Hugh2

Right now, you could say Arroyo is an above-average hitting CFer but his defense is plus at 2nd. I'd take Arroyo over Kike at 2nd right now and definitely Marwin, Kike is effectively our Cfer. Part of the problem is we have so many utlity/platoon/versatile type players it's hard to know who's what. I love those type of guys on my team, but not a bunch of them. EDIT: you mean Arroyo replacing Arroyo with Duran but Kike moves to 2nd and Duran plays CF. Not sure Duran is quite ready but I suspect we are going to find out at some point this season. When that happens I think Verdugo moves to center and Duran moves to LF. He's not a great fielder, surprisingly for his speed.

One more vote for Brewer.

Probably, lol.

We should get some news on who these PTBNL are very soon. Here is why I'm excited. The list of guys the Sox can choose from was determined months ago. There could be a guy or two on that list whose prospect status has shot up the boards, it won't' be a high level guy in AA or above but I can see them getting a guy with a high ceiling in A ball. Don't close the books on these trades just yet.

If it makes you feel better I think there is a lot more that goes into a pick than who the G.M. is. The Scouting unit in place feeding Bloom info is completely different than it is in Tampa. A draft is also about your scouts, your cross checkers, your assistant G.M, your director of scouting etc etc. Hopefully, Bostons apparatus can turn his luck around.

I'm not sure Duran can give us anything better than Kike at the plate. Maybe one day he could, but he could easily come up and not be very good at the plate and Kike has better defense. But, he might be able to make those adjustments this year and be able to give us something better than Kike down the road.

Kike hasn't been great but he hasn't been that awful. The league average line for a CF is .240/.315/.395 He's marginally worse than that, and his fielding and versatility bring value too. I wouldn't be opposed to an upgrade for Kike, but I don't think you can plug every hole especially on this team. Do we really want to trade the farm to solidify a WC spot? I think we can make a big upgrade at 2B, or maybe we upgrade the OF and play Kike more at 2B. For production, the two obviously places to upgrade for me are 1B/2B. Ironically our two best prospects are Casas/Downs at those positions respevtiely. I don't think they're ready (certainly not Casas) but it's not a stretch that one of those guys can plug a hole by years end. My money is on Downs.

I can tell you one thing, having to wait an extra month is annoying!!!

Again, I'm no scout, but if I'm trying to build a consensus of what the top tier of talent is I think that first tier is Mayer/Lawlar/Leiter/Rocker/House/Davis. Who knows what the Sox board looks like. There could be another guy or two in there and one of those guys out. But I'd be willing to believe they'd take a guy from that tier who wants the least money. Which, make one wonder if Davis/Leiter are the obvious picks if they fall there.

Agreed, which is why it made all the sense in the world to send Franchy down and bring Santana up. They didn't sign Santana to sit in Worcester it was time. I feel like Santana isn't given enough talk. He hit for a .857 OPS in 2019 in his age 28 seasons in 511 plate appearances. That's a pretty decent sample size, and given his age, it's not unrealistic to look at him as a late bloomer. It's easy to look at his 2020 stat line and call it an aberration but he only had 63 PA's. I think Dalbec is going to be streaky like JBJ was, less glove more power. You can live with that in your lineup if the rest is good, but not 3-4 guys. Santana closes the gap, maybe a guy like Frazier solidifies the bottom and makes the Sox the most dangerous offense in baseball.

I've been hearing this as well, not sure how I feel about it. If the Sox view the talent level and potential of a tier of 7-8 players and one of those guys are willing to take less money and give the Sox an extra 1 million to 1.5 million to play with later on I'm all for it. But if they're passing on a top 10 talent then I'm not interested. Take the ceiling, this draft is pretty deep, I think they could still sign a guy for slot at #4 and still have a great draft. I have absolutely NO ideal what the Sox plan on doing, but I wouldn't be surprised that what they do could be determined by who is there at #4. There might be a guy or two that they are willing to sign for slot, and if not there other guys they're looking to make a deal with.

This is true, but I'm not that bothered by it because they're taking more swings and have more to show for it. In all of MLB the Sox offense is 2nd in SLG% 4th in OPS and 6th in Runs scored. So, while I might not be bothered by the overall product, I think the bottom of the lineup is very weak and not indicative of a team that could make a deep run in October. It would be nice to see more production in the bottom of the order.

I wouldn't say the offense is fine, but I think it's fair to say pitching is more of a concern.

I don't want to sound like I'm complaining about this team winning but it almost would make things easier if this team was not exceeding expectations up until now. If you don't seriously think you can compete, it's easier to let Dalbec and Franchy fly through the year and see if they can put it together. It would make the bullpen situation with Whitlock more manageable and we wouldn't have talk of rushing Casas and Duran. Although I think we can justify seeing Duran at some point this year no matter what, Casas is the guy who is a little further away. An obvious place we can improve is 2B, and we could make a trade for Adam Frazier. I think if we're being realistic about this year, then trading away top prospects for a rental arm is not a good decision. I'd rather bring in a guy who has at least another year of control. Not sure who that is, but be a fun thought experiment this weekend to look at who might be available during the trade deadline, which may be more clear in 4-6 weeks from now. I think we can pick up a bat at the deadline.

It's hard to know what's noise and what's real but there has been talk that Rocker might have larger bonus demands than some of these other guys. If he doesn't go 1-2 then he might slip a little. Rocker could just as easily have the better career between him and Leiter. The tigers love college pitchers and have also said to really like the HS SS at the top of the draft, but if they're taking Rocker because Leiter and Davis is gone then that means Lawlar and Mayer are there, and they might be better than House. I don't see the Sox passing on both those two if they're there. Of course, maybe the Sox think House will be just as good (and that's not a stretch), if he's willing to take less money than those two maybe he is the guy. I wouldn't be disappointed with House if he was cutting a deal.

What can we realistically expect from Sale coming back? I think it's reasonable to assume he could be pitching like an Ace by the end of the year but coming back from TJ what type of a work load can we expect him to carry into October? I just don't think we will have the strong #1 #2 punch a team needs to be a world series contender, and definitely not if Erod can't figure it out.

MLB Mock Draft June 2 WWW.MLB.COM Normally at this time of year, with college conference tournaments just completed and high school seasons nearly over, we’d be in full-on Draft fever/panic mode, trying to get one of our last mocks correct right before the Draft started. So it’s been hard to tell that muscle memory to take New Mock up: 1. Marcelo Mayer 2. Henry Davis 3. Jack Leiter 4. Jordan Lawlar 5. Brady House 6. Kumar Rocker 7. Kahlil Watson 8. Jackson Jobe 9. Benny Montgomery 10. Sal Fredrick Interesting take, the Pirates for a while now have been said to be honing in on Lawler and Mayer. Everyone in the top ten has been mocked to go #1 overall but Fredrick, Montgomery, and Kahlil but most draft boards and insight seem to have it down to those two with the only other shots being Davis and Leiter who most people think one of those two go #2. If i had to rank the top 4 in terms of probability of falling to the Sox I might go Davis. Leiter Lawlar Mayer Rocker House I put Rocker 5th because I think they'd take one of those first 4 first when there.

I think if anything the opposite is a good idea. Hitters tend to be safer bets in the draft, particularly collegiate hitters. The Sox also have a much better track record drafting and developing talent on the offensive side of the ball. You can always trade hitting for pitching. Not that I would be upset with Kumar or Leiter in this draft. I'd be excited about both. I might be able to get on board with Jobe as well, although I can understand why many might have a fear of drafting HS pitchers.

LOL and he gets promoted now as we discuss, that's hilarious and awesome.

I did just miss that he has 111 at-bats at A+ back in 2019. So in total, he has 290 total. That's not crazy, but not small either. If he gets promoted soon I think that's in line and well deserved.

I don't think you're "not helping a guy" by keeping him at a level when he's mashing a ball. There's plenty of things for guys to work on developmentally no matter what their stat line is. Generally speaking, the fast track is let a guy get at least a 1/2 season of at bats at a level before you're promoting him. Even when you look at guys who get super fast-tracked they get some at-bats. Take Mookie Betts, who is the prime example of a guy who rushed through a system. The least amount of at bats he had at any level was 185 in A+. Right now Reed is sitting on 179, so I don't think they're holding him back, but he has put himself in the conversation for a promotion, which I think is going to come sometime soon.

Yup, I just saw that, I missed the news yesterday. My bad.

While there seems to be a lot of uncertainty in this draft after that top tier of 6-7 guys the back as a whole has tons of depth. Remember there were only 5 rounds last year. That is a TON of Sophmore eligible and junior college players who did not get drafted. This might be the year a team does not have to go under slots 3-10 so they can spread the money elsewhere. Premium talent could be had for slot, or at least better talent than is otherwise available. Might still need to save money if you want to draft some highschool guys. A ton of HS talent didn't get drafted last year, so the college draft could be much deeper in 2-3 years.

I think the Boston Red Sox have a better ideal than anyone else if Duran is ready. Duran is not ready.

Someone else already did sign him. The Sox after the Cubs designated him for assignment and he's now back in Boston on a minor league deal, so we're not going to lose him if he's not added to the 40 man. No need to add him, this is not the same Workman, he's lost velocity and he's a reclamation project. It would be a pretty cool story if Pivetta continues to play well, Seabold develops into a stud, and Workman finds himself and is a staple in our pen at some point. That would make that trade amazing. I don't have a lot of confidence in Workman contributing to this team any time soon but I'm rooting for him.