Fan_since_Boggs

Spencer Jones is 23 years old playing in AA with an OPS of .718. And this is the Yankees best prospect?

The Yankees need to make some changes. They need to bring in a new starting SS and I got the perfect guy: Jeter Downs from Scranton! Volope is sent to AAA to work on his hitting and baserunning. He needs to improve on the fundamentals so that he scores from third base when there isn't a force play. Volope doesn't seem that smart to me. In Scranton, I would also make him enroll in a community college literature class, try to improve his overall IQ. in the meantime, how can the Yankees go wrong with a starting SS with the name of Jeter? This is a great plan.

Dream scenario: the Red Sox acquire Eavoldi and V-Lad at the trade deadline. With these two additions, the Red Sox are a championship caliber team. The problem: it would be impossible to acquire Eavoldi and V-Lad without giving up at least one of the top 4 studs in the Red Sox system (I presume): Mayer, Campbell, Teel, Anthony. It would be so awesome to see V-Lad and Devers in the same lineup. It would remind us of the Ortiz, Manny days.

Still possible that Grissom will be needed here. 1. Can Hamilton hit enough to start at 2b? 2. Can Valdez field enough to start at 2b (to go along with his 88 OPS+)? 3. Are Yorke or Meidroth ready or do they need more time? Campbell can play 2b but the Red Sox aren't going to rush him, a stud prospect. If Grissom can get and stay healthy, and live up to his profile, he would be an excellent addition to this team and a major upgrade over what they have now.

Moon, do you consider C.Rafaela a high quality defensive SS? Just curious. If Rafaela is a solid or better than average defender at SS, it might make the most sense to give him the starting SS job and look for an upgrade (right handed bat) at either DH or RF. Also, what are you throughts on Duran's defense? Is he a good enough defensive player in centerfield?

How about this plan? 1. Promote Meidroth and make him the everyday SS. This would give the Red Sox lineup a patient hitter, the new greek god of walks. 2. Trade for a right-handed batter who can replace Yoshida at DH. I want Guerrero, but I guess he will be too expensive to acquire. 3. Trade for a Starting Pitcher. An I the only one who thinks that Yoshida is a huge problem? Do we need to be more patient with him?

Jackson, I think it is time to send Volpe down to AAA so that he can learn how to hit and run the bases. What say you? That baserunning blunder was inexcusable. I guess Volpe never figured out that when the double play isn't a force, you can score a run from third prior to the third out. The key to this, though, is to score before the third out tag. I thought most people understood that but I guess Volpe never learned that in pee-wee league.

They need to get Volope out of the leadoff spot, he is hurting them with his 96 OPS+. Verdugo: 93 OPS+. Catcher is a black hole in the lineup. I guess they will make the playoffs, but this is not a championship team and the Yankees don't have the depth in the farm system to add a difference maker at the deadline. Soto and Judge are obviously great. Speaking of Soto, I keep hearing that the Mets are going to pass on Alonso and make Soto a massive offer. When the Yankees lose Soto to the Mets, their offense will take a major hit next year but I guess that is a conversation for the off-season. Also, Judge will be 33 next year, the window is closing on the Yankees especially since the Orioles and Red Sox are loaded with young talent and will only get better over the next few seasons.

Certain players that can't be traded away IMO, such as Mayer, Anthony, Campbell, Teel, Cespedes, Yorke, Meidroth (the new greek god of walks). These guys are untouchables. I would be open to moving Grissom (still highly regarded), Hamilton (if some team is desperate for his speed and will overpay), Valdez. The Red Sox could promote Yorke or Meidroth and give him the starting 2b job. Should the Red Sox be in the market for a starting SS along with a SP?

I didn't mind the trade, just felt like Chris Sale was done and I thought they got a really good young player who filled a need at 2b. But times have changed--the Red Sox don't seem to be so desperate at 2b anymore, with a number of young players competing for the position in the future: Hamilton, Campbell, Yorke, and Mediroth. Maybe the lesson of this trade is that you never give up on a SP with Sale's background, even if he has been getting injured every single year for the past 4-5 seasons (or so). Starters are just so valuable and so even when you have one who is fragile and getting older, you don't trade him and instead keep him and hope for the best. Also, the story is not yet over. Chris Sale could blow out his shoulder a month from now and miss the rest of the season and no one would be surprised. I'll feel better about the loss of Sale if the Red Sox sign a major free agent starter in the off-season, which they probably plan to do.

There was talk the Yankees could be interested in V.Guerrero, who could play 1b for the Yankees and give them another major piece in the lineup. The Yankees have no way to acquire Guerrero unless they decide to package Gil and Dominguez together. No one wants Spencer Jones, he is a 23 year old in Double A and has over 100 Ks with around 250 ABs. Not only are the Red Sox top 3 prospects better than Spencer Jones, but Campbell is way better, not even close. Blaze Jordan might even be a better prospect than Spencer Jones at this point but I don't know.....I don't know how to evaluate Blaze Jordan right now.

I'm hoping John Henry will spend big in the off-season on at least one SP, either Fried or Burnes. He has gone the cheap route lately, but now that the next wave of stud position player prospects are almost ready, it will be time to spend on the pitching staff. Perhaps that is the strategy?

This is weird stuff though. Chris Sale couldn't stay healthy in a Red Sox uniform. They trade him away and he not only stays healthy (at least so far) but turns into a top starter again.

Problem with the Yankees is that they have nothing of value to trade at the deadline. Spencer Jones is a bust at AA and their other prospects stink. They need bullpen help, they need another starter. I guess they don't need to add anyone to the offense, but they do have a few holes and no easy way to fix them. They also need guys like Stanton and Judge to stay healthy but that usually doesn't happen. Want to trade for a 1b? OK, but who are you trading? When your prospects suck, you can't add high end talent at the trade deadline. Dominguez is the Yankees best trade chip and they probably should trade him while he is at his peak in terms of value, but Cashman will probably hold on to him. I guess Gil would bring back a nice return, but Cashman is unlikely to move him.

Yeah, I agree with you for the most part. You would still rather have the 11th pick than, say, the 18th pick, but at the end of the day it might not matter very much. And Mike Trout went 25th overall. Getting Teel at 14 looks like a great pick and I was thinking about a pick like that in hoping to get the earliest pick possible. But when there are only few games left in the season and you are rooting for your team to lose for a higher draft pick, that can only mean one thing: the season didn't go very well. . . . As was said above, the nice thing about the 11th pick is that the Red Sox will probably land one of the top 10 talents in the draft and get a player that wouldn't normally be available at pick 17 or 18, for example.

Yeah, I agree with you for the most part. You would still rather have the 11th pick than, say, the 18th pick, but at the end of the day it might not matter very much. And Mike Trout went 25th overall. Getting Teel at 14 looks like a great pick and I was thinking about a pick like that in hoping to get the earliest pick possible. But when there are only few games left in the season and you are rooting for your team to lose for a higher draft pick, that can only mean one thing: the season didn't go very well. . . .

If the season ended now, the Mets would not finish with one of the top 6 picks, but they are only a few games better than the Cardinals and Nationals. The Mets can't catch the Whitesox, A's, Royals, and Rockies but they can still finish with a worse record than the Cardinals and Nationals. So, we need the Mets to win a couple of games at the end to keep them out of the bottom six. The good news: the Mets have a double hitter against the Marlins today and are winning the first game. Assuming the Red Sox don't finish with worse record than the Tigers, Pirates, and Guardians, they will pick 11th if the Mets don't finish with a top 6 pick. It is possible the Red Sox could catch the Padres and Giants but those two teams have two more wins than the Red Sox.

It looks like the Red Sox will have the 11th pick in the draft next year, which is pretty sweet, and should lead to another stud prospect in the farm system. The Mets will likely lose 10 spots in the draft, which puts the Red Sox at 11. Fortunately, the Red Sox have been losing a lot lately, and the Padres should now finish with a better record.

Yeah he has a little George Steinbrenner in him, doesn't tolerate too many down years before he starts looking for a new person. It is hard to argue with the results, however, the most successful team in the 21st Century with 4 championships.

Theo made mistakes on a pretty regular basis. The Crawford contract is on him, he overpaid for Renteria, Lugo, Dice-K. He didn't exactly build a sustainable winner in Chicago. Instead, he won one championship in Chicago after spending 4 years (or so) tanking. The Jason Heyward contract is on him as well. Like Cashman, Theo has had the advantage of having massive resources behind him. Would Theo or Cashman ever win a championship with the Rays or A's, much smaller payrolls? Probably not.

With so much money in baseball, it is possible that some team was willing to take on Sale's contract and take on the risk he would return to form. I doubt the Red Sox could have obtained a quality prospect for Sale, but it would have been enough to get Sale off payroll. I thought the Red Sox would give Bloom one more year. But dumping him now isn't outrageous. He did a nice job with the farm system and made a nice trade in acquiring Abreu from the Astros, but he made some bad deals as well (the Betts return, acquiring Bradley Jr) and he sucked at the trade deadlines, getting nothing for players like Eavoldi, Paxton, Bogaerts. The Red Sox need to upgrade the starting rotation in a significant way in the offseason and they obviously concluded that Bloom was not the right man for the job. They might be correct about that.

Trading Mookie was a mistake, a big mistake. One of the bigger mistakes the Red Sox ever made. Losing C.Fisk is up there too. I don't blame Bloom, a move like this, and the money involved, is the responsibility of ownership. John Henry must have concluded that Mookie was great but that he wasn't worth the money he was asking for. John Henry was wrong. It is hard to hate on John Henry, though, an owner who brought four championships to the Red Sox. When all things are considered, John Henry has been a great owner for the Red Sox, and we are lucky to have him, even though he totally screwed up the Mookie Betts situation.

Sure, someone will take a chance on Stanton if the Yankees pay off most of the contract, but the bigger problem is that Stanton has a no trade clause and he would only allow the Marlins to trade him to the Dodgers or Yankees. The Marlins had a deal in place to trade Stanton to the Giants and Stanton blocked it. JD Martinez is set to be a free agent and so it is possible the Dodgers would explore a Stanton trade if the Yankees are generous with the money, but if the Dodgers pursue Ohtani, as everyone expects, they aren't going to pursue Stanton until the Ohtani situation is resolved. If Ohtani signs somewhere else, and the Dodgers decide that Stanton would be a a fit to replace JD Martinez, Stanton would still have limited trade value. Bottom line: the Yankees probably won't be able to trade Stanton, since Stanton has a no trade clause that he is not shy about exercising, and even if the Yankees can work out a trade with the Dodgers they aren't getting anything valuable in return since Stanton has turned into a bad baseball player.

I'm high on Abreu. I like his plate discipline, he takes walks, and he should be above average defensively. I'm not saying he is a future HOFamer, but I would expect him to be a quality starting player. No reason to keep Verdugo next year. Even if Abreu sucks next season, the Red Sox can figure out the starting OF with Yoshida, Duran, and Rafeala. It would be shocking to see Verdugo on the team next year. I wonder if the Red Sox can find a team that has enough starting pitchers but needs an OF. It would be even better if one of the SPs is a free agent after 2024, just like Verdugo. That would be the basis of a trade that would help both teams.

It will be almost impossible to trade Stanton. To start, he stinks, can't run, can't field, and his bat has declined. Stanton got old real fast. He also has a no trade. When the Marlins moved him, Stanton would only accept a trade to the Dodgers or Yankees. I suspect Stanton would still be open to a trade to the Dodgers, he is from that area, but the Yankees would have to pay off most of the contract to move him to the Dodgers and even then the Dodgers may not want him and certainly aren't going to give up anything valuable for this kind of player even if the Yankees pay off his contract. Also, if the Dodgers go hard after Ohtani, as many people expect, they won't have an open DH spot for Stanton. The Yankees have weaknesses everywhere, LF, CF, 3B, 1b, C, and the rookie SS is having all kinds of problems offensively and defensively. The Yankees should begin a rebuild, accept a few down years, and rebuild the farm system. The Orioles are going to be very good over the next few years anyway, much better than the Yankees and the Red Sox are loaded with position player prospects. Once the Red Sox spend some money on the starting rotation, the Yankees won't be able to compete against them either. Might as well accept the reality of the situation and begin a rebuild. It is a bitter pill for Cashman to swallow, since Cole and Judge are signed long term and won't want to be part of a rebuild. By the time the rebuild is over, Cole and Judge will be old declining players.