Jack Flap

Lol....sound advice.

Good one!

If it looks like Martinez is prepared to drag things out for a few more weeks, I think the question becomes whether you continue to wait on him or give him some sort of take-it-or-leave-it ultimatum, then move on to someone like Jay Bruce (who won't give you the same elite production but could still provide an infusion of power at a fraction of the cost) and sign Alex Cobb with the difference saved. Obviously JDM is the best option, but there is a limit to how long we should allow him to hold our offseason plans hostage. We still have plenty of options available, but at some point those are going to start to drop off the board.

I can just imagine Puig under the Boston media microscope...sounds like a recipe for disaster.

I agree with you on Bogaerts. For all of his inconsistency, he's had multiple half-seasons where he's looked like a future batting champ, a full season where he hit .320, and another with 20+ home runs, all before age 25. If he ever puts it all together, there's a terrific all-around player there, and IMO he's still too young to write off the possibility of that happening. Even in his somewhat disappointing 2017 season (the one where he played hurt for the whole second half), his value relative to Machado was essentially a toss-up depending on which version of WAR you're using...it's certainly likely that Machado will have a better 2018 season than Bogaerts, but I think it's less of a certainty than many probably believe, and that's before factoring in Xander's additional year of control plus whatever else you'd have to add to the trade. Keeping the left side of our infield as-is and adding a bat at DH just makes the most sense to me...we can always pursue Machado and trade Bogaerts (or move Devers to first) next winter if we wish.

Puig has two years of control remaining, I believe. It's an interesting hypothetical, but I tend to agree with keeping Bradley. Puig might offer more upside, but certainly comes with issues of his own, and his last two seasons before 2017 weren't very good...I suspect we could get better offers if we decided to actively shop JBJ.

Trying unsuccessfully for a few weeks to move Bard back to a starting role should not have tanked his entire career the way that it did...and indeed, there's an argument to be made that his implosion can be traced back to September 2011 (when he walked 9 in 11 innings with an ERA over 10) anyway. I don't think we know enough to pin it on any one person or factor. It's a sad story in any case.

Relax, Mr. H...it was a joke.

Desperate Dave vs. Boarsass - when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object

True. "Recycled news" is the story of this winter so far...

I haven't found a link for this yet (will post it if I do), but over on SoxProspects it was posted that Jim Bowden said in a discussion on MLB Network that the Red Sox had offered a position player off their MLB roster (maybe Bogaerts?) and Jason Groome for Machado. Since that, meager as it is, is as close to real news as we've had in a while, I was curious what you all thought. For my part, though I'd love to have Machado the player, trading significant assets to rent him for one year just doesn't make sense. In a down year for both, Machado wasn't significantly more valuable than Bogaerts in 2017 (2.8 vs 3.2 fWAR / 3.5 vs 2.2 bWAR), while Xander comes with an extra year of control and I still don't feel like we've seen his best yet. I can't see it...and yet the rumors aren't going away.

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JD is older and will be a DH sooner rather than later. I think he'll get a higher AAV than Hosmer, but he shouldn't get 7 years.

If NY or Boston makes the best offer, he'd be stupid not to. It's only one year, and it's not like the O's are planning on contending, obviously.

I'm with you... I've never agreed with the premise that the opt-out is only good for the player. Even if Price had three healthy, Cy Young caliber years in Boston, I'd still happily let him walk and let someone else overpay for his mid and late 30's, knowing we got what was likely the best part of the original deal at a reasonable price and could then spend that $30 million on younger players. I'd probably never offer a long-term contract without one.

The QO penalties are certainly harsh, which is one of the reasons I wanted to stay away from Hosmer and prioritize Martinez...however, if you have the opportunity to add a superstar talent like Machado or Harper, I think you take the hit and don't look back. Guys that good and that young don't come available very often.

I'm not sure how fWAR and bWAR being different is supposed to show a flaw in WAR. They are calculated differently, and therefore each tells you something a bit different. No one thinks they're supposed to match. https://www.fangraphs.com/library/war/differences-fwar-rwar/

The only way a Machado trade makes any sense is if Baltimore allows a window to negotiate (which they reportedly won't) and he'll agree to an extension (which I see little chance of). I could see trading Bogaerts and putting Manny at short in such a scenario, but emptying what's left of the farm for a one-year rental would be nuts, and I don't think even Dombrowski would go there.

https://tenor.com/view/michael-caine-never-nope-forget-it-nah-gif-5009135

This discussion is an encouraging one...as much as the focus has been on a bat, I'd love to see us add at least one more solid SP, and I hope Dombrowski is thinking along the same lines.

Cashman says forget about Stanton, the Red Sox are the Golden State Warriors of baseball again.

I'm not in any rush to move on from either.

Moon, S5, and others will remember the long debates back in the old country (BDC) about whether JBJ would ever be able to even hit .200...I guess my offensive expectations for him are still tempered by the memory of that time period, and personally I still feel thrilled to get a .240-.250 BA, 15 HR, and low/mid-.700s OPS out of him along with what he contributes with his glove (and, looking at his 2015 and 2016 seasons, I think there's still good reason to think he's capable of a good deal more than that). The bottom line is of course you trade him if it would legitimately improve the club, but that remains to be seen. For the moment, I'm damn glad we have him.

http://www.espn.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/84917/what-moves-should-mlbs-super-seven-teams-make-next David Schoenfield is speaking my language here:

It may be true that the market for Jackie isn't great (all the more reason to keep him, IMO), but I don't know why we'd pull the trigger on a trade without a deal for Martinez or another outfield replacement in place. I'd be okay with Morrison/Duda if the price for JDM remains unreasonable...and then hopefully spending some of the $150 million or so we just saved on pitching.