moonslav59

Rafaela, Abreu and DHam graduated from prospect status on soxprospects.com, so we saw some attrition on their rankings for May. Zanetello jumps 4 spots (really just 1.) He humped over Sandlin Fitts jumped over Wikelman to #6. Yorke stayed at 11, but others passed him (Sandin & Zanetello) Paulino jumped from 19 to 15, passing Jordan and Hickey, who both fell, despite higher ups coming off the boards.. Slaten jumped. a lot (20 to 12) Others: Zeferjahn from 46 to 31 Early 47 to 33 Jh Garcia 49 to 35 Benitez 54 to 44 Lugo NR to 50 Gambrell from 32 to 28. Troye 34 to 41

Where are the posters poo-pooing Devers, earlier?

Lugo did have a .500 SLG in his longest season of his career (2022.) Yes, he has to keep hitting well up to the deadline to have real value. That is over 2.5 months away.

I don't have a problem with it either. It seems like most sports have expanded the playoffs about as far as acceptable. MLB was a little late to the party, but when money like this is involved, it's a no brainer. Itis here to stay. Maybe someday, we see 4 WC, especially if MLB expands to 32 teams. The 162 game season seems to negate the need for so many WC teams, but money wins over just about everything, and when more teams and cities are in the race, it generates more interest and excitement over baseball

It seems MLB teams want ML ready players, yes, but they also prefer players 6-18 months away over 18-36 months away. I'm not saying Lugo has high trade value, but a team looking to trade a 2 month guy might take him, or Lugo could be included with another player like Paulino or Jordan to improve the return value.

Agreed. Higher than 25 might be a stretch. He was 12th in spring of '23.

I was just assessing who might or might have value to trade at the deadline. Meidroth might have some value. He may be ML ready, soon. Lugo might have some value, now. I agree on those you think have no trade value.

Lugo made it up to 11th in the system, way back in 2019. He dropped out of the top 20 for a bit, but he was back at #14 by the end of 2022. He was 12th to start 2023 but then dropped out of even the top 30, last summer and fall, and a no show in Spring 2024. My guess is, he will crack the top 20 or 30, again, this summer.

Those are the most common trades, yes. Schwarber was one. Nate and Pearce were two. Then, there are a few like Workman & Hembree for Pivetta (not a prospect.)

Minor League stats can be very deceiving, in terms of trade value of prospects. How many of our top OPS guys have high trade value? Woo 1.194 E Valdez (only 20 PAs) 1.079 Romy (over 40 PAs and on IL) 1.058 Kavadas (not much trade value, if any) .969 Bobby Dee (replacement level player) Meidroth .810 and Hickey .738 might have some trade value. POR (These top two could have been traded, last winter, and nobody would have batted an eye.) 1.248 M Lugo .912 Paulino .883 Gasper Jordan at .792 and Yorke at .737 might have some trade value. Mayer .743, Teel .735 and Anthony .691 have the highest value,

Notta. Maybe to see actual trades scored?

If we are buyers, and assuming the top 3 are untouchable (I'd add Cespedes to the 3), these guys might bring us a RP'er of 4/5 SP'er and or rental: Best candidates: Yorke, Jordan, Meidroth, Paulino, Hickey, Mata, Walter, Lugo, McDonough and Romero (selling low) (Some of these may not be worth much to many teams.) Should we trade pitchers? Fitts, Wikelman, Perales, Sandlin, E R-C, Dobbins, Guerrero, Monegro, Bastardo, Gambrell, Penrod, Hoppe, Benitez, Olivares, Zeferjahn, I Coffey, Rogers, Paez, Early, Mullins, Cohen (I would avoid trading any pitchers we feel has a chance.) Too far away? Bleis, Zanetello, Jo Garcia (IMO, these guys have too much upside to be selling "low," right now.) Castro, Arias, A Anderson, C Coffey, JH Garcia, Brannon Not worth much, if anything: Dalbec, Kavadas, DHam, Romy Vets: McGuire (If Teel is ready) E Valdez (selling low?) Yoshida with a bunch of cash If we end up being sellers: All FAs-to-be: Pivetta O'Neill Jansen Martin Anderson Possibly 1 more year players: McGuire Refsnyer Anyone not part of the 2025 or 2026 and beyond plans.

Boycott BTV!

Nobody goes there, anymore: it's too crowded.

True. There are likely other factors involved, as well. Hopefully, we can lessen these blunders, going forward. We seem to walking a tightrope, this year, so it seems important we minimize unforced errors and instances of mental lapses, if we are going to have a shot at something special, this fall. At the start of the season, we thought we'd need an amazingly good season of health and a large majority of things "go right" for us. We had many players with serious upside, but so many had huge question marks for one reason or another. So far, we have had something like 16 players go on the IL, some for the whole year or a large chunk of it.

We know a lot can happen, between now and the deadline. I'm not sure why speculating about various scenarios equates to "worrying" or being negative. We all know we have beaten just about every topic to death, on this site, and this sort of speculation may seem repetitive and maybe even bothersome to some, but each year brings different dynamics. We sure do talk about trades and non trades made at the deadline, afterwards.

So, we are rated highly due to our depth beyond the top 3, but none have high trade value?

I know you are joking, but I really don't mind running into outs, being aggressive and challenging the defense to make a good play. I'm not seeing a ton of real dumb running plays, this year, but it does seem like more than I see our opps making.

Is it really "worrying," or just banter?

Plus, it was one year of Dugo for 5+ years or Weissert and 5+ years of Fitts, along with throw-in, Judice. We had Rafaela and Abreu banging on the door, and too many LH'd OF'ers. One could also compare Dugo to O'Neill, as Dugo's contract paid for him. (Abreu was already on the team, but yes, he gets more playing time by trading Dugo.) This trade sort of reminds me of the Beni trade. That trade brought us 5 players- some like Cordero have already flamed out, but Wink has given us more value than a year or two of beni would have, back then. (We also have Gambrell from that deal.) One can argue, we used the "money saved" to sign Renfroe, but one could also argue we signed marwin with that "saved money."

We already have a Weissert-Wong battery. Weissert is third in team ERA and 2nd in RP IP. Wong is hitting .950.

Teams seem to want prospects closer to ML ready, so Yorke and Jordan make more sense than Bleis. I'm not sure these guys have much trade value: Kavadas Meidroth Hickey Sogard We may try to "sell high" on Paulino and or Lugo. Maybe E Valdez can build his stock back up, despite his poor D. Dalbec, Mata, DHam, Romy & Short are replacement level players. No trade value,

I don't mind taking chances and being aggressive. To me, there is a pretty clear line between that and being just plain dumb.

It doesn't matter, because Rafaela is at SS, so there is no OF jam. vs RHP: LF: O'Neill CF: Duran RF: Abreu DH: Yoshida (when healthy) vs LHPs: LF: O'Neill/Refsnyder CF: Duran RF: Abreu/O'Neill DH: Refsnyder/Yoshida

I think O'Neill is fine in LF. vs RHPs: Duran in LF Rafaela in CF Abreu in RF O'Neill DH However, I want Ref batting vs LHPs, so I'd DH him on those days. I want O'Neill batting FT, so someone else sits vs LHPs. LF O'Neill CF Rafaela RF Abreu Bench: Duran vs LHPs- maybe Abreu for some.