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Until they actually have to play on the Sox . AAAA depth is good no doubt but better AAAA depth is better. Next thing you know the Sox will be resigning Engel to a minor league deal too.

I'd say it's a bit over 40% of the roster but point taken by the hyperbole.

Missing 2020 kind of screwed up rankings. It affected some guys more than others, mostly the college kids when a lost year can mean more since they are already older. A missed year for a 19 yr old may not mean as much to their ranking if they were ranked high to start. But if a 22 year old misses a year when he's still in A ball that's a long road ahead .

Basically its a bunch of people going by what they see in rankings without any special knowledge of a teams system, a players developmental path. A lot of guys missed 2020 lost a year of development. If they came back strong from that instead of all rusty and bad those prospects should be given a lot of credit for how they took advantage of the missed year and also how the parent teams may also have given the guidance necessary for the prospect to follow. How did Sox prospects do in 2021. The Sox minors may be bad but seems like some of the top guys did well coming back from the missed year. Maybe not some of the pitchers though.

Esteury rhymes with Leury. Nuff said ! Legend in the making.

Sure he would he's been pitching with it for14 years , but the question becomes as he ages will the damn break at some point ? Will he get more forearms strains leading to him being out longer periods of time ? We both don't trust Hahn to make good trades but it's either that or go into the season counting on a bunch of guys rebounding from last year and without 2 needed OF's, LH, good defensive OF's or you're going to see Eloy in LF and Sheets in RF again. Eloy's chances of remaining healthy and finally fulfilling his vast potential does not get better with him in the OF nor does the Sox OF defense.

Nope I'm saying that since Lopez pitched well last year he's the most likely guy to close over Graveman who had a bad 2nd half and doesn't seem to adjust well if his routine is messed with. Sox have 2 choices on who would close for them if Hendriks is traded I picked the younger guy who had the better year who has good control. If Lopez comes in a craps the bed at least they will have the players they got in trade and have money at the trade deadline or can use the money they saved to strengthen the BP behind Lopez. If Lopez fails then its Gravemans turn. We can always create obstacles in our minds. I can ask you what if questions too . What if those 11 guys keep getting injured and still suck. Then how does keeping Hendriks help the Sox ? What if Hendriks gets hurt ? June 15 2022 this was revealed : Hendriks revealed on Wednesday, a day after going on the injured list, that he has had a torn UCL since 2008. Forearm strains often raise red flags. They can be a precursor of more serious problems, including the need for Tommy John surgery to repair a torn UCL. But Hendriks said he is “not concerned with it long term at all.”

Brewers.

I think you have to remember Hendriks was a failed starting pitcher before he became an elite closer just like Lopez is a failed starter. That is what happens often and that's a good path for many guys in the BP these days. Just because Thornton couldn't close has nothing to do with how Lopez will pan out. Hardly anyone is drafted as solely a relief pitcher. If the Sox don't trade Hendriks then how do they climb out of the hole they are in ? They aren't spending money. That leaves trades. Hahn has said as much already . Hendriks on a .500 team is useless . If you think the Sox can contend then they need a lot of help from 11 players who were either hurt or performed poorly last year. Then Hendriks has to do what he always does in his age 34 season. If he gets injured the Sox lose a guy who a lot of teams want right now. To a contender he may be the difference between a playoff team and a World Championship. If he gets injured he loses a lot of value. There is no easy way out here. Just hanging onto aging good players until they lose effectiveness due to age or injury is not a good strategy.

There's going to be obstacles along the way to fixing the vast amount of problems the Sox have. You have to have your depth step up eventually if you're going to win. Trading Hendriks might be the only way the Sox can spend more money and get more players. Better now than when he losses his effectiveness or has a major injury. Lopez had an excellent season last year. He should be trusted to take a next level position. Plus if Lopez does well the Sox are creating a lot of value This is how teams climb out of a hole. Trade the good guy who costs a lot get players and lower payroll. Have the next guy step up and get similar value for a lot less money.

They are a year apart in age so Sosa would be considered more MLB ready but Rodriguez probably not that far behind him. Both RH, both about the same size, both primarily SS's so far in the minors but both have played 2nd base and some 3rd too. Internally they might be valued slightly differently, maybe one of them is viewed as a better fielder or better SS, Sosa more power ATM but that could be the difference between being 21 or 22 and having 1 more year of development. But a casual observation yields a lot of similarities. Who knows you keep them both and they could end of your keystone combination. But I do see that Montgomery's name is mentioned more often as a replacement for TA than either Sosa or Rodriguez. Whether that's due to hype or reality I don't know. It could be true if both Sosa and Rodriguez are both viewed as future 2nd basemen more than SS.

Gravemen does have experience closing but Lopez seems like the most likely candidate given he pitched better than Gravemen and you could keep Gravemen in the role he had last year.

If the Dodgers are thin in the middle infield the Sox have Lenyn Sosa and Jose Rodriguez who are redundant to the Sox as infielders . If one of them can snag you Outman.... Dodgers still need to beef up their OF core though somehow and if they trade for one ,some of those Dodger prospects are going to be moved. I wonder if the Dodgers might be interested in Ian Happ. Even though the Cubs are building they still might recognize the need to move Happ rather than risk keeping him and getting nothing for him. Outman could be traded to the Cubs rather than taking another prospect for him. Cubs could be interested in Cartaya and make it a bigger trade. According to MLBTR the Dodgers did have some interest in Happ at the deadline last year.

Monaco, Montenegro, Montreal, Montrose ?

What you quoted from me , you aren't disputing. I already said Swason was great defensively the last 2 years and TA had just about his worst defensive year.

Unfortunately spread the money ,spread the risk is hardly even a concept when you have Bellinger getting 1 one year deal for $17.5 M and a guy like Gallo may get $10M and you trade for Kimbrel, pick up his option and trade him for another older guy who came here , only to have his worst year ever in the Toxic Sox environment. Then you pay Leury for 3 years and give an injured pitcher 2 years $17M. Right now it's spread the money and watch how badly it all goes while my boss picked our manager and the whole core crumbled. Expecting JR to cover his and Hahn's mistakes that led to the mess was never going to happen. He figured $190M was enough but can't seem to grasp they need a strong infrastructure to support that payroll. He's invested in making the park a better place to watch a game but isn't close to investing in how to create a model for being a winning franchise.

Exactly where Jerry likes them to be in a weak division. JR is like I'll show those fans what happens when you don't do white flag trades and boo my manager. There are times to retreat and regroup and pick up reinforcements. Now as usual with this team have have nothing to show for those players. Tampa Bay may not win World Series with their way of doing it but at least they are a franchise that knows who they are and acts accordingly. If JR wants to win by creating a perfect balance of payroll and player peaks without investing in player development or play in the murky waters of Int'l. signees he also knows he's handicapping Hahn from the get go which is probably why he won't fire him. It's hard to find puppets. It's really amazing that concept actually worked once in 2005

"JR wants to find the perfect equilibrium of where exactly what’s needed meets exactly what it would cost and never risk going above it that equilibrium." This is it in a nutshell. 2005 was when that happened and it took all kinds of luck and some very good and career years from quite a few of the guys on that team. That's exceedingly rare . Just look at the Sox talent. Moncada's best was 2019. Gio's best came before Cease became really good. Keuchels best came in the short season. Hopefully we havent seen Eloy's best yet but so far in was either 2019 or 2020 depending on how you view the short season. The best we have seen from Robert was 2021 but only for 68 games and now he's had a major injury to go along with all the minor injuries he's had so far. Had a great season from Rodon but he was never going to be able to pitch like he did early in the year to the end of the season.

There's very few choices out there who can both field and hit. I mean what else am I supposed to look for ? AAA stars are not a bad thing. He took a while to get to where he's at now. That's what happens when you take a guy in the 7th round with a great body and a great athlete who didn't have much of a college career. I wish the Sox could develop a guy like that. WE always have to keep in mind that minor league players players missed all of 2020 which is the case with Outman. In 2021 somewhere between A+ and AA the things the Dodgers had been working on him with all started clicking. The 2nd half of 2021 in AA he started blooming. In 2022 the Dodgers started him off in AA again to make sure the changes would stick and he did even better . Then promoted to AAA and did even better. So basically he's had only 1.5 years of good results with only .5 seasons in AAA. Based on that I can't call him a "tweener" because he's hasn't been bouncing back and forth between AAA and the majors. If he had done in 2020 what he did in 2021 he might have started getting some national attention in the rankings and then higher after if his 2022 performance came in 2021. Will he be a good player ? I don't know. 1st round draft picks bust all the time too. I'm just going by skill set and recent performance. I don't have much else to go by. Speed, power and defense. Most guys the Sox have picked up in the OF never had this guy's skill set. Haseley, Cordell, Palka. If it helps there's Jarred Kelenic too . He's only 22 and he might hit MLB pitching well some day. He needs time to develop too. If he becomes a star 2 or 3 years from now with another team I don't think that team will mind at all. Even a guy they let walk like Luis Gonzalez showed he can play in the bigs. Who else are recent OF that the fan base had high hopes for in the last few years ? Rutherford ? Basabe ? Adolfo ? Nothing wrong with targeting players who have skills in a position lacking talent and depth. You show how good he's been and how far he's come and list everything you can about the guy and then some wise ass says you're basing in it all on a 4 game sample (1.400 OPS) with the Dodgers. Even if I was basing it on that a 1.400 OPS for 4 games its better than going 0 for 16 and looking bad . But as you can see from above with his progression and the missed year in 2020 there's more to him than 4 games in MLB. For all we know if the Dodgers don't fix their own OF problems he might get 300 AB's with them in 2023. But the Dodgers have all kinds of money to spend but even they are having a hard time finding a guy ATM looking at retreads like McCutchen and Heyward. The Sox aren't the only team looking for OFers in a barren desert. It's slim pickings and even more so for a LH OF with skills and 6 years of eligibility. On the bright side I see his name more so I've convinced some people he might be worth a try. I'm not going to apologize for hoping the Sox get better and making suggestions on how they can do it given the apparent payroll restrictions.

That's exactly what I was thinking.

And if you have approached this season realistically and post about acquiring youngish players to improve the team because as a Sox fan you want to feel you are making wise choices for depth you get kicked in the head by our fans hoping for money to pop up out of nowhere and belittling that approach or the players you pick when Cespedes was your best depth OF until a few weeks ago and it's not really much better now. It's just sad being a fan now.

Then we definitely won't be able to compete. Might as well leave the roster as talented as it can be , take your chances on Lopez as a closer star getting some new blood for the team in a position of need. It won't guarantee the World Series but neither will fantasizing about Gallo finding 4 War again when he's just not the same hitter or fielder that he was.

I doubt Lopez fits into the BP heavy payroll if what he meant was BP guys getting high salaries like Hendriks, Graveman, Kelly. Even Diekman and Bummer are making more than Lopez. It'll be pretty close depending if the Sox make a higher offer than his projected Arbitration raise of $3.3M.

If you thought Hendriks might be traded picking up arms could solidify taking that position. Everyone moves up a notch. Lopez, Graveman, Bummer , Lambert then the rest. Avila,Kelly, Diekman, Ruiz. Crochet either put in the minors upon his return in August. Barring any trades of course if Hendriks goes.

Gallo played 6 innings in CF in 2022. Before that he played 1 inning in 2020. In 2019 he played 310 innings in CF and that was when his sprint speed was 69.8 so faster than 70% of the players in baseball. In 2022 he was faster than only 46% of all players in baseball. We saw Pollock in CF last year and he is faster than 60% of the players in baseball. This is on Baseball Savant. He should never play CF, But hey the Sox have put square pegs in round holes in the OF before. I'm sure he do fine but if you want a guy to flag down doubles and triples into the gap he's more likely to give up more of those hits than he is going to prevent them in CF.