Dojji

Meh. I actually want to disagree with this. Tavarez was a mediocre starter at best, but a mediocre starter was all he was asked to be. In the wake of the decision to keep Papelbon at closer and with news that Lester's recovery was taking time we had 4 starters to break camp with that year so they threw Tavarez into the fire, and he filled in well enough to not be a dumpster fire, which considering that the guy was basically a mediocre garbage time reliever in the first place being asked to play a role WAY above his own head, for a team that was contending (and would win) a World Series that year, I feel that he gave us all one could reasonably expect and he merits an official "exceeds expectations" rating for me for his performance in 2007. I mean if he was a regular starter that would be one thing, he went 7-11 with a 5.15 ERA, that wouldn't be a great outcome for a guy who's used to starting 20 or more games a year. But this is a junktime reliever thrown into the role out of desperation. We didn't exactly expect to be fielding Sandy Koufax when we moved the guy to the rotation on an emergency basis, and at the very least he kept the 5th starter role from becoming a crisis, which is all he was expected to do by team leadership. A guy who met or exceeded the expectations the team placed on him and who it took a guy getting cancer to ever start in the first place, probably doesn't belong in the "Worst. Pitcher. Ever." conversation. Besides, the guy was fun to watch with his eccentric style and weird decision making. You could tell he was having fun, which made him fun to watch. And he did give us some great games, like the CG against Toronto. Also, just the year before we had a fill in who had to start regularly and was far, FAR worse. Kyle Snyder. Rudy Seanez was worse than both, and Daniel Bard is not a candidate for bad reliever much less worst reliever when the dude had a couple stellar years. He sucked after his shoulder fell off but I don't even care about that in a conversation like this because Bard was too good for us when he was good.

No one who's stunk up the joint in the last 5 years is likely to be the Worst Pitcher Ever in a team with as long a history as ours. Put the melodrama down and try to show a grasp of history. I'm not gonna make a claim here. I don't know the history of the franchise that well before the late 80's or so when I started following the team in earnest. I'm sure there's some bad joke of a starter in the 50's that's worse than anything we know now. Daisuke Matsuzaka could make a claim for himself being one of the worst ever. To be the worst ever you have to be repeatedly trusted to fill a role, and then try to fill it and fail spectacularly each time, that's Daisuke's career after about 2008 or so. Even Buchholz had a few flashes of competence, Daisuke was completely unreliable.

DD has a long track record of having no real idea of how to bullpen. This is just more confirmation.

Stupid. Never favor the player with the contract over the better player. And never, ever, create one hole to fill another No matter what, never do this. Play on the ground proves that Shaw was not expendable, and I was worried about that at the time. I thought it unreasonable to assume that the mere existence of Panda created depth at third base, I said so then, obviously I still think so. A guy in Panda's situation counts for NOTHING until HE PROVES OTHERWISE. Going into the season with only Panda having full time 3B credentials has generated the biggest hole in our roster right now and I'll be honest, I'm convinced it's one of the biggest reasons we're not competing right now. If we were getting power from the corner infield positions we'd be right up tere with NYY and TOR.

Pedroia's come back after tough starts before. Not worried about him nearly as much as the terrible situation we've made for ourself at third base.

Forgot about Moustakas. That's an interesting idea. Not exactly a Moneyballer with his terrible OBP, but a lower third of the order slugger can really help a team.

They're off to a rocky start. I'd rate it as "distinctly possible." Didn't realize Beltre was hurting when I posted that. Still, a calf strain isn't generally an injury that puts your season into question, he's probably gonna be healthy by July, so I stand by preferring Beltre to Donaldson.

Call me crazy but I'd rather go for Adrian Beltre. The cost in assets would be less since he's older, he's also in range for a deadline deal, he's succeeded here before, and he's still getting it done at third base when healthy. Devers is killing it in Portland right now, there's no need to gum up the position with an expensive superstar. Buy the older veteran as long as his health looks good at the end of July, and use him to hold until Devers is good to go.

Holt had that concussion last year. If he's still having post concussion symptoms like vertigo, I'm getting worried about him.

With the attendent issue that some people when they say "fit" mean "fit" and other people when they say "fit" mean "can be shoehorned."

Pablo's case is a little different. In 16 he gave his word, not that he would do something, but that he HAD DONE something, and nothing could be further from the truth as it turns out. Ascribing character flaws to poor performance is an old New England trick that we haven't outgrown in 400 years so we can expect it to be with us awhile. That's a bit different from calling a guy a liar when he, you know, actually lied.

Completely disagree. I think you're selling Steven Wright in particular hella short. And I have faith in ERod to match his bad games with good games, at least well enough to feature in the bottom of a rotation. Pomeranz is the only guy I ever worried about.

Just curious

If you want to limit your options and guarantee that the team will never have the best veteran pitchers in the league, by all means refuse to pay market price for pitchers. The solution to risks not panning out, is not failing to take risks.

reason for concern, but no cause for panic.

Exactly, lt's like the eephus or the quarterback sneak. These plays are effective because, and only when, they are unexpected.

With his bat so far ahead of his glove there just becomes a point where the best possible use for Swihart is in the majors regardless of position. Holding out for a 9/10 value at catcher when he could be a 7.5/10 third baseman and we're at risk of having a 2/10 or at best a 5/10 there... doesn't make a ton of sense in the short term. Put it this way -- if they were ever really determined to make a catcher of Swihart they would never have moved him off the position in the first place. Now that they have it would be the height od stupidity to try to force that genie back into the bottle now.

Well look at the fatsnfigs. Last year he had a concussion, both years before that he had 2+ WAR. With his level of offense, 2+ WAR is pretty impressive if we're being honest. And this year in half a season with concussion problems and all, he was still good for 1.2 WAR Dude is getting us value. He's doing it by providing average level production wherever we happen to really need an average player. That's a level of value disproportionate to his averageness since he's singlehandedly plugging our worst black hole in any given season with an average guy. He's stop loss insurance against excessive suckitude, in other words, and that has a value all by itself. Replacing a negative-WAR guy with a 2 WAR guy is good for more than 2 WAR to the team, that's just math. He can take anyone other than a catcher or pitcher who's being a detriment to the team, out of the lineup immediately and replace it with a solid roster filler, without having to shed assets in trade. He's done that for us for 3 years now whenever the plan didn't work at various positions. And that's before you factor in the roster assets he's saved us. IF a big acquisition flops it a player falls off the cliff, lot of teams have to make trades to plug holes that Brock can just fill with no muss, no fuss and play at an average level. That stability has probably kept a handful of prospects in-system over the last few seasons. There's a good reason that Gm's love guys like him

Makes perfect sense. No team without a star level 2B would have a problem starting a guy like Holt at the position. Pedroia has spoiled us for years. Middle infield offense is not so easy to come by.

True, but there's at least 10 teams who would get solid upgrades by starting Brockstar at 2B. I'd rate him a solid-average starting 2B if given the chance. In a healthy season Brock's been good for 2-2.5 WAR. He could absolutely stake a claim to a starting 2B role if that's what the team needed. He's more useful in the super-sub role though.

I refuse to believe Matt Ryan is that stupid. He was pretty damn clutch in BC. Reports circulating that he was screaming at his coach over some of the playcalling late in the game, but Shannahan overruled him.

Do you have any clue how little the hunger in America has to do with the quantity of food available? Our distribution system is inefficient. People who are hungry can't get food that's plentily available. Pretending that this is an environmental problem is delusional.

At some point, we have to accept the fact that ideal solutions may not be practical. Even if he might have a higher value objectively as a catcher, Swihart's optimum value to the team is as a big leaguer. Swihart can kill the ball in AAA and it won't get us any closer to the World Series. He is spinning his wheels waiting for his glove to come around and guess what guys. It isn't coming around. In fact early returns this Spring suggests his defense has actually regressed. Swihart's bat is ready NOW and only MLB reps can improve it. We can't wait for the glove. We've waited long enough, it's been 2 years and any improvement defensively has been MINIMAL. Swihart's clock is ticking NOW thanks to his callup back in 2015 and the decision made to bring him back in 2016 to play the outfield. We need to get him up here ASAP so we can help us, and if that involves moving him off catcher and getting him into a position where we have an opening, instead of playing this ridiculous will-he won't-he game he's trapped in now, then I'm all for it.

Nah. Worst case scenario he's just moved off catcher. If we don't want him as a catcher nobody else will, but with his bat he has a puncher's chance to crack a big league roster without the pads. If Sam Travis doesn't pan out and Moreland is not satisfactory, Blake Swihart may wind up solving our catching dilemma by being our starting 1B by year's end.

weird things happen to logic when you conflate zen theory with cognito ergo sum