oldtimer

We still will pay him next year.

We really just have one outfielder for 2021 as a sure thing and he is Verdugo. Bradley may be back but as a FA, we may not want to compete with $s or yrs. Beni is with us but can we rely on him to be a factor for us? He was trending down for quite a while now. Duran looks very possible for next season so I wonder why they just didn't try him this year. If we have Verdugo, Beni and either JBJ or Duran, we wind up with 3 left hand hitting outfielders. Maybe resigning Pillar as a FA would be a better bet.

Dalbec was known to be a power hitter with a high strikeout rate in the minors. We brought him up out of need and to learn if he will be an acceptable first baseman for next year. He is 26 years old so this is his chance to shine. It's too early to tell much, but so far he doesn't seem to have a good feel for the strike zone nor is he good at pitch recognition. He has power if he can connect. Sort of another Chavis. That said, I am still wondering if Devers will stick at the hot corner, based on his high error rate so far this year. The hope was that his errors would go down as he gained experience. Maybe the idea of moving him to 1st should be resurrected and we should be looking for a third baseman who can hit.

So we won't know the full extent of the traded PTNL for Pillar and Osich for a month or does the season include the Playoffs?

With Pillar gone and Beni still iffy, I think Duran comes up.

It has a bad Odor to me.

What ever happened to Beni. I believe this thread is about him?

Be interesting to see where we sit with Salary and benefits relative to the CBT threshold after the trade deadline. We will reset and may have significant money to spend just to reach the threshold. Will we play it cool in 2021 and go big in 2022? I can see the logic of staying reset until we think we have a chance to win the pennant.

I think they bring up Duran if they trade either JBJ or Pilllar. My view is Lin is gone in 2021 anyway and there may be more to Beni's time off than just sore ribs. If there is space, Duran makes the most sense.

You lose the whole concept of team when you trade away the key players, especially when it is not forced by circumstances, as was the case with Mookie. I too would have liked to see Moreland with us through the 2021 season but perhaps the trade at least makes some sense. Trading Bogaerts or Devers or Vaz would be steps too far. The name of the game is to rebuild the team around the core and to greatly strengthen the prospect list. Verdugo is the only player added so far that has made the team while the others are part of the prospect list. I predict we will still see Bradley and Barnes lost today, so it will be difficult enough to find a familiar face.

My view was who will get called up was dependent on who Bloom traded. The Moreland trade left room for Dalbec. A trade of JBJ would leave room for Duran. I would have liked Moreland to be around in 2021 as a platoon player but that depended on who we got back as prospects. Whether they can make the team or be available as trade chips, they do strengthen our minors. Bloom is not standing pat. Maybe we get another trade before the deadline. Is Barnes next?

The Mookie and Price trade doesn't even look bad at present, under the circumstances. Verdugo is an above average outfielder at low cost and we have two other high prospects. We would have paid Mookie $30 Mil with our offer of 10 years and would have had the full Price contract at $32 Mil, now reduced to half that. I doubt if Price is worth half his contract going forward. The Workman and Hembree trade for one possible ML pitcher and a high prospect starting pitcher looks like a very good trade for the Sox. We were going nowhere in 2019 and Workman was going into FA next year. It's not easy making beneficial trades and I hope that Bloom makes no giveaway trades. It has to help us or don't make the trade and don't worry about the inevitable criticism by the fan base.

I look at some of our guys and think of Bill Parcells saying. (you are what your record says you are). Results do count. How could we trade guys like JDM or Beni? They are not getting the results that their salaries would warrant. What other GM would take them? The only few players we could trade, we probably should keep with few exceptions.

Is Eovaldi being held out due to a calf strain or is he already designated in a trade and they are holding him out for that reason?

You have to listen to all offers, but Vaz certainly should be considered a core players along with Bogaerts, Verdugo and Devers. I would also keep inexpensive players on one year contracts that could help us be respectable in 2021, while the rebuilding is in process.

I thought the question was who do we think WILL be up not SHOULD be up. Those are two completely different questions.

Here we are with 3 days left to see some trades take place. Will something occur for the Sox, or is the market just too flat? No one wants to giveaway talent so unless fair offers are made, maybe we stand pat.

Depends on who gets traded. If JBJ or Pillar goes, then Duran comes up. If Moreland and/or Chavis go, then Dalbec comes up. If Vazquez or Palawiki goes then one of our experienced catchers comes up, not a prospect. I don't see any pitching prospect coming up although it would be nice to see one.

I'm with you. Unloading half of Price's contract was better than keeping him. We still wouldn't have been competitive so get rid of the errors and take your medicine now.

I still think the money available needs to be apportioned so that the team is sound at every position. Overpaying a few stars and having too little left to be sound at other positions is fools gold. So keep the core, if they remain close to the planned budget, develop and bring up a few from the minors yearly to keep the cost reasonable. Go to FA to fill in the gaps and also trade away assets that don't meet the plan. The name of the game is being disciplined. No sentimental signings of guys to long term contracts. Once in a while, go over budget, but only if it raises the team to the WS level. Clearly you advocate something similar. Part of the plan is to strengthen our minor league program so that it is possible to bring enough up that can contribute. That is hard to do if the team is competitive year to year. So having a GM and front office that is together is important. No Lucchino like deals that set the plan aside. I believe that Bloom and Henry are a quality pair in that regard unless proven otherwise. Also, we need to put a manager and coach team together that provides good results. To me, having many guys on the roster under-performing at one time is also a sign of bad management of coaching. Another sign is the lack of ability to develop pitching in the minors. Lots of work to get done as the previous organization was run to win now and the heck with tomorrow. The problem is tomorrow comes and it is here now.

By the way, many of our position players have struggled this year. Take away Verdugo, Bogaerts and Moreland and you have a little from JBJ, Vaz early, Pillar and Arauz. Beni, Devers, Chavis and JDM are way off. Not much power in the lineup in a year when the ball is leaving the park. Got to wonder when an opener and a bevy of relief pitchers can hold us to 3 hits in a night. Is our coaching partly at fault here? I am all for trading off those who won't help us in 2021 but not for a wholesale dump. The difficulty is in knowing which players cannot help us.

Yes! The journey of a thousand miles begins with but a single step.

I'd say the Rays are an example of Bloom's ability to find value and do it on a budget. The Price deal was the opposite. We got one or two years of an aging star for a large 7 year contract. Cashman has been some good trades for the Yankees, but has also made some awful ones by throwing money and long term contracts to players who don't appear to have much value.

The speculation about players must bother them, particularly when there is little chance of any trade being made in specific cases. I prefer to think in terms of the basic goals as Bloom has already stated. He has been tasked with making the team consistently competitive. Unstated, but probably also likely, is that he wants to put an improved team on the field in 2021. To do that, he needs to retain the core players and also perhaps a few veterans who will help the team during the transition and be gone after 2021. To do that, Bloom has to get fair value for those who don't fit the status of core player or short term help for 2021. I doubt if he can trade all of those that don't fit the want to keep categories by Aug 31st. He also has to listen to any offers for our want to keep list, but the offers have to blow him away to be considered, meaning they have to have the appearance of a clear trade win for the Sox. A swap of Beni for Judge would be an example of being blown away ( joke but it demonstrates what being blown away means). I will consider his trades on the basis of the principles above.