Hugh2

After seeing a team trade what would be the equivalent of one of our top 3-4 prospects for a reliever….i don’t think any big moves are coming.

The Sox have to do something, maybe that can't "veer off the plan" but perhaps they should at least consider a pit stop? I wonder if Breslow has some kind of mandate to "have fun at the deadline, but don't touch Mayer/Teel/Anthony" Even then perhaps he could peition to change their mind if the right offer came in. I'm the biggest prospect homer on earth, I want all the draft picks and all the prospects I can get, and I believe in building up a farm system. But a farm system exists to support the big league club, and you do that by developing guys and also trading for them; sometimes you have to cash in your chips and get that shiny new mlber. No one wants to part with the big three, but if the Sox got a young starter back in return, or heck even a position player who bats right handed with big power I'd be fine with it. I'm fine with multiple alternate futures, as long as they don't sit on their hands and do absolutley NOTHING.

It’s also worth noting Anthony is playing LF in AA today. This could also be to him looking more like a corner outfield and as he approaches closer to being MLB ready the organization wanting to expose him there. Rafaela/Duran may have CF/LF locked up. Calling up Anthony to replace Abreu would be ballsy. We’ve seen to prospects hit the ground running at the MLB level and we’ve also seen them struggle for a while. Anthony could be three times better than Abreu long term but not an upgrade long term. Abreu is also under team control for several years AFTER this season. He will still be a movable asset in the offseason. The team would be better off holding onto him. The only real value Anthony might provide is he might not have sever platoon splits like Abreu does. But even then, that might be more of a long term outcome with him rather than a what you’re getting now from him.

He’s 23 mowing down low a batters. Good college players go to high a nowadays. Dean might become a big leaguer one day, but calling him good because of his stats vs kids in low A is like calling me the next Pedro Martinez because I’m striking out 100% of t ballers. And Yorke? I like Yorke, I’m hoping he can become an everyday player but you’re not selling me on a guy who had one good month after TWO WHOLE YEARS of sub par to crappy play. You don’t start baking that guy into your future plans just yet. Especially because his defense isn’t great.

They could be secondary pieces for a decent rental if a team values them higher than the Red Sox. Meidroth is starting to intrigue me, I've never given him much thought because the scouting worries me in that the underlying metrics tells he's a guy who can't impact the ball and will be exposed at the higher level. But he's been nailing the ball lately so I'm wondering if something is changing with him.

Re read your post, and look up those ages.

How many times a day do you stare at yourself in the mirror with a little finger mustache and say "Those are the facts!!!! and the FACTS! are undisputed" in a deep voice?????

I'm going to look for some examples, but I'm certain top 100 prospects have been traded for rentals before. And depending on who's list you're using you're getting 1-4 guys who are above Fitts and not even top 100, and you got two guys top 10 behind Fitts. EDIT: wait, I think I pretty much agree with your post. But, to be fair Sandlin is ranked below Fitts

I would be semi surprised if we got him without parting with a top 10 prospect, certainly not the top 3 though. That would shock and maybe even upset me.

possibly, possibly they jump on it. or not.

Exactly, just because a team is trading away a guy doesn't mean they don't think highly of them. You have to give something to get something. But it is also certainly true that every team has their own evaluation method and metrics and some teams are going to value guys in our system higher than we do (and lower).

Yes, buying a rental doesn't diverge from the "long term plan" which I didn't know trading away all your prospects was part of that plan. A rental shoulnd't cost you those top guys, Think of it this way, Whatever Flaherty would cost, he'd cost 3X the amount if he had mutliple years of team control. I'm all for a rental. Good teams rent.

BTV accepts Justin Slaten for Jack Flaherty, realistically they may want another prospect in the trade. Maybe a lower level guy. Slaten/BJordan. I'd do this in a heartbeat.

Someone like Flaherty might be a good FA candidate this winter as well, not only can you rent him for a playoff run but you can get a good look at him, build raport and see if he's someone you want to sign long term.

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2024/07/top-50-trade-candidates-mlb-trade-deadline-2024.html Flaherty is ranked the #1 rental arm on the market. Obviously this is a subjective topic, but there really aren't many better options out there......imagine being unhappy with the Sox going out and buying the top rental????

So vague, no real answer. So any guy that gets traded must of have something wrong with them? In that case, I suppose we shouldn't trade for anyone.

If I don't get traded to a contender I quit

I'm surprised these guys at the top get above full slot. Like.......he would really turn down 9 million and return to school as a senior and risk a payday over 800k? As I'm typing this I started to think about nil money, I have no ideal what these kids are getting paid in college.

Well if you “do your homework” you would know now wouldn’t you?

Sox took Zach Ehrhard at 115. MLB ranked him 221, Baseball America ranked him 399, perfect game ranked him 133. That’s 3 boards and every team has their own board. Thats why I say when fans say “they should have taken this guy over that guy” I say they don’t know what they’re talking about. They’re going off of one board, and it’s not even the best board…just a public one. They don’t know….and neither do I.

Add: Brady Tygart may also eclipse any bonus given to a pitcher since 2017. But Tolle and Cason will certainly eclipse any number given since Tanner.

Or at least that’s what I always thought we meant by BPA. Maybe I’ve had it wrong all these years

Wait, I just realized. Most people don’t know that BPA is almost always mostly about your first round pick. You always want to nail that pick. You don’t think teams are filling organizational needs afterwards? There’s the same amount of pitchers and hitters on every team; top to bottom up the system. You nail your first pick, then after that you’re may be going BPA according to more of needs at some point….you just have too, you can’t carry 25 pitchers in Salem, or 25 “Short stops” in Greenville. Teams have a very clear ideal who they think is the best player available at #8 or #12 in a draft. Do people actually think by the time they get down to #250 that they have a clear cut BPA? Rather than tranche of players they all put in the same tier? It’s like rankings. Most people clearly can say Marcelo Mayer and Roman Anthony are our two top prospects. Do people actually think people definitively can say Jojo ingressia is better than Noah Dean? Sox did just that, and just what I predicted. They went position player in the first round then focused on position. And guess what? So did most teams. This draft set a record for pitchers being drafted and also the least amount of high school players were taken in the top 10 rounds ever. Ever. In the end, the Sox took 14 pitchers, only TWO more than last year. The biggest difference is Cason and Tolle will probably get bigger bonuses than the Sox have paid out since Tanner Houck.

There's also something to the "do what you're good at" argument. Sox have always been better at drafting and developing position players. The fact that Bloom was trigger shy wasn't an indictment in that, it was a seperate issue. They always could have traded for pitching, it's been done. Luis Basabe, Yoan Moncada, and Victor Diaz were all position players they trade for SALE. I think we all agree the Sox could do more in drafting and developing players. But they've also ignored the IFA market and the free agent market to bring in talent as well over the years. If the Sox are going to spend less on position players and more on pitchers in the draft then then better have the infrastructure to support it. Otherwise they're just pissing away money and will be worse off for it by having less Roman Anthony's and Marcelo Mayers in the system. Just drafting more pitchers alone means jack s***. Just go ask the Angels how that works. They drafted 20 out of 20 pitchers in 2022 and have little to show for it. Caden is their top ranked prospect, but he's not top 100 and after that they only have two other top 20 prosepcts in Mederos and Hurtado at 13 and 18. Keep in mind they have what is considered the worse system in baseball, they're ranked dead last by both fangraphs and MLB.

Not the worse outcome in life. Got 1 million dollars to play ball, went pro (more than most people can ever say) now he has a good job and is married to Jenny Dell. Perspective is everything.