, Pomeranz Vazquez, Shaw, Young, Leon, Smith Hernandez, Barnes, Holt Kelly, Hembree, Ross, Rutledge Johnson, Owens Elias That's only 27-28 sure bets. We'll probably keep these 7- making it 34-35 total. Jerez, Cuevas Sandoval, Workman Abad, Brentz, Holaday I'm sure we'll add 2-3 RP'ers and maybe a vet SP'er and OF'er plus maybe a corner IF'er/DH. There's 40.

I think the Sox will explode tonight...but not Hill.

I guess we see things differently on HanRam's defense. He's done better than I expected, but I expected bottom 5 out of 30 defense. He's pretty close to bottom 8 or 10, in my opinion. Even if we can agree he's average, Shaw has the best UZR/150 at 1B from 2015-2016. He's much better, defensively at 1B, than HanRam. I have faith in Moncada winning the 3B job by opening day or May. I do share your doubts about how HanRam would or could handle the DH position. I am not for acquiring a DH or corner IF'er unless something changes between now and season end- like Shaw stinks, HanRam stinks or there is a serious injury.

Yes, Rutledge would be major league dept at the minor league level. He still has two options left, so he's a keeper. I do agree that with Moncada added to the IF mix and Pablo's possible return, we will likely trade a back-up infielder by "throwing in" Marrero or adding more value to a larger package by trading Holt or Hernandez. I agree that Castillo has little of no trade value, but with just Brentz ML ready, I still see Castillo as part of the extended depth chart. I do think Pablo will be given a chance to make the ML roster, but I am not sure Sox management will go into the 2017 season without making any addition to the 3B/1B/DH mix. I don't see us adding Encarnacion, unless we plan on trading HanRam or Shaw, otherwise Moncada is squeezed. I guess with the uncertainty still attached to Moncada and Shaw, and HanRam still capable of pulling a 2015, adding someone like Encarnacion and keeping the other three is possible. This would then squeeze Swihart, Travis and anyone else with value at 3B, 1B or DH.

Hill is a free agent after this year. I left off all players not under team control next year. I, too, would put Shaw at 1B and HanRam at DH, but since I think HanRam is better than Shaw, I listed him as our best option at both positions. I guess I could have done that with Betts at every OF position and maybe even 2B, so I realize I was not consistent in my analysis. I think if Pedey gets hurt, I'd rather have Moncada at 2B than Holt, although I do think this is Holt's best position. Shaw could play 3B, HanRam 1B, and Young/Pablo/Swihart could DH. I erred not placing Swihart in the DH depth chart. I would, however, platoon Swihart with Young as my primary back-up for HanRam.

Platoon them at 1B. At least play Hernandez instead of Hill. How long are we going to stick with this guy?