JUSTgottaBELIEVE

Btw, can you imagine a Cease trade centered around Westburg and Hall? With the way Westburg has started this season, I can’t even imagine how livid folks would be around here. “Look, Getz traded Cease for a 25 year old utility player! And a 25 year old 5th starter!”

Because the rest of the roster is garbage. This wasn’t going to turn around in one offseason fathom. You know that. This is a multiple year rebuild, which is why I was advocating that the return on a Cease trade be centered around young players with high ceilings rather than guys like Jordan Westburg and Nicky Ortiz.

$4.3M is not too expensive for a solid utility player. I disagree.

At least Nicky plays excellent defense. He’s a useful player if used in the right matchups like he was last year. Actually, he’s the prototypical utility infielder because he’s versatile and runs well too. The Sox 40 man roster is so weak that Nicky if forced into a full time role. Either way, he’s one of the least of their concerns right now.

And Steven Wilson looked excellent last night as well. That’s my closer.

I’m no Getz apologist but the haters are sure quiet about this one so far and very focused on the Fletcher trade. At the big league level, Steven Wilson is looking very good so far too and looks to be very flippable in a few months for additional prospects to effectively add to the Cease haul.

Exactly why I’m skeptical they have an innings limit on him. Again, he pitches tomorrow meaning it will be his 3rd start in their first 9 games. At this rate, he’s going to have 20 starts (~120 innings) by the 4th of July.

And if he doesn‘t “hit a wall” what then? Innings limit anyways?

No. You said he will inevitably get injured by throwing too many innings. How did that work in prior years? Not well. He hardly pitched and was hurt a lot. So if he’s throwing well and feeling good into this summer why would you impose a limit? I have yet to see any evidence that a magical number of innings two years post TJS will prevent injury.

How about we see how he’s going in another couple months? If he’s still going strong and feeling good, why arbitrarily impose a limit?

They sure aren’t starting the season like there’s one and has anyone from the organization said there’s a limit? I’m just saying, their actions so far this season certainly don’t point to a limit and if he’s still throwing the ball well why impose one? He hardly threw any innings the past 5 years and that didn’t keep him healthy.

He’s about to start his third game of the season in two days which means he will have started 3 of the Sox first 9 games. Does it look like they have an innings limit on him, man?

I honestly don’t know how many innings crochet is going to throw but I have yet to see anyone affiliated with the Sox indicate he’s on a limit have you? Wilson will absolutely be closing games for the Sox if they actually have a lead to close. Who else is going to close? No way you can put Kopech in that role after his control issues yet again to start this season. What have you seen from Fedde to indicate he will crash and burn? He’s looked good to me. A solid #3/4 type starter. At just $7.5M/year that has a lot of value to a contending team in July especially with the way top starting pitchers are dropping like flies early in this season.

Who said crochet is on an innings limit? I’ve only heard people talking about that here. Wilson will absolutely get a prospect like Mena if he keeps this up. Relievers with good stuff and proven MLB success with multiple years of cheap control are very valuable in July. Fedde is TBD but I like what I’ve seen so far.

Nah. If Crochet, Wilson, Fedde keep pitching like this and the Sox decide to trade them in a few months, they’ll get a very nice haul of prospects in return.

^and for the reasons above, I was advocating for holding onto Cease until July. I really felt he would have had 2022-like numbers pitching with this defense behind him, compared to that train wreck of a defense last season.

Defensively yes. And honestly, it’s shown on the pitching/defense side as the team carries a 4.13 ERA thru 7 games (compared to 4.87 last season) and only has 2 errors thru 7 games (lowest in MLB). I don’t think anyone was arguing those guys would hit, at least I hope they weren’t arguing that.

It’s clear to me he’s this team’s best reliever. Could get a very nice return for him in a July trade. Still has many years of cheap control.

Fedde certainly appears to be the real deal. They don’t have any big names but this starting rotation is better than what we saw last year (assuming Clevinger is good again).

Torres and Santander feel like Sox type FA signings. I assume they’ll be in play for both and likely only land Santander.

I dunno. He looks like a serviceable 5th starter to me. Certainly better than Flexen.

Exactly why I think there’s more to the story here. Wonder if it will come out eventually.

Is that code for something else though? Putting two and two together kind of feels like it.

What was the deal with Jose? Was he injured or were there off the field personal issues occurring? He was optioned to AAA a month ago and had yet to appear in a AAA game this season. Seems like there’s more to this story.