5GoldGlovesOF,75

They all should be up. What better time for your first cup of coffee than trying to make an impression on a historically bad team in a historically bad season? What's the worst that can happen -- the Red Sox lose more and continue to finish last? In such low pressure situations, can anyone possibly be too rushed and get scarred for life (well, unless he takes a line drive or fastball off the skull)? Before free agency, winners and losers promoted their best prospects every September. Bloom doesn't seem like a guy obsessed with service time clocks, at least from his Rays days (has any Tampa player stuck for six years in their history?)... unless he wants to keep them more attractive as trade bait.

I'm with you (I said "may" have to change). No one argues about the virtues of spreading the wealth to build a contender, but some of us see that as idealistic.

The problem nowadays is that all the really good players demand -- and get -- 10-year deals. Such demands may have to change with pandemic economics and a new CBA...

Ownership may have the patience to see this through, but will a spoiled fandom? It's a balancing act, because it's a business. Perhaps the hope is that people with cabin fever will still flock to Fenway when it's finally safe again, no matter how bad the team is during the rebuild. In the meantime, just be honest with us -- we can take it. For example, don't contrive a NESN report card on the first half of the 2020 season that gives the starting staff a D and the bullpen a C- ... (I give the reporter a big fat F for those evaluations).

... except Red Sox nation would've still had to stomach his negative attitude toward the franchise and industry that made him and generations of future Prices so rich; that would've been a joy this summer (not to mention his no-trade kick-in that would've blessed us with his tired act and diminishing skills for the next three years after this).

Traditionally, big-boned football-physique Yankee specimens named Judge and Stanton always break down by age 28, especially the year before first-time arbitration eligibility. There was a Joe Judge who played until he was 40, mostly for Washington, and finished his career in Boston. But he flew under the goal posts at 5'8, 155. The last Mike Stanton who Yankee fans actually liked was the lefty set-up man who pitched over a thousand games and won three rings. He pushed gravity limits at 6'1, but eight teams took a chance on him, including the Red Sox twice...

But corner platoon DHs are probably the easiest guys to find; the Rays cut one or two every year. Nothing helps pitching work out more than solid defense, especially up the middle. A core of good glovemen with range and arms at catcher, short, second and center can make winners out of all kinds of Martin Perez types (of course, that was baseball tradition for over a century, before analytics just stuffed five guys on one side to get in the way of any one-hop liner or hard-hit grounder). Sadly, if the rebuilding Red Sox consummate all of the past week's rumors -- and trade Bogie, Vaz and JBJ -- they'll have zero core D going forward.

If Im a contender that needs another bat, I'd take Andujar. If I'm rebuilding, the last thing I need is another player who can't play a defensive position as a major league regular.

Bloom warned us the Sox weren't going to be as good this year without Betts and Price.

And yet, spending unwisely -- as well as being unwise in their approach to Mookie from his very first year of arbitration -- is what got us here in 2020, when the not-a-mandate goal of resetting prevented Boston from fielding an MLB caliber club. My point about Betts and winning is that you have to pay for quality results. Everyone talks about building around a core, and what better place to start than a future Hall of Famer about to enter his prime. This is exactly what LA, a big market club, chose to do. Good luck finding a better investment, especially a homegrown face of the franchise: drafted, signed and developed in your own system. Obviously, there will be a lot more options for Henry to spend his Mookie savings on. But it's unpredictable just what quality will be available and when. Three guys like Martin Perez don't equal one Max Scherzer (one David Price didn't, either). I just think that after a few losing seasons, despite deliberate, meticulous rebuilding, the Sox will still wind up signing a star free agent for something close to what it would've taken to keep Betts in the first place. And he won't be as good. There have just been too many impulsive Crawford-Rusney-Lackey-Panda point-of-purchase buys at the check-out line.

... to Jon Lester!

I still like the trade that site approved last winter of Devers for the Braves' top three pitching prospects, plus (which I, as pseudo-owner, only approved after I signed Betts... for all my hundreds of dollars).

Thanks for reminding me of our three acquired Dodgers prospects: a good outfielder, a hit-first "infielder" with average arm and speed, and a future utility guy. What did I expect for 13 years of a Hall of Famer... pitching prospects? It's not like we have the worst pitching staff in history yet -- there's still a whole weekend before September.

The whole Swihart debacle -- a guy who could've been traded for Cole Hamels -- is what makes me wince at the early Connor Wong scouting reports: a promising minor league hitter who needs work as a catcher, but is versatile enough to move around the diamond... I guess it's not all bad. There have been success stories for guys who started out as catchers and switched positions: Dale Murphy won back-to-back MVPs, Craig Biggio made the Hall of Fame, Harper grew his hair really long.

This has always been my prediction, and why it seems inevitable he'll blow money on lesser "names" (and talent) than Mookie. Bottom line is the bottom line, after all, and Henry has tickets to sell... unless he has a team to sell.

For many years now, however, there has been far more baseball talk on NY sports radio than Boston sports radio. This was true even in the summer of 2018 -- the Red Sox were playing their best ball in a century, while most callers and "personalities" savored the drama of NFL training camp.

Good analytics should put him in the best situation to be successful. Based on your data, that would be when the team is way ahead or way behind... preferably in Pawtucket or just to save Peraza and Plawecki for more meaningful innings.

Clearly, Shaw is a better slugger, but Chavis gets on base more...

Thank you for adjusting my perspective: from now on, any deal where we add cash won't go to paying off salary, but for the cost of "acquiring" a good prospect. Now we're big market again -- everyone's for sale.

Are we that desperate to be a worse team (for at least another season), that we have to keep paying guys to play for someone else? I mean, it's not like any of them hate Boston, hate the media, publicly disrespect franchise Hall of Famers, can't beat the Yankees or play in Yankee Stadium or anywhere at night if it's too cold...

MLB.com just speculated on a Vaz to Tampa trade for pitching prospects. Intra-division deals may be rare, but it does make sense when seeking to maximize value because no opposing GM knows the Rays system like Bloom (plus, he'd be helping his old buds improve their shot at beating NY).

At this point, I'd take Julio Franco (you know he can still hit)... but not Wanda Sykes.

Plus, offensive splits shouldn't factor into the Sox plan on infield defense going forward, especially since outfield -- Boston's specialty on D in their first-place run -- will no longer be a strength (with Betts, and presumably JBJ and maybe Beni gone). Everyone rightly points to solid pitching as a key to turning things around, but the whole equation is pitching + defense = respectability. Chavis is not a longterm option at second; maybe someday it will be Arauz or Downs or Bogie if he stays... but right now it's musical mediocrity.

A main problem for rebuilding clubs going forward is whether minor league play resumes in 2021 (not to mention amateur levels for scouting/drafting). If not, positional shifts and grooming prospects can only be done on practice fields and not in actual games. Hopefully after the trade deadline, a guy like Dalbec will be up soon, so we can see if he's better at third than Devers or strikes out less than Chavis. Duran needs to get a look, too; it's doubtful he turns into Ellsbury (two rings), but would anyone settle on pre-Boston Grady Sizemore (what a strange career, though: four years in a row with MVP votes, then basically done as a regular at age 26). Second base needs a top glove man, as well. Teams with bad pitching can't afford not to turn DP opportunities. The Giants cut Yolmer Sanchez; he's the reigning AL Gold Glove second baseman.

It's easy to forget now, because of his ill-advised extension and TJ, but Chris Sale put Boston over the top. Sale was the best pitcher in the AL and absolutely dominated in '17 and '18 like no Red Sox pitcher since Pedro. The All-Star Game starter both years, Sale was the perfect ace addition to an already first-place team and good veteran starting core with Cy Young winners Porcello and Price. It can't be emphasized enough -- the lift a great pitching acquisition gives to a contender: the confidence he gives to the defense every night he toes the rubber, the heat he takes off the offense that knows it can relax and swing at the right pitches to produce enough runs, the rest he provides the bullpen arms, the inspiration he supplies to fellow starters. Think how much better Boston was when Schilling joined Martinez, Lowe and Wakefield. In the actual '18 postseason, Sale wasn't as good as Eovaldi or Price or Kelly, but his presence can never be overrated... whether it was his profanity-laced rant that rallied the dugout in WS Gm 4 or the standing ovation the staff gave him as he left the pen to close out Gm 5.