oldtimer

Beware of Greeks bring gifts.

I don't know if this Stat is directly applicable to the worth of a player. Player A could get 10 singles a double and a HR in 20 times at bat and get 4 points towards his worth while player B could get 3 HR in 20 ABs and get 9 points toward his ISO stat worth. I'd prefer player A on my team.

Maybe trade Eovaldi and let JBJ go as a FA, which would give us a little wiggle room. We need a plan B in case our young pitchers are unable to fill the starting pitching shortfalls. We all agree that Porcello will not be back and if our risk is reduced by trading Eovaldi and making $$$ available, we can have a plan B that adds a starter. Both Sale and Price will be back but their effectiveness will remain a major question. The question of whether DD is the right guy during a reset is also on the table. I think we can and should make a change to a young guy with a history of building the farm and making good choices during a turn around.

To stay under 208 MIl with the contracts of Sale, Price and Eovaldi on the pitchers side and Pedroia, Bogie, Betts and JDM on the field player side, there is little wiggle room for the rest. Add JBJ at 10 Mil and we would use up $85 Mil just on the field player side. Something has to give and it shouldn't be the reset.

E-Rod's main issue is his constant nibbling. He loaded the bases and is now in danger of giving away the lead. Comeon and throw strikes.

Like, where was it last night?

Your talking more money than I think he is worth. I was thinking $26 for 8.

I compare who we currently have lined up at positions with these guys for 2020. in the case of 1st base, we have Travis, Chavis and Holt. Dalbec would offer serious power and good fielding. He is a possible compared to those, especially since Chavis may move to 2nd. In the case of Chatham, he is a kid with the ability to play short, second and third. He is a line drive hitter and at 6'4" and weighing in around 188, he has potential to get stronger. He would compete with Marco, Lin and Holt. Duran hasn't been mentioned but he is our 4th ranked minors player. He has the speed to play center field although is still a bit raw. He also doesn't offer much power but may be needed if JBJ goes due to salary reset needs. All three are low cost players on a team that will need to look for them if they reset. DHern has already shown enough to make the team next year in our weakest spot, pitching. The other two, Houck and Mata have the stuff to pitch in the bigs, but will they work out? If one of them can, then it helps our starting pitching situation and may allow us to shed one of our big three, assuming Porcello is already gone next season. It will be hard to make a trade with any but maybe Eovaldi is tradeable and with him would go a sizeable long term contract. I will be interested to see if management (maybe we get a change there as well) has plans to reset and to try and use our best prospects to play on our team. I hope they are not traded away.

I wonder if his value is that high based on this year. No doubt he is a 5 tool player and is very good. On the other hand, he is not a Trout so somehow we have to value him fairly and offer accordingly. If some are willing to pay much more, then that is up to their organization and will hamper them in future.

Another loss attributed to weak starting pitching. The BP did their job and the offense sputtered but still scored 5. Imagine if Betts, Bogie and JDM hit a little. Another nail in the coffin and at a time we might have gained a little ground.

Whatever happens, at least the Sox offense has fought back, even with essentially nothing from Beni, Bogie and JDM. NOt over yet but can give the Twins nothing more.

We have 4 hits in 7 innings but made them count for 4 runs. Making a game of this even though we didn't get a runner in from 3rd. Our relievers have to hold the line at 6.

Tonight what is happening to us is predictable. We are running out a weakened and underperforming pitching staff against a very good hitting Twins team. I expected the Twins to be able to score a fair amount. I did expect our offense to offer some resistance, something that hasn't been happening as yet. Tough to make up 6 runs.

Hard to afford that and reset. I do hope we can resign him but if he tests the FA market, we may not be able to.

Lot of knocking Porcello here. He has a nice two seamer and slider. His problem is location, especially of his 4 seamer. He won't be with us next year but lets hope if we replace him it will be someone as injury free as he has been. The guy has always given us a lot of innings and that has value. When he was at his best, he was very good. By the way, our hitters have forgotten to show up tonight so we look like we would have dropped this one even if we had a stellar pitching performance by Porcello. We didn't, he got rocked and it looks like another nail in our coffin. Bring on some of our younger players.

Two top class hitting teams against a picther who gives up the long ball and an inexperienced pitcher. Maybe we will have to score a lot to win. Its on TV so should be fun to watch if we are competitive.

Maybe Rivera is a year away.

That is very similar to my list. I don't think Hembree is more than marginal and though he throws hard he is inconsistent. I am not enamored with Barnes either although he is more of a keeper than Hembree. I don't know Reyes so no comment on him. I do like Holt as a glue guy and despite his age I would try and resign him. The fact that 50% of our 40 man roster are marginal or less than marginal speaks to the status of our team and the need for improvement, either through some of our minor league resources. I include Chatham, Dalbec, Houck and Mata as probables while Duran is a possible if we need outfield replenishment and Ockimey as also a possible. Resigning Mookie is a priority provided a contract can be worked out that reflects his true value. I think JBJ will probably have to be sacrificed to get a true reset. While he is a good player, he probably can be replaced more inexpensively without much impact on tthe team's play. What comes out of this is we are in the most need of pitching. With 3 veteran highly paid pitchers, possibly all on the decline, and a thin BP, the need is there and the resources to improve are slim. Thats why getting one or more starters from DHern, Houck and Mata is the best hope. We need to be active on improving the BP in the offfseason. It appears the new form for teams is carrying 12 position players and 13 pitchers, which having reasonable substitute pitching on the 40 man. Trading away one of our high paid starters would be difficult but would open up some resources to go after a better option. I see Eovaldi as the most likely to be of interest to others, but even as the most likely it is probably still a 1 in 5 shot.

One of the guys that I don't know that much about is Reyes. I hope he has some lasting value to the team but haven't seen him in action.

I suggest that fans take a look at our current 40 man roster and see how many are real keepers going forward, how many are borderline and how many shouldn't be here next season, especially if we do a reset. Perhpas I am harsh, but I see at least 12 current pitchers who should really be gone and 3 who are borderline. I did not include guys who we have on contracts that we can't unload. In the case of field players I see at least 6 who shouldn't be here next season and 4 more who will need to fight for a position. That means 19 total players who are either contractually hard to move, stalwarts or marginal players. We should be in a better position.I won't bother to identify the players as each fan can decide that one for themselves.

The next 7 games we face the Yankees and the Twins with our depleted pitching staff. If we lose 4 or more of those games, which is likely, our status will be clearler to those fans who think we still have a good chance. I was hoping to get a look at minor league players who might help the team next season. Houck, and Mata are two of those. I would also like to see more of Chatham, Dalbec and Duran. I don't understand the thinking of management as they seem to be more interested in bringing guys up who won't be with the team in 2020. Maybe Centeno will I suppose as Sandy may be gone next season, but some of the choices have the odor of Owings.

I would be all for getting a reset in 2020. I am hoping that DHern and Houck can allleviate some of the starting pitching woes in 2020. Perhaps someone would be interested in Eovaldi's contract. If so, it might be in our interest to trade him. I'm assuming JDM stays for the 2020 season. I would not stay with Johnson orVelazquez. I don't think either Hembree, Wright or Barnes should be kept as they are inconsistent or injured. I don't see Holt on your list and he has performed well and can fill multiple positions and is a fairly low cost keeper. I would cut ties with Leon and make a decision on Keepers between, Chavis, Travis, MHern, Dalbec, Chatham, Lin in view of having Holt. We don't need them all. As far as relief pitchers, we wure have a bunch of poor performers. Its a major need to find replacements and to let go of poor performer. The Betts situation is clouding up the reset picture. I hope we can resign him to a fair contract. If not, they as hard as it would be, we need tt trade him for 2020 and possibly get hiim back as a free agent.

We are 6 games behind in the loss column to 2 teams. We finish the road trip today and then go 7 games against two division leaders. We have a depleted starting pitching corp and an overused BP. It's virtually the same picture we had in mid August. Believers believe but realists state the obvious. We won it all last year and depleted our farm to strengthen that team. We also spent the most in baseball to the extent it put us in the competitive balance tax squeeze. Contracts that we signed with Sale, Price, Eovaldi and Pedroia will hang over this team for a while and it looks like none of those will return equal value in performance. Probably best to go for a reset in 2020. Also it still looks like DD does not have the right style to rebuild this team as he has a history of spending big and using up farm resources. Whoever comes has a strong offensive team but clearly has to rid the team of deadwood and then look to what is required to return the team to competitiveness. Any new management will be faced with difficult decisions and will probably realize it might take several years to be competitive at the highest level, given the state of the Astros and Yankees. Moon has suggested that we cut ties with those who wouldn't be a help to us in 2021 and later. It makes some sense although I would like us to keep enough pieces to keep the team at least competitive enough to keep people in the seats. Clearly we have a big problem with contracts that will have over us through 2021 and later. It seems doubtful that we can trade away those contracts so we just have to let them play out. So it looks like the game plan we will need to follow is adding some lower cost younger players to partially offset the large underperforming contracts that are on the books. I have advocated getting a look at several of our best prospects with a hope a couple will pan out enough to play next year. They are Chatham, Dalbec, Duran, Houck and Mata. DHern we already expect to move forward next season. Replacement of Porcello, Moreland, Pearce and Leon can save us some $$ provided we find low cost alternatives. We can't control the JDM situation. If he stays for the current $ then he fills the DH role. If he opts out and we fill the DH position with a lower cost option, maybe we can find a quality starting pitcher. I wouldn't trade E-Rod as he fills a great need for the Sox. Mookie is perhaps the most difficult decision. Do we try hard ($$ contract) to keep him or do we trade one of our best young players and hope to resign him later. I want to keep him provided he will take a contract for 8 years at his true value which I believe is well under $30 mil per year. JH is willing to spend but no fool. He can no doubt see where DD has taken him. Hope he is a man of action.

I feel sorry for the Sox pitching staff, down on starters and having to go 15 last night. I know, they caused some of their own problems, but they need Price back tomorrow, and he needs to pitch at least 7 innings. Hope he can do that.

It's also a testimony to how low opinions of Johnson and Cashner have fallen. If Chacin is a solid possibility it is probably more to do with next year.