S5Dewey

Well, WELCOME BACK!!! To add the sig look for your name at the top of the screen, then click on it. Then look for "about me" and click on it. You'll see a place there to enter your information. (you'll get the same opportunity if you click on "My Profile", too).

You're sounding like our old pal Harmony now with your qualifier of "a weak AL". This team is pretty darn good right now with a solid pitching staff, arguably the best defensive OF in baseball (assuming Beni plays as predicted) and a team that outscored everyone by 100 runs last year and only lost one major contributor.

I'm more concerned about what's going to happen in July of '17 than I am right now in terms of salary vs. LT. If the Sox are in the race as deeply as it seems they will be, come July they're going to be looking for one more player to push them over the top. When that happens the money that player earns is going to go toward our LT so it would be nice to have a bit of a cushion going into the season. I've been a big proponent of Clay but he's the obvious choice to give us that cushion. Sometimes we have to make choices we don't want to make and that would be one of them for me.

Besides, at the end of the day it is all about the money. JH didn't get rich by being an idiot. I'm confident that there are bean counters on Yawkey way who know how much more money they make with each progression into the playoffs and if they can spend $4.6M to make $8M they're going to do it.

Excellent post.

Of course the greatest thing about this trade is that we not only got the players we wanted/needed we also avoid the LT penalty as well as kept our eligibility for Revenue Sharing. That's a 3-way win!

MEF...Buddy!!... is that you???

As I posted elsewhere, I think that many teams are going to have to come to Jesus (Jesus Alou, that is ) regarding their spending habits. Going over the LT limit now is a double whammy in that not only does a team have to pay the LT they also don't get revenue sharing starting this year. That's a SERIOUS penalty. So yeah, this may be the year.

The only one of those guys whom I've actually seen pitch other than at ST is Pat Light. I saw him a couple of times in Portland. I was high on him at the time because he was approaching 100 on the gun but had significant control problems. As I said at the time, "He can bring it - he just doesn't know where it's going to go." He's probably one of those players the Sox have given up on with the idea that if someone else can get some good out of him, so be it. I've seen some of the others play a couple of times in AA but frankly one or two games isn't enough for me to form an opinion of a position player. I tried that with Hanley when he was in Portland. I saw him in only one game where he made two errors and went 1-4 with a double and I decided afterward that he was over-hyped. I guess that's why I'm typing and not scouting.

Yeah. That did occur to me. I guess I just tried to not think about it. It's a real possibility and could be the reason the Brewers were willing to let him go. I'd often wondered what the success rate would be of a team that picked up one of these 'question mark players' every year for short money so they had a rotation of them with one going down while another is coming back each year. Would it be a cheap way to get a quality arm, but having to wait a year or two and pay for the surgery in order to get it? As an aside, I wonder if their health insurance pays for the surgery since it could very well be described as 'elective'.

I don't have a problem with the 3-or-4 for 1's as long as it's done judiciously. In this real world there are many players in AA and AAA who will never make it to MLB. They're occupying positions so that the true prospects can play their position and be a part of a team. Without them we'd have three or four players in Portland or Pawtucket - not enough for a team. As long as the FO can weed out the hay from the chaff and trade the chaff to other teams who may be looking for chaff of their own I don't have a problem with it. And yes, once in a while it'll come back to bite you on the ass that you've traded away a late bloomer. However, given the %-age of minor leaguers who make it to MLB it's a decent risk to take as long as we fill a need.

Oops. Those damn vowels always confuse me!

Oh, I agree! It was just that since the Shaw trade Moncado's name hadn't been mentioned. I think Moncado would be a fine 3B on Opening Day... for the Pawsox.

Here's what bothers me about going into a season at or near the limit: It seems like we do this every year and then a need pops up that forces us over the limit. Then we go all season jockeying the roster to (unsuccessfully) get under the limit again. I'm not saying that I'd give up a chance to sign Koji just to stay well under the limit. I wouldn't. I'm jus' sayin'...

And these extensions mean nothing. How many times have you seen a manager extended and then replaced within the next year?

Has Moncada dropped off our radar as a possibility at 3B?

Sam Travis, behind Holt? Damn... I liked the sound of "The Travis Twins" at the corner IF spots, too! Edit.. sorry, Dojji. I was typing while you were posting!

I agree for the most part, but I still like Koji as our #2 in the pen. Actually I still like him as our closer but that ain't gonna happen for several reasons which I don't think are good ones.

yes...yes.. yes... I forgot Smith! Things get better!!

So we're now looking at a starting rotation of (in no particular order) Price Porcillo Pomeranz Wright ERod Buch ...and a bullpen of... (again in no particular order) Kimbrel Thornburg Kelly Hembree ? Scott ? Ross ? Barnes ? That's 13 pitchers a/k/a "a stable full". Now go out and sign Koji, put him in place of one of the guys with a question mark after his name, and we're set!

You're right, we didn't. But that's where he ended up and it was four seasons ago. Salaries have escalated since then. I'm not sure how wins relate to salary but we're apparently willing to pay $30M for a guy who's expected to win 20 games. That's $1.5M per win. If we get 8-10 wins from Buch - which isn't an unreasonable expectation over the full season - that's the same ratio Price is getting. Equally as important is the fact that he doesn't overburden a team with losses - and that's important. We may be able to pick up a pitcher at a lower salary who'll win those 8-10 games, but at the same time he may lose 15 games doing it where Buch may lose "only" 8-10. Sure, that makes Buch a .500 pitcher over a half season but this other guy has given us 5 more losses, and when a division championship is won by only a game or three, five is a big number. And... there's always the potential that Buch is going to win 17-18 which is a better potential than that guy whom we picked up at half the cost.

I hear ya, but at the same time I don't think we can dismiss out of hand what happened at the end of last season either. Koji came back strong from his injury - strong enough that there was some grousing about Kimbrel being the closer while Koji was relegated to setup man. I want Koji signed, hopefully for some number

I think I once heard someone say "You can't have too much pitching".

Two things.... I like the Thornburg acquisition. He should help the pitching staff and we got him relatively cheaply. Next... for better or worse this alleviates some of our logjam @ 3B. Did that picture make a believer out of DD?

Ehhh... .I'm not sure I can buy that. Ryan Dempster made $13.25M in 2013 as our 5th or 6th starter and put up a 4.5 ERA in 6 innings (or 3 runs per start). Any team whose #5 or #6 can do that has a good shot at a WS championship if only because that means they have 4 or 5 pitchers who are better than that nearer the top of the rotation. I'm aware of Buch's durability issues but at the same time I'm a "the glass is half full" kinda guy. Were it up to me I'd pay him the $13.5 and keep him around for as long as he's pitching well. Then when he goes down I'd sub for him with the same guy who would have started in Buch's place had we traded him. I agree with those who say that we don't know how many QS'S we're going to get out of him but that means exactly that - we don't know. It may be as few as 2-3 or it may be as many as 25, and I see either one of those scenarios being as unlikely as the other one. I'd predict someplace in between. I'd keep him and roll the dice only because his stuff is SO good that he could end up as a #2 or #3. If that happens I want him in a Boston uniform. Edit: BTW, is anyone else having trouble with this forum running unusually slowly for the past few days?