i agree with those who say to deal every one on 1 yr deals like Martin, Janssen, O'Neill, etc. Get as many prospects as possible given that Henry refuses to allow any big name FA signings. I would try and get what I could too for Story but that will be tough given his injury. Sox need to stop trying to simply stay competitive and truly rebuild. And then unless there are NO SP prospects ranked near where we draft I take a P with our 1st rd pick and another P in either round 2 or 3. Sox have done a good job with position players in the system but the P depth in the minors is terrible.
Our pitching has been the closest thing to a strength that we have had this year. It won't be for long. Poor defense and injuries will destroy starting pitching... which will result in the bullpen getting over taxed (bullpen still kinda unproven anyway).
To try to save the pitching- I'd try to go with a very unconventional rotation. Something like batteries of three pitchers, each going a max of three innings- and a fourth for the 9th inning if necessary. Those guys could pitch every 3 or 4 days. Our pitchers look good early- lets just let Bello do 3, Houck do 3 Wink do 2-3.... do a similar battery the next day.
Maybe when Devers and VG are on the infield the defense looks a little better... I'm not big on Devers for defense... but he's better than the three we are using now. I think you have to somehow find a veteran utility guy that can play defense. As far as offense... I see no solution.
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Dear Mr. Henry,
I appreciate the championships- but I'm watching today's game to see a competitive team. I don't keep going back to restaurants who serve terrible food because two years ago I had a great meal there.
Interesting, but I believe the 5 man rotation has worked pretty well so far, the bullpen has been almost decent, and the Sox team ERA, 2.47, is still ranked #1.
To me the real problem, which the new CBO can't do much to fix in the short term is that, out of the $180M current payroll--11th biggest in MLB--$100M isn't playing for the Sox: Devers $29M; Story $23M; Giolito $18M; Pivetta $8M; Sale $17M; and Turner $7M.
You can almost tack on Yoshida's $18M because he ain't delivering on that salary.
So, let's see, now we're at roughly $60M worth of players who can actually play. Thank goodness the 5 original starters--Bello, Pivetta, Crawford, Whitlock, and Houck--are paid just $14M total.
Nevertheless, $60M, which does represent the value of the players actually able to play right now, is lower than the A's bottom of the barrel $63M.
So I go with moonslav's cautious approach. Watch and see. Maybe trade/dump the 1 year life cycle models like Jansen.
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Dear Mr. Henry,
I appreciate the championships- but I'm watching today's game to see a competitive team. I don't keep going back to restaurants who serve terrible food because two years ago I had a great meal there.
Let me as you this.... we get past the all star break... we are obviously on track to lose enough that we are going to be in the basement again. Devers goes on a hot streak with HR's- you open to trading him to a team that needs a bat to push through the play offs? I certainly am. He's not shown me he is good enough to carry the team, or to build a team around. What is the purpose of paying him all this money for the next few years when the team won't be able to compete?
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Dear Mr. Henry,
I appreciate the championships- but I'm watching today's game to see a competitive team. I don't keep going back to restaurants who serve terrible food because two years ago I had a great meal there.
Championships since purchase by John Henry group: Red Sox 4 Yankees 1
The Red Sox are 8-1 in their last 9 postseason games against the Yankees.