Nick

If Wright recovers and our 3-5 pitches reasonably well, I wonder if we can use Johnson out of the pen and just get rid of Abad. Can he be the long reliever for us?

I saw pigs flying when I came back from lunch.

Why that's the highest compliment you can give DD....he appreciates it.

I agree......It's really unrealistic to think you can develop entire starting unit through the draft. It's a fact that more prospects fail than succeed. Sometimes it's best to trade away a prospect when he's 'hot'. Our opportunity to trade away Owens and Johnson for some value in return has come and gone. It remains to be seen how Espinoza turns out. Your farm system is at the mercy of major league ball club. You develop a player to fill a need on the big league club. You develop a player to trade for a player that fills a need on the big league club. You develop a player and trade for a younger player because his position is blocked on the big league club. Assuming our injured pitchers all return, our biggest concern seems to be at 3B.

Very good....giving you a tennis clap...

I'm also becoming less and less enamored with Brock Holt. There's a big difference between being able to fill in at multiple positions versus playing it well. I just don't like him as a baseball player.

Question If a player misses say 60+ days during arbitration years, is that a consideration for an arbitrator determining player's salary? I'm assuming someone like Carson Smith is considered to be on the active list and therefore accumulating major league service time while recovering from his surgery.

Is it way too early to talk about replacing Panda at 3B with Hernandez? Or will resting Panda vs lefties when Rutledge returns help his average? I think he's something like 0-9 batting right handed. We have six years of team control on Marco. He just looks very solid to me. Someone that can hit .280 as the floor.

I'm more than happy to pick up Clay B when he becomes FA on the cheap. Maybe as a long reliever. No way I give him Masterson money, $9M plus incentives. He may want to come back to Boston. He may not be ready until 2019.

And he really got robbed on that cold, miserable day.....should have been a homer.

Let's look at Sox from the perspective of our chief antagonist, Buch Showalter. I'm pretty sure he threw a tantrum when he heard we traded for Sale.......His exact word (my guess), F*ck (70% chance), Da@n (20% chance) or Sh!t (10%). He probably kicks himself thinking about E Rod pitching several years for Sox, a kid he drafted. Most of all he hates Sox for having the ability to spend near or over the luxury tax limit every year. Things could be worse. We could be Baltimore fans.

I'm not so sure if E Rod is learning anything from Sale. He's still very deliberate between pitches. Threw 31 pitches in 1st inning. Doesn't seem to challange the hitters enough. Still too many walks. 100+ pitches in 5 1/3 inning. We won thanks to Hanley and our bullpen. Waiting for Betts to heat up.

31 pitches.......30 seconds between pitches.....ugh

One last beat down on a dead horse. I like to praise or critique trades/signings at the time of the transaction. It's always easy to look back and support your decision based on what transpires afterwards. Clay B.....even if Clay was healthy and pitching well for the Phillies, I still would think the decision to trade him was the right one. Trade has to be fair for both sides. Phillies got a pitcher with ton of upside and Sox got rid of $13.5M contract. Clay had two things going against him and one was out of his control. His $13.5M price did him no favors for one but he mainly got caught up in Sox wanting to go below the luxury tax limit. Now front office can say whatever it wants, but I think THAT had lot to do with it. Had our payroll sat at $150M, I'd say keep him. No sweat. Sox would have kept him too. Price....There was simply not much available as far as top of the line pitching was concerned. Again, it was something DD had to do. Did we overpay? Perhaps but not knowing what the going price was DD was not going to take any chances and get beaten out by another offer. It's unfortunate $31M per year sticks out like a sore thumb but it is what it is. No chance we win the division without him last year. Can we have it done cheaper? Perhaps but it's all Monday am quarterbacking to me. Kimbrel....this one hurts but it was our inability to have a healthy closer at the time that forced DD to make this move. Not only did it take Kimbrel, but we also had to trade for Ziegler and convert Kelly in a relief role to accomplish what we did. With emergence of some arms in the pen, it's pretty certain we will not resign him after 2018. As Moon said, was it worth paying FA price AND prospects for his 3 years of service? I'd say yes only if we win the world series. BUT again, this was a move DD thought he had to make in order for us to become a contender for 2016. He was right, even though we may have overpaid. Pomeranz....again, inconsistencies from Kelly, E Rod and Clay B forced this trade. I still think it was the correct move. The possibility exists for Espinoza to become a stud pitcher and Pomeranz to be mediocre pitcher for 2 1/2 years of service. Did we overpay? Probably. But DD was not going to sit idle and watch the team implode. As it turned out, Pom did not help the Sox but again that's after the fact. Sale.....no brainer. Emergence of Devers probably made trading away Moncada easier. Signing Groome probably made trading away Kopech more palpable. Finally a team friendly 3 year contract. Really enhances our chances of 'going for it'. It will be interesting to see what's needed for Sox at trade deadline and what's available. I would think Groome, Devers and Travis are untouchable for a half year rental if we decide to make a move.

I did it just for you......all is well.....I love the back and forth here.....I guess I need to get a life!!!!!

My real point was DD saw an opportunity to acquire Sale to enhance our ability to go for it the next 3 years. I just thought that was a bold move and I'm glad he did it.

We'll have to take similar approach we did with Encarnacion/Moreland. We did not want to block Travis with a long term commit to Encarnacion (not to mention luxury tax implication). But one year, $5.5M to a gold glover seemed very reasonable to me.

At some point, we'll have to go over the limit. The new barrier is +$20M over the limit to avoid the surtax. This is why it was critical for us to do a reset.

We all want 'protection' but at what price? Only Sox fans would want the team to spend $13.5M for #7 starter.

Moon has a very good point about building the starting rotation from the top and not the bottom. Acquisition of Sale has accomplished that task. There's no doubt that in Sale, Porcello and Price, we have three formidable starting pitchers at least on paper. Sox will have the luxury of selecting the 'best' fourth starter from Pomeranz, E Rod and Wright come playoff time. We've already discussed potential for our bullpen. I'm little concerned with our lefties but we have now several flame throwers in the pen. Leon, Moreland, Pedy, Xander, Pablo, Beni, Bradley Jr, Betts and Hanley is good enough offensively to score many runs, even though we maybe short on power. This is how you build a championship team. We lose Young and Moreland for 2018 season. We lose Kimbrel, Pom, Joe Kelly, Robbie Ross for 2019 season. We have a three year window to chase the world series and reload the farm system. Sale, Porcello, Xander, Hanley and Pablo comes off the books after 2019. Hanley and Pablo will yield $40M in savings. We all know what type of talent it takes to win it all. There's always some luck involved. How often does a Betts seemingly come out of nowhere? I'm just thankful we have a competitive team at least for next three years.

I also don't understand the mentality of just having one pitcher closing the game EVERY TIME. If you need a strike out, say bases loaded with one out in the 8th, why not bring in Kimbrel to strike out a batter? I hate the idea of saving one pitcher for last inning.

I just threw some curve balls to alter the conversation........I'm tired of looking back constantly at trades. We signed Price. We traded for Kimbrel and Pomeranz. We gave up a lot to get an elite pitcher in Sale. Done deal. Can't go back. Let the future dictate whether it was good deal or not. I won't post the minor league stuff again.

Shaun Anderson dominates for Greenville Shaun Anderson -- a 22-year-old righty who the Red Sox drafted in the third round in 2016 out of Florida -- hurled 6 scoreless innings to earn the victory in Low-A Greenville's 4-3 win over Lexington. Anderson is another Red Sox pitching prospect to keep an eye on. He has allowed just one run in 10 2/3 innings and has struck out 13 while walking two. #19 Prospect for Red Sox, 2016 pick out of Florida.

Travis Lakins has 17 strikeouts, 1 walk Travis Lakins, a 22-year-old righty, has the potential to develop into one of the Red Sox's top pitching prospects this season. He has that type of potential. He dominated again Tuesday for Salem, earning the victory vs. Lynchburg. Lakins went 6 innings and allowed two runs, but just one earned run, five hits and one walk while striking out eight. He has a 0.79 ERA (11 1/3 IP, 1 ER), 0.88 WHIP, 17 strikeouts and one walk in two starts. #12 Prospect for Red Sox, 2015 pick out of Ohio State

Josh Ockimey went 4-for-5 with a double in High-A Salem's 11-5 victory over Lynchburg on Tuesday. Ockimey -- a 21-year-old power-hitting prospect who the Red Sox drafted in the fifth round in 2014 -- is 12-for-23 (.522 batting average) with a .571 on-base percentage, .783 slugging percentage, 1.354 OPS, one homer, one triple, one double and six RBIs in six games so far for Salem. #10 prospect for Red Sox