Nick

Per Over the Monster At this point, with Thornburg still throwing off flat ground and having no basis on which to base expectations for the now-29-year-old, the safe course of action is to expect little from Thornburg. The righty has the talent to be a legitimate back-of-the-bullpen arm, and he’s proven that at the major-league level. We just don’t know if he’ll get that stuff back. The Red Sox are going to work with him to get it back, of course, and they’d be wise to take their time and value the quality of his stuff when he returns over the percentage of the season in which he can pitch. If Thornburg does get his stuff back for 2018, though, it is the biggest potential boost we could see for this Red Sox roster.

I love the JD Martinez deal. If he has two great years, then he'll opt out of his contract. And if he does have two great years, we should be winning. When he opts out in two years, Sale becomes FA. If he waits another year to opt out, Betts becomes a FA. I seriously doubt he will finish out his contract as a Red Sox, unless we extend him with big money and longer years during his third year. Both sides are in a win win situation. Loading up early on his contract makes lot of sense. After three years, hopefully someone like Chavis will be ready to lend his power bat to our lineup.

For players 26-40 on our 40 man roster, good performance during spring training by non-rosters invitees may allow us to trade our 'surplus'. I'm not into making changes without a road map. Some of the players at lower level need to make some major progress this year. CJ Chatham is someone who has to stay healthy and show us what he's got. It's also time for Jay Groome get some innings in this year. I'm also curious to see where Josh Ockimey is this year. He's someone that has shown power in batting cage but not during games. We need to develop a major league ready 2B. I just don't think Pedey will ever be 100% and will need to DH from time to time. (rest Beni vs LP, let JD play left and Pedey DH, Nunez to 2B). I think this is a big year for Xander. He has not followed up his world series performance. Yeah I get the hand injury. We need to find out if he's simply a mediocre SS or bona fide star.

I never worry about cash flow for player payroll. It's all about AVV for me,

Yeah I get it.......Now would your line up be different if I bet you $100? I bet you would have Betts and Beni at the top then. Can Cora just say I'm leading off Beni so we can say Beni and the Betts?

$230M does NOT include Castillo. He's not on the 40 man roster. He maybe one of our 40 best, but his high value contract is keeping him off the 40 man roster. His contract would cost the Sox additional $3.2M in penalties. Probably not worth it to the Sox.

At some point we have to trust the mgmt. We're fortunate that our ownership is willing to 'invest'. Comparative AAV for 2018 payroll. We are out spending Yankees by $54M, $34M if you take out Sandoval. Red Sox $230M Nationals $202M Cubs $185M Dodgers $180M Yankees $176M Toronto $173M Angels $171M Mets $166M Astros $165M Mariners $152M Rangers $152M Guardians $148M Orioles $145M Tigers $135M Rays $89M Some of you still want to add pieces. Are we not where we used to accuse the Yankees of doing? Buying the championship? There are no gurantees. If you're unhappy with our roster, then you have problems.

I appreciate everyone's line up input BUT What part of Cora saying he wants to bat Betts and Beni at the top of the order don't you understand?

There's no reason to rush Chavis but it would be interesting to see if he gets a September call up this year. He needs to keep working out at 1B. He has to crack the lineup by 2020.

I thought I read somewhere he was just doing some long throws. Has not been on the mound. (I could have been just dreaming!)

I think it's time for me to sit back, relax and let the season unfold. Basically we brought everyone back and added JD Martinez. We'll have Devers and Nunez, our top hitters, for full year. Price looks to start more than 11 games. Xander's hand injury should be healed. Hanley's shoulder should be better. C Smith should be 100% and ready to go. Moreland should be 100% from his foot injury. Maybe Wright will regain his early 2016 magic. Maybe Thornburg will help in 2nd half. New coach, hopefully he's not in love with Holt like whats his face. ps i got rid of my 'cliff' avatar. Here's JD on his 19th birthday with his sister.

Everyone here thinks Theo is god. god passed on him. I'm going to follow what god did.

What would you propose to do with our lefthanders? Trade Price, Sale, Pom or E Rod? Just so you can have a balance?

That's pretty unbelievable. Epitome of development failure.

It sure would be nice if we have s SP in our farm step up next couple of years.

Why risk getting JD injured? He can fill in occasionally at Fenway giving Beni a rest but I prefer JD DH'ing. We still need JBJ's defense in CF. That OF made our pitching staff look even better. We can 'cover' for JBJ's bat with addition of JD. Trading JBJ is going backwards.

Moon, see what you think We will also get a bump of $9M in 2019 due to increase in CB Tax Threshold. Thus assuming money is not a big deal for Sox (but losing a draft pick is), beginning in 2019, our payroll budget is $206M plus $40M or $246M. Basically we have $16M to play with for assuming no further additions or subtractions during 2018. That amount I think will cover increases in arbitration money. What to do with $22M allotted for Hanley? Xander is already being paid $7M for 2018. Can we not take that money along with $22M from Xander and sign Machado? Or do we extend both Pom and Kimbrel (Hanley's $22M should cover it). Following year, Porcello's $20M, Sandoval's $18M, Moreland's $6.5 along with Nunez' $4M comes off the books. That's total of $50M (rounding off to easy number). Sale is already making $13.5M so it would take additonal $17M to sign him. We'd still have $30M to reinforce our roster OR go ahead and extend Betts. So in theory, we can add/keep JD Martizez, Machado, Betts along with Beni and Devers. We'd still have Sale and Price along with E Rod. If we say good bye to Kimbrel, then maybe we can have both Machado and Pom. I don't see a cliff. (we do need another starter to emerge and a 1B to emerge also, how tough can that be? it's time our farm produced couple of more major leaguers.)

I'm just not in favor of getting rid of JBJ, especially now with Nunez and JD on board. He will be the best CF in the league from 9th spot.

I'd go to Cot's...https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1mVYyinHlYUI0gE98AgFFb5tDFIoEatCfqEo2xDfv1NI/pubhtml# It has everything you need to know. Cot has our AAV for 2018 at $229,934,600. CB Tax Threshhold is $197,000,000, we pay 20% penalty on $32,934,600. We also pay 12% surtax on amount over $217,000,000. We have to get to $237,000,000 to get to the max penalty. We still have $7,000,000 for reinforcement at trade dead line. With Nunez on board, it's time to cut the cord with Holt and save $2.225M. It's time.

He'll start the season at age 33 and 34. How tough can it be to DH at age 34? I'm sure he thinks he will play until he's 40.

I'm taking Cora's word for it ... Betts RF Beni LF Nunez 2B (didn't he have the highest OPS last year?) JD DH Devers 3B Xander SS Mitch 1B Vaz C JBJ CF

It now becomes a must see TV. Solid starting line-up daily. Pitching rotation of Price, Sale, Pom, Porcello and E Rod (at some point). I just hope Porcello gets the run support he did two years ago. He may need it. It's worth every bit of $100!!!!!!!!

I think our OF is set and JD is not starting there. I think the team is set as long as everyone stays healthy.

I think you do the right thing. Let winning baseball games dictate the player usage. Hell it's a long season, you never know who gets hurt. You can really rest players if things work out.

I'd forgotten about Nunez.....yikes.