mvp 78

David Ortiz was a free agent.

No, just Suge Knight and Will Ferrell. My wife would run into Gina Davis on campus every once in a while. She also literally ran into Clint Eastwood on graduation day (he was receiving an award).

Why is stadium attendance the only criteria you use? The Rays have been a successful franchise since 2008. There is no reason to move them. Yes, they need a new ballpark in a better location, but I think they should stay in the Tampa area.

That was my reference point as an SC fan.

No, they get better tv ratings than the Mets, Dodgers, Padres, Rangers, Angels, White Sox. Teams that should move or get new ownership: Orioles, Pittsburgh, A's, Padres

They wouldn't even let him back on the plane in ATL.

Same boat. I can't say anything about Carrigan/White/Ferrell especially now that the Sox fired their team historian!!!

They really didn't miss a beat being in the studio. I think they should go there for all away games.

Probably on the outside looking in.

For the previous 5 years (15 - 19), he played in over 98% of all the games his team played.

VMart playes 1 f-r-e-a-k-i-n year. That's why I excluded him and Stanley. I did love Stanley while he was here though. I reserve more 90's Sox talk for the next time SCM33 comes out of hibernation. He's always up for some good Tony Pena convo.

I think you can bring back Moreland and JBJ because they will be cheap. Even when JBJ isn't hitting, he still provides decent value with his glove and QBing the OFers. Moreland is a LH platoon guy, something the Sox could use at 1b.

Moreland 2020: w/ Sox: WRC+ 206 w/ Pads: WRC+ 59 567 OPS: the difference between his Sox OPS and his Pads OPS.

Hell yeah.

https://www.mlb.com/news/red-sox-catchers-five-all-time-best I'd say the current ranking should be: Fisk Tek Vaz Geddy (though he's really a toss up with Vaz because of how good he was in 84 - 86) Ferrell/White

Hard disagree. Also, there are way less fights in recent years then back in the olden days. And a cursory googling leads me to believe that most fights between Sox and Yankees fans occur in the Bronx, not at Fenway.

Can we not go there please? I'd rather relitigate deflategate.

Roenicke was Cora's AA manager back in 1997, but they did not work together again until Cora was hired by the Sox.

They originally brought Roenicke in because Alex Cora was a brand new manager and needed an experienced bench coach to coach him up. Maybe they believe that Cora would like to pick a different bench coach going forward? Maybe the Sox see Varitek as next year's bench coach? I don't think Cora was hired and then stated "I want Ron here."

Tampa grows approximately 1.5% annually. Pittsburgh has seen a population decline for the past decade. Pittsburgh attendance bottomed out 2017 - 2019. They used to be middle of the road prior to then. However, even when attendance was up, they would still have a fairly low payroll. This probably caused a bit of disillusion with ownership among the fanbase. Tampa is usually in the bottom 3 no matter what the standings are. Currently, the Pittsburgh Pirates are valued at $1.26 billion. This resulted in a yearly value change of around -1%. With the majority of baseball still raking in money, this negative value change puts the Pirates as one of only two teams that lost value over the course of 2019. The Miami Marlins were the only other team that had a negative value change (-2%). The decrease in team value is obviously tied to poor on the field performance, poor public perception, and poor management decisions. All of these factors attributed to negative fiscal trends, including a 2019 gate revenue of $44 million for the Pirates. Gate revenue is simply ticket sales, a major source of revenue for any MLB team. This is the third straight year the Pirates experienced a decrease in gate revenue, down from $70 million in 2016. https://www.post-gazette.com/sports/pirates/2019/10/28/pittsburgh-pirates-owner-bob-nutting-neal-huntington-fired-president-travis-williams/stories/201910280082 If I have to really evaluate the two franchises, Tampa seems to have a well run franchise that is smart enough to save money where they can. The Pirates are a horribly run franchise that saves money for the owner but can't put a competitive product on the field even if they have a recent history of developing really good players (good scouting, s*** coaching?). Seems like there is just some sort of disfunction at the top of the organization that is preventing the MLB team from succeeding.

No, please don't climb the monster, rant at the field and throw a hat.

It's a kids game that continually gets ruined by middle aged whack jobs.

The Pirates are actively not allowing that team to compete. They've had lots of great prospects and young players, but never retain them. They have a beautiful ballpark. They have a lot of history. The ownership is just strangling that franchise with his purse strings.

I guess it depends on the arms?

If he gets dropped, you can probably even get him for cheaper.