a700hitter

Maybe bright, but intellectually dishonest.

Rachel Madow is no genius. I don't care is she is your relative.

As you know! I really don't have much regard for any FO suits in sports, but I don't understand the demonization of LL by some fans who are clearly admirers of Theo and Ben. I haven't seen any basis to demonize him. I read that Boss George Steinbrenner didn't like or trust LL. That might actually be a reason for Red Sox fans to like him. Plus, he should be admired for tagging the Yankees as the Evil Empire.

I got excited for a minute thinking it was Tyson Ross. Another highly touted prospect falls by the wayside.

He has performed pretty close to his career norms with the Phillies. I would think that is what they were hoping for when they signed him. It would have been unreasonable for the Phillies to expect more from an aging pitcher. Whether the Phillies overpaid for those career norms is a different issue. If that is the case, Papelbon really couldn't have done anything beyond his career norms to earn the paycheck.

Is there a stat on the accuracy of your "venturing"?

The pressure to sign Crawford didn't come from his boss, and the reports and statements at the time were that Theo took up the cause for Crawford. If he didn't believe in Crawford, he would have had excellent cover if he agreed with the owner. It strains credulity that Theo would cave to pressure from LL when JH was on the other side of the issue. If Theo went against his discipline and philosophy, that doesn't mean the "the devil made him do it." People deviate from discipline all the time without being forced to do so.

First of all, his career numbers don't come close to 2013. And what is your purpose in trying to make this failing point?

Vastly different because it was 36 innings in 2012. Doing it over a ful season is quite different. Seriously, what is your point? That it was just a ru of the mill season for Koji? It wasn't. Again, yes he was capable of having the season. He did it. It wasn't the result of Angels in the OF. It was a once in a career year for him and probably a pipe dream for closers for the next 10 or 20 years. I think you denigrate the magnificence of his 2013 by trying to prove that he always pitches at that level. He never has had that kind of seasonbefore and at age 40, I doubt that he will have another like it.

It's a stupid loop. When I discuss players performance, I discuss it relative to that of other players and relative to their own prior performance. That is it. End of story. Don't jump to the assumption that I think we should have kept him or that I think he would have been better that Koji in 2013. If I thought those things, I'd say them. I'm not shy about sharing. I am also not arguing the value of his contract. Again, I wanted to make that argument I would. I am just saying that this guy is as steady and consistent as they come in the closers role, and his stats bear it out. As for the Papelbon hate from Red Sox fans, shame on those fans. Paps did nothing to deserve it from us. Am I angry right now? Yes I am. Is it misdirected? Yes it is. I have to leave now to shovel and I hate it. Do you have a sense of humor about this? I fear not.

His career numbers are excellent, but even in the context of those outstanding numbers, his .056 WHIP in 2013 is an outlier as was his 1.09 ERA. Add to that the fact that he was never known to be durable, but he pitched a career number of innings in almost entirely high pressure situations. He struck out 101 batters-- something that Mo never did as closer. Also, his strike to balls ratio was off the carts as well. I appreciate Koji's season for waht it was, one of the greatest perfomances that I have witnessed over the course of a season. I realize that I will probably never see another Red Sox closer have that kind of season. As great as Papelbon was for us, he never had that kind of season. Neither did Mo for that matter. To argue that it was not an outlier is confusing to me, because by definition something that has exceeded almost every other performance in MLB history is the definition of an outlier. Are you arguing that it is not an outlier, because Kojiwas capable of the feat? Of course he was capable of the feat. He achieved it. That doesn't mean that it is not a career season and a statistical outlier. Yaz was a great player who was capable of winning a triple crown and he won it in 1967. That was his career season, and in many ways it was a statistical outlier for him too. I am not understanding the ppoint that you are trying to make about Koji. What is your point?

Durability counts. Roger Maris had a few great seasons and won two MVP awards beating out Mickey Mantle, but no one would argue that he was greater than Mantle. Durability is an important factor in assessing a players career. No one is saying that we would have been better off with Papelbon instead of Koji in 2013. Koji had an insanely outstanding season that year. The whole Papelebon discussion is the same BS Papelbon hate that I will never understand for a former player who performed very well for us. All Iortiz is saying is that Papelbon has performed as expected for the Phillies. He has been at his consistent career norms over the course of that contract, with the exception of one down season. Is a closer worth the money Papelbn gets? That is a different debate. The fact is he is still performing to the levels that he did when he was in Boston, which I have to assume that is what the Phillies were hoping they would get. The Phillies problem (and they have many) is not Papelbon's performance.

No but if I owned the restaurant and my chef insisted on purchasing and putting the wrong spice in the stew despite my opposition and my customers got sick, I would tell people that the Chef messed up, and I would most likely fire him.

And when you crunched the numbers before 2013, you concluded that Koji should be given the closers job, because the statisitical study indicated that he should have one of the three best seasons for a closer in MLB history? Koji's 2013 season was a career season. It was more remarkable that he was age 38 when he had his career season. His 2013 season was an outlier in the history of baseball. Irt was a season that would not have been projected for any closer in any season.

I'm not even sure what this means. The players aren't criticized? Of course they are. Are they to be blamed for having a lousy team? They are part of the team. But what are we going to blame the player for... not being very talented? I don't think they can help that. IMO, by and large the players do the best job that they can. Ocassionally, there is a player who dogs it, and he gets relentless abuse. Those are the exceptions. The FO is responsible for assembling the pieces and assembling the roster. If they don't get the right pieces, it is the responsibility of the FO. Blaming individual players would be like blaming the ingredients in a stew instead of blaming the Chef

Did you read the article that I linked earlier and the quotes from that article. JH clearly laid the CC signing on Theo,and he said that Theo made the case despit JH being opposed to the acquisition.

He reads my posts and responds to them through an internal filter that distorts the truth. LOL>

If the stats were never wrong as a predictor of future performance, GMs would never make bad moves. Stats are interesting and fun and there is a place for them when debating relative past performances, but they and any other method are very imperfect at projecting future performance.

http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/10/14/red-sox-owner-john-henry-i-personally-opposed-signing-carl-crawford/ From the article: And this:

The anti-Luchinno sentiment has been one that has pervaded this board for some time. Several of my favorite posters feel the same way and with great emotion. It is a theory for which I just haven't seen much reliable support. The inner dynamics of an organization is something that is hard to get a handle on. There is one fact that is hard to argue. We one 2 championships with Theo as GM and one with Ben as GM. LL has been here for all three.

It's not the case on this forum, and I realize that you are not completely familiar with TS yet. It really is time to move to the next topic. Lol! This one has gone in a number of clockwise and country clockwise circles.

Theo never shrunk from accountability. He always too responsibility. It was a very admirable quality. Cherington has that same quality.

He might be the first to depart camp too.

I come here to share my opinions and to get the views of others about the game. I don't come here to debate opinions that almost never can be established to be right or wrong with any certainty.

It's odd to have this discussion especially since none of the posters here have said that they don't use stats or don't see a value in them, yet the assumption has become that some people completely dismiss stats and the explanation for that erroneous assumption is that those people either don't understand the stats or the stats don't support their opinion. This is a case of erroneous conclusions proving an erroneous assumption.