Jack Flap

This must be like 2015 when we had 5 aces in the rotation.

Eckersley is blunt and says what he thinks, but I've never heard him be unfair or derogatory towards a player. He does not go around just bashing guys, and always gives credit when it's due...and what's more is his thoughts have the added clout of coming from someone who has been through it all before and walked the walk. I understand that players and broadcasters don't have to be and probably aren't going to be best friends, but there seems to be some special animosity in the clubhouse towards Eck for some reason and I'm not quite sure why. It's like the players think he should be there to kiss their asses and never say anything critical, and because that's not his style, he's an enemy. I can agree with the previous post that this isn't "Watergate," but it does disturb me when our $217 million pitcher is reported to be ranting like a lunatic and verbally abusing people in front of the team, apparently with the support of at least some of his teammates. Despite Price's reputation as a great teammate, can anyone say they feel good about the thought of Mookie, Xander, Jackie, AB, and other young players sitting at this guy's knee and learning from his actions and his sour attitude? Hopefully Price and Farrell give Eck the apology he is owed, the team goes on a winning streak with Price pitching well, and this can be swiftly forgotten...

Fair enough. It's quite possible there is more to this story...I certainly hope there's a better explanation than what's been reported publicly.

If he truly just wanted to stand up for a teammate (needless as that would be, as I don't find anything offensive about what Eck said), he'd have pulled Eck aside and had a conversation about his comment like an adult...if this account can be believed, though, that's the exact opposite of what he did.

They said the same thing after the incident earlier in the season when Price was yelling and cursing at reporters in the clubhouse, so clearly whatever they're saying isn't taking hold...

I'm definitely in the same boat on that one currently.

Very true. Cabrera may or may not be able to maintain a high level of production as he ages, but you'd be gambling a hell of a lot of money on his ability to do -- and at a time when we're probably going to have issues signing all of our young guys to extensions as it is. I would think our current concern with the luxury tax would rule out taking on any of these huge contracts like Miggy, Stanton, Votto, etc.

Oh, I know...I do try to be accountable (at least as much as one can be on a message board) when I go on the record about something and am wrong, though. Plus, you've been our foremost Devers booster for a while now and deserve your moment of triumph.

I saw this, too. Really, really bad look for Price and whoever the players are who applauded. Maybe it's an isolated incident and a non-issue, but this kind of petulance, lack of professionalism, and disrespect towards a Hall of Famer doesn't make me feel particularly good about the culture in the clubhouse.

I seem to remember Dombrowski downplaying Benintendi's readiness last year about this time, and then he was called up a matter of days later. I agree this is nothing that unusual or new.

It's desperation only if they don't think he's ready yet but called him up anyway...if they believe he's already an MLB-quality player, why not give him a shot?

I don't know that it necessarily makes Ben a "puppet" because he may have had pressure placed on him from above to do this or that. I recall some of Dombrowski's more extravagant expenditures in Detroit being excused on the grounds that the aging owner wanted to win a championship by any means necessary...nor has DD been free from all constraints in Boston, either, as it looks pretty certain that his freedom to spend was curtailed last winter due to luxury tax considerations. However, I've always been of the opinion that Ben was the GM, so at the end of the day he owns any moves made or not made. There were some things that happened later in his tenure that didn't seem to fit his M.O. (though I don't know if the Sandoval signing is necessarily one of them), but we'll likely never know the full inside story. You've said this a couple of times, but from what I've read, a lot of people entertained the idea of trading for a rental with the understanding that we shouldn't have to give up a lot in return, and if the ask was unreasonable, we'd move on. Comparing this hypothetical with DD's other trades where we sent off some of the best prospects in baseball is really apples and oranges.

I can't remember if I was one of those people (probably was, because going back a few months I didn't think there was any chance we'd see him before 2018 at the earliest), but if so, props on being right. I try never to count on a kid so young rising from Double-A to the majors so quickly, but we have seen exceptions in special cases (Xander, Mookie), and it's been fun to watch Devers vault himself into that kind of select company with his performance this year. I'm looking forward to watching him in Boston - hopefully for a long time.

It's happening: Pete Abraham @PeteAbe #RedSox have called up 20-year-old Rafael Devers. He'll be in Seattle tomorrow. Not expected to start until Tuesday. 6:12 PM · Jul 23, 2017

Which thread was this posted in? I didn't catch it either but would be interested...

Agreed...hopefully Devers makes it a moot point very soon.

I agree it didn't look bad at the time, but it's apparent now that we severely underestimated what Shaw was capable of. Forget the other players in the deal, and forget that Thornburg got hurt...I wouldn't trade a power-hitting third baseman with 5 years of control (the exact sort of player we'd dream about acquiring from any other club) for almost any reliever in the game, but if Shaw's performance this year is for real, that's exactly what we did. That's very tough to swallow...

Trading Shaw and betting on Sandoval to play third currently looks like a horrible blunder, but otherwise, all of Dombrowski's moves seem to be panning out, at least in the short term. This is a good team with a legitimate shot at a championship, particularly if we can find a way to add an impact bat. What the longer term effect of some of these trades will be remains to be seen, but in the here and now Dombrowski has done pretty much exactly what he was hired to do.

Agreed. I didn't get the criticism at all...this is an "all in" season, and as such you've got to think about how best to keep the big guns fresh for October. I wouldn't mind using Fister (provided he can figure things out, because he's been a disappointment thus far), Johnson, and Velazquez to sprinkle some strategically timed spot starts throughout the calendar the rest of the way for this exact reason.

I think he said that about Rubby De La Rosa, too.

With regard to Espinoza, there is a world of difference between saying some kid has some attributes that are reminiscent of Pedro vs. saying they are going to be as good as or have the same career as Pedro. I'm fairly certain that no one who is knowledgeable or serious about the Red Sox farm system ever compared AE to Pedro in the latter sense, which would obviously be absurd.

Exactly.

These are things you could easily find out for yourself by perusing their website and reading their scouting reports, which I definitely would recommend...you may find that they're more realistic about the kids in our system and the weaknesses, risks, etc. of each than you might think. In Groome's case, the short answer would be that he is ranked so highly because of his very high ceiling - though obviously ceiling is not a guarantee of anything, and no one's claiming that it is. SoxProspects has him projected as a likely #2/3 starter with a ceiling of a #1 but a floor of an organizational player. I would note also that Groome was widely considered one of the top talents in the draft well before we selected him, and that national prospect lists like BA, BP, MLB.com, KLaw, Fangraphs, etc. have all ranked him in their top 100, if not top 50, so this is hardly a case of SoxProspects.com hyping him up. For my part, he's so young and has pitched so few professional innings to date that I'm withholding my excitement until he's done a bit more, for the reasons that you mentioned...but that doesn't mean there aren't valid reasons for ranking him highly in a system that has very few high-ceiling types left.

Examples?

I set you up for that one.