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I thought of better healthier years to Eloy and Robert and Sheets being an .850ish OPS guy and getting intense instructions on playing the OF better. Some level of effectiveness from Kopech is a long way from giving what Rodon gave them. They missed having an ace in the playoffs and they need one to replace him. They are woefully short on pitching depth and not very good defensively. If the Sox stand pat, which no one expects them to do, Soxtalk will sound like 1000 banshees. I know you aren't advocating they stand pat, but being as good as 2021 because of internal options is almost 100% not likely to occur.

I'm with you 100% about not giving the Sox the benefit of the doubt. That being said, if Rodon signs the type of contract you suggest they may not look like complete fools if Rodon doesn't live up to the contract physically. Yes they don't get the draft pick but they just may have decided that taking the $18.4M gamble that he will remain physically sound was not worth the draft pick. If the Sox fail to produce a championship the Kimbrel trade may go down as the turning point in the window that led to the downfall. Unless the Sox can rid themselves of the Kimbrel and Keuchel contracts and then replace Rodon and Keuchel in the starting rotation I have a hard time imagining the Sox being as good as they were this year. I don't see Free Agency as the way the Sox will go , maybe with depth pieces but not any huge signing. I think we are going to see another trade that hurts be it Vaughn, Sheets or Eloy. Madrigal and Heuer may not have been on too many peoples favorites list and quite a few think neither was anything special but Kimbrel's performance plus his prorated salary last year and his salary this year along with the inexpensive services of NM and CH and the unknown effects of how Reinsdorf approaches the new CBA, sure have thrown a monkey wrench into things and may have started a chain of events that greatly impacts the desired championship.

I don't understand it. Sure he's been amazing in the past but the Sox got Rodon for $3M and look what we got out of him. He provided a ton of extra value which is the main reason besides the draft pick I thought he should have got the QO. Now of course the Sox have his medicals so not offering the QO could be because of that and the history of arm breaking down. I thought the Sox got as much as they could from him . But I also think had they been a little more careful with him and kept him at around 5-6 innings per start even when he was dominating and used the BP more he might've lasted longer . I really hope when Kopech is used as a starter that they build him up to 5-6 innings and don't go beyond that no matter how good he is pitching in any one particular game.

Agreed.

Highly doubt the Sox lock up anyone at all by Dec.1st. I don't see much of anything happening with the Sox until after the new CBA is agreed on whenever that may be. Conforto is Boras. If Conforto is expected to get near $20M for 4 or 5 years, he's not coming here period.

That's a pretty fair deal.

Your guardian angel will have to wait in line with PETA (regarding the bullpen).

You missed the part about Ron883 because Kike without the acute accent ( The acute accent (é) is by far the most common diacritic in the Spanish language. It can appear above all five vowels: á, é, í, ó, ú. ) is Kike which is a racist term for Jews which Ron883 pointed out to Caulfield because Ron gonna Ron.

Ron Ron Ron of course you turned it into a joke. That's how people took it judging by the laugh emoji. That's a lot of work just to type a player name on a non Spanish keyboard. I'm pretty sure his nickname has been typed dozens of times in the past on the board without anyone scolding someone for not taking the time to do what you suggest. Own up to it brother. It's just part of your running semi-feud with Caulfield.

Yes I have been on a message board with you and I know how you argue. I stick to the relevant parts of a post unlike you. Your argument about his being a rookie had nothing to do with the poster's and mines points about how much playing time he will get next year when he is behind Eloy in LF , Abreu at 1st and is the weak side of a platoon at DH , Of course I ignored your meaningless point about his backstory . I know the story but it wasn't germain to the discussion about where Vaughn fits in now. He's going to be great. I get it. I also got it last year .Repeating it won't make his performance any better or help the Sox win. Only getting better with consistent plate appearance will help the Sox win. The majority of people didn't think Eloy should ever play LF again when he was injured and were afraid he might hurt Robert. I was one of very few who looked at the situation objectively and said there was no way the Sox weren't going to play Eloy in LF when he returned. Yes ton's of upside, who here doesn't get that ? You don't win banking on upside . The upside has to be realized or you take a seat when there is a lot of talent performing better vying for that playing time.

In case I ever have the desire to type Hernandez' 1st name without you turning it into a Jewish joke how do u get the little thingy over the e ?

My opinion of Soxing it up is much more broad. More like Murphy's Law with Murphy in charge.

Still focused on the hype. You bolded that part of his post and I mentioned his other points and you continue to ignore them lol. You are a piece of work.

I try to stay optimistic on the window because I am not always right . However I have never seen it lasting as long as Hahn's "decade of dominance" and multiple championships" BS he throws out there. Sox are gonna Sox this up. Covid, bad trades, work stoppage , front office , owner or w/e other natural disasters happen.

It's not wrong. You picked out one little thing he said about the hype and ignored his other points that are right. He won't play more than Eloy in left. He won't play more than Abreu at first and if he continues to hit RHP badly he's the weak side of a platoon at DH. Can you dispute that ? There is a lot of hype here on Soxtalk especially last year. It's gotten to be a little less now that more people are more aware how bad his defense is and his late year slump combined with how he hit in RBI situations made people a little more critical of him.

My whole point was the Sox don't have time to screw around with Vaughn's growing pains when there are currently stronger options. It's not about thinking how great he will be it's about how good is he now when it comes to winning games. I want to keep him but right now I have no idea if Jerry is going to keep opening up the wallet unless the Sox rid themselves of Kimbrel and Keuchel or even Grandal as shocking as that might sound.

Tigers think they can win the division next year. They played very well against the Sox and they can smell blood in the water. Our best SP is gone. Keuchel was bad. Kopech is still in on the job training. Hahn made the Sox worse at the deadline and may make them worse again because he works for Jerry who may decide "fuck all the players" again .

Saying a player was bad is not hate. It's perceived as hate when so many fall in love with a player before he ever accomplished anything except being a great college hitter. He is slow and gets bad jumps. Sure he catches most everything he gets to but that doesn't make him a good outfielder. That's where everyone who thinks he passes the eye test screws up and he gets bad jumps so it never looks like his routes are bad . His future is not in the OF. I want him to reach his potential and be the special bat that so many think he is but how do you give him enough playing time for him to do that when the Sox probably will be looking for more LHH and Sheets hits RHP way better than Vaughn. Winning games is the priority . I don't know what your definition of holding your own is but on a team gunning for a Championship the Sox need more than what he produced last year and better defense. He had 1 very good month offensively after he was abysmal for the 1st 2.5 months then finished just as bad as he started. So he was bad 75% of the time and got tired at the end when everyone was upset he wasn't getting enough playing time ?

Basically if you have ever thrown a curve you know how it works. A good curve ball is thrown with an amount of finger pressure and snapping the wrist. This will impart some amount of side spin and backspin .Basically the mound is just the right distance from the plate for the spin to take effect. While it spins the minute it leaves your hand it takes a split second for it to react against the air surrounding it. The same thing applies on a batted ball going to the opposite field or a golf ball when it slices. Now it obviously takes time to perfect the pitch and pitchers do experiment with different ways to throw it to find whats best for them as far as release point and the amount of break and when it breaks, that feels best for them and can be delivered with the most consistency. Some pitchers can throw a curve a number of ways with varying amounts of speed and spin. I'm sure you have heard the term " a get me over curve or fastball", Or a big breaking curve as opposed to a sharp or late breaking curve. Usually the difference with those are the speed the pitch is thrown. Slower curves will break earlier and has a bigger arc because they take a smidge more time to reach the plate so the spin takes effect earlier. I don't know if I truly answered your question. A pitcher who throws them well and with consistency has put in a lot of hours playing around with the pitch in every way possible. Lower seams and slicker balls make it even harder which is one reason so many pitchers started using spider tack besides the obvious reason of getting more spin.

Don't see how this is any different than any other year in baseball history. There always have been and always will be the "haves" and "have nots" in baseball based on the amount of money you have to spend. It's better now than it was from the 1920's to the early 60's when the Yankees just dominated everybody. Once the draft started Yankees couldn't just buy up all the talent from around the country.

High as opposed to what they would have got for him at any other point in his career. Now he's got MLB AB's and crushed RHP which is much better for teams than a RHH who crushes LHP. You could make an argument that they would be selling low but that's only if you think he'll have the opportunity to get even better with the Sox which is unpredictable. What I would really like to find out is how teams are viewing Vaughn vs Sheets. Vaughn's age and pedigree have a lot to do with his value but Sheets being LH and hitting the amount of HR's he did in limited PA's are strong points in his favor. Vaughn in 5 AB's and Sheets in 12 AB's both had a nice post season. Vaughn with a double and Sheets with a double and a HR.

We could obviously go round and round with these discussions involving, Vaughn, Sheets, Eloy and Burger. They all are potentially very good hitters who are lacking defensively. How much of the future do the Sox sacrifice for the present because of payroll ? Vaughn lost AB's to Sheets because of his struggles with RHP. How often can they play Vaughn unless he improves significantly against RHP when you have a bat like Sheets. Gavin's stats hitting against RHP are almost as good as Vaughn's against LHP in just about the same amount of AB's. Vaughn is 2 years younger than Gavin but in order to make the playoffs again how do you play Vaughn more than Gavin against RHP when Vaughn had a .618 OPS and Sheets .900 ? How do you play Vaughn more than Eloy in the LF ? It seemed pretty obvious that the Sox will play Eloy in left despite his injury history there. We can debate all day who is better defensively in LF and not come to any definitive conclusion.

I don't think the Sox are going to spend very much. I really think we see trades. I also think they will keep a close eye on Rodon.

Yea that's garbage. No need to be punished because you play a certain position. Figure out a better way to grade defense. CF is the easiest OF position to play. It does however require a very fast individual usually for the best results. Why should corner OF be graded more harshly because they have to deal with more spin on the ball and slow down when getting too close to walls barely outside fair territory.

I don't think Yoan had a good year "with the bat" . I think he had a good year "in the batters box". HIgh OBP which leads to a .787 OPS but the slugging of .412 was bad. He was also terrible against LHP and on the road. Clutch stats: With 2 outs and RISP ,. 345 SLG. terrible, Late and close .276 SLG terrible, Tie game .335 SLG. terrible.