Nick

I'd do your 4 for 1 deal in a heartbeat. You're talking about 60 freakin home runs. We have no idea Groome and Chavis will be in the majors. E Rod is replaceable.

Moon Obviously we don't want to empty out our farm. But we have probably a 3 year window to win a title. Just look at all the 'busts' in our system. Owens, Ball, Johnson, Swihart on and on, they were all thought to be can't miss type. Bottom line is that more minor leaguers fail than succeed. Your odds are better to trade them if you can get value in return. I'm just not going to lose sleep over trading away Groome and others. They are long ways off from major league. In reality, Betts and Devers are only two position players I wouldn't trade.

Moon Betts, JBJ, Beni, Xander, Pablo, Pedey and Hanley ALL UNDERPERFOMED. (yeah I know this was Beni's rookie of the year, but remember he was a SHOO IN for ROY). That's 7 out of 9. Price was hurt TWICE. E Rod did not make any improvements. Hell he's hurt all the time. Porcello was no better than Wade Miley. He was a batting practice pitcher. Hell I'm amazed we won the Division. We can talk all we want about EE but the penalty rate had to be reset going forward. Now there's really no restrictions. In my mind, we have $40M to spend. Arbitration raises will be covered by contract expiration of Young and Moreland and couple of others (Abad, trading Holt?, etc) Look ahead, don't waste time looking back.

Team was built around starting pitching for 2017. Price came off the rotation. Has there ever been a Cy Young pitcher following up with the season Procello had? Sox did the right thing by resetting the penalty. BUT NOW IT'S TIME TO f*** THE LUXURY TAX THREASHHOLD.

Devers, ABSOLUTELY NO. Beni, a maybe if Stanton or Votto.

Devers would be my #1 untouchable. He'll play for league minimum for 3 more years. He also has power potential. No way in hell he's included in any package.

Who said DD was "outside the box" thinker? I like his approach. Where do we need help? We need a power bat? Who is out there? Do what's necessary to make the trade happen. He's pretty straight-forward in my opinion.

Moon, it's my contention that construction of our team is flawed. We need to trade out the pieces on our current roster. Yes we MAY need to trade cost controlled players to acquire some power bats. Note that Betts is projected to earn $9M in his first year of arbitration. His arbitration years will end up HIGHER than first 3 years of Stanton's mega deal, which is back loaded. Your analysis is correct. Our budget is $40M plus our farm hands plus salaries of players traded. This is right up DD's wheelhouse.

He didn't sign EE in 2017 so that he can reset the luxury tax rate back to zero. Don't you pay attention to what's going on? Sox can spend $236,999,999 and pay 20% tax on $20M or $4M in penaltiy for first tier penalty and pay 32% penalty on additional $20M or $6.4M. Combined Penalty is 10.4M in 2018. Had the Sox Not reset the penalty, Sox would have paid 50% tax on $20M or $10M for the first tier penalty and pay 62% penalty on Additional $20M or $12.4M. Combined Penalty for not resetting would have been $22.4 M in 2019. Bottom line is that Sox can spend $236,999,999.99 and pay $10,400,000 penalty. Basically we have $40M to spend on FA's or trade targets such as Stanton.

Why do all of you think small? It's not your money. I will spend $125 next year to watch Red Sox play on MLB Network. My guess is that Sox can spend $250M and my subscription fee will remain the same. So what if it goes up by $25 in 2019. If we want to win, we need impact power bat. Quit pussyfooting around.

Regardless of medical decisions this winter, Pedey will no longer be available for full season going foward. I will absolutely puke if Holt returns.

We went for two aces last two years. Shouldn't we do the same with position players?

too much infor....

Why is Yankee fan lecturing us on how to build a team?

Per Moon "You missed my point. I'm saying we have less money than you hinted at to be near the limit. My guess is, we go way over the limit but not enough to reach the second tier penalties. Those penalties are not really that awful, but I think we try to stay under it. On the luxury tax... The financial details of the surcharge thresholds were previously known. If a team spends above $217MM in 2018, it will receive an extra 12% tax in addition to the usual 20%, 30% or 50% luxury tax. If a team spends over $237MM, it will receive an extra 42.5% or 45% surcharge tax. Beginning in 2018, there will be an extra penalty for teams in that second category, Cooper notes. A team that spends above $237MM will also have its top draft pick lowered ten spots, unless that pick is in the top six, in which case the team’s second pick will be lowered ten spots. If we come in at about $197M before any signings (see A Realistic View at 2018: Part I), we'll have just under $40M to spend and not get the major penalty. That's enough to get JD Martinez, Duda and Nunez. Maybe we go large for just 2 guys. We coudl even go more than $40M over for just this one year and hope to go lower next year as several players come off the books, including maybe HRam." I believe Henry will go along with whatever is propsed by DD. Just my gut feeling.

So if Miami gave you a straight up deal you would refuse?

since you put it out there.....are we a better team with Betts or Stanton?

My guess is DD will go for broke.

(2) Base Tax Thresholds The Base Tax Threshold shall be $195 million in the 2017 Contract Year, $197 million in the 2018 Contract Year, $206 million in the 2019 Contract Year, $208 million in the 2020 Contract Year, and $210 million in the 2021 Contract Year. Directly Out of MLB CBA

You play to win the World Series. Not to be the next Atlanta Braves.

Go big or go home. You can always add supporting players to anchors, such as Stanton or Votto. What you can't do is keep adding supporting talent to mediocre group and expect great results. Yes, our offense right now is mediocre. Do we wait another year to confirm what we know to be true? Our offense sucks. No power in power league?

I make extreme comments to just get a rise out of people......... But if throat slashing was directed at JF for not starting game 1, then Hanley only needs to look at himself in the mirror. THAT was my real point. lol

Hanley has driven in 62 runs this year, tied for 5th in a 3 way. Only our catching and 3B positions have driven is less runs. He supports a .750 OPS. Is he that f***ING stupid? Stats don't lie. Everytime he swings and misses, I slash across MY THROAT towards the TV.

We were willing to live with Pablo at 3B. But Devers is not good enough for US? IDIOTIC. Focus guys, focus. We need a power bat at 1B.

You completely missed my point. I was responding and basically agreeing to Moon's revelation of where our position players rank in terms of WAR. Betts was the only Sox to finish in the top 10, as a RF. DH, 1B and 3B positions ranked near bottom in mlb. Then MVP butts in says we won 93 games. I pointed out it was mainly due to pitching and defense. "Look it up" Discussion was about how pathetic our position players did in comparison to others.