Nick

You do know that it's Mr. Lee?

You talking about me, punk? Where in the hell is Kimmi?

Why would Lackey want to return to Boston? He hated here.

Had we kept our roster intact. SP Porcello SP E Rod SP S Wright SP Johnson SP Closer Kelly Set Up Barnes 1B Sam Travis/Shaw 2B Pedroia SS Xander 3B Devers/Shaw C Vazquez DH Hanley LF Beni CF Bradley Jr RF Betts I guess we could have finished near bottom had we kept Ben, but our farm would be stocked to the hilt. We'd have Moncada and Kopech. Lets take a closer look at our trades. Part I. Manuel Margo 2017 126 games 487 AB .313 .409 .722 What do you do with him? Trade JBJ? Javier Guerra Padres shortstop prospect....no longer a top 30 in Padre system. He was a top MLB top 50 prospect in 2015. SEE HOW THIS WORKS? Logan Allen #13 Left hander pitching prospect for Padres Anderson Espinoza #7 Prospect for Padres (injured for 2018) Carlos Asuaje 89 games 307 AB .334 .362 .696 2B for Padres Wade Miley....do we really want him back? Luis Alfehandro Basabe...traded for Ziegler, not on 40 man roster, not listed on 30 man prospects list for Arizona Jose Almonte....also traded for Ziegler, ranked 22nd on 30 man prospects list for Arizona, a pitcher Aaron Wilkerson...traded to Milwaukee for Aaron Hill. soon to be 29 year old pitcher is on the 40 man roster. Wendell Rijo...also traded to Milwaukee for Aaron Hill. Not on the top 30 prospect list for the Brewers. Mauricio Dubon...traded to Milwaukee for Thornburg. Ranked 11th in Brewers top 30 prospect list. 2B/SS. TRAVIS SHAW...traded to Milwaukee for Thornburg. .862 OPS with 31 HR and 101 RBI. Under team control for 4 years. Just remember, everyone here thought maybe he was expendable. Moncada on his way. Ok, I'll stop for now. I will follow with White Sox trade. Setting aside the Shaw trade, did we really empty out the farm? Bueller? Bueller?

I can see that.

Answer to corruption in college basketball according to talking heads is to pay the athletes. Are they really THAT DUMB? If you pay the 'students-athletes' living wages, no one thinks that someone out there won't offer MORE money to entice a player to come? And what are they really saying? Obviously they think college education has NO VALUE to them. These morons don't realize how expensive it is to attend Duke, just as an example? What about title IX issues and non revenue sports? No one thinks that someone will challenge the policy of only football and basketball players getting 'paid'? Start a minor league system or better yet, make high school seniors eligible for the draft.

If one of starter goes down, that's a distinct possibility. Throw in a prospect or two and we may get a pretty good pitcher in return. I THINK WE ARE ALL IN FOR 2018 AND 2019.

This is why when someone says to go sign a starting pitching depth I just chuckle. If I'm a betting man, I doubt we go past the secondary penalty phase. Now if you say to sign so and so and get rid of so and so, then I'll take it seriously. Throwing out random acquisition ideas without knowing the consequences is just fantasy baseball. We have painted our selves into a corner. Our potential moves are easy to read with our payroll. ps it's not a bad thing, we think we can win it all with our line up.

Current luxury tax payroll of $230M, next year's luxury tax limit at $206M, thus we can spend up to $246M before the second penalty phase kicks in. Moon has current arbitration eligible players at payroll of $37M. Even by most conservative estimates, I think it will get a 50% raise, or say $20M for easy numbers. Now we're up to luxury tax payroll of $250M, exceeding the $246M second tier penalty. $230M includes Kimbrel's $13M and Pom's $8.5M, Kelly's $3.8M. This is why I've proposed making sure Hanley's 2019 payroll not vest (if we can win it all with 400 at bats from him) and possibly trade Porcello so we can re sign Pom (that's assuming we agree that Pom has better future than Porcello, otherwise keep Porcello and offer Pom a qualifying offer). Two big contracts need to come off the books if we want to keep Pom and keep in tact all of our arbitration eligible players.

Nope. Are you unhappy with our 25 man roster? If so, speak up now. Don't be a Monday morning quarterback. Betts, Beni, Xander, JD, Devers, Hanley, Pedey, Vazquez, JBJ with Moreland, Nunez, Swihart and Leon. Sale, Price, Porcello, Pom and E Rod (Johnson) Kimbrel, Carson, Barnes, Kelly, Scott, Hembree, Workman Are you seriously going to blame DD for this roster not winning?

It's now up to the players to earn their keep. DD has done his job.

Win the Division Sale, Price, Pom/Porcello/E Rod. Solid lineup with Betts, Beni, JD, Hanley, Devers, Xander, Pedey, Vazquez and JBJ. Solid pen with Kimbrel, Smith and cast of thousand. Pitching still the key. At some point, we'll need to re-set the luxury tax payroll. Winning in 2018 would certainly go long way in bringing our finances in order. It will give us another year for our farm to 'mature'. It's not too much to expect one rookie on the 25 man roster each year. 2014 Xander/JBJ/Vazquez 2015 Betts/E Rod 2016 Shaw (traded) 2017 Beni 2018 Devers

It's a damn good thing we didn't extend him for 10 yr, $30M. Hell he can't even hit off back of line pitchers.

I might. It's also hard to give him too much credit when our luxury tax payroll is $230M.

I have NEVER volunteered to say anything about DD. I make my comment ONLY when others tear him down. He's doing his job. Nothing more. Nothing less. I really don't want to talk about him. BUT I WILL DEFEND HIM WHEN HE'S UNDULY CRITICIZED.

You own the Sox. You hired me to get the Sox out of finishing last two years in a row. What did you want me to do? On the heels of "we have five starting pitchers" excuse, I go out and get the absolute best starter available. I needed a closer and trade away some kids for Kimbrel. How are those kids doing? Wasn't an outfielder blocked by our B boys? In the middle of pennant chase, we needed a starter. We trade for Pom. How's Espi doing? Year later, on the beliefs that 3B will be covered better by Devers than Moncada, I trade Kopech and Moncada for Sale. Moncada is technically blocked by Pedey had he stayed with the Sox. Beni was a star moment he stepped onto the field. Technically we can re-set the tax penalty rate after we win the world series this year. Get rid of Kimbrel, Kelly, Holt and Pom. Hope Hanley doesn't vest for 2019. That's about $50M off the books and we get a $9M pickup on luxury tax limit. We'll still have $25M to take care of arbitration players. It can work. We just need to win it all this year.

Yes but you were specifically pointing out the $40M overpay. Be specific how you would have put the team together after finishing dead last 3 out of 4 years without adding payroll. I know you think we overpaid for Price. But by how much? How would you know what the others were offering? Are you adept at knowing exactly when the market is at the highest and the lowest? Are you a mind reader? DD was hired to GET THE f*** OUT OF THE BASEMENT. Maybe you guys enjoy watching crappy ass baseball but I like current team better.

$40M is on Ben for Hanley and Sandoval.

Yeah after winning back to back division titles, he has no plans. You're act is getting old. If you think you're smarter, why don't you go get a job in Sox front office? It's one thing to opine, but you have absolute no proof to back it up. How's that Pom deal working out so far?

When did athletes become so fragile? I can't take it!

All kidding aside, big kudos to Yankees for being restrained financially over the last few years. They have only one bad contract and that belongs to Jacoby Ellsbury. He has 3 years left at $22M per. Their luxury tax payroll is only $176M, $21M below the threashhold. CC has a one year deal at $10M. His payroll comes off the books. Brett Gardner has a $13M deal for 2018 with $2M club buyout for 2019. David Robertson is in his last year of his contract at $11.5M. Theoretically that's $45M coming off the books. Obviously Yankees will need replacements to fill the void. That adds up to $75M of war chest for 2019 free agents (inlcudes $9M bump in luxury tax threashhol), $95M if they want to pay the 12% surtax. But the beauty of it all for Yankee fans is that Gary Sanders, Luis Severino and Aaron Judge all have 5 years of team control (along with Stanton). It will be a dog fight next few years in AL East. ps Machado and Harper would slide in nicely.

Little humor boys......

I had a dream.... Red Sox signed Stanton to play left field. Cora said that Beni would move to right and Betts agreed to play 2B. Just money, no players lost. Red Sox signed JD Martinez to DH. Just money, no players lost. Red Sox signed Nunez as super utility guy. Just money, no players lost. Red Sox then traded for Votto. Gave up some young ones but no one on the 25 man roster. Betts Votto Martinez Stanton Devers Xander Beni Vazquez JBJ Our Luxury Tax payroll was now $280M. Henry said no sweat. The break even point was $350M. I came here and everyone was complaining about our pitching staff. Kimmi was posting about impending cliff because the entire team had opt out clause in two years. Our farm was so bad Sox Prospect didn't even have a top 20 ranking. Our ranking started at 21. Moon was making a case for signing Machado and Harper after 2018 season and still keeping the payroll below $350M. He said getting rid of Holt would save the Sox $2.5M. Jacksonianmarch insisted Yankees still had better offense.

Keith Moreland signing was insurance move. Quit being Monday morning quarterbacks. DD wanted to bring back last year's team as the 'floor'. Nunez deal took longer because of his health. Note that Sox was in constanct contact with Nunez camp. It was better to approach JD Martinez deal with the team pretty well set. If Moreland's presence keep s Hanley from vesting then basically we signed Moreland for nothing.

I see your point. But I'm still struck by Astros committing 21 more errors than the Twins but giving up 18 less unearned runs. Maybe it just took one pitch to induce double plays.