Nick

Priester only has 45 days of major league service according to Cot's. He can come up to the majors and play rest of the year and will still have 6 years of team control beginning in 2025. It's really a low threahold. Less than 172 days out of typical 187 days season.

We are currently in the window of opportunity.....really need to have serious discussion about a controllable pitcher not only for this year but for next couple of years. If you are unwilling so dish out $30M for an aging veteran, you must give up good young talent to get back a young, controllable pitcher.

I have NEVER heard that Mayer is too slow to play shortstop.

You'd need JH to cooperate with DD, to make that work. Yes, we do need a RH bat, and will need two, next year as O'Neill reaches free agency. Ideally, O'Neill would be the DH and Abreu/Ref would platoon RF (Duran in LF and Rafaela in CF.) I wonder if Duran might be better in RF than Ref and maybe even Abreu. His arm seems okay. The issue is Yoshida, and he might be for a couple more years. If O'Neill or Ref (platoon) do not play DH, where do we add the RH bat? With Story, Mayer (LHB) and a DHam/Romy/Grissom platoon as back up, I'm not sure adding a middle IF big bat is likely, and it would be very costly. Assuming Casas returns to form, he will not be platooned, so a RHB 1Bman makes little sense for 2025>>>. Perhaps the best choice, in theory would be to trade Abreu for an Abreu clone who bats RH'd. Anthony bats LH'd. (Campbell might play LF and bats RH'd.) In 2025, maybe bring back O'Neill and trade Abreu for a RH'd RF'er with the same control and skills as Abreu. Our offense would be set, as long as one from Mayer and Story produce. Those are not long odds. Add Teel to the catching tandem, and we look sweet on O, and not bad on D: 2025: C: R Wong & L Teel 1B: L Casas (Romy) 2B: R Story & L DHam/R Romy-Grissom SS: L Mayer (Story & DHam-Romy) 3B: L Devers (Romy) LF: R O'Neill & R Refsnyder(L Duran) CF: R Rafaela & L Anthony (L Duran) RF: L Duran & RHB return for Abreu DH: L Yoshida (R Refsnyder/ R O'Neill) All 3 rookies will not be on the 26 in April, but by August they very well could be. Our issue is and always has been pitching. The only times it wasn't was 2004, 2007, 2013 and 2018. I would look for a right hand bat guy that can play corner infield and DH. Surely there's someone out there that fits the mode.

Even without Casas and another right handed bat besides O'Neill, our offense is fine and will be fine in the future. Either via trade or through FA, we need starting pitching. It just can't be that "we'll be okay we have Giolito and Whitlock coming back". We need to trade out prospects for cost controlled starting pitching. I'd love to have DD right now. Just right now. Just until Tuesday's deadline. [/b]

It doesn't help that both Martin and what's his face is out.

Interesting to hear Cora talk about DAFing McGuire to balance out the righty lefty balance. Obviously it's very important to the team. That brings up the question what to do with our top 3 prospects, all left handed.

That was catchable ball by O'Neill. Had Rafaela been in CF, Duran would have made the catch. Really need a power right handed bat at DH. f*** Story for getting hurt.

Rays doing Rays thing. Shedding $8M contract with 2 more years of team control for 2 prospects from the Mariners.

Yep, 4 more years of team control. We'll have Story for another 3 years. We can't keep Mayer down for three more years. Why would we move premier young shortstop to 2B? Are we still not high on Grissom? He's under team control for 5 more years. With this trade you still keep the OF of Abreu, Rafaela and Duran. They are under team control beginning 2025 for 5, 7 and 4 years. To me Keel seems more valuable or needed to catch alongside Wong. CC Wong (4)/Keel (6) 1B Casas (4)/RH bat that can DH (not suggesting platooning) 2B Grissom (5)/Hamilton (5) SS Story (3+1) 3B Devers (9) LF Duran (4)/Refs CF Rafaela (7) RF Abreu/Refs (5) DH O'Neill/Yoshida This lineup is good enough. AND THEY GIVE US 4+ YEARS OF WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY TO CHASE THE TITLE. We just need better starting pitching.

Spot on about Weissert.....he does not look anything special anymore. Maybe his back to the plate set up had me impressed. I'm impressed easily.

Thanks Moon and notin

He has two years of arbitration left, getting paid little over $3M this year. I'd like to see little more power out of 1B but without looking at his spray chart, maybe Fenway will help his offense. We don't have to re-sign him so our risk is how much do we give up?

Go get a right handed bat 1B.....

At what point do the big 3 make their major league appearance? How much better is Roman Anthony than say Abreu? How soon can we expect to see Teel? Do we stick with Reese McGuire for another year? His third and final year of arbitration? How realistic is it for Mayer to replace healthy Story with decent hitting? Do we move Story to second base to accommodate Mayer? When does the switch occur? Will Kristian Campbell placed in the same time table as the big 3? He is already 22 and plays in Portland. Is it possible for him to shift to CF and have Rafaela play short and Story second if Mayer does not pan out? We're very fortunate to have Rafaela because his ability to play short and center gives us tons of flexibility. At this point, the Sox may feel they need to extend/sign Pivetta and hope for the best from Giolito in 2025 and call it the day. We can't make any bold moves without giving up top talent in my opinion. You can't have it all. I know what DD would do. He would get rid of at least one of the top 4 to acquire a top talent, even if it's a rental.

So is our pitching #2?

5'4" release point from a 6'6" guy? Average D1 release point is 6'0". Is that lower than say Chris Sale?

Let's be self critical of this board. Admit everything we were wrong about. 1) Tanner Houck, projected by the team as #5 starter, there are many on this board always thought he and Whitlock should be relievers. The biggest complaint was he didn't throw enough effective pitches and hard trouble getting through the line up second and third time around. 2) Duran, there were some doubts as to whether he can have a starting role and still questioned his ability to play center. 3) Rafaela, many wanted him to work out his swing selection in the minors. Other like myself was little more astute (lol, I'm not astute) saying Rafaela played good enough defense, let him bat 9th and work it out. I DON'T BELIEVE HITTING AGAINST MINOR LEAGUE PITCHERS WILL HAVE HELPED WITH SWING SELECTION. THEY DON'T THROW LIKE THE MAJOR LEAGUE PITCHERS FOR ONE. We're fortunate that starting pitching has held up, bullpen has been pretty solid and peripheral players such as Hamilton, Abreu, O'Neill and others have supplemented our offense.

It appears, Paxton is only starting lefty in the rotation right now unless they have someone coming up from the minors. Rockies also have one left handed starter, Gomber with ERA of 4.61. Our bats should score some runs. 4-2 doesn't seem out of reach.

Moon the reality again is tha Bres thinks Liam can replace Jansen. Why would he spend money to get a closer when Liam already has a contract? My guess is he also thinks Giolito can repace Pivetta. And what to do with?Whitlock? I am pretty sure he thinks he can either start or replace Martin. What I am trying to say is has has the opportunity to go find top liners with minimum of $60M. I rather us go spend on real impact players. That to me means NOT spending $16M on a closer when they already have Liam. And I agree with that approach.

Without power, not sure how Grissom can play much better than Hamilton.

Not to kick a player when he's down but Duggie came in on a game ending fly ball then fell flat on his face trying to go back on the same play. Good job bud. MassLive has an article on Duggie about that last play. Wow, everyone is enjoying his misery.

He throws his sinker the most, 40%+ and batters are hitting .340? Does anyone else have a stat worse than that? Unreal.

Uh....that's $20M for all 3.....I wouldn't be that stupid.

Cot's has us at $106M under the luxury tax line of $241M. We lose Jansen and Martin. What if we're able to replace them with Liam (management thinks so) and Whitlock? Their salaries are already baked in. We'll get to see Liam pitch surely by September. Bres thinks he can be a closer for us. We lose Pivetta but we gain Giolito. I'd say that's a wash at worst. We'll have 3 significant Arbitration 1 guys in Duran, Kutter and Houck. My guess is that's a $20M pop at best. Unless of course we extend them. Let's say Henry goes cheap and puts our tax 'budget' at $220M, giving us only $86M to spend. So far we've only spent $20M, leaving us with $66M. Surely we can sign 3 major impact players for $22M each. And at some point, we'll get rid of Yoshida and Story giving us additional money, though it might be miniscule but better than nothing. Life is getting better for the Sox fans. Why NOT add a top of the line pitcher to join Kutter, Houck, Bello and Giolito?