mvp 78

I can't recommend this book enough: https://www.amazon.com/Cooperstown-Casebook-Baseball-Should-Plaques/dp/1250071216 Even if you don't agree with who he wants selected, the first few chapters are invaluable to any discussion concerning how players have voted into the Hall.

HOF members are the sole reason the worst of the worst got into the Hall in the first place. It was an old boys club that allowed their buddies to get in over far deserving players.

Myers would go back to OF.

Kimmi.

Approximately 80% of the viewership is for people above the age of 35, not necessarily the types that are hanging with their friends 162 times a year.

http://www.weei.com/blogs/alex-reimer/red-sox-primetime-tv-ratings-down-15-percent-season-still-near-top-league Even though the Sox were down another 15% this year, it actually was in the top 5 for programming. This means less overall eyeballs even though it's a relatively popular show. They’re not nearly as big as they were 10 years ago, but that’s probably more of a commentary on baseball than the team itself. In comparison to other clubs, the Red Sox remain at the top in terms of fan interest. They drew more than 2.9 million people to Fenway Park this year, too, ranking fourth in the American League in attendance. The problem isn't directly due to the Red Sox, but the overall popularity of the game (which has been discussed a ton on here).

Those aren't coming back though. Even the ratings for Papi's retirement tour were down. If your beloved power hitting DH is having a renaissance season and can't increase NESN's ratings in a season where the Sox won the division, nothing else can. I think more people are cutting the cord, using streaming services and just finding alternate ways to entertain themselves 162 days a year.

You can blame Dave all you want, but I guarantee that Henry approved of the deal.

No doubt!

But not enough for them to be an average HR park. It's an above average doubles and triples park. It's a below average HR park.

Baseball is the perfect sport to leave on in the background while you are on your phone telling other people how much smarter you are than them on some random message board. For the most part, I don't typically watch the full game. After putting the kids to bed, NESN isn't turned on until 8-8:30. I'm usually off to bed by 11 at the latest on a work night, so it's usually only about 2 hours of watching for me.

It's hard to say this for sure, because I can't put any reliance on the ticket sale numbers prior to 2013. For the most part, Fenway is pretty full. Their home attendance last year was 36,021 per game. The capacity is 37,731. At 81 games, there would be at most an additional 138,510 tickets you could add (and attendance is probably not total tickets sold). At $200 per ticket (most likely would be far less), that's still only an increase of $27M. There isn't enough meat on the bone for a FA signing to make a financial difference.

Jeter's plan was to cut payroll, but increase ticket sales by $5M each of the next few years. Um, ok?

OPS of 527 against LHB. Alexander's was 680. BUT THOSE HOME RUNS!!!

They don't need an expensive LH guy in the pen (and DD doesn't want one anyway). Scott and Abad were both great against LHB last year.

Now, some astute readers might wonder WELL WHAT ABOUT NESN RATINGS? http://www.weei.com/blogs/alex-reimer/red-sox-ratings-nesn-are-down-20-percent-season Though ratings were up last season (2016), the team still failed to consistently win the front page on its way to a 96-win finish. On the night of Sept. 15, for example, when Hanley Ramirez hit a walk-off home run against the Yankees –– a win that Dan Shaughnessy called “one of the greatest regular-season victories of all-time" –– more viewers were tuned into the Jets-Bills matchup on Thursday Night Football. Ratings have been trending downward for nearly the last decade. From 2004-2009, the Red Sox finished No. 1 among all local markets in TV ratings. They haven't placed higher than No. 3 among all local markets since, and have been out of the top five since 2013. If the Red Sox continue to win, more people will probably watch. But this period of seeming apathy might be the new normal. Even though the Sox are one of the best teams in baseball, the product on air is still reaching fewer and fewer eyeballs. Darvish isn't going to increase viewership. Now, it's not much of a surprise that a Sox game towards the end of an overly long season would have less viewers than an NFL game at the start of its season. However, the Yankees and Red Sox rivalry is supposed to be one of the greatest rivalries in sports. This was Papi's retirement tour with strong home attendance. If that game can't beat out a s***** Jets/Bills game shown on the NFL Network only, it says a lot about the state of baseball both in Boston and elsewhere.

Nah, I don't want JD playing OF. I really don't want Benny as a starting CF. His defense is pretty lack luster.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/246793/average-per-game-attendance-of-the-boston-red-sox/ I'm not sure any FA would spike attendance all that much. It's hard to really say what attendance has been the past decade since I believe the Sox were pumping up their numbers with that phony sell out streak that ended in 2013. If you take stock in what they report, you'd probably think that the worse thing they did was sell off the team in 2012 and hand it over to BV. The early ticket sales for 2013 were hurt more by the previous season fiasco than the FA signings of 2013 which helped bring a WS. 2014 looks to have gotten a WS bump from the prior year, but that year's last place finish hurt 2015. 2016 sales increased most likely due to the Papi retirement tour. 2017 sales decreased even though they brought in Sale and were basically the AL East leader bell to bell. Darvish ain't making a difference in sales IMO.

He has one more year of control. I think it's more likely that Bogaerts could replicate 2016 than Bradley.

Which starter tho?

Pretty bad in 2014 too.

JBJ was the 25th best player in 2016. Xander was the 26th. I think a lot of people wouldn't mind moving on from Xander, but are hesitant on moving on from JBJ. Why?

2016 had: Career years from Xander, Mookie, JBJ and Sandy Leon (remember how he hit down the stretch) Pedey's best season since 2011 Papi's best season since 2007 Hanley was healthy all year Chris Young's best season since 2010 That seems to be a very atypical season to me.

Sure is, but I wouldn't count on that happening very often going forward.

As I've posted before: JBJ is good for one great month. 2015: 5/10 - 8/8 146 BABIP and 426 OPS 8/9 - 9/7 577 BABIP and 1441 OPS 9/8 - 10/4 173 BABIP and 510 OPS 2016: 4/5 - 5/4 348 BABIP and 792 OPS 5/5 - 5/30 400 BABIP and 1232 OPS 6/1 - 9/30 289 BABIP and 765 OPS April - May: BABIP 220 OPS 669 May 30th - July 4th: BABIP 412 OPS 1029 July 5th - Sept: BABIP 263 OPS 598 It looks like he'll continue on the one hot month per year path. If he didn't have that crazy hot streak in 2012 and had a .792 OPS, it still would have been an ok season. However, there were 16 CFers with OPS above .800 last year. (JBJ wasn't one of them)