kleedawg

Liam Hendriks says hello

1. Kopech should most definitely be a starter and the FO has stated as much. He has 4 quality pitches to throw. 2. No, he shouldn't be a pensman again. 3. I'm not currently worried about the strength of the starting rotation because its constituents are about to change. I think Keuchel will be traded and at least 1 FA pitcher will be acquired. 4. I think Lopez will be a longman/spot/6th man as the year progresses. Longman out of the pen in April when we have lots of off days. Spot starter through early part of season. Then 6th man. This will help limit inning s Kopech and keep other pitchers fresh for the playoffs. Acquiring a innings eating starter at the deadline or a vet that can come out of pen and spot start might also be a possibility. Maybe Keuchel's role if retained. Lots of possibilities here. 5. No, he should not be traded anytime soon.

Maybe maybe not. The sox know the actually results of Rodon's MRI's. Its very possible they came back clean ass evidenced by him throwing 99 mph in his last outting.If they they really believe he just had fatigue that is normal after coming back from TJS and not pitching in a long time then they may think its a good risk signing him. But they may want other potential suitors to think just like you that there is something wrong with his physical. If they give Carlos a qo and he accepts then the sox have him for 1 year and then he is a free agent. What if he again pitches great but makes it through the whole year strong? them someone is going to sign him for Wheeler money. But if the sox can now sign him for 3 yr,s at 45 mil they have a steal. Just speculation but it is a plausible scenario.

Maybe the sox suspect that Rodon would accept the QO. Maybe they think no one will offer as much as 18 mil annually for Rodon. Therefore, they can out bid the highest offer and still get Carlos for less than 18 mil. annually. But just like the rest of us I can only speculate on what the sox know and why they do things.

Of course it matters. Doesn't necessarily mean its a deal breaker, but it makes us even more RH'ed

Cue the song breakfast at tiffany's

Then you haven't been looking hard enough. ?

If we swing for the fence, give me Jose Ramirez, though I shudder to think what we would have to give up for him.

I never suggested we sign soler or rosario?! I didn't want either. I said the sox didn't aggressively go after an of because they Had Eloy & Roberts coming back. I wasn't implying that eloy was good defensively. They had engel, & hamilton already on the roster for defense.

For me the question is why no more 100+mph fastballs last year? Did he partially tear something in the A's playoff game? Was he not airing it out for some reason? I can understand not going full velocity early in the year when its cold or if you have to pace yourself as a starter. Maybe to get through a year you save it for the end of the year. But where was that hellacious velocity during the playoffs? He was pretty much unhittable in 2020. Is that stuff gone? I wonder if they know TJS is in the future and they are prolonging that? I don't live locally, does any reporters every ask these questions? Finally, you can be underwhelmed and overwhelmed, but can you be whelmed? I'll hang up and listen.

he needs to be a svelte bastard ?

don't forget he has a really nice change-up too. I think the sox nixed these "feel" pitches when kopech went to the pen.

Ok, ok, we are getting bogged down on the wrong part of my original post. which was my criteria for giving these huge contracts. Which is I want players with has few "warts" as possible if the the health of my organization is going to be massively tied to his sucess.I I made the mistake of not looking up Harper's stats from post but rather went from memory from an old debate I had another sox board. I believe the actual argument (still not looking it up) was that Harper and 1 great year. He had not previously drove in a 100 rbi and his offensive stats were not as good as what Jose Abreu was putting up every year despite the fact that everyone felt Harper was by far the most talented player. I agree Harper would have been a great sign. That Harper has lived up to his potential. That he would be down right sexy in RF for us now. But, none of this paragraph is the main point of my op was about. The bolded part was my main point. My fault for not being more succinct. We all want the sox to Spend some real money on whatever FA is "sexy" at the moment. But they better be the right fit if we are going to give them these Top, Top contracts.

But I was contending that a team should spend that type of crazy money on a player when there is significant doubts about that player as those contracts can cripple a franchise when you make a mistake and severely limit your ability to fill other holes if you are right. Everyone saw that Harper had MVP type talent, but he hadn't put that type of year together prior to signing in Philly. He has done so now multiple times. Not a big surprise he did. I was just contending that if you spend 250-300 million on one player I would prefer he didn't have extraneous baggage attached to him. Harper's risk seems much better than Machado's to date. I just preferred at the time someone safer like betts or arenado. But Yes, Harper in RF for us would damn near be perfect for us.

Absolutely, hindsight 20/20.

I don't think Bob was saying he wanted to trade Vaughn necessarily. He would just trade him before we limit him as strictly a weak side platoon player and kill his value He would only be playing about 20% of the time in this scenario). I don't want to trade Vaughn but I would agree with Bob in that scenario. Engel would be the guy you platoon however.

in regards to harper and machado contracts I was against signing them at the time. I felt if you were going to spend that kind of money on a player the player shouldn't have a lot of question marks. I wanted Arenado (moncada was at 2b at the time) or betts that were about to be free agents instead. Unfortunately arenado re-signed and betts was traded and re-signed. I expressed these opinions on another sox board. Machado's warts was his attitude and lack of hustle. Harper's was that you signing him on what he could be but really hadn't done yet (hadn't drove in 100 runs at the time or did it once, his stats did not match up to Abreu's at the time). Machado still has these issues. Harper has since lived up to his potential.

You mean the lucky catch he made where he wasn't looking at it and it stuck in his glove? How about the routine catch he did not make that fell in front of him? The braves made a BIG gamble trading for a person in rosario that was on the IL and was not due off for quite awhile. They hit lightning in a bottle when he finally became healthy. You must have not watched Engel rob a homer or Vaughn and even eloy make diving catches either. How many games have our outfielders cost us this year? The braves won despite a poor defensive outfield, period. The sox didn't trade for of's at the deadline because they had roberts and eloy coming back and a big lead in the division. They had pressing needs in the bp and at 2b and did not want to deplete their limited prospects with rentals in positions where they were gaining starters from the il. Sure, if they had a crystal ball to see that rosario, duval, pedersen, & soler would be lights out in the post season they may have tried to acquire them. But then again so would have the yankees, redsox, astros, brewers, giants, & dodgers.

cats in the cradle and the silver spoon... works for me

If we got Semien wouldn't just playing Vaughn, Sheets, or Engel (dealer's choice) be better than getting someone like calhoun or Mccuthchen? I mean get someon good or stay with what we got.

Yes, he actually hits better. I watched numerous games of him trying to catch. Its like he doesn't have a glove.

no, Collins looks like a gg in comparison.

There is a difference between having nice splits against all right handed pitchers (the good, bad , and mediocre) and hitting the right handed studs in the playoffs. Having line-up balance also changes pitchers release points and facing LH hitters usually means a pitcher opts for change-ups over sliders and curveballs. So going from potentially their best or 2nd best pitch to 3rd or fourth.

No, for all the previously stated reasons. Also, even if Cleveland won the division, we would have been a wild card team.

Cleveland's starting staff could be downright scary (if they don't trade Bieber). With all the injuries they found something in quantral, mckenzie, & morgan. Also Rosario and zimmerman look like they are becoming players.