YourWhatHurts

When the Sox are talking to M&M (Marlins and Mariners) about RFs, they should remember that you can't give up a Haniger-level price for Marte when Haniger is already under contract beyond this year and could be a QO candidate later on (requiring a draft pick) whereas Marte will not be a QO candidate and is a FA after the season. If Marte talks get too expensive, pivot to Haniger. Also, no matter what we do, I think we should try to swap Marshall for Detwiler at some level. Detwiler is a better garbageman and can be more of a sport starter. That move should be a no-brainer. The Marlins should take Marshall if we eat his salary, otherwise maybe we need to give up a borderline prospect in the deal. I'd still do it anyway.

He can also defend. An OF with Robert in CF, and Marte/Engel/Eaton on the corners is a nice big defensive FU you the opposition. I love it.

I would be willing to overpay for Marte a bit because he's our starting RF in the playoffs and he makes a healthy Eaton and Engel into much better players, and gives us a reason to DH Eloy in the playoffs or sit him if he is struggling at that point. Marte would truly be a difference maker for us. Marte could cost one of our better pitching prospects. I might do it though now that I think about it. Crazy idea: Marte for Engel and Ruiz/Burdi. Would MIA actually say no to that? I am really thinking that the rest of baseball may think a lot higher of Adam Engel than Sox fans generally do. In fact, they might even think that is a steal.

Haase is crab people IMO. Catching the ball with a claw.

Haase is the shittiest C I've seen all year.

The dorf won the offseason by default. His cheapness resulted in trading Dane Dunning to pick up 2 SPs for $12M total, yet those were probably the 2 best moves the Sox could make. Had they gotten more of a proven vet FA SP they could have spent that in one player and gotten stiffed. But still, there should not be any excuses for taking on salary to acquire rentals. We will have to see.

I'll have to see it to believe it re: the dorf taking on salary for both Eduardo and Marte. Of course it's the smart move: none are QO candidates, both are rentals, so the price should be salary relief and prospects of the Rutherford/Sheets/Adolfo variety.

This would be the time for all of those pigeons to get back on the field. Maybe there are some french fries in that. Highlight of the game to this point IMO

Yerminator is like Medusa you look him in the eye and you'll lose your lunch.

I 100% do not support the Sox draining what is left of the interesting guys on the farm just to acquire some guy who is maybe an equal or lesser version that the guys we already have here or who are coming back. E.g. why give up a ton to try to replace Robert? Same with Eloy. Why give up a lot for a RP also who is probably worse than Codi Heuer if/when Codi gets it back together? Etc. Mendick is fine as a Madrigal replacement. Eduardo Escobar is a great add and probably inevitable. Someone who can be acquired cheaply, add pop, cover a few positions, etc. that is a great get. Also a spot starter to replace one of the garbage men is a good call, but only if it is really cheap. Lambert IMO looked good overall last time out in MLB. He might even be an answer. Burr might even be an improvement over Marshall. We already might have some help here It's not like we are playing in a division with the Rays, Red Sox and Yankees. Or with the Dodgers and Padres, etc. The Twins are the guppies and CLE's cheapass FO is still just hoping to hit a swoon and dump salary. For all of the bad fortune with injuries this year, there is a lot of good fortune in playing in a division where 2 teams aren't trying at all, 1 is half-assing it at best, and the other who was supposed to challenge us fell on their faces right off the starting line and still haven't gotten back up. Of all of the years where there is reason to hold onto the better-looking/more interesting pieces, this is one. That said I expect a couple smaller deals. Eduardo will come back here as one of them.

Do they have a reason to give ABs to Rutherford? He's our version of the Brewers Ryan Cordell IMO. Also Adolfo has to be on the club next year or else pass through waivers so they can have him too. And I am thinking we should probably sell high on Gavin Sheets. A couple vets like that for a couple of marginal roster crunch guys who are ready for a shot in MLB or near it is a pretty good deal for us all things considered.

Just popping in to remind everyone that Bruuuuuuuuuuce was first on the DRob/Kahnle/Turd Frazier deal which sounded so ludicrous at the time the deal started to leak. Bruuuuuuuuce may be an old worn shoe of a sports guy, but he's still a step above Al's Filthy Cheesecake and those clowns, who IMO most probably have a source similar to the ones Harold and Y2Jimmy have except this one is second-hand at best, and when it isn't producing, they either source reddit and/or make up their own bullshit by reading the tea leaves to fill in the blanks. I'm not trying to put Bruuuuuce on a pedestal here but I mean come on. He's at least better than all the food crap that keeps getting posted.

TLR finally listened to my suggestion about batting Yerminator second. This should help get him out of his funk. If you can get the old school "fast guy with bat control" #2 hitter prototype out of your head, Yerminator is really an ideal #2 hitter in the modern era. The hitting skills with him are off the charts. He's still slumping but this should help him out of it. If you notice, his issues are still swinging through or just getting weak contact off of meatballs. I can't remember the last time I saw a guy make so much quality contact on shit pitches yet swing through, foul off, or pop up so many meatballs for such a long period of time. IMO it's all in his head. Not even kidding, maybe he needs a sports psychiatrist or something, like Hawk would always talk about. Maybe all those years of repressed anger toward FO members who would never let him spread his wings and fly is catching up to him, and now he needs to get it out. Seriously, there is a mental issue there with him IMO, but the hitting skills are terrific, and as a #2 hitter he can do everything you want. And it would great to have contact + power + bat control behind TA who seemingly leads off every other game with a hit.

What good RPs and/or spot starters do the DBacks have that could be packaged in an Eduardo Escobar deal? That might make a lot of sense.

I've actually been thinking personally that Eduardo Escobar makes a lot of sense for a long time, well before the Madrigal injury. Now it seems almost inevitable. I wonder if the DBacks would do something like Sheets / Adolfo / Rutherford plus a marginal RP prospect? I'm not sure they'll get an offer much better than that for Eduardo anyway. I wouldn't give them Lambert, Stiever, or Burger from Charlotte. Burdi might be doable but because the stuff is there I would rather hang on to him and give up someone else a little further away. Burdi could still be MLB depth this season with some improvement.

Royals have had their fingers in their asses over Merrifield for several years now. He's 32. He's not a great player. He's not really a guy you love at 2B anyway and he's certainly not anyone you love in RF. He's just kind of meh, but he fits on a quality veteran team. If the Royals continue to ask for great prospects for him, they will continue to get nothing for him, and eventually he will just be a bench player making too much money in the final year of his deal. The Royals are going nowhere this year so they might as well trade him. It's not as though moving him is going to set their rebuild back. BTW all of those packages above I mentioned have players in it who have the potential to turn out better than he will be going forward. Again he's not a great player. Even a solid #4 SP or a quality DH is a better player than he is. Change my mind.

LOL of course you think that.

He's still talkin shit about Coop lol. Maybe Coop never graduated this School of Baseball.

This is on the pregame show now. Congrats, Ozzie.

I wonder what both sides feel about a deal around Whit Merrifield Burger + Ruiz for Merrifield Stiever + Schryver for Merrifield Lambert + Burdi for Merrifield Thompson + Horn for Merrifield Something like that The Sox IIRC haven't made a really significant deal (significant player for significant prospect deal) with the Royals since IIRC the Mike MacDougal deal. Sox could look to expand it and add Soler and/or a RP. Niot sure I want Dayton Moore and those guys picking over our system, but thinking about it, I could see a Merrifield deal coming together.

Jerry's poor. Marlins will want salary relief.

Realistically, I don't know if Crochet works as a headliner for the DBacks in a Marte deal. He might. Vaughn does. Kopech does. But if we want to keep all of those guys then we aren't getting Marte. Even if they take Crochet, the back part of the package could hurt. And I really don't think giving up Crochet is necessary or justified especially for a guy whose positions are already covered long-term. I know there will be rumors about Marte but that's just not realistic. Peralta is realistic but the DBacks are still going to try to get a potentially solid MLB player out of him who is ready now or close, like Lambert, Stiever, or Burger. I wouldn't do any of those deals because I don't think the need is strong enough to warrant it. It's important to note that we are potentially losing 2 SPs to FA after the year, and even though we are gaining Kopech, Keuchel will be a year older and probably continuing to trend down.

If the Sox were willing to eat money I bet they could get a guy like Escobar for Pilkington and another borderline prospect. Those are the moves I am comfortable making. Kelly's value is probably very low ATM. The other Kanny guys also seem pretty meh also. I don't want to dump any of our prospects with some higher levels of potential just because this farm is already so thin. We're better off holding onto them and hoping we get a couple blue chippers out of the pile instead of selling them off at low values for really next to nothing. I bet there are other teams trying to get Bailey Horn. He's the kind of guy I could see in an Escobar deal if the Sox make the DBacks eat money. Really, I think Horn is a guy we probably trade this deadline. Something like Horn + Schryver for more of a mid-level, older vet in his walk year.

Madrigal has been playing good baseball for a while now. Losing good Madrigal does hurt. That said, we are in much better shape swapping Madrigal for Mendick than we were swapping out Eloy and especially Robert with in-house options.