mvp 78

All of Cora's potential lineups going forward have Betts and Beni hitting 1 and 2. Anyone want Betts hitting lower? I know Cora talked about wanting an impact bat at leadoff and he mentioned putting Betts there.

https://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=3132&position=P I don't know enough about Watson. His numbers don't really look all that hot. Not sure he's a guy you need to sign for 3 years.

Once the fall back plan is signed elsewhere (Duda or LoMo), I bet the Sox figure it out quickly.

I think they should get Nunez and JDM.

IDK. That's the best way to solve the problem without fail. "Hey, we don't like these uni's and we don't want to wear them." "Too bad. We bought them. You wear them." "Ok, here's some scissors." "s***."

He should have been let go after 2016, but whatever. He's gone and instead of re-litigating at which point he should have been let go, I'm just going to be excited to see what Cora can do.

Ok? "So we just signed Napoli and Victorino? What do you think?" "They're fine veterans. Those moves don't move the needle though. Wish they got an impact bat and another starting pitcher." "What about Dempster?" "Meh." That's it. That's the conversation. There was no buzz. Just signing people doesn't make it a great offseason. Making the right moves makes it a great offseason. If that means not overpaying a FA, fine. I'm sure a lot of people here would go back and not sign Price to that deal, but a few years ago they'd be screaming about how the Sox really needed to bring Price in no matter what.

@alexspeier Bogaerts on 2017: ‘The quicker we move on, the better for us.’ Suggests there were a lot of things going on with the team, but declined to get into specifics.

@alexspeier Betts says it will take ‘4, 5, 6 guys’ to fill the leadership void left by Ortiz. ‘’That tells you how important he was.’

I don't remember the Sox having much buzz in ST 2013.

He would never say that to a fan. That sounds totally out of character.

@jcmccaffrey Red Sox fans apparently give Dave Dombrowski advice about how to run the team every morning at his local Dunkin Donuts.

I think I found Natick to NC's twitter account. @JDMartinez14 Prayers going out to everyone on the campus of Stoneman Douglas High School right now!!! @michaelis4real a jd are you going to sign or what my man?

If he "could put it together" at the plate, he'd be the starting SS.

I try not to get too worked up about how players look in ST t shirts in the FL wind.

The .521 is a career high tho. I'm not sure we can count on him doing that year in and year out.

@redsoxstats In Carlos Gonzalez's last 1000 PA away from Coors he's hit .231/.287/.396. Mike Moustakas is going cost a 2nd rder and 500K international money in addition to his contract. He just hit 38 HR but only had a 114 wRC+ because he didn't get on base. Immobile at 3B and extremely slow. I'm not really into either.

Even so, I'm not sure Liriano is a more reliable option when he didn't even get 1 WAR in 2016 or 2017.

Rest In Power Tito Francona. (Terry's dad)

Onerous? This is the team that signed Panda and Hanley on the same day for $40M AAV. I'm sure they can foot the bill.

I agree, but really don't know how you'd really factor it in monetarily.

Is the offer fair? https://www.overthemonster.com/2018/2/14/17010840/j-d-martinez-please-sign-with-the-red-sox If you’ve been following the Martinez saga (and let’s be honest, there’s no way you haven’t. This is precisely the 853rd article written about J.D. Martinez since the off-season began), then you probably know that it’s a far cry from the $200 million contract he was reported to have been seeking and even the six year, $150 million contract that MLBTR predicted he would eventually sign. The latest news, that the offer to Martinez is closer to being worth $100 million than $125 million, got me wondering where one should really draw the line with Martinez. How much is he worth, how much will he get, and if he signs elsewhere, do they really have a suitable plan B? J.D. Martinez is a really good hitter. His counting stats indicate he is most like Giancarlo Stanton, but he’s also similar to Jose Abreu and Edwin Encarnacion to a degree (names Boston has been tied to this off-season). His batted ball profiles are close-ish to Mike Trout and Khris Davis! While Khris Davis is not great at generating contact all the time, when he hits it, it does go far. So this is rather encouraging. His plate discipline leaves a little to be desired, as he is very much a free swinger, and compares most favorably to Nelson Cruz. The names across the three lists he has the most overall similarities with appears to be Khris Davis and Nelson Cruz, although Giancarlo Stanton is up there as well. J.D. Martinez, is 30, a mid-point between the two ages. While he is not going to get less than 20 million a year, he is unlikely to eclipse Stanton’s AAV, despite the fact Stanton’s contract did not happen on the open market. Encarnacion, who was coming off a 3.9 fWAR season himself, may be the best comparison we have, given he signed for less than expected, and was a prolific hitter the Red Sox were interested in. Encarnacion put up 2.5 fWAR in his first season in Cleveland. If he continues to do so the next two seasons, the Guardians will have paid 60 million dollars for 7.5 fWAR, a rough valuation of 8 million dollars per fWAR. I would propose given the free agent freeze, that 8 million dollars per fWAR is more likely a valuation than the 11.1 million proposed by Fangraphs last season. Factoring that in, my final guess at Martinez’s “value” (roughly 8 million per fWAR) is set at 115.2 million dollars, over 5 years, adjust if you believe he will be worth a different amount than 14.4 fWAR. It’s all well and good to say J.D. Martinez is “worth” 115.2 million dollars on the current market, but that’s not entirely reality. Value is dependent on exactly what teams are willing to pay you. It’s very possible Martinez is worth closer to the 160 million mentioned above. It’s also possible he’s actually worth more. But if Boston and Arizona do not want to pay him that much money, there are limited options for him to pursue to acquire his true worth. I’m of the belief that Martinez will be signing in the next week or two, and that the contract is going to be seriously underwhelming, making the side that misses out on him wish they upped their offer.

@jcmccaffrey Sale said earlier today he’d throw to Leon or Vazquez this year despite sticking with Leon a majority of starts last year. Just threw a bullpen now to Vazquez.

That's just not true at all. When looking at your 3 year stretch, Lynn has a higher WAR than either Cashner or Liriano. Cashner has a higher career FIP after spending most of his time in pitcher friendly SD. Liriano has been less than a 1 WAR player the past two seasons. Lance Lynn has been far and away the best of the 4 over the past 4 years when accounting for WAR (+4 WAR over the other guys). Cobb iwas out for a long stretch so it's really hard to compare in that small sample. He has been above W WAR in every season he's appeared in 10 games. You certainly can't say that for Liriano.

Get the 5/100 deal, but ask for some big incentives like $10M for MVP, $5M for WS ring, $1M for HR title, etc.