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His arm does have a lot of miles but he is young enough that it should bounce back and it is showing signs of that . No pitcher or player comes without something that scares you. I pretty much guarantee his contract will be north of $100M. This is from a recent article on who the Phillies might go after. "Bumgarner had shown signs of decline the last two seasons with lower strikeout rates, higher ERAs and far fewer innings pitched. This season, he's off to a promising start, striking out 9.3 batters per nine innings compared to 7.6 last season, along with one of the lower walk rates of his career. His fastball velocity is also about a full mile per hour higher than it was last season." https://www.nbcsports.com/philadelphia/phillies/mlb-trade-rumors-zack-greinke-madison-bumgarner-mike-minor-all-realistic-phillies-trade

You know you are too smart to keep saying Madrigal will be an integral part of the 2020 team. It's not even a sure thing Robert will be there in 2020. It hurts your credibility when u keep saying that.

Nelson Cruz and Marwin Gonzalez were 2nd tier guys and Schoop got 7.5M but Perez and Cron each got under $5M. As of now the 3 cheapest guys are making the biggest contributions, Blake Parker is a bit like McCann in that he is eligible for arbitration next year but was signed for $1,8 and has been so far an outstanding member of their bull pen. Perez has a team option for 2020.

Maybe. Add Keuchel for this year and next ,sign Bumgarner in the off season and suddenly you have Bumgarner, Keuchel Giolito Cease, Kopech Dunning and Rodon for 2020.

And the thing is it's a great time to do that with FA prices for non tenders , and waivers and free agents who lack suitors for various reasons. If the Sox explored that market with just one person full time. Maybe they could've re signed Avi after he was non tendered or Schoop , or picked on a 30 HR guy like Cron on waivers. or got Martin Perez all guys around 27/28 yrs all for a year with a chance to extend them. But Hahn did get McCann and he fits in that category too.

I'll boo myself for also being right.

It feels like ages since Rondon did anything good. Time for Mendick.

No way you extend him for 5 years and $60 .He won't get 5 years from anyone in free agency.

a hit !

The thing is potential 30 homer guys like Cron and Cruz were out there for the taking. Schoop, Perez and Cron were all 28 and under . Sox wasted all off season on the Machado derby. The only position player they picked up who was youngish was McCann and they let go of Avi who was also still youngish. I don't think the decision to non tender him was bad but not competing with TB to offer him an incentive laden deal could've been tried.

Not really I mean they have some good young players but are getting major contributions from 1 year free agents like Martin Perez, Nelson Cruz, Jonathon Schoop and 2 years for Marwin Gonzalez also big contribution from waivers with CJ Cron also a 1 year contract.

101 exit velocity on the Eloy out.

Only thing to look forward to this game is watching Eloy and Moncada.

Covey looking good so far throwing 5 pitches. 2 seamer, cutter, slider, curve and change up.

I agree. Many good players who have bet on themselves have been burned in free agency Just to name a few Keuchel, Kimbrel and Moustaskas. Grandal had multi year offers he turned down and took a 1 year deal. $25M might look low comparatively because we aere all used to seeing mega bucks being thrown around but it is $25 Million dollars salary for 4 freaking years. Why throw that kind of money away betting on yourself when yourself just had to sign for $2.5 because no one else would pay you more. As Steve Miller sang " Go on take the money and run ".

He's the guy who keeps making threads every year about how bad Abreu is. Them Abreu get's hot and makes him look foolish every time. It's a running joke now around here that he should make more threads saying how poor players are just because it's now regarded as good luck for Ron to post bad things about Abreu.

Ok trying clicking on that word quote on the post you are responding to then we can all follow your meaning better.

I have no idea what your 1st paragraph is talking about. If you are talking about Brice Turang he isn't even in our system. He's 19 and in A ball with the Brewers system.

Going with the ultra bad lack of depth lineup without McCann, Anderson and Garcia. They are 3 of our top 6 position player in fWAR with Anderson 1st and McCann 3rd. Looks like another 5+ run loss.

Don't forget Jonathon Schoop , non tendered and signed for 1 year by the Twins for $7.5M You won't get a high OBP from him but he has been worth 1.3 bWAR this year with 10 HR's . Last year the Twins tried Free agency with mostly pitchers and it backfired, This year they went after more position players Besides Schoop it was Nelson Cruz, Marwin Gonzalez, and also picked up CJ Cron off waivers from Tampa Bay. One of their best pitchers was a Free Agent Martin Perez. One of their best relievers is Blake Parker who they also signed as a FA. Make no doubt the Twins hit a HR this year and that is ultra rare hitting on so many low cost guys. But it isn't so rare to get 1 or 2 that can contribute. The Twins spent less than $50M for all those FA's and waivers on an under 30 yrs old 30 HR guy in CJ Cron and gave him $4.8M for a year. . By the way his father Chris managed in the White Sox minor leagues so you could have thought he should've been on the Sox radar.

But that isn't his plan because that was before the rebuild and the payroll was higher than then now. His plan if to definitely go after high end guys but either supplement it with less expensive types or reinforce weak positions only if needed. For example you let Alonso not get the AB's necessary to vest his option and go after Rendon. If Rendon falls through maybe you go after Moustakas if he is available to either play 1st base or third and even some second base like the Brewers are using him. Or you can go after both. He has actually played more games at 2nd base than 3rd base this year and has done enough there for his WAR not to suffer He's already been worth 1.6 bWAR this year and was a relatively cheap option for 2 years in a row. He should be a 2.5 WAR guy who is a run producer; Look at someone like Yolmer Sanchez who was a 3.5 and 2,5 bWar guy for 2 years in a row coming into this year but much of it was fielding, Once he stopped hitting he became a 0 WAR guy . You pretty much always know what you are going to get from Moustakas. Inexpensive guys who play multiple positions who can hit 30 HR's while not batting below .250 are always decent pickups. You cannot have stars at every position. Right now Moustaskas is Jose Abreu with the bat but with twice the bWAR because he plays 3rd and 2nd equally well and if that's the case he can also play 1st. He's also around 1.5 years younger than Abreu.

He probably isn't and Hahn doesn't have to make any decision on them regarding 1st base and Abreu. It really should be the last position on the team that requires much planning. There are always large human baseball players around to man that position.

It would be negligent not to explore a trade of Abreu, It doesn't matter if we like him or not. He is going to be a free agent and you trade those players every time. If you want him back resign him. But please go after a starting pitcher and Rendon before anyone else. The rest can wait. 1st base can wait not only do we have plenty of 1st base candidates but we might be adding another one in the draft with our 1st round pick. ( I really hope we don't).

That is always a concern, but the last few years it really hasn't been that hard to identify some decent 2nd tier guys. Just look for guys that have a track record of production in the AL who aren't all that old , who play solid defense have some power and on base abilities. I thought Avi and Schoop were the most talented guys among the non tendered guys. I thought Brantley would've been a really good pick up this year. You can see my comments on him in the recently bumped thread about the Colome trade. I thought McCann was the right choice among the catchers to pick up just because he was the youngest and offered the most unrealized potential when the rest of the catchers were just old guys. Also comments on him in that Colome thread and earlier than that in some spring training threads though I have no idea which ones. I liked Moustakas and JD Martinez not necessarily to keep for a long time but they seemed to offer the most upside while having very few teams going after them and could have been flipped.. Moustakas came cheap 2 years in a row although 2 years ago i believe he had a draft choice attached to him. I also like left handed hitters a lot more than righties. I think you also have to take some chances on injured guys like the Sox did with Jermaine Dye and Houston did with Brantley. I don't think I'm as good with picking pitchers but I do like Bumgarner . I'm also of the group that the Sox should kick the tires on Keuchel who at this point should be considering as a Tier B guy because after the draft I'm thinking it won't take more than 2 years and whoever gets him may offer 3 and while the Sox might have to outbid some contenders i don't think he'll be more than 30M . If he is I'd pass on him. Ideally for the rest of 2019 and 2020 at somewhere under $30M.And yes I'd love Rendon,

Well if you want to believe less than a half season of framing stats that's up to you. I know it's difficult to keep track of everyone's position on framing but mine always was that if you are to believe in framing stats then more time is needed. And my main arguments have always been that pitchers and umpires have just as much to do with those stats and also there seems to be a lot of variance on framing stats from year to year .