Travis Shaw

[Kimmi]

LOL! your love for Ben is beyond this planet Kim (just kidding).

 

Ben is very gone because he left a mess in the last two years.

 

Anyways hopefully DD's era give us new satisfactions.

 

It's not a love for Ben. It's a strong agreement with his overall philosophy of building baseball teams.

 

Ben is gone because Henry panicked.

[Kimmi]

It's a surprise because they were in last place the previous 2 years. They aren't favorites to make the playoffs.

 

Actually, they are favorites to make the playoffs. Not THE favorite, but favorites.

 

In most cases, as a WC team, but even as the division winner in some cases.

[Kimmi]

You are the eternal optimist. I hope that you are correct.

 

Being an eternal optimist is better than the alternative.

[a700hitter]

It's not a love for Ben. It's a strong agreement with his overall philosophy of building baseball teams.

 

Ben is gone because Henry panicked.

Ben's worst fault was that he was terrible at drafting, developing, or acquiring a group of high quality pitching arms in the organization. He left us with very little in this area.

[Dojji]

i think we have a puncher's chance to make the playoffs this season, and if Price stays healthy, once you're in the short season anything can happen. Nothing's certain of course, never is in baseball, but there's plenty of room to hope for now.

[Kimmi]

Was that in response to Henry saying "Thanks for wasting hundreds of millions of dollars of my money"

 

Henry only has himself to blame for most of that wasted money.

[Kimmi]

Questionable decisions? They were complete failures. LOL!!

 

I am talking about the benching of Pablo and Castillo, along with the related release of Murphy.

[a700hitter]

Henry only has himself to blame for most of that wasted money.

Ben was only responsible for the good moves. Eyeroll. Somehow, I don't think Henry was pouring over the FA wire and telling Ben how to build the team. No owner since Boss Steinbrenner does that.

[Kimmi]

Don't forget the Kimbrel signings for prospects as well.

 

What does that have to do with anything?

[Dojji]

Ben's worst fault was that he was terrible at drafting, developing, or acquiring a group of high quality pitching arms in the organization. He left us with very little in this area.

 

Actually the guy who was really bad at this was Theo. Starting pitching was clearly Theo's blind spot. The only ace that the Red Sox drafted that made ace in Theo's tenure, was Lester, and he was drafted by the prior GM. Buchholz was a Theo guy, and he was horrifically inconsistent. There was something nasty and rotten in the Sox drafting and development philosophy throughout the epstein era. The next time you see a homegrown potential top starter is Eddie in just the last couple years, and Cherington traded for him.

[User Name]

Actually the guy who was really bad at this was Theo. Starting pitching was clearly Theo's blind spot. The only ace that the Red Sox drafted that made ace in Theo's tenure, was Lester, and he was drafted by the prior GM. Buchholz was a Theo guy, and he was horrifically inconsistent. There was something nasty and rotten in the Sox drafting and development philosophy throughout the epstein era. The next time you see a homegrown potential top starter is Eddie in just the last couple years, and Cherington traded for him.

 

Espinoza is a Cherington guy, and if he pans out, his saving grace.

[sk7326]

Actually the guy who was really bad at this was Theo. Starting pitching was clearly Theo's blind spot. The only ace that the Red Sox drafted that made ace in Theo's tenure, was Lester, and he was drafted by the prior GM. Buchholz was a Theo guy, and he was horrifically inconsistent. There was something nasty and rotten in the Sox drafting and development philosophy throughout the epstein era. The next time you see a homegrown potential top starter is Eddie in just the last couple years, and Cherington traded for him.

 

I know Cubs are feeling the burn of that development philosophy

[Kimmi]

If the Sox make the playoffs it will be Dombrowski not Cherrington who will get the credit. Dombrowski still has a long way to go before he can undo the damage Cherrington has done with his ridiculous contracts.

 

Ha. It's really difficult to throw $30 million more than any other team at a free agent.

 

Try building a strong farm system, something that Dombrowski has not been able to do.

 

#BaseballNapoleonComplex

[a700hitter]

Espinoza is a Cherington guy, and if he pans out, his saving grace.

Other organizations have much better stockpiles of young quality arms. We have 2. The rest don't project very high at all.

[Dojji]

Actually the Tigers farm system put together an impressive laundry list of developed prospects under Dombrowski. He then turned a lot of them around to build the big league roster in trades -- a legitimate use for a farm system and one that yielded him regular playoff appearances despite really only being upper middle (toronto level) in the baseball budget heirarchy.

 

Dombrowski's problem is that he never seemed to have everything together at the same time in Detroit. If the rotation was good the offense started to struggle, and if he got that fixed, the bullpen started to sag. And at that, the Tigers came within spitting distance of the World Series championship at least 3 times under DD, and only bad luck and clutch plays from other teams kept him from the gold. I'd say it's a good bet that DD knows what he's doing.

[Kimmi]

Not when he's passing it off as fact and calliing members of the board "casuals" who don't understand the game as well as he does. As you always say (and I quote) he can defend himself, mind your own business. This is what you told me whenever I said something defending Kimmi remember?

 

I remember. He has said the same to me when I defended you.

[Kimmi]

AS for the UN 2017 projection:

 

It all sounds good. But I think that we may all be a little star struck with Travis, Moncada, and Binintendo. Does anyone really believe that all three will be ready for 2017? Maybe 1 or 2. Maybe. It could happen, though.

 

So the Sox will grab an unspecified new #3 and the rotation will be better? Maybe you did not say that. But in any case, I just don's see this staff maturing or morphing into a solid staff that easily.

 

I think that if the Sox don't get very lucky, or drop a shitload of coin on another top of the rotation arm, we will be stuck with essentially what we saw in 2015. Drek.

 

As strong as our farm system is and as much as I prefer home grown players over expensive free agents, you cannot field a team with all home grown players. It's unrealistic.

[sk7326]

The team's lack of organizational arms - at least high ceiling ones - is mostly a cause of them being too good to get into the draft position necessary to find them. Now that does not absolve the Red Sox entirely - the Cardinals, White Sox seem to have processes which add value there in a way the Sox have not hit on. But a very large part of it is the draft - which is not random. David Price (for instance) was the 2nd pick in the draft - Tampa's big accomplishment was being terrible enough to take him, and unmiserly enough to sign him.

[Kimmi]

You know there are times when it is tough to resist pointing out the obvious but for those who don't know, nobody writes for the audience....from the smallest child to professional writers the motivations for writing anything they are not forced by circumstance to write are well known and well understood. They have nothing to do with the audience. You can I guess then imagine how much I care about whether somebody scrolls past two, twenty or two hundred paragraphs but still have an appreciation for those that do read.

 

Calling BS on this. Nothing could be further from the truth.

[a700hitter]

As strong as our farm system is and as much as I prefer home grown players over expensive free agents, you cannot field a team with all home grown players. It's unrealistic.

It is always good to dredge up something that ended last night, especially when you were not involved.

[Kimmi]

Here's to that - I'd buy the beer for 99% of the people that post here. Note - not 100%

 

That's fine. I don't like beer anyway.

[mvp 78]

Ben is gone because he fell to last place for two straight years and signed a few outrageous contracts that bombed.

 

Panic had nothing to do with it. When you are in last place and the fans no longer care about your product, what is your boss supposed to do? Give you a participation ribbon?

[mvp 78]

It is always good to dredge up something that ended last night, especially when you were not involved.

 

That's not how this place works. Any post is fair game for commenting.

[mvp 78]

Calling BS on this. Nothing could be further from the truth.

 

Doesn't matter. He won't respond back anyway...

[cp176]

That's fine. I don't like beer anyway.

 

Oh for God sake. You don't even like beer! You can have what you want.

[a700hitter]

That's not how this place works. Any post is fair game for commenting.

We don't need to re-start food fights. That's just trolling. It clogs up the forum.

[Bellhorn04]

Oh for God sake. You don't even like beer! You can have what you want.

 

I'll have the beers you were going to buy for all the non-beer drinkers.

[mvp 78]

We don't need to re-start food fights. That's just trolling. It clogs up the forum.

 

The post she referenced was 9 hours old. It's not like she went back a few days. I can't fault her for not having insomnia at 2am.

[jung]

I don't recall anybody suggesting that you could or should field a team of all home grown talent. I certainly didn't. I didn't get within pissing distance of anything like that and I don't think anybody else did either. Maybe I missed somebody elses post. Entirely possible.

[a700hitter]

The post she referenced was 9 hours old. It's not like she went back a few days. I can't fault her for not having insomnia at 2am.

Oye, you missed the humor.