SoxBlanco

Will your plan better prepare him to be a starter in 2021? I don't think so. If he's only going to pitch about 100 innings this year, why not let him do it against major league hitters with our best coaches there to help him?

Exactly. This is why I keep asking what specific plan is preferred.

This seems to be the point that people are missing. I don't understand what specific plan is preferred. Do you guys want him to start in the minors and then just get shut down in the middle of the season? @southsider2k5, @Harold's Leg Lift, @Jack Parkman, @Balta1701

You can coach him to not be a thrower while he's on the major league team. In fact, I prefer him working with the big league coaches at this point. You're not wrong that he won't get starting experience in 2021 with this plan, but with your plan, he won't be getting experience facing major league hitters. Like ptatc said, both options have advantages and disadvantages. I'd much rather him be learning to get major league hitters out while working with our best coaches. You're acting like it's a completely greedy decision based only on helping the team win right now, and I don't think that's true at all.

Many people keep saying things like this, but I haven't heard a good argument for why this is true. What is wrong with pitching him out of the bullpen for 100 innings this year and then making him a starter in 2022? If he can only go 100 innings this year, what's the better plan? People are acting like they are making this "short-sighted" decision because they want him in the pen to help them win this year. If he can only go 100 innings, why does it matter if it's in the major league bullpen or in the minors starting games? I admit that I am not an expert on this, but nobody is providing a good explanation to support why he should be starting games in the minors.

But Sale was NOT in the same boat because he had built up innings the previous year. He pitched about 130/140 innings in 2010. Also, he pitched in 58 games in 2011, but he threw 71 innings.

Why can't he be a multi-inning reliever this year to get him up to 100 innings?

Can we move the last few posts from the Hendriks thread into this thread?

Not just any players...slightly good to very good players.

I don’t think it’ll actually happen (hence my 1% chance comment), but I stand by my statement. People thought Machado would get close to $400M at first. San Diego was not one of the teams in the mix until late. When they realized it would only take $300M, they jumped in and got him. Right now, people are saying Bauer wants $200M. The Sox aren’t interested. But if the price comes down and they realize they can get him on a 1 or 2 year deal or perhaps something in the $120M range, then maybe they make an offer. The comparison wasn’t meant to be dollar for dollar. It was describing the idea of staying away early because the price is too high but then coming in late when no other teams are making a serious push for him.

Maybe we’ll get lucky and land Bauer the same way that San Diego landed Machado. Not interested for most of the offseason because he’s out of our price range, but then when nobody else is really willing to pay, we swoop in and get him for much less than we originally thought he’d get. (Maybe a 1% chance ?)

Bauer

I don’t think it’ll be the Sale plan. I see them being creative to get him up to 100 innings. If they start him in the bigs, there will definitely be a plan that is well thought-out. Maybe it’s a few starts here or there. Maybe it’s 2 or 3 or eventually even 4 inning relief appearances once a week for a certain amount of time. If it doesn’t matter how he gets his 100 innings in terms of affecting his chances of being a starter moving forward, and a solid plan is put into place, I’d rather him be in the majors being challenged and helping the team.

Thanks for your insight. If that’s true, then I’m not sure why anybody would want him to start in the minors. Curious to hear @Y2Jimmy0’s thoughts, since I know you’ve been wanting him to start in Birmingham. (Maybe we could move these last few posts to the Crochet/Kopech thread)

Smart...pretend you’re not confident here so that it contradicts your Al’s Cheesy Beef account to throw us off the scent that you are him. (I kid, I kid)

Solid post. Thanks for the stats.

Yep. And Hendriks seems to like TLR, Giolito, and several other players on the Sox. I think he wants to be a part of this team for the next few years.

Gotcha. Thanks. I still think we land Hendriks.

I was afraid to ask because I thought I was missing something obvious. @Orlando, what’s the conspiracy? That Al’s Beef is Codify?

This is the blurb on relievers (nothing specific about Hendriks):

I look at it like this: Money is certainly a factor while determining the finalists. If a team isn’t willing to pay what the agent is asking for, they won’t be a finalist. But once the finalists are determined, Hendriks will make a choice among them that will not be based on which offer is the highest.

Yeah, 4 for $96M is as high as I’d go. You might be able to convince me to do 4 for $98M, but 4 for $100M?!?! That’s just insane.

I would love to finish the offseason with Hendriks, a Musgrove trade, and a LH bat.

Fantastic post. Couldn’t agree more. With Musgrove on board, we would have a nice rotation of Giolito, Lynn, Musgrove, Keuchel, and Cease/Kopech. Keuchel in the 4 slot will be great, and we’d have a ton of upside in the 5 slot.

Why can’t he start in the majors as a guy out of the pen pitching 2-3 innings at a time? Then try to mix in some starts where he can go 4 or 5. Do that for the entire year with a certain amount of innings as a target, and then make him a starter right out of the gate in 2022.