I think the vast majority of us believe there is a great chance for us to be able to watch meaningful baseball this year. Is that really gloom and doom?
I feel very confident that the Sox will be within a 10 win margin of error at 85 wins (as will most teams).
If nobody knows nothing, I guess we all must know something!
Betting odds are less about potential outcomes and more about where people are putting their money. My guess is that the Cubs and Sox have rabid fanbases that are more likely to bet on their teams...
Growing up watching Dewey play RF showed me that your best defensive OF has got to play RF in Fenway.
Having Betts in CF and JBJ in RF is like having Lynn and Dewey again (defensively).
Well, of course they have their own projections. I'm not saying all projections are useless, I'm just saying fangraphs is given too much stock for what it is.
Instead of agreeing with the projections, he states they should be expected to lose a few more games because of his bias. I'm not saying he's wrong, I'm just saying he's tweaking the results with his own personal beliefs, i.e. bias.
Panda and Hanley are dogs. They should have waited until adter the season to sign Porcello.
Castillo showed potential. It was basically spending money on a prospect with upside, which I'd rather do then spend on guys in the back half of their careers. Porcello is young, but I wonder if the additional mileage on his arm from getting to the majors at 20 is taking its toll.
A more "realistic" projection is 88 wins, not 92. After being in last place for 3 of 4 years, the 92 games may be a little bit of a stretch. It's more likely than not that they don't get to 90 wins.
Projections aren't foolproof. I just haven't seen a correlation between Sox projections and performance the past 5 years or so. This team is such a mixed bag that it's really hard to say for sure where they'll end up.
The metrics say it was his worst defensive season whether he played 162 or not. Maybe he struggled only during the games I watched, but I doubt it. In years past, a ball hit towards second wasn't concerning for me. He was a defensive beast. Last year, he wasn't. He was replacement level defensive wise.