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I actually cannot think of any player that any team ever even tried to develop as a position player and a pitcher at the same time. Brendan McKay is the closest I can think of, and he has not played the field since A-ball. Plenty of these two-way types have switched from hitter to pitcher or vice versa at some point, either in the minors (like Matt Bush, Joe Nathan, Rafael Betancourt, Sean Doolittle, and Trevor Hoffman) or in many cases, the majors (Babe Ruth, Lefty O'Doul, Rick Ankiel). The Sox also drafted current Giants 1B Brandon Belt as a pitcher at one time. Sometimes, having both skills gives a player struggling to advance another path he can follow. In cases like former Red Sox CF/LHRP Ron Mahay, it lead to actually having a Major League career. Former Red Sox farmhand Jordan Weems has managed to make the A's bullpen this season after going nowhere as a catcher for years...

Well, a lot of guys are two way players in college/high school but they are only developed in one of the two roles professionally. Jon Olerud was named Pac-10 Player of the Century because in his senior year, he hit 23 HRs and went 15-0 on the mound. The Blue Jays drafted him that year, but he never pitched an inning for their organization. And then there is Micah Owings, who is the all time home run leader for the Georgia Bulldogs, but went on professionally as a pitcher. You can't avoid these two way guys, but it's rare to let them actually pursue both paths...

I think Dalbec and Houck are very likely, even if Houck is in middle/long relief role. Chavis has shown himself to be nothing more than a role player and weakside platoon player. Not that there is no value in that, and he handles that role well, but I don't think he is in line for 600 PA. I think he has a bench role locked up if he is not traded. It would be nice if Arroyo and/or Munoz could step in and take over 2B full time. But I would not count on it. I think either one of them can handle a utility INF role, but if the other one is not viewed as the 2B starter, there may be no room on the 25 man roster for him...

Probably worth pointing out that 21 catchers, including Vazquez, have more fWAR in that timeframe than James McCann. https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=c&stats=bat&lg=all&qual=100&type=8&season=2020&month=0&season1=2018&ind=0&team=0&rost=0&age=0&filter=&players=0&startdate=&enddate= Vazquez ranks fifth in fWAR in that time-frame, and the only catcher of the 4 ranked above him who has been traded is JT Realmuto, who was dealt by the small market Marlins as his arbitration years were winding down. In fact, your count of 4 being traded seems off, as Grandal has not been traded anywhere since 2014. And Molina and Contreras have not been traded at all..

True, but Carrasco has much more glaring health concerns than Eovaldi. In fact, he has to be number one on the list of "Surprising Non-Opt Outs" this year...

Did you stop reading after that first sentence?

Given the number of arms they need, he is absolutely part of the plans barring 1) a catastrophic finish to this season or 2) an injury. If Houck opens the season in the very weak bullpen, it frees up that much more budget space for other additions...

So you think Price made no difference, despite his being 34 years old and owed $96 million? If you're arguing they took him at half price for nothing, that is possible...

And that is a legitimate fear, not like the one where we all feared Middlebrooks would be the next Mark Reynolds. I'm not sure why people thought that was such a bad thing....

I think he could have. But how much more is pure speculation...

If Houck is the #6 guy, wouldn't he start in the minors waiting to be one of the top 5?

He has not pitched since college. The minors are loaded with position players who were good pitchers in college, and pitchers who were excellent college hitters. Until recently, no one pursued both paths even in the minors. But we are seeing an occasional player now who does, such as Tampa's Brendan McKay. But even in that case, McKay has not played any 1B since A ball. A few have done so in MLB recently, such as Cincinnati's Michael Lorenzen now plays the outfield on occasion. And Milwaukee had am outfielder in 2003-04 named Brooks Kieschnick who also pitched 96 IP in those years. But I think I'd be surprised if Dalbec ever took the mound in anything beyond a mop up capacity...

THe only real problem I have with Eovaldi, and I think I have been hs biggest critic on this board, is his complete lack of durability. From a talent perspective, he is a marvel. Not many people can throw 99mph as frequently as he does. And the ones who do are usually complete freaks, like Randy Johnson. I mean, if your attic was infested with birds and you made some calls to recitfy this problem, and Nathan Eovaldi showed up at your house, you probably wouldn't think "Why is Nathan Eovaldi here to get rid of those birds?" At best, you might think "Hey, my exterminator looks an awful lot like Nathan Eovaldi. But I suppose that's true for a lot of handymen." Now if the 6'11" spectacularly ugly Randy Johnson showed up at your house in the same context, you would easily recognize him right away, and then legitimately fear that he was going to rid your attic of birds with a steady stream of 95mph sliders that caused the individual avian interlopers to explode in a maelstrom of feathers and pigeon innards, leaving a mess far, far worse than the birds themselves. But with Nathan, you might only know it was him if, after removing all the birds from your attic, he managed to injure his elbow and was unable to remove any more birds for the rest of the year. Which, of course, would probably also be the case with Anthony Reyes, except that he removes those birds a lot more cheaply. Somewhere in there is an actual point. Oh yeah, Eovaldi is a mega-talented pitcher who simply cannot stay healthy. And that can be a big problem for the pitching-depleted Sox that is very likely to continue into next season. Also, do not hire Randy Johnson for household tasks...

Actually, we don't even know if he would run this like a small market team. Right now, you can't say that he is because, despite how awful this team is, we still have one of the largest payrolls in MLB. What he is doing now is not "small market" baseball; it's necessary maintenance after a period of overspending...

True, in that it's not just Yankee fans with the Evaluations of Future Glory. Remember when Tony Blanco was the the Next Vlad Guerrero? Turns out he wasn't even the Next Mario Guerrero...

So you put bait out there for the purpose of getting angry at people who take it? Nice. Of course, you did receive multiple responses. not sure why mine was singled out so much except that I suggested you ignored history. It certainly can't be because I said something detrimental about Dombrowski; I didn't mention him at all, and didn't even discuss anything he did. But if you think Henry is just going to spend without limits, history has shown that to clearly be not true. And it happened before this season as well. Cherington took over a team in 2012 and was not allowed to spend to the point that he had to deal Marco Scutaro in order to add Cody Ross. Neither of those players had big money contracts. And he dialed back spending again prior to the 2017 season, when the Red Sox reset the tax burden a year prior to the Yankees and Dodgers, leaving the Sox as the sole big money bidders for the biggest name on the market in JD Martinez. When it comes to spending, as far as I can tell, Henry just doesn't want to keep repeatedly paying luxury tax payments, and wants to occasionally dial back and get under the limit for a single season so as to reduce his non-value added payments. Now in between those resets, his budget can be very accommodating...

Maybe he should have been. Maeda could have been controlled for 4 years at $12.5mill total. That's a crazy good bargain...

I think you're just trying to save John Henry some money

To get Betts. They also clearly liked Graterol and revised the deal to keep him once Boston bowed out on that iteration. (Wait!! Is this a trade where the Dodgers dealt a pitcher and not for prospects or a salary dump?!)

As much as I think the Sox were right to trade Betts, I live in a world where that became a foregone conclusion with DD's reckless spending on starting pitching. Betts was on my very short list of players I wanted signed to a mega-extension...

Kenta Maeda? The guy who was on he short list of free agent pitchers I said were better options than Price? That Kenta Maeda?

And how many of those pitchers are established upgrades over Eovaldi? Some of them have the same durability issues he has, like Reyes and Canning. And Syndergaard can probably be had for less, given that he is likely to miss half of next season and then he reaches free agency a year from now...

But there are plenty of them with his career .308 OBP that prevents him from hitting there...

Even then, I think you're minimizing a return for Vazquez in order to dump Eovaldi, which is the exact opposite of the strategy we've seen Bloom try to employ...

And any time he got there, there was already another man on second How much lower can I take this?