Why sign Houck and Casas?

[notin]

4 hours ago, FredLynn said:

Does the term bother you? I could use other words. 
“Miserly”

”Tightwad”

”Penny pincher”

You choose

I think someone needs to bring back “skinflint”…

[notin]

46 minutes ago, JoeBrady said:

I never heard of it.  Until I Wiki'd it and realized I had seen it.  I think DoD is still more logical than the Mets.

Oh so you’re the guy that saw it…

[JoeBrady]

31 minutes ago, notin said:

I think someone needs to bring back “skinflint”…

Definitely a good one.  I think we had more descriptive adjectives once upon a time.

[JoeBrady]

31 minutes ago, notin said:

Oh so you’re the guy that saw it…

Uh, could I blame my wife?

[Hugh2]

14 hours ago, JoeBrady said:

I've been saying that since it was just us and the NYY.  Trying to outbid the NYY would almost certainly result in a bad contract.  Now it's LA and the NYMs.  The rest of the league is going to bid like us.

To be fair, we are 6th in payroll. 

I'm glad to see them go over, it would be silly not to this year as the luxury tax is almost certain to reset for all teams next year. 

[mvp 78]

"Would almost certainly result in a bad contract." 

Like the Masa and Hicks contracts? If you're going to sign a bad contract, at least get one that will provide value for a few years. Part of having financial might is being able to eat some money once in a while. JH doesn't have that appetite though. 

[moonslav59]

1 hour ago, Hugh2 said:

To be fair, we are 6th in payroll. 

I'm glad to see them go over, it would be silly not to this year as the luxury tax is almost certain to reset for all teams next year. 

I'd still like to see JH spend more, and E Suarez would be a nice addition, but I can understand wanting to trade some salary to keep us under the 3rd line, if we do sign Geno. (Duran 9, Bello 9 or Sandoval 9 might be enough.)

[mvp 78]

1 hour ago, moonslav59 said:

I'd still like to see JH spend more, and E Suarez would be a nice addition, but I can understand wanting to trade some salary to keep us under the 3rd line, if we do sign Geno. (Duran 9, Bello 9 or Sandoval 9 might be enough.)

If he was merely below average in k% and defense, I'd sign him. There was interest when he was going to transition to 1b. Now? IDK. 

[FredLynn]

14 hours ago, JoeBrady said:

The first two are fine.

Now that we've worked on your words, I want you to start referring to JH himself by different names.

I prefer cheapskate. I think I will stick with that.

[FredLynn]

16 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

Add two more choices:

All of the above (2019-2024, yes, as well as sporadic times beforehand.)

None of the above (2025-2026 yes, none of the above applies.)

Did we sign Schwarber or Alonso? Did we even resign Bregman? Unfortunately, they all still pertain.

[JoeBrady]

2 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

Like the Masa and Hicks contracts? If you're going to sign a bad contract, at least get one that will provide value for a few years. Part of having financial might is being able to eat some money once in a while. JH doesn't have that appetite though. 

Hicks was the salary we ate to move Devers.  IRT Masa, imho, he's worth more to us than another team, depending on whether or not we trade Duran.  If we don't trade Duran, then eat $12M per and move him.  If we do move Duran, I am perfectly comfortable platooning Masa and Romy.

[JoeBrady]

12 minutes ago, FredLynn said:

I prefer cheapskate. I think I will stick with that.

This is what's wrong with America.  Notin gave you a perfectly good alternative, trying to bring back classical language, and you refuse.  Youth is wasted on the young.

[moonslav59]

44 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

If he was merely below average in k% and defense, I'd sign him. There was interest when he was going to transition to 1b. Now? IDK. 

If we trade Duran, he could DH, at least eventually.

I get the problem with signing him, but until I see Paredes in the headlines, I'm looking for other options to boost our offense.

[Old Red]

52 minutes ago, FredLynn said:

Did we sign Schwarber or Alonso? Did we even resign Bregman? Unfortunately, they all still pertain.

You do have a point on this point. The Red Sox settled for Con Man instead of Alonso. The Red SOX were outbid by the high spending Baltimore Orioles. Then they couldn’t land their #1 Plan A option in Bregman, and then they went out, and as BorASS said the Ranger deal come together quickly after losing Bregman to the Cubs. Yes they ended up paying Ranger more PDV than they offered Bregman, but that was after the fact. Gray, and Con Man came with payments from Bloom, which the Red SOX might not of done otherwise especially Gray, so yes they ended up Red Sox will spend money, but not on their first choice. Think the lack of action at the trade deadline has anything to do with money?

[notin]

12 hours ago, JoeBrady said:

Uh, could I blame my wife?

I 100% believe she blames you ..,

[notin]

1 hour ago, JoeBrady said:

This is what's wrong with America.  Notin gave you a perfectly good alternative, trying to bring back classical language, and you refuse.  Youth is wasted on the young.

Can we refer to people like that as simpletons?

[mvp 78]

7 hours ago, Hugh2 said:

To be fair, we are 6th in payroll. 

I'm glad to see them go over, it would be silly not to this year as the luxury tax is almost certain to reset for all teams next year. 

Um, actually, this post isn't about Houck and Casas. Did you know that? 

[JoeBrady]

7 hours ago, Old Red said:

so yes they ended up Red Sox will spend money, but not on their first choice.

Do these things matter?  Putting aside the #2 v HR hitter, we acquired a 3.3 Suarez instead of a 2.85 Alonso, plus we added Contreras.  That almost has to be better.

[FredLynn]

21 minutes ago, JoeBrady said:

Do these things matter?  Putting aside the #2 v HR hitter, we acquired a 3.3 Suarez instead of a 2.85 Alonso, plus we added Contreras.  That almost has to be better.

We also lost players, including Bregman,. Make sure you subtract their numbers too. We will be better, but not good enough to contend for a ring. 

[Old Red]

1 hour ago, JoeBrady said:

Do these things matter?  Putting aside the #2 v HR hitter, we acquired a 3.3 Suarez instead of a 2.85 Alonso, plus we added Contreras.  That almost has to be better.

It all depends if their #1 options would have made the team better. Would the Red Sox be better with Alonso, and Bregman instead of Con Man, and the Lone Ranger? ONLY time will tell what these 4 players do this year.

[JoeBrady]

20 minutes ago, Old Red said:

Would the Red Sox be better with Alonso, and Bregman instead of Con Man, and the Lone Ranger?

The assumption being that we could've gotten both Bregman and Alonso.  Just imho, we received a similar WAR/$$$ (less WAR and less $$$) but are getting players aged 30-34 & 34-35 as opposed to players aged 32-36 & 31-35.  I think our commitments will age better.

[moonslav59]

9 hours ago, JoeBrady said:

The assumption being that we could've gotten both Bregman and Alonso.  Just imho, we received a similar WAR/$$$ (less WAR and less $$$) but are getting players aged 30-34 & 34-35 as opposed to players aged 32-36 & 31-35.  I think our commitments will age better.

Once again, you make a good point.

Going by projections for just 2026 (not the 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 years more...)

2026

3.9 Gray

3.3 Suarez

1.9 Contreras

1.2 Oviedo

Total: 10.3

Subtract Oviedo, because we'd have probably done that anyway: 9.1

___________________

4.0 Bregman

2.6 Alonso

Total 6.6

____________________

4.0 Bregman

3.1 Schwarber

Total: 7.1

______________________

I'm not claiming I like what we did more than Alonso or Schwarber plus Bregman, but we spent a lot of AAV (over less years) and seemingly got a lot more 2026 value the way we've gone, so far.

If we can trade for Paredes (2.3) but it will mean we trade away some projected value in return.

Now, for once, we got someone else to pay down a contract (Gray,) but here is the AAV breakdown:

26 Suarez + 21 Gray + 21 Contreras= 68

vs

31 Alonso + 31 Bregman= 62

 

[JoeBrady]

17 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

If we can trade for Paredes (2.3) but it will mean we trade away some projected value in return.

There are no elegant formulas for this, but adding Paredes for minor leaguers will make it more of an apples-to-apples comparison on added cost v added WAR.

[moonslav59]

8 hours ago, JoeBrady said:

There are no elegant formulas for this, but adding Paredes for minor leaguers will make it more of an apples-to-apples comparison on added cost v added WAR.

Agreed, but HOU is not in rebuild mode, so maybe a third team needs to be involved.

We'd still have our OF & DH logjam, but Duran's bat would still be here.

I'm not sure who that 3rd team is who gets our prospects and gives HOU an OF'er or SP.

If HOU took K Campbell for Paredes it would not upset the line-up, but might bite us in the butt, later on.

[JoeBrady]

1 hour ago, moonslav59 said:

but HOU is not in rebuild mode

Not in rebuild mode, but they don't have any obvious fit for Paredes.  He definitely isn't playing 3B.  They have Altuve at 2nd, with Matthews backing him up.  They have Walker at 1st.  Paredes is probably better than both, but I cannot imagine Houston benching either.  And Paredes is too talented to sit on the bench.

[FredLynn]

“The Boston Red Sox are acquiring catching prospect Nate Baez from the Minnesota Twins for utilityman Tristan Gray, sources tell ESPN.”

Well this should certainly put us over the top!

[moonslav59]

42 minutes ago, FredLynn said:

“The Boston Red Sox are acquiring catching prospect Nate Baez from the Minnesota Twins for utilityman Tristan Gray, sources tell ESPN.”

Well this should certainly put us over the top!

Thanks for the breaking front page news.

On the back pages: Sox made room to sign another bum pitcher.

[FredLynn]

13 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

Thanks for the breaking front page news.

On the back pages: Sox made room to sign another bum pitcher.

Well then, thats it! No need to play the actual games. Just award the rings to the FLOPS now.

[moonslav59]

43 minutes ago, FredLynn said:

Well then, thats it! No need to play the actual games. Just award the rings to the FLOPS now.

That must have been hard for you to say, even jokingly!

🤪