Hugh2

Hmmm yes, lots of good points being made about deals at the trade deadline going on.

Veteran hitters like Duran and Story? now at this point you don't get veteran hitters unless: You're willing to pay the FA price. or You wait for guys like Roman Anthony to become a veteran hitter.

I think anyteam trading for him is trading for his glove primarily, it's not like a .720 OPS is great but it's not absurdly higher than his career avg and teams will always try to catch lightening in a bottle....especially for a two month stretch.

Oh no you definitely trade him. Not like you're going to get anything great for him but you'll get something decent. Plus glove with a .720 OPS up the middle this year.....that will get you something.

The Sox have the 10th hardest schedule the rest of the way, After the division leading Braves they travel to Cleveland to take on the Central division leading Guardians (stil typed out Indians first). Then we have back to back series away vs. the Rays and the Yankees the top two teams in the A.L. A west coast trip, then back home to face the Yankees again and another west coast trip. This is not a very good team and the schedule isn't going to give them any kind of break coming up. I think it's very reasonable to assume we are sellers this year. The only thing stopping us from selling right now is you want to wait until there are more buyers near the deadline. Anyone who has value and is on an expiring contract really needs to be moved. The guys they absolutey must move. Sonny Gray. He will also come super cheap to any team as STL is paying most of his salary. Aroldis Chapman is still pitching like an elite closer, some team will pay an arm and a leg for him. It would be insanely stupid to not trade him at this point. Isiah Kiner-Falefa he's been sneakily good this year, not great but not bad a .720 OPS with plus defense is something teams will pay for at the dealine, sure he's not a big bat but there will be teams looking to plug their defense up the middle at the dealine. he's on a 1 year deal and isn't part of this core, sell. Someone they don't have to move but they COULD move is Wilson Contreras who is under contract for one more year, but given the liklihood of a lockout in 2027 and the fact that he will be 35 next year the Sox are probably better off selling him. He's been hitting well and teams will always pay a premium for hitting at the deadline. MAYBE, MAYBE you sell Duran if a team doesn't try to lowball the Sox for him.

Let me reframe my point. It's not like the team has 100% of the control and the player has 0 and then one day... the player has 100% of the control and the team has 0. The control is amorphous and gravitates towards the player as they accumulate service time.

But how much did we really gain with KC? he spent most of last year in the minors and I'm assuming all of this year as well.

I don't think it's so black and white, it's not like there's a thin line where it's all team leverage and all player leverage. If wait a few years yes the price tag may go up, but if you're buying out 4-5 years of control the team still has lots of leverage.

When the Sox hit HR's they win. coincidence?

I know it was against a crappy team but the Sox have looked better, and Duran getting going is so big. Also, if these other guys are hitting it takes so much pressure off someone like Anthony when he comes back.

Up until recently the best trade candidates the Sox have either have zero trade value or reduced value due to struggled (Duran). Guys who are not on expiring deals but you'd like to clear out also have little to negative value (Story and Yoshida). Still, you could get a little of shiny toys if Duran starts hitting and you dealt some pitching away. The team is only 2 games out of a WILD Card which is.....wild. I'd like to see them turn it around but if they're a sub .500 team come august none of this hug the line crap we've seen in years past. Just sell and retool for next year.

I'm all for early extensions, but let the guy get at least a few months in the majors.

I mean, having someone like Ronald Acuna Jr for $17 million a year for the next several years is also maximizing the roster. You're still maximizing the roster just in later years, which honestly makese more sense now when the team sucks

Have you seen the lack of low quality players in free agency growing the last decade? Extending young players is meaning more and more that premium players are reaching free agency at 30 or older. All teams are doing it, teams like the Braves have just done it more than other organizations and the Braves were 1st place 3 of the last 5 seasons with a world series to show for it.....and they're in first place now so....

I remember listening to an old soxprospects.com podcast, when KC was hitting in the minors but right before he blew up nationally. The scouting report on him then was how polarizing he was to scouts. Some scouts absolutely loved him and others thought his swing was to uppercutty and he'd get exposed at the higher level. I'm not sure if they should have never messed with his swing and just let him hit the way he always has, or if he needs more time to make these adjustments. I always liked KC, and I'll be rooting for him to put it all together but I always thought the extension was way way way too premature. I like the ideal of extending guys early, but I think they jumped the gun on KC.

I mean, how absurd are these really? Maybe they've recently updated their ETA's because they have Monegro at mid 2028 now, 2027 would have been unrealistic so if it was really that I"m sure it's in update thing. I'm not sure Witherspoon is that far off at all. Yeah it doesn't look good, but he's just a month into his pro career. We've seen how things click with pitchers and they just take off, late 27' is still almost two full seasons at this point, maybe closer to 1.5. If Witherspoon figures it out he'll probably find himself in AA this year or early next year when it clicks. I don't think it's far fetched that he should be knocking on the door in 27. That doesn't mean your 28 prediction is off either by the way, I think that's perfectly reasonable, this is a subjective exercise by the way. Azocar late 2028 very well may come to fruition but it does seem a little premature to be that aggresive on him. I dunno, I don't think they're perfect but I don't think they're far off either. They're also predictions based on a snapshot in time and as you guys said, how often are these updated? Obviously they do because it looks like they did update Monegros' which was probably the most absurd one.

Which ones seem way off?

I mean, who is good at predicting when guys will get to the majors?

At the end of the day, a team that score 4 runs in the first inning and a team that scores 4 runs in the 9th inning still scores just 4 runs. Sox are 4th in the A.L. in runs allowed. Sure, if the offense fixed itself one could move attention to the bullpen as an area to fix but it's far from being "exposed" Maybe thats the starting pitching picking them up that much but 9 innings is 9 innings.

The pitching and defense has been so good an average offense would make for a great team. The offense has been that bad for them to suck this much.

It's pretty much the same offense, the pitching just held them to 1 run. That's what this team needs to do to win, hold the opposition to 0-1 runs.

The mind plays tricks, I got an alert on my phone last night and I saw the Sox lost to the phillies. I thought to myself "of course" threw my phone on the couch and put on some TV. This morning I'm seeing they won last night....apparently, I've been conditioned to expect loss.

absolutely nobody is saying that they're not underperforming. I even started the day off in here by saying I expect a regression to the mean. It's not a zero sum game, it can both be true that they're underperfoming AND they did a s*** job of building the roster and the offense which is what many people from pundits to experts to fans were all saying about the offseason. One of the biggest criticisms of this team the past almost decade now has been their affinity to shy away from big contracts to big names. And while I can appreciate not irresponsibly throwing your money around on aging players you need vets, you need leadership, you need a stud, and this team doesn't have it and even with all their underperformances aside this team was highly flawed and it shows. Ya'll can defend as much as you want but at the end of the day the results speak for themselves. The only way this team gets better is for guys to perform and for the rookies to grow. And they should of hoped for that but banking on that was dumb.

It's like, imagine someone is trying to lose weight, and they're going to the gym 6 days a week but their diet is s*** and they eat 4,000 calories a day. Imagine saying "you know what we need.....an extra work out a week" "no....no what you need is to put down the little debbies" That is where the problem is.

They're typically one in the same, one typically follows the other. Wood isn't a "star" now but if this is who he is he will be considered a star by seasons end.