harmony

Mitch Moreland has an OPS+ of 99 in 3,135 career plate appearances, including an OPS+ of 96 in 373 plate appearances this year and an OPS+ of 88 in 503 plate appearances last year. Moreland's hot start in his first 61 games with the Red Sox was most likely the outlier.

Huh?

The minor league career slash lines for Xander Bogaerts and Rafael Devers: XB 1623 PA, .296/.373/.489/.862 RD 1714 PA, .296/.354/.482/.836 https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=bogaer001xan https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=devers000raf

From FanGraphs columnist Jeff Sullivan (a frequent critic of the Mariners): http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/mariners-get-david-phelps-who-is-good/

Some Red Sox fans place too much trade value in a fringy prospect such as 23-year-old Sam Travis, who failed to make Baseball America's Top 100 prospect list, John Sickel's Top 200 prospect list, MLB Prospect Watch's Top 100 prospect list and Baseball Prospectus' Top 101 prospect list: http://www.baseballamerica.com/minors/top-100-prospects-updated-may-11/#jBgo67UVt7SXEGLj.97 https://www.minorleagueball.com/2017/2/13/14598358/top-200-mlb-prospects-for-2017-minor-league-ball http://m.mlb.com/prospects/2017?list=prospects http://www.baseballamerica.com/minors/2017-midseason-top-100-prospects-july-7/#q6gMY15kpSV3sBXi.97 In January Travis reportedly landed at No. 98 on Keith Law's ESPN prospect list (which is hidden behind a pay wall).

If the roles were reversed, would the Red Sox trade four-plus years of righthander Heath Hembree to the San Francisco Giants for first base prospect Chris Shaw? Hembree and Strickland are same-sized 28-year-old righthanded relievers who come with four more years of team control. Since the start of the 2016 season Hembree has posted an ERA of 3.04 and an ERA+ of 147 in 81 appearances while Strickland has posted an ERA of 2.65 and an ERA+ of 153 in 111 appearances. Over that period Hembree has posted 0.9 fWAR while Strickland has posted 1.4 fWAR. Edge to Strickland. The irony is that the Giants drafted Hembree while the Red Sox drafted Strickland. Sam Travis and Chris Shaw are MLB Prospect Watch's eighth- and ninth-ranked first base prospects: http://m.mlb.com/prospects/2017/?list=1b This year as 23-year-olds in Triple A, Travis has posted a wRC+ of 109 in 186 plate appearances while Shaw has posted a wRC+ of 119 in 195 plate appearances. Travis makes more contact while Shaw has more power. The John Sickels scouting reports from last December: https://www.minorleagueball.com/2016/12/29/14119404/boston-red-sox-top-20-prospects-for-2017 https://www.minorleagueball.com/2016/12/20/14025292/san-francisco-giants-top-50-prospects-for-2017

Hunter Strickland is not a rental. The San Francisco Giants would demand more than a fringy prospect for four-plus years of an established reliever. FWIW, the Giants have one-time All Star first baseman Brandon Belt signed through 2021.

The Red Sox play their next six games in the Pacific Time Zone where the Sox are 1-3 this year after going 9-8 last year and 4-7 in 2015.

That's the point. The price goes up for an added year of team control.

I doubt a single prospect outside the Top 100 will be enough to land four-plus years of Hunter Strickland.

Hunter Strickland, who remains under team control for four arbitration seasons, will cost a bundle. https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/s/strichu01.shtml

The Red Sox have won 13 of 19 starts (68.4 percent) by Chris Sale this year, including both starts against the Blue Jays, each at Toronto.

Last year 12 weeks of reliever Brad Zielger cost the Red Sox righthander Jose Almonte and second baseman Luis Alejandro Basabe, whom SoxProspects had ranked 18th in a Boston farm system that included Yoan Moncada, Andrew Benintendi, Anderson Espinoza, Rafael Devers, Michael Kopech, Sam Travis, Brian Johnson and Michael Chavis. Seattle will get a year and about 11 weeks of 30-year-old righthander David Phelps, who has posted 0.3 fWAR in 44 appearances for Miami this year after posting 1.9 fWAR last year. At the time of the Red Sox trade, Ziegler has posted 0.5 fWAR in 36 appearances for Arizona after posting 0.6 fWAR the previous year. This year the 37-year-old Ziegler has posted 0.0 fWAR in 34 appearances as Phelps' teammate on the Marlins.

I accept that we subject ourselves to feedback when we post to a public forum. Thank you for your response.

Thank you for the feedback.

MLB Prospect Watch ranked the minor leaguers No. 6, No. 16 and No. 22 (and unranked) if the middle-of-the-road Seattle farm system. Brayan Hernandez, the top-ranked prospect, is an outfielder, the same position as the Mariners' top prospects (Kyle Lewis and Tyler O'Neill) and three Seattle rookies (Ben Gamel, Mitch Haniger and Guillermo Heredia) who until recently had posted higher 2017 fWAR than Andrew Benintendi in fewer games (despite sharing outfield duties with Jarrod Dyson and his 2.0 fWAR). Seattle general manager Jerry Dipoto has been quoted as saying he won't trade for rentals so David Phelps was a target with his team control through 2018.

I associate the f-word with 12-year-olds. Many folks outgrow that stage.

No complaint. I simply asked a question. I suppose you're communicating to the best of your abilities. Warm regards.

Why can't you ask the question without dropping the f-bomb?

The Red Sox/Yankee series provided the intro to this piece about pitch selection: https://sports.yahoo.com/slow-down-yankees-leading-change-114640425.html

BTW, David Phelps was a Golden Domer.

Reliever David Phelps, in whom the Red Sox reportedly had interest, has been traded from Miami to Seattle for four minor leaguers. https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2017/07/marlins-trade-david-phelps-mariners.html https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2017/07/red-sox-interested-in-martin-prado-david-phelps-package.html

I thought you had written somewhat fondly of Danny Valencia in the past. As I write the Mariners are 1.5 games back in the race for the second Wild Card slot with a 10-game homestand against the Yankees, Red Sox and Mets coming up. The August schedule, however, is brutal with 20 road games and only seven home games.

With four Defensive Runs Saved, Danny Valencia is tied with Mitch Moreland and Matt Carpenter for sixth place among qualified first basemen this year: http://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=1b&stats=fld&lg=all&qual=y&type=1&season=2017&month=0&season1=2017&ind=0&team=0&rost=0&age=0&filter=&players=0&sort=10,d However, at a -0.1 Valencia has the only negative UZR/150 among the top eight first basemen in DRS.

The Seattle Mariners, who are almost "near out of it," have first baseman Danny Valencia, who has posted a wRC+ of 109 in his final year of team control. The 32-year-old Valencia has a .298/.353/.475/.829 line in 266 plate appearances since April.