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It is a strawman for two reasons: First: Because you are assigning the imaginary position that someone here believes that stats "tell the whole story" about the game of baseball. No one on this board has expressed that opinion. My mentioning the pitching stats was a tongue-in-cheek comment that even if the poster was (and he wasn't) using stats as a barometer to identify the performance of the 2011 Red Sox , then he should have used pitching and defensive stats, which may have painted a clearer picture of the inherent problems with the club, although an incomplete one, because the problems with this team last year went beyond simply measuring performance. You jumped in at the incomplete analysis to support your agenda. Second: The poster who you are quoting did not mean "mediocre" in terms of the division, he was talking about MLB, and a 90 win team in MLB is not mediocre by any stretch of the imagination, unless you assign your personal interpretation, which, in this case, is "mediocre in the division". Don't move the goalposts to support your argument. I know you think stats aren't the be-all, end- all, which is actually the truth, but they are a useful tool for evaluating player performance. No need to discredit them every chance you get. By the way, E1's original post was a misinterpretation of a previous 700hitter post, in which he said that a 25-man roster full of 8 million players would be a $200 million team of mediocrity. So you were misinterpreting a misinterpretation, which i find interesting.

Building a WS winner always takes a lot of luck. I agree with most of what you posted, but i don't think they have to go significantly over the threshold to make the necessary moves. But they will have to either go over it a decent amount or trade some expensive talent.

Unless the league minimum guys are high-upside rookies. That's how everyone comes into the league, and the formula that most small-market teams that have had success use.

Obviously that's just my perspective, and it's why i mentioned the fact that he could be a great sign, but i just don't have enough information to form a real opinion on the matter. If they think he'll be worth the investment, they should go for it. Also, easy no on Wilson from my part, mostly because of the fact that he's had injury problems before and has only been a successful starter for two years. Same as with Darvish, if after due diligence they think he's a viable option, then go for it. However, Cherington said they would re-examine the way they deal with free agents. This off-season will be a good barometer of whether or not they learned from past mistakes.

I'm not on board with that though. For the right price and having Valentine as manager, he may be a great acquisition, but too many "ifs".

Good point. Expect the hail of "sugarcoater FO apologist!!!11!!!" posts to follow.

Your "holier than thou" attitude is annoying to the umpteenth degree. Especially when you take time out to call out other posters frequently. Be consistent and honest.

^This.

What i meant when i said "there are options" was literally "there are options". Not only the ones i posted but several other scenarios which we have no idea about.

Have you seen the closers for some of the teams that have won the WS this decade? Braden Looper, a broken down Jason Ishringhausen, Jason Motte, a rookie K-Rod and Bobby Jenks, Byung-Hyum Kim. The "Papelbon is gone and he's impossible to replace" rhetoric needs to stop.

They could trade Beckett for a good RF and some cash considerations, then sign two starters and a couple BP arms. The sky is not falling whether or not they trade Beckett. There are options.

Papelbon is not worth 50 million. No reliever is worth 50 million. Beat that dead horse all you want, but the Phillies overpaid substantially and they know it. That doesn't mean they're stupid, it just means they're in win-now mode and were willing to overpay to get their man, like the Sox have done so many times before. The fact that with all the bad contracts they have they weren't willing to get into another one is the result of the current set of circumstances.

Things were never equal though. The Red Sox were never going to match Philly dollar for dollar anyway. Those who are spinning the "If only the Sox would have talked to him first" machine" are in the middle of some wishful thinking.

Exactly. Yet some still can't accept the fact that the Sox refused to make what basically amounts to a 64 million dollar commitment to Papelbon. And bringing up logic or the failure of prior contracts (and there are many failures) is irrelevant because Papelbon is the relief "ace" and he was failure proof. What a load of horseshit.

I read he wanted to work with his brother Greg. Lo and behold, Greg has a job in Texas now. Just connect the dots.

They also theorize that having a "new" UCL is also a reason for the increased velocity. There's really not "one" specific explanation for it. Believe me, i've read literature and asked around. I obviously don't understand the structural aspect of it, but it's what i've read during research.

They got a backup catcher in Ryan Doumit (3 mill), and i didn't list Span as the LF, because they'll probably try him in CF next year and find a couple of COF's with power. And they don't need to completely plug the DH position, but they need a good hitter for the spot who can play another position. The Twins have a lot of work for this off-season. For SS, you mean Nishioka, but it's likely he'll move to 2B with Casilla becoming a super-sub. Could be the other way around, but they do need a MIF.