Hugh2

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.

At the end of the day, it's looking like 1 of Lawler, Mayer, House, Davis, Rocker, and Leiter are going to fall to us (Lawler Mayer less likely) and any one of these guys would be a huge infusion of talent into our system.

In a year that reportedly is very weak in College bats, Davis stands alone at the top, but he would be a top ten talent in any draft for his bat alone. He's easily the best hitting prospect in this draft and if you don't like him as a catcher he has plenty of arm and athleticism for 3B. I really hated the idea of Davis, but I'm slowly starting to like him more and more. A college hitter is much safer than a college pitcher. I almost like the ideal of drafting him and moving him off C immediately just for his bat. He might be a plus defender at 3rd, whereas he might be an average defensive catcher.

That. That's my point.

So you make an offer and they ask you to meet in the middle? at maybe $360/11 but what if there's another club out there will to beat that offer?

The problem there is it's not a true negotiation in a sense. You only have 1 team bidding on you, if a player is set on getting paid market rate then he likely has a number in mind that if a team does not meet that he's likely going to FA. Who knows what Mookie would have signed for to stay in Boston, but I think it's reasonable to say it would have been around the same number it took LA to prevent him from going to FA.

I'm actually pretty high on Dalbec, which is weird because I was low on him when everyone else seemingly was high on him. I think he needs time to adjust, and I think he has the talent level to justify it, if Santana can hit in replacement of Francy it's going to take a little bit of pressure off of him too. He's never going to be a .300 hitter, if his hit tool ever took that big a leap he'd be the MVP with his power potential. He's barreling up the ball when he makes contact at double league rate, normally people who hit the ball that hard have higher BABIP than .280 and his lifetime average is .315. So, to some extent, he's had bad luck. I think he's going to be a streaky hitter, in the same form that Jackie Bradley was, he's going to have months when just goes on a tear and hits 10+ home runs. Unfortunately, he's likely the odd man out in a year or two when Casas is ready.

I have no real way of backing this up, but my guess is the Sox would have had to offer Betts the same deal LA did to convince him NOT to go to FA. Because it was looking like Mookie was going to FA here too.

Money certainly comes into the equation in the draft. I actually find it interesting for all the (teams draft BPA, not for need) talk that we don't bring up the money more often. The frequent exception to BPA is often a guy who takes less money and NOT need.

That's what I meant when I said "at some point" no crunch yet.

It's unfortunate because Franchy has some of the biggest power in the big leagues, but all the power in the world means nothing if you can't barrel up the baseball. Hopefully Santana can replicate his 2019 and give this lineup a jolt.

Here's a thought. Just with left fielders with at least 100 PA's this year, there have been 6 starting left fielders who have a worse WAR than Francy, however, he is dead-last in OPS, but only .005 behind the next guy.......named Jackie Bradley.

Flip a coin, theres' a 50/50 chance we're getting a future stud with the #4 pick. Interestingly #5 picks almost ALWAYS make the big leagues, it's extremely rare that they do not. Now that could come in the form of drafting Jeffery Clement over Ryan Zimmerman, but they can't all be winners now.