mvp 78

If we had to put one of them at DH, sure Nomar would be better.

That was what I wondered on the other thread. Duran and Downs dropping kinda offset Mayer and Yorke.

Four Boston Red Sox prospects made Keith Law’s Top 100 prospect list released Monday on The Athletic. Shorstop Marcelo Mayer led all Red Sox prospects at No. 18 on the list. Second baseman Nick Yorke, who went unranked in Law’s previous rankings, is listed No. 37. First baseman Triston Casas jumped 31 spots in the rankings to No. 56. Right-handed pitcher Bryan Bello, who previously went unranked, is listed at No. 86. Yorke was out of the top 100. Casas jumped 31 spots. Bello in the top 100. But the Sox are still 20th? Maybe he saw Duran and Downs play poorly and that offset the gains? IDK.

I don't think any prospects graduated except for Houck and they added from a draft that included Marcel Mayer. Doesn't make sense to me.

@OverTheMonster Keith Law is a bit lower on the Red Sox farm system than Baseball America. The latter had them ranked 11th in baseball, while Law has them down at 20.

They've been at it? MLB basically turtled for weeks at a time and let the MLBPA hang out in the wind. If they were at the negotiating table for 42 days, the point would make sense, but they really on met 3-4 times and discussions were relatively brief each time.

So one clutch stretch vs Ortiz's multi year clutch stretch?

He was a fulltime 3b at age 28. He only had 26.9 fWAR at SS. He's in the conversation though if you want him to be. His 1969 season may be the greatest Sox SS season of all time.

I think most people would just automatically assume that Nomar Garciaparra is the greatest Red Sox SS of all time. However, is there a case that it's actually Xander? fWAR through age 28: Nomar: 32.8 Xander: 31.6 If 2020 was a full 162 games, Xander would most likely have a higher career fWAR. We complain about Xander's defense, but Nomar was actually a much worse defender. Instead of working on his D, Nomar spent more time complaining about the grounds crew. Xander played in 2 WS. Nomar played in 0. By all accounts, Xander is a wonderful teammate. I'm not sure anyone could say the same about Nomar. Xander may never have an amazing season like Nomar had in 2000, but is the overall package better than what Nomar gave us? Yes, Johnny Pesky would be in the discussion if not for WW2.

When I was involved with a negotiation that had a federal mediator, here's what happened. 1. Negotiator met with both sides together just to explain his purpose. 2. Negotiator met with each side separately to see what the pain points were and where flexibility existed. 3. Negotiator then went back to each side and had a plan for how to split the baby (so to speak). "If side A gives up X, side B will back down on Y." 4. Both sides agreed to a deal and moved on with their lives. For me, this happened towards the very end of a negotiation after there had been several meetings. For this to happen so early on in the negotiations is weird IMO.

Two theories I've seen: 1. MLB is doing this as a ploy for public perception. They believe the MLBPA would turn down a federal mediator and want to make the union look bad. 2. Owners are not on the same page. Bringing in the mediator will bring the ownership group together so that they can actually figure out what to bargain on.

@EvanDrellich Sources: MLB has told the MLBPA it will not make a counter offer after MLB two days ago saying it would. Why would the players do this?!?!?!?!?

My comparison between Ortiz and Yaz has little to do with Luis Gonzalez and Jim Thome since neither has any impact on RedSoxNationTM.

Ah, but how does Steamer600 account for time spent at DH vs time spent at 1b?

It must not have been a very good point then.

I don't think so. Owners are hard up for the money.

His reign of postseason futility continued long after he retired.

@redsoxstats The Red Sox hired an analytics company to optimize game start times [mostly starting in 2023, it sounds like]. Boston dot com ran a poll asking when the Red Sox should start on weeknights: Results 45% 6:00 p.m. 28% 6:30 p.m. 22% 7:00 p.m. 5% 7:30 p.m.

There will be a season. It just may not be 162 games.

If it wasn't for Papi, we still may be in the Yaz era that was marked by being perennial losers. 67 75 78 86 88 90 95 98 99 The fellowship of the miserable wasn't exactly a fun place to be.

Was it his personality that hit all those walk offs and got 3 rings?

I think you can say Yaz was a much better player, but that Ortiz was more impactful and important to the organization.

Steamer is projecting 545. ZiPS is projecting 489. You can project however many you'd like to.

In a recent interview with Sportsnet's Shi Davidi, Cora said his interview process with most MLB teams was positive before the Red Sox hired him as their manager in November 2017. "In my experience, I interviewed with Texas, San Diego, Arizona, the Mets, Detroit -- last year with three -- I never felt I was interviewed because I was a minority," Cora told Davidi. "I always thought that I had a chance. The people that run those organizations stayed in touch with me and were very supportive, so I appreciated that." There was one outlier, though, and it still rubs Cora the wrong way. "There was one organization that interviewed me for another job and I felt it, they just interviewed me because I was a minority," Cora said. "It felt like s---. I was like, ‘F--- this s---.' " Cora felt his brother was a victim of the rule, as well. Cora said he remembers Joey Cora, an 11-year MLB veteran and current Pittsburgh Pirates third base coach, being interviewed by an MLB team that didn't know where he went to college.