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Pomeranz isn't exactly making himself a great trade chip. He is doing his best, but he may not be 100%. ERod isn't exactly a bastion of health either. Really, the off-season plan of adding no pitching to the entire organization still looks beyond questionable to me. On the bright side, there are still pitchers available on the free agent market, but the Sox would have to allow them to get in some sort of shape...

Kimbrel has been a little rocky lately. In his last 8 outings, he has an ERA of 4.91 (which doesn't count 2 inherited runners scoring last night) and given up 3 home runs. The ERA looks unimpressive, but it does only span 7.1 IP. However, the 3 home runs is somewhat alarming for a pitcher who has never given up more than 6 in a season. Right now, he is on pace to double that number...

But even if that is the case, it only works out if Price is able to return and be somewhat effective. Even if the insurance covers the contract, that only affects John Henry's bank account, and probably not by all that much percentage-wise. Price still counts against the luxury tax thresholds regardless of who signs the checks, and his contract limits the Sox' ability to replace him when he is unavailable to pitch. Or to upgrade anywhere else and possibly to retain key younger players...

The opt out clause was the only positive to the deal. While it did mean that they would lose Price if he was effective for 3 years, it also mitigated the risk of an entire 7 year contract. We only have Sale for 3 seasons, and he is younger than Price. So only having Price for 3 seasons would probaby have been a good thing. The Price deal would have been fantastic if Price stayed healthy and pitched like he has been capable for the past 2 seasons. But as of now, the opt out clause is completely irrelevant and has no positive or negative repercussions. Unless for some reason Price actually chooses to opt out anyway, although his agent will definitely be screaming at him not to. (And since he hired his agent for the advice he gets on these matters, he is not likely to ignore it.).

Based pn the premise that athleticism can be measured by potential bating average?

So because he said they can't win, they haven't been winning? I would disagree with the premise from the outset. It was a sweeping generalization that took into account nothing else about the team...

No. Mesoraco was acquired to fill the DL slot normally occupied by Matt Harvey...

And yet the Sox have won over 70% of their games with that exact scenario...

That saying really needs to be modified to "Practice makes progress!"

I wouldn't have made the Kimbrel deal. I admit it. Not because I don't like Kimbrel as a pitcher, but because I would have preferred the team focus on building the rotation from something. I would have preferred to look for a closer (rarely the top need of a last place team) in free agency, avoided Price and his 7 year deal, and focused on finding a starter via trade. Not sure what starters would be available for Margot, Guerra, Allen and Asuaje. But both Margot (BA 56, BP 14) and Guerra (BA 52, BP 56) were concensus top 100 prospects at the time, and were excellent bargaining chips. Allen and Asuaje were both decent additions, as well...

I would be surprised if the failure rate was higher among traded prospects vs. those who were retained...

It also didn't work in Detroit, but I think he may have dealt better prospects from the Boston system...

Agreed he should be benched more frequently if he struggles. But I'm not going to worry about that yet. Personally I don't think he is capable physically of playing in the field enough for the option to vest...

While Dontrelle Willis did not pan out, the price he gave up for Cabrera alone (Maybin and Miller) was easily worth it for the Tigers, especially since Miller took a long time to pan out. And I'm not so sure Dontrelle Willis, who had 3 yrs $29mill left on his deal, really upped the ante all that much.

Most GMs do. Most prospects underachieve.

No it isn't. It really doesn't work that way. Other teams employ scouts and talent evaluators. While every team may value certain skills and tools differently, they make decisions based on their own internal evaluations, not on Dombrowski's sales pitch. (Agents, on the other hand, pump up player's value all the time.) All Dombrowski can do is determine who is available in the right deal. If Dombrowski was able to pump up the value of the Sox prospects, why does he keep dealing away the good ones?

OK you are making it sound like Sox top 5 prospects - Groome, Chavis, Mata, Houck and Travis - are used cars and Dombrowski can spin up their value. Of those 5, only Travis is close to MLB, and he has to pump up his own statistical portfolio before any one is interested. Outside of his minimum wage price tag, he doesn't look much like anything special in MLB. Every team has a Sam Travis in their system already. Chavis was a guy a tagged to be good trade bait for a variety of reasons. But he's not marketable at all. Groome is the one guy the Sox have who is worthwhile in a deal. His distance from MLB is a huge factor, but he is an upside potential player. Of course, it would help his case a lot if he would actually pitch at some point in his career. 62IP across 2+ seasons isn't going to entice anyone, regardless of what the GM says. Mata and Houck need to get bettrer. Granted, both are still in A-ball, but these two guys have combined to walk 37 hitters in 45 innings!! Like with Travis, players like these two may not be so rare or on anyne's wish list. The Sox can probably swing deals for a reliever or some average help. In no way can they add any sort of big name quality player. And packaging multiple prospects won't help. When it comes to trading, four quarters do not equal a dollar. Yes, there will always be a stream of players coming up through the ranks. This does not guarantee any of them will ever be among the best 750 players in the world. Of course, a big part of the reason is that the Sox did unload a lot of farm system parts in a relatively short span, acquiring Kimbrel, Pomeranz and Sale. Hopefully these acquisitions negate the need to add any bigger arms...

It makes me think I'm about to say six words I never thought I'd say. "The Sox need Brock Holt back."

LOL I assumed it was. OK, BABIP isn't flawed. But when a player only has 21 hits and 11 of them are home runs, simply put he is going to have a low BABIP based on the fewer hits. To me, the only real problem with BABIP is it needs some sort of context to it. Normally, people like to compare it to a league average value, which is usually around .300. But not all hitters are equal, and not all will get a .300 BABIP with normal luck distribution. It really needs to be compared to an xBABIP calculation that facotrs in line drive rate, groundball rate and flyball rate. The way Betts is swinging, he is generating a lot of flyballs, so he should have a low BABIP, since fewer flyballs that stay in the park land for hits than any other type of contact (except infield flies, which xBABIP calculations can consider to be automatic outs)...

They shouldn't be popular where it's sunny. But they are certainly more popular than frequent rainouts...

Since opening day for Kelly 14IP .128 BAA .312 OPSA 0.00 ERA 0.50 WHIP 14.0 K/BB in 14.2 IP this season, Kimbrel has .143 BAA .493 OPSA 1.23 ERA 0.75 WHIP 5.25 K/BB There is no reason to mess with Kelly...

And in his last 16 games, Eduardo Nunez has a .468 OPS with 1 HR and 3 RBI. Is Hanley really the foremost guy the Sox need to be benching?

Does the weather really matter? They could really build a domed stadium. ...

What prospects do the Sox have now that they can dump for established players? Sure we can probably get another Addison Reed, which might be enough. But if we need another really big name starter (which we don't), the Sox don't have the prospects to get one. ...

Bronson Arroyo, Rich Hill