Nick

He certainly does not deserve a separate thread.

Moon, we'll have total savings of $56M off of Ortiz, Clay B, Koji, Tazawa, Hanigan and Castillo. That should be enough to acquire a $15M DH bat, SP and a RP or two. Luxury tax limit should also go up from current $189M. I think we'll see Benintendi called up in September. He can platoon with Young,in 2017, no? It's like with our draft, we need under slotted guys and Benintendi is such a player for Sox for next few years. Where do we think we are this year? How much over the limit now that Castillo's contract came off the books?

We have a core group to move forward and be competitive for next few years....this is when they become free agents..we may not bat 100% but we'll retain few of them. C Vazquez 2020, C Swihart 2020/21 1B Hanley 2018 plus option year 2B Pedroia 2022 SS Xander 2019 (Sox will go all in on him) 3B Shaw 2021 LF Benintendi 2023 earliest CF Bradley 2020 RF Betts 2020 Hanley's contract for 2019 is vesting based on plate appearance over 2017/2018. Hanley's contract will be off the books regardless for 2020 season, 1st year of FA for Xander. That will free up $20M plus possibly Sandoval's $20M. I don't expect Price to opt out of his contract, for better or worse, he'll be on Sox staff for 7 years. Porcello has 3 years left and 2018/19 will determine if he'll wind up being a sought after pitcher. Predicting knuckle ball pitcher can be tricky at best, but as long as he's healthy, you'd think Wright will finish out with Sox as Wakefield did. I think he's a loyal guy and Sox will reciprocate. Rodriquez just need to get healthy and work on his secondary pitches and location. He's too young to give up on. He was rushed last year and again this year due to injury. He looks to have the toughness and I hope everyone has learned that you can't survive major league bats with just one pitch. Pitching coach needs to develop this guy or hire someone that can. We'll have Kimbrel for another two years if we want. Closers can be fickle and we'll have to see if he has it at the end of 2017. We need a power bat for 2017. Encarnacion will be coming off $10M contract. Someone also to keep an eye on is Josh Donaldson when he will be FA after 2017 season. Moon may disagree but we can afford a power bat and replace Ortiz' $16M contract. And we can pay for a high end pitcher. All resources at some point will need to be focused on top of the line starting pitcher. Swihart, Benintendi,Devers, Shaw and every single pitcher should be available for the trade. Obviously Moncada, Xander, Bradley Jr and Betts are untouchables. We can always find position players. It's the pitching that gets tricky, especially when you see we have nothing in Sox pipeline.

Yes but they are doing it with $50M less......$65M last year.

i'm trying to figure out why Buck Showalter is always laughing at us. I feel much better.

Bobby Jenks 2 yr $12M

Joel Hanrahan for 1 yr $7M

Edward Mujica for 2 yrs at $9.5M

Nothing like signing a prick AJ Pierzynski for $8,250,000

Thank God Ryan Dempster retired and saved us $12M

Justin Mastersen....$9.5M......seriously, can any of us do worse than Sox evaluators!

Any trade we make for pitching has to be more than a 2 month rental.....it has to be done with 3-5 year timeline when our young position players are coming into their prime years. The problem is if the evaluation is wrong, Sox will be stuck with another bad contract. I also don't want any trade based solely on doing something on Ortiz' last go around. We will regret it because if we don't win the big one, and not to just get into the playoffs, no one will remember other than prospects given up. I get it that it's never an exact science but I'm pretty sure Henry is paying top dollars for his baseball people. They have to get it right sometime don't they? Betts, Xander, Bradley Jr are all keepers. My read is the JF really likes Shaw. He gives us an option on both corners. Count him in. Maybe we're thinking too hard on catching situation. Swihart and Vazquez tandem can work. When offense gets better for Vazquez then Swihart can fill in at LF and 1B and or DH. That will save Swihart's body and he can still contribute offensively from another position. So basically we're looking for a LF. Benintendi may be the answer. We still have Moncada and Devers. And if we go out and get a power bad for DH this off-season? I'm trying to convince myself that we're in great shape as far as position players are concerned. Can we get Hill for several second rung prospects? Or will we need to throw in say Espinoza or Devers? This will push back perhaps having to deal with starting pitching for few months and may not address long term solution that I started the discussion with. But it seems cheaper way to go.....Bidding may get too expensive for his services. Ok, I'm talking in circles....I just don't want to part with position players and somehow pitching will turn itself around.....wishful thinking.

Brents....you are down 9-0, hit a great double, now its 9-2, you get thrown out at 3rd trying to stretch a double....Why? Why? Why? Are you the dumbest f***ing dumb ass? This is not AAA....

Rodriquez is responsible for next 4 base runners because he's pitched so bad.....

So this is what's going to be like with Big Papi gone.....I don't like it.

Moon you're good at this...seriously how many pitchers have we developed? Go ahead and throw in home grown pitchers we've traded. In a perfect world, with a 10 man staff in major leagues, shouldn't there be 10 Red Sox bred pitcher in the mlb?

Trade Espinoza.....Red Sox cannot develop pitchers. So much for adding 'pitching' gurus on the staff. What a f***ing joke. If I'm Henry, I'd clean house. If DD doesn't want to do it, then he needs to go. Good grief.

Can we start Kimbrel every game so we can stay in the game after 1st inning?

we definitely need to trade Espinoza....Red Sox can not develop pitchers. Trade him before he loses his value....anyone watching the game? E Rod is a freaking joke.

this team is a f***ing joke.....Brentz for 2nd time throws to wrong base.....you keep the hitter off 2nd base.

where did Brentz learn to play LF....that's f***ing twice he's gone to third base instead of 2nd.....are these guys coached? Its just inexcusable...jesus h christ.

You called it with Bradley in CF and Betts in right. Bradley is our best CF, period. At some point I'd like to see every high ceiling guys at their best position. If Moncada projects out as LF then Benintendi should be moved. Maybe not today but at some point. I just don't think 3B ultimately is Shaw's best position. I don't see a DH in our organization. We may have to live with Hanly because of his contract but it's a big drop off from Papi. Question is will Vasquez improve his hitting before Swihart becomes adequate defensive catcher? Who is our 1B? Keep HANLEY there and acquire a power bat to DH? Do we make a blockbuster deal to acquire pitching or wait until 2017 FA market?

Pedy is under contract through the 2021. His body will not hold up. Not the way he plays.

I blame the whole Xander experiment on JF's love affair with Drew. It really bothered Xander. And for what? Don't get me started on our manager.

MLB.com has 42 players listed and Castillo is not on the list. The whole point of placing him on waivers was to avoid paying $3m luxury tax penalty on his &10M annual value. The question is can we do the same to Panda? Obviously there's no point in doing it if we're under the cap. There's no penalty. I worked for a big company and new COO would flush out all the expenses and put it all on previous management. That's what DD is doing. Price is on him but not Panda and Hanley's contracts.