CaliSoxFanViaSWside

And people will say the Sox are doing what all division winners do, beating up on lousy teams . It's all but a foregone conclusion the Sox will win the division but they aren't going to run into those 5 teams in the playoffs. Not even close . 7 games below .500 against all but the worst teams in baseball is not a confidence builder for expecting to advance beyond the 1st round. I know it won't be the same team after the expected minor tweaks at the trade deadline and Eloy and Robert returning in August and maybe Grandal coming back near the end of the season. Hopefully they are all performing well enough to propel the Sox to the AL Championship.

I'm sort of with you here. I didn't bother with the poll because I have no idea who will sign at what amount and for how long. Rodon has a long injury history and has to finish the season, including playoffs, without any major breakdown. He's a long way off from anyone thinking he'd get $20M /year for 3/4 years. But he is 28 and IF ( a very big IF) he can somehow finish the season without any hiccups, he's potentially worth more. But even then he's got that bad medical history that will factor into offers. Lynn is a lot more reliable but is 34 but $15M seems a bit low for a pitcher of his quality. Someone may offer him 2 years at 50M or someone throws in a 3rd year and offers $60M.

I'll give you one thing , you are a brave soul.

I'm hoping Seattle tanks after the AS break so Kendall Graveman becomes available.

I already asked him if he wants the Sox to do nothing and he didn't bother answering that question.

I'm in no position to demand anything. I am speculating about trades the same as everyone else. How you perceive my passion as different from anyone elses is just silly. The main point of what I wrote is Lopez could be used in a trade for Gallo and that I don't expect Gallo to cost as much as other posters do. Pretty simple. The thread was about Lopez and I talked about Lopez so not derailing. Maybe you are unhappy because you thought Mendick was just fine as a replacement for Madrigal and I touched a nerve.

Everyone here wants to be better than we are now otherwise we wouldn't have a whole section devoted to speculating about trades. Would you be happy if the Sox did nothing at the trade deadline ? If you can answer yes to that then I don't know what to tell you.

I actually used Lopez in my imaginary trade with TX for Gallo. Supposedly they want MLB ready arms. Take that FWIW . The trade I proposed was Burger , Stiever and a multitude of choices for a 3rd piece including Lopez but not a valuable 3rd piece . Lopez would be a flyer but we got flyers in the Quintana /Eloy/Cease trade and another 2 in the Sale trade . People might disagree that Basabe was a flyer. I mean I see people here asking If Crochet plus Burger plus any one of Kelley/Thompson /Dahlquist would be enough and I'm shocked when I see that stuff. Maybe they under rate our prospects or I over rate them. It's not like Gallo has 2+ years left before becoming a FA. You get him for 1.4 years and someone thinks Crochet and Burger and another one of our top 10 might not be enough ? He isn't Chris Sale with 3 full years left and one of the most dominant starting pitchers in the sport. He's barely more than a rental. Hell people here seem Ok with just throwing Engel in RF with Goodwin and going with that. I don't know if it's because of Gallo's ridiculously high perceived cost or if they truly think Gallo over Engel wouldn't be much of a difference. Of course we heard the same from people about Mendick at 2nd when Madrigal went down.

I also edited my post to include a few other things I was curious about.

I know what you did was labor intensive but not super labor intensive so It's appreciated. I don't know how deeply you looked into the type of player selected besides college vs HS . What I mean is many top organizations have been going SS CF types way more and way earlier years wise and hoping their athleticism translates to other positions and creating more versatile ball players as they grow and mature. Those types are also easier to trade . Did you check that out ? Seems to me that the SS CF type of drafting for the Sox just showed up this year while many top orgs. have been doing it that way for 5 or more years. I feel like the better orgs stay away from drafting slower, 1st base, C types and focus more on middle of the field athletes with quick bats who can grow into power rather than the power being already an obvious tool. I think the whole organization should have changed to go along with the rebuild. Better scouting, change in draft philosophy, use more of your international money , use more analytics, biomechanics, slow mo cameras. Now I can't say when all of these things started but I think most of it became more of a focus at least a year after they started the rebuild . I'm still not sure if they have caught up to other organization yet in that regard. Then there's the whole Robert signing but because of penalties imposed they trade away intl money and continued to do it after the penalties were over. They're also not using the international money on younger types from the DR and like to get older types from Cuba. They also made a pitch to get Ohtani but were not one of the 7 finalists and perhaps that's not because they made a poor pitch but Ohtani may have had some predetermined destinations in mind. But he did ask every team to give him reasons why they should sign him. I also seem to remember the Sox didn't have as much Int'l money at the time like many teams did. Don't get me wrong I am more probing here than making accusations. But I am curious if they are still more of a promote from within organization or did they raid some top scouts or other people for those other important areas that needed upgrading. I know you might not have the answers .

I wouldn't want to give up Crochet either if it can be done without him . We'll see if anyone meets the Rangers asking price or if Texas wants to hang onto him like they did Lynn .They should trade him .He's hotter than a pistol right now.

I understand power isn't the end all be all but I also understand that I want to make sure that if Eloy , Robert , Grandal, Moncada and Abreu can not come back to their previous level of power production I'd like a back up plan or 2 before the trade deadline. I 'll be looking closely at Robert's speed since I think his injury was a lot more severe than Eloy's as far as affecting his legs as opposed to his chest like Eloy. He was damn good in his 100 or so AB's before he got injured hitting a lot of doubles and a triple along with his 1 HR and a batting average fueled good OBP. Also concerned that Grandal will take longer than 4-6 weeks . The thread title was never changed but because of the tendon tear, it changed the prognosis to returning before the end of the regular season which seemed like an 10-12 week time period. We are still lacking an official updated timeline but unofficially it's before Oct. 3. now.

Zunino HR 5-1 AL

Tijuan Walker in for the NL . He lasted a long time before the Mets signed him. I was always talking about the Sox signing him in the offseason. He got pretty decent money from the Mets though. More than people expected..

Vladdy , Jr. HR, 2-0 AL, 468 ft.

Big Bastard !

Are you saying Adam Engel would block Gallo ?

Most of the action will be done in the final week. 2nd base has a ton of rental options of non contenders which is why the Sox arent too likely to up the ante very much with Escobar when all the other teams with 2nd baseman are all itching to get rid of them for something/anything. There are likely 11 2nd basemen who can be traded because of being 2022 Free Agents if we count the Nats, Phils, and Cubs among those likely to trade theirs too and that's not counting Frazier .

Power even less an issue with Escobar. There we go you want more power same as I do since I realize Gallo is pretty much a pipe dream. But I am allowed to dream. @bmags dreams all the time on big name acquisitions. Maybe his are all Free Agents I don't remember.

I've been a big supporter of both Engel and Goodwin but I keep being told that Engel improvement against RHP is BABIP inflated and a mirage and that Goodwin can't field his way out of a paper bag and it's best not to rely on them as starters especially if Goodwin is going to get most of the plate appearance in RF due to his lefthandedness.

Can you be more specific ? Starlin Castro (Nats) Brad Miller (phils) Escobar (az) Joe Panik (Mia), Brock Holt (Tx) Asdrubal Cabrera (az) Josh Harrison (Nats) Jonathan Schoop (Det), Trevor Story, Javy Baez ? All of those guys are free agents next year.

Yea at first he can only collide with runners of the other team, Oh wait he could collide with the 2nd baseman and the catcher on pop ups. Ok and maybe the RFer on popups. Well Ok maybe the umpire too . Oh wait he can fall into the dugout. Wait there is netting in front of the standings too right ?

If. the roster can still be relatively healthy. Moncada is relatively healthy because he can play every day but he cannot hit HR's because of shoulder problem or something. Eloy and Robert and Grandal could be relatively healthy because they all can play but does that mean they be will be back to our normal power expectation of them. If is a very big small word. SO I take it the Sox should stand pat you will continue to be happy because they win the division ?

You are saving me from the mob again in the power outage thread ! Do I have a sign on my back that says kick me lately ? I feel like no one wants to win in the playoffs and we'd all should be happy holding hands and singing Kumbayah because we make the playoff 2 years in a row.

Ok thank you are you sending me a bill or is this a free of charge psychiatric visit ?