Con te Giolito

I'm not sold on Anderson either but there's no way they send him down. Even if he's drowning they'll try and let him figure it out w the big league club. Only way he's back in Charlotte is if he's rehabbing.

Tim Anderson won't be going back to Charlotte.

The Cubs have nothing (including Baez) that matches Torres, Bregman or Meadows. They only way they match that kind of headliner is with Schwarber and that is flat out not hapening. If talks reach a point where one of those headliners won't be available then fine, let them join the bidding.

Avi spent a lot of time roping liners throughout the minors while young for his level almost every step of the way. Take a look at his minor league stats they are quite impressive, this dude doesn't even come close to Avi's minor league production.

Atmosphere at camp should be pretty competitive, lots of guys vying for roster spots and plate appearances. It definitely wont be Bring Your Kid to Work Day country club with the good ol boys. Lotta money on the line for a lot of fringe guys desperately trying to keep the dream alive. Strongest will survive and hey, maybe you find a dude or two off the scrap heap (like Mr. Quintana...) who plays his way into future plans. At the very least the culture will change.

yea Bernstein and Holmes both showed up in the last hour, both desperately trying to seem poignant and make the moment about themselves rather than Boers. The stuff with McNiel, Jiggets and North was awesome but you just knew the "evolved" Score personalities were gonna barge it and ruin it all, and sure enough they did.

Franklin Perez or Francis Martes probably.

Right now with Jose Quintana still on the White Sox the only AL rotation that I can safely say the Astros are 100% better than is Minnesota. If you can make a counter argument to that I'd like to hear it. The only pitcher of theirs I have confidence in from a health standpoint is Colin McHugh (who isn't very good). None of their offseason acquisitions are that impressive. What makes Josh Reddick better than Melky Cabrera when the Sox signed Melky two years ago? How easily can you picture an alternate reality where Kenny Williams goes ALL IN again by signing Beltran and trading for McCann? I'm not gonna talk too much s*** about Gurriel and Bregman. Those are not bad players to be plugging in to patch holes and are much, much better options than McCann and Beltran.

OK let me put it a different way. The Astros rotation is not capable of taking a team to the World Series, and probably not even the playoffs.

Shoulder injury, chronic elbow injury, average starter, below average starter, reclamation project. Color me unimpressed.

Buying can applied to FA and trades. The Red Sox "bought" Chris Sale for 4 prospects a month ago. I hope this isn't too complicated a concept for you.

1. Courtney Hawkins, of 2. Trayce Thompson, of 3. Carlos Sanchez, ss/2b 4. Erik Johnson, rhp 5. Keenyn Walker, of 6. Scott Snodgress, lhp 7. Andre Rienzo, rhp 8. Keon Barnum, 1b 9. Jared Mitchell, of 10. Chris Beck, rhp http://www.baseballamerica.com/minors/2013...llUAzpU67oEH.99 NOT GOOD

They should've gotten the deal they got + Devers. Sox wound up atoning for their mistake with Boston by doing so well in the Eaton deal, but they handled the Sale trade pretty poorly. If Moncada achieves his ceiling nobody will care (nor should they really) but if he doesn't the lack of depth pieces in the Sale return will be highlighted

There's also no guarantee we will need a pitcher like Quintana in 3 years. I've referred to it as the pitching Death Star before, but the Sox minor leagues are now packed with some of the best young arms in baseball and they figure to continue to add more over the next 18 months. If the Sox can develop these guys, something they have definitely shown the ability to do, they wont need Q.

Well zips and Steamer both have Frazier and Bregman as pretty equal 2017 contributors. Now I dont think much more of these projection models than I do the garbage polling metrics that whiffed so badly in November, but I do think at least next year you can expect similar production from the two. So if Luhnow b****es up a storm about including Bregman and taking away from 2017 there is always Frazier to add in to grease a deal. Bregman, Fisher, Perez for Quintana, Frazier...who says no? (aside from deluded Astros fans who think Bregman already belongs in Cooperstown)

Doesnt really fit the "build up the middle" strategy but I could see it. I think he fits better in a Bregman centered package than a Tucker headlined deal.

Yankees situation is even more dire going forward with their entire rotation coming up for free agency after this season (Tanaka has an opt out). Now unlike Houston and Pittsburgh the Yankees have the resources to go hog wild next year in a loaded FA class for pitchers, but even then they aren't going to spend $500m on pitchers on the eve of the Machado/Harper/Kershaw smorgasbord. Unless Severino gets his s*** together they dont have any close to the majors top tier pitching prospects either. Other than Sheffield (AA) all their top arms just wrapped up a season in A-ball. At best Kaprielian, Tate, Acevedo, Sheffield will be ready to play in the majors in 2018, and that's a year the Yankees have targeted for real contention to help lure in the monster FA's for the following winter so I doubt they want to go through the growing pains for multiple young arms. I have a feeling someone is going to blink and the Sox will get Torres, Meadows or Bregman as their headliner. I didnt feel that way a couple weeks ago but the market for Q seems to be expanding as teams realize there no other options. The Rays have outlandish demands for an inferior pitcher in Archer and none of the remaining FA's are even rotation worthy (it was a terrible class to begin with). Quintana is all that's left until the deadline probably makes a few impending free agents available as rentals.

This has been my argument. If they cannot move Cutch and wont trade Meadows their only options are to do something ridiculous like stash Meadows in AAA for 2 years (begging for a grievance), play Meadows at 1b or try to move Marte/Polanco. The alternative, flipping Meadows now to fill a position of huge need and taking the next two years to develop another OF, seems to make a ton more sense. Their desperation to move McCutchen has only torpedoed what little value he had coming into the offseason. I just dont see their price on him being met by Toronto.

I have no interest in Machado at the price he will command. Like absolutely zero. If you felt uneasy about Adam Eaton, really a damn fine guy character wise, you're going to HATE Manny Machado picking fights with opponents and throwing his batting helmet around. And then you'll have to outbid the Yankees throwing $300m+ at him...nothanks.

Tell me where Cutch is going in the next 2 years?

I cant tell if you guys are being serious but of the Bregman/Torres/Meadows ultraheadliner pool Meadows definitely feels the most available. The Astros are so drunk on Bregman hype its probably not worth meeting their price on him.

I'm a fan of including Frazier to grease a deal or enhance the return. I also think if there's a pitcher from the Astros the Sox should want its Franklin Perez, he absolutely bulldozed A-ball as a 18 year old. Kinda like Tucker, you're buying this guy now because its possible he'll be in the top 10 this time next year. I'd probably rather have him than Martes, to be honest.

B, but I'd probably accept both. 5-for-1 swaps are pretty appealing as you get to spread the risk out over many players. With deal A you're basically praying Bregman makes it.

Not a bad thing.

Merkin did say he was just guessing about no Tucker. If that Archer rumor is correct they obviously are prepared to move him.