Vulture

Now you're just trolling

Not necessarily. Could mean that the guys yapping are below the teammates of the guys who remained silent. I get people are really into outrage over any deviance from the narrowing range of acceptable behavior these days, but just because someone is offended and tells everybody about it doesn't make them right.

Brantley probably less like to kill himself or another player though

So they're going to unload a generational bat to have aging Eaton, Brantley and Abreu around? I sure hope not. No reason Sox can't carry all those guys for one year then unload Eaton. I'd rather have Eloy in right and Brantley in left than lose either Eloy or Vaughn. Eaton gone in a year, Brantley and Abreu in two, unless Abreu re-signs to DH. Essentially to make room for Eaton? When we could have Vaughn and Eloy, along with Robert, anchoring the middle of the lineup in their primes for years into the future? No thanks

i think it might take three years. Colome and Hand probably two?

40-45 million would bring payroll to about 150 mil bigger issue is '22-23 but I guess that's a point in favor of Lynn and Eaton moves

I'd rather the Sox stack the bullpen with a pair of high end arms than add another starter really. Cover the last two spots with Cease, Kopech and Steiver, limit their innings as necessary and hand it over to an eight man bullpen stacked to the gills. I probably have more confidence in Kopech stepping in than most though. If you can get those two plus Quintana all the better. I think Q could do all right out of the bullpen if Cease and Kopech can bump him out of the rotation, but if its one or the other I'd go with two of Hendriks, Colome, and Hand if possible. Not sure if any of those guys would be amenable to signing on with another closer on board though, but money does talk

True, but Eaton isn't a guy you can plug in fifth in the order to rectify the problem of run production against rhp. Maybe they still sign Pederson or another left handed run producer. If that's the case I hope they are prepared to bench Eaton in favor of Vaughn.

They tried to get rid of him so hard they just rode his bat to a championship despite having Betts, Bellinger, Pollock, Taylor, Rios and Smith to cover of/dh. Benched a guy who hit 16 HR in 55 games to keep him in the lineup. Beyond Betts and Bellinger, they had the 16 HR guy, an .842 OPS guy in Taylor, Rios with 1 home run per 11 ABs. Just because he's redundant on a team with two of the best outfielders in the game, stacked with left handed hitters, along with these other options in the outfield, doesn't mean he wouldn't have been a considerable upgrade for a team that struggled to produce against rhp.

Completely different scenarios. One a toxic clubhouse under a passive manager in which Eaton was a top player, the other a clubhouse with a clear hierarchy of veteran leadership supported by the entire clubhouse where Eaton will be just another player, under a manager who takes no guff. Then you've got Howie Kendrick claiming Eaton is "one of the best teammates, if not the best, I ever had." I suppose he could be lying, but that suggests the Eaton is toxic narrative might be slightly overblown.

Have you checked the Sox numbers against RHP? The Sox were virtually unbeatable against LHP and .500 against RHP. Sox need someone who can produce against RHP. A's exploited this in playoffs.

I agree the personality issue is way overblown. Issue I have is they just made an all in move giving up a long term asset for a one year rental, but then turned around and made a budget move rather than go after one of the better options. Sox were basically a .500 team against rhp. They should have got a guy who they could have put into a run producing spot in the batting order. Or if they were content with an eight hole hitter they could have got someone who would have vastly improved the defense

Problem there is, Engel can only play one position at a time, but now we have three starting outfielders who range from fairly to very injury prone. Hopefully the Sox pick up another OFer who can chip in at DH, and carry five OF. Leave Leury as utility infielder. Don't want to see him starting any more games in the outfield. This would look a lot better if Sox pick up Dahl. Go with four injury prone outfielders and Engel. Come to think of it, we now have injury prone players everywhere except first and catcher. Better get that bench stacked.

Hopefully that means too costly to afford the high end pitching they are targeting. Not holding my breath though

That graph actually shows all his recent seasons going back to 2014 were within career norms except 2020, and 2017 which was above. Pretty disingenuous representation there. Still, not exactly the ecstatic response inducing move one would hope for. So many better options, they want to save a couple million now??

It would be pretty disappointing if the Sox don't acquire a bat good enough to bump Grandal further down the order against rhp. Plug in Pederson at five leave Robert at 6 and put Grandal at 7. Might as well bump Robert up to the two spot against lefties as well. Ought to give him the best protection possible. Grandal should be sufficient at the fifth spot there. I'm guessing Vaughn will tear up lefties though and bumps him to 6. Ideally Grandal ends up batting in 6th to 8th spot. He's a pretty good hitter for a catcher but he's not that good.

Can we discuss Weems magically appearing at #10, a guy who is clearly more like a borderline top thirty at best, on BP's prospect list shortly before being included in this deal? Surely a major league baseball team isn't using a publication like BP as reference, yet this is quite the coincidence. Do the Sox have an inside man at BP? All I know is I'm taking their rankings with a massive shaker full of salt when preparing for a fantasy draft after this.

Depends what they do with the rest of that money I suppose.

Lynn actually averaged more than 7 innings per start. 83/13. I think he was the only pitcher to do so in '20.

The Sox have got to add a high end bullpen arm at least. If not a closer, at least a top notch set up man to take over Bummer's role if he is moved to closer. Had this the not happened, I would have expected a free agent signing to bump Dunning down. You don't replace pitching talent, you pile on pitching talent. I find it unlikely the Sox would have 13 better pitchers going into '21. Sure there's a chance he could face plant, but this is in fact a highly regarded prospect that looked like it in his call up. We're down to four that could be as good in the near future not ten. Guys like Kelley, Thompson and Dahquist are 2-3 years away from late season debuts, probably 3-4 from possibly contributing.

I guess we're screwed even if we sign Bauer and Springer since neither is close to a top two player in baseball.

I doubt there would be much complaint if the Sox traded him for a player with longer term control. As has been pointed out, Lynn could have an excellent a year and the trade still could easily be a net loss. If the Sox continue making trades like this for stop gaps, the talent pool will be depleted very quickly.

Well that an indictment of fangrapshs then. WAR is supposed to measure actual performance, not prediction of future performance. For example fangraphs has Loaiza down for 2.0 WAR in a season baseball reference had him at 0.1. Loiaza put up 5.71 era, 80 ERA+ in 152 IP. Meanwhile it has Lynn at 1.2 WAR compared to 3.2 from bref for a season he threw 186 innings at 3.43 ERA, a 123 ERA+. Sorry, there is no way Loaiza had a better season there when he was far below league average compared to Lynn, who was well above league average. 80 ERA+ at barely 5 ip per start is in fact replacement level production, as 0.1 indicates. And easily worth at least 3 less wins compared to Lynn's season in actual results.

We don't know that since jumpy Renteria pulled him before we could find out

That was my immediate thought when I saw that list but I didn't think it would actually come to fruition.