oldtimer

Good point. How would we be able to tell, unless Cora and Bloom talk about it openly?

At around 6 feet and 240 pounds while at such a young age, Cora may want him to lose 10 or 15 pounds as a way to extend his playing time and improve his defense. The kid has tremendous potential as a hitter and his glove isn't all that bad. It has been his wild throws that have resulted in many of his errors.

You clearly understood where i was coming from as it was all about Duran's readiness for promotion to the roster. He has exceptional speed and has been praised for his hitting improvements. Yes, he needs to work on going back on balls but that speed could reduce any ill effects while he accommodates to the CF position. I would invite him to Spring Training and use that to evaluate if he is worth trying in center. I would change that view if they signed JBJ to a 2 year team friendly contract. The team does need to continue to promote solid prospects so they use their budget for pitching and other weak positions, like LF.

My guess is that management spoke to Cora about the strategy they want to pursue to build a consistently competitive team, but I would doubt they would promise to go after specific players, whether in trade of through the FA process. Cora is especially good with Latino players and we know how many of those are in the majors these days. Having him in place is a help as the team decides who to keep, trade away and for and who will be on the 40 man. He should complement Bloom and they should make an effective team. I am glad that this is settled since we have free agency in process and the Rule 5 draft will need to be settled by Nov 20th and the non-tender deadline Dec 2nd. I don't expect the Sox to make rash moves under Bloom and now Cora.

Join Moon in not accepting any numbers unless backed up by a full progression through the minors and 5 years of plate appearance data. Fernando Tatis would still be waiting for his first shot in the majors with that kind of thinking. Afterall, he is only 21.

If we made the move to add Ozuna to left and move Verdugo to center, then I presume that Beni would be traded and to balance the salary and allow for paying Devers and pitching in future, I assume we would bring up an outfield prospect. Duran is the obvious possibility. The kid is 24 and has had some glowing reports. Either bring him up or trade him, but don't wait until he is 26 or so.

I'd also be fie with JBJ at 2/$12 -$13 mil. I would use Duran for the 4th outfielder, trade Beni and look for a power bat for LF.

I would expect the decision on who will manage to come next. Whether it is Cora or someone else, we need to get a manager in place who can participate in the decision making for trades and acquisitions.

If the boss is smart, he will ask for measurement of progress in steps at 6 month or year intervals. Not meeting or coming close to the agreed upon measurement? See you later.

I believe Bloom has a very definite plan going forward in all areas including the draft. Not picking up Martin Perez's option, not offering a qualifying offer to JBJ and the likely movement of Pedroia to retirement all indicate a plan is in place. It may not include specific names of individuals to exchange into our 40 man roster but may be more about making improvements to our roster and our farm with every move undertaken. Some moves may be stop gaps but what he does will reveal the outlines of his plan.

I was a bit surprised by this move as the Sox need pitching and he did the job of inning eater and had generally good results with 2 exceptions. What does this mean about the Sox pitching plans going forward? Stay tuned.

Whoever Bloom chooses will be fine with me

What my main concern is that the CBT threshold sets a soft limit on the amount that can be applied for the entire teams salary and benefit costs. When one or two players get a significant percentage of that payroll the owners either have to shoulder the burden of a higher payroll increased by an escalatory tax, plus there are impacts on draft choices and international money. Lets face it, the also good players wind up being paid less and the team becomes less competitive overall. The guys making $35 million don't care about the guy making $3.5 million who is really contributing. By the way, the risk associated with long term contracts can be monetized and for contracts that run 10 years or more, they are onerous and can kill a team's competitiveness for years to come.

The WS is over and now expect a flurry of action. Manager, 40 man moves? I am looking forward to it.

I assume Seager will be looking for equivalent money, since he was probably the best Dodger player in the playoffs. two position players in long term contracts drawing down $65 mil between them. How does a team afford to do this and still have ace pitching and good players throughout? Good for the individual players to be rich beyond their fondest dreams, but what does it say about baseball going forward?

The WS game last night might be illustrative of who we should be looking for in our next manager. Cash is the ultimate metrics type with radical shifts, 4 outfielders, openers etc. Clearly his team lacked in offense and he had to make up for it with pitching and defense. It carried the team to the 6th game of the WS and that was quite an accomplishment. Last night he admitted that the staff had 2o different preplanned alternatives depending upon game circumstances. That level of preplanning is an eye opener in itself and speaks to how managers approach games these days. One of the plans had to be to get as much out of Snell as possible and then revert to the stable of hard throwing BP arms to take it home. Sure enough, Snell gave up a hit in the 6th and Cash was out of the dugout like a bolt of lightning, there to save the day. I am certain that the move he made to take Snell should be and will be debated by Rays fans. There is no way to know what would have happened had he left Snell in for a few more hitters. We do know what happened with the move, which was a disaster for the Rays. The question that comes to my mind is whether Cash was too rigid following his preplan and not discretionary enough to really see the situation in front of him. 1. Snell was in the 70's pitch count range. 2. Snell being a lefty could better hold the runner at 1st. 3. Snell had great command and his velocity was still up there 4. Snell had handle Mookie and Seager like no other Rays pitcher. 5. While the strong BP had a great record of holding, they had been used a lot. 6. Command had been an issue for the BP in the series. 7. Did the BP have the cold bloodedness needed to come into a pressure cooker. A few pitches later, a fastball catching too much of the plate, a wild pitch slider and the game was tied with a man on 3rd. An infield hit and the Rays were behind. My view is while we need a manager who is metrics friendly, we also need a man with discretionary thinking that will not blindly stick to a plan when the evidence suggests otherwise. Bloom had a lot to do with Cash, will he try to find another just like him or will we find a gem that can handle all parts of the game?

What a disingenuous comment. If he wished to stay with the Sox he had $300 million reasons over 10 years. In reality he was looking for whatever he could get, even if the extraction of that much would have reduced not increased the competitiveness of the team. Like Kimmi, I find myself rooting for the Rays, in no small part because of the ridiculous coverage, which depicts Mookie as some kind of a hero.

Funny how Soxprospects.com leave off several of the prospects likely to get a long look in spring training. Duran, Mata, Ward

And two of his top starters were sidelined for the year and he was put in the position of trading away Mookie and Price. Lets see if we make solid progress toward sustained competitiveness in 2021. I expect more than 1/3 of our 40 man roster to turn over this year. The object is to get rid of nonperformers and replace them with better. That alone should bring us back to respectability.

By the end of next week we may well resolve the name of our new manager, get to the first pass of the 40 man and then be in a position to make meaningful trades and FA acquisitions. The fans will be given a lot of material for discussion here. It will move from speculation to substance. We know our needs, 2 starters, two or three relievers, an outfielder and at least a utility infielder. How that gets accomplished, whether a mix of internal and new acquisitions will be great fodder for discussion. I trust Bloom.

It will be amusing to read what the Bloom detractors say about the Betts trade in the event the Dodgers don't win the world series. The Rays are not chopped liver and still have a chance to win this year.

Duran was getting positive reviews for his hitting and would be the fastest player on the roster if he makes the team following spring training. I believe he is 24 years old so no kid. Time to bring him up and give him an opportunity to play CF. Bringing in some low cost poor hitting glove man if we lose JBJ sounds like a poor idea.

It's not surprising that the Sox would do due diligence by interviewing a slate of qualified candidates. He sounds like a reasonable interview candidate.

Now the Dodgers may have problems signing Seager based on the Mookie contract. What goes around comes around.

Another question to ask is what if every player looked for whatever the market would bear regardless of the impact on the long term competitiveness of the team? The assumption is there is only so much available in the pot of gold and the question is how is it shared?