I think the "value the player" is the tone set at the top from Henry. It goes back to the Lester negotiations and has kind of been an undercurrent here except for the sexy DD years. I think Henry liked Chaim because he was a guy who set values on players and stuck to them. Overall as a strategy, it doesn't work out.
I was just refuting the "empty seats" comment. Major moves won't matter if they don't win.
Attendance is down to pre-2003 levels. Maybe it's just where the fanbase is? Are they burnt out? Is it a function of the rollercoaster the ownership has put us on?
He's going FA and SD should try to buy him out for 2 years. Not sure they will. He's still a 12M AAV guy to me. If Sox offered him 3/36, I would be ok with it, but as a back of the rotation guy. Pivetta has provided more fWAR over the past 3 years than Wacha.
They had the bones of a good to great rotation: Lester, Lacket, Beckett, Buchholz
They added some good role players in the offseason that took on outsized importance: Napoli, Gomes, Victorino, Drew
Don't think Sox can accomplish #1.
Prospects that are RHB:
Bleis
Yoeillin
Yorke
Blaze
Allan Castro - switch
Johanfran Garcia
Coffey
Campbell
Anderson
Zanetello
Meidroth
Riemer
Bonaci - switch
While some of the top prospects (Teel, Mayer and Anthony) are LHB, a lot of the bats are RHB.
I think it's fun to dream on Trout, but he's guaranteed to miss 80 games each year at this point with a huge contract.