Jack Parkman

Did any of you listen to the Hahn podcast from a few weeks ago? He did say that they were targeting premium pitchers this offseason but I wonder what he considers "premium." Does he mean premium for everyone or premium for the Sox?

They had a metric shit ton of money last offseason and they still didn't give out competitive offers. Cole, Strasburg and Ozuna are Boras guys. I'd be surprised if they even talk given what happened last year with Harper.

I'm not saying it would guarantee it, but I do think it would have given them significantly better odds. That was a hypothetical question. Hopefully we're not asking ourselves that question at this time next year.

If keeping the extra year of service on those 3 guys is the difference between a division title and missing the playoffs in 2020, was it still worth it? Obviously a bit hyperbolic of a question but it has to be asked.

Kopech spending 8 weeks in AAA could be the difference between making the playoffs in 2020 and sitting at home. Same for Robert and Madrigal spending an extra 8 weeks of the roster this year. Again, I want them to all be firing on all cylinders simultaneously. That is how you win championships.

I mean yeah, in a perfect world they land some decent FA the next two offseasons and go win a title or two. This isn't a perfect world, and this is baseball. Weird things happen. For all we know Giolito could get injured in 2022 and never be the same guy, but in 2020-2021 he pitches like an ace. We all are Sox fans here, we all want them to land FA and succeed. I'm a bit concerned already about how top heavy their minor league system is. They might not be able to acquire the finishing pieces to put the team over the top. I just wouldn't count on them landing FA or making decent trades until they actually pull it off. Nobody here wants them to fail. It's more of the skepticism that they'll actually pull off what they need to do to win. That skepticism is well earned.

Again, I don't care about his clock, I care about Moncada and Giolito. Again, do you want to waste their best years?

Or we will be pissed about early struggles from the prospects they waited on such that nobody peaked simultaneously and they peaked at 88 wins.

They might be able to pull off Giolito but Moncada is a long shot. He's going to get $250M when he's up. He'll be 28 which is young for a FA. I don't think I'm being negative, I think I'm being rational here.

Why waste those innings in Charlotte? Why can't they use him out of the bullpen in April and May and then stretch him out later? I agree that he's only getting 130-150 innings next year.

I operate under the assumption both will be beyond what the Sox are willing to pay. Based on this season, I think that is a pretty safe assumption.

Yes, let's completely waste Moncada and Giolito while playing silly games.

? They're going to completely fuck this up by playing silly games. Again, the only clock that matters at this point is the one on Moncada, Giolito and Lopez.

They're playing service time games again. Great. Let's completely waste this rebuild.

Starting Kopech in AAA. I know why they'd do it but it seems beyond dumb. I'd like to see what his control is like in ST before making that decision.

No way, they're not doing that. That would be beyond dumb. If they're signing a 2nd SP it would be a guy in the Wood/Nova range and not a top FA.

Yes, that's what I meant. He's been pretty healthy this year but that is the aberration.

I don't think they are, unless they plan to use a pitcher to grab a RF.

He's an injury waiting to happen.

I want nothing do do with Ryu.

You could say the same about Wheeler. Citi isn't quite as pitcher friendly as AT&T and PetCo but it's not that far away either.

When stuff like that happens you have to ask yourself why. Again, I just want a decent LHP in the rotation, where Bumgarner is pretty much the only option. I don't necessarily agree that Wheeler will get that much less than Bumgarner. If you guys like him so much there has to be teams that like him too. IMO Bumgarner will get a deal similar to Corbin and Wheeler's floor is 5/110. He's better than Samardzija and JS got 5/100.

I'm not talking about his career stats, I'm talking about 2019.

Only because of Bumgarner's non-baseball freak injury. He crashed his ATV. Bumgarner has still been good this year, and he's been really good down the stretch. I question guys that have great stuff and poor results like Wheeler. His FIP/xFIP look good but he's put up results that are worse than Nova. Javy Vazquez anyone? https://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=10310&position=P https://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=5524&position=P They're pretty similar advanced stat wise IMO.

They just got JR to make an investment in it around a year or two ago. It was long overdue. The fact that they're already seeing results is encouraging, but it doesn't mean they're still not behind most of baseball that has been doing it for much longer.