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Other prospects include Carl Everett, Trevor Hoffman, Cameron Maybin, Jacob Turner, Avisail Garcia and Devon Travis. For the most part, he has held on to his better prospects, or at least gotten good return, such as Hoffman in a deal for Garry Sheffield. But in recent years, he has taken to unloading the top of the Tigers' farm, as bad as it has been. The Travis trade was a particularly bad one in recent years

Even if the Sox focus on SP, the initial comment was about the Rays' potential interest in Swihart. As the Rays are unlikely to give up Longoria for Swihart, what would a more realistic offer from Tampa look like? I'd take Drew Smyly (who was drafted by Dombrowski), but would Tampa go thst high? Or limit the offering to minor leaguers not named Blake Snell?

He's nowhere near the top of the list for players in the Sox system other teams will want, and his missing a year means the only teams interested will be looking to buy low and therefore give up nothing. ...

While I don't know what Rick Hahn has in mind as an asking price for Sale, I do believe that Pomeranz. Shaw, Hembree and Owens add nothingto this trade, let alone justify acquiring Robertson as well. One thing to keep in mind with Sale. I agree he is terrific, but why is he really available? The White Sox have an excellent young core of talented players including Sale, Quintana, Abreu, Eaton, Rodon, etc. Why blow it up? Is it because Sale revealed himself to be a super-whiny prima donna the team found simply too insufferable? Think about his season - blowing up at management publicly over the Adam LaRoche situation, destroying throwback jerseys, etc. The entire fire sale might be based on this guy being a huge headache.

While I hope bullpen is on Dombrowski's list, I have my doubts about that closer is. Especially one season after giving up a lot for Kimbrel, who isn't cheap. I really, really doubt the Sox commit $30mill to the pitching in the eighth and ninth innings only.

I'd be surprised if anyone asked about him...

I really don't see any scenario where Sandoval isn't given a shot at 3b thisv spring. Hopefully he's limIted to being the left-handed side of a platoon, in which case the Sox need a right-handed side to platoon with him. ..

Reducing bullpen depth is going to happen if the Sox add arms. Assuming, say, Kimbrel, Kelly, Barnes, one of thev lefties (Ross, Abad or Elias) and the starter who doesn't make the rotation take five spots. If the Sox add a reliever or two, what happens to the other two lefties? Or to Hembree? Those guys are all out of options, so it's trade or release...

Rather than committing $50mill annually yo these three (and hoping Melanoma works out this time), the Sox could accomplish a similar bullpen refurbishing with players like Holland, Hudson, Ziegler and a few other options. Of course right now they have 5 bullpen spots already likely committed, and a few players without options vying for the other two. Some housecleaning is necessary. Makes me wonder if the Sox can take advantage of the current bullpen trend to get a worthwhile DH option, even if just a lefty to platoon with Young, by dangling some combination of Ross, Abad, Hembree, and/or Elias....

If Castro takes the most games to achieve his 1.1fWAR, not sure how anyone makes him player the Sox need this test.

Given Dombrowski's history, I'm surprised we still have both Moncada and Devers...

Well maybe after all these years, the Sox can get Iglesias back. The Tigers are listening on everyone. Our current team President was the man who brought him to Detroit. And the Sox certainly have prospects to make it happen...

And according to Keith Law, Kopech doesn't even throw that hard. Occasional triple digits, yes. But apparently the 105 may be more legend than reality

So you'll be more impressed with him when he dominates people who've been drinking?

Highlight reel plays are fun to watch, but don't win titles. How many rings does Omar Vizquel wear? And it's not like Vizquel spent his career on bad teams. I challenge anyone to find a lineup in the history of baseball deeper and scarier than the 2000 Guardians. I'll take the WS ring. As good as Iglesias is, (and he is good, he just isn't as freakishly special as many seem to think) he guarantees nothing in the way of ever winning a title. The Sox rolled Hall of Famers out in LF for a half a century and never won a title with them...

I know fans have liked to cling to "we didn't need Peavy." But bear in mind, the Sox were NOT in first place at the time of that deal, and had a rotation featuring both Workman and Doubront. That wasn't sustainable. How have those guys looked since? Acquiring Peavy pushed Workman back into the pen, strengthening it as well. And it pushed Doubront back into the pen for the post-season.

Who doesn't? But bear in mind, he also gave up lesser prospects for half a season of David Price when he as in Detroit. Really, the SP market was thin and someone had to be acquired. The Sox needed SP help. I was OK giving up Espinoza, but I didn't like Pomeranz and figured him to be the major leaguer most likely to collapse in the second half. He didn't completely collapse, but he wasn't impressive.

It was more recent than the Iglesias trade. Is the amount of time ago it occurred a reason to "give it up"?

Set it bsck 3 or 4 years? From what? They won a World Series in 2013. If your argument is that the Sox wouldn't have been a last place team with Iglesias, then there is fallout from that, too. For starters, they wouldn't have had the chance to draft Benintendi. The Lackey trade was far worse. At a time to restock and instead they saddle themselves with an immovable bad contract in Craig. (Rumors that Lackey would retire were unsubstantiated and based on misinterpretations of an article by Ken Rosenthal, who said it was Lackey's only leverage, not his plan.)

Let's not also forget at that time Stephen Drew was not only relevant, but also very good. Coupled with Bogaerts, they aapparently liked their shortstop situation not only at the time, butalso going forward. One could argue they traded a ffuture piece for a ring, hardly an uncommon practice. But really they liked Bogaerts as an all-around player better than Iglesias. Bogaerts was never really in play for the future at third. He tried it and reportedly was very uncomfortable. The decision to force him there to accommodate another equally unaccomplished player wasn't going to happen. It's not the same as moving Betts to the outfield to accommodate a former MVP knocking on the door to Cooperstown. At some point in the future, Bogaerts may have to move to third. That won't be an indictment of trading Iglesias, either, but more likely just a player aging out of a premium defensive position. And Sandoval, disappointing as he has been, may not be the direct fallout here many believe. Free agents are not only acquired to fill gaps, but also as PR - a message to the fans and ticket buyers that the team is willing to spend to win. Certainly every GM is aware of the high risk and rate of failure associated with these types of contracts. But they are also aware that big name players, like reigning World Series MVP, can generate a lot of interest after a bad season. The Sox were clearly going to make big moves, so unless Iglesias could have kept them out of the cellar in 2014 (not likely as I believe that was the season he missed), the Sox were going to spend. If not on Sandoval, possibly on someone equally disastrous....

I think Swihart can close the gap, but not bridge it. If I traded any catcher, it would be Leon, who is basically Christian Vazquez with BABIP luck. While it is a sell high opportunity, I do have my doubts about exactly how high. If I know he was getting by on unsustainable numbers, certainly every GM and their uncles do as well. But we all know how this will play out. The Sox will keep all three and put Swihart (the only one with any options left) in Pawtucket. At some point, there may be a roster crunch, but that won't be dealt with until it becomes an issue. And if, say Leon, is batting .180 in mid-May, then the solution has presented itself...

Not about pitching differently. But because he is facing overall weaker hitters, he gets through each inning on average with fewer pitches. Check out WHIP for most pitchers in the majors and minors, and typically they have better numbers in the minors (except for sinker ball pitchers, who usually do worse). Fewer baserunners is a big part of fewer pitches...

But the solution they keep leaping back to was never going to happen. Whether or not Iglesias' defense is superior to Bogaerts is immaterial in that he clearly was never going to supplant him. Ever. And that doesn't mean anyone is ignoring defense. It does mean they prefer the better overall player. The Sox could sign Raja Davis this off-season based on his defense being superior to Benintendi, who made a defensive lapse that was instrumental in a post-season loss, but they aren't going to. Because Benintendi is (very likely) a better overall player than Davis..

That's essentially what teams do. At the time, Iglesias was clearly not identified as one of the top three or four best prospects and was made available. That they misidentified Middlebrooks as a better prospect is all part of the risk anyone takes in any job that involves predicting the future. The Red Sox even had to bring a third team in to make this work. Middlebrooks filled a clear need for the White Sox, unlike Iglesias. But the Red Sox were still very high on him for some reason that was clearly unrelated to reading my numerous posts about him on BDC While you make it sound easy, but identifying what prospects will work out and what ones won't is extremely complicated and, in many cases, dependant on luck. In this case, the Sox gambled not only on Middlebrooks but also on Bogaerts, and it at least worked out in one case out of two. It could have been worse.

Minor league IP really isn't the same as major league IP. As a generalization, hitters have worse discipline and take fewer pitches, draw fewer walks and, well, get fewer hits. This is why many of them are still in the minors. Sure there are some legitimate hitters on the rise, but there are also many AAAA players who peak there. While not completely useless or disregarded, I also don't think they can be straight up compared to MLB IP one to one...