moonslav59

It amazes me how he can be having his career best year with feet like that! WOW!

The guy is a legend.

I think the Sox are 13-13 in games not started by Price, Wright and Porcello. I'm not trying to say I have any confidence in these guys. We do need another starter for sure, but so far our bats have carried our weak starters. Unfortunately, they've come up short a few too many times when our big three are pitching (like tonoght.)

How easy was it to "replace" ERod? And with who? It was obvious Sox management felt between Kelly, Buch, Owens, Johnson, Elias and Wright, we'd end up with 2 decent starters. We ended up with one that is doing great and zilch after that. I guess we shouldn't complain, since Wright has been a miracle, but we still are in need of another starter due to ERpd's injury. One can easily argue that planning for injury would have been nice, but the fact remains. We need a starter.

IP/GS 6.9 Wright 6.6 Price 6.3 Porcello 5.8 League Avg 5.7 Buch 5.2 ERod 3.7 Kelly

I'd give up a great young pitcher for those 4. I probably do it for 3 of these guys, however only if I was a non-contender. . The problem is twofold and may be insurmountable: 1) There are only a handful of teams that pretty much know they are not going to be winning a championship in the next 3-5 years and would be willing to trade any immediate hope they have at a near championship to greatly improve their odds at winning 3-5 or more likely 4-7 years from now. (Teams looking to win in the next 1-3 years will not look to trade an ace for better extended hopes.) 2) Of these handful of teams (maybe PHI, ATL, SDP, MN, OAK & CIN), not many have an ace-caliber young pitcher under team control for 4+ years (counting 2016) at a reasonable cost? You want specifics? If I was Billy Beane, I'd trade Gray for Swihart, Benintendi and Swihart. I don't think Devers would be needed, but maybe Owens or Johnson might be added. I'm not sure what Phily would want for Nola or Eickoff, but I'm not sure if either of them project as an ace. There's a lot of talk abour Teheran of the Braves, and if I was their GM, I'd trade him for 3 of those guys, but if I was the Sox, I'm not sure I would. I'd give Swihart, Devers and 2-3 mid-level guys but not 3 of our top 5 prospects. The other teams don't have anyone I think meets our needs. I seriously doubt we can lure a contending team to deal an ace without giving something MLB ready and of near top quality. As much as I hate to say it, I think what I want might be impossible to get.

LOL. Speaking of the rays, I read somewhere than Crawford may be a heading back to TB.

It would have been hard to sign two big FA starters and also pay for Kimbrel's contract. Plus Young did not come cheaply. My biggest fear is that we now have to go out and trade good prospects for a pitcher equal to or similar to a mid range starter that could have been signed last winter. I'm not talking Jordan Zimmerman at $22M a year, but more like Rich Hill $6M, Doug Fister $7M, or Bartolo Colon $7M, up to maybe as far as Mike Leake $16M x 5. We may end up trding for a SP'er still owed as much as some of the guys i listed above. Now, I realize some of those guys are not doing all that great, but I'm talking about maybe making an attempt at solving the problem we have now before it happened. I understand the philosophy was thinking we had so much "quantity" at the 5 slot that the hope was one or two would work out. It turns out Wright did work out, but he just took ERod's slot. The whole one from Owens, Johnson, Elias, Sullivan and others experiment has been a failure.

Quote Originally Posted by moonslav59 View Post Yes, my contention was we might have gotten a very nice SP'er for Swihart, Devers + the package we gave for Kimbrel. I'm really done arguing about Kimbrel and his contract. It's great to have a top 3 closer, and he will help us this year. It's certainly a valid point that we might have been able to get a decent starter for that package. What we have to consider is that they may have made a serious effort to trade for a starter but found that the only way they could land what they wanted, a cost-controlled TOTR starter, was to give up Betts or Bogey. I totally get that. Nobody other than maybe Sox management knows what we could have gotten for my suggested offer. Maybe Sox management never offered anyone that package, so we'll never know. If they did offer a similar package, in theory, I'd like to have known who we migth have gotten, so I could compare the benefits of having that guy and signing a FA closer or having Kimbrel as our closer (with his contract) and Buch/Kelly as our 4/5 starters (with their salaries). I didn't really want to get back into the Kimbrel debate, because I already made my point more often than was needed, but one major aspect was the money. Had we traded for a low cost young SP'er with my suggested offer and not had Kimbrel's plus maybe traded Buch due to having another quality SP'er. We may have been able to trade for or sign 2-3 RP'ers with those savings. If we kept Buch, we'd still have had over $10M to spend on RP'ers and still been at the same budget amount. So, it was more than just Kimbrel vs Salazar or Carrasco types: it was Kimbrel & Buch vs Salazar, Clippard & KRod or Benoit (or Madson/O'Day types). (minus Swihart & Devers, of course).

I can name 29.

Nice start by Price. We need him to be the ace we all hoped he'd be. OPS+ Sox leaders: 193 Ortiz 154 JBJ 142 Bogey 133 Young 126 Betts 114 Pedey 107 Shaw 94 HanRam 93 Swihart 76 Holt 46 Vaz 29 Hanigan We've had quite a few player contribute with plentiful RBIs this year. I know some of you hate to use the word "pace", but here's what some Sox players are on pace for this year in RBIs: Aprox 145 Ortiz 120 Betts 110 Bogey 110 JBJ 90 Ramirez 85 Shaw 70 Pedey We may end up with three 30 HR guys: Ortiz, Betts & JBJ!

I'm not sure it's all that big of a deal, unless it saves us $10+M on the luxury tax limit. I mean, whose 40 man roster spot is he protecting? Brentz? Coyle? Noe Ramirez? It's got to be an attempt to save on the luxury tax, otherwise, what would be the harm in giving him a little more time? How much time has Brentz had to win a slot on the 25 man roster? I'm not complaining about the move, but if we end up paying him to play elsewhere, I'd rather had had us keep him in the system a while longer. I'm not privy to what Sox management knows about Castillo; maybe they are 99.9% positive this kid is a flop, and even Brentz has a better chance than him...

It's actually closer to $10M, but I think that's only if he's not on the 40 man roster. I may be wrong, but if he clears waivers and goes to another team's 40 man roster, we still pay his contract and I think that money counts towards the luxury tax limit. So, it may be in our best interest for him to stay with us, but just not be on the 40 man roster, a la Allen Craig.

You can tell your grandchildren that you saw Papi's last SB! Wow, what a feeling! Seriously, it's amazing this guy is on pace for about... 45 HRs 75 2B + 3B 150 RBIs and his highest OPS ever!

It's a fair comparison, but I'd hold onto Moncada. I'm really a big get pitching kinda guy, but Moncada's upside to too high to risk. I doubt Swihart, Devers, Kopech or Owens would get him.

Yes, my contention was we might have gotten a very nice SP'er for Swihart, Devers + the package we gave for Kimbrel. I'm really done arguing about Kimbrel and his contract. It's great to have a top 3 closer, and he will help us this year.

MLBTR reported that the Sox had inquired about J Fernandez and G Cole, but hung up when both teams asked for Bogey or Betts.

The state of offense by the catching position in MLB today is horrible. Only 7 MLB teams have a catcher OPS above .720. 14 teams have a catcher OPS below .650, and 8 are below .650. Several winning teams have very poor offense at catcher: 30th CLE 28th TOR 27th NYM 24th LAD 22nd PITT Swihart also has a pretty good arm (39% CS% in minors). I think many teams are drooling over a chance to add him to their roster.

Papi's having his best career year. 2nd: Bogey 3rd: Wright 4th: JBJ

I still say we make him a golden offer to come back for another season.

I never meant to imply I want to see Swihart as our long term LF solution. I just said I liked him better than Holt. Ultimately, I think Swihart will be traded, because his value to another team as a catcher iw way higher than his value to us.

I never meant to imply I want to see Swihart as our long term LF solution. I just said I liked him better than Holt. Ultimately, I think Swihart will be traded, because his value to another team as a catcher iw way higher than his value to us.

I think they knew Vaz would be ready before too long. It wouldn't have hurt giving Swihart reps in LF here and there.

That was a "false choice" management made to not givemore Swihart reps in LF.

Wow. As badly as he's done, I'm still shocked. Maybe they are thinking they can keep him around like Allen Craig and not have him on the 40 man roster and more importantly not count vs the luxury tax.