Jack Parkman

You have a point....and it says what his priorities are. Winning is a nice bonus to him.

Everyone thought it was a done deal for him to sign with the Sox supposedly. I don't think he didn't want to be here, I think his wife didn't want to be here. That's a bit different. As they say though....happy wife happy life.

That's not exactly what happened. Wifey wanted to stay on the EC. They really like him and players are allowed to make their own choices. That's why they call it free agency. Nobody can blame him for choosing Philly for family reasons when the money was as close as it was(supposedly)

And I'd rather trade for those two because they have a higher salary and would cost less. The only question is does Jerry agree?

Me too. Also, the Cubs showed how important the 2nd wave is. They need to produce some surprising guys for trades and hold on to their high picks.

I wouldn't take on Harpers entire deal but I would take on all but 50M of it or so, over the last 4 seasons of the deal. I feel fairly confident of Harper being a good player into his mid 30s.

He shouldn't though.

That's the point.

Dunning's stuff is better than Q's. He has 2 better breaking balls than Q did. Dunning was throwing a nasty slider and curveball at times this year. Q was a 2 pitch pitcher for most of his career and it worked for him. I don't disagree with your philosophy, but there are two types of #2s. Underachieving #1s (Darvish, Bauer) and overachieving #3s(Quintana with the Sox, Keuchel) As much as I like Giolito he's still a #2 in the underachieving #1 category.

The other thing is that I don't think Dunning was all the way back from TJS yet. I think that his stuff could get even better next year. I think this is fairly obvious as he was only good for 4-5 innings at best.

I think Dunning could surprise a la Jose Quintana. Nobody believed Q was a #2 until he was.

Yeah Jerry is 85 it's probably not his problem.

That's the $64k question. Can they get Wheeler without trading Cease or Dunning?

Not really. It's more of a tribal thing and both fanbases absolutely loathe the other. The only way for the Sox to get more fans is to tap into the casual baseball fan that follows the winner and convert them into a die hard.

You nailed it.

The Yankees don't really have anyone beyond Cole. Severino is returning from TJS so he'll be on an innings limit. Tanaka is free.

Yankees, Padres, Angels, Jays.....I don't trust the Sox to play with those guys.

Yup, they didn't trade for him....but they did trade for 3 of them....and I guess the industry was starting to sour a bit on Giolito when they acquired him.

You're right actually, he did peak top 5 as well. You can't compare the talent difference. Holy crap, the Sox had some damn good prospects. 4 top 5 guys at different times over a 3 year stretch is insane. Quality>Quantity I guess. What's crazy is that they traded for 3 of them.

Yeah, that's another top 10 guy. Kopech peaked as a top 15 guy. The Sox had much better talent than Philadelphia. IIRC Sanchez was the top guy the Phillies ever had and he was in the 11-15 range. They traded him.

The bottom line is that the Sox had 3 players that were probable 5+ WAR guys with the potential for more. They all hit. The Phillies never had one guy anywhere close to as good of a prospect as any of Giolito/Moncada/Robert.

I'm not as high on him as you because while his stuff is really good, he has no idea where any of it is going. If you can't spot the fastball you have no chance, and that's the pitch that Cease has the hardest time spotting. Don't get me wrong, it's not impossible for him to figure it out. I just find it a 50/50 proposition at best. He shows a lot of the same flaws as Lopez with not being able to spot the fastball and missing bats at a lower rate than you'd think a guy with his stuff should. Cease throws 99 but hitters are all over it.

I don't think Franco was ever top 5 or even top 10 in baseball. Keith Law was the low man on Moncada before his debut and he had him at 6.

And even in terms of struggles, both guys only sucked for a year and a half before figuring it out. Not every rookie is good, but both guys emerged in their 2nd full season. I don't think the Phillies ever had someone like Moncada, Giolito and Robert who were consensus top 5 prospects in baseball at one point in their minor league careers, with Moncada being #1 in some publications. We have to realize how lucky we are as Sox fans to have those three guys.

I think Jerry thinks the Cubans are a safer investment, so he spends more there. I have no idea why Jerry/Kenny/Rick don't go into Japan more then.