SoxSport

I understand they privately opted out of Green's $9M contract when they found out about his heart condition. That makes him an unrestricted FA next year. But it doesn't help the Celtics at all capwise this year. Apparently that mythical money can't be swiped from the books. The NBA has the nuttiest salary cap on the planet. Ainge pretty much gave his starting center away for nothing.

Traderumors says the Tigers are hot on Garza's trail. Dombrowski has been very agressive trading for pitchers. Like that fellow in Toronto. Benny has a lot of competition out there. Is he up to it?

They give all these guys minor league contracts so they don't have to pay them if they don't make the club. They are basically throwing mud at the wall, with the hope that some of it sticks.

You know Henry is aware of all this, being a pretty smart saber guy. And you know Bobby V. will change the SB philosophy fast. There are two schools of thought about Tito. One is, hey he won two World Series, he must be a good manager. The other is he sucks if you watch his game managing. I always though his game managing was mediocre. As for winning a World Series, it takes a good effort and a hell of a lot of luck.

An obvious fallacy, since last year stolen bases were a very effective offensive weapon against the Red Sox--as shown by sabermetrics! See my post on runs scored due to SBs. They had a net 28 runs scored against them due to SBs, about 20% of the total net runs scored (+138). Yeah--you're right on. The opposition stole so much they made it an effective saber weapon. While the Red Sox remained glued on 1B--relatively speaking. The break even for zero net runs is about 70% SB success. The opposition was at 76% while the Red Sox success was 71%--near zero net runs. Funny how none of the mainstream media covers analysis like this. Simple stuff. It shows a glaring weakness on how the Red Sox were run last year. Make that run on.

Lav shined when he was brought up late in the season. He not only hit a couple of homers, he made a good play in the field as a catcher (saw it on TV)--which showed he had some moxie. The Red Sox are way too conservative, in my view, at bringing up prospects to see what they can do. Part of that is they fill their roster with expensive FAs or declining veterans. That's what happened to Kalish last year. They said he wasn't ready, but that was BS. He was blocked by Cameron and Drew. James had him hitting big time for the Sox last year, based on his performance for the Sox the previous year. Now look at where he is. He almost wrecked his career getting hurt in Pawtucket. Look at Reddick. He had lousy numbers in AAA. Came up to the Red Sox and had an amazing first half last year. Came down to earth later in the season, but not unusual for a young player. Beane clearly was pleased. Sometimes these guys raise their game when they hit the Show. You never know. Beane might have a nice player. Finally, let's look at Iglesias. He comes up to Boston, plays all-star SS a few games, shows incredible speed circling the bases on a key hit in a game, and promptly gets sent down to AAA. He's just a kid 21?, and he doesn't hit his first year at AAA. So now he's pegged as can't hit. More BS. Aparicio couldn't hit, either, as a rookie. Neither could Belanger.

Except for that hiccup in September, Pap had a great year last year--his contract year. But he was not nearly as good the previous two years, so his three year average is not that good. You could say the same thing for Ortiz--another guy who had big numbers in a contract year after two declining years. So, how do you judge these guys if you are doing contracts and the money is coming out of your pocket? As I've said, job performance in industry is usually based on a three year average. But in sports, the media seems to judge players only on what they did last year. Previous performance is ancient history. How do GMs judge players? The answer is it probably varies. In Papi's case, they gave him the benefit of the doubt for his longevity in Boston. At least for one more year. He'll probably have to go elsewhere to get more years. In Pap's case, they let him go because they didn't value him long range in his price range. My guess is he declines again after a year or two. Look around baseball, and count how many aging players in decline who still have years left on big contracts teams can't unload. Bad contracts given in desperation to get a free agent. That's what the Red Sox want to avoid, though they broke a few rules the last two years allowing Epstein to free spend.

The kiss of death is to be the biggest spender (thanks to Fox TV Sports) and go to the top in the media Power Rankings. Last year it was the Red Sox. Money is no guarantee of success in baseball--especially with a bad playoff system that rarely results in the best team winning. Arte Moreno "moved" the Angels team to LA and then signed a TV contract with Fox which gives him an extra $100 million a year to spend. Throwing that TV money at Pujols and Wilson should have come as no surprise. He probably isn't through yet.

With Jenks looking shakey, agree it looks like they still need pitching. It's not a great FA year for starting pitchers--next year is much better--but they are coming up a bit short right now, even with two good additions to the bullpen. They should be looking to trade for a starter. It doesn't make much sense to put all your eggs in Bard being a #4 starter--he might fail, or they might need him for the BP. I don't like any of the FA starters left out there for the money they want. They can get better value trading.

It's a balancing act. There's always internal politics. LL/Henry threw Ben under the bus, then dragged him back out by having a Tito holdover, Bogart, as bench coach. Ben has made a couple of good deals, so I guess they are pleased. He could be famous if he could extract King Felix from the Mariners--or even Garza. There is still some question as to whether he can pull off a big Epstein-like deal. Theo clearly has the bigger ego--saw the video last night of him swaggering around outside Cubs Stadium after he was hired--in his preppy garb.

Sure. But Kevin was low man in the pecking order. And there is a pecking order on the Red Sox. Maybe that's why Henry/LL cleaned house.

Aceves has a similar recent past. Let go by the Yankees because of shoulder problems. Maybe lightening will strike twice.

True. But keep in mind that Yawkey was just another one of those conservative owners who wanted to keep the sport white. They were in the majority--including the Yankee owners. There were very few Branch Rickeys in baseball at the time. Bill Veeck was another when he owned Cleveland, and he got Satchel Paige, Luke Easter and Larry Doby. Lou Perini, who owned the Boston Braves, had Sam Jethroe in the late 40s and Hank Aaron was brought up the year after the Braves left Boston.

Business is good in Boston, the land of high ticket prices. Maybe the highest in the majors. Henry will hold onto the team as long as it makes money. But he knows they have to make the playoffs this year, or those sellouts will be in danger. The clientele expects a winner.