Putnam and Petricka are servicable bullpen arms. You need guys to step up. Every good team has bullpen guys you never even thought of getting important outs.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

There's plenty of reason to be negative but getting rid of a bunch of cheap young great and near great players for guys who almost certainly won't be as good isn't the path to positivity.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

Here's the thing about that core, its only like 20% of the roster and some of it (Abreu, Rodon) haven't been very good recently. A couple other guys like Frazier and Melky are serviceable if not good but instead of two guys like Frazier and Melky they need 10 guys like that.

The top of the Sox roster is great, really it is. But we saw last year that it cannot piggy back back all the garbage around for more than a month before disaster strikes like it did in Arlington and everything falls apart.

I will say if the Sox can find a way to get huge returns for Abreu, Quintana and Eaton, extend Frazier and pray for some good prospect luck keeping Sale is an option. I'm not sold on trading away a potential HOF player, especially with the stupid premiums being put on these future Gordon Beckhams with their 300 career MLB PA's.

I agree Sale and Eaton shouldn't be traded. But none of this speculation about what they will or won't do means anything as long as Kenny and Hahn are around. There should be no reason to have even the slightest bit of faith in them turning this team into a contender.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

I don't believe Hahn has really been given a chance.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

Williams has been running the show until now. That much is obvious.

Right. You have to get the right guys to complement the core. The discount signings of Eaton, Abreu, Sale, and Quintana was/is your advantage and you've squandered three seasons by going cheap around them.

The Cubs have a strong core but if they fill three starting spots with Austin Jackson, Alex Avila, and Brett Lawrie and a rotation spot with busted down Latos instead of busting the bank on Winning Pitcher Jon Lester they ain't winning shit.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

Then he's willing to put his name on Kenny's moves, which is just as bad. Still has to go.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

I might do it too for a fat salary and a big ass house on the North Shore. Hahn is the prototype modern front office guy- Ivy educated, analytics driven. But I'm sure Kenny is pushing for McCutcheon.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

It is kind of a minor miracle that they not only drafted Tim Anderson, but stuck with him 3 years until he came to the bigs where he had a lot of success. No doubt Kenny tried trading him every chance he got, probably still wants to out of habit.

You don't need seven good bullpen arms unless you get to August 15 and you are really in the hunt.

Until then, you need five good bullpen arms, and four young guys (two LH, two RH) with remaining options who can pitch when they're down 2 or up 5 in the 8th or when Shields gets torched for 7 runs in the 2nd. They can can ride the shuttle back and forth to Charlotte when the bullpen needs a fresh arm or when a hitter is questionable for a couple of days, live in a nice downtown hotel, and be thankful that they're getting $3500/game when they're in the big leagues.

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"When people want their version of the truth, they go find it, no matter how baseless their beliefs." -- Ken Rosenthal