Nick

I'll pass on getting another Boras client...

Tanaka has an opt out clause after 2017 season. Surely he can command better than his current salary of $22M. Yankees probably won't let that happen without a fight.

Game 1 was a winnable game. We just didn't get the job done. It's a competition. One team wins, other loses. We won the Division. There will only be ONE happy team in the end. I'd like to think we accomplished a lot this year after two miserable years. I simply couldn't watch the team two years ago with exception of games when E Rod pitched. I watched almost every single game this year and I enjoyed it. I'm also thrilled that we have many young stars on this team and we still have pretty good farm system with future stars. How can you not be excited about Betts, Xander, Bradley, Beni? Our starting five is pretty well set for two more years. We maybe in a position to add an impact player without giving up much from current talent.

Moon had the payroll pegged at $185M (including arbitration raises (which he thinks will be close to what is being predicted) and Clay's $13M option). We should have money to stack our bullpen. Say we sign a premium guy to go along with Kimbrel and re-sign Koji. That should give us pretty good pen.

Porcello was better than both Sales and Quintana. Sox had two in top 13. Sox had three in top 40. (I think Pomeranz will be better next year after first full season as a starter) Sox had four in top 52 (would have been much higher if not for the injury) E Rod at 139 has a chance to crack top 50 next year in my opinion. He has good stuff. Our starting rotation looks pretty good. At some point, both Price and Porcello just needs to get through the playoff jinx. I'm beginning to wonder if its more prudent for us to not to resign Clay and use his $13M plus Tazawa's and Hanigan's money to sign a premium reliever.

Xander and Bradley would be traded if they were playing for Tampa...

I'm little confused as to what the Sox will do. My initial thought was when Moncada moves up, then Devers will also get a call up to AAA, thus replacing Moncada. I've read that Devers does not have to take backseat to Moncada defensively at 3B. His arm is just as strong and he may have better feet than Moncada. That said, many are projecting him to replace Hanley at 1B. I thought they were late pulling the trigger in moving Moncada to 3B. I have not read anything about Devers moving to 1B in a near future. Not from the club anyway.

Rodriquez only had 130 days coming into 2016 so he'll be under team control for another 5 years. He'll be eligible for arbitration in 2018 and will have 4 years of arbitration, similar to JBJ. (one reason I have hard time thinking Sox will trade him) I would wait on Moncada until June of 2017 to call him up from minors (thus his service time will be less than 172 days at the end of 2017)....he will then be team controlled for 6 years beginning in 2018.

Yep, that ones going to hurt for few more years as Cubs will be on the front page.

Is the team good enough to stand pat and repeat? Probably That will give us another year to develop our young players in the minors. Swihart, Kopech, Groome, Moncada, Devers, Johnson, Owens, Dalbec, etc If we don't sign EE, we should have ample funds to acquire some bullpen help.

For the money spent, I thought Price was the 'safe' bet. It's hard for me to project NL pitchers in AL East. No DH, bigger ball parks. Fly balls turning into doubles in Fenway. Price not only pitched in AL, but in AL East.

Also having S Wright for 4 MORE YEARS under team control to me is very comforting. He should be solid, inning eater for us. He essentially replaced Wade Miley for us and may turn out much more effective. I still have some hopes for Pomeranz to get better, as last year was his first year as a full time starter. He may be someone we can also extend relatively cheap in the future. I'm not sure if Kopech's future is in starting rotation but he too suffered spring training set back (self inflicted injury). He looks good on videos. Semi deceptive motion to go along with power pitching. At the very least, he seems to possess 8th inning set up guy ability. Anyone else see Brian Johnson as another bullpen opton if there's not a spot available in starting rotation? My hope is for Price to win next two Cy Young and World Series MVP and then opt out of his contract. I can dream right?

Thanks for pointing out...I've spent much time at the site but I didn't know that projected lineup existed. It's a cool tool. You can get pretty good idea also as to when the players will become FA. I go back and forth obviously but I'm not going to throw a fit if we stand pat this winter. Obviously there will be tweaking going on, especially with the bullpen. And I'm 50/50 on signing EE. On one had I just don't see DD not addressing the "Ortiz" departure issue. I haven't really thought out how EE's money will choke off future extension of our younger players. Now if for some reason, Price opts out then that will free up some money. That's also why I hate to trade away future starting pitching talent such as Kopech and Groome.

AAA Moncada AA Devers A+ Dalbech Pretty impressive depth at 3B....too bad we don't have one in the majors...

If healthy, out starting rotation is good enough to get us into the playoffs. We'll hopefully have a full year of Pomeranz, Wright and E Rod. Any drop off to Porcello should be picked up by uptick from Price. Other teams are able to 'develop' good starting pitchers. I see no reason why E Rod can't similarly improve coming into his third year. His spring training injury set him back last year. He looked stronger to me in September. He has exhibited toughness in tight situations. He was the ONLY pitcher I wanted to watch in dog days of summer of 2015. I oppose any deal where E Rod is traded. Trade Kopech instead. No way I'm giving up on a 23 year old left-hander who maybe on the cusp of top of the line potential. There's no reason not to expect better production out of likes of Kelly, Barnes and Ross Jr. It's as much crap shoot as acquiring relievers in open market. Really would be interested in knowing estimated time of arrival for Carson Smith. I don't think we'll handle two of three positions (1B, DH and 3B with Hanley either at 1B or DH) by 'committee' but I'll pat myself on the back for not spending penny in my discussion.

Ziegler may be tough to sign. His family lives in Arizona. I doubt it helps that Sox GM is now in Arizona. Don't you agree?

Maybe more the reason we should stand pat until next summer's trade deadline....obviously there's risk that some of our players will lose value but it can also go the other direction.

If Moncada is brought up midway through 2017, he would then give us 6 more years beginning 2018. Moncada's and Swihart's combined WAR maybe significant over the next several years. Don't you have to think about those numbers when you are trading almost major league ready prospects?

I'd like to see us stand pat on starting pitching front and see what develops.....Perhaps both Seattle and ChiSox will be willing to make a reasonable trade at the trade deadline next summer. Especially the White Sox as control years begin to shrivel for their two aces.

We're giving up almost 30 years of team control.......yikes

http://boston.cbslocal.com/2016/10/13/sean-mcadam-red-sox-will-zero-in-on-edwin-encarnacion-in-free-agency/ Sox looks to be a player for EE sweepstake.

Here's something from Sox Prospects with new rankings... Not many changes to talk about in the top 15 or so but the staff has made a number changes in the rest of the top 60. Summary Yoan Moncada is still number one and his ceiling is now 8. The twin who's still here, Luis Alexander Basabe, moved up one spot to # 7. Luis Ysla and Mike Shawaryn are both up 3 to 18 and 19 respectively. Victor Diaz rose a whopping 28 spots in the rankings from 49 to 21. Throws almost as hard as Kopech with better secondary pitches. (that's me commenting) Travis Lakins dropped from 17 to 22. Shaun Anderson fell from 20 to 23. Gerson Bautista jumped from 38 to 28. Brian Mata, a 17 year signed as an IFA in January (at age 16), is ranked for the first time at # 34. Deven Marrero fell 10 positions landing at # 38. Bryce Brents also fell, coming in this month at 39 from 32 on 9/1. Austin Glorius is down 8 from 37 to 45. Marc Brakeman down from 40 to 48. Tyler Hill rose from 51 to 47. Robby Scott is at # 50. He was last ranked 58th back in February. Austin Rei down from 45 to 52. Lorenzo Cedrola rose from 58 to 54. Roldani Baldwin is at 59, a notch higher than the previous time he was ranked back on 8/1. Read more: http://forum.soxprospects.com/thread/3254/soxprospects-rankings-discussion?page=5#ixzz4NLmtccKr

I agree and I especially think it was BS that JF clinged to Drew so much. We gave him a qualifying offer and he thumbed his nose at what $12M QO? There were too much noise in April/May trying to get Drew back and play SS for us. That was just a bs. I hate that about JF. Always bringing back retreads.....move on man.

Can E Rod turn into Lester? He looks to have the potential of becoming an ace. How do their careers compare to this point? They both entered mlb at age 22. Similar start for both. Lester then took off at age 24. I think E Rod has that potential. Getting out of tough spots. Not sure if the quality of pitches are there for E Rod. But if he can consistently deliver 3 pitches, can he get there?