Hugh2

Since some of the pieces he got actually started hitting this team has been the best team in baseball.

Agreed, his velocity is still there. He's not the ACE he once was but he's still a good #2 pitcher. I'd certainly bite for a reasonable price.

I pretty much agree wtih your point, I'm being facetious. But for the sake of an argument didn't Cuerrero throw 102 when he sucked too? It's never too late to change...

Yeah, I just looked at his spray chart. Still, he'd probably be an elite hitter in Boston but his numbers may take a hit. Couple that with his subpar defense and it's a no-go for me. I'd still have luke warm interest with him at 2B/LF if he could make those switches. He'd destroy the Yankees

I think Schaffner & Hull be around 8 and 9 and Mataczynski & Shelar will sneak in at the 15-20 range.

I think the odds are 0. When have the Sox ever drafted a guy who made it to the majors that year? and if they ever have it's probably not a position player. They might not even play this year in the minors.

I think Tyron Guerrero has taught us all that it's never too late to change.

Abrams might be the worse defensive short stop in all of baseball. He's in the bottom 1% for range. If I'm trading for Abrams it's because I think he can be much better at 2nd, while also spending time at DH this year. If I don't think he makes a good second baseman he's not a fit for this team. If he had .3 years of control left and the cost was down and he's just a rental I'd be more inclined to bite. But he's going to be on your team for 27/28 laying eggs at SS and making the pitching staff worse.

There was serious questions about Campbells swing amongst scouts as well.

Sonny Gray Has pitched towards the top of the rotation Ranger Suarez pitching at the top of their rotation Jake Bennett - traded for him, rookie who is stepping it up and looking like a future fixture in our rotation. I think most people would be very hard pressed to ever find a GM/CBO who ever had an offseason where they went out and added 3 really good starters to their rotation. But then he added Durbin - what started off ugly is now paying dividends, he's play 3B at a GG level and has since June 1st is 4th amongst all MLB 3B in War Contreras - Has been gold at 1B, our best offensive player this year What positions didn't he fill that people want to fill now? Catcher, LF, SS? Narvaez looked like an allstar in the making after last year, we had a guy called Duran slated to play LF and Story/Mayer at SS. All who have seriously underperformed or got hurt. There's plenty of critism to go around, but Breslow probably had one of the better offseasons any executive has had in recent memory. How many teams have added 3 great starters and two position players who are playing at an elite level at their positions in one offseason? What more could we really of asked for? If everything wrong with a team could just be fixed in one offseason we'd see a lot more teams like the A's and Rockies competing more often.

Have we not been paying attention to elite prospects who come up and stink? (not singling you out this seems to be a prospect phenomna amongst fans) even often when they turn into mlb regulars it's very common to hit that wall at the MLB level. What makes Arias so special? Moncada was the #1 prospect in baseball, Mayer was the #4 prospect in baseball. Heck Bogaerts was the #1 prospect in baseball or maybe it was #2 and he was very pedesterian for his first 1.5 years. And, we've all seen how a kid can take massive steps back in his development when he is rushed too fast and asked to do too much. Look at Kristian Campbell? I firmly believe you bring up a prospect when he is ready for the bigs and not when the team needs a guy. If you want to mitigate those disasters then it's time to start approach player development from their side of things, you work on their timeline and if they're not there yet you go outside the organization and get a guy. Arias is 20 and was in Portland just last week. Could he be elite and the exception? absolutely, but a stat line and a prospect ranking isn't proof that he's that guy. But to answer your question I suppose one must ask which Durbin you are talking about? April-early June Durbin and Durbin now? because if it's Durbin now the answer he can be much much much worse than him.

He needs all the help he can get. Maybe just getting on base and being able to do something productive on the offense side will help him swing for the fences better too. He needs to try something, the team is so much better when he's going.

I was joking, but the thought of a Jacoby Ellsbury throwing down a drag bunt and being half way down the line by the time his bat hits the ground is pretty exciting. Maybe Duran needs to learn to bunt.

I don't think his 5.21 ERA in Portland is inspiring too many folks about him performing any better up two levels in the bigs. He also walks a lot of guys. Love the K rate though, he could be more in a relief role. But like.......they're still starting him.

Personally I like the sac bunt when the bases are loaded, there are 2 outs and your 40 HR hitter slow as fudge is at the plate. Nothing gets me more excited.

Oh, I'm certain it is, but that doesn't mean an injury can't strike. Regardless, there's a difference between being hopeful about a clean bill of health than not being prepared for it. The pitching could use help, doesn't have to be high end it can be more depth but at the very least we need depth.

Yes, sacrifice bunting is stupid. I don't mind the main objective moving a guy to 2nd/3rd but you should also be trying to reach base.

Anyone who is willing to bet we have zero injuries on the pitching side thru seasons end has some serious balls.

I agree. I wonder what the "stats" say on it when a guy who is a good bunter sees the thirdbaseman playing deep and the batter is a burner.

I still want to buy pitching. Also, even if there was a strong correlation between workload increase and injuries that wouldn't mean that injuries wouldn't exist in the absence. Theres' more than one way to skin a cat, it's also true that there are more ways for something to go wrong.

X-Ray came back negative.

Figure of speech

No one likes bunting anymore because statistically it’s a bad decision. However, it also means teams are expecting it less. Sometimes you gotta do the opposite of what they say. If you’re not overplaying your hand you’re going to get better results.

The whole bullpen has been much better than I thought they were ealier this year. With Slaten stepping it up the Slaten/Whitlock/CHapman back end has been nails. Tyron Guerrero has been good, Weissert and Watson have looked better recently as well. Not great but fine for 6th inning guys and Jovani Moran has been really good lately. I'm sure they could still use a depth arm, or some talent with options.

I mean, we've been witnessing this for a few years now, especially in the modern game where pitchers pitch harder than they ever have. It's not just the risk of fatigue but how will that effect them the following season? Is Crochetts injury related to such? He went from 24 innings to 146 innings to 200 innings and now he's going to miss most of this year. Actually the more I research this the more confusing it becomes. There actually isn't any real hard evidence to support this. However, teams obviously really care about workload, I think there is more evidence that guys get fatigued. I still, even with lack of evidence of the correlation of injury and increased workload, believe starting pitching should be a priority. Because all our depth is gone. It's just gone. Right now our next starters up are. Bello/Wehunt and that's it. The next two guys in WOO are Raymond Burgos and Michael Sansone who would need to be added to the 40 man.