Leaderboard

Nice

The Mariners are in free fall. Dipoto is an a tough spot and has shown in the past he has zero qualms about gutting the farm to get who he wants. They don't have much of a farm left to sell but the Sox could really take advantage here.

I was at the game for my birthday sitting behind home plate ready to propose to my girlfriend afterwards heading to river north. A perfect day for me I'd say.

Adam Engel now has a 3.000 OPS since the invention of the Rally Engel. Coincidence? I think so.

The reality is that Sale could provide the Red Sox 24 WAR for about $40M plus should get a comp pick if/when he leaves. That’s a good $150M in surplus value. Having said that, if Moncada & Kopech are both 4 WAR players over the course of their period of control, we’re talking about nearly 50 WAR in return. And no one should be surprised if one of them becomes an absolute stud and blows that projection out of the water. That doesn’t even include Basabe, who has a chance to be a pretty good player himself. I would say as things stands right now, we’ll likely end up with significantly more value than the Red Sox. That doesn’t mean the trade was lopsided necessarily, but hopefully we can consider it a sure fire win from our perspective.

THIS IS THE MEME!

Final line for Cease: 7 IP, 12 K, 1 BB, 1 H, 0 R, 63/101 strikes

The flipside to this equation is why should the Sox trade a guy who is young, has upside, and is cost controlled. He certainly seems like the type of piece you keep. If we are going to contend, we are going to need to have a bullpen and having a nice, young, cost controlled piece is a good thing. Now if the concern is injuries (given his checkered injury history), than I understand.

I really don't like this thought process. People have found stats that make them rationalize why certain things are okay / aren't okay. This "absolutism" baseball has evolved into is just not good for the overall excitement of the game (i.e., HR / BB / K). Batting average is a good stat (it is not a worthless stat). Getting more hits is a good thing. Yes, luck and other factors exist (and need to be accounted for), but guys who get more hits are just generally going to be more likely to deliver in critical situations and help you win more "one-run" games. The fundamentals of players, etc has declined. Doesn't mean guys aren't physically gifted...cause are incredibly gifted and pitchers throw ridiculously harder, etc, which adds to the nuances, but the advent of the shift, the ridiculous amount of strikeouts...none of that would have happened in the first 100 years of the game.

The arm grade on Blake is one of those odd things where you can find reports all over the place. I've seen one BA writer in an article call it above average, but their tool grade in rankings puts it below. MLBP as you said calls it 50, which is average. I personally called it above average in my looks for FS. My guess for the discrepancy: His arm STRENGTH is average at best. But I've seen him doing outfield drills twice where he was putting on an absolute clinic for hitting a target glove. Highly accurate, compared to his peers like Adolfo or Basabe who have cannons but not nearly the accuracy. For me, that should be part of the picture. For others, I think they just go with strength.

Britton has had some control issues the past two seasons and there's an elevated injury risk with him. His strikeout rate is also down quite a bit from 2016. After two injury plagued seasons and at the no longer tender age of 30, this isn't the same Britton we witnessed in 2016. I am not sure why people continue to value him like it is. I think his trade value is far more comparable to Soria than people are crediting. If he were still performing at 2016 levels, you would have seen a much better return. Tate is a guy that I had targeted for the Sox in a Soria trade and I think someone of his stature is feasible but the Sox wouldn't get more than a lotto ticket as a second piece, if anything at all.

Trade him before everybody, including Omar, realizes he is Omar Narvaez.

I was driving around a certain south suburb with a girl getting RH when I got the call. I’ll never forget it!

Honestly, this post kind of makes me hate baseball.

In 64 fewer at-bats, Leury has the same number of hits as Engel, two more homers, four more RBIs, and just one less stolen base. He has a much better arm, and the difference in their range in center field is minimal, especially when you compare the other facets of their respective games. Time to make the change! #startLeuryoverEngel

And in games where the Sox are down 11-2, you have Benetti asking the 71 year-old Stone how his prom was. Excruciating!

Chris Volstad vs Mike Trout is definitely gonna end well

Or how about he loses with the Red Sox and then comes home to win one with his new pals, Yoan, Michael, & Luis.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/whitesox/ct-spt-white-sox-michael-kopech-charlotte-20180725-story.html

No stopping the Rally Engel!

He’s a very good defensive outfielder and still learning to hit

Yoan RH ABs are getting so much better.Keep getting comfy YoYo

FTFY.

How many times have we said this in July? How many Cy Young Awards does Sale have? This may seem harsh, but until I see him do it in September and October, I'm not believing it. Further, Moncada still has the potential to be a future MVP candidate, Kopech has the potential to be a future Cy Young award candidate, and Basabe is starting to flash the potential of an above average everyday ML starter. If the Sox get all that for Sale, it's a lopsided deal in their favor despite Sale being very good.

Also, Shields’ xFIP is at -1.21 tonight...lol.

I kind of disagree with this as Sale has to be the favorite to win the Cy Young at this point.

Oh sure, wise after the fact.

The issue with giving Fulmer more time is that he hasn't had any kind of prolonged success at any point in his career so far. We're talking about 370 innings across pretty much every level without being able to consistently get batters out. That's kind of a problem. Moving him into the bullpen is a necessary panic move to jump start his career.

Also, Collins probably deserves some credit for calling a great game.

I highly recommend that anyone with MILBTV watch this Barons game. Cease with 9 K’s through 5 perfect innings with 43 of 62 pitches for strikes (69%). He really looks incredible tonight. Just got a swinging K on a 3-2 count on a changeup.

What a strange thread to post this

To the Angels. And it goes extra innings. And he pitches the 13th and gets the L.

Yep, you are right. The Dansby trade was just horrible, not rule breaking.

Its basically so teams can't get around the not trading draft picks by just agreeing to trades in principle and then confirming them after the draft. There used to be a loophole where a recently drafted player that should not be allowed to be traded was traded as a PTBNL in a trade. It happened to Dansby Swanson Trea Turner and everyone knew it so it was weird when he was playing for the team that drafted him for two months when he knew he was actually heading to the Braves Nats as soon as he was allowed to be traded.

Omar is at least starting from the ground floor and hopefully making his way up. If he does become the Sox next manager he would have earned it.

I'd personally like to keep Fry. He's a solid piece to start building the bullpen on. But if someone offers you close to anything Mejia is then you have to jump on that.

Soria been much better then Britton. He also has another year of control

I like how he says the number 34 texan with a bit of a wild streak might not be the one you think. And then its Nolan Ryan, who is exactly who I thought when I read it.

It's great when you remember that Meghan McCain owes everything she has entirely to the birth lottery and that her father voted for her to inherit millions of dollars tax free, yet she'll still whine about "handouts". this was even better though: I love that they're giving AOC and her platform so much free airtime.

I was at the game with my daughter trying to get as much time with her before she moves to Petaluma and told her I felt Moncada would hit a HR today, My first thought was Scioscia should've opened the inning with a lefty. He didn't and Moncada made them pay. Also wondered why Rodon was replaced by Minaya . Thought the Sox might've made a trade. Really good game to attend.

Rodon’s pitching, Soria’s pitching, Moncada’s ABs, Anderson’s defense, Abreu’s ABs, Yolmer’s heads up play in the 6th, Delmonico coming through in the clutch. Lots of good moments

The kid has been up and down like a yo-yo since the Sox drafted him. He was also rushed to the big leagues and that may have screwed his development some. I just don't see the harm in letting him continue to start at Charlotte. Who is he blocking there at the moment?

So what? He isn't blocking anyone there at the moment. Let the kid continue to start at Charlotte. This is a throwaway year anyway.

I'm not aware of anyone calling for Moncada to get demoted to AAA or regulated to a super sub role like Leury Garcia. The issues with Moncada are that he is looking like a slightly above average player at this point in his career and not the super star that he was projected to be. He could always become that superstar and is gonna get thousands of at bats in a Sox uniform to prove it. I watched Avi Garcia bumble around in right field for 3 plus years before he showed anything. Why shouldn't Fulmer get the same chance in a throwaway year?

This year and next are still tank years. The goal is to lose as many games as possible while letting the young prospects develop. I see no downside to letting Fulmer continue to start at Charlotte and then bringing him in September once Shields is gone. Give the kid some time to figure it out. The Sox thought so highly of him that they used a top ten pick on him. Let the kid develop at his own pace!!!

So everyone is already ready to give up on this kid as a starter after 13 career big league starts? Not all prospect development is linear and the kid is still just 24 and a former top ten pick. At the very least, the Sox should continue to let him start at AAA until Shields is traded and then let him start in the bigs for the rest of the year. Avi Garcia got 3 plus years and a thousand at bats as a sub replacement player before his breakout all star year. Shouldn't Fulmer at least get 25 or so starts before he is sent to the bullpen?