What Can Be Done to Fix the Sox?

When you disagreed with this post that you quoted:





When they acquired him, he was not projected to be in the majors the following (this) year.  You cannot use evidence that he was put on the 40-man roster in November 2014 to determine that they thought he was going to contribute in 2015 when they acquired him in July of 2014. 

Even, when you use the ridiculous notion that only MLB ready players are ever put on the 40-man roster without exception, the logic does not work.  You put players you do not want to lose in the Rule 5 on the 40 man, whether they're MLB ready or not because there is always a team like the Orioles who will take them away and try every possible trick to keep them.

I don't know how to multiquote, but I'll go through each one of your points.

"Those are very rare situations. Most players placed on the 40 man are close to the majors."

All my examples happened within a few off-seasons, all (except Ynoa) with one team. They are not rare at all.

You asked me for situations where players far from the majors were acquired by major league teams I gave you two.

I asked for two teams that were going trying to be contenders, you gave me two teams who were not close to being contenders.

You claimed that a player who had finished the season previous to being acquired in AAA wasn't close to the majors.

My original comment was made prior to the goal-posts being moved. Your original argument stated that the Sox don't acquire players who will not help them compete immediately. Brock Holt did not fit into that category when he was originally acquired.

Instead of just admitting that you engaged in unnecessary personal attacks
I simply asked how old you were for attacking me. If you take that as an attack then that is on you. Saying "Good luck with your pink hat" sort of helps further my point.

Either way, I'll avoid any more messages to you on this and will take this to PM's if you wish.

Heh

Any lineup card that doesn't begin with

(1) Betts
(2) Holt
(3) Pedroia

needs to be torn up and the pieces burned.

What? You can't subtract 49 from 66?

I think we're screwed for this year (news flash, I know). We don't have great rentals to sell off like last year which means two things: 1. we won't be able to do much at the trade deadline and 2. we won't be bad enough in the second half to tank like we did in '14 and '12. Which is ironic because we're going to be out of the race much sooner this year than either of those seasons, in theory we should be able to really go for broke and get a top 3-5 pick in what is supposedly a much better draft. But I don't think it's possible. The team as it stands is too good and regression will prevent that.

Regardless of yesterday's discussion.  The real question for me is if they are willing to trade players who are not free agents at the end of the year.  The main asset they have in this regard is probably Buccholz.  Trading Buccholz could look really bad as he could easily go somewhere else and become the pitcher we'd always hoped he'd be.  There will be some desperate teams out there, specifically Toronto and Houston.

Who cares if Buchholz figures it out elsewhere? Even if he does, it will be for a year or two. It won't be long-term. He'll be 31 in August. He's not a prospect. Any time I hear my ace say he needed to turn things around. The first thing I'm gonna do is get a haircut. I'm dealing him that second. If we get the right prospect at a position of need, he gone.

If you go back to the end of the 2013 season, it's nearly impossible for a living, breathing human being to do a worse job than Cherington. Nearly every move he made has blown up in his face. There are a few guys on here I'd trust more
than him at this point. I understand teams that have to sell off players and making bad deals because of it. We're not
hamstrung by that scenario. In fact, we should benefit by having such a high payroll and owners willing to spend.

Buch been pitching for six years he is what he is. Maybe in the nationa league he may improve but his problem is in his head. He is a real asset to be traded if we go that route. By the way if we do I would like to see a couple of people in the second half I want to see Brentz and Ramierz . I think JBJ deserves a call up at some point. I am dying to see these kids up in Boston.

Farrell needs to find someone else besides Taz . He uses this guy no matter what is going on. By the way that challenge killed them earlier on. I didn't see if it was worth it but Betts was safe after. The Umpires had a bed night. It sucks to go thru this again. I actually starting to think Holt can be a full time player. I always though he was good in spurts like Nava was. He does it and doesn't even have one position. That's crazy. I would love to see him pitch and catch one time. Just to see it. What a valuable piece to have. Thank you Pittsburgh. He was the best part of that deal. LOL.

One solution that could help: why don't they just DH Hanley and sit Ortiz against lefties? At this stage, I don't really care if Papi doesn't like it, he can't hit lefties, and getting Hanley's glove off the field but keeping his bat in the lineup seems like a win-win to me. It's just not possible to compete against lefties when the guy who's your cleanup hitter by default is 9-73 against them with an 0.06 BB/K ratio. Just because he's an icon doesn't mean we should be making our team significantly worse to keep him in the lineup everyday, especially now that he's become such a liability. Won't make much difference this year it seems, but next year, if Ortiz comes back and is still playing against lefties, fire everyone. On the other hand, a Hanley/Ortiz DH combo would likely give us the best DH production in the league and an opportunity to boost the outfield defense. Hanley at 1B next year also seems like a good plan to me so that JBJ and Castillo get a shot to play every day.

On Buchholz, I wouldn't be so quick to trade him. By some measures, he's having his best season to date, his peripherals are awesome, and he seems to have figured out his pitch mix for the most part. Still, a lot of teams are going to be reluctant to give up a whole lot for a guy with an injury history and a 4.22 ERA, no matter how team friendly his contract is. If they can get fair value, meaning a premium prospect or something equivalent, then I guess they should listen, but I think Clay's part of the solution, not the problem. If he leaves, we have to replace our best starter from this year, and I don't see why we'd want to do that now. If he finishes strong and we make a play for one of the big free agent arms (unlikely, but who knows), then I think he becomes expendable at the right price, but I'd much rather go into next year with him in the rotation than pitching for someone else. If we get rid of a starter I'd rather it were Miley or Porcello (although I think they're both going to bounce back), or best of all, move Kelly to the pen where he'll dominate

There is enough cash next year to sign at least one big fish. Much work needs to be done to solidify the 25 man before hand..