notin

Maybe he threw his helmet at them…

It keeps more teams involved and forces more tough decisions. Also helps pushing the playoff schedule closer and closer to December…

They’re 4.5 games out and are probably on the fence like Boston…

The Padres are good. My point was it limits what teams will want him. Tampa? Milwaukee? Cleveland? All out. Cubs, Yankees and a few others - pribably in but now fewer partners in the bidding war…

Romy is already in the game…

Actually great move by Hudson. It was so good I was fooled again on the replay…

No offense taken…

No mention of Ben? Gotta be the weirdest movie, especially if, like me, you heard the sweet little Michael Jackson theme song first and probably thought “I bet this is a tender coming-of-age story about a lonely boy who learns the true magic of friendship as the key to his happiness.” I suppose it is, in a way. The boy, named Danny, does make his new friend, Ben. But, if you didn’t already know, Ben is a rat. A real rat, as in a city-dwelling rodent. And Ben is. not just any rat, but rather he’s king of the rats or emperor of the rats or something. (I admit a certain level of ignorance regarding rat nobility and titles.) And Ben is also fairly evil, using his authority to order his army of rats to attack grocery stores and food trucks to feed the masses, along with the occasional bully that threatens Danny. Ben is not nice. And does Danny use his friendship to influence Ben and his into more peaceful endeavors, creating a world where humans and rats live in harmony? No. Danny covers for him and takes care of him, clearly preferring the status quo. Not even sure what the theme was supposed to be. I’d feel bad about the spoilers, but if you haven’t seen this movie, you’ve had about 55 years to take it in…

It never looked like Yoshida was expected to have a big role in this offense anyway. DFA Yoshida and what? More Eaton? What exactly does that solve? Trading Duran means another team has to agree to something. Just offloading Duran - a big part of the 2025 offense - for the sake of getting rid of him to make room for Alonso could have easily backfired, largely because it was essentially stupid. Improve the offense by replacing Duran’s Rbat+ of 127 with Alonso’s 140 and then not having Suarez seems like a plsn for a worse team unless Duran completely tanks…

Direct quote with no F bombs?

Well, since you actually did own Chatterbox, go watch Rubber. Trust me. Not that they’re similar in any way beyond both being so stupid you cannot help but wonder how they were pitched…

Because Alonso signed a month earlier. Bichette was the only big bat left on the board…

Duran to the bench? Looks good now, but very was looked at differently in March…

I think Bregman was not exactly in a rush. He chose to walk away from $40mill for one more year, so he was probably making sure he didn’t leave anything on the table…

Bloom in July? Not his best month…

$21.6 mill for 2 months work limits the trading partners. I think/hope Boston forwards to St. Louis money, but even then it’s still $15 mill or so, and that’s probably why BTV gives him such a low surplus value. If no money was included, it would make sense for Boston to hold him, decline the option, and offer a QO because the draft compensation might be better. But ultimately I think they include the Cardinal money plus some of the buyout and get something with potential…

SP is the only decent pool in free agency this year, with Skubal, Peralta, King, Woodruff. And if Skubal and Peralta get dealt in the next 4 weeks, none (including Gray) will be eligible for a QO…

So your DVD collection includes Chatterbox alongside the entire Air Bud franchise? Can I safely assume Rubber and Tusk are also amongst your titles?

Michael Pineda?

I’m not the first to mention those names. That said, Fangraphs earlier this year postulated Arias might be the overall number one prospect in baseball at some point this year. And Arias is doing nothing to make that statement look foolish…

Unless you trade Vaughn Grissom…

Disagree? You literally said “To improve the return, Boston may need to help pay down some of that opt-out money.” So if the Sox include no money and any receiving team is on the hook for the full $21.6mill, you think they get a decent return?

For the last two months, Gray gets paid about $11.6mill, $6.7mill of which is covered by the Cardinals. But St. Louis paid that money to the Red Sox, who do not have to include it with Gray. Couple that with his buyout, and Gray could be owed up to $21.7 million for two months of pitching, especially since his mutual option (for $30mill) is extremely likely to not get exercised. If Gray were eligible for a QO, it would just make sense to keep, but Minnesota have him one after 2023. So in order to get anything decent in return, Boston probably has to include at least $6.7 to $12mill. Obviously this starts with the Cardinals money, which is a no brainer to include…

Atlanta certainly could DH Murphy, given to date they’ve been getting by with Dominic Smith. They also have Mike Yastrzemski they could turn to. Neither gets anyone excited. Jarren Duran actually makes some sense for them, given their DH and SS’s also fill their void in LF. A definite low sell on Duran that also creates a void in Boston’s LF. Brayan Bello makes sense, since Struder, Schwellenbach, and Smith-Schawver are all out with injuries, no doubt incurred during their inclusion in the same tongue twister. (The more I look at this Braves team, I wonder how is this team over .500, let alone in first place? I mean, f*** that whole notion that the AL is weaker when this slapdash squad is running away with the NL East.)

He really is an easy fit for a good RHB. Catchers rarely move at the deadline but as you said, he could DH for a bit. And if the Sox staff can pitch to Gasper, they’ve can try to ramo up and pitch to Murphy. Assuming his finger isn’t an issue…