mvp 78

Absolutely bonkers Game 161 between the Braves and Mets right now.

01: 2nd 02: 2nd 03: 6th 04: 2nd 05: 2nd 06: 2nd 07: 2nd 08: 4th 09: 4th 10: 2nd 11: 3rd 12: 3rd 13: 4th 14: 4th 15: 3rd 16: 3rd 17: 3rd 18: 1st 19: 1st 20: 3rd 21: 3rd How can you give ownership cover and say "well other teams raised their payrolls a lot." This didn't happen magically. Henry and Co pulled money out of payroll and applied it elsewhere. The Sox still charge at the top of the market for tickets. They still own their own network and have a ton of real estate in the area. If they aren't putting $$$ back into payroll, it's by choice! 10th isn't good enough. We don't treat this team like a midmarket! We aren't charged like a midmarket! If they continue to artificially deflate payroll, they will see more and more fans walk away. They say the end goal is October baseball and winning the division. It can't be if they aren't going to legitimately invest in the MLB team. The only reason they won 4 WS was because they combined a high payroll with some home grown talent. They need to do both going forward.

He always just looks like he's ready for October to me. 🧛‍♂️

Just wait until Brock realizes that Yeszir was misusing mark to market accounting to prop up the value of TalkSox, Inc. prior to the sale!!!

We can still do polls here?

He's always wanted to tampen down payroll going back to when he wanted to hire Billy Beane. He gets off on market inefficiency. He sees it as the game within the game. We just want the wins. He wants to win while looking like the smartest guy in the room. Unfortnately, the Smartest Guys in the Room sometimes lose or wind up in handcuffs.

Now for the real nonsense:

Only off by 3 wins. Otherwise, my prediction was so generic that it was hard to miss as moon noted above.

There's like a less than 10% chance there are 2 significant additions this offseason. Likely, a significant addition would come with a significant subtraction.

Here's where the "realistic view" for this year started. It's just too early. We can't always pencil in TOTR guys. The ownership just doesn't seem interested in putting more money into payroll ATM. In this view, Whitlock and Houck were both put in as relievers but slid in as starters on the Opening Day roster and ultimately no major additions were added. I just don't know how to forecast a realistic view as of September for the following season unless the spending limit remains unchanged and only internal options are projected. If they just go with internal guys and minor changes at the edges of the roster, the team should be about the same as this year, maybe marginally better if Giolito improves on Pivetta's innings. If Bello transforms from a #4 into a #2, that would also go a long way, but I just don't see that happening. My guess for next season: 83-79 and largely because the young guys play their asses off down the stretch unlike the previous 3 seasons.

Not sure Grissom would have much of a positive impact. Refsnyder and O'Neill were already on the roster. I don't know what to say about Story's offense anymore. He just hasn't been healthy enough to evaluate.

A large part of it is personnel, not just the coaching. Some posters would like to put 100% of the blame on Rafaela. I think if they add one or two guys who take a few more pitches, similar to Schwarber's approach and its impact in '21, it would help the a few of the other guys.

Teams just keep putting him in CF for some unknown reason. He's an adequate corner OF. As long as they address the lack of RHB somewhere, I'm happy. It doesn't have to be O'Neilll, but it probably has to be more than one guy.

He's from the Boston area and grew up a Sox fan. I think he's got that used car salesman vibe and has lost the plot. No matter what, I don't think we ever learn much from these festivities. Even when JH was on stage at the Winter Fest, there was no resolution about what the Sox would be getting going forward. All we heard was "well I've been here for two decades, I'm committed to the Sox and I've won in the past."

Anthony hasn't shown a split issue and seems to be a fulltime player at some point. Abreu isn't. If they are just running with Duran/Rafaela/Anthony, then it would push O'Neilll to a DH platoon with Masa. Masa didn't hit LHP very well this year. Is the Soler/Gurriel contract the right amount for a platoon guy? Refsnyder is still cheap enough to keep onboard, but you run out of roster space at some point. However, Refsnyder fought through injuries this year and O'Neilll has a long injury history and maybe you need both of them to get through a season?

I don't think anyone aside from John Henry knows. Even others in ownership (Tom Werner) don't know the status of the budget or even have much of a say anymore. Sam Kennedy will have some comments at 2pm about the state of the Sox and generally we take them as coming from JH, but we really are just reading tea leaves at this point. We're all just guessing. Past history probably isn't a good indicator because FSG isn't the same as it was 10-15 years ago.

RBI stats aren't a skill. O'Neilll and Refsnyder's contracts are completely independent of each other and this roster could use both of them. If they need to balance the batting order, adding O'Neilll helps with that. They aren't going to add a RHB at 3B or 1B. The only place to add is DH/MIF/OF. Mayer, Teel and Anthony are all LHB so their callups will only exacerbate the problem. If Campbell is called up, he's likely the 2B as his defense is much better than Grissom. If I was the Sox, I'd move Grissom in a trade this offseason. No matter what Grissom does in Boston, he'll always be seen as the Sale guy. It's lose/lose for him.

How about mTJS for modified TJS? Fits well with fWAR, bWAR and others.

So "the overall trend is downward" and you're "not doubting another cut" but "the time is now." I think you should stop fooling yourself. Wait for them to prove it to you before you actually buy into it. Weren't you the one yelling sham, but now you think they'll actually do something?!?!?