jung

Agreed

The Sox themselves are not excited by 1st basemen. Moreland was not a surprise to me. They have not been excited by 1st baseman since Mo Vaughn. I would have been surprised if the Sox, Bloom or no Bloom put any actual additional effort into 1st base than just resign Mitch.

OK with the Moreland deal. At least the Sox have reset the rate for that calibre of 1st baseman to something realistic and they know what they have and don't have in Mitch.

JBJ would be the tougher sell.....no question. He would have to go to a team with real pitching. How many of those are there anyway?

Well in my mind "the still need to" relates to how many starting pitchers this team can afford to protect through a 162 game season. They have to protect Sale. They are already committed to him and already protecting him. If we think that is going to change in 2020, we are dreaming. Price looks like another starter that needs to be protected now as he makes the turn in his career and while they won't protect Eovaldi, getting a season out of him is clearly a chore. So that is 3/5 of the rotation leaving us with ERod and his gimpy knee and Perez who looks to be 2019 Porcello. Again, I have been and will continue to light candles for ERod. So if they lose Mookie, they lose the most dynamic player on the team by far with nobody set up to take his place. Beni has struggled batting lead off and he is no CFer. He is a very good LFer but take him out of LF and he is barely ML average. So if they move JBJ to RF they are looking for a competent, solid CFer and JBJ is no longer in the position where his greatest asset is best used. I am done with JD in the outfield. That has to e over. So they really end up looking for a RFer that they can plug into the toughest RF in baseball, Fenway Park RF. The right side of the infield is sort of a helter skelter mess and while Devers is a joy to watch at this stage of his career you need X out there to get the most out of Rafi on the left side. So it really boils down to both Rafi and X staying healthy throughout the season other than for a blow and the usual dings that they face all year. Don't know if anybody noticed but X could barely walk by the end of last year and I wonder if his heels or feet generally are going to start to bother him as he ages. That sounds like an argument for a sure upper half of the AL team that might still struggle to get into the top 5 and make the post season unless something seriously different happens as to the 25 man roster. It looks like a team that is one year past its prime opportunity. We can argue that in some ways things outside their control robbed them of even a decent shot at 2019. But that is water over the dam now. The question is what do we have for 2020 and beyond. I agree with Merloni regarding Mookie. Don't know whether we keep him for 2020 or not. But we are not signing him long term. We tried. It ain't happenin'.

I don't see the goals and aspirations of this Dodger's ownership group as any different than it was in 2012. At the same time I don't see any dif in the Padres profile of putting together endless strings of meaningless seasons. The Sox need somebody willing to gamble IMO and that is not the Padres. If anybody, its the Dodgers. The caveat to that might be Myers who I can only guess Bloom saw as the second coming of Ben Zobrist at least at one point. So maybe Myers still has that attraction for Bloom and the Sox could certainly use somebody that might be that sort of player. As far as good but not inspiring players that might help the Sox, 1st base, 2nd base and maybe backup catcher are possibilities. This is not a team the depends on a deep 25 man roster. It is a team of very good core players with specific talents. Take any one of the 9 that tend to take the field every day off the field for any length of time and it shows up in performance almost immediately. We cannot even take Devers off the field for any length of time now while still needing X out there to get the most out of Devers. I would however take almost anybody for the right side of the infield if it relieved us of the helter skelter aspects of the Sox right side of the infield.

They still need somebody to take Price or Eovaldi. That sounds like Dodgers to me, not Padres if only because the Sox/Dodgers have a history along the lines of Sox salary dump deals. The risk to the Sox in either event is what is left for a 2020 team and can they create that speculation about the potential greatness of the 2020 edition with what will be left for a team. Who even plays RF? If you move JBJ there, who plays CF....Beni???? PLEASE!!!!! Does JD play more RF in Fenway in 2020. That has disaster written all over it. Funny but I find myself immensely grateful at this particular moment for ERod. I would install one of those stair climbers in the Sox dugout just to protect against ERod catching a spike on a step and injuring that gimpy knee of his.

I am not sure the question is as much what they should do as what the Sox will be inclined to do. They don't need to win a championship in 2020 to be a successful business enterprise. Hence, IMO, they will rely on their old standbys to drive revenue. Those being Fenway Park, still one of the most compelling bucket list destinations in baseball, their marketing of same, NESN etc. In other words, hard assets of Fenway Group. As to how they try to "manage" the Sox as a business through 2020, to me it hinges on Price/Eovaldi. If they can turn either or both into a means to trim payroll and restock a bit then that will lead to one direction for the team. If they can't that will lead to another direction for the team. if they can't then Henry and Company might (and I do mean might) decide to accept the hit for being way outside the luxury tax limit again which is not inconsequential. They really have not moved any of their salary woes of consequence yet. The wild card is MLB penalties if they are in fact coming. If they can't turn Price/Eovaldi into something AND get tagged by MLB then it makes it all the more likely that they just take the luxury tax hit as onerous as it is to Henry, hold onto Mookie till the trade deadline and see where they are in the race at that point. If anything, they are so far holding onto the contracts that are big lux tax hits with X really the only core member that they are now committed to long term. The fact that they don't even have a Manager yet sort of says it all as far as the degree to which the direction of the team for 2020 is fluid and undetermined at this point. One could make the case that in their view, who manages as long as he is bilingual and does not rock the diverse makeup of the team just does not matter. Would we be that surprised if they just let the stat geeks in the front office run the team? I don't think there is a snowballs chance in hell that they trade Mookie between now and the deadline as we would all know the direction of the 2020 team that very instant. I suspect that is not an outcome the Sox brass is interested in. The Sox as a business outside of its standard fair hard assets lives off of the speculation by fans that their could be greatness in a particular edition of the team. Remove that speculation and a significant portion of the Sox fan base could just plain tune out for a year. That is an issue in this environment that includes so many entertainment options. Getting them back if they tune out for a year could be an problem.

I will take more reviews if they are conducted quickly and only in the three categories I have identified. Hard to imagine you would have more if they stuck to those three categories. As it is now if the Manager if out of reviews, he will go out on the field and whine to the umps that they should conduct an Ump's prerogative review.

Once Nolan's body matured into his talent it was over. I just could not see how to deal with him from the batter's box. Obviously the guys that actually had to try couldn't do much with him either. Nolan was well out of the Mets organization when his body matured to meet his talent. Ted for his part somehow figured out how to take a classic RH hitter's swing and flip it to the LH side of the plate which is not even remotely easy. I don't know what is more amazing to me. That is determined that he should do it or that he put in the work effort to make it happen and perfect that stance and stroke from the Left Side. Now I was too young to know exactly what Ted was doing. But after watching enough of him I finally got old enough to figure it out. It gave Ted the ridiculous advantage of having a RH hitter's swing hitting from the Left side in the main against RH pitchers. The results speak for themselves as his splits are just ridiculous. Combine that with his selectivity from the plate and you have a monster on your hands. I shudder to think what his career numbers would be if he actually played as opposed to going off to military service.

Granted I am depending on the league to care enough about its product to honestly determine if a review is called for for the three play types I want to see reviewed. But all in, I will take that over the nonsensical replay implementation we have now even without the side issues that come with it. The side issues just push it over the top for me.

The curve is really steep for baseball players. I was never more than an average scholastic player and the best college players of my time were just waaaaaay better than I was, particularly at the plate. Then that is not the steepest part of the bellcurve, far from it. The steepest part of the curve is between A and AAA ball and then between AAA and the ML's. That is mainly driven by the difference in the pitchers you see as you go through a career. If you ask me, ML ballplayers are aliens from outer space. They are simply that much better than the rest of us. IMO, first among them at the plate, Ted Williams. First among them from the mound, Nolan Ryan. In both cases, just my opinion much biased by having seen both play. In Nolan's case, having seen him pitch up close at the peak of his talents and his maturity as a pitcher. The effect on me......staggering. Saw Sandy too. He was fantastic. But nothing at least to me was as earth shaking as watching Ryan up close at his peak when he would really cut it loose.

Nobody needs be thrown at. But if the league continues to just try to shape a narrative which of course compels the other parties of note, Players, Agents, Owners to shape a narrative and in addition does nothing substantive to get their arms around this nonsense then yes I suspect we will see some pretty pissed off parties on all sides take matters into their own hands in a number of ways including MORE electronic and video CHEATING!

Because it is part of a replay system that does not work. It is boring. It takes too long to employ and it leads to this nonsense of slo-mo of a runner crossing the bag while we are looking for a nanosecond when he might have lost contact with the bag while the fielder held the tag. That is just nonsense baseball. Its nonsense. That is particularly nonsensical given the plastic bases which nobody can hang onto. Plus it provides a ready tool to employ in game real time video and electronics to cheat! I want three play types reviewed and I want MLB to determine if they will or won't review. I want HR's, questionable catches, plays at the plate and thats it. I want no more of THE HAND held up by Managers while we wait with our thumbs up our asses. Let the Managers go out and argue calls again. Much more interesting, much more entertaining and much more in the spirit of the game.

The only way to do that would be to take the replay decision making process entirely out of the hands of the teams which is what they should do anyway. Replay needs to be stripped down to a specific set of plays and MLB needs to be making the decisions about which plays are reviewed, NOT THE MANAGERS. Let the Managers go out there and argue calls again. Much more interesting than looking at that stupid hand held up by the Manager indicating to the field umps that the Manager is PONDERING a review. RIDICULOUS.....utterly ridiculous.

No more video rooms. No proprietary camera systems either. The teams would get what we get, the Network video feed which they are welcome to watch in some front office and that is it. The Network feed is one camera view at a time not chosen by the teams or even by MLB. In addition, I would blur the catcher's hand in the network feed when giving the sign if they are going to stay with visual signs. Just remove the blurred area after the sign has been given. It is unfortunate that with such a system in place, we the TV audience would no longer be able to see the signs. But that is just the way it goes. In order to keep the teams from using electronics and video in real time and in game in the form of the Network feed, we would absorb some collateral damage. Better that than seeing MLB sweep this under the carpet and do nothing. As indicated in earlier posts, this means giving up replay in the way that it is implemented today. GOOD RIDDANCE! Take replay entirely out of the hands of the teams. Leave it to MLB what to review and restrict reviews to HR's, questionable catches and plays at the plate. Thats it!

A-G-R-E-E-D .....in spades. But this is how they end up solving nothing and creating a cluster. First MLB tries to shape a narrative in Houston. Then the Houston owner piles on and shapes his narrative and then Agents like Boris say "OH OK....you boys want to shape your narrative...now we will shape ours". And, MLB is going to have to do something real to stop this nonsense of using in game real time video and electronics to cheat. My preference, the teams no longer get real time, in game video for ANYTHING. Take it away. No proprietary cameras, no access to league and network feeds other than what they can see on the big board and deal with the visual signaling in some way. Either stop it completely or fuzz up the view of the catcher's hand so that nobody sees the signs anymore on the one available feed including us at home watching. Hate to see it go, but this is RIDICULOUS.

Just looking at the fiasco in Houston where they OBVIOUSLY didn't actually investigate as a roadmap to Boston. A report is not supposed to be a compilation of unsupported opinions from the league. A report is supposed to be a REPORT! I will agree to this extent. We don't know how the fiasco that has developed out of the "report" in Houston will effect how MLB will try to tailor the narrative in Boston. I have no clue if that mess in Houston helps the Sox or hurts them. I do know the league is doing far too much shaping of narratives and far too little investigating.

If MLB were actually investigating instead of looking for a few scapegoats and a trap door for everybody else, we might have a clearer view of what might happen here.

Though I am in sentiment with Pedey's "it isn't me" he never ever should have been shouting that from the Sox dugout. Waaaaaaaaay too many cameras around for that sort of thing and I don't even know what Pedey was trying to accomplish in making that claim to Machado in public and in living color.

Well now this is a complete cluster. How predictable since MLB is not really investigating anything but is clearly engaged in a campaign to tailor a narrative. Now Agents like Boris have gotten involved in Houston and while Crane is saying that the players are going to "apologize" during ST, Boris is saying his clients will do nothing of the sort. The Player narrative through Agents is that the coaches ran everything. It was all the coaches with the players being pure as the driven snow. But the report says the scheme was driven by the players. Luhnow gets whacked for not providing the league memo to the players though how anybody could imagine using electronics and video to steal signs was OK with the league is beyond me. This is only going to get worse and the worse it gets the more I wonder how that plays for the Sox. Will the Houston Report crumbling to dust work to the Sox favor or to their disadvantage. I have little doubt that MLB is simply tailoring to a narrative in Boston as well. What a frigging mess. The best thing would be for everybody to cooperate and for the league to square this up. The chance of that is zero and ZERO!

There were those here that expected Pedey to be the sort of presence that Mookie will turn out to be and that Ortiz was. Pedey was a great example on the field, though a little too chippy with his mates to actually be the kind of presence Mookie will likely turn out to be. The Machado incident was almost predictable. By the same token just the sorts of personality traits that made the Machado thing somewhat predictable also led to Pedey being the kind of guy that rejected MLB's idiot rules around the bases. Pedey's stance on that is entirely correct. In fact, I don't know how many people have actually handled the equally idiotic plastic bases MLB uses today and I certainly am no longer young enough to be a real test (my mass is now greater but my velocity much much reduced). But, is it any wonder that players can no longer slide to the bag and often bounce over it, past it and through it. Players should be allowed to slide to the bag and if they can reach it with their hand and hold it, it should be a legal slide. The problem is they can't hold onto these idiot bags with either hand or foot or anything in between especially if they are the least bit moist. Hence they now flop well in front of the bag robbing us of one of the most beautiful plays in all baseball, the middle infielder avoiding the onrushing runner and turning the DP. Pedey himself argued that it was changing the character of middle infield as fielders were becoming less agile year by year because it was an asset they thought they did not necessarily need. No onrushing runner, no need to be so agile. Now we have big strapping 2nd baseman that can't get out of their own way. Pedey was tough as nails. But you don't get tough as nails and sympathetic to teammates that don't play the game the way he plays it in the same guy. There were those Sox fans that expected more the Ortiz type leader or the Mookie type leader and Pedey was never going to be that.

I wish Pedey no ill will. He was never what we wanted him to be here in some ways and some people just will not let him up off the floor for that. I just don't want to see him unable to lead a "normal" life after baseball and it sure sounds like he is on the brink of that now.

Oh NO, if I were Crane would have not said a damned thing to anybody. For Upper Management and Ownership the issue if there is one is "knowledge of" not being the driving force behind. I am not saying that Cora is innocent in Houston. I am saying that the Houston Report simply makes no sense. It represents an effort to shape a narrative, not an actual investigation. There is so much in the Houston Report that offers an MLB opinion without any supportive material. MLB has apparently not even discussed Houston with Cora while naming him as the architect. The Houston Report: - claims the players were the driving force behind the cheating yet the only player named is the retired Beltran. While it does not make sense to suspend players given the PA, not naming them also makes no sense at all. - simply categorizes "low level front office personnel" as also involved without naming them. I think one other front office guy besides Luhnow has actually been named. However both he and Luhnow are presented as somehow on the periphery. - that Cora as Bench Coach could install a closed proprietary camera system with a feed to the dugout and apparently not one but two signaling systems to players, trash can bashing and a signaling system hidden under uniforms all without the expressed or tacit authority of Hinch, the actual Manager. Also makes no sense. That was not an investigation. That was a compilation of MLB opinions based in part on Fier and not much else plus nebulous accusations . It was an effort to offer up a tailored narrative and I seriously doubt the Boston Report will be much more than that. Apparently to this date MLB has not talked to anybody in Boston about anything. So who or what are they investigating here or are we simply going to get another effort to shape a narrative in Boston. It appears that is what we got in Houston.

So Cora gets to set up a closed proprietary camera system with a direct feed to the dugout and a signaling system to the batter's box without the expressed or tacit authority of the actual Manager? Since when!