Hugh2

Not many, I like Brent's as a depth option but I'm not sure he's worth a 40 man spot.

In terms of who the 5 man rotation will be I think it could be a pissing contest in here until we are in week two of the season. The first three are locks in Sale, Porcello and Price but after that there is a good argument for all of Wright, Pomeranz, and ERod. Drew Pomeranz. Why he will be the starter: Because of his first half last year, the hefty price the Sox paid for him, and the hope that with some added stamina he can replicate his first half for a whole season going forward. Why he won't be the starter: Someone is the odd man out, he doesn't have the ability to lock down a rotation spot for 32 games and he has more experience of pitching out of the bullpen than the other three. With sucess I might add. Stephen Wright Why he will be the starter: Again he had a really good start to the 2016 season, and at the end of the day he really only had one bad 6 week stretch in August and September. Besides that he pitched like an ACE most of the year and has a track record of average to above average results in Boston and the minors the past 3 years. Why he won't be the starter: No matter how well knuckleballers pitch they always seem to come with some question marks. Their performance can be volatile from game to game and from season to season. There is a sense he was pitching above his talent last year and again at the end of the day someone has to be the odd man out. For a guy who is kind of a one trick pony it becomes pretty easy to throw him into the swing man role which also allows the Red Sox to avoid optioning Eduardo Rodriguez. Eduardo Rodriguez Why he will be the starter: Talent and upside. We've all seen his potential here and in Pawtucket the past few years, with youth on his side and injury behind him he seems primed for a break out season. He very well may have the capacity to be the better pitcher over the next few years than Wright or Pomeranz. Why he won't be the starter: He has an option left, which gives the Sox the option to keep him ready in Pawtucket if anyone from the five man rotation goes down or severely under performs. History tells us this will happen. Despite his upside and high ceiling talent he's never seemed to fully put it together for a full season and considering the last point I made it makes sense for him to get some innings in Pawtucket and prove he's ready and overcome some of his pitch tipping issues while he waits for his next chance. Now I'm sure some here would agree or disagree with many of these points but that's they whole point of this post. I don't think there is a silver bullet answer for what to do, but if I had to guess I'd say all things being equal in spring training that Pomeranz and E-Rod take the 4th and 5th spots while Wright becomes the swing man out of the bullpen. But as the old saying goes, these types of things have a way of working themselves out.

If Swihart stayed catching last year he probably not only improve his defense but much of that time would also of been spent in AAA. He might of had his cup of coffee towards the end of the year and had some playing time when the team went cold along with Leons bat. This is all hypothetical of course, and I do think him spending time in AAA not injured and a focus on catching would have helped him tremendously

Oh dear god please no! my brain hurts! I don't even want to think about that. : )

It's really hard to judge a G.M. because how many of us really know any of them other than the ones that have worked in Boston? Other than that we know Cashman because he's the Yankees G.M. and a lot of people know Billy Beane? I suspect a lot of no name G.M.s could actually flourish in Boston with a a better scouting department and a much larger budget. It's kind of hard to judge a G.M. on a losing team if the ownership doesn't want to eclipse 100 million.

What really separated CV from the rest was his glove which became very mediocre last year. In the absence of his elite defense his sub par offense really stands out. Leons bat really dropped off last year too and with no prior track record of hitting you wonder if he was just a fluke. It all kind of makes you wish the Sox kept Swihart at catcher next year and let him to continue to develop his skills. It will be interesting to see how things shake out this year, there's definitely a lot of talent between those three but a lot of question marks as well.

Someone asked a question and I answered it. I apologize that a BDC comment took up one line of space on this forum.

That's the most realistic path for Devers. Of course there is a wide range of outcomes and players can always force the issue but I see very few paths to the majors for Devers next year....in 2018 it's a different story. I tend to not even think about a guy being MLB ready and thinking about where we can pencil him in until he's showing you something in AA.

I wouldn't trade Betts for anyone right now. We matched up well with the Mets 1-2 years ago but this team is set for the next 5(ish) years and Betts is at the center of it.

Yeah it seems unreasonable now. While the offense took a step back I still think it's going to be above average and with how much better our pitching will be this team is primed to be well balanced and dangerous. Subtracting Betts from the equation changes that dynamic, but without Sale I would explore that type of trade. The team obviously still sees Swihart as having a potential place on this team and I think they really like him. He was a top 20 prospect just a year ago and he had a funny season in 2016. He was jerked around a bit, moved into new positions and then got hurt. It's real easy to look at the slash line, see how the outfield has solidified itself and forget about him but he could really end up being a big part of this teams future. And.....his name starts with B.

Gerome did back in the old BDC days....he's ok guy but we used to bust each others ballz a lot. I never let that one go.

Betts for Syndergaard seems fair enough. Although at this point I like the balance of the rotation and wouldn't want to hurt the offense anymore after losing Ortiz bat. If we had NOT traded for Sale this year I'd be ok with a Betts/Pom trade for Noah Syndergaard and possibly going out and signing EE to play 1b/DH. This is all under the assumption that Swihart is a decent left fielder and I'm the G.M. and it's two months ago.

Salary dump!!!!!!! I think we all agree there. Don't underestimate the value of a good organizational guy though, it adds value to have good guys surrounding future stars coming up. Also, you never know, the Sox might have seen something they like in him. Sometimes throw ins shatter all expectations, which realistically with this guy would be him turning out to be a good bench bat : / but yeah....that's more wishful thinking than it's not but hey you gotta fill the minor league rosters too!!!!!!!!

Is it still too late to trade Brandon Workman and Mookie Betts for Matt Kemp???

I asked a question about this on the Soxprospects forum. They deduced that Mata was very likely the guy the Red Sox turned down in the Sale trade. Here is a response I got from Chris Hatfield: "So, a) His scouting report has been updated. Ian saw him at Instructs and came back very impressed. He put him in his top 30 right away and convinced us to push him up past where he sat after we all voted. Then, after the trades, Dave Dombrowski was on WEEI talking about them and the process. He referred to a player in the process that another team asked for who was 1. Venezuelan, 2. had played in the DSL, and 3. had pitched at Fall Instructs, and the Red Sox had refused to trade him. Presuming that these were the negotiations for either the Thornburg or Sale trade, that means that they at least liked this player more than Victor Diaz (21 before the trade) or Josh Pennington (27 before the trade). The only two players who fit the description Dombrowski gave were Mata and Ritzi Mendoza. Now, Mendoza also had a very good year in the DSL... but he was 21 and repeating the league for the fourth time. So there's a 99% chance they refused to include Mata in a deal in which they did trade a player we had ranked higher. Between Ian's report on him (which I'll let you all read), the numbers and other reports we've read, and the Dombrowski thing, it seemed pretty clear we had to move him into the Top 20." It seems to me very little is still known from him but he had good numbers in the DSL, he impressed at fall instructs, and we can deduce from the Sox front office that they really really like him.

He ain't slow that's for sure! but JBJ is no blazer either. What puts him over the top is his instincts on the base paths, sometimes that's worth just as much if not more than speed.

Last years draft was all about Groome, the other high ceiling picks didn't sign. Dalbec had a nice start and I hope he turns into a diamond in the rough. This is a guy who struck out 32% of the time in college, he's got a TON of swing and miss in his swing and had a good year against lesser competition in Lowell. Word on the street was the Sox liked him better as a pitcher but he really wanted to play 3rd base. It's a lot easier to switch to pitching from hitting than the other way around so why not let him hit and see what he can do. I'm not trying to take anything away from him. And I'm hoping he proves people wrong but I'd take his first season with a huge grain of salt. Guys who hit for power but have a big hole in their swing in the lower minors have 100 times more ways to fail than to succeed on their way to the majors. The guys I really wanted after Groome were Nick Quintana, and Jeff Belge. After Groome, we probably have a future reliever or two and thats it. Chatham could develop but he's probably more likely a utility role. In hindsight, a lot of the high upside picks like Quintana were guys they had no chance in signing but would make a run at with some more money if Groome failed to sign. the 2015 draft is really a one man show.

Sox aren't fast tracking Devers. Every prospect is different, and Devers really seems like a year a level kind of guy. Guys can always force a teams hand, but I think Devers would have to play really really really really well to do that. As I said earlier, if 3rd base turns into a mess this year I'd wager on the Sox trading for a stop gap.

I'll believe that. How often does the assistant manager do all the work the manager takes credit for? How many CFOs are the byproduct of their controllers work? Charrington was likely highly involved if not more at times of many of the moves in the Epstein era. I have no doubt Ben was trigger shy to make the types of trades that DD has made that very well may lead to much better success the next four years but I don't think DD could have done much better during the crap era. If DD gutted the farm two years sooner we wouldn't have this young core he's building around.

True, Devers and Groome are still blue chippers with clear paths to the majors. And the next prospect Binky is always on some horizon. The new far off high upside guy I'll be following is bryan matta.

Ok, fair enough but I do think that.

And people make dumb decisions when they are desperate

You can be against gutting the farm but like a trade. Some of us are at the very least curious about the farm going forward when you weigh the totality of all trades. A trade can stand alone. We can like the team to focus on building within, but appreciate the need to pull the trigger on an opportunity to bring in top notch talent. We don't have to be homers and just automatically like every trade. We reserve the right to like some and hate other trades.

We finally got our Binky. There was always that guy people wanted in the team but it just didn't seem realistic. King Felix, Stanton, but we actually got Sale....it happened.

My thoughts exactly. Who knows how many reps or sets he's doing, how much rest he's getting or whether he's super setting etc etc etc. Whatever he's doing it's working.