GreenSox

He suffered for a long time and fought hard. Thanks for the memories and Rest in Peace, Ed Farmer.

I haven’t posted in a while, so this is a fun diversion. Abreu extension: D+ I’d give it a B- were it a 1 year extension. But this clogs things up. I’m all for avoiding “bad” clubhouse guys, but not big on players because they are “good” in the clubhouse. Grandal signing: A- He’s an excellent player; I just think that we had a good catcher, and 2 young catchers behind him. Mazara trade: B I go against the grain on this one. I give this a C+ for the player and an A for the execution. He’s a flawed player, but they needed a RF and the Sox like this guy. Second, the price was reasonable. Third, one thing that happens to rebuilders is that they start log-jamming prospects. This allowed the Sox to thin out the prospect ranks in an area where they had a lot of similar prospects. Fourth, there really weren’t a lot of alternatives in the FA market. The 2 big FA were flawed players that required long term commitments. Keuchel signing: B They missed out on the guy they really needed/wanted, but after that, Keuchel is about the best they could have done. There’s a risk that he rapidly declines, but Sox are pretty good with lefties. Gio G signing: C+ He’s fine for a 5th starter. EE signing: C I think the Sox could have filled this internally and there’s a big chance he declines rapidly. Luis Robert et al extension: A+ I assign this grade to each of the young player extensions. (okay Bummer’s was unnecessary, but that’s subsumed by the rest of them). It’s what the Sox FO does best. Cishek signing: C+ He’s okay. Sox needed a bullpen arm. Overall: B They didn’t address 2B, which I guess means that they think Madrigal is coming in late spring or early summer. I would have liked to see some creative trades, although the Sox didn't have a lot of tangible players or even prospects that they could logically trade to trade (McCann the exception).

Just someone who has the stones to throw the 9th; if we have anyone with really good stuff, they need to pitch the 7th and 8th.

Trade McCann for a decent pitching prospect.

And I just scanned the #5 picks over the same period and I see Matt Williams, Dwight Gooden, Jack McDowell, Vernon Wells, JD Drew, Mark Texeira, Ryan Braun, Buster Posey. So there's some coincidence/sample size involved. The draft is difficult. But that and international signings are the two major sources for young players. The third source, and most efficient, is trading for other teams prospects....you should get a more consistent return because they are more developed.

And the context is his AA numbers: he raked while everyone else, nearly to a man, struggled. And what about Narvaez...he never hit in the minors, but suddenly rakes in the majors. Sometimes these guys just blow-up and teams need to be ready when they do. Dodgers specialize in this stuff.

Some guys do break out later in life, and Mercedes may be one of those. What he did in Birmingham last season was particularly impressive.

Assuredly. That's how many will end up. But that's not their potential. Oh maybe that's the potential for a few in the back half, but teams don't use top 10 picks in the hopes of finding an Eckstein level player. That's the consolation prize....the steak knives.

The goal of Top 100s, not to mention top 5 picks, is much higher than Eckstein. Eckstein level would be a big disappointment.

Leury's value is as a utility player for defense. With him, you only need 1 on the roster, not 2. He's still making less than they gave Jay last season......

Exactly

They didn't want to chance Puig's dog and pony show in the clubhouse. And this org. is clubhouse-sensitive.

It stopped because they filled their holes and there is no one left (who would be a serious upgrade) to fill whatever still may be unfilled. Spending money on these older utility/platoon players/marginal upgrades is just silly.

No Puig.

That would be veteran for the sake of veteran; the kind of stuff we did in Ozzie's latter years.