How do you improve the Red Sox

$100 seats? Where do you shop for tix?

Amazing how many Pawtucket players have played in Boston this year thus far.

One #2 starter is all we need to add, maybe another bullpen arm and once our walking wounded return, we should be good.

Yeah, this ownership group has overseen three WS winners (in three attempts). They've made mistakes, and had successes. The current team is coming off of a last-place finish, signed an amateur who will be the #1 prospect in baseball come this winter (love the 3-fer against Giolito and co. the other night), made a great draft pick in Benintendi and a very bold, hopefully terrific one, in Groome. They risked their IFA pool for Acosta/Espinoza, and said "wtf?" and got the aforementioned Moncada by beating out NY and LA. They held on to their young talent and have seen Betts, Bogaerts, and Bradley blossom. Letting Lester go was a mistake, but they signed Price. They traded (Lars Andersen) for Wright. They had four of the top-20 on BA's top-100 last winter. ****And they're 1 1/2 games out of first, with a HUGE advantage in run differential compared with Baltimore****. I'm not sure what reality you're speaking from, but you're welcome to join us all back in this one. It's pretty good here.

What I would like to see the Sox do before the trade deadline:

-Replace Farrell with Lovullo, the Sox have been awful in close games, and I feel like Farrell has a lot to do with that, if Lovullo is an improvement in that area, this move could be more impactful than acquiring a 4 win player.

-I don’t want to deal away our young core or our best prospects to acquire frontline starting pitching, the Sox should see if a deal could be made with Devers headlining the deal, but our elite prospects Moncada, Benintendi, Espinoza, Kopech, Groome off limits. I think in theory, offering Devers, Owens, Travis, Lakins should be enough to land a starting pitcher who can help, but in this market I don’t see it being enough, in which case I hope the Sox walk away. Now if we are talking about Jose Fernandez than the prospect package obviously changes, but even then, I think Benintendi, Espinoza, Devers, +, falls short of what the Marlins want. Any deal for a impactful starting pitcher is likely going to take an extreme overpay, and hopefully the Sox balk at that.

-In lieu of adding starting pitching I propose the following, add an impact bat in LF, and a bullpen arm or two, and bash your way to the playoffs. I know the name has come up several times, but I think Ryan Braun might be a great target, he has a higher OPS than Xander at the moment, he has significant money and years left on his contract (4 yrs / $76 M left on his deal) and while he won’t be a straight salary dump the level of prospect(s) should be lessened due to the money still due to him, he’s only 32 and having his best season since his steroid days, so he could hold down LF until Benintendi is ready, and be a younger and less expensive solution to replacing Big Papi at DH than either of Bautista or Encarnacion for the next 4 years (I for one have my doubts that Bautista will continue to produce as Papi has as he approaches 40 yo).

-Get healthy, the bench will be much better when Holt, Young, Rutledge are healthy, and when Swihart returns pencil him into the 9 spot in the order 4 or 5 days a week as the starting catcher, I was in favor of Vazquez being the starting catcher on o team that was going to win games with solid pitching and defense, but I have not seen anywhere near the same impact on the defensive side from Vazquez as when he was called up 2 years ago. Swihart fits the offensive profile, impacts the game on the basepaths, and catches well enough (don’t make him catch Wright though).

So Lovullo’s lineup would look something like this:
1) Betts RF
2) Pedroia 2B
3) Bogaerts SS
4) Ortiz DH
5) Braun LF
6) Bradley CF
7) Ramirez 1B
8) Shaw 3B
9) Swihart C
Bench – Holt
Bench – Young
Bench – Vazquez, Hanigan or Leon

I feel like this lineup makes the playoffs regardless of whether the pitching improves or not, add an arm or two in the bullpen, and hope Rodriguez and/or Buchholz take a step or three forward and it could be a team capable of winning playoff series’.

There is a reason why LaMarre was promoted over Brentz, he was outperforming him by a significant margin. I’m not saying it isn’t worth giving Brentz a shot, but he hasn’t done anything to make anyone have any confidence that he will help any more than LaMarre has.

Bowden reporting very active discussions between Sox and Braves with Teheran and Vizciano as targets. Bownden, Duque the and Ferris all said no Moncada, but certainly Benintendi and a few more lower rated guys

Rutledge's tendonitis is apparently severe, which means he's out for a while, and his spot on the bench was already a potential upgrade. No excuse for not upgrading Marrero to Danny Valencia, Martin Pardo, or Aaron Hill right now.

With Holt already rehabbing, there's a little less urgency for LF, but it's worth remembering that whoever they get ultimately replaces Swihart on the roster and is hence an upgrade over Marco Hernandez for the time being, which is going to be a long time. And Josh Reddick is on rehab and is due back on Monday.

Assuming he looks good, I want him and Valencia in Sox unis within the next week. Upgrade your actual weaknesses.

Valencia and Reddick would be nice, Hill would probably be the cheapest.

I'm just passing along comments. Never offered an opinion on the report.

I can see the Braves, using old school stats, seeing more value in Teheran, than might the Sox. I've seen Teheran as an NL starter, and have wondered if they might need a guy like him to get the guy they want? Repackaging Teheran for a guy like Fernandez?

The Marlins are looking for arms, but are reported to not be offering anything from the ML roster. The problem is they have little to deal in the minors. Perhaps they could be enticed by a two for one offer? Perhaps something as follows:

Benintendi and 3 prospects between 10 and 20 for Teheran and Vizciano.

Teheran, EdRod, Elias and Dubon for Fernandez?

Miami gets 2, possibly 3 starters in the deal, and a good SS prospect for 1 starter. Their rotation would be Chen, Teheran, EdRod, Elias and Koehler, or Conley. As opposed to Fernandez, Chen, Koehler, Conley and the best of the rest. It would be a gamble, but they would upgrade 3 rotation slots while losing ground on the #1 slot. That statement assumes Elias an upgrade over Koehler and Conley, and that is debateable.

Sox would be Price, Fernandez, Wright, Porcello, Buchholz

The bullpen would be Kimbrell, Vizciano, Kelly, Tazawa, Ross, Layne and Hembree. Koji can try to find what's missing on AAA rehab, as can Barnes.

Oh, this wasn't directed at you. It was Bowden. There's a reason he's not employed as a GM anymore. Ditto Steve Philips.

Obviously the Teheran/Vizcaino rumors are the closest thing to a "quick fix". Maybe they expand it and the Red Sox get the pleasure of Nick Markakis over the rest of his contract to help make up for the loss of Benintendi. The Braves would also want a top pitching prospect so you're talking either Espinoza or Kopech.

I really think the Sox will wind up making this type of move and most (maybe all?) of us are going to wind up unhappy and the Sox will say, we got young established talent, so look at what we did. Meanwhile, we'll be eating our hearts out watching the Braves kick butt next decade with their base of talent.

And we might look back at what the Sox got for Lester and Lackey and wonder how the heck it is that the Braves were able to turn Miller and Teheran into what they wind up getting and we didn't do anywhere near as well.

All I can say is I hope that E-Rod pitches lights out over the next month and prevents this from happening, but with Frank Wren aboard, I have a feeling that this is going to come to fruition and if it does I will not be a happy camper.