Hugh2

But, John Henry was still the owner then right?\ EDIT: Did you just unknowingly and inadvertently defend Bloom for this albatross of a team? I think weeeeeee diiiiiiid.

Looks like JH has invest more moeny in this team than 27 out of 32 owners. I think that's a guy who's trying to win.

I think the question would be, WHERE are they signing him to play. You need 180 guys in your organization, and that doesn't include IL and unassigned players.

For the most part, every single free agent who is signed is going to the highest bidder. That means every time you sign a guy to play CF, RF, SS, P, RP, are wherever you're paying more for him than any other team who tried to sign that guy. That number is almost NEVER going to line up with what most fans want to pay for that player. There seems to be a disconnect here at times where fans often have this duality of wanting to sign quality free agents to improve the team but want them to sign for what is likely going to be below their market value.

.921 ops in august. My biggest concern with Casas is his platoon splits. Going down the stretch, after the 22nd he doesn’t start the service clock if brought up. Given his stature and recent level of play…..it should really be an option at this point.

Wow, way to go Kevin. It’s the Pirates but you did something!!

No I would suspect he would come up if Hosmer keeps laying eggs. Especially if the Sox start inching closer to the post season, another bat would like pretty nice.

Don’t worry, we are about a week away from Casas making his debut. He can platoon at 1B for the rest of the season

300 million while still under team control is an insanely reasonable offer. Regardless, you don't start negotiations with an above rate big. I think Mookie and his agent said they were dead set on going to FA, turning down 300 million is a pretty good indicator of this. I don't think we'll ever know for certain, but I feel it's insanely realistic to assume Covid changed a lot. An uncertain future and 365 million waving in front of your face would get a lot of people to change their minds. I bet if it was Covid17 Betts would be on this team with a 300 million dollar deal. No way we can ever wager this, but I would if we could. Of course, it's entirely plausible I am 100% correct and Bloom traded Betts away last offseason for Prospects.

No particular order above ^^^ Would love to hear other suggestions.

Free agents I think the Sox should at least look at: Catcher: Christian Vazquez Wilson Contreras SS: Carlos Correa Xander Bogaerts Dansby Swanson Trea Turner Jose Iglesias OF: Brandon Nimmo Aaron Judge Mitch Haniger Joey Gallo SP: Carlos Rodon Noah Syndergaard (if healthy maybe he takes a short-term deal to rebuild his value) Aaron Nola Clayton Kershaw Jacob DeGrom I think the Sox should explore the trade market for either a SP1 SP2 as well.

The salary cap moves up next year, also if the Sox are willing to go over, you really have an additional 20 million to spend before the next threshold. This means in a year the team is looking to expand payroll they have up to $253 million to spend. Despite the criticism, the Sox have a history of going over the cap, not every year but often. With no options exercised and Bogaerts opting out this leaves the Sox with somewhere around 110-125 million to add. Cap moves up 4 million more and another 20 million coming off the books next year (probably eaten up by arbitration costs). Still, retaining Devers may be doable as well, especially if Story becomes tradable. Sox can make big moves if they want, and if anything making big moves now preserves the farm for another year or two while Bloom still builds it up. I suspect something in between, the Sox will make a big splash or two this offseason but on top of that do a little bargain dumpster diving at the same time.

I don’t care how highly someone is ranked, I don’t think any team should ever be put together with prospects below AA in mind. You can trade guys, and guys can switch positions. I’d be more than ok with either a Bogaerts resign or a Correa/Story upgrade.

Prepare to be surprised. I suppose we should be prepared for another injury as well.

Turner and Bogaerts likely get very similar contracts. They've been almost identical over the years, with Bogaerts having slightly better plate discipline and Turner having better speed. This year Turn has more power, but I don't think Bogeys power outage lasts, until recently Turner had better defense as well but I'd say the last two years they've been identical there as well.

Age is such a huge factor, you look at what Devers did as you've just stated and it's not insanely huge offensive output, but it was so age advanced. If Devers played ever level at an average age, he likely would put up a 1.00 ops every year.

Interestingly enough, both players received 1.5 million dollar signing bonuses. Obviously Bleis has a long way to go with a wide range of outcomes, but if he hits all his marks, and I'm not saying it's highly probable, he could be better than Devers. Sometimes guys fall short of their ceilings, actually most of the time they do, but often they still become very good players. I remember Bogey had a ceiling of being a perennial MVP candidate, he's not exactly that good.....but he's pretty damn good. I have hopes that Bleis is going to be a really good MLB player. If only he was born a few years sooner and we could actually be talking about him as an option out in CF next year.

I wouldn't hate him as a platoon out there if they're making ADDITIONAL outfield upgrades.

I would like to think we can do a lot better than Pham

I'm not overly concerned with Bogaerts power outage this year which is probably given Turner that very small edge via ZIPs, Id still take Bogaerts over Turner long term, also when you consider that I think Bogaerts could be had for less.

Turners value is highly tied into his speed, or at least much more than Bogaerts. As they're both roughly the same age, I don't think it's unreasonable to suggest Turner will decline faster than Bogaerts. Id' place my betts on Bogaerts being a better hitter in his 30's than Turner. Boagerts has also arguably been as good as Turner defensively this year, maybe even better. I also think it's HIGHLY probable that Turner isn't leaving LA, I don't think LA lets him walk and I doubt he comes here over there unless we offer much more, that ton of money coming off the books goes right back on plus another 10-15 million per year when you sign Turner. Also Bogaerts averages 3.87 OWar per year vs. Turner 3.45. Not much of a difference, but I think the argument could be made that Bogaerts is slightly better offensively, proven vs. AL. East pitching, and has a profile that I believe ages better. I'd take Bogaerts over Turner, and I think he will bet a little cheaper too.

Ok, but for the record I don't think I'm the only one who has said Whitlock has the best stuff of all those guys, although I think an argument could be made for Bello in terms of pure stuff. Whitlock hasn't proven himself as a starter because he hasn't really been used as a starter, but for what information we have.....he's been better than those other guys. As a starter ERA WHIP Whitlock 4.15 1.25 Crawford 3.70 1.09 Wink 4.69 1.49 Bello 8.47 2.29 You can say Crawford has proved himself more in short sample size, also Whitlcik beats out everyone else in peripherals as well H9/BB9/K9 Whitlock, also performed much better in the MiLB than those guys. ERA/WHIP/H9/BB9/K9 Whitlock 2.45/1.175/8.0/2.5/8.8 Crawford 3.73/1.28/8.5/3.1/10.6 Wink 3.89/1.245/8.5/2.7/8.2 Bello 3.92/1.177/7.9/2.7/10.9 From a pure statistical point of View Whitlock beats everyone out except Crawford at the MLB level and Bello at the minor league level, GW has shown a lower era and slightly better control but Bello has had more swing and miss stuff. Body types, durability, developing 3rd/4th pitches and how that can change stats from milb to MLB are all things to consider to. I think a very strong argument should be made for Whitlock being in the rotation. I think the Sox believe so too, which is why they are using him the way they are. Another thing worth stating too is it shouldn't be Whitlock vs. anybody. If a guy is good enough to start, he should be starting....that's where he adds the most value. If you have too many starters, trade one for a proven reliever.

Soxprospects slapped an 8 grade on him. I don't remember the last time they ever put that on an international prospect. If it wasn't Moncada then I believe it was Bogaerts.

I guess we will have to agree to disagree. I believe Whitlocks stuff is much better, he came up as a starter and has a starter's makeup. He moved to the bullpen because he was recovering from an injury and the Sox were trying to get him work in while keeping him on the roster. I want to see Houck in the closers role, I also want to see more of Bello, this doesn't help us in the near term but I think if he fails as a starter he could excel in the back of a bullpen with his stuff.

But Whitlock is better than all those guys, so he should start. If Whitlock can start and handle the load, that's where he's going to be the most valuable to this team.