Nick

Well hell, Moon didn't give me all the f***ing details! It's his f***ing fault!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Little disappointed in Beni. I think you and I and everyone else thought he'd give us much more production out of left. Only thing I can conclude is that there are several good left fielders. But we do need some cheap options and Beni and Devers are it. I guess you missed the part where I said "only thing I can conclude is that there are several good left fielders". Maybe I should have dug deeper into Moon's numbers. What to think when you are presented with a ranking of #21 out of #30?

It's amazing that we're 3 games up, especially with Price not being able to pitch and Porcello being downright ugly for most of the year. We're dead in waters without DD picking up Kimbrel, Pom and Sale. Our offense as a group surely can't do any worse in 2018. As much as I've ragged on Betts and Xander, they are still our 1/2 punch it seems. Little disappointed in Beni. I think you and I and everyone else thought he'd give us much more production out of left. Only thing I can conclude is that there are several good left fielders. But we do need some cheap options and Beni and Devers are it. I would be okay with trading for another ace type pitcher. Give up the farm if we have to. Look what Sale has done for us.

Red Sox NOT to win the division; 8.3% High enough for me to pitch Sale, especially last night. He can skip his last start and he will have 5 or 6 days off.

Yankees are hot and they finish with 6 games vs Toronto, 3 vs Tampa and a make up game vs Kansas City. No reason not to think they can stay hot. We haven't won anything yet.

Wrong. Moon started with a comment 'skip his turn'.

I live in Indiana where back in 70's we had one class state tournament pretty much for all sports. In Indiana, first step is to win Sectionals (usually 5-8 teams). Then came Regionals, 4 Sectional winners play on a Saturday, semi final games at 10 am and 12, then 4 pm final. (not too many schools had lights back then). My baseball coach pitched our 2nd best pitcher for morning game. We got down 8-0 or something, came back but lost 9-8. Our senior ace never saw the pitching mound. He was 'saved' for the championship game that never came. Perhaps Sale won't have to make his last start and Sox can line up their starting rotation.

whatever Dojji just said, I'm on board with that.

Maybe, mabe it was the Sox with better understanding of medical records.

Yep, and Moon I can be an ass at times (maybe always) but as I get older I seem to get to be that grouchy old guy. I never mean any ill will towards anyone on this board (other than that annoying Yankee fan). Maybe my life is pathetic that I check this board few times every day. It's good to be a Sox fan these days. I hope Henry keeps spending his money.

I just can't buy the overpay 'theory' when Pom is integral part of current chase for World Series ring. As an alternative, we would have traded for middle of road at best starter just so it won't cost as much? What if that prospect turns out to be better than Espinoza? The point is projecting out prospects is an inexact science at best. Just think what we could have received for Owens and Johnson at one point. There are more failures than success stories. Just that fact alone tells you that it's okay to trade away your best prospects as long as you are getting something of known value. Obviously that's what DD did. DD also placed his bets on Devers being a better 3rd baseman than Moncada (White Sox has him playing back to 2B). He also read that correctly. Now it maybe that Moncada turns out to be a better player. So what? We got what we wanted in Sale. It's a risk worth taking. Last night was another prime example. I realize it's taken awhile for Carson Smith to show us what he maybe capable with his recent outings. Wade Miley is just an inning eater. A number five pitcher at best. I still love that trade with Seattle. Carson Smith is under team control for another three years. He can definitely be our 8th inning guy next year and there's an outside chance that he becomes a closer for 2019/20 seasons. He's that good. Jay Groome? I'd listen to an offer only because he's a hot commodity. Moon, would you have done a straight up deal for Quintana? I would have.

What a bunch of f***ing dimwits. We are 2 1/2 games ahead of Yankees and you want to take a chance losing the lead? Moon, what is wrong with you? I thought you had more common sense. Let me get this f***ing straight. You are willing to risk division championship for wildcard so you can rest Sale? Are you f***ing nuts? You can rest him AFTER we clinch the Division. You guys are f***ING NUTS. Let's rest him NOW so he can pitch in PLAY IN GAME. That's smart.

Amazing how one can look back and come up with right answers. You're baseball savant! Tell me again what we should do next 3 off seasons?

I'm glad we signed Price so we can win the Division in 2016 after miserable 2015 season when the team basically was unwatchable.

Good to see Carson Smith close out the game. Could he be the 7th inning guy? Throw in Price, who can go multiple innings, our pen looks solid if we get to the playoffs.

Release the player[edit] If a player is not traded, but has cleared waivers, he may be released from the team. The player is then a free agent and may sign with any team, including the team that just released him. The team that releases him is responsible for the salary the player is owed, less what he is paid by the team that signs him (in practice, the amount paid by the signing team is usually a pro-rated portion of the Major League minimum salary) I'm not a lawyer but I just can't see Sox getting out of the liability for the vesting amount. Otherwise every team would simply 'release' a player to avoid paying player's vesting amount. Again, no one forced Sox to give out a contract with vesting rights.

If we drop Hanley and he gets picked up by another team and fulfills the vesting requirement with his new team, then yes we're definitely on the hook. No one put guns to our head to give that contract to Hanley.

Actually Young's $6.5M also comes off. I think the consensus is that Sox will spend up to $39M over the luxury limit, thus avoiding the second threashhold for additional penalties. That gives the team 197M + 39M or $236M to spend in 2018. I doubt they need to go that high unless they trade for a big bat (Stanton/Votto). We're just replacing Moreland this winter.

Winter of 2017 We will deal with our 1B situation, maybe another temporary fix. (We can always plug in Sam Travis, I still think he'll be solid hitter in majors) Winter of 2018 We will need to deal with Pomeranz', Kimbrel's and Kelly's free agency. (Carson Smith will have two years of team control after Kimbrel's departure if we don't extend him). Winter of 2019 We will need to deal with Porcello, Sale and Xander's free agency Winter of 2020 We will need to deal with JBJ and Betts' free agency As good as Sale has been this year, lets see where he is after two more years of 200+ innings and 300 K's. Other pitchers and fielders will emerge. 3 years is long time away. Chavis, Mata and Flores may become very attractive trade pieces in couple of years. Sure we have some work to do but I don't see us striking out completely. At the latest, Pablo and Hanley's contracts will expire after 2019, providing $40M in spending. You do not know who may emerge as a replacement, especially on pitching side.

Farm system exists only to help the parent club. Minor league players can be replacements on major league rosters or they can be traded to acquire major league talent. C-set for 3 more years 1B.. 2B-set for 4 more years SS-set for 2 more years 3B-set for 6 more years LF-set for 5 more years CF-set for 3 more years RF-set for 3 more years DH-set for at least one more year Immediate need is a 1B, then a ss, two positions easily filled. Not sure why we're panicking;

You and Kimmi go on and on and lament the loss of Sox Prospects Top 20 players. Who on this list would help us NOW? Moncada is blocked by Dustin and Devers. Are any of these guys game changers? They are all fringe players until proven otherwise. Spare me how good they are....They can't break into our lineup. THAT'S A FACT JACK.

Sox has the third highest payroll at $222M, slightly behind Yankees at $223M and Dodgers' $260M. Toronto, Tigers and Giants are 4-6, spending $199M. $198M and $188M. Orioles are 9th at $182M. Guardians are 19th at $138M. Leauge average is $151M. The point is Sox is one of big spenders and as fans, we should be thankful for Henry. But as you can see with Toronto, Tigers and Giants, money does not always buy winning teams. It sucks to be them. Spending money WISELY becomes more and more critical as the league wants every team to finish 81-81, they call it competitive balance, I call it mediocrity. We did the right thing with our bullpen. We passed on Ziegler, 2 years and $16M, Tazawa, 2 years and $12M, and Koji, 1 year and $6M. Joe Kelly is our 2nd highest paid reliever at $2.8M in his 2nd arb year. And despite all of our complaints about lack of power, if we do end up winning the Division, signing Moreland was a stroke of genius, 1 year $5.5M. And that's with Hanley not helping out at 1B. We'll have tough choices to make. We don't have enough money, even at say $230M to sign Xander, JBJ and Betts along with starting pitchers we'll need to compete at the top. Having Beni and Devers on the cheap will help. Will someone else step up so Sox will have enough money to spend it elsewhere? Is the shortstop position similar to bullpen? There are plenty of good defensive ss so as not to pay Borass client top dollars he surely will demand?

This...

We don't win Division without Price last year. Coming off 3 FREAKING LAST PLACES IN 4 YEARS, what did you expect 'new GM' DD to do? Continue with same path? Only games I watched were the ones started by E Rod that year. We SUCKED. Do you honestly think Sox fans would have been okay with same old s*** last year? Shaw trade looks horrible due to injury to Thornburg and Sox hope in recovering some monetary value from our whipping boy Pablo Sandoval. Who knew that Pablo's problem had nothing to do with his eating habits? He just can't hit. We already knew he couldn't play defense.

we have Beni for 5 years and Devers for 6 years. Nothing to snooze at from my perspective.