Look at Ray Ray Run

Yeah, this was my point above. The market died because everyone was signed by the time the Dodgers made the trade. The demand for COF was already lower than other markets this off-season, and there just weren't enough suitors to maintain the same price demand they had prior.

Yes, and if that happens I will take back everything I said. History isn't on the Red Sox side here though.

Dick, there are a ton of fans who are rationalizing this by saying "The Red Sox couldn't sign Mookie." It's a joke. I've heard fans float the idea that maybe Betts told the Sox he wouldn't sign with them - complete BS, because there's no chance Mookie would give up leverage like that. Fact is, Mookie told them what he wanted in FA and they scoffed at it and decided they didn't want to pay him what he was worth. People are defending it by saying they would have lost him for nothing; completely excusing the fact that there's NO EXCUSE for them not offering Mookie the most money. It's honestly amazing; the ownership PR spin for the last month has clearly worked on some because, in their mind, Mookie was leaving and there was nothing the Red Sox could do about it. We know that's a joke.

The White Sox made the right move by kicking the RF can down the street for another year. Of all the players acquired this off-season, I have a sneaky feeling that the Mazara haters will likely look bad by the end of the year. If they don't look bad, then the Sox bought another year for OF prospects to develop, while still having options on the FA market. I have no issues with the Mazara deal; I didn't at the time, and I still don't. Nearly every rebuild has a come-from-nowhere story of a player developing to a talent level that he was unable to reach before. Mazara may be that piece for the White Sox.

Ozuna is signed for 1 year, and Castellanos can opt out. If he's good enough to be a good sign for the White Sox, he will opt out.

It's one season! Things went their way, it is bound to happen sometimes. I agree the Twins are the best team in the division as of today. I greatly disagree that the Twins in general have a history of maximizing talent - it's just not true. The twins have won nothing.

Red Sox ownership would have been 100% fine paying the repeater tax for years.

Have the Soxtalk people been watching the same Twins team for the past three decades as I have been? I honestly don't think they have, because this Twins envy is comical and this projection of the Twins always maximizing talent is a joke.

1. I want to emphasize something - I never have said WCJ is trash and has no future in the league. In fact, I think he'll be in the league for a long while. My knock on WCJ is that I think his ceiling is far too limited for a team that needed to take risks in the draft to find high ceiling talent. 2. I don't think Sexton has been great by any means; I think he has shown immense progress and development over the last 8 weeks, which is a really good sign given his athletic profile. I still have the same concerns about Sexton as I did before; I am not sure he can run an offense at the NBA level because he doesn't see the floor all that well. He's an undersized 2 as of today, but there's just no denying his offensive talent as a scorer. He could flame out, but I'd rather have that asset than WCJ. 3. While I am not in love with any individual NBA advanced metric - for a multitude of reasons - I do obviously use them and review them. 4. Boylen is what he is; the problem with WCJ is that no one is running sets for bigs anymore, not just Boylen, unless that big is running a pick and pop or pick and roll. WCJ can't shoot well enough from the NBA 3 point line to keep people honest, and I don't think that shot is ever going to come to him which greatly limits his offensive ability because he's not great in the paint with his feet. As for the MPJ comment above; I don't need to see anything else from MPJ. He may get hurt again and his career could end, but the talent is undeniable - as it as at the time. The guy has top 10 NBA player talent, and the Bulls passed because they wanted the safer contributor when the team had no real playoff possibilities. People were optimistic last year about the Bulls - I didn't see it. You have people in here calling Lauri a star; it's nonsense. Lauri is soft, and passive; blaming his lack of bucket attacking on the team pushing out the mid-range J - its complete BS. Lauri moves poorly without the ball, has no sense of post positioning, gets pushed off the block by anyone from a SF to a C, and his pick and pop game sucks because his jumper has betrayed him. He wonders around within the offense, and he doesn't ever exert his strength or play to them. He's been banged up, but that's not going to change because he's SOFT. He's a 7'0 shooting 43% from the field for his career - while shooting under 50% from 2. He was never going to be a great rebounder, but it's still frustrating. This team has one asset and one asset only - Lavine. Everyone else is a dispensable/recyclable piece that has no importance. It's amazing to me that people thought this was a "nice core" last year. The NBA is a star and athleticism driven game. The Bulls have very little.

Disagree 100%. If the Sox have a megastar, they'll move everything else before they move him. I trust this organization to keep a player of that caliber - at least their first go around in FA.

Walker is a better prospect than Rengifo - I don't think this is the case of public prospect rankings not being internal team rankings because Rengifo just isn't as good of a prospect as Walker - but Rengifo is closer to the big leagues and an asset to them right now. Walker wouldn't make much sense for someone like the Dodgers. That said, it's all a moot point since the Dodgers clearly took less than they originally asked to shed salaries.

Again, the price for Joc was not the same 2 months ago as it was yesterday. The price for Joc + Strip went down because the Dodgers had to shed salary to stay under the cap after acquiring Mookie - belief around the game is the only directive Friedman was given this off-season was to get under the threshold and reset the tax. This opens up the ability to re-sign Mookie next off-season and not pay through the roof in tax. This forced the Dodgers to trade Joc + for less than they wanted because they had to dump the salary to get under the threshold.

Yeah, and starts. Innings Pitched Bonus $250,000 each for: 90, 100, 110, 120, 130, 140, 150, 160, 170, 180, 190, 200 Games Started Bonus $1M each for: 15, 20, 25, 30, 32 That's 8 million in incentives that are reachable if he stays healthy + his 3.25 million. It's not expensive by any means, but it's 11-12 million instead of 3 million.

Mookie is, without a doubt, hitting FA and testing the market.

The Red Sox are going to feel this one; you don't trade a generational talent in a pure salary dump without receiving some blow back. With the exception of Chapman, we just don't see a lot of guys traded and then re-signed by the team who traded him. Betts is done in Boston, and I wouldn't at all be shocked to see the Dodgers sign him; assuming he has a Mookie-like year.

I get it; they felt the pressure and frankly didn't have a starting 5 to begin the season with. They weren't sold he wasn't a reliever either, which helped make their decision I'm sure, but Maeda just feels better as a guy you don't HAVE to rely on. I wasn't a big fan when he came over, and he's proven me wrong 100% so far, but I worry about his transition to the AL. One thing that may benefit Maeda is he isn't being dicked around anymore, but he's also not anywhere near as cheap as he appears on the surface. As a starter, he's going to earn a decent payday. I think Cease is a slightly bigger prospect than Graterol, but I think that's a fair comp and it's splitting hairs. Graterol is so young too and already at the MLB level; it feels incredibly risky to move a piece like that for someone who isn't all that proven/reliable to be a 30 start starter. I truthfully believe that had the White Sox not made substantial moves this off-season, that the Twins wouldn't have made this move.

This doesnt show the red sox are serious about signing him imo. They have released excuse after excuse... PR hits blaming the player and yada yada. Fact is this team could pay 40 million in lux tax and still turn a profit. The Red Sox are a clown show. If the Sox trade a HOF'er in his prime because they dont want to pay him I'll be the first person ripping into this front office.

What the hell are the Rockets doing? Going to honestly go against AD and Howard with 6'7 wings?

I cant get over how embarrassing and shitty this is for the Red Sox. What an absolute clown show for them.

The deal for Maeda feels weird by the Twins. I wasn't as high on Gatreol as some, but Maeda isn't exactly a work horse (probably has a similar innings cap) and while he's been effective, its been in a very unique way due to creative usage by the Dodgers. He's a nice piece, but it seems like the Twins gave up a lot and actually may have hurt their roster 2-3 years from now for a, hopefully, short term upgrade. The Twins obviously didn't like him as much as the market.

I'm guessing Marsh.

Report is Friedman had been directed to stay under luxury. When they traded for Mookie and price, they had to move a money piece. Due to the market being settled with outfielders signing, the dodgers likely had little leverage and moved joc for less than they initially wanted because of the mookie/price deal.

Lol. In the east that means nothing anyway since the 8th seed is 6 games under. Even considering that, they arent even a playoff team. The team is a disaster.

Odd? Everyone here was painting some rosey picture of the Bulls future last season, and I articulated a very different opinion that was personal attacked and ridiculed. Now people still want to remain stubborn and say the Bulls are still fine? Amazing. I guess this is why that team never holds anyone accountable.

They were awful with Laurie. You must be watching a different team.