Nick

Did you go Sox or Rays for Xmas?

All positives.....This is a good team on paper that's done it before where it counts, on the field. Last year at this time, we had Hanley. He was replaced by JD Martinez. We had Pom. Now we have Eovaldi. We had no partner for Moreland. Now we have full year of Pearce. We wanted to know if Betts would come back from his pedestrian performance from 2017. He answered with a MVP season. JBJ is slowing rounding into all around professional. Devers made his sophomore adjustments. Sure it was painful at times but he survived. Beni overcame his sophomore year from 2017 and came back strong. Price bounced back. In my mind his contract has been well worth it. 3 division titles and a world series ring in his three years. E Rod looked stellar while he was healthy. I'm just not concerned with this team. DD will do something about the pen before it's all said and done. It's only day before Christmas Eve.

Tulowitzki played 131 games his first full year with Toronto with OPS of arund .760. Then in 2017 he only played in 66 games. I believe he was out all last year. It's been a horrible contract for Toronto. And they're still on the hooks for two more years. Ouch. I get it that he wants to start but he's got some nerve based on his track record. I would think he'd just want to be on a contender (Red Sox). Only f***ing reason anyone is looking at him is because someone else is paying his tab. Self absorbed much?

E Rod needs to stay healthy. He's never pitched 140 innings in his 4 years (granted yr 1 was abbreviated via late start). But the ceiling in high if everyone stays healthy. I'm excited for Pearce having a full year with the Sox. No more talk of not playing Devers. Our payroll is OVER $40M over the luxury tax limit. We need to live with Devers at 3B. Don't forget the clutch hits he delivered during playoffs.

And don't forget we still have the highest payroll for a DFA'd player.

I said Castillo's $11M would cost the Sox additional $9.3M in 2019 assuming his entire $11M sits above the $40M tier. $11M x .30 = $3.300M $11M x .12 = $1.320M $11M x .425= $4.675M It adds up to $9.295M . Any questions?

I don't think we have to be critical but we can point out bad contracts. Here's the story behind Castillo signing. Red Sox came in second for Abreu. I think we missed by few million dollars. We were determined not to come in second the following year when Castillo became available. You can't blame our GM for trying. It just hasn't worked out. Each year it seems all teams fall into 'group think' mode. Kansas City winning it all brought in the strong pen over starters theory. This year it seems to me all teams are looking for closer types that can pitch multiple innings.

You are missing the 12% secondary penalty.

My bad, my number is off. But the point I wanted to make was he's going to make the same amount of money in 2020 as he will in 2019. I would definitely opt out after 2020 but no so sure about after next year.

2019 Starting Freakin' Rotation! Sale, Price, Porcello, Eovaldi, E Rod Could this be the best rotation ever in Fenway?

Is it really given that JD Martinez will opt out after 2019? His contract still calls for $25M payout in 2020. Why not wait until after 2020? I like for Moon to pitch in here but I believe JD's decision after 2019 maybe the biggest factor as to when the Sox re-sets. If he sticks around for 2020, we can then go for three peat, then re-set. Our penalty can raise as high as $30M for 2020 but it would be worth it.

DD's Red American Express card is maxed out. He'll have to pay down the debt before he can buy more players.

Best loss ever? Jacoby Ellsbury.....Yankees are stuck with him for another 2 years.

Castillo's $11M would cost the Sox additional $9.3M in 2019 assuming his entire $11M sits above the $40M tier. Now that would be stupid.

Sox is paying $5.8M per fWAR. Cubbies are paying $7.5M per fWAR. I doubt Lester's numbers will improve much over the next two years. But of course we're worried about winning so Lester would have done better for Sox even though it would've cost us little more.

Suppose we offer Betts the best FA offer after the 2020 season. Would he not even consider us if we had traded him after 2019? Forgetting the draft picks, etc, our penalty this year will be about $12M. Next year it will be close to 1 1/2 times more (going from 20% to 30%), $18M, if our payroll is at the same level. Then it will be close to $30M each year thereafter. I would suspect we'd get some relief under the new CBA in 2022. I'm beginning to think if we reset, it should come after the 2019 season. Why not get something for Betts? If we swing and miss on re-signing Betts, we can always go after Trout. If Betts knows that the Sox are retooling, would he carry a grudge against the team for trading him? We can still re-sing Price in 2020 for post 2020 pennant run. When Betts returns, we'll have two years of Price and Eovaldi, along with Sale.

Let's turn around the conversation the other way. For all your negative nannies. If we found out that the team in order to save 10 slots in the draft failed to sign that critical player at midyear or give up someone that could have helped down the line was the cause of the Sox not winning it all, how would we all react? I seriously doubt after each transaction, you can calculate it to the penny how much you are over, no? Is the player benefit component set in stone before end of the season? Also how do you KNOW that Pom was NOT NEEDED back in July? Again, we have bunch of Monday morning quarterbacks and penny pinchers wanting heads on both sides of the coin. I want these guys investing my money because apparently they know exact lows and highs in every stock transaction. GOOD f***ING GRIEF. I'll take every penalty for winning the world series.

We're poised to go for it again in 2019. Why would you trade Porcello or any of the other four? Chances are more likely that one of the starters will be injured at some point than all five being healthy the entire year. I wouldn't take that risk. I really don't think our catching situation will get any worse than 2018. I think there's some upside to that position. Hopefully Vaz will stay healthy the whole year.

If you take emotions out of it, Betts has the most value in a trade. We can probably get two cost controlled players at two positions, one being a starting pitcher. If we win it all in 2019, I can reset and see us rebuild. Won't we get draft compensation for losing Xander, Sale, Porcello and Martinez? Trade away JBJ and Betts. And hope Pedey retires. Hell you might as well trade E Rod who will still have two years left and definitely have some value. Build a team around Devers and Beni. Under this scenario, we have less than $70M tied up. Year later you can re-sign Betts when he becomes a FA. I think fans will understand, as long as we win it all again in 2019.

I actually have Xander signed for $20M. If we pass on him, we'll have $58M left.

You are not getting Sale foe $25M.

Fans want to build a team around Mookie after we do the reset. It maybe another Lester nightmare if we don't offer 'fair' price to Betts. With that in mind, suppose we go for it for 2019 and 2020 and reset in 2021 as advocated by Moon. Price----2019-2020-2021-2022 $31.00M Eovaldi-2019-2020-2021-2022 $17.00M E Rod---2019-2020-2021 $15.00M? (3rd Yr arb) Porcello-2019 Sale---- 2019 Vazquez 2019-2020-2021 $ 4.50M Platoon 2019 Pedroia 2019-2020-2021 $13.75M Xander 2019-2020-2021 $20.00M assume we sign him to long term Devers 2019-2020-2021-2022-2023 $ 7.50M 1st yr arb Beni 2019-2020-2021-2022 $12.50M 2nd yr arb JBJ 2019-2020 Betts 2019-2020 Marinez 2019 We'll have $121M committed to 3 starting pitchers, catcher, 2B. SS. 3B, LF, total of 8 players 2021. Luxury tax limit for 2021 is $210M. Subtract $16M for player benefits. Thus we have $73M to sign Betts and fill out DH, 1B, CF, entire bullpen and starters 4 and 5 on pitching staff and the balance of 40-man roster. If we give Mookie $35M, that leaves us with only $38M. That is just not doable in my mind. And that's with saying bye to Porcello, Sale and Martinez year before. I don't think we reset. We merely stay under the $40M + luxury tax limit forever. Moon, help!!!!

Pitching still is the key in the playoffs. On the offensive side, it's better to have strength throughout the lineup as opposed to simply having two or three studs. You need good supporting cast is a short series. Great example was relative lack of production out of our two best offensive players in the world series. Despite Betts and DJ having pedestrian numbers, other bats came alive to carry our offense. Timely hits came from elsewhere. We do have to make choices. Is it better to spend say $25M on a dependable starter such as Porcello or do you spend extra money, $33M for a Ferrari, Sale? Porcello maybe more dependable over a 162 game season but there's no doubt it's nice to have Sale starting two games in a world series. But the $8M difference can buy us another bat. Tough choices.

If I remember correctly at the time of trade, we did not really know much about Devers. But there were noises that said DD really liked Devers over Moncada. Also, Pedey was healthy around that time with several years still remaining on his contract. Thus Moncada was blocked at 2B and playing 3B in Sox system. Maybe you're the one that correctly predicated that it was Kopech that was the real loss for the Red Sox. As Kimmi stated, World Series Banner will always remind us that it was a good trade for us and probably for the White Sox too.

Your IQ is higher than most.