Jack Parkman

Probably not, but it depends on how cheaply you can get him and who is ready and isn't ready.

You cut bait with Delmonico for the same reason you cut bait with Avi. They both suck and have proven it. The only argument you have for keeping ND around is that he is still pre-arb.

Do they take OF defense into account in ERA+ (or ERA-) because if so, that would probably be the better one to use. I've been having problems with FIP and xFIP lately. I like ERA+ for what happened, and FIP and xFIP for determining luck. I'm not a fan of FIP(in both forms) for what actually happened.

I'd rather they use the 40 man spot on a waiver claim than Delmonico. He sucks.

I've already seen enough of Delmonico and Tilson. They both can join Avi on the way out of town. I'd like to see Rondon get a look at 3B. I've seen enough of Sanchez there.

I don't think their receiving is good enough. They cost the pitching staff too many strikes. There is a trickle down effect from costing your starters strikes, in terms of more pitches thrown per inning, more pitchers used in the bullpen,etc.

This makes no sense. Did you mean that you're not convinced they won't tender him? otherwise way too many negatives, and they all cancel each other out. If that is what you meant, I think they'll tender him too. Crappy OF defense is one way to inflate the ERA of your pitching staff significantly. I don't want them to do that.

I don't disagree. If you want to give Eloy and Palka the bulk of the time in the corner OF, I have no issues with that. I just don't think that either of them will stick in RF, but you're right, Eloy could surprise us. Even Getz said that Eloy was probably destined for LF. Palka can't move, so unless you're ok giving up lots of 3B when balls are hit to the RF corner, I'd suggest someone else occupy RF other than Palka. I'd rather Avi be gone, but I just don't see who else his ABs can realistically go to unless they're going to sign a vet to play right. It is more of a who is going to play there question than anything else. Would you rather them grab another guy off of waivers and give him ABs in RF than give Avi another chance? Palka was a waiver claim.

Of the trio of Davidson, Delmonico and Avi, Avi is last on my list to jettison. Not that any of them are good, Avi just sucks less than the other two.

Again, I generally agree with the last comment but who else is going to take those ABs? There really isn't anyone in-house ready to take them. I'm not crazy about Jimenez in the OF either, but if you're going to give Palka OF reps it shouldn't be in RF. You can stick Eloy there for a bit and then see what happens.

Palka can barely handle LF. I think he's pretty clearly a DH/1B already. He's 2017 Schwarber bad out there. That would last about 10 games before everyone would be pulling their hair out.

I disagree about the catching because I thought a lot of the poor performance of the pitchers this past season had a lot to do with the absolutely crappy receiving skills of the catchers. They were costing their pitchers strikes left and right. They might be ok offensively, but the catchers, as a group, probably cost the Sox more runs with their receiving than they scored with their offense.

I agree with that statement wholeheartedly, but they still have to put butts in seats. He isn't blocking anyone. Which OF will be pushing for time next year? I don't see anyone other than Eloy. He's going to be a fixture in LF for the time being. Basabe is next closest but I don't see him getting a look until next September at the earliest.

They do have capable catchers, but Grandal is so good at receiving and defense, that it would probably improve the pitching staff greatly. It wouldn't shock me if they went after Grandal and moved out Castillo for a bag of used baseballs. Imagine how much someone like Grandal would help the pitching staff in terms of called strikes on borderline pitches. They almost always went against the Sox pitchers this year. I'm almost to the point that when it comes to catching, framing is the most important skill to have. The difference between 2-1 and 1-2 is huge, and the difference between 1-0 and 0-1 is also huge. Sox catching was god awful at that this past season. Narvaez is fine at hitting but he's so awful as a catcher that it makes me question having him around. I feel like his hitting is far outweighed by the pressure he puts on the pitching staff with his horrid receiving.

If they had something better to occupy RF for the MLB team, I'd non-tender him too. Part of me wants to see him gone, part of me wants to see him stay because there is nothing better anywhere close to MLB. Avi was the definition of a replacement level player so if they want to move on and replace him with someone like McCutchen on a 2 year deal or something, I wouldn't complain. If the question is Avi at 8M or McCutchen at 12M, give me McCutchen. I really think the Sox are going to try to stopgap some areas with vets whether they get Machado or not. It wouldn't shock me at all if Pollock was signed to a 3 year deal, McCutchen to a 2 year deal and Grandal to a 4 year deal. If they get Machado, so be it. If they don't get Machado, and they're going the stopgap route, it wouldn't shock me if they gave Donaldson a 2-3 year deal either. They're going to spend this offseason, probably on both pitching and hitting. It wouldn't shock me if they targeted some young underperforming prospects or young pitchers like Jeff Hoffman to grab as well. They're going to be busy this offseason. It's going to look a lot like 2015.

I wasn't saying that they would never sign Didi, I was saying if the choice was 1 year of Didi+Machado and then letting Didi walk, wouldn't you make that choice every day and twice on Sunday?

Andujar is a 1B/DH(he is horrible defensively at 3B) Didi is a FA after 2019. Machado makes a lot of sense for them.

They'd be lucky to get a 4th, which means that it doesn't make sense under any circumstances to trade him. `NFL trade values for established players are weird. If you're not involved with passing or rushing the passer, you aren't worth anything more than a 4th round pick. Only elite pass rushers are worth 1st rounders, and QBs that would be worth a 1st or two don't get traded. Maybe an elite CB could get you a 2nd or 3rd.

I personally believe that Machado to the Yankees will happen fairly quickly. I hope one of us is wrong.

Neither Abreu nor Avi are blocking anyone, so there really isn't a reason to non-tender either unless JR just wants to be a penny pincher, or there is a real chance of landing either Harper or Machado.

we don't know if they have a fixed or variable interest rate though. I'd imagine when you get to sums of money that large, they are actually variable to mitigate some of the risk for the lending institution. Knowing how wealthy people who borrow large sums of money work, that was a poor assumption. Where I was going with that is that they probably have nothing to worry about in making the loan payments. They could probably pay it off if they wanted to, but why would they when they could pocket that money and invest it in other areas. As long as they can cover the payments, that is probably all that matters to the Ricketts family.

I don't have the specifics, but I'd imagine whether they are in debt or not they could pay the loan off in whatever way they want and they really don't have to worry about covering payments. They could probably go 30-40 M in the luxury tax and still make money. The only teams that are better at it than the Cubs are the Yankees and Red Sox. That franchise just prints money. Win or lose, they fill the park up, and they really don't have to worry about things that other teams do. They are bad proof, recession proof, etc. It just seems like there will always be a market for Cubs tickets and merchandise.

They have do do the cost-benefit analyisis. With as much money as that team brings in, it is hard to see them still owing money by 2030. They were probably only able to get that loan because of the ridiculous amount of profit that team makes.

That team prints money. I don't think they care about the luxury tax during their window. They will afterwards, as the core group ages though. Rizzo is going to be the guy they let walk. Bryant will be there forever, unless his shoulder is worse than we all think and he becomes the hitting version of Mark Prior. In that case I would LMFAO. If they get Harper, he and Bryant will be there forever. If not, it will be Bryant and Baez.

Wait until Adam Boqvist comes up next year. He's better than Joki.