notin

But yes their trade for those two while giving up a potentially decent catcher does seem questionable and looked like the dumbest trade of 2021 until the Yankees acquired Rougned Odor...

Mazza was nowhere near one of the worst pitchers on that staff. He was actually one of the better ones, which is the real tragedy...

Just laugh at the movie reference next time. The grounds crew in that flick was funny and that film came out many years before the Sox got swept by Baltimore

I think if I were drafting (and fear not, I am not drafting and Bloom has blocked my Twitter), I would seriously consider Henry Davis at 4...

Why can't the Sox afford Devers? He's under team control through 2023. After the 2022 season, the Sox shed the following contracts: Eovaldi, Martinez, Perez, Hernandez, Richards, Price (half) and possibly Bogaerts. Basically the only player left making any guaranteed money will be Sale and the only player with a vesting/conditional option is Sawamura. Unless Bogaerts stays. If the Sox replace enough of those players internally, extending Devers will be even less of an issue...

I still expect some fans to be like the grounds crew in the first Major League movie. “They’re still s*****”...

Never too early to sweep the Rays...

I know. I doubt he falls to three. In my mock draft, Rocker, Leiter and Fabian go 1-2-3. So who becomes the best choice at 4? (Probably worth pointing out my mock draft stops after 3 picks.)

I take it if he ever saw the process for separating plasma from blood cells, he would deem it witchcraft...

I'm just glad they stopped those overly optimistic MLB Comparisons. We all knew Lars Anderson was a good prospect, but to blatantly call him the next Justin Morneau (an MVP, no less) struck me as being beyond hopeful...

Give me physics anyday...

Nobody does. It's the softest of the soft sciences...

.. which is what I thought. I think the folks at soxprospects.com, who have made massive strides towards excellence over the years, do occasionally drop the ball on the option years thing...

Maybe second round, fourth pick? Bloom comes away with Leiter and Hill? Dare I dream it?

While possible, the future divisional alignments of the sport did not make those teams more watchable at the time. I did not find some of the poor Patriot teams in the Grogan Era more watchable because I knew one day the Colts would leave the AFC East...

Or when a pitcher who typically handles the save situations fails because it isn't one. "Well, Rob Dibble struggled here because he had a 4 run lead." No, he struggled because he could not pitch that particular day. It happens to human beings. I mean, if the argument is the close ninth inning games are difficult due to the high pressure situation how does less pressure make it even more difficult?

Maybe, although history has taught us many poor defensive 3B can move to 1B and become excellent defensive players. Martk Teixeira and Jeff Bagwell, for example. Youkilis was not a poor defender at 3B, but was certainly an elite one at 1B. The number of weak defending third basemen who move the the OF and become Gold Glove outfielders is a lot more limited. Anyone besides Alex Gordon? If you look around MLB, most first basemen fall into at least one of three categories - left-handed, very tall, or washed out at another position. The rest of them fall into a category known as "Joey Votto"...

So then how does Sale, who has been on active 40 man roster since 2010, still have an option remaining?

In his hypothetical scenario, I think he is referring to there being no Jeter Downs or Connor Wong. While Downs is not on the 40 man roster, how much depth do they have there right now?

Even with a lot of bad Boston teams in the past, yes, it was definitely nice to see if Boggs could still take a batting title or if rice could challenge in any of the triple crown categories. But that always felt like a consolation when the team was just flat out losing anyway...

... which is why I am hoping Jack Leiter falls to number 4 and the Sox do not take another high school shortstop...

Agree. If the argument is your're buying his age 31 season, it should end right there. Heck, we do not even know if he will have an age 31 season...

To be fair, Devers is an unknown defensive commodity at first base, and might even be better than Casas given the opportunity. After all, Casas was moved off 3b for a reason, too...

The argument about batting second for the best hitter is actually in line with your first point - more plate appearances. Basically, the argument is every spot a hitter moves up in the order nets him 18 more plate appearances. Obviously that would mean putting the best hitter at leadoff, but with someone like Bogaerts it also would mean that he comes up with a lot fewer baserunners on (re: RBI opportunities). The downside of moving up a great hitter too far is that there is a potential reduction in these opportunities. hitting behind the 7-8-9 hitters creates the fewest. One gets more hitting behind the 8-9-1 and even more hitting behind the 9-1-2. etc. But putting him in the second hole is a nice sweet spot between maximizing his plate appearances while still having him come up with a decent amount of runners on base. Yes, hitting 3rd gets more RBI chances, but the logic is the 18 more PA outweigh that difference, probably very slightly...

1) How much better of a trade chip is a 25yo player with 5.5 years of cotnrol vs a 25yo player with 6 years of control? I don't think the extra half-year of control adds much to the equation. 2) It's really tough to argue that demoting Taylor or Valdez to keep Houck on the roster constitutes going "all in". By this logic, the Sox should demote Devers to Worcester for the season and get the extra year of control. In fact, that actually makes more sense that trying to do so with Houck. (Which still doesn't mean it makes a lot of sense.) 3) Actually Tampa's approach has been to lock up younger players as early as possible, with prime examples being Evan Longoria and Matt Moore, neither of whom had a dozen games under their belt before signing extensions. The goal is to avoid the rather unpredictable arbitration years. More recently, they have been trying to get something done with Randy Arozarena. And we can all expect Brandon Lowe to get such a deal at some point this year or early in the coming off-season. Now, they will probably deal Willy Adames this offseason, even amidst the overcrowded free agent shortstop market, but that also involves a potential clearing for top prospect Wander Franco, and not an attempt to avoid paying him...