jacksonianmarch

I agree with what you say. Cherington brought a title in 2013. His system was brimming with talent. The problem was the sox ended up in last 2 yrs in a row. The Yanks were sputtering and stuck under massive contracts for underachievers. The Rays were heading for a down phase. The O's and Jays had just made the POs, but you had to know they weren't making it for long. It was a timing thing and JH couldn't wait.

Yes they do, but I remember the commentary at the time. Home field isn't as important as it is in football or basketball. Hockey it doesn't matter at all, but I digress. So the only detriment for a WC was they wouldn't have home field in the ALDS or ALCS and then could get home field for the WS based on the AS game result (at the time). Too many WC teams made the WS. The league used this as the means for adding the final wild card slot. That being said, by adding another WC slot, they added some intrigue to the final month of the year

I actually hope DD pushes his chips into the middle. I hope he spends. I hope he trades. I hope he props 2020 up to the best of his might. The more he spends, the more he deals, the deeper the cliff will be

Henry isn't at fault. He's willing to spend $240 mil annually on a winner. DD is ABSOLUTELY at fault. By allowing Cora to f*** with the prep time in ST and by leaving his BP flapping in the breeze, he set his team up for failure. Great teams in the post analytics era have great pens. He ignored a critical part of a team and got burned by it. I wonder how much the pen being awful played into the rotation being awful.

The second wild card wasn't a gimmick. It was in response to there being almost no penalty for not winning your division. Wild card teams, at the time, had just as much or even more success in making the WS than the division winners. The extra wild card was as much about making the WC teams burn their aces and have to win a winner take all game as it was about adding a 5th team to each league

As long as you have un-fireable umps like West and Hernandez, you need to consider your options. Their strikes zones are so terrible that robot umps would help. Estabrook yesterday was abysmal as well. The problem with the robot umps is that the home plate ump can override the call by their own judgement. I doubt Joe or Angel allow any technology to make their call

You are such a broken record. What a sore loser

Problem with an elbow on a throw. That aint good. Looks like Gardy in CF and Tauchman in LF or vice versa until Stanton returns. Maybe it's time to let Frazier out of the doghouse

Right now sox fans, the 2019 season looks to be slipping away due to the pitching staff. While the starting rotation has entirely s*** the bed in a surprising fashion, the pen was expected to be the dumpster fire they are. With all the financial and arbitration obligations expiring or renewing, the Sox are starting at a small pile of cash with which to upgrade. I know a lot of Sox fans are advocating a full scale tear down, but this is the GM thread and your Gm isn’t that kind of guy. You’re gonna know the FO’s direction based on who remains at the helm. If DD is your GM, you’re pushing your chips to the middle of the table and looking to win in 2020. If DD rides off into the sunset, then you’re rebuilding. If the Sox keep DD, my assumption is that JBJ is either dealt or non-tendered and with all the expiring contracts and arb renewals, the Sox will have something like $25-30 mil or so to play with before hitting the final threshold. My bet is he signs Keuchel or a player of his ilk (mid rotation innings eater) to replace Porcello for half that AAV (about $15 mil) and then uses the $10-$15 mil left to acquire 1-2 back end pen options. I highly doubt he spends anything on the lineup. Hernandez will take 2b. Chavis will take 1b. He will try to extend Betts, although I doubt heavily he entertains dealing him if they cannot come to an agreement. Not his style. If the Sox find a new GM, JBJ is definitely jettisoned. I bet Betts is dealt for a haul. I would also expect ERod to be dealt for a haul. He’s got only one extra year of control than Betts and guys with two years of control bring back far more than true rentals. The Sox would dangle Price, as he’s been really good for two years running (albeit not for many innings) and throw in about half his remaining contract in cash to get someone of value. They’d hope to rehab Sale because he’s not worth much right now with his huge contract starting and teams having no idea who he is. Same goes for Eovaldi. The Sox would build around Devers, Xander, Beni, and Chavis.

OH FOY, I think lots of Sox fans are looking at how the Yanks rebuilt and think the Sox can do it too. It’s not that easy. We stopped dealing top prospects in 2013 and missed the playoffs from 2013-2014. We made a brief 1 game WC playoff in 2015 in a last gasp of respectability. We had a tear down in 2016. From 2013-2016, we shifted to a development phase and by the time of our tear down, we had either the majors or high minors full of prospects or rookies. We had Severino debut in 2015. Judge 2016. Sanchez 2016. Andujar 2018. Montgomery 2017. Betances 2014. We made shrewd trades picking up Hicks for a backup catcher. The tear down brought us Torres who debuted in 2018. Frazier debuted in 2017. We sold off some prospects to get Britton and Paxton. We still have a farm that’s got prospects with considerable ceilings and now 3-4 top 100 guys with proximity. But that took a change of focus starting in 2013 and didn’t actually reach fruition until 2017 with a lot of luck and a well timed tear down. Sox fans might think the Yanks rebuilt in a year, but it was really 4 rebuild years where we weren’t terrible but not great. The spending kept us over .500, that was about it. The other incredibly shrewd thing Cash has done is take low value prospects with High exit velocity and traded guys with high minors performance but no unique skills for them. Voit was obtained for Shreve and Gallegos. Shreve has good K numbers and dominant AAA numbers, but never seemed to put it together in the majors. Gallegos had insane AAA numbers yet never got a huge shot in the majors because he wasn’t a back end pen velocity guy. We dealt those two for Voit, a 1b who was blocked in StL and posted a good but not great rookie season and the rest is history. Voit turns into a monster and the Yanks have their starting 1b for the next 4 years. Tauchman is in colorado behind Blackmon, Gonzalez and Dahl for years crushing AAA pitching with high exit velocities but struggled in a 2018 cup of coffee. We send them a diminutive lefty reliever in Philip Diehl who had insane K rates yet an Arsenal isn’t likely to cut it in the Yankee pen. Tauchman turns into a hit machine who is also shoring up our outfield defense as one of the best defenders in baseball by defensive runs saved.

Your farm is so bad that if you “blow it up” you’ll be rebuilding for years

last year

How d'ya like them apples

you guys are vicious, lol

The pen is fully rested and we go to f***ing Adams?

Someone is getting a fastball at the hands or at head level tonight. Breaking a guy’s wrist in a 9-2 game is a problem.

Encarnacion broke his wrist on that HBP. That won’t go unpunished. Someone is getting one up and in tonight

Bradley goes ya-ya and he gets the pine? Weird.

I was also working last night you ********

No fight. They gave up once punched in the face

The Patriots are gonna be dominant this year. Bill built a great defense and Brady can take a HS team against the NFL and put up 30

Today’s game has killed the Red Sox. Outside of an abysmal performance by the Yankee pitching, I don’t see them recovering. Today was the end of their 2019 season

DD might retire. He’s not a rebuild guy

German got the bottom of the zone where he sat all game

Especially when we are shaping up to have our entire pen available. Holder is probably going in the 9th