oldtimer

Yes, I meat to say the Sox are stuck with Pedroia's contract. No one would trade for him as he unlikelly will ever play MLB again. Of the three large pitching contracts in question, I think only Eovaldi offers and chance of being offloaded and probably we would have to lessen his cost somewhat. In my view its one of value to us versus what we might offload. I don't see him as having a lot of worth to the Sox. I may be wrong as this is a complex game, but if his monetized worth is $5 Mil a year and we could offload $12 mil of that, it would make sense.

The number one thing to decide is whether we will reset in 2020. I am for it and I think the firing of DD signals that is the thinking in the current front office and the new GM when he is selected. Once past that decision, the front office needs to have a mission statement, such as stay as competitive as possible while rebuilding the farm system and playing the underperforming contracts out. We know how much we have in the budget, which is $208 Mil less $15 Mil benefits and maybe $10 mil in wiggle room ($183 Mil). We also know the value of contracts on the books so budgeting will be a problem. The next step is to decide how to remain at least somewhat competitive while we build back into a contending team. Your approach is to try to retain the best young players while letting go of players who may have value but won't be with us in 2021-2022 and beyond. The math also tells one that there will have to be some young fill in players used during at least 2020. So try to retain Betts, Devers, Bogie, Beni and probably Vaz, In the pitching area it would be hard to see E-Rod go and we have 3 or 4 BP pieces who could keep us somewhat competitive. So we lose Porcello, Cashner, Moreland, Nunez, Pearce, Leon, JBJ, possibly Holt, and possibly both JDM and Eovaldi. We eat Pedroia's contract, and hope for at least some value from the Price and Sale contracts. Quite a few of our relief pitchers should be replaced. Maybe we keep Barnes but not Hembree. The young fill in players are a crap shoot but worth a try. Chavis may showw improvement, Chatham is a possible utility guy, Dalbec stands a chance as they compete with Travis, MHernandez and Lin. Our three pitchers with a chance now are DHern, Houck and Mata. Maybe Duran in center, but that is a large reach. There are a lot of things to decide and then take care of in the off season and it looks like we haven't really started yet. I was for getting a look at some young players. It hassn't happened. I now think we need to look at the coaches as we might do better there.

Betts is out with a sore foot and he has been their best offensive player of late. Missing him will be a big penalty. Beni on the other hand has slumped badly during the last 15 days. I hope somebody is helping him through this bad time.

On another note, Beni is in a terrible slump hitting .043 in his last 7 games and even his last 15 look extremely weak. He had made an adjustment to his stance and leg kick and it paid off for him. then, his swing got long as though he was trying to go long based on his brief success. Now he seems to have lost his confidence. I would hope our hitting coach has been working with him as he has too much talent to go into a total swoon. I'll be watching him tonight as he is one of the young guys we will need to rely on going forward.

Were are looking for some low cost pitching for next season and at least he has shown possibility. Johnson and Velazquez have not.

Please! We have been down this path for years now. JBJ is getting more expensive but is the same streaky hitter he has always been. We need salary relief and certainly he is one who will be targeted to help us with that next season.

Turns out we could have used Moncada at 2nd base and it was predictable that Pedey wouldn't be back. An interesting point is the Moncada struggled in the strikeout department but has made strides in that area. We have Chavis who has struggled as well and maybe the seasoning will produce much better results in his second season. Nice to be optimistic about something.

Wasn't the pitching coach chosen by Cora? I am not so fast to provide excuses but am patient enough to see what next year brings.

Its also interesting to see how many of the guys we traded our farm for are still with the Sox. Like the old south, their gone with the wind.

Whats the next fad coming down the pike? Field players who are part time pitchers? Maybe we can have 17 or 18 pitchers on the 25 man and never have a pitcher go more than 3 innings.

Maybe we trade JDM if that is possible and replace him with someone for less $$. No matter how you slice it, we will have a few players taking the bulk of the payroll. You didn't include Bogie or Eovaldi at $20 mil and $17 mil respectively. By your math, that would make $142 Mil on 6 players or close to $60 mil over the Oakland total payroll. That's the hot potato the new GM inherits. That and the desire to come in under $208 Mil total including $15 mil in benefits and a little for wiggle room. Since JDM is 32 and has opt outs anyway and is probably sought after by other contenders, I would assume we could trade him. JBJ is another obvious target and I would think even Eovaldi would be tradeable if we ate some money. I'm advocating keeping our young core, if at all possible, while riding out our bloated underperforming contracts (if they all prove to be), while backfilling with young hopefuls from our farm or through lower cost pickups.

Cora is so new that I would be reluctant to rate him until a few years pass, assuming he will get to stay that long. I'll be interested in how he and the new GM interface and also whether Cora will be willing to let go of underperforming players and/or coaches. Some guys want to be liked while some want to be respected. Hard to be both when your dealing with peoples professions.

Betts is playing well, beni is not. Hard to understand slumps and hot streaks. Will some coach help Beni?

Beni had a lot but got himself into another slump

What is going on with Beni?

There is such a thing as accountability. I'm not sure that DD was not extended based on being blamed for the mess or based on the recognition a different talent will be needed to buiild the farm and to reset the salary structure. With DD out of the way, who is accountable for the miserable performance put in by the offense during the last 10 games? I don't recommend firing anyone more this year, but there are really only 3 places to look for the offensive struggles. 1. Cora with his player rest program and the instability of his lineups. Also possible the players not respoonding to him. 2. Hitting coach is not helping to correct bad habits and game plan appropriately 3. Players getting into a malaise and being disinterested and without energy Those are a few possibilities and the new GM may want to ask questions when he comes in. I think the Sox will go another year with the team, although some players will not be back and I suppose both the pitching and batting coaches will be looked at. I personally am at a loss to pinpoint any one area that could improve the situation.

I'm concerned that the same people will be back neck years sans DD and we are likely to repeat this lackluster year.

A lot of them are playing now and not just the pitching is weak but the offense is flat and the players look disinterested. I'll be interest to see which of your listed players returns for the 2020 season.

That has been my POV for some time. Maybe some of those would liven things up and show some promise. It can't hurt at this point.

Clearly the team is performing poorly but I'm not willing to ascribe it to Cora, the coaches or the players. I don't have enough information to really blame anyone in particular but something is definitely wrong and you can't blame those who are gone. It's got to originate with some of the above. Yes, the pitching has been poor with the exception of E-Rod who has done his job when called upon. The defense looks shaky at times. We have rested key players in games where we had a chance to win. We have mixed up lineups so there has been a lack of stability. Guys like Beni, who really looked like he had solved his slumping problems with a great performance for a while is now slumping again. Devers who you couldn't get a ball by now looks average. JDM isn't impressive. The only guy who really looked aggressive and on top of his game is Mookie, and he sat last night. These are symptoms but its difficult to identify a cause. Do we really think starting off next season with this same crew will be a prescription for success? Repeating the same actions over and over and exxpecting different results is madness. How many of these guys are going through the motions and how many are out there with the Refuse To Lose attitude? We need some fire or we need to fire.

What does the current hitting malaise say about how good our offense might be in 2020? Shutout by the Yankees, 3 runs last night against a so so pitching staff land tonight 2 hits in 8 innings with only Mookie missing from the lineup from the same so so staff. This is not the first time this team has gone cold and then gotten hot for stretches this season. Good pitching and bad luck can account for some of it, but is there some other issue with the Sox and if so, what is it? Coaching, hitters approach, we aren't as good as we considered we were? It looks like our offense is totally flat right now. Do we need to reevaluate players and coaches to find a more competitive group or approach? It is discouraging to watch.

One hit. The guys may not be as good as we thought they were

Not exactly tearing the cover off the ball tonight, are they?

Young players tend to be underpaid, especially when they turn out to be stars or near stars. Arbitration does boost their pay over time and we will see Mookie in his 4th year of arbitation get paid very well (Moon estimates $28 mil). Most businesses today have risk managers who would look the length of contract as a dollar value. Trying to understand risk as its long term effect on the team's success seems like a complex thing. Ten years could indeed leave the Sox in a tough position for multiple years. I tend to like shorter contracts but free agency is a competitive business. If he truly looks to take the highest paying and longest contract out there, it may well be more than he is worth to the Sox, considering the risk. I can see the dilemma of wanting to keep such a good young player while on the other hand not wanting to handcuff the team going forward. Guys like Devers will also be coming along and looks like he will also draw star contract levels. I have expressed in the past that the clubs should set up a structure of a percent of the budget (assuming $208Mil -$15 mil is the target budget) for each group (pitching and field players) and further budget withing those groups %tages for Ace through 5th starters and Closers through set up men and BP arms. Do the same for field players (up the middle, key positions, DH, etc). Once those %tages are in the plan, it would point out when the contract is too rich and also might point out how many younger players need to be on the roster. Do the Sox have such a plan now? Certainly didn't look that way under DD. Right now the Sox are messed up from a poorly structured set of contracts with 3 possible underperforming pitchers getting a big share and also Pedroia being sunken money. We also have Bogie, JDM and soon to be Betts big contracts along with JBJ's likely price. I would think the Sox should attempt to bring a planned salary structure in over a period of years and stick with it unless there are very strong reasons to deviate. The $208 million is by no means a small total budget and a good GM should be able to live within that number.

It's a dilemma with no correct answer. Whatever the new GM does, he will be criticized.