S5Dewey

My God I hope not. I hope the FO isn't going to waste an option year on a two week trial.

And here's yet another wrinkle. He's played a total of 4 games in front of the LF wall in Portland. I don't like this and here's why in a nutshell. Or at least as much of a nutshell as someone as verbose as I am can can put it. This team is in the midst of a 3 team pennant race where the difference between making the playoffs and missing them could very well be one game. I see him as having a "transitionary period" both offensively and defensively, during which he may very well be worse than the players we're currently running out there. (Sorry but it's true). In a best case scenario he could be better than the players he's replacing are by September 1, but I see a very real possibility that this experiment in August could very well cost us a playoff spot at the end of September.

Ok, now that you're done shuddering from my previous post, remember that this is exactly the transition in pitching quality that Beni will be making.

To those people who are saying that there's not a huge difference between AA and MLB pitching, I want to ask them this question: "How do you think a AA pitcher would fare in the Majors?"

This observation with Sandoval could happen. I can see some optimistic GM with a bad contract who's willing to take a chance jumping at this opportunity. Of course, we get a bad contract in return, but it shouldn't be as bad as Sandoval's, which could free up some money.

I haven't read the entire 300 pages of the CBA but I have it in the back of my mind that it was said in the spring that teams aren't allowed to have "weight limits" for players. Can anyone confirm or debunk this? I see the fact that there are no "Aces" available in the off season to be a good thing for the Sox. That means that any team with an interest in rebuilding may be willing to trade an Ace for a package of solid prospects, something the Sox have quite a few of and shouldn't have to worry about being outbid.

Wait, wait, wait. He's not "dominating minor league baseball', he's dominating AA. There's a difference, most especially in the pitching. This is an enormous jump for him and there will undoubtedly be an adjustment period. Is that really what we need to do in the middle of a pennant race? Promote a AA player to the Majors and hope for the best??

I know this isn't going to sit well with some posters, but the more I'm reading about this the more I'm asking "Why?". This guy has either been over-hyped or he's the greatest player since Mike Trout (or maybe before), and I'm very skeptical of that. From everything I'm reading and hearing he's 1) not ML ready defensively, and 2) will probably have an offensive adjustment period. We're in the midst of a 3-team pennant race and we need to put the best available on the field every game. Given my #1 & #2 above, what's he going to do to help this team immediately?

I knew it was just a matter of time before this post showed up, but I didn't think it would be THIS SOON!

I've gotta say.... I don't understand all this business about hesitating trading Beni for Sale, and I'm not devaluing Beni when I say that. We now have two outstanding OF'ers. What the team needs is a mediocre defensive OF'er who can hit for power to fill the LF, and Beni doesn't fill that profile. I know, good numbers this year and all, but I'm suspicious of someone who's There's nothing wrong with two teams making a trade that benefits both teams. Beni would be a good fit in Chicago and Sale would be a good fit here. I'm not suggesting a one-for-one (although I would! ) but IMO Beni should be the centerpiece with maybe Pom and a respectable MiL're throw in. Butler, anyone?

I spent 40+ years in a labor union, sometimes as an union officer, and even *I* think some of the things they get are ridiculous. My first piece of evidence is the salaries that Alan Craig and Pedro Sandoval are making. There should be some sort of salary relief for a team that pays big money to a player who isn't producing. There should be some middle ground in there someplace where the team bears some responsibility for a bad signing and the player bears some responsibility for not producing at the level the contract implies that he will.

It looks like you and I are completely on the same page about this. We currently have a core group of players - JBJ, Bogaerts, Betts, the catcher (whomever he is) - and maybe Shaw locked into relatively long term short money contracts. We have Moncada and Beni coming up to fill in where needed, also on short money. The bad news is that we need cheap pitching and that doesn't look like something that's going to be available. More bad news is that we have Alan Craig and The Fat Man drawing large salaries and making no contribution to the team. The good news is that with so many players locked into long term/short money contracts we can afford to buy the pitching we need. More good news is that we have money coming off the books this year that can be spent to upgrade the pitching, but that's next season. My position is that now is not the right time to expend our resources, whether it be more money or especially top-flight prospects, to make a run at it this year. The trade deadline can be the worst time to get value for money (or prospects). IMO we take what we've got and run with it. I agree with Moon and others that this team could have the talent to go deep into the playoffs as-is, but this team seems to either play very well or very poorly. If we don't go deep one player isn't going to make the difference between "Ring" and "No Ring".

And people in Heaven (or wherever we end up ) are going to be wondering why we're smiling all the time.

Yes, I agree that it COULD happen, but saying this is like the old saw of "Once you make the playoffs anything can happen". It's true, it CAN happen, but the smart money is always on the team that's proven themselves to be the best.

I know. Irreplaceable. Moon keeps talking about how we're going to "replace" Papi. We're not. It's going to be up to the entire team to step up and get a few more hits at crucial times. That is, unless you're talking about how cool it would be if the Sox won a WS championship in Papi's last year. I agree, it would, but I'm not willing to compromise the future of the team so it can happen. Is that cold?

LOL Me neither!!

Agree, completely. The arguments can be made that 1) the 2003 team was better than 2004's, and even 2) the 2004 team wasn't the best team in baseball that year. And look how things worked out. BTW, I still give Kevin Millar a lot of credit for that 2004 win when he set the tone for the last four ALCS games by saying, "Don't let us win this game..." Millar isolated the championship run into one game and everyone bought into it. Winning game 5 established momentum and from there on the team played better than they actually were.

That's a really good question, and one I'm not going to do the research on, but I can tell you this... it ain't us. My point in that paragraph is that our pitching staff is most likely inferior to any pitching staff we'd see in the playoffs (once we got by the one-game wild-card game). We have nobody who instills fear in opposing hitters unless it's Wright, and that speaks for itself.

Ummm...yeah. I can remember pre-2004 when I heard people say that they wouldn't care if we finished last for the next 10 years if we could win a WS Championship JUST ONCE! As I have been wont to say on occasion, "perspective is everything".

Your question if flawed on several levels. First, there's no guarantee that Lucroy or any one other player would win Boston a World Championship. Second, I'm not looking at being so-so for the next 3-4 years. "So-so" is ~.500. We're better than "so-so" now. I'm looking at going deep into the playoffs for the next 3-4 years (and beyond). IMO (and I hope it's fairly obvious to others) that this team does not have the pitching to go deep into the playoffs in 2016. In addition, this team doesn't hit great pitching, and great pitching is what you'll see more of in the playoffs. Great pitching is what got these teams as far as they are. When it comes to pitching we're bringing a knife to a gunfight. I don't want to see DD trade away outstanding prospects in July or August in a futile effort to make this team into something they're not going to be anyway.

My interpretation of this post, FWIW: Let's be realistic, guys. This is a team that finished last for the past two seasons. We're now in a bit of a rebuilding mode. Let's be patient for a year and not do anything stupid in an attempt to go from last to first (again). While our ultimate goal is always to win the World Series, a more realistic goal this year is to make the playoffs, give this team a taste of playoff experience and tweak what has to be tweaked in the off season to put them in a position to be a serious WS contender for years to come. Max and others, ...agree?

What? You mean it's NOT that easy? That a manager can't simply tell a hitter to get more hits or a pitcher to throw more strikes and have it magically happen? Blasphemy, I tell you, it's blasphemy!

My understanding of the switch from sugar to corn syrup came about because management wanted to make the product sweeter by adding more sugar. They went to corn syrup because they found that amount of sugar wouldn't dissolve in that volume of water. How scary is THAT? And BTW, the day I learned that was the day I decided to swear off Coke.

Yeah, probably I should have included DH's with pitchers in that group who can't be compared with position players. DH's, Papi especially since he essentially NEVER plays defense, doesn't have the chance to have his WAR affected by his defense whether it's positively or negatively.

I see three options for this year and what happens to Beni has to depend on how the FO sees this season. If we're not going to be a contender then bring him up with the idea of keeping him here. IMO it's pointless because I don't see him as being offensively ready to come up, but if the FO wants it to happen I can live with it. If we are going to be a contender then leave him there. Are we so desperate for defense that we're going to bring up a player who probably can play ML defense but will have to spend the month of August transitioning from hitting AA pitching to hitting ML pitching? But the absolute LAST thing to do is to bring him up now and then send him back. It's August. DO NOT waste an option year by calling him up now and then sending him back during the last two weeks of August. He may never use that 3rd option year but it would be crazy to waste it on two weeks in August with a team that (frankly) is struggling to make the playoffs and lacks the pitching depth to go deep into the playoffs. Keep that 3rd option year as insurance against further problems. And if we end up trading him that 3rd option year will also look good to any trade partner.