Nick

I'm a bit biased.....I'm an Indiana University grad. I would never have believed that Schwarber's college bat would translate to mlb this quickly and this good.

How about Kyle Schwarber for Rick Porcello straight up and signing Hill. Wouldn't that be selling high and clearing up some money? Schwarber can play some left field.

You had it nailed....and this is why I'm opposed to trading E Rod. We finally get a starting pitcher with some upside (yeah I know he came via a trade but he seems like one of our own ) and he's in almost every trade discussion.

5) None of the above

If defense is truly valued behind the plate, then I guess we go with Leon/Vaz tandem. Depending on game situation, Vaz can be pinch hit third time around if it's a winnable, close game. I just hate the thought of Swihart blossoming for another club, and catching.

I can see every position player come out in the spring with a T shirt..."I'm a DH"

Why the rush to trade away one of our catchers? Let all three build up additional value. And why would Sox entertain trading away an outfield group that can lead us to multiple world series? Fix the f***ing problem, don't create it.

The whole point is not getting stuck with a 4/5 year contract, Ryan Braun. I much rather go the committee route than taking on salary and giving up 22 years of team control guys.

You are correct.....I'm going to assume he remains healthy and relevant for Sox next two years.

And no position player comes off in 2018

Well hell, I'm going to blame it all on Clay Buchholtz. We traded for Peavy because Clay got hurt. We traded for Pomeranz because Clay sucked. We are so pissed at him that we game him a $13M contract and we're giddy about it. That pretty much sums it up, no?

For me, the difference this winter is we now have a team that's capable of competing for the division title with bullpen additions. If we don't do anything else, we may not be dominant but we're probably good enough to win the division. Just want to see Wright repeat his first half, Pomeranz improve, E Rod stays healthy and continues to improve, Beni become a solid fixture in outfield, Betts repeat or come close to what he did last year, Xander get out of his funk, Pedy just needs to be on the field, Swihart given a chance to catch, Kelly continue to improve and be consistent, Buchholtz return to his odd year performance.....well you know where I'm going with this.... I think DD will kick the tire on EE situation, gentlly, but he'd probably find the tire too hard. Plan B is to add little pieces or big dollar short term contracts.

Just hearing good things about Kopech. Control issues are minimal. Ball movement is excellent, tight spin, can't set on his fast ball any longer, etc. Swing and miss pitcher. Fastball, slider, change. Got rid of curve ball. Just going by memory on what I've read. Apparently he used his suspension time well to develop and work on his pitches. Hopefully Grooome won't be too far behind, but he is only 18. Looking at team controllable years on several players on our current roster, I'm really okay with tweaking the bullpen and just sitting back. I don't want to trade away young players with high ceiling potential. Don't get me wrong, I would love to get Votto, but with his salary, we can simply get a FA with less contract length. Betts, Xander, Bradley, Beni, Swihart, Moncada, Devers, E Rod, Kopech, Groome, Ownens, Johnson, Travis, Hernandez, Dalbech, Chatham, Shawaryn just to name a few...keepers.

Kopech having a great AFL....one walk in 14 innings. He and E Rod maybe our future 1/2. I hope the Sox will have a long look at him as a starter and not convert him into a reliever.

Looking from Reds' perspective, Bradley would replace a left handed bat, with four more years of team control. It would cost far less for him than for Votto. I suspect they'd want couple of minor leaguers to boot.

You don't think Reds wont ask for Bradley? E Rod? Moncada? Swihart? Again why would you give up any of them when you can go after FA?

For pitchers Clay B 1 Price 2 Kimbrel 2 Kelly 2 Pomeraz 2 Ross Jr 2 Porcello 3 C Smith 4 S Wright 4 E Rod 5 M Barnes 5 H Hembree 5 B Johnson 6 H Owens 6 Kopech 6 will need reinforcements earlier than the position players

Team Control through # of years for position players Young 1 Hanley 3 Holt 3 Xander 3 Betts 4 JBJ 4 Leon 4 Vazquez 4 Pablo 4 Swihart 5 Pedy 5 Shaw 5 Moncada 6 Benintendi 6 Hernandez 6 Position players are set...only Young will be gone after 2017, 0 in 2018, Betts, Hanley and Holt after 2019....Basically we have 3 year window to win a world series with only Young gone.

If we simply sign EE, we lose our draft pick, valued around mid 20's 1st round. Why would I give up JBJ and someone else when I can simply sign EE?

We need to be patient with a kid such as Swihart. He's under team control for another five years. He can hit major league pitching.

I can be an ass pretty frequently.....but let me say this... Good luck to Theo, Lester, Lackey, Ross and the Cubbies. Good luck also to Tito, Napoli and the Guardians. For me, baseball has again taken the center stage. It is the greatest game. I've never been so nervous for a game that has nothing to do with the Sox. I'm in a no loss situation. I'll be happy with whoever wins.....but I'm hoping for a two out, Guardians down one, runners on second and third, bottom of the 9th inning scenario.

I tend to live in parallel universe. There are threads that's based on my views of Sox nation. But most of my threads are based on what I think the Sox front office will do. Former doesn't count for much because I tend to guess wrong, often.

Projecting ahead Xander becomes FA in 2020, JBJ and Betts the following year. Pablo's and Hanley's contracts will go away after 2019 season, $5M buy out on Pablo's. That will release $40M in annual contracts. Rick Porcello will be a free agent for 2020 season along with Xander. I'm thinking $40M 'savings', adjusted for mlb 'inflation' (I'm not talking about cpi for your nerds out there) will cover Xander and Porcello. Porcello signing maybe more critical than Xander's at that point. We may have other options. Beni, Moncada, Devers all maybe in their prime by then as they go through their arbitration years. Sox will still be locked into Price's contract until 2022, $32M per year. No way we'll not resign Betts. I would love it but I just don't think we can afford to have EE's contract if it goes beyond 4 years. Too much money will be needed to keep our current youngsters on the roster by then. That is why I won't be too upset if we don't do much this winter. Yes Moon, we'll need to shore up our bullpen but we can do it without giving up the farm. E Rod needs to be given time to develop into upper echelon starting pitcher (ie DO NOT TRADE HIM). Who knows if he'll get there but you don't trade away a guy with his potential. At a comparable age, 2017 season would be Lester's break out year (something similar to what Porcello did in 2016). Guys like Wright and Pomeranz also need to be retained. They come cheap. I'm not worried about the 50% penalty if we are going over the limit by $20M at max. That's only a $10M penalty. It's just cash at that point. We paid $30M penalty on a $30M signing. And what was the posting fee for our friend from Japan? 50% penalty on say $10M? I'll speak for John Henry. In my best imitation of Matt Damon to Johnny Chan in movie Rounders, "Don't sweat it, Moon".

Is it wrong to think that basically we traded Lester for Porcello? Players 15 16 17 18 19 20 Lester 26M 26M 26M 26M 26M 26M Procello 13M 21M 21M 21M 21M It remains to be seen who got the better deal....Lester has the edge so far...mainly from 2015 season. 2016 was pretty close, not counting the playoffs.

I bet 90% of fans would love to move away from Buchasshurtz. It's more of not having anyone in the farm ready to come in. Owens, Johnson, etc have not taken steps to assure the Sox FO that we have enough depth. And Clay as a consequence, weasels another $13M. Shame on Sox for not developing major league pitching talent.