Nick

"maybe Crawford can give us a spot start"? Come on Moon. Do you honestly think the penny pinchers in Sox organization think Kutter with 28 starts and 155 IP is a spot starter next year?

Great point Moon. So the real cost of not acquiring a top pitcher because he may get hurt is this. In essence you are wasting the $300M contract you gave Devers and the precious controllable years wasting away in the like of Duran, Casas, Houck, Bello, Kutter, etc. Team has to pick a lane. Hell we maybe going the wrong way on a one-way street and no one realizes it because there's been no oncoming traffic. PS. I see that Hill gave up a two run homer. We're now down 4-1. It's over man.

Obviously it's a big gamble. I know majority here wants consistent playoff caliber teams. I would love that but I also don't care to be the Atlanta Braves of 1990's. So do we stay the course? Stay the course knowing our top 4 prospects are more than likely all positional players? What's on the pitching horizon? My GUESS is that the management has not given up on Whitlock starting. So we're back to that. In THEIR mind, a rotation of Bello, Houck, Giolito, Kutter and Whitlock represents reasonable starting rotation for 2025. Obviously they would add several journey man type such as Criswell to back up the top 5. Is that enough for you? I am certainly not trying to be a jerk. Just watching yesterday's game reinforced the thought that great pitching will always win out in a short series.

Let's take another shot at the Detroit ace who has two years left on his contract. With Giolito coming back along with Houck, Bello and Kutter, and no additional money needed (the Detroit ace may command something like $10M for his arbitration 2 contract), would it be worth giving up Teel, Mayer and Anthony just for the priviledge to chase down 2 world series titles? At my age, 68, I'd say lets gamble. We'll have full year of Casas, Trvevor is coming back. Or would Detroit want someone like Kutter in place of one of three top prospects? So, Kutter, two out of three of Mayer, Teel and Anthony. Would that do it and would you do it? I'd say why in the hell not?

Great pitching trumps good hitters. Did you watch yesterday's game? Never mind, this is already his Arbitration 1 year and his agent is Scott Boras. No way in hell of signing him when he's a FA. I thought he was under team control for another 4 years or so. I may give up the prospects but not Duran.

What would it take get the Detroit starter? Duran Mayer, Teel and Anthony. It appears a bold move is needed to acquire top pitching talent. Would that do it?

We have a window of opportunity with current group of positional players for 4 years at minimum starting in 2025. We will also have reinforcements coming our way. We will have enough pieces to withstand the loss of Casas in 5, 5 years. That is a lifetime for this fan approaching 69.

MLB.com has Corbin Burnes as #2 rated Free Agent (age 30) and has Orioles, Mets and Sox as potential home. With the return of Giolito, he may be the only starter we need to get us over the hump. I like our OF of Duran, Rafaela and Abreu. I like our corner infielders, Devers and Casas. Our catching will be more than adequate with Wong and a partner. Trevor Story should fill in at short or 2B. I'm hesitant to break up what's good. We also have Campbell, Mayer, Anthony and Teel in waiting.

Right! Why take two steps back in hopes of taking two steps forward? He's under team control for 4 more years (starting in 2025). Yes, it's just crazy talk.

Rafaela ship has sailed, no? He's in his first year of 8 year deal. I think he's here to stay, good bat or otherwise. So we have #1 starter #2 starter #3 starter #4 starter, Houck #5 starter, Kutter #6 starter, Bello #7 starter, Giolito #8 starter, Whitlock that should be enough We need 'punters' I hear.

According to Cot's, we're $106M under the cap going into the winter. We'll have 3, arbitration I players in Tanner, Kutter and Duran. Our line up will look like, without any additions. CC Wong 1B Casas 2B Hamilton/Grissom SS Story 3B Devers LF Duran CF Rafaela RF Abreu DH Yoshida OF Refsnyder Need a backup catcher, a right handed bat that can play corners/OF/DH, we have plethora of infield utility players. Basically, Duran requires a 'pay raise'. Maybe a veteran right handed bat for We'd have almost $80M to REBUILD THE FREAKIN' PITCHING STAFF IF WE SPEND TO THE CAP; (And that's with Giolito, Whitlock and Liam returning, the players not on the IR right now) So I'm spending $26M for a right handed bat plus giving raises to Duran, Kutter and Houck. Our pitching staff already has in fold, Kutter, Bello, Houck, Whitlock, Criswell, Bernadino, Slaten, Winckowski, etc. I already stated earlier, this is the winter we'll find out Henry's intentions going forward. If they go on the cheap again, then it will always be a hope and a prayer. We'll never get over the hump. Oh, we'll be teased, but not get there.

Despite all the talk early in the season about improved and surprising pitching staff this is the same Red Sox from 1970's. We hit. We score runs. We added the speed component. I guess we will just have to out hit the other guys.

If you want a defensive shortstop why not bring up Mayer when he's healthy? Are you going to tell me that maybe the best player in his draft isn't very good defender?

Are the guys just missing the spots? Reason for so many HR's given up? Or did the hitters adjust and our pitching gurus failed to react quickly?

Wasn't he one of the players not vaccinated? This will be forgotten too. Unless of course he ends up sucking.

That would be in China.

My hope is we go all in, whatever that means for our pitching staff, especially our starting pitching. Please no more Paxton's. I mean the guy looks like he's on social security. Five pitches after a fine start and now looks like he's done. We have 13 slots available for position players. 1 Wong 2 Keel or another backup C 3 Casas 4 Trevor 5 Hamilton/Valdez 6 Devers 7 Yoshida 8 Duran 9 Rafaela 10 Abreu 11 Romy/Grissom 12 Rob Refsnyder 13 O'Neill clone Add to that Mayer, Anthony and Campbell. We are gold with our position players. We need to match our pitching staff. I'd like to hear how do we prioritize our position players, who to keep and who is tradeable. Question. Does Anthony have much more upside than say Abreu? Either our 2nd base or shortstop position is not solid, unless you bring in Rafaela to play short and move Story to 2B. Who are our best 9 position players including the DH? Can we trade all the surplus?

Don't you ever tired of talking about a player we traded in 2020? Arguing over who is at fault? Can you settle it for everyone so we can be at peace? Love it that I elicited a f***k out of you. And you're one of my favorite posters here.

When lack of pitching is the major concern and jerkoffs are still talking abouts Betts. He hates Boston and people in it. Get over it.

Cora is managing to win every game. I love it. f*** the starters if they can't finish the magical 5 innings marker. Yeah, I'm talking to you, Mr. Pivetta.

It seems the Twins have more difficult schedule than the Royals. They play the Guardians 7 times, the Orioles 3 times, Padres 3 times and the Braves 3 times. We also play them 3 times. We're 1 back in the loss column from the Royals and 3 from the Twins.

Waste of base hit.

Yes. He would be on 2nd to start 10th if he gets thrown out.

Was he ranked pretty high as a prospect when drafted?

Moon and I have good relationship. We like to get the facts straight. Apparently, relying on Cot's is not always good. I went to MLB.com to get his stats and found that it was unlikely he had only garnered 45 days in service as posted on the Cot's. All good. And yes, I'm sure our management knows the exact date he can be called up without using up a year's service.