oldtimer

I wonder if players who test positive even though vaccinated have to go into quarantine when they test positive?

Is Wilson one of the trade chips?

I still believe the Sox are trying to stay under the CBT ceiling this year as we don't appear to have starting pitching good enough to be WS contenders/winners. We are backed up with approximately $800K leeway so it appears Bloom will need to clear some salary through trades to do even the minimum. By that I mean a reliable left handed first baseman to platoon with Dalbec and a solid relief pitcher, assuming we get Sale back an Houck can be a spot starter/long reliever. The hope is that we continue to be lucky on the injury front.

It makes sense for Duran to debut at Yankee Stadium with 's shortened left field, provided Yankees put up a right handed pitcher. I haven't seen the Yankee's choice for tonight's game. It's got to be good for Duran to be among such guys as Bogaerts and JDM who can help him with the approach to hitting ML pitching. Now it's time for Bloom to find platoon help for Dalbec and to look to strengthen our pitching through trade.

Will you stop the negativity? Enough of the constant bashing of the idea of calling up a top prospect when others used in the first half were marginal. Let's now see what he can do to help this team.

I opined that Duran would be called up right after the AS Break based on the Sox removing his availability to play on the Olympic team. He will start in CF tomorrow night in Yankee Stadium. The other, less likely scenario was they made the move to trade him. I got a lot of flack for my opinion but it turned out to be right on. Now I hope those seeming opposed to have him come up, and by doing so improve the team, will give him the same break that was advocated for Santana. Is this young man a sure thing? Of course not but he does give us a speedy player with some pop in his left handed bat. I will stay optimistic and look for him to be a help. I believe Bloom and Cora have seen enough to believe he is better than some alternatives.

Did you notice Wilson was taken out of the Worcester lineup. don't know if he was involved in any trade discussions. Something will be happening soon.

I doubt if we would match 3/$45 if that is the offer. He is a valuable player, but Bloom may choose to go for an alternative DH for less money and years and use the savings for pitching staff improvement.

Since Kike has come alive, the #1 spot in the order has gotten into much better shape.

and help, but nothing is sure I'm more optimistic about Rios as he has a very good arm with his biggest drawback being command. The other 4 you mention should all be expendable. Let's hope Sale will come back but nothing is sure about his impact. Houck is coming back from injury and is a also question mark. as well. Our problems looked more like the centered on starting pitching so Bloom has a major challenge. I like his approach and expect him to continue to make smart decisions.

Our weakest area of late has been starting pitching. It's possible Sale could help us there but it difficult to see us adding a SP who could give us meaningful help without exceeding the CBT. Would an addition be worth losing young prospect and/or exceeding the CBT ceiling. We will know the Sox direction in about two weeks.

I believe the Olympic baseball will be over on Aug 7th.

There has been a lot of talk about Duran and his place on the Sox going forward, as the CF of the future. There has been a strong pushback on the site since we don't really need a CF now with Kike doing the job quite well. Why then remove Duran's name from Olympic consideration? Another possibility occurred to be. Perhaps the Sox have offered him as a trade chip as part of a deal to get either pitching or a left handed first base bat. Those are the two areas of greatest need if the Sox plan to go for it all this year. It seems to go against Bloom's approach of strengthening the team through prospect development. Other's are suggesting Houck as a trade chip so moving Duran doesn't sound so outlandish in that light.

The starting rotation has shown weakness over the past week. We could improve there with a trade, but the problem is that we would have to exceed the CBT to get any significant help. I don't think the Sox are willing to do that in 2021 so Sale is likely our only SP addition with Houck being a more distant possibility as well. For the 2022 season, we will lose the contract cost of Pedroia and Benintendi for roughly $15 mil in savings and several current players will not be renewed for about $3.5 million in additional savings. It will be the 2023 season before we are rid of the Price impact of $16 million. staqaff Assuming we will be willing to exceed the CBT, we should be n a position to go after a quality SP for 2022. If one or more of our current SP stall leaves for 2022, then we will have additional money to apply to look for a second quality starter.

I didn't see that coming. I had Meyer as #1 with Leiter as #2 and Jobe as #3. I would have been happy with Davis as our pick, but Meyer is a tremendous talent and may hit the big leagues after a year or two at the most. Bogie is a great player for us and he may go or his skills find him better suited to 3rd or 2nd as he ages. Regardless, we got a premium talent.

You sure do seem to be anti Duran. even the front office talks of him as the future Sox center fielder. I fully believe he will be called up after the AS break, even though there is no glaring need for him. At 24 he is either ready or he never will be. One way to find out and that is to activate him.

The Sox got 11 hits to the Phllies 6 but went only 1 for 9 with runners in scoring position. Guys getting pull happy and grounding out to kill opportunities. The Sox made 3 errors. Sox starting pitcher was poor again as it they have been all week. Time for a rest and to get heads back on straight. the Sox RP's are getting it done for the most part.

I look at Bloom's activities on the pitching front as very beneficial to the club and one of the main reasons they are still leading the division at the halfway point. In particular, the additions of Pivetta, Ottavino, Perez, Richards, Sawamura and Whitlock look very smart indeed and were done within a budget limited by existing contracts ad the CBT. Signing Barnes for an extension is one more in a series of smart moves. We have had only one real addition from our prospect list in D.Hern. For some reason, we have suffered injuries and have been unable to develop pitching prospects. Our candidates include Barzardo, Groome, Houck, Mata, Seabold and Ward who are on the 40 man or part of the top 30 prospects. Of those, Houck has the best chance of making a difference at the ML level. I would have expected we would be able to fill at least 3 pitchers from our 40 man and prospects this year but talent and the injury bug holds us back. We do have 3 innings eaters who would be replaced if we had talent available. Andriese, Brice and Workman fall into this category and will not be on the 2022 roster. I have watched Rios and believe he has a chance to stick but has to improve his command to do so. I don't see us making a splash this season as Sale will have to represent our major addition. We may make an acquisition in the RP area or perhaps Brasier and Houck will return to bolster us there. There is always a risk of injury to our front line people with half the season remaining. I hope we stay lucky but expect to need to ake at least some adjustments going forward.

Do you advocate trading Duran or just sitting him for the remainder of the season and possibly 2022 as well?

Very reasonable deal that gives us a solid performer for the next 2 or 3 years.

I've been a Sox fan since the late 1940's and have watched players, managers and front offices come and go. There haven't been many times where the team had a legitimate chance to win the pennant and make some noise going forward. That the current team is in a good position at the AS break is a blessing that to me is worth trying to extend for the entire season. Perhaps there are two schools of thought and nuances off of those. The first being that management got us here by staying primarily with the people who were available from Spring training, so lets continue with those players and lets see what happens. The second approach is to realize that other contending team are making and will continue to make moves to improve, so standing pat is not an option if we are to stay competitive. I for one believe that Bloom is correct in following a plan which improves our minor league prospect list while not exceeding the CBT when the chances of winning it all are small. If that is the belief then we can try to trade for help and/or bring up prospects who may be better that some of our weakest players. The players that haven't produced are evident and much talk has been made about the need to either DFA them or trade them. Andriese, Workman, Santana, Chavis, possibly Gonzalez although he provides some defensive flexibility, have been identified. Some have advocated giving these weaker players more time but how much? Until we drop out of contention? We will soon see as we approach the trade deadline. I thin management made a statement about Duran when they held him out of the Olympics which will conclude on August 7th. Why deprive the young man of that opportunity unless the front office plan was to bring him up after the AS break. As far as keeping a player growing in AAA ball, when they get into the mid 20's it is time to fish or cut bait. I am optimistic that Bloom and Cora will do all they are allowed to do to improve the team. I look forward to their moves.

What's going on with our starting pitching? Everyone but Pivetta has been scored on in the first inning. Today 3 runs is tough to overcome and the BP can't hold opponents down every game. Let's hope Sale can get back in early August and is effective when he returns. I watched most of the Rays vs Blue Jays games. The Rays did a lot of pitching to the outside corner and enough of the Jays kept trying to pull to thwart their chances.

, Some of the opinions about Duran and other prospects is that it makes sense to try using a good prospect when guys on the roster have not performed well. We have Andriese, Santana, Chavis and to some extent Gonzales who haven't performed well. Dalbec also hasn't done well against right hand pitching but most recommendations were to platoon him with a left handed hitter, if we could find a better one. It is also possible we could trade to reinforce the team but we don't have a lot of leeway before we exceed the CBT. The hope is that we don't wind up losing games we might otherwise have won.

We are halfway through the season. Sounds like you would prefer to hold onto non performers while letting good prospects sit on the bench while they age. I disagree with that approach.