mvp 78

The same poster also broke the following deals yesterday: 1. Trevor Bauer to the Dodgers 2. Ben Rice to the Padres for prospects 3. Cam Schlittler to the Twins That Jazz post popped off though. Glad he got one!

From FanGraphs: Winner: Craig Breslow’s Sudden Aggression I’m not sure how Boston’s season is going to turn out, but it’s been a delight to watch as a neutral observer. The Sox made industry standard, consultant-approved team building moves all winter, trying to stack up accumulations in value and Build Sustainably Through Agile Thinking, or whatever buzzword you’d call it these days. To be clear, I liked those moves. I wrote about them this winter. But they were based on playing the odds, taking a long view, trying to make improvements while minding the cost. Then things started to fall apart. The Sox started as cold as possible. Breslow fired Alex Cora and most of his staff before the end of April. The front office drew plenty of criticism both for the way they handled the firings and the timing. Breslow’s focus on analytics, his team construction, probably his Dunkin’ order of choice, it all came under scrutiny. But July saw them go 21-4, spurred by a 15-game win streak. Suddenly they found themselves in a playoff spot and with a good farm system, and Breslow said screw it, I can go get Adley Rutschman, why wait? The first sign that the Sox were going to be aggressive buyers was the Connelly Early/Curtis Mead trade, which is a good avatar for all of Boston’s consequential moves this deadline. In terms of pure surplus value, I like the Nats’ side of it. But from the perspective of trying to be good this year, the Sox won it for sure, even if Mead broke his hand right afterwards and ruined their plans. The deal for Rutschman was their big swing, and while it might be another overpay, only the Dodgers added a better player at the deadline, and the Red Sox even get Adley next year too. Likewise, I was shocked to see Mayer moved for a reliever, albeit a solid lefty, but clearly the Red Sox had had enough of looking at the little cell in their spreadsheet that told them how valuable Mayer was to the team, and decided to get out while the getting was still good, improving the team in the process. We might look back on these trades in a few years and say that Boston overpaid. Certainly, the industry consensus leans that way now, and I agree. But I’m not all that confident, because I’m not all that confident in my evaluations of the 10 players the Red Sox dealt. I am sure that they made themselves better this year, and that’s the point of this exercise. You do all the boring, accumulative stuff in the slow times so that you can move fast and break things in the heat of a playoff race. I find myself in the strange place of agreeing with Craig Breslow’s strategy (go for it) while being unsure of his tactics (at what cost?), after his entire tenure until now had been marked by my thinking the opposite (great short-term tactics, but not enough long-term plan).

Definitely not real, but it's fun to pretend it was!

Also, happy Bowser Day to Willson Contreras. May he celebrate with lots of runs.

No, he stinks this year. Defense has been fine.

Wonder when Miller will be activated? He hasn't pitched since 8/2: 8 pitches.

Now this is baseball!

Narvaez's GF has caused a bunch of drama in a few orgs. Narvaez left his ex who was financially supporting him after she found out he was cheating on her. The new GF is generally disliked by most of the wives and she's been running down Narvaez's ex and saying personal things about the ex's childhood.

I'm just noting that they basically sent 3 top prospects for 1.5 years of 2025 Narvaez production. Seems steep.

Crochet should be healthy again. Houck? Is he even a rotation guy anymore? Oviedo is probably a bullpen guy too at this point. Can't count on permanent IL fixtures to provide anything to rotation, even depth. Just look at Kutter! We're all waiting for him to rehab in Worcester any day now...

Mookie - $365M, provided $233M in value so far plus multiple WS championships I think the Dodgers would do that deal over again in a heartbeat. Bogey was bad from the beginning. For all the handwringing on here about Devers early this season, he's been hitting like Willson Contreras since May (898 OPS, 21 HR).

Sox wives are going in on Narvaez’s girlfriend now as he is heading out the door. Must have been fun times behind the scenes.

mlb.tv It's fine. I get to watch a ton of MiLB games as well. I also listen to a bunch of Sox podcasts: the TalkSox ones, SoxProspects, Section 10, Fenway Rundown, 310 to Left. There are some national podcasts like Effectively Wild, Batting Around and Baseball America that I listen to. I don't think my viewing/listening habits are much different than when I lived in MA TBH.

He still could be Brandon Crawford. That's the comp everyone has been saying for the past few years. He's still on that track.

I'm not worried about him adjusting to the staff. I'm worried about him staying healthy first and foremost.

Admitting you aren't a true fan. Proud of you.

Roman is a 6.4. A lot of people are out on him.

He really increased is splitter usage this season. Maybe they continue to move away from his 4 seamer and changeup which seem to just be chase pitches that nobody chases? Miller has a live arm. He should be fun to watch.

He's been injured every season since he showed up. Were we expecting something different? 🤷‍♂️ I said to trade him two offseasons ago because of it. Sox just really mistimed the trade.

I like Rutschman, I just wish he was healthy and had a longer contract. Sox gave up the 3rd, 10th and 12th best prospects dealt at the deadline for him. It was a substantial haul. He needs to make it worth their while.

Sox have been able to work on guys strike throwing. They can get their with Miller. No matter what, he's been a valuable arm. I'd rather have him out there than Weissert or the guys they've brought up from AAA. Is he in the Chappy/Whitlock/Slaten tier? Not yet.

His name and pedigree are the same thing!

Why won't Miller help this team? I think he could be pretty great TBH.

What I want and what I expect are two different things. His career OPS at Fenway is below 700. I think he's going to be closer to 711. He's had a string of injuries and will be in a new ballpark. Maybe he can do better next season and stay healthy.

I wasn't ignoring it. I flat out said they paid a premium for his name brand and you disagreed. What are you even arguing?