The last part is true, but the Red Sox as a team were getting blown away by Detroit pitching until then.
I've thought about that at-bat. One might be able to argue that Benoit choked there because the last thing he should have done was give Ortiz a pitch he could jerk like that.
They have an extra outfielder, temporarily. I'm 100% certain they saw this coming and are following the plan they put in place. The fact they don't tell us exactly what the plan is does get a little frustrating sometimes.
I doubt that the prospect of Castillo being in AAA for a few weeks is keeping JH up at nights. Pretty sure he's been involved in some of the discussions on the roster situation.
Based on what? Look at the guys the Sox signed before the 2013 season: Napoli, Victorino, Drew, Gomes, Dempster. Were any of those undervalued assets? Look at this year's free agent signings: Sandoval, Hanley, Masterson. Any of those undervalued?
Question back at you: what do you think will be the market value in annual salary next year, 2016, for a pitcher of Porcello's age who is projected to put up a 2.7 WAR for the next 4 years? Put your numbers out there and we can really get somewhere on this.
Right off the top, Anibal Sanchez. Look at his career numbers before he got the 80 million from Detroit before the 2013 season.
Homer Bailey got a 6 year, 105 million extension from Cincy before 2014.
What started all the big money for #2 pitchers was when the Yankees gave Burnett 5 years ands 82.5 million. That was before 2009, so 6 years ago.
The inflation has been insane. This is obvious. Who in their right minds two years ago thought Jon Lester would be making almost 26 million a year? And he has usually been considered a #2.
Kershaw makes 30 million a year average. Porcello makes 20 million a year average. 30 million is 150% of 20 million. Kershaw is elite. Porcello is not. 30 million is elite now. 20 million is not.
You have to adapt your mind to the ever-changing economics of baseball.
Kershaw is guaranteed 215 million. Porcello is guaranteed 83 million, about 40% of that. The difference is massive. Kershaw has nothing to do with this.
Yes, Harang was worth $20 million last year, and IF that was his 6th season and IF he was 26 he probably would have gotten a pretty nice deal in the offseason.
Not exactly. What I said, or meant to say, was that the Porcello signing doesn't put them in a financial position of not being able to make a serious bid for a FA pitcher.
Not really. Next year Napoli and Victorino are off the books. That's 29 million. If Masterson is gone that's another 9.5 million.
Plus we don't really know how the Red Sox feel about exceeding the tax threshold any more. With the piles of money they've been spending maybe they don't really care that much.
I don't think he's in the elite group either. But the price of pitchers just keeps going up at an insane rate. The Red Sox did manage to keep the length of the deal to a reasonable 4 years, and probably had to bump the AAV a couple million to do so.
OK, good response.
Now, since you obviously believe in WAR, I assume you're good with FanGraphs WAR values for Porcello and the dollar values of about $20 million for both 2013 and 2014.
Be reasonable. Harang is 36. He got paid back in 2009-2010, making $14 million and $12.5 million those years, which is pretty close to $20 million in current baseball economic values.