Nick

Another thing to keep in mind as move forward is that there will be a new Collective Bargaining Agreement for 2022, CB Payroll limit will be $206M, $208M, and $210M over the next three years. I see that going up to around $220M for 2023. Henry may 'go for it' to build additional value for the Sox. At some point he will sell. Three consecutive titles would do it for him.

Big thing for Sox this year is everyone remaining relatively healthy, especially the starting four of Sale, Price, Porcello and E Rod. I would love to see E Rod take it up another notch. He needs more swings and misses to keep his pitch count low. No matter how he starts off a batter, inevitably he goes to 2-2, 3-2 counts.

I believe I read somewhere Houston Astros passed out each player share of $387K to 76 or so individuals. That's pretty good pay day for guys like Brasier. I'm happy for them. Merry Christmas.

Great synopsis. My thought was when DD was hired, we finally had an adult running the show. Sox fans forget that we finished dead last three out of four years around the world championship year. We have two more years of Betts/JBJ along with Beni/Devers. We have the starting rotation coming back for 2019 (except for Pom). Our pen needs work. Xander, Nunez, JD (opt year coming up for 2020) and Moreland are back for one more year. I'd say we're in pretty good shape for at least two more years on the heels of three straight division championships. In today's era, five good years is pretty much what you can hope.

I know it won't happen but my dream scenario is for Pedey to retire, move Betts to 2B, JD to OF and sign a power bat (Betre) to DH for 1 yr 10M deal. I just want to see it for 1 yr.

I'd almost rather see Pedey go ahead and retire. I think too many of us are thinking he's coming back to be the player once he was and will be very disappointed. We won and became the greatest Red Sox team WITHOUT him. Maybe that's what he meant when he uttered those famous words, "it wasn't me, it's them".

Moon, the tax threshhold is $206M for 2019.

I have no basis for this but Wright to me has a physique of what you think of a knuckleballer. Meaning he's out of shape. He'll always struggle physically, especially when trying to come back from a serious injury.

Being patient played well for DD last off season. He correctly read the market for JD. He did not panic. Also having the resources in July to go get what the team needs is critical for playoff run (money and young players). As I mentioned before, DD is a straight shooter. He identifies team needs and address them. We need a closer, platoon partner for Moreland and another starter, Go get them DD.

I think Moon has a book/spreadsheet that he simply updates. It's not like he's starting from scratch. He dreams Red Sox going to bed. I see him all dressed up Sox pj.

Yep.... not sure why posters insist on not believing words coming out of player's mouth. Price has four more years left on his contract. He's not going to get more money. No one is going to give him additional years. And finally, why would Price want to pitch longer than four more years? He'll have all the money he needs. Elite players eventually want to win. He got his world series ring. He can get another one pitching for the Sox.

It sure makes 2019 discussion easy knowing you have the world championship in back pocket. At worst Sale, Price, Porcello, E Rod, Wright, Johnson and Hector as starters. Barnes, Brasier, Workman, Hembree, Thornburg, Smith, Maddox, Poyner in the pen. Vazquez, Moreland, Holt, Xander, Devers, JD, Beni, JBJ and Betts in the field. That's probably good enough for wildcard spot. Sign Eovaldi to a 4 year deal. Sign Kelly and trade for a cost controlled closer. Sign Pearce to a two year, $15M deal.

Has any manager used starters as often out of the pen as Cora did in 2019 playoff run?

MOON, It's time for A Realistic view at 2019: Part I 4 Titles in 15 years, Giants with 3, Cardinals with 2, Yankees and others at 1.

Henry/DD will only "keep it going" (ie spend money) with one though in mind. Win back to back World Series. 1 Sign Eovaldi. This is a hedge against losing both Sale and Porcello after 2019. It's a smart move. Goal is to win the world series, not jut to sign a fifth starter. Assuming E Rod continues to improve, our starting pitching will be loaded and gives us more options for 2019 playoff run. 2 Wait and see at 2B. We have enough hitting elsewhere. If Pedey has to 'retire', then trade for 2B in July. 3. I'd look for cost controlled closer in a trade. We may have to give up some young talent again but the goal is to win it all.

I'm going to hold you to that.

I agree about E Rod. He gave us great five innings. You KNEW that his gig was going to be up at some point. Someone else should have came in. Cora was playing with fire and got burned.

Looking at 'Sox' developed players and their first major league season, determined by "significant" plate appearance. Year Name Pos Age HR RBI OPS (# of AB) 2018 Devers 3B 21 21 66 .731 (450 AB) 2017 Beni LF 23 20 90 .776 (573 AB) 2016 2015 Betts RF 23 18 77 .820 (597 AB) 2014 Xander SS 22 12 46 .660 (538 AB) 2014 JBJ CF 24 1 30 .531 (384 AB) 2014 Holt Uti 26 4 29 .711 (449 AB) 2007 Pedroia 2B 24 8 50 .823 (520 AB) I just don't see any evidence to indicate that Devers and Beni were brought up too quickly. Betts probably had to best debut. Others will go through normal 'rookie' struggles. Moral of the story is obviously you can't have nine rookies starting but as an organization you have to break the kids in at some point.

Betts, JBJ, Beni, Barnes,Vazquez and Swihart were all drafted by the Sox. International draft yielded Xander and Devers. JD, Price, Moreland and Brasier were all free agent signings. The rest came by way of trades, Sale, Pom, Pearce, Kinsler, Eovaldi, Hembree, Holt, Kimbrel, Porcello, Kelly, Nunez, E Rod and Sandy. You can argue that trades were made possible by having a strong farm system. We just seem to struggle developing starting pitchers.

And that's not even taking into account Rusney Castillo's money.

You are correct sir. But I still think there's a difference between a turnover in NBA finals game with 10 seconds remaining versus turning the ball over with 30 point lead.

Yes they have......look it up. Thus the language I use, CB Payroll includes benefits. I can count.

Cot's Baseball has Sox CB Payroll at $233,300,600. If we are breaking records, I want to be accurate.

I thought it was the Germans.

Maybe it's easy being more gracious when you are winning (speaking for myself). If we get there, this will be Sox's 4th championships in 15 years, ahead of Giants' 3 and Cardinals' 2. That's pretty amazing. We will have done it with 3 GM's (I'm counting DD as a GM) and 3 different managers. I think we have at least one more go at it in 2019. Yankees are probably our main competitor with young core and money to burn. I think little things matter when it comes to winning the world championship. We were not going to overtax ourselves to have the best record but having the home field advantage I think still matters. IT DOESN'T HURT FOR SURE. In hindsight, signing Eovaldi along with Pearce and Kinsler were huge, especially Eovaldi. You prepare for the marathon (regular season) but you also have to have a kick (playoff games). Eovaldi certainly has bolstered Sox's resume for the playoffs. Pitching still wins big games and getting a #2 type pitcher goes long ways in winning the big series come playoff time. Many here advocate a depth piece at #5/#6 starter for 2019, but I would argue someone in line of Eovaldi talent is needed to get us over the hump come playoff time. My guess is Yankees will go hard after Eovaldi. I hope DD will too. Do we say f*** it and bring back Kimbrel, Eovaldi and Kelly? We have approximately $34M before we hit the 47.5% surtax. But if you go over by say $10M, That's 100% penalty, $2 for $1, (30%+12%+47.5%=say 100%), that's only $10M penalty. I'd say it's worth winning the 5th world series ring. Not my money. For less than $150, I can watch almost every Red Sox game. Still the best bargain in the world.