SoxSport

Epstein was in his gorilla suit when the Beckett deal was made. He would have never traded Hanley. Beckett and Lowell got them to the world series, and so it was worth it. The guy who made that deal came from the Detroit organization to take Epstein's place. Older guy now deceased. Forget his name. Theo made a few good deals--notably, Ortiz. But he made a lot of bad ones. One decision they made after '07 may have been their downfall: getting rid of James and other consultants. Not sure who was behind that-Epstein or Lucchino. You have to keep in mind that Epstein is a mover from square one. Worked his way up in the PR dept of San Diego where Lucchino was his mentor. Came over to Boston with Lucchino. Got pushed into the GM position by Lucchino. A lot of GMs in baseball got there that way. Not much in baseball qualifications. More connections. It isn't like manager. Henry is the type of owner who likes to distribute authority. Maybe the anti-Steinbrenner. At times I suspect he has allowed his management to do things he wouldn't have done. Paying Adgon and Crawford are examples. He's gotten burned for it.

An interesting question for the Sox is who is going to replace Ells at leadoff? I think Farrell's first inclination would be Vic, or maybe a platoon of Vic and Pedroia. He is looking for speed and OBP at the top. You wonder how he views Nava, who has the batting eye but no speed and is a platoon player on this team. The sleeper, of course, is Bradley. He is patient at the plate, and has speed. But the conventional wisdom says he bats 9th--at least in the beginning. He looked better at the plate in September callup. Even hit a couple of HRs over the BP in Fenway against LHP. I wonder if he'll see some leadoff ABs in ST. This team can afford to experiment a bit, coming off a championship season.

I don't know if that balances out between east and west, and the time differences. I think the more important factor is the population shift from east to west. That probably accounts for the huge Fox west local TV contracts in LA. Maybe also increases in Texas and Seattle. It's about TV market size locally.

Nobody knows what JBJ's upside is. Even the Red Sox don't know. LOL

The way TV money works in MLB, you have two sets of revenues: network and local cable. The network revenues are shared among the teams. The local cable revenues are not, and that's what has given the Yankees the big spending advantage over the years. But that picture is changing with the huge Fox sports west local contracts given to the LA teams--especially the Dodgers. Hence the recent spending sprees the last two years of both the Angels and the Dodgers. Added to the mix apparently now is Texas. The Astros also have a big chunk of TV money, but they don't spend it on FAs. The Mariners also have more money than people think. The Yankees are no longer the big kahuna in TV revenues.

ha. No disagreement there. Their cups overfloweth with testosterone. Maybe Henry has a sense he doesn't have to this year.

I think Dempster has more value in the BP at this point in his career, with his closer experience. Boras is incredible the way he sucks in those $20mil + per yr contracts--using the same big money teams. He is in effect steering the most expensive players to the biggest TV markets. I read that Texas has the 2nd biggest TV market after LA, then the Yankees. That's surprising, but they've moved ahead of NY in TV money. One thing you can count on--Henry will never again take on such contracts. Which puts the Red Sox pretty much out of business with major Bora$ FAs. He even balked at Duquette's original contract with Manny at $20+ mil/yr. It's a wonder he allowed the AdGon and CC contracts, but he's learned his lesson.

I said I didn't remember.

Big markets and cable TV killed the Celtics. They've managed 1 championship in the big market era. The NBA has a phoney soft cap which benefits LA and NY. The Lakers have benefitted living miles above the cap, but the Knicks haven't--from incompetence. In baseball, the Yankees were gifted with a championship team in the 1920s, courtesy of Harry Frazee who generously sold them the core of the Red Sox team. But the Yankees continued to dominate thru the 30s, 40s and 50s, thru the strength of their farm system plus excellent trading. They then went into a fall when Mantle retired. Free agency in the late 70s was made to order for them and new owner Steinbrenner, who vacuumed up every free agent in sight--pushing prices up for everybody else. This was when Boras was still in his crib, or maybe studying business somewhere. Recall that's when Haywood Sullivan rebelled against FAs by "losing" the contracts of Fisk and Lynn. The Yankees then dominated with a largely mercenary team. Then, as I recall, Steinbrenner got prosecuted for some shady doings, expelled as Yankee owner. The team was taken over by CBS, which promptly tanked them by cutting their purse strings. King George ultimately got reinstated, and went back to buying FAs again, but this time the farm system was also contributing the likes of Jeter, Posada, Pettite, Rivera,etc, and the Yankee dominated again in the 90s and early 2000s. But they are in trouble now, because they are loaded with big contracts of aging players and the farm system is barren. The Red Sox, on the other hand, are World champions, with a nice blend of prospects and free agents. Though it seems they still wrestle with the dilemma of giving prospects an opportunity vs signing free agents. How did I get into all this? I don't remember.

Wars: Dempster 1.3, Peavy 1.5 (.9 WSX, .6RSX). Pretty close, but Peavy was more effective than Dempster down the stretch, so he made the playoff roster as a starter, Dempster in the BP. As I recall, Dempster never pitched. Dempster is older, and more expendable than Peavy. He has some value in the NL, and they are probably trying to unload him there. Peavy has ties with Nieves from his WSx days, plus he's the better pitcher right now. Plus he's a tough competitor. Keep him. I think they want a defensive guy in the OF to back up Vic.

never guilty of understatement. LOL.

Can't believe Sox would sign Drew, too. Not unless they have a deal in the works for MB. It makes no sense to move X to 3B at this point in his career when the scouts are saying he can play SS. Teams winning Championships have been known to screw up their roster the next year. One way the Red Sox can do that is to be too fixed on Drew.

No doubt good for the Red Sox. Bad for the Yankees. Getting Dempster back to the NL would seem to be almost a priority.

They are pretty much stuck with what they have unless they move Carp or Nava. That means they roll the dice with Bradley. They seem to have decided to do that with X at SS and MB at 3B. They can always deal with the OF issues later. I think the FO realizes that the unexpected championship has bought them some breathing room to give their prospects an opportunity.

Chances are a west coast team, Seattle or the LA teams, will get Tanaka, because are a lot of Asian Americans on the west coast who are baseball fans. The Yankees will probably get outbid. I doubt the Red Sox are a serious player. Their pitching looks pretty good.

Brentz probably needs another year. Hassan is a possibility. Agree they should look into another outfielder from Pawtucket. Maybe they'll wait until ST, to see how these guys look. The backup IF guy they just got from the Rockies can play 3B,SS and 2B. This gives them more IF versatility than Drew. No doubt they are looking around for a similar player for the OF.

That was when Ellsbury was in the OF. Bradley is more risky, as a 2nd year player. Besides, Nava isn't good enough defensively to play RF for extended periods at Fenway. They'll probably add a defensive oriented outfielder who can play CF and RF. Just looking for the right one.

The signing of a backup SS greatly reduces the probability of Drew getting re-signed. Hard to see that happening now. The Drews have made a career of getting overpaid with Boras as their agent. You'll probably see the same strategy in the OF--signing a reserve backup as insurance for Vic/Bradley. The Yankees overpay for everybody, and it is galling to see greedy agents and the media raise the bar for every other team every time the Yankees overpay for somebody. Yankee dollars should not carry over to the rest of the league. Neither should LA dollars now, for that matter. The imbalance of local cable TV money is simply too great in LA and NY markets. It isn't fair to the rest of the league, and leads to hyperinflation of salaries.

Thornton? Well, he's certainly old enough to play for the Yankees. LOL. Showed nothing in Boston. The Yankees are an embarrassment to NY--a mostly ragtag lineup of castoffs and a $190 mil payroll. Fans can't be happy. The over the hill gang.

I think you have to look beyond next year for Bradley--his WAR figures to increase the next few years while Choo's may remain constant or decline.

Actually, the Red Sox were the best team in baseball last year--by quite a bit. Way ahead in record until the Cardinals tied them the last few days when the Red Sox let up to prepare for the playoffs. They might have won 100 games if they kept their gas to the pedal. Best record in the best division was quite an accomplishment last year. They did it with incredibly good balance and excellent coaching.

With regards to SBs, I wonder if the Sox will miss those 50 SBs of Ells next year. For one, AJP and Ross figure to be better defensively against SBs than Salty--Ross missed a lot of games last year with that concussion. Their runs scored against on SBs figures to drop. Plus Bradley figures to steal about 20 bases, X maybe 10-20 if they play enough. That will counter some of the 50 lost in their runs scored on SBs. Net runs scored on SBs was a liability in Tito's day, when teams were stealing blindly on the Red Sox in part due to "fielder's indifference." The key to team speed this year will be the presence of JBJ and X in the lineup, and a healthy Pedey and Vic.

I agree about Ells. He isn't a dead pull hitter--more a straightaway hitter. You have to be dead pull to benefit from Yankee stadium--no advantage to right center. Maris was probably the best example of a dead pull guy who tucked a lot of HRs into the RF porch. Granderson also benefitted, with two 40 HR seasons. It's incredible to me why the Yankees didn't re-sign him. Their hitting strength lately has been HRs, and they might decline next year with the loss of Grandy and Cano. If they are banking on Ells repeating his 30 HR season, they are on shakey ground. He has become allergic to kryptonite.

Re Yankee stadium, it was literally the park that Ruth built--to his specs. Hence the absurd asymmetry. One of the concessions along with $$ made to him to convince him to go to NY. He didn't want to initially--joining the Royal Rooters striking against the selloff in the LF grandstand the first two weeks. After all, the Red Sox were the dominant team of the WWI era, and he was their best hitter--and pitcher! Imagine what a player like that would be worth today. Salary dumping (selling players) was pretty common in those days, and Frazee made a bundle selling off the core of the Red Sox championship team--much of it to the lowly Yankees. Ed Barrow of the FO also joined the Yankees, and he had been responsible for setting up the Red Sox farm system. With the new stadium in NY for the Yankees, I've long suspected Ban Johnson, President of the AL, was behind the Yankee buildup, to establish NY as the AL centerpiece, to counter the Giants and the Dodgers. At Boston's expense. The Yankees later engineered the sale of the Philly As in the 1950s to Kansas City, backing KC owners over a group which wanted to keep the As in Philly. During that period, some people referred to the KC As as a Yankee farm team. They got Bob Cerv and others that way.

MBrooks has hit about 30 HRs for the Red Sox the last 2 years. He is a typical power hitting 3rd baseman who looks like he can move to 1B easily when the time comes. These guys don't grow on trees. He is a valuable piece that calls for some patience. X, too. These guys could be a monster left side of the IF for them the next 10 years. And they're both protected. Wow.