Fan_since_Boggs

Another source. However, if Leiter returns to Vanderbilt and enters next year's draft, he is looking at being selected by teams like the Diamondbacks, Pirates, Orioles, Twins, and Rangers. While Leiter is trying to use his Vanderbilt leverage to fall to the Red Sox with 4th pick, would the Rangers and Tigers be so foolish to think he means it?

Or they will let Duran finish out the AAA season, will bring him up in Sept., and will carry him on the post-season roster as the 4th OF.

I'm starting to think that Kike will be the Red Sox full time CF and that Duran will not be a starting player on this team this year. The Red Sox might prefer Kike's defense in CF and might want to keep the solid OF defense in place with Verdugo in LF and Renfroe in RF. If Kike turns into the full time starting CF, he can't be used at 2b, but the Red Sox have Arroyo for 2b. OK, but Arroyo is injury prone and isn't exactly Joe Morgan. Could the Red Sox be in the trade market for a starting 2b? Perhaps the Red Sox settle on a Dalbec/Cordero platoon at 1b and trade for a starting 2b (along with a relief arm). The one thing about this idea that I don't like: it is Dalbec and Cordero with the marginal hit tools, not Arroyo. I would prefer starting Arroyo at 2b and upgrading 1b. Thus, I'm back to the idea of trading for C.Santana and K.Zimmer. The idea of giving two roster spots to Dalbec AND Cordero concerns me. That's a ton of power, but also a ton of strikeouts.

Dalbec and ??? to the Royals for C.Santana and K.Zimmer. The hard part is finding another player that would make this deal appealing to the Royals.

Cora made some weird moves but you sometimes lose a game like that for the simple reason that your top bullpen arms weren't available. I thought the decision to bring in Rios with a 2 run lead in the 8th was curious, since he has pretty much been crap throughout his career. Why not go to Hernandez in the 8th and Ottavino in the 9th? But maybe Cora was hoping Rios would give him a clean 8th and Hernandez would close in the ninth, giving Ottavino a day off. It was great to see Cora show confidence in Rios but of course Rios wasn't up for the challenge and blew it -- let's face it, Rios sucks. I also thought the decision to pinch hit for Darbec was curious. If the Red Sox don't want him up in that spot, why not just trade for a starting 1b and move on from Dalbec? I would release Andriese and replace him on the 40 man with K.Ort. Not only is Ort probably better, but he has options, giving the Red Sox more roster flexibility. Short term moves: (1) release Andriese and promote K.Ort. (2) Move Richards to the bullpen. (3) When Richards' rotation spot comes up again, promote Houck and option either Ort or Rios to AAA.

For 2022, I would consider bringing back Ottavino if he would sign a one year deal. Due to his age, he might not be looking at longer offers anyway, and maybe the Red Sox can entice him with a juicy one year deal. Barnes will want a multi-year deal and I'm skeptical that he will be worth it. A one year deal for Ottavino is a safer way to go. Of course, the Red Sox would need to find a way to replace Barnes' production.

Perhaps he needed more regular and consistent playing time? I don't know. But they should keep playing him while he is hot.

The assumption is that Cordero will be a better hitter against RHP once he settles in, he certainly profiles as a better hitter against RHP and he has been raking against RHP in AAA this year. Cordero will need to play a decent 1b at the AAA level before he is promoted into a platoon role at the position. It is still possible that the Red Sox address 1b via trade market, Carlos Santana would be an excellent addition. But I'm starting to think the Red Sox will go after a pitcher--a starter or reliever or perhaps both--and might not trade for a position player at all.

More good things from Groome: 6 ip, 2 hits, 2 runs, 9 ks, 1 bb. Since May 22, Groome has a 3.63 ERA with 55 strikeouts and 16 walks in 39 2/3 innings.

It could be worse, though. You could be like the Mets, who haven't won a title since 1986. Or the Tigers who haven't won since 1984. Or the Pirates who haven't won since 1979. The Orioles haven't won since 1983. The Yankees have won two titles in the 21st Century--2000 and 2009 and that is still better than most teams. The Dodgers and Royals recently got the monkey off their backs--the Dodgers hadn't won since 1988 and the Royals hadn't won since 1985. World Series titles in the 21st Century: Red Sox 4 Giants 3 Cardinals 2 Yankees 2 Every other team = one or less.

Thanks, good stuff on the 2022 Red Sox roster. As far as the 2022 starting staff goes, this is what I see: Sale Eavoldi Houck Whitlock Pivetta E-Rod That's 6 starters, but I think you always plan for 6, knowing that injuries are inevitable. I would resign E-Rod, I've been saying that all along even when he had a 6.00 ERA. The Red Sox might be able to resign him at a lower cost and I believe he has some good years in front of him. In Triple A, the Red Sox would have tremendous SP depth: Seabold Winckowski Bello Accordingly, the Red Sox don't need to bring in new starting pitchers--they already have what they need going forward, they only need to resign E-Rod. This is a really good thing, since the free agent market is rather thin when it comes to starting pitchers. When it comes to M.Perez, I would either not pick up the option or I would pick up the option and trade him. As far as the bullpen goes, yeah, this will need significant attention with Barnes and Ottavino as free agents. That's two key relief arms, and I don't know if Bloom has the appetite for signing relief pitchers to big contracts, that wasn't (and couldn't be) his style with Tampa Bay. I would like to see K.Ort get a shot this season so that the Red Sox have a better idea of what they have with him going forward.

I guess you could employ a robo-ump behind the plate calling balls and strikes, and when the robo-ump detects a significant increase in spin rates from the prior inning, an alarm would go off and the pitcher would be checked. You would start off the game checking the pitcher in the first inning, and wouldn't check again unless the robo-ump detects something unusual. Dammit, this is a good idea, maybe even a great idea!

Since umpires have this authority, and I fully support giving umpires this authority as MLB must stop the Gerrit Coles of the world from cheating the game, I would drop the idea of using robo-umpires in the future. Just forget about it. I would rather have a human umpire calling balls and strikes, and thus more in tune with what the pitcher is doing, more likely to detect when a pitcher might be using something illegal. The commissioner has done an excellent job with this so far and deserves praise. His next move: reject the idea of using robo-umps in the future.

Callis was right about Rocker, he isn't going in the top 5, and Callis said this before Rocker's last start which didn't go well: 4.1 innings, 5 runs. My new and final top 4. Pirates: Davis, the Pirates are desperate for a young catcher and they want someone who will sign for under slot, allowing the Pirates to draft hard-to-sign talent later on. Davis will give the Pirates a bigger discount than Mayer and Leiter and so Davis is the pick. Rangers: Leiter, an easy selection for the Rangers who will happily pay full slot for Leiter. Tigers: Mayer, the two best college prospects are off the board and the Tigers really like Mayer. Red Sox: Lawlar, as much as I would like to see the Red Sox take Jobe here, Lawlar is the safer pick and has comparable upside. In a few years when Lawlar is ready, I could see the Red Sox moving Bogaerts to 3b and Devers to 1b. I want Leiter most of all, but I just don't believe he will slip to 4. BTW, since Lawlar is now the Red Sox pick (since I said so, LOL), I found this corny story on Lawlar, but it is a cool read that give us some insight into his work ethic and background. You gotta love the intangibles: https://www.wfaa.com/article/sports/jesuits-jordan-lawlar-prepares-for-mlb-draft-with-mom-helping-all-the-way/287-65a91661-513f-466c-8b9a-e024e3f72d75

LOL. He has earned himself a little more playing time. This is a great win today; let's face it, when you go to the west coast, you are expected to lose some games, just need to keep the losing to a minimum and the sweep of the Royals will make a few west coast losses more tolerable.

The details of this are pretty disturbing. He will get out of it, though. He will use the same strategy that rapist Kobe Bryant used. He will pay off the girl with millions of dollars in a civil suit. In turn, she will stop cooperating with the D.A. and the criminal case will collapse. But I would expect MLB to hand down a significant penalty, perhaps a year long suspension? The details are disturbing enough to justify a long suspension but he will skirt around the legal system in much the same way that Bryant did.

Hal came out today, claimed he was upset, etc., but I'm not sure how convincing he was. He also said that Cashman and Boone are safe and that he doesn't anticipate the Yankees acting as sellers at the trade deadline. Speaking of trades:

Groome's Last six starts are very encouraging: 33.2 IP, 3.74 ERA, 15BB, 46K (May 22-June 26). The goal this year is for Groome to stay healthy and pitch, build up innings, and show improvement. So far, so good. I think he stays in Greenville for the entire season. If he continues on his current trajectory, Groome will start next season in Double A and will hopefully take a big step forward in terms of performance, get those walk numbers down in particular. Groome will be 23 years old for most of next season, and so he is still young enough to be considered a quality pitching prospect, but he needs to remain healthy, continue getting strikeouts, and reduce the walk totals. There is still reason to believe that Groome can be a quality major league starting pitcher.

You have to wonder about Chapman. Didn't he have Covid-19 recently? If anyone wants to see highlights of this highly entertaining game--the Yankees scored 7 in the first, the Angels scored 7 in the ninth--you can watch them here, the ninth inning Chapman implosion begins at the 14:08 mark. I've just learned that Hal Steinbreener will be talking to the media on Thursday on a Zoom chat. That should be interesting given what has happened to the Yankees over the last week.

I wonder if the Red Sox could dump him on the Pirates--Cherrington drafted him and so maybe would give up something OK in return. The best news of the day!

I thought Minor is a lefty, which is why I'm shocked Dalbec isn't in there. The heat-related issue would explain it.

It's kind of strange to see Chavis in there tonight instead of Dalbec. I wonder why? I'm not too worried about the Red Sox lacking a true blue ace. Using a conservative timetable, Sale will return in September/October. And T.Houck will return sooner than that. I'm high on Houck, always have been despite the critics who can never anticipate future performance and instead can only see what is in front of them. Oh baby, I'm a roll this year just like my Sox! Also, don't forget about Eovaldi. He demonstrated in October of 2018 that you don't have to be a HOF pitcher to come up big in playoff games.

Cordero could platoon with Dalbec while also filling the role of 4th outfielder. To make room for Cordero the Red Sox would likely release Santana. My guess is that Cordero gets promoted before Duran is promoted.

That's another thing I learned from the video. While the Astros' hitters were cheating by stealing signs, the Astros' pitching staff was cheating by loading up on sticky stuff. A few years ago, I remember reading an article on how the Astros do such a great job retooling pitchers and increasing their spin rates. At the time it was assumed that the Astros relied heavily on analytics and knew how to get more out of pitchers than other organizations. When we look back at this today, we now know that such claims were false and that the Astros were likely cheating more than other organizations, and the cheating led to the uptick in performance. And yes, Verlander is a really good example. In fact, Verlander is arguably the new Roger Clemons. Just as Clemons began using steroids to reverse natural decline in the "twilight of his career," Verlander's numbers improved with the Astros when he began using sticky stuff in the "twilight of his career." After a mediocre 2017 season with the Pirates, Cole joins the Astros in 2018 and turns into a 300 million dollar pitcher. Cole is definitely one of the bigger question marks for the Yankees going forward. If Cole turns into that 2016-2017 pitcher again without the sticky stuff, he will be another overpaid player and unwise investment for the Yankees. I am so glad the Yankees have this problem and not the Red Sox.

We need Leiter's agent to play hardball with the Rangers and Tigers, let both organizations know that Leiter will only sign for above slot, and give the impression that he will be a pain-in-the-ass to sign and that he isn't worth the trouble, not with so many other intriguing players available at the top of the draft. Leiter's agent will also need to let the Red Sox know that he will sign for full slot value at 4. The 2021 season has been awesome so far, not as great as 2018, but very nice so far and drafting Leiter would only add to that.