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SFF, you always think the Red Sox are going to come down with every good player available.

If we make a list of solid setup men who have transitioned into good/great closers, i think it would also help disprove some of the magic surrounding the 9th inning.

^This

Two words: Dustin Pedroia.

McCann would be an excellent addition for five years. 3 at C, 2 as a part time C/DH.

My money's on Bard/Papelbon 2011.

Would it be unreasonable to suggest neither of those things happen based on recent history and overall career numbers?

Don't get me wrong, i like Ellsbury. What i don't like is Ellsbury at Boras' price.

I see MSU on FB every so often making posts about college sports. I think we should change the site's name to "talkallcollegesports.com" to bait him back. He'd take the bait immediately.

Choo and JBJ are not mutually exclusive. This makes zero sense. Choo is not a CF, he's a corner OF. If they signed Choo, it would simply create a Choo-JBJ-Victorino alignment. You are grasping at straws. And i don't see why you have a hard time fathoming Bradley putting up similar/better numbers than Ellsbury long term. He's not that good offensively save for the stolen bases. (Unless he were to rekindle some of his 2011 magic). This goes to show you how overrated Ellsbury really is, mainly on the basis of hope the for a repeat of what was clearly a fluke season.

You're cherry picking situations to play up the leverage argument. How many times does the setup man come up to pitch to the heart of the order with men on base and a one-run lead? If he gets through that, then the closer gets the bottom of the order with a one-run lead but in a clean inning. Who faced the highest leverage situation there? You can't just go ahead and use the highest-leverage situations to try and defend the "9th inning is different" argument. In fact, i bet i can dig up seasons where, with a steady relief ace-closer combo, the main setup guy (ace) saw more high-leverage situations than the closer. The 9th inning is not some magical animal like the unicorn. While it's true that some guys have a mental block and just can't do ti, the rule is that a great setup man makes a good closer, and there's plenty of evidence to back this up. A good relief pitcher will be good in any role, with the occasional outlier. You want proof? you've got Koji right there. People here were moaning about his lack of experience closing, and look how that's turned out.

Boras would never take that risk. He'll sucker someone into going 6/120 without having to cater to any shenanigans.

Excellent excellent post.

So you're saying that losing games instead of winning them in September could result in the Sox missing the playoffs? I never thought about it that way.....

And the part about Ichiro not being good anymore and having zero "good years" left.

I never implied that his BABIP had to do with his BB/9. Command and control are not the same thing. You essentially made up an argument out of thin air. Nice research though. And Rodney has been awful this season. A spade is a spade. Command: Ability to throw strikes. Control: Ability to consistently throw the ball where you want it in the strike zone. If you want to counter my argument about Rodney, what you need to look at are his pitch charts. http://www.fangraphs.com/pitchfxg.aspx?playerid=494&position=P&season=2013&date=0&dh=0 Rodney's pitch charts are at the bottom.

This is exactly the type of flawed thinking that brought about the disaster that was 2012. That's just not how it works. If they feel that a platoon will be more productive than throwing money at some unknown or a guy who's not a sure star/generational talent, then let's have a platoon and screw that stupid "WE'RE THE RED SOX, LET'S THROW MONEY AROUND !!11!!!11!" mentality. The most interesting thing is that the Nava/Gomes platoon has posted comfortably above average numbers when compared to an MLB league average LF's, even with Gomes' inexplicable reverse platoon split this season.

I don't think your opinion on JBJ is warranted. Mainly because of the fact that he's almost a sure bet to post a better OBP than Ellsbury right off the bat since he has a much better approach at the plate, and just needs more experience. I have a hard time fathoming what makes you think Ellsbury is a better bet to sustain a high OBP than Bradley.

Btw we need to start a nationwide search for ORS. That man needs to come back to this site.

Oh my God crunchy. Whatever happened to that guy? I remember he had the best insults to sling at Jacko. Good times.

Other way around. I'm saying that if Koji keeps pitching the way he is, and doesn't have a single implosion, then you could argue he's had the best season a reliever has ever had, eclipsing Mariano's 08 and Papelbon's 06. Note: Notice i said "reliever" not closer.

Again, if Koji gets through the season without a single implosion, he's probably in the discussion for best relief year ever. Not better than Mariano. Ever.

His BABIP and LD% are so high because of his bad control. You give up liners when you have to groove it down broadway because you can't paint the corners. You seem to be turning a blind eye to the fact that this is extremely close to the pitcher Rodney has been his whole career with the exception of last year. How hard you throw has little effect on how well you pitch if you can't locate.

If you're trying to make the point that 2008 not a lights-out better offensive year than 2013 in this suppressed run-producing environment, you're gonna have a bad time.

Yeah but the season isn't over. That's the problem.