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Ok well I’d like to know how optimistic you are. Discounting anyone in A-ball, since a lot can happen good and bad between A-ball and MLB, how many major league starters do you think the Sox have? How many star player? I think no star players, and maybe 4 starters at most. And that Groome has been continually ranked so high after setback atfter setback is not a good sign...

The Sox probably acquire two relievers to replace the departed Kimbrel and Kelly. If that actually does happen, I’m going to guess that leaves Thornburg, Johnson and Workman battling foe two spots. Johnson probably has the upper hand because he is left-handed and has had success as a spot starter. As TO surgery is apparently not the easiest thing to recover from, Workman is the de facto insurance policy against Thornburg ever regaining form...

Why? Milwaukee only played him there because they acquired Moustakas to play third and the Hernan Perez/Jonathan Schoop duo had their weaknesses and Milwaukee couldn’t or didn’t think they could tolerate them. Shaw at 2b was not a defensive success, but rather Jim Hendry-style experiment of jamming the best 9 hitters into the lineup and working out the positions later. I’d take Brock Holt over him at 2b everyday. I’d even take Blake Swihart at 2b over him as well...

The problem with the Sox minors, particularly in AA and AAA, isn’t size so much as talent. Benintendi was a stud from day one and spent very little time above A ball. Even DD knows the minors are not very good. Not that long ago, a lot of scouts had Josh Ockimey, who is a very big human being (6’1”, 230 lbs) listed in the top ten. But, even with space available, DD chose not to protect him. If he feels that way about players in the top ten, how do you think he feels about the nes who aren’t?

Sometimes I do find questions in why DD holds on to certain players while releasing others. Travis over Ockimey is a good example, although soxprospects.com does list Travis as starting inLF this year so maybe they want to see how the position change works out. Keeping 29yo Bruce Brentz over 2015 draft pick Ben Taylor was about as questionable as it gets, especially when DD actually acted surprised that Ben Taylor was claimed. I sort of get keeping Walden and Josh Taylor. Walden is pure fringe talent but both do add an element of minor league pitching depth. Marco Hernandez is just worthless at this point. But really, DD could have kept Ockimey without DFAing anyone. The Sox still have an open slot on the roster. Even if he was holding it for a potential Eovaldi signing, he could have DFAd Ockimey later. I think he simply has less faith in Ockimey than in Travis and Chavis. Or, crazy thought here, maybe he wants Ockimey to get selected so he can work out a trade for a minor leaguer who doesn’t need protection...

In my defense, it was a conversation about how good we thought our prospects would be, not about their size. You even responded to moonslav asking if anyone would be Devers or Benintendi good. Not a conversation about physical stature. Benintendi was a clear stud from the second he signed the contract. Typically you can actually count on the numerous scouting organizations to identify the future stars. When they make mistakes, it’s almost always the other way - identifying a star player who doesn’t pan out. There are some rare cases of players who were never ranked becoming stars - Paul Goldschmidt and Kevin Youkilis leap to mind. But this is much, much less common and certainly nothing that can be counted on.

Benintendi was drafted in 2015 and came right out of the gate posting a .972 OPS in A-ball that year. He followed up with a .894 OPS across multiple levels in 2016 and was the #1 ranked prospect in all of baseball by both Baseball America and MLB.com before the 2017 season. Is this really the guy you want to use as an example of a player who didn’t look good in the minors but then panned out?

Now you only get players on short deals if 1) they’re not impact players 2) they’re older and taking a short deal over retirement or 3) they’re coming off bad seasons and want to rebuild value. Pitchers trying to rebuild value don’t typically come to Fenway. That leaves older and non-impact players (who actually do sometimes make an impact, like Steve Pearce)...

We hope. Mays and Henderson are two of the greatest players ever...

Rickey Henderson wasn’t very big either. But he lasted a long time...

Have we learned the meaning of the word “relevance”?

You do realize Britton pitched for the Yankees, too, right?

The problem is, the Sox don’t have those conversations with players. They have them with agents, who then say “And my highly rated client is willing to join your organization, if only you share with him some of those successes. And not the trophies, either”

I’ve seen that . A few sources do. I don’t think he’ll be missed. But I do think he’ll be a Marlin...

I’m not sure if your point is to evince your faith in our minor leaguers or just to continue your crusade to call out anyone who doesn’t...

“Pass for that Price and wait for a Sale”...

Like Bradley, I expect X to be in Boston. The big problem with dealing one year rental players is the team’s most likely interested plan on being competitive, and those teams typically can’t give up the player(s) the Sox want or need...

An asterisk should be fine...

Possible. They were prepared to take Stanton’s entire contract a year ago. I would guess they’d be more interested in Harper considering their infield seems to be all set. But then I d doubt they pass on Machado simply to accommodate Jedd Gyorko and Paul DeJong...

T Not here. It’s more of an exploration of his trade bait. Started with Bradley (with a disclaimer that we all know Bradley isn’t getting dealt) but it was pointed out DD typically deals prospects, which is true for most of his career, not just in Boston...

And Diaz fills their closer role, which was being held by Robert Gsellman, who looks more like a guy who doesn’t fit in anywhere so they’re trying him everywhere...

Some people try to find the bad in everything. Saying Dombrowski has no good prospects to trade isn’t a complaint. It’s actually an endorsement of what he’s done and a realistic look at what it will take for it to continue in the immediate future...

If it makes you feel any better, both “Schrock” and “Wong” are much easier to spell...

I’m pretty sure he’s traded away several minor leaguers he thought would fit in Boston. But he had to in order to make some trades he wanted to make. It really has to work that way with prospects; chances are most players Dombrowski views as expendable will be viewed that same way by other GMs...

That’s the past. I’m talking about the present. Stating that cupboard is bare isn’t a complaint about what Dombrowski did, but rather a statement about his options for what he’s going to do...