oldtimer

To me the question is whether it makes sense to get every last penny a player can get. I sense that many young people would answer that it does. When does the idea of enough money to live comfortably with perfect security get realized, while other values also come are considered? How many fancy houses, cars, airplanes, vacations, jewelry, etc does one person need to make them happy? When one player breaks the bank, other players have a lot less to divy up so perhaps the chance of winning goes down. Is winning important? A player may choose an environment to live in and raise a family in, but does that choice get prioritized as much as the desire to get every last dollar? I am older (old) and am comfortably off financially. I would suggest to any player that they should consider more than just the most money when they negotiate their contracts.

There is a potential for multi-team trades in which JBJ might be involved. Bloom is playing a lot of angles so lets see what he can create. I don't think Moreland is going anywhere this year.

I'm a little confused as well. We should be set at catcher and even have picked up a prospect at that position. We have needs at other positions unless they see Lucroy in some other role.

The Pedroia and Price contracts represent sunken costs and were necessary corrections. Only time can rid the club of those drags on the budget. The Sale and Eovaldi contracts are ongoing and one would hope will return some value to the team, if not equivalent to the expenditure. I believe the JBJ contract represents an overpay and may be shed early, whereas JDM will probably stay around and opt out for next season. This should leave Bloom a good deal of cap room to make significant improvements. It will take time but I agree with the direction. The Yankees on the other hand are poised to have a good year but may have spent themselves into future problems. They have retained a higher quality farm, so the effects of their spending may not be as great as what has happened to the Sox but the breakdown of a couple of highly paid pitchers would be hard to overcome.

Now that you are back, I want to express my condolences on the lossws of your frien and also my surprise at your quick return. It sounds like Verdugo willl not get a rigorous ST due to the stress fracture in his lower back. It happened last May and he tried to play through it. One question is if it happened last May, why hasn't it fully healed in the off season? Are we talking a moderate to long term DL stint to start his Boston career? Did we do our diligence on this trade?

The word is the results of the Sox investigation will be out by the end of next week. Thats a good thing to put to bed. Maybe it won't be as severe a finding as the Astros was.

With the roster coming together as spring training approaches the new rules will allow for 13 pitchers and 13 other roster players. With 2 catchers, a DH and 7 other field players, we will have 3 additional players to platoon or for utility use. One of those will be Moreland as a part time 1st baseman and occasional DH. There is still a question in the outfield. Will JBJ still be here if Pillar is here? There are options for a utility outfielder including taking one of our very speedy prospects for base running and utility outfield. Depending on the Chavis/Dalbec resolution as the regular right handed first baseman it could leaqve Chavis competing for 2nd or one of those two in the minors and one of Lin/Chatham being considered for the final utility spot. The Pillar physical information should be concluded this weekend, allowing any further outfield moves to be concluded with certainty. The rule change of making the minimum time on the injured list 15 days, up from 10, may also make managers think of parking a guy with a hangnail. There was much less of that in the past.

I would think it means that some of the players were getting a look at the signs in the replay room. Whether that was used as a real time aid to the hitters begs the question on the severity of the act. I would guess that kind of thing happened with quite a few clubs so the discipline would have to take that into consideration.

When he clears the physical check, it will become official. That may come over the weekend. I believe that may be a precursor for a trade deal involving JBJ. Maybe a pitching prospect and a reduction of salary clearing the way for signing a starting pitcher. Cmon Bloom, make moves which will improve the team.

Moreland is back as insurance at 1st and for DH on occasion. It will either be Dalbec or Chavis as the regular 1st baseman and will depend on how these guys progress. I see Chatham as our do all utility player with possibilities at 2nd, SS and third Not sure how 2nd will play out as we need to see the new players at Fenway. Chavis should get a shot. Lin may be odd man out here. Marco is likely going to have to get some PT in AAA before being considered, but still has potential depending on how the alternatives are coming along. The reality is the infield is in flux I have tickets to a spring traing game against the braves in March. ($50 a seat) and will have a look then at some of our new players.

One player getting 15% of the competitive balance Tax threshhold leaves thee remaining 39 players to split the 85% remaining. DD saddled us with several players getting significant percentages while underpferoming in their respective positions. Long contracts involve higher risks of that happening. Bloom has been tasked with rectifying the position DD put us in. Sure, we can exceed the CBT threshhold for a year or two, but that in the long run comes back to bite a team. I don't think we will get Mookie Betts back if the contract requirements are what has been guessed at. I would rather keep a nucleus of competitive players and not rely on a single star.

The resultss of the Sox investigation won't be out this week which means they are still digging. If Sox pllayers/ coaches viewed broadcasts to figure out signs and then players who got to second used that information, I don't see that as of the same level as the Astros camera and real time relaying of the information to the guy at bat. What raises suspicion is the excellence of the Sox hitting in 2018. Saw it a coincidence? At least JDM doesn't think we cheated.

Betts gets the door because he would push us over the competitive balance tax threshold foor 2020 when we don't have the pitching to be fully competitive. Betts also refused $30 mil for 10 years and the indications are he is looking for $35 mil for 12 or 13 years. I think that would be another albatross contract that would further limit our chances of becoming competitive next year and the many following years of that contract. It was a difficult decision but Bloom did the right thing. Letting go of JBJ is also smart if someone will trade some pitcching for him. Pillar is a place holder and his right hand bat is needed with our lefty outfield. I said it elsewhere, but we have a couple of up and coming outfield prospects, either of which may emerge in late 2020 or 2021. I believe the Pillar move takes that into consideration.

Pillar is a good pickup and adds a right handed bat and good defense to the outfield. It makes sense that JBJ will be traded as perhaps he should have been last year. Looking forward to late 2020 or 2021, we have two candidate prospects who may come in and take CF going forward. Either of Gilberto Jimenez and Jarren Duran appear to be future Sox outfielders and both have plus-plus speed. Maybe Pillar is around for a couple of years as the outfield transitions to a younger group.

I'd be unwilling to give any player a 13 year contract or even a 12 year one. The Sox offered $30 mil for 10 years. i would have gone a little higher for 8 years but still really dislike what that does to payroll flexability. Betts is gone and we are unlikely to get him back. Be interesting to see how many of these very large extended contracts work out for the teams that offer them.

He has said no players will be disciplined so now we see if there is anything else.

I just read of Alex Verdugo's presence in an alleged rape which might impact him as a person who did nothing to stop it from happening. If true, it might further taint the trade and explain why the Dodgers were willing to include him in the package. Som ething to consider.

I assume there will be acquisitions and possible changes due to the trade uncertainty. Wait a couple of weeks as we may well find another starter or reliever along the way.

Mookie is a great young player with one year and $27 price tag being traded to a team positioned to win it all this year. The Sox were not in that boat this year and took the step of resetting. Next year Mookie will be looking to maximizee his contract (can't blame him) and probably get around $35 mil for 12 years. The Dodgers will proobably be willing to make an offer of that magnitude as will other teams. I am not an advocate of giving such long term contracts as the RISK of underperformance or no performance after half of it is over is high. Price is a servicable 3rd or 4th starter and the Dodgers only are coughing up $15 to $17 million/year for him so they got a reasonable deal. The Sox get Verdago and a pitching prospect who may or may not hold down a starting spot. We also get the reset and some salary flexibility. These moves make it highly unlikely that we can compete at the WS level this year and make it seem that other moves should be made to get younger for 2021. JBJ has been a top notch defensive center fielder with an inconsistent and weak bat. Trading him and installing younger would further enhannce out flexability. JDM, if he has a good year will opt out and if he doesn't, we will have an overpriced DH. Maybe he will be traded at the deadline. I see improvements being made in the farm and the team getting stronger for 2021, with substantial cash available stemming from the reset. I prefer to be optimistic and Bloom has done what he was hired to do. We'll see where he goes from here.

It needed to be done because of the excesses of DD contracts. We will eat at least a part of the Price contract and will lose Mookie for a year, but will reset in 2020 and remain at least somewhat competitive. I will wait to see what we got in return but expect 2021 to be where we make significant moves to improve.

I am okay with trading Mookie for a couple of quality major league ready prospects. It does make us weaker in 2020 and I find it hard to see the vaalue of then resigning him in 2021 if the contract is something in the order of $35mil x 10. With a weakened team and with suspect starting pitching (health wise) we may be somewhat competitive, but I doubt strong enough to take down the Yankees and possibly not even compe3titive with the Rays or even the Blue Jays, who have good young talent. That's why I would agree to say goodbye to Price and the bloated $96 Mil left on his very questionable long term contract. Setting up for key improvements in 2021 is the most rational approach in my book. Glad to see Kimi back posting. I mostly agree with her posts but not this time.

With all the recent smoke of late, I imagine there is a really bright fire out there. Mookie is likely to be settled next week just based on the rumors of being very close to a deal. I seriously doubt that he remains in a Sox uni. Settle it and move on.

I have been an advocate of using a sliding scale to establish the length of contract offer for players based upon age. Younger field players get up to 8 years while players 30 to 31 get 5 years and over 32 3 years or less. Pitchers are a different category because the wear and tear of innings pitched seem to take a toll. We have seen this with Price with a 7 year contract. It is a rare pitcher who still is very effective at 35 years old. I would limit pitchers to 5 year contracts. Clearly, other teams will not and outbid the teams using a more conservative approach. As far as salary offers, I would make a budget with star up the middle and first and 2nd tier starters at the top of the pyramid while other players would be paid according to value as a percentage of the total available payroll. I would make exceptions if there was a solid likelihood of playing for all the marbles but would normally try to stay at or below the competitive balance tax 1st tier ceiling. ' In the end, I believe this approach would field the most consistently competitive team. Teams that go out on a limb with long term and large contracts are bound to have a lot of off years as the realities of risk set in. Some of the advocates for going out on a limb will say, Yes, but we may win a world series by doing it and accept the crash that will follow. I just don't agree with that approach. Mookie at $35 Mil for 10 or more Coles big contract fall into the verly optimistic category in my book. Now, if the competitive balance tax is trashed, the money is there to pay the players more, but then the lower budget teams would have reduce competitiveness so some leveling means is likely to remain.

If you pay Mookie $35 Mil, whose salary do you cut? Mookie will get injured during his career and miss periods. It would be like another Price with injuries and aging issues weighing down the payroll. Give me a couple of $17 Mil players for 5 years. Much better bet.

I prefer to think of technology assisted umps. Tired of strikes called on balls 2 inches outside and balls call on pitches in or touching the zone. The techology is here to help the ump get the call correct real time, so use it.