TheFutureIsNear

We we were never in the derby...the front office is sitting on the sidelines with their thumbs up their asses trying to determine if Bryce has any relatives they can sign

Can’t develop talent and can’t land free agents...this team really is doomed. Thanks to whoever posted about mlb.tv auto renew. Will be sure to cancel that too

Outbid by the padres? Seems impossible. Either manny never wanted to come here or the front office is a complete joke. Take your pick

I’m actually surprised to see nothing about defensive shifts on there. I’m on the fence about the subject but I know a lot of casual baseball fans that complain about it. It kinda ties into my next point... Speeding up the game is important, but I also think figuring out how to get more balls hit into play is important. K rates have gone bonkers. More balls in play leads to more potential excitement all around. Obviously easier said than done, no one is striking out on purpose, but I think most casual fans can’t handle pitchers duels

Unfortunately a rich old white guy being racist is extremely unsurprising. The world will be a better place when more and more people like Ricketts die off. Until then the MLB should separate him AND his $ from the league. And if his poor son can’t finance the team without Daddy’s $, then too bad. I’m sure you won’t find racist emails from Mark Cuban, but he’s “not the type of owner the league wants” ?

My issue with both Gio and Fulmer is that I’m not sure top of the rotation stuff is anywhere to be found at this point. It’s not like they are struggling with consistently or control. They just flat out can’t get batters out...including the minors, which is even more troubling. To me it almost feels like they are trying to figure out problems just to get to 4th/5th starter status. Don’t get me wrong, if 1 of these guys can stay in the roatatuon full time it’s a big plus for the Sox, but given their pedigree and cost it’s a hard pill to swallow that I don’t have faith in either to make it.

Don’t know, maybe I’m overrating Joc, but can’t see someone else not giving up more than a reliever for him. With 500+ AB’s he’s a 3+ WAR player with 2 years of cheap control. What am I missing?

Don’t feel like going through 85 pages...is there or have there been any rumors on what a hypothetical deal would look like? Can’t see anybody on the roster the Dodgers would want...maybe Jones? But what value does he really have until he stays healthy? Would we be talking about a Dunning level prospect probably? Possibly one of Basabe or Micker + ?

Hypothetically... C- Beef/McCann 1B- Jose 2B- Moncada SS- Anderson 3B- Manny LF- Joc CF- Jay/Engel RF- Palka DH- Alonso Luery and Yolmer as super subs That’s actually not too bad if the front office can pull it off. We would still need another SP before we are any kind of real contenders, but definitely reason for optimism

Great deal for the Dodgers...and I guess the Phillies were being literal with their “stupid money” spending. That McCutchen contract looks awful

Tommy Phan and Austin Meadows are getting the majority of AB's in the corners for the Rays. Avi will be battling for off day AB's and DH platoon with Choi most likely.

Have to see what the contract looks like, but if/when there is an opt out it will make it a lot harder to continue with the rebuild. Can’t wait another 2 years if you possibly only have Manny for 4.

I see 2 OF’ers you have to worry about potentially needing a spot for in 2019 and 2020. Eloy and Rutherford...maybe 3 if you want to add in Madrigal. Anything more and I would call that counting your chickens before they hatch.

Yeah there’s just no way we can count on Jon Jay, Daniel Palka, and Eloy getting his 1st taste of the bigs as our OF if we want to seriously compete. That is questionable offensively and just looks bad defensively. I think we would still need 1 quality starting OF + at least 1 starter capable of giving 180+ innings of sub 4 era ball. And even then I think we’d need a good bit of improvement from the young guys to be a serious competitor

I swear there could be a story about literally anything and this board would flip it into something about Machado/Harper

What’s his market like this year? I’d have no problem with a 1 year deal, maybe 2 if the price is right. Anything beyond 2 years would anger me

I feel like this would be fairly easy to confirm if true. There’s a whole lot of cameras in that stadium

To each their own... I’m not even a little bit of a believer in his 2017 season. Not saying any are huge upgrades offensively, but I think all 3 will hit better then Avi. And then when factoring in corner OF D and base running and yeah I personally take all 3. Obviously there will be a fairly significant price difference...but not my $. I guess my biggest issue is even if/after Manny I see us as 75-80 win team. I know there still has to be a long term approach, but it’s not like payroll will be stretched after Manny. Might as well try to sign some 1 year deals and see if we can get to the playoffs while bridging the gap to the prospects.

If we sign Machado, we better be looking at better options than Avi to fill in the OF. What’s the point of signing Machado and not trying to make the playoffs year 1? I’d wait out the Markakis, Jones, Cargo market and see which 1 I can get on the cheapest 1 year deal

This is just getting sadistic at this point. Flat out selfish really...there's no way you're telling me Harper/Machado don't know where they are signing. Probably agents haggling over $5M of a $300+M contract...or what sports drink will be in the vending machines or something stupid.

I don’t think any team was going to sign Tulo to be their primary SS regardless. And Andujuar is a below average 3B defensively. Can’t imagine there wouldn’t be plans to try him at 1B over their middling platoon of Bird/Voit before trading anyone. Basically, I wouldn’t look too much into this Tulo signing at all. He probably has just of good odds to never play for the Yankees as he does playing any kind of significant SS innings.

The minor system does have to produce...as well as finding a value free agent or 2 + turning a couple of those prospects into an established player. Do those things and THEN go after a top free agent as the final piece. Of course if we could get the final piece 1st it wouldn’t be a bad thing...just a lot easier said than done I feel. I mean, I know if I’m Machado I wouldn’t sign with a team that isn’t a playoff team, even after signing me. Whatever extra $ we can offer isn’t going to make a difference in his life over what the Yankees will pay him.

I know it’s not a popular opinion, but I don’t either ever really seriously considered the Sox. Don’t get me wrong, that’s ultimately Hahn/KW’s fault because they built this team into the undesirable destination that it is at the moment. But I don’t think the necessary funds available was ever enough for Harper or Manny. Everyone else is looking at the Alonso deal like it’s some genius move to get Manny. To me it’s a bad front office continuing to be bad thinking they can supplement with mediocre talent like Alonso/Nova/McCann...and I expect another bad move or 2 and the front office trying to sell the roster as a playoff team. We’ll see....

Would have preferred Encarnacion to Alonso, but no changing that now so this makes no sense. If there's a deal in place for Jose in place would be the only scenario, and that seems like it would be a complete 180 from the front office has been saying.

Agree with the names said already and I’ll throw in Ervin Santana on a 1 year deal under $10M. Had the finger issue last year, but threw 180 innings of sub 4 era in our division the previous 2 years. Obviously the medicals would have to check out, but Santana seems like a safe bet veteran to eat innings and possibly be a trade chip mid season