Nick

These prospects could be future closers per MLB Red Sox: Jacob Wallace, RHP (No. 28) One of the top relief prospects in the 2019 Draft, Wallace went to the Rockies in the third round after setting a Connecticut record with 16 saves and joined the Red Sox last September as the player to be named in the Kevin Pillar trade. He has a pair of plus pitches in a 93-97 mph four-seam fastball with late tail and a sweeping 82-85 mph slider with depth Bloom is doing well with these Players To Be Named transactions.

If you're going to spend $12M more to get the same pitcher, wouldn't you consider spending $10M more for a top line, win two games in a playoff series type ace? We may have chance to win the World Series in 2022 with Sale back healthy and addition of an ace and signing Barnes as the closer using Ottavino money. Ace, Sale, Eovaldi, Richards, Pivetti, Perez, Houck, Whitlock, Seabold (?).......whoever doesn't start goes to the pen. We'd still be near the luxury tax limit. All the position players return other than Marwin. I think he's the only one on a one year deal. Most important thing is that we haven't traded away any young talent and the farm system continues to improve.

I'm not opposed to re-signing E Rod but in this case we're not upgrading the staff. We're bringing back the SAME pitcher we paid $8.3M for say $20M. What do we gain?

This is last year of E Rod's team control with the Sox. This concludes the evaluation period for the deal Sox made with the Orioles. I'd say Sox made out like a bank robber. Talk about great value. He has started 130 games, has 56-33 record with 4.07 ERA. All that for approximately $15M. In 2015, I only watched games when he started. He went 10-6 after being traded to the Sox. We sucked that year. (I may have my years confused) I'd say shove that up your a** Buck Showalter. I just hated that guy. All he wanted to do was to beat the Sox. He didn't care about anything else.

My hope is Houck comes back 100% and is ready to take a rotation spot next year. Whitlock, Seabold and others can become depth pieces. Assuming we can sign an ace type this winter, say at $30M and is a proven winner, still possessing good stuff, we can get that money via E Rod$8.3M, Pedey, $13.75M and Beni $2.8M. Throw in $5M that we're under the cap, that's total of $29M. Say we do nothing else, our rotation could be deep in 2022. Remember, with pitchers, you never know. 1 Ace 2 Sale 3 Eovaldi (last year) 4 Richards (last year) 5 Pivetta 6 Perez, (club option) 7 Houck 8 Whitlock 9 Seabold With Eovaldi, Richards and Perez, it'll buy us another year to develop our younger pitching depth. One or two can be traded in July 2022. Ottavino's luxury tax payroll is $7.2M this year. That money can help Sox retain Barnes who is currently making $4.5M. I think Barnes wants to stay. Just my gut feeling. With position players, I think we're pretty well set. Devers will get a hefty raise from current $4.575M. Marwin is on a one year deal at $3M (?). I don't think he'll be back. Sooooo just know that I can very much be a fair weather fan. I thought Barnes was a big wuss, could not count on to close. How things change. It's good to be a fan. I can make mistakes all day long........

It's odd to think right now, our problem starters are Eovaldi and E Rod. I'm going to say it and keep in mind I was all for Sox extending Eovaldi. I've never seen a pitcher that throws so hard that can't miss the bats as little as Eovaldi. For our pitching gurus, what's up with that?

Renfroe is growing on me. I thought he's just a placeholder for someone else. I think he's 29, he's earning $3.1M this year with two more years of team control. It fits with Bloom's approach. I can see him part of core group going forward. LF Verdugo (25) CF Duran (24) RF Renfroe (29) is how I see it. I also don't see Kike being 2B of future, I could be wrong. It'll be interesting to see if Arroyo (26) can hold that spot. I see Kike playing full time being inserted at multiple positions. I'd love to see Chavis next year given the opportunity to expand his playing time by working him in LF. We'll need to pay whatever it takes to keep Devers. He's just fun to watch. If you give me choice, I'd take Devers over Betts, his youth and power trumps Betts.

Can the line up end up something like this with 13 pitchers? 1 Kike 2B 2 Verdugo LF 3 JD DH 4 Xander SS 5 Devers 3B 6 Vaz C 7 Renfroe RF 8 Duran CF 9 Dalbec 1B Santana, Arroyo, catcher, Marwin or Chavis, I would pick Chavis for power component, Marwin's versatility is diminished by Santana.

Exactly!

Dalbec performed well in 2020 in limited time. He showed his potential. He's homegrown. I'm not as vested in Cordero. Good athlete, has all the physical tools. So did Michael Jordan. With what appeared to be very solid Sox offense, putting Dalbec in 9th spot and just leaving him there seemed no brainer to me. Again, part of it was based on his dingers in 2020. With Cordero in the lineup, it seemed like we were hitting our pitchers.

He's not going to get better seeing minor league pitchers, no way.

Great Win... I love Sox going into national team parks. In essence we're replacing a fielder (Cordero) with JD. Our pitchers hit almost as well as Cordero.

this team is entertaining when it's going....that one inning with two outs, 7 straight hits.

Vaz with a sand wedge....

come on Vaz, be aggressive...u know he's looking for strike on his first pitch

f***ing yeh..

What an acting job by Kike. He had no intention of swinging. Baseball was two balls inside the strike zone box. Not even close to being a ball. I'll take a serious guy who doesn't say much with better baseball skills than an 'energy' guy.

Does anyone think Santana is better version of Marwin? If versatility is key to being on Sox bench, at least train Chavis in LF at some point. I always think he's getting the shaft from Cora. I don't know what he's done to piss off Cora. He's hitting something like .275 and I'm sure his ops is higher than Marwin's.....

Makes you think what the top line offer will be for E Rod. I prefer big money for an ace type and then go find other Pivetta's. I think we have one in Whitlock when he's stretched out at some point. Tanner Houck too.

Tough to lug $30M+ around without hurting your back.

Moon, no one responded to the article on Matt Barnes. It had some interesting 'suggestions'. Basically if you are a hitter and you take the first ball strike, you're dead in water. On the other hand, if you swing at 90% of first pitch strike, hitters definitely have the advantage. Apparently mlb hitters are swinging at first pitch strike more than ever (thinking 48%), but that's not enough to swing the advantage to the hitters. Knowing that a pitcher is a first strike thrower, would you tell the team at go ahead and swing at the first pitch?

I would go watch Sale in his best year. Trout plays every day and you're taking a chance he may not even get a hit. I don't think fans go watch just one position player. A starting pitcher? Yes.

Line up next 1/4 of season C Vaz 1B Platoon Dalbec with lefty 2b Arroyo SS Xander 3B Devers LF Verdugo CF Kike RF Renfroe DH JD throw in Santana and the line up looks pretty solid. We're removing sub .200 hitter in Cordero and adding a .300 hitter in Dalbec 1/3 of time. Other 2/3 should hit better than Dalbec's current sub .200 performance. Isn't this what analytics are all about? Problem with Chavis must be his defense...I doubt the Sox sees him as a permanent 1B, position he should work on is left field. It's all about fixing the pen right now.

It's interesting to project out mega players requiring big money on our roster. A team can only so many of these contracts. I think three is the max on any team. I would say $25M or around it is a mega contract. Xander and JD Martinez fall short of that. Chris Sale in the only player for the Sox getting a mega deal. Next up should be Devers. Don't shoot me but I prefer Devers over Betts due to age and power. As good as Verdugo can be, he won't get $25M with the Sox. We need an ace type for 2022. Choose wisely Mr. Bloom come this winter.

2021 Sox is all about identifying core group of players going forward. Beni and JBJ did not make the cut. Bloom is doing all he can to get something of value in return for guys that's not in the plan going forward. He's doing damn good job of it. I would have been so pissed to give out $24M, two year deal to JBJ.