Nick

Sam Travis...looks to be our future 1B "Hard-nosed player," Red Sox manager John Farrell said. "A grinder type, a blue-collar player. The way he went through drill work the first couple of days, there's no evidence of the ACL surgery that he had. He feels great. The work he put in on the rehab is certainly paying off." The Chicago native has posted a .303 batting average, .364 on-base percentage, .453 slugging percentage, .816 OPS, 22 homers, 58 doubles, eight triples and 151 RBIs in 245 minor league games. "He impressed last year in his first camp with his ability to impact the baseball and maybe the determination and aggressiveness he exudes when he's on the field," Farrell said. Travis bats from the right side and has had success vs. both righties and lefties in his minor league career. That said, as written on MassLive.com in the offseason, he could potentially be eased into the majors at some point this year by platooning at first base with the left-handed hitting Mitch Moreland. In that scenario, Hanley Ramirez then would become the full-time DH

He's going to be the Rookie of the Year...that's all.

I was fortunate that I was poor. I came out of college with $1500 debt. During my time, I BEOG/SEOG were available. I also had a very good summer job earning close to $2500 each summer. Of course the tuition for my state school was around $1800 for the year. It was the middle class kids that got hurt. My last comment on social issue....each child is deserving of good education. That's the only way out of poverty.

Hopefully starters can finish seven innings.....that will minimize bullpen, slightly.

before, during and after school meals are available at may public schools.

So everyone here agrees that Blake should be fighting for another position? Who is he better than?

Per Fangraph Rafael Devers slashed a solid .282/.335/.443 at high-A Salem last year. Those numbers don’t leap off the page, but there is no denying his ceiling. The left-handed-hitting third baseman is the top prospect in the Red Sox organization among those with no MLB experience. Devers, who didn’t turn 20 until after the season, started slow in 2016. Then he caught fire. From June onward, the promising young power hitter put up an .883 OPS. By all accounts, his turnaround wasn’t fueled by a specific adjustment. Devers said after the season that he stuck with the routine he’s always had, and that it was “basically about putting in the work every day, and trying to be consistent.” He told me that he couldn’t explain it any other way. Farm director Ben Crockett couldn’t point to any major changes either. He said that high-A hitting coach Nelson Paulino primarily focused on helping Devers be ready on time, and be short to the ball. The long balls started coming in July, but despite the second-half power surge, he finished the campaign with just 11 home runs. I asked Devers if he was disappointed with that number. “I actually feel happy,” answered Devers. “Early in the year, I didn’t think I was going to even hit five, so to end up with 11 made me feel good. I think I can hit a lot more than that, though.”

At some point, don't we have to find out if he can catch? Beni is our LF, Devers is our 3B, Travis is at 1B and we have Hanley for 3 more years.

I think you'll see Sam Travis sometime during 2017.....book it.

Yep....need to keep the eye on the big picture....world championship. Sale has brought us that much closer.

Looks like we can go with 4 starters for while, assuming pitching every 5th day

That's the problem with fat knuckleball pitchers.....oops did I say that?

Revenue $380M...40 man payroll $200M....I agree with you that money paid in penalty won't hurt Henry, but losing ability to draft players? That's why this all matters.

Henry can live with 'monetary' penalties but loss of draft picks, etc, he can't buy his way out of. Our top line is growing to $380M, yet the luxury tax will remain relatively stable at around $200M for 4 years.

Don't speak ill of our wonder boy Theo....he never made a mistake.

Our SS depth is better than our OF depth. Have you seen what we have in OF? Betts has peaked? What about Xander's 2nd half performance? He was pretty much mediocre the last couple of months. I will take Betts over Xander every day. At best, he's still just an average defensive SS. I will take Betts/Hernandez combo over YOUR Xander/sox outfiled prospect.

It's way early to speculate, but my guess as of now is we let Porcello go and maybe even lose Bogey to free agency. Moon Bingo......call me crazy but I have Xander below Betts, Sale, Bradley Jr and Porcello. I also think Borass will ask for the moon.

I'm just trying to figure out his market value........SS seems to be a saturated position. Would he be in demand? Who would want him?

What can we expect to get for Xander at year end if he has a repeat of last year?

+1000 You can't continue to add multiple year, high value contracts. We really don't have much wiggle room. Our big drop off comes after 2019 when Porcello ($20M), Sale ($12.5M), Hanley ($22M), Pablo ($19M) and Bogaertz (Maybe $12-14M?). We can hope Groome can replace Porcello/Sale and retain Xander. We have close to $90M to retain Sale/Porcello/Xander. BUT, big BUT, Betts and JBJ become FA a year later.

I agree......but Sox needs some cost controlled, league minimum guys to offset highly paid guys.

DD sent a clear signal to EE's agent when DD told him no multiple year contract was available from Sox. DD wants to make sure Sam Travis is 100% healthy. He'll be called up by mid season. He's in the mold of Beni, pure swing.

Looking at projected opening day roster for all of our teams, yep our OF depth is almost non existent.

I'm anxious to see what Thornburg does (and Carson Smith when he returns). Many ifs in the bullpen but this could be a pretty good group.

My priority is 1) Keeping starting pitching in tact 2) Lock up Betts 3) Keep our OF together That will get us close to the tax limit. I would love to recycle Pablo out of here but highly unlikely. Has to be Ben's worst signing.