Nick

We can probably keep Pom, Kimbrel, Kelly & Ross for 2019 and beyond, but with rising arb costs and an option raise for Sale (add $6M to his AVV) and possible extensions to one or two of our young studs, we may be pushing the maximum penalty phase by going $20M over the luxury limit. Moon We can survive without Kelly and Ross. Bullpen is an easy fix. We're turning 80% of minor league starters into relievers. Smith and Thornburg eventually will get healthy. I also like to think that by 2020 someone other than Groome will come to surface from current crop of college pitchers in our system. I agree with you on HanRam. Stats don't always lie....platooning is not a bad idea except for JBJ. We need his D in CF and he hitting lefthanders well. It's a long season. A guy like Moreland needs to sit from time to time just to keep fresh.

http://boston.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2017/06/29/searching-for-a-spark/ Good read on Sox lack of power (yeah I know they hit 3 last night). Going forward (2018) we need better power production from 3B, 1B and DH. Devers will take care of 3B. Hanley needs to get healthy. Our starting pitching and bullpen can only get better. (Porcello can anti-regress from his regression year). We just need some depth. Hopefully Wright can return to his early 2016 form. Smith, Thornburg and plethora of viable options in our farm system bode well for the pen next year. Final contract year for Kimbrel. Bullpen...FA year Kimbrel 2019 Kelly 2019 Thornburg 2020 Smith 2021 Barnes 2022 Hembree 2022 Scott 2023 Starters Pomeranz 2019 (I predict he'll be extended before 2019, maybe similar to Porcello, announced on Opening Day 2018 his final arb year, 4 yr $80M should do it) C Sale 2020 Porcello 2020 Wright 2021 Ed Rod 2022 D Price 2023 We need 1 starter to emerge from the farm by 2020, that's not asking for much is it? Flip side of having so many young players is that arbitration cost will get extremely high over next three years. But with luxury tax reset this year, Sox will not be afraid to break through it next few years. We just need to get the $40M off the books in 2020 with Hanley and Pablo. Throw in another $20M for Porcello. $60M to sign Sale and Xander plus 'hangover' from whatever it took to sign Kimbrel the previous year. Then, how do you sign Betts and JBJ? We may need to rotate DH position by regulars and utility players.

Boston Red Sox sign 4th-round draft pick Jake Thompson, a righty who went 14-1 for Oregon State The Red Sox signed fourth-round draft pick Jake Thompson who went 14-1 with a 1.96 ERA in 20 outings (19 starts) for Oregon State this spring. The Red Sox selected him 131st overall when MLBPipeline.com ranked him the No. 71 prospect entering the draft. Baseball America ranked him the No. 83 prospect. He has been assigned to Short Season Lowell. I believe today was the deadline.

Very good day for Red Sox. Beat Rays. Toronto lost. Orioles lost. Yankees are down 4-9 in 8th. I'm impressed with Lin. He has a quick bat. Good glove. Lin and Marrero are better defenders than Pablo at 3B. Key hit was Lin's, then Marrero's sacrifice. It's always good to score first. (And score that magical 4 runs) Looking at other box scores, despite all the consternation, our pitching is superior to those of our division rivals. For now at least, Lin and Marrero are very productive.

On the other hand, we've had success over the years making starters throw tons of pitches to get them out of there. I'm not sure if it's as critical taking pitches against relievers unless they are having trouble throwing strikes. (Barnes comes to mind for us).

S Leon 46 games 154 AB Vazquez 45 games 154 AB

But my point was especially in case of Crawford, that was a poker hand we should not have ever played.

He heard me....Hey I have no pride...I'm all about Sox winning...lol

Benintendi needs to pick up his defense. He is so nonchalant. Dropped a routine fly ball the other day. He should had the ball in the foul territory. Hell it was almost a fair ball. He ain't no JBJ nor Betts.

Object of building a team, regardless of sport, is for core group to arrive on a mission at about same time. It requires planning but also contingency plans. HELL LOOK AT THE CELTICS. Losing out on Paul George has the team in a scramble mode. But I digress. Pablo Sandoval has not done his part. I don't care what anyone says, his $19.5M dollar contract has held our baseball people hostage. He's been given an opportunity that no one else would have received had it not for his contract. We were hoping for the best when there was absolutely no statistical data to back up his 'return'. Anyone who has been watching the games lately must SEE that Pablo is horrendous defensively at 3B. It's not simply the errors he commits but the balls he does not get to that lowers our overall defensive metrics. Be patient. Be patient. Well,we have a problem here. Unless we've misread Marrero and Lin, that in fact they will perform better as major league players than they did as minor leaguers, we need a solution at 3B. I don't know about you but I rather roll a dice on Devers than to trade away more prospects for a rental. Trading for Donaldson just makes no sense before giving Devers a chance. We lose prospects, we're stuck with his contract through 2018 and it further delays debut of Devers. I HAVE READ THAT HIS DEFENSE BY SOME ACCOUNT IS MAJOR LEAGUE READY. What will it hurt? Really, what the f*** will it hurt? Is he that fragile that initial failure will put him out of baseball forever? Really? Hell, he's been in slump at lower level before, and he's recovered. Be patience. Yep.

Wade Miley turned in a disastrous performance in Milwaukee on Monday afternoon, allowing seven runs and nine baserunners while recording five outs. After a strong beginning to the season, Miley is 3-7 with a 5.20 ERA. He had a 2.32 ERA in five April starts, a 3.97 ERA in five May starts, a 7.48 ERA in six June starts and now a 37.80 ERA after his first July start. Since he was acquired last July in a trade with the Seattle Mariners, Miley is 5-12 with a 5.58 ERA in 28 games for the Orioles. Adding together last year’s two-month salary, this season’s and an option buyout – assuming the Orioles don’t pick up his $12 million option for 2018 – the Orioles will have spent $11-plus million on Miley if he parts ways with the team at year’s end. Meanwhile, the man the Orioles traded for Miley, lefty Ariel Miranda, is 7-3 with a 3.82 ERA in 17 games for the Mariners, is making $541,000 in 2017 and can’t be a free agent until after the 2022 season. This is why you don't pay out $10+M for pedestrian, middle of the road pitchers. We got Chris Freakin' Sale.

For me, it's about a GM making a deal when they didn't have to and it turns out costly. Crawford and Pablo deals were such deals because they were head scratchers for me. Price's performance is on him. But that was a FA signing I thought we had to make. I've rehashed this several times. Did we overpay? Probably but under the circumstances, DD had every right to make that move.

sorry I caouldn"t resist

I was reduced to watching only those games started by E ROD. Nothing else about that team held me captive. Who wants to watch a crappy team? There's better things to do. (Unrelateed....Wade Miley gets knocked out in 1 2/3 innings pitched, 7 hits, 7 runs, all earned....they only seemed to get up for the Red Sox)

I've not followed the Yankees that closely. It appears they have full of young position talent. Basically they are tying to outscore their opponents and have succeeded. I guess the question is what pieces they will add to put them over the top. The window is never open for very long. My perception is they need to add starting pitchers?

i was simply correcting a poster that stated 1 earned run in 6 innings equated to 3.33 ERA.

Opening Thread by our esteem colleague, Moon posted on March 30th A Realistic View at 2017 Part II With opening day just around the corner, and the roster taking shape, it's time for Part II. (Part I reference: http://www.talksox.com/forum/threads...at-2017-Part-I ) Here's my Red Sox positional depth chart (assuming 100% healthy): C: Leon, Vazquez, Swihart (AAA), Butler (AAA) 1B: Moreland (vs RHPs)/ Ramirez (vs LHPs- DH vs RHPs), Travis (AAA), Craig? 2B: Pedroia, Hernandez (AAA), Holt, Rutledge 3B: Sandoval, Hernandez (AAA), Rutledge, Holt SS: Bogaerts, Hernandez (AAA), Holt, Marrero (AAA) LF: Benintendi, Young (DH vs LHPs), Slesky (AAA), Moreland, Brentz (Trade/DFA) CF: Bradley, (Beni from LF), Holt RF: Betts, Young, Holt, Moreland SP: Sale, Price, Porcello, Rodriguez, Wright, Pomeranz (long relief) AAA: Kendrick, Johnson, Elias, Owens, Velazquez, Haviland RP: Kimbrel, Thornburg, Smith, Kelly, Ross, Hembree 4 options at 3B is not playing for the parent team right now.....pretty amazing. And look at our relievers. I'd say to be up 3 games is pretty fortunate. Sale and Kimbrel have been lights out.

He may walk if he can get $30M for 4 years but I don't see a market for him at that price. Say what you will but he will not walk for less money. Baseball players do not get the big endorsement shoe contracts that basketball players do. NBA guys can take a cut in pay and still make money. Not so much in baseball. Ortiz endorsement is nowhere close to what NBA stars are getting.

I don't see us giving up Devers for Donaldson.

1/6 x 9/1 = 9/6 = 1.5 ERA

What's the difference between a "ready" player failing and a "not ready" player failing? Just as management make mistakes on 'ready' player, they could easily make a mistake on 'not ready' player. Is it possible that Will Middlebrooks was never cut out to be a long term major leaguer? I completely reject the notion that if you don't first succeed you're doomed? Jackie Bradley Jr. vehemently disagrees with you.

I do want to point out that Sox went 85 years without a world series ring. When you're close, do you throw kitchen sink at it?

I'd like to see him opt out. My only comment was good or bad, DD did what he had to and I understand why he did it. He didn't much have choice. That said, his $31M would certainly come into handy in keeping young kids together. I hope we opt out. As I've said, I can see DD extending Pomeranz' contract. That's his guy. ONE THING WE'VE NOT CONSIDERED IS THAT CURRENT CBA ENDS ON DEC 1, 2021. Expect luxury amount to increase.

We're the only team to have signed 3 in top 30 (2, 13, 20). Yankees signed two so far. (4, 16). 5 players remain unsigned in top 30.

Assuming we hold the 15-1 lead, here's updated record by starting pitchers. 44-26 when the BIG 5 starts. Pitcher GS W L Chris Sale 17 13-4 R Porcello 17 7-10 Pomeranz 16 10-6 Edward Rod 10 7-3 David Price 7 4-3 Brian Johnson 4 4-0 Wright 5 1-4 Vlazques 2 0-2 Kendrick 2 0-2 Fister 2 1-1 Total 82 47 35