Hugh2

He's been walking more lately. His OBP has gone up a full .100 in the second half.

He projected as an average defender at 3B even after taking a step back in 2019. You're assuming that because his defense sucks at 1B that he would continue to regress and look horrible at 3B. No point in comparing him to Devers, he's never going to play 3B over Devers on THIS team but another team might like him better back at 3B.

He's not an upgrade over Devers, his defense might just be average there as opposed to below average at 1B (which doesn't make much sense but that's the way it's). This might make him more valuable to another team than he is to us, especially if he doesn't fit into the long term plans. Maybe they work with Dalbec in the offseason and improve his play there, if he can walk more he might be a much better hitter next year too.

No he should not, he's fine in the role he's in now and it sets him up beautifully to slide into the rotation next year.

I think people forget that Dalbec came up as a 3rd baseman was actually considered pretty good there. He has plenty of length and more than enough arm and was only moved to 1B because of a guy named Rafael Devers. Dalbec is probably not as bad as he was the first month of the season and not as good as he's been the last month. I wonder if Bobby is trade bait if a team can use a 3B. I think Xander eventually moves off of SS, but I don't think that will happen for another year or two, but I agree they could eventually sign a guy to play there and move Xander to 3B/2B I'm just not sure next year is the year to tie up more money on the lineup when the rotation needs some love. I think most permutation of the Sox offseason revolves around getting a stopgap guy at 1B with the assumption/hope that Casas finds his way there in mid 2022/early 2023. I was thinking that guy could be Schwarber, but for a guy who many thought could play 1B he's not been playing any 1B. Although that's probably partially due to Durans struggles, Arroyos inability to stay on the field, and Dalbecs success at the plate recently.

So he's now a 23-year-old (by one week) who is in AA. Given all the time he's missed and a completely lost Covid season it's kind of amazing to think he's here and could be knocking on the door towards the end of next season.

I completely and wholeheartedly agree. Everything has a price, but I do think there's value in continuity in terms of connecting with a fan base and building goodwill towards current and future players in your organization. Now who do you trade, and who do you build around? That's Blooms jobs.

Yeah, I thought not spending capital on expensive starters when you had Sale coming back and getting a bargain on Schwarber (compared to what Rizzo cost) was a real steal, but the bullpen arms were a head-scratcher. I know Robles had been good against lefties so he made sense but they really could have used an extra late-inning bullpen arm. Ottavino and Barnes are just taxed, I brought this up over a month ago too. I said that Barnes was on pace to throw a record number of innings and that if the bullpen is not managed better it's going to start falling apart. It's not all on the bullpen, the starters in the lineup have been very lackluster lately too. In the beginning of the season, the lineup seemed very unbalanced and top-heavy but it didn't seem to matter because all those guys were racking, but not they're starting to get exposed. It's not that I'm giving up on the season, but things don't look great. We could very easily be looking back at the end of this year and have witnessed the Sox pull it back together while teams like NY and TB go on to slump, it sure doesn't look that way now but they could saying in NY come October that they peaked too soon.

If he was a stud. Sox started Xander Bogaerts at 20 years old. Yes, he's a hitter and not a pitcher but the lesson is the same. If you're a phenom you fly through a system quickly, but we shouldn't expect most players to progress like that.

Exactly. Fans evaluate games on a game-by-game basis. We reset after every single game. A good manager has to think about 162 games. Cora might of been able to save Whitlock for yesterday and we would have won that game, ok great, good manager who managed for Sunday better.....but in that world, we might end up losing on Saturday.

True, he easily could have been told "go improve the pitching staff" or "don't feel like you don't need to improve the pitching staff" But we do know that ownership was trying to get under the cap this year. A team like Boston that hovers right around the cap gets under it to reset and go back over. With that in mind, no good G.M. is going to blow their load prematurely. He knows he's going to be able to spend big soon, and if he's a good G.M. he's going to wait for that window to spend assets. His only tool to improve the pitching staff would be to trade away the farm, and the farm system had been very weak until recently. Now the farm system is improved he will have more resources to make the moves some of us want to see within that window. That may be frustrating for that fan that demands instant gratification but it's good planning. Also, the pitching staff this year has been good. Ok they haven't been that good but they've been MUCH better than they were last year and have been good enough. Despite some recent struggles the overall majority of losses during the last 6-8 weeks seem to be more on the offense than the pitching.

It’s true that our stock rising also has to do with teams like NY emptying their farm system. It’s the depth comment that got Me. Prospects in the 20th-40th range is as about as strong as I’ve ever seen it. Yes, most of their guys will bust, but you probably have a regular or two in there, maybe a few role players and a reliever or two and just maybe an all star. They might only be up 1 top 100 prospect because of Mayer, but the depth of the system has taken huge leaps forward and much of it has been organic.

Ok I lied I did have time, he did ask if he had no opt out. The difference in the return Bogaerts gets you is outstanding. If he hypothetically had zero opt outs and 5/100 remaining on a deal.

Idk, maybe I misread it wrong, I’m too lazy to go back and look.

Who says there isn’t a plan? Just because you don’t like what you see when you scout the box score does t mean there isn’t a plan. As someone who was both a professional athlete and worked a 12 step process I can say that playing them is hurting f them. Injury aside, and in the absence of a sever circumstance (like your whole family dying) more than one day off is not going to do anything for these guys. Players struggle, it really sucks as a fan, I’m sure it sucks more for them. There’s no silver bullet to it.

There’s ZERO benefit to taking two days off opposed to one. Unless you’re injured. The only way out of a slump is to hit your way there and you can’t hit sitting down.

Chris Sale 3-0 2.35

Except he’s under contract for 5 years, he asked what you’d get if there were not options. You’re getting a lot more than what we got for Betts.

Maybe I mis understood your question. You were saying Bogaerts current contract had no opt outs what a team would pay for him in a trade? You’re getting multiple top 100 prospects for him.

This absolutely insanely wrong. You seem like a very fair poster, very courageous as a standees fan venturing deep into the red of Boston but your opinion is one from the outside. It makes sense, I get it, we got Marcelo Mayer, and that’s a big piece at the top. But there’s a plethora of talent in the lower minors impressing scouts. Actually, I think depth is the systems biggest strength right now. The system depth is the best I’ve seen since 2010, when more things broke right than wrong then the Sox arguably had the top farm system in all of baseball.

Well, many are not scouts, coaches, front office personnel, and talent evaluators. Some guys get drafted and get projected as relievers which is many might peg a guy as a reliever. But often times teams develop guys who they think might eventually end up in the bullpen as starters. This gives them more reps, and more opportunities to develop their pitches, and possibly prove people wrong.

Your post would be 100% spot on if we were talking about an unreasonable amount of money. We are not.

You guys are right.....not worth engaging.

He came up as a 3B, moved to 1B for Devers. If you're going to keep him in the lineup in LF to put.....Schwarber at 1B you mine as well keep him at 1B. You're probably right, track record tells us Bobby is probably going to go on a long slump at some point but he's been more consistent lately and more immediately has been your best hitter. Worse case scenario you ride his hot hand until you put Schwaber at 1B and Arroyo at 2nd then you're right where you want to be anyways, at best Dalbec takes a big leap forward or at least increases his trade value. I'd love to plug Schwarber at 1B to bridge to Casas and then he can replace JD as the DH/OF

Fair point, you kind of need a recency bias with young developing players. And how has Dalbec looked lately?