Dojji

Yeah, sorry for BC, but them's the breaks, you are judged based on the results, and BC's results are 1 great year and 3 crap ones. He'd probably be a great GM for a small market team, but he wasn't the right guy in Boston.

I want to apologize. I was being unnecessarily peevish.

I think we should have gone after Miller too, but it's water under the bridge now and has no bearing on the upcoming offseason.

WHen did Ben Cherington win the World Series again? Seems to me that 2013 was mostly Theo's team. The only guys I give Cherries full marks for are Victorino and Stephen Drew.

Yep. There's stuff to criticize, but the man has done his job -- he goes nowhere.

Margot or Benintendi -- pick one, trade the other. You can't give both the meaningful playing time they need. You've seen the issues we're having trying to develop 2 players for the same position at catcher, it just doesn't work very well, the issue at the moment at catcher seems to be more centered around there never being a good time to trade one catcher or the other without screwing our depth. We did not have the same problem with the two young CF prospects. When it comes to having two top prospects in the same position at the same level, it just doesn't do to be indecisive. You need to pick one and move the other and trust your read on which one to move. We picked Benintendi. It was the right decision. The only question was what to trade Margot FOR.

I wasn't being serious guys.

I can't decide of KC is likely to marshal its forces for one last hurrah, or sell off the 1 year guys now to maximize prospect return and line up for a new window in 5 years. They don't have a deep young core right now, but they do still have Hosmer and Perez, and that's a good start at either a last hurrah or a full rebuild. if I was GM I'd seriously consider the latter with a ring giving me the time and credibility to make that kind of longterm move now, but I could definitely understand KC trying for one last bite at the apple before the core falls apart entirely.

Well we've done better than that -- if our hope for Kelly bears out, we've signed the next one.

Can I just say it? Our development department has spent the last several years not smelling like roses. It's one thing to "hit" on high picks like Betts and Bradley and high profile FA's like Bogaerts. It's another to have absolutely no homegrown home-drafted started pitching make the roster since Clay Buchholz did it nearly 10 years ago We've got a few reasonably decent hits on position players, but the scouting and development for pitching has stank on ice. Maybe it's time to turn some of these guys over and bring in some fresh ideas.

That's because Kimmi's torturing the logic a bit. A manager is there to play the angles. His primary job is to have a good idea which moves have the best chance of working. This is true even when any move has a low chance of working, or when all moves have a very high chance of working. THe fact that there's always a chance a good move will fail, or a bad move will succeed, is irrelevant to that definition of a manager's job description. His job is to know and play the odds. How well he does on the latter usually depends on his knowledge of the former.

Yes I would do exactly that. Because none of our positional crises are clear enough or well enough defined to attempt a proper patch in the offseason. We need time to see what our internal options are going to do. And the obvious trades to create a surefire solution for any of our major deficiencies are not present. This is not a good time to go blundering around in the trade market. Nothing but a sure thing is worth trading for, and for our key positional needs, there are no sure things out there and clearly available. Don't waste resources on almost-but-not-quite-what-you-want, just for the sake of having done something. That's a great way to squander resources you will (not might but will) need later.

1.4 dWAR. That's a big number. anything over 1 full defensive win is a strong performance at one's position. Dustin Pedroia is a Gold Glove nominee on the back of 1.8 dWAR at second base. JBJ is at 1.6 and is probably going to win a GG. Considering that he wasn't out there in every single situation like those two were, Shaw had a very, very, very good defensive season. Shaw's not flashy, but he's right up there with the best according to Baseball-Reference. And really, did you see Shaw make any great number of mistakes at third this year? Because I didn't. He's very very sound fundamentally as a defensive 3Bman and quietly does his defensive job extremely well. Not bad for a guy who hadn't played 3B full time in years prior to this season. For comparison's sake -- Mike Lowell, Gold Glover and widely considered to be an excellent defensive 3B in his prime, well known for his excellent reflexes and fantastic throwing arm that definitely saved some runs for us before he started to break down in 09, never had a year in which he put up 1 dWAR. He came close in 08 with 0.9. By that standard, Shaw has already put up a better defensive year than at least one Gold Glove winner ever had.

Yes, and I've been paying attention to the fact that the Cubs went out and acquired some excellent pitching. Really serving them well this postseason isn't it? Really makes the case to go out and buy pitching, doesn't it? So many X factors go into winning in the playoffs that distilling it down to one thing we did or didn't do, or need to immediately do Or Else We Will Never Win Again, is asinine, serves no purpose but to annoy the people that know better.

They're gonna say they believe3 in him as a catcher whether they do or not. Can't hurt that trade value. Still says everything you need to know that they went the path they did with Leon and Hanigan before going to Swhiart as the backstop again.

I am very much interested to see whether the team even signs a DH. There's good arguments to be made for not doing so, especially with a number of up and coming young hitters in the minors

I don't see where a trade like that actually exists right now. As far as I can see there is no pitcher, much less a trade for a pitcher. The closest thing I can see to a big trade for a pitcher is possibly a trade for a solid middle innings guy from a team in a position to sell one at a reasonable price, Luke Hochevar or someone like him.

Considering how well "winning the winter" usually works fir NYY I hope the team mostly keeps its powder dry this winter. The kinds of issues we have right now are the sorts of things a team with championship ambitions can afford to wait and fix at the deadline. We need playing time to see how catcher, 3B and the bullpen are going to shake out. We already have peaces in all these areas that COULD work, we need live ball to see what will and what won't. If any of those issues become deal breakers at the deadline there will probably be trade options available to shore them up, but our biggest problem areas have that weird problem where we have a ton of options to fill them, but none we're 100% confident with. That's a problem that requires live ball to properly analyze, much less fix. I expect some bullpen maintenance but on the whole, making major moves in the wintertime in any of those areas is going to be a poor idea, and I don't see a pressing need to overhaul the rotation at all. I fully expect DD to recognize this and have a quiet offseason.

You're focusing way too much on offensive OPS at 3B. We've got enough offense elsewhere on the team that a weak hitter at 3B is tolerable. And Shaw is an elite defender, he returned a lot of defensive value as a third baseman. That's why despite his poor bat, he returned average value by bWAR at 3B last year and why 3B is not a hole. It's an area for potential improvement, that's not the same thing as a "hole." As for the bullpen that's the same thing. We can improve there. If we don't make a major move our bullpen should probably still be adequate however. Unlike 3B I do predict DD will make a move or two to brace up the middle of the bullpen.

But because he's set us up for the next 2 years without major adjustments he doesn't need to "continue to deal the same way." Why would we? We're set up now. He made big moves because he was managing a cellar dweller who literally hired him to get them off the cellar. Right now we're a division champ that requires maybe a touch of fine tuning. DD is not an idiot, different situations require different strategies and he knows that. I predict a very quiet offseason for Boston, maybe a few minor moves for the bullpen and bench, that's about it.

All our position of strength is going to give us in the face of this much scarcity, is the security to hang up the phone. If big aces change hands, someone will always be more desperate than we will.

It really isn't. We have a 2 WAR guy there. You have to really put way too much stock in Shaw's miserable September to declare 3B a "hole" at this time. And besides that, for what it's worth, we have 2 utility guys and maybe even Panda that could put up replacement level play at the position. It's an area that we can potentially improve the roster with the right trade, but that's not exactly the same thing as a "hole".

The use of Leon in particular indicated to me that the Sox are not confortable with Swihart's proficiency at defense at this time.

Benintendi is not the sure thing fans seem to want to believe he is. Sophomore slumps are a thing. I don't think we can just blanket assume that we don't have a problem in left field. Rather than acquiring a bat just because there's a modest chance your rookie isn't up to the task, having a guy like Swihart who can sub in if needed is no bad thing.

Do you think Tito might be a little motivated to make a point to the guy who fired him?