Yes, yes, I knew that was coming LOL
But Ottavino has pitched about equally in the 6th, 7th and 8th and has been the guy regularly used in those high leverage situations prior to the 9th and with men on base, so he does contradict your position.
Most of the guys on the team were in a parade last year IIRC
Benintendi shouldn't be going anywhere, for one thing. There's been talk of trading him. I think that's pure nuttiness.
It is a skill, no question. But the fact that the catcher can steal strikes by how he frames the pitch is not really a good argument against robot umps-IMHO
It's never going to be easy being head of baseball ops of the Boston Red Sox.
Theo is gone.
Ben is gone.
DD will soon be gone.
Combined they won 4 titles, the most of any team this century. And yet they're all goners...
Well, if they thought there were enough people REALLY interested in commercial-free broadcasts they would probably offer them, at a hefty price of course.
We sometimes wonder where all the money comes from to pay the players' astronomical salaries. A huge chunk of it obviously must be coming from all the advertisers.