oldtimer

There is also talk about Trumbo as a FA DH. I still prefer Beltran as a more polished hitter but with less power.

The number one weak area going into next season is relief pitching. That has to be addressed due to losing 3 free agents and the weakness of some we had hoped better from, such as Abad. I would rate 3rd base as our second weakest area. Shaw didn't get it done last year and is likely to be marginal at best. I doubt Sandoval can return to that position and he may be more apt to fit the DH role against RHP if at all. I also now doubt Moncada based on what has been happening. Is he the second coming of Castillo or a true ML player in the making? We can get by for a while but I would go for a legitimate ML third baseman and not pin hopes on so many iffy scenarios. Trade the ones we have if need be. DH is also in need of change. If we could get Beltran, then we would have an excellent ML talent with some power to fill the bill for a while. Others, like Young and or Sandoval might help there. Catching is also in need of improvement as probably both our main catching talents are likely to put up weak hitting numbers. Maybe we look within at Swihart. I rate that as our 4th weakest area. SP is not a weakness except when we get into the playoffs. Then only Porcello and perhaps E-Rod can do the job. If a chance comes up for DD to snare a good young SP prospect, without giving away the store, why not take it? Clearly the likelihood of that happening is low but to be competitive in the POs we need some help.

Consideration of what we do in FA and trade moves should take into account what has and is being successful for teams that have surpassed us. One note is that two very effective starting pitchers do not throw over 90 mph. The cubs Hendricks and the Guardians Tomlin. Keep an open mind and look for pitchers with good movement and that are around the plate. What is it about Cleveland that allows them to sweep the Sox, go 4 of 5 against the Blue Jays and are now up by 3 to 1 on the powerful Cubs team? Clearly Kluber is special and backed up by Miller and Shaw they will keep you in any game. Tomlin has been very effective and they have Allen and Merritt for a solid pitching staff. They are missing some of their starting pitching which should be back next year. So they have excellent pitching and a manager who knows how to motivate and utilize that pitching. They also have a very good defensive team with very good speed at most positions. They certainly have one premier player in Lindor and are very solid with Santana, Davis, Rameriz and Fowler. Perez is a good catcher. If you went position by position, we compare favorably. Betts and LIndor are similar premier players. We had an edge or comparable in every position except 3rd and catcher. The Guardians speed seems to be utilized a little better than ours in my opinion and they do have more switch hitters, which may cause opposing pitchers some grief. The Sox need to close the pitching gap to beat the Guardians team but Chicago, with Lester, Arrieta, Hendricks and Lackey with Chapman in the BP have not been able to stop them so pitching is not the whole story. Good luck to DD to put together an improved team for 2017 with obvious holes improved and also with an eye on leadership.

At least for now, we have no outfield need for Swihart unless it is pure utility. A trade might change that but he is a more likely trade candidate than the others. Swihart hasn't shown great power at bat so probably would not fit the 1st base slot as well as Hanley. There is a real possibility at catcher as neither Leon nor Vazquez is likely to hit well. I would trade Leon of the two as he has a higher trade value and his weight is really too high to expect him to hold up well during the season again next year. If we can get buy with Swihart and Vazquez, then our needs should be focused on third and DH as well ass pitching. I have little faith in Sandoval. True he has lost weight, but he is quoted as seeing no problem with his performance the last period with the Sox. No contrition there and a likelihood of putting the weight back on. Shaw hasn't had any sustained period of performance at the plate. We either need to get a FA third basement or develop one of three young candidates and have him in the lineup by June or July next season. DH is either by committee or we really go out and spend big but the risk is also big. We have a big hole to fill with Ortiz gone and we need to improve in areas where we showed weakness last year. It's in DD's hands and things will need to start happening at the conclusion of the world series.

Lindor and Betts have a lot in common. Fast, athletic, great attitude and of course off limits.

There other options than Pablo. The main reason we are talking about him is the size and length of his contract makes it very difficult to move him. If he does come back after a full year off and two years of poor or no production what could we expect? We do have other options in Shaw, Holt and Hernandez. In addition, we have Mondaca, Devers and now Dubron waiting in the wings. Probably one of those guys will perform at least as well as Pablo can and will should he recover some of what he once was. I am not sold that Shaw can be that guy based on his body of work, although his defense is solid. I see our options as including a FA addition or going with Hernandez or one of our young prospects. Holt can be more of a general utility guy.

I agree with you on this one Spudboy. We can do better than him, plus I hate the idea of trading away Beni.

At least one Boston sports writer is talking about the possibility of picking up another starter but not an ace. Some of the talk was about Pomeranz ineffectiveness at Fenway and some other about the possibility of signing Buchholz only to use him as trade bait. it sounds like the situation is pretty fluid and of course the competition for both starting pitchers and star quality relievers will be intense. Putting money into our young stars is not a bad idea. I am still an advocate of fixing 3rd base and doing DH as a platoon job if need be.

What about Beltran. He is the kind of guy we need and may be available.

I was on the Beltran bandwagon from the get go. A real professional switch hitter for DH. Some power, decent average, good club house presence. Probably available for a short term contract for reasonable money. I also suggested Justin Turner as the best available free agent option at 3rd base. Another pro in the prime of his career. Probably big bucks and long term commitment but a solution to 3rd for a few years to come. Ian Desmond is being talked about as a possibility as well. he has played SS but is thought to be capable of 3rd. We could off load Rutledge, Shaw and Sandoval (would anyone take him?) and Hill will be gone anyway. Hate to see us lose Moncada as he may well blossom in the near future. Swihart may well become a solution to our weak hitting at the catcher position. Hanigan will be gone and probably Holaday. Take your pick, Swihart with Leon or Vazquez. Swihart has other value so I would want to keep him. Would that leave us with enough $ to get another solid relief pitcher (assuming we resign Uehara)? Would we want to keep Buchholz if we did sign another capable reliever? The final piece is a SP that could win in the playoffs. Assuming Porcello can do that, can E-Rod be a second playoff winner? It is probably a pipe dream to think we can get a pitcher of Quintana's ability. Just getting an average SP doesn't really improve us from where we are now.

Very True

I really don't know what JF might have done differently but the results of note are not only the Cleveland games, but the games just before them. We played kind of uninspired baseball. I just saw a glimmer late in game 3 of the Sox fighting to stay alive. I look at NFL football and Bill Belichick for inspiration. They are in the hunt every year, yet they seldom get any decent draft choices and often make do with cast offs in key positions, like running back. Why are they perennial powers? I note that if a guy fumbles he is out of the game. If a guy misses an assignment he is out of the game. There are consequences. Guys are expected to play their positions hard and smartly. I don't see the consequences play out that much in baseball. I see a stoic manager and guys that continue to struggle for long periods. Can baseball be managed with more enthusiasm and with consequences near at hand? Again, I don't know but if the results aren't good enough, you look everywhere for solutions.

First of all, elsewhere from this post, someone suggested getting Kenley Jansen, the Dodger free agent. That is highly unlikely as the Dodgers sports writers list his resigning as the #1 thing the Dodgers need to do. Kimbrel as closer makes sense as he saved 31 of 33 attempts, despite his wildness toward the end. Uehara is a risk based on his age, but he was very effective at the end of season and might just have another year in him. Depends how expensive he gets in the FA market. Carson Smith is an unknown as far as how good he will be when he returns. He has a big upside so has to be one of the probable set up men. Joe Kelly I like a lot. He is maturing and I am hoping he develops his pitching skills still further. Another pitch would help. He even has starter potential but probably not this year. Ross is very solid Barnes has been inconsistent. Has a good arm all right but not sold that he is an answer. I am not certain Buchholz will return. If he does, I would use him in middle relief. Hembree is a decent BP resource. Abad looked like he could do the job but was never useful and probably will be gone. Elias is an flyer. Scott is a keeper. Solid spot man to get out lefties. Beyond those, there are some possibilities, especially with Workman, Owens, Johnson and Kopech I still can see a couple of RP through trade or FA. I would replace our weakest links with these.

Very realistic assessment but a lot would have to go right for your scenario to come to pass. I would also think that Kelly may have a larger role to play. It he could develop another pitch and with his maturization, he could make the jump back to the right hand starter that we could use, particularly if Buchholz is traded.

I also think consideration of catcher as an issue is a realistic assessment. We do have Swihart so maybe we can improve things from within.

So in your opinion, managers don't have any responsibility for the way the team plays? All that happens comes down to random chance?

I wonder about the sports writers bringing up Ian Desmond as a possibility for the Sox. He has been a shortstop but probably would be considered for a short term contract for 3rd base. Be interesting to see how many options are considered and will any of them bear fruit.

I think it was Albert Einstein that said Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is a definition of insanity. Let us hope we can make the necessary improvements so we can get better results in 2017. We only have this core group of strong young players for the next few years. The time to move forward is now.

Several of us including Moon have been hoping for more of a role for Marco. Maybe 2017 he can graduate into at least a solid utility player for us and get more opportunities.

I am a big supporter of JBJ as right up there with the best CF's defensively and I see a lot of hope with his offense as well. What he needs to do is to try a more compact swing. No doubt the coaches are working with him on that aspect. I would be very pleased to see JBJ return as our CF next year.

To my eyes, JBJ has looked great defensively. He gets a great jump, has the speed to reach most balls and has a very strong and accurate arm. Maybe what hurts some of his ratings is his tendency to try to make a great throw when no chance exits.

Maybe leon should give up switch hitting?

I have very little hope that Sandoval can successfully return to 3rd base with mainly his defense suspect and with a year of rust it can only be hoped that he can back to hitting at an acceptable level. I agree that Shaw is a much better fielder but we would have to accept his less than stellar hitting at least until Moncada comes up. Of course Moncada is still unproven. As a #1 prospect, we should have reason to believe he can morph into an acceptable hitter in the ML but in his first attempt he didn't show much. I do hope he can make it up by the all star break. I definitely would use Young as a DH against LHP and Swihart against RHP provided he is not already catching. My choice of catchers would be Swihart and Velazquez.

Remember that Price has a long history of starting playoff games and has performed poorly in all his opportunities. I judged Porcello as to just have had an off day and worthy of starting a playoff again. If you can support what Buchholz will do for us as a playoff starter, then I question your judgment. E-Rod holds promise. You, seem to read a lot into my words that I didn't express.

JF was running the team and we lost 9 straight and for a variety of reasons. Proving that he didn't provide the enthusiasm or emphasis on winning and getting home field advantage is difficult but the result is and was clear. The team had gone on a winning streak prior to that and he gets partial credit for that as he gets partial credit for the near collapse. My understanding of your position is that the manager should not be accountable for team issues and failures. If that is true, what role is he playing?