Nick

We have a winner!!!!!!!!

Exactly, it's not the first time it happened. I'd like to hear what he was thinking. Maybe he thought Granderson was too fast or he was too deep and throwing into wind? Or did he have a Castillo moment thinking there were two outs and it was more important to keep the runner off 2B (1B runner).

1st and 2nd, fly ball to Beni, he throws to 2nd. I didn't think the ball was deep enough NOT to go to 3rd. It ended up costing us a run. He's not perfect. But I'm glad he's on our side.

Yeah....what he just said....

He's someone you just want to keep around forever... a la Wakefield...

I'm a big fan of E Rod. But it's frustrating to see him throw 50+ pitches to get through 3 innings. He was going deep into many batters. I never thought about pitch count twenty years ago. Anyone glued to that stat while watching the game? It's annoying but I do it all the time.

I read somewhere he has put on some added pounds. Probably not as much noticeable at 6-6. There's really not much you can do other than to keep him around and hope something 'clicks'. I guess at some point he'll run out of options.

I agree with you 100%...

I guess my question to OP is at what position does he have the best chance to start?

I was messing with the phrase 'big unit'....u know, bigly hands....not contradicting anything you said.

He's not quite the 'big unit'.

Make that 4 walks for Owens.....can anyone say 'command issues'? Everyone is pulling for him but his mechanics must just be horrible. He can't repeat his delivery and release. Ugh....

Oh geez, don't throw out facts....I was on a roll.

Owens....1 IP 0 Runs 1H 2BB 2K maybe at some point in distant future, he can turn into a Miller.

I forgot about Young....but what becomes of our OF depth?

Sam Travis with a 3 run shot.....he can hit major league pitching. He batted 3rd at IU, Schwarber batted 2nd. He was always a tough out. Sale pitched two innings without getting injured...good news.

Yep, I meant the Sox players. Cot's has 5 players each making $600K. Looks like we'll be $15M under the cap. Assuming we pick up Kimbrel's option, getting rid of Moreland will cover increases for both Kimbrel and Sale in 2018. $15-$17M under-cap amount will be needed to pay for 9 or so arbitration players. We're pretty much committed to Sam Travis for 2018.

Has anyone here seen contract #'s for pre-arb players other than $950K for Betts?

Should the Red Sox take a shot on Brett Lawrie? asks Overthemonster article. Pass. Why do we keep going back to injured players? It's time we figured out what we have with Hernandez and Josh Rutledge. At some point this year, I want to see platoon of Sam Travis at 1B. I'd much prefer natural 1B before Hanley. When you factor in defense, Travis/Moreland combo with Hanley at DH is better than Hanley/Moreland combo with Young at DH. I'd use Young resting our OF and pinch hitting for our catchers. He can always give few days off DH'ing for Hanley.

It would suck to give away $62M for a surgery at this point. That pretty much wipes out 2017 and 2018.

I think everyone pretty much agrees that it's going to be tough to replenish our farm system under the new set up. Couple that with the fact we should be drafting lower due to our expected success. We may get a surprise or two in lower rounds but more than likely that will be offset by flops in higher rounds. I'm not sure what the hell DD is thinking pronouncing our farm is still in good shape (rated #21 recently). It's not. For us to get anything coming back in a trade we need redundancy at some positions. I don't see that right now at any position. Our starters maybe good but not much depth behind any position except maybe at catching but how much can we get for Sandy or Vazquez? Probably not much. At best, Devers, Travis and Groome will replace open spots in our roster due to FA or lack of production (good news is that they will give us 18 years of team control). DD better find a way to keep current core group together until 2021 when Pedy retires. That's five more years. You start with having five quality starters. Looking back, 2015 starters were pitiful. This is a must, a quality starting rotation. I'm with Kimmi, our farm system is desolate.

Let's go back in time, shall we? I was so disgusted with our ball club in 2015 that only games I watched were the games that E Rod started after his call up. Was he perfect? No, but when he pitched well, he pitched like a #2 starter. I don't have the stats in front of me but my guess is that he pitched well 2 out of 3 starts. Not a bad pick up for half year of Miller. Last year, he was not physically 100%. That led to some bad habits. I recall a game where he only had two pitches and everyone sat on his fastball, which was in low 90's. Something was off. Lets' wait and see how he does in April. He's under team control for another 5 years. We need for him to succeed. He's got the stuff to be a #3 pitcher and I think that's his low floor (ceiling?)

Where's Espy?

Dumb question....why can't Price not miss any turns at start, limiting his innings or pitch count? Hell, pitch 2 innings, pitch 3 innings and so forth and stretch him out? Or pitch him out of bullpen?

Beni now 4-4, just homered.....and two doubles. How can he not bat 2nd for us?