Ozzie for Manager

Are we to believe that Rick Renteria wasnt 2 sheets to the wind most games? It is the only explanation for some of the managerial moves he made.

Platoon with engel in RF. Even though Engel has been frustrating he has worked hard and gotten progressively better every year offensively. If he continues his progression he is a .270 hitter with great speed and defense. For what he will cost us it is a good value. Would like to see him work on his pitch selection so he can walk more and improve the OBP.

I wonder what Detwiler was thinking. Guy had a great year as a solid lefty out of the bullpen only to be kicked to the curb for a always hurt, completely ineffective lefty who isnt even a reliever and has pitched barely at all the last month. Lets be honest, the only reason Rodon was on the playoff roster is because he was a top 10 pick. He did nothing to earn it this year and we didnt have the balls to leave him off the roster, and it hurt us. Detwiler could have given you 3 innings potentially.

Rather have Detwiler than Rodon on the roster. Rodon has done nothing and will most likely get injured during soft toss.

Cross Gavin Williams from ECU. He said he is going back to ECU. Came off Tommy John and only had 3 innings this year, throws 98 with a ton of upside. Seen him pitch dozens of times, can be a 1st rounder next year.

I think you keep Collins at AAA and if he continues to improve then he becomes a more valuable trade piece, especially as a catcher. If he becomes so good you have a good problem on your hands. You can keep him or trade Mccann for some help. No reason to rush, its not like he tore it up yet and is some rising prospect. I think you would sell on the cheap now with minimal bargaining power since teams know we are just dumping him.

I was thinking exactly the same thing. HAHA

Or has someone banging a trashcan behind the dugout to let him know what pitch is coming

Its crazy to think we are arguing about possibly acquiring too many talented players that we need to get playing time. We should be embracing this as it gives our prospects time to actually be ready to be in the majors and not rushed. It makes us competitive and actually having a shot at the playoffs. And it gives us some options come the trade deadline if we need to make a final push. For the last 14 years we have been selling off scraps for the future because we were out of it. We have been playing the coveys, saladinos, tilson's every day. This is a great change. Go out and get all the talent you can get and actually attempt to play for now and not the future.

Someone wake up Hahn from his coma

I have learned to never count on Carlos Rodon. Maybe Giolitto has spent the offseason learning to be ambidextrous and will hold down 2 of the 5 spots. One day he is a LHP, the other a RHP. Better option than Covey. Seriously we should take a flyer on a fizzled prospect who was just in a bad situation. Jeff Hoffman for instance. Was going to be the #1 pick until TJ surgery at end of Jr year in college. Comes back and goes fairly quick through the minors and gets traded to the Rockies. Awful for any pitcher. He is up and down so many times he needs a change. He would be up 2 or so starts, then sent down, then in the bullpen, then back down. I know he was not happy the way he was handled and would love to get out of there. He would cost next to nothing. He can hit 98, has some control issues but the raw talent is there, just needs to learn how to pitch. Could be an Arrietta type.

Castellanos who many on here love was a .6 WAR through his 24 year old season. Calhoun had 25 ABs in the majors through his 24 year old season. Ozuna 5.8 WAR through his 24 year old season. 4.4 of that was in 1 year at the age of 23. His 24 year old season was .5 WAR, worse than Mazara's Mazara is 1.8 WAR through his 24 year old season. It is pretty reasonable to think that Mazara will improve on that number. I like the trade because you didn't give up much at all. Steele Walker is not going to be any better than a 4th outfielder most likely. He is doing OK at 1 year younger than Mazara and he was still a few years away. He is not that big so he wont have big power either. Now the Sox still need to make some moves for a SP and RPs. If they don't then this trade doesn't matter anyway.

If stupid parents and youth coaches would quit letting their kids pitch all summer we would have players that didn't have arms destroyed so young in their career. I run a PT and OT clinic in a outpatient hospital. These kids go year round now and its abuse. But that summer travel ball championship is important.

Palka is doing very well at AAA with a good OBP. Watched Mendick struggle at the plate when I saw him this week but he made some ridiculous plays at 2nd base defensively. He had 3 or 4 over the 2 day series. Kid can play some defense. Your other options are Escobar and Goins who are both hitting well at Charlotte.

I saw where the sox signed him after being released by the Padres. He was with charlotte and saw him play monday and tuesday. He is still young at 25 and hits a ton of HRs but seems to strike out a lot and not walk. He has 14 hrs this year already, had 26 last year. If he could only learn to not strike out so much he has a powerful swing.

I will second Tyler Flowers. My son who was 10 at the time and I flew to chicago to catch 2 games. They had a extra inning game and Flowers was the last guy to leave. He saw my son at the fence leaving the parking lot in his car. He motioned to go to the end of the barricade and meet him there. He pulled over his car, opened the door and signed for 2 little kids. He looked beat but he still took the time to talk to them for a minute. Also, that same trip Alexei Ramirez was pulling out in his ferrari or something, saw my son with his sign for him, stopped his car and motioned for the attendant to bring him the ball. Opened up his window and pointed to the sign with a big smile. Adam Laroche stopped also. Eaton and Abreu and Melky flew right on by. The best in the minors was Carson Fulmer, he was great, spoke for a few minutes and took a few pictures. Also, this week it was Thyago Vierra who was so personable.

Went to see the Knights play the Bulls last night and today for a father son trip. Met a lot of players, had a great time but we lost both. However, Santiago looked very good today. Went I think 5 innings with 1 run and only let up a 3hits. He was 91-94 the whole time and had good control with 1 walk and 7 k's. Looked a lot better than the garbage we roll out now at the major league level. Detwiler threw on Monday but was pulled after 2, didnt look very good out there honestly. He would be more garbage.

The real question is Can he pitch?

Never thought I would say this but.. I can't wait for Dylan covey to come back. It's that bad

I took a look at Cease's stats and he is just not ready. Its not like he is dominating AAA right now. The way people on the board talk about him you would think he is pitching like Giolito down there. Plust my son and I are catching 2 games in Durham in 2 weeks and we really want to see him.

His build reminds me of Mike Trout and his powerful compact swing is reminiscent of Trout. 6-0 215lbs vs Trout 6-2 235lbs. Obviously he doesn't have the speed and defense but offensively he reminds me of him. Lets hope he is half the player.

We can also add in the Chris Davis comparison, the guy who started out the year 0-40 or something close to that. At this point Yonder has a 1 point lead in batting average .172 to .171. He is .2 ahead of him in WAR at -.5 to -.7 Yonder has 1 more HR 6-5, and 6 more RBIs but has 25% more at bats. Yonder is historically bad.

Albeit a small sample size Yoan is striking out about the same as his career averages all through the minors. However, his walks were way up as was his average. Again, not sure if it will carry over but 11 walks and 45 ABs is good compared to ST 2 years ago with 3 walks, 39ABs. Historically he has been 1 walk to every 6-8ABs so if that improves you have a much higher OBP which will lead to more runs and he has speed on the basepaths to have his SBs go up to 25-30,

There you go thinking the Sox wont screw up a first round draft pick. I have no faith in our drafting whether its top 5 or #20.

I say the sox sign Adam Jones, Keuchel and Kimbrel and see what happens. They are never going to shell out for a major star. You would have a great bullpen, decent starters and a young offense. Sign Jones for 1 year, keuchel for 2 or 3 and same with Kimbrel. You still dont have a huge payroll, in the low 100 millions and you could trade some guys off later to cut payroll. It bridges the gap for the younger guys to develop and come up when ready and you can be competitive in a weak division. Its not like we need to save 30million per year for a Trout type player because we will never sign them.