Bellhorn04

Brez saying the right thing at least.

Even though he couldn't pitch Game 162, Sale is obviously one of the main reasons the Braves are in the playoffs and the Red Sox are not.

He's usually good for saying something that makes everyone go WTF, so he's sort of entertaining in a weird way.

No, it's much bigger and there are many more fingers in the pie. Like RedBird Capital and their 10%.

The Yankees ditched Dillon Lawson, and we signed him, and look what happened! More awesome thinking from the Red Sox brain trust.

I did not mean to imply Sam's statement was about 2025. But I am looking forward to Sam's next statements, that's for sure. 😜

2024 team K/BB ratios, worst to best: Colorado Rockies 3.57 Chicago White Sox 3.55 Miami Marlins 3.50 Boston Red Sox 3.18 Pittsburgh Pirates 3.11 Detroit Tigers 3.07 Oakland Athletics 3.05 Atlanta Braves 3.03 Tampa Bay Rays 3.01 San Francisco Giants 2.95 Cincinnati Reds 2.94 Los Angeles Angels 2.94 Seattle Mariners 2.85 Baltimore Orioles 2.78 Minnesota Twins 2.76 League Average 2.76 St. Louis Cardinals 2.76 Kansas City Royals 2.71 Washington Nationals 2.68 New York Mets 2.66 Philadelphia Phillies 2.66 Houston Astros 2.63 Texas Rangers 2.62 Cleveland Guardians 2.57 Chicago Cubs 2.49 Milwaukee Brewers 2.44 Toronto Blue Jays 2.42 San Diego Padres 2.35 Arizona Diamondbacks 2.22 Los Angeles Dodgers 2.22 New York Yankees 1.97

Who's making statements about done deal spending levels? I think you misread something.

Shouldn't be long before IBP has earned a place as an acronym.

Who said they said that?

Under Henry they've never been out of the top 10 in payroll until 2023-2024. And no, that's not a product of other teams losing their minds.

I assume you mean what Sam said in January. https://www.masslive.com/redsox/2024/01/red-soxs-sam-kennedy-2024-payroll-expected-to-be-lower-than-it-was-in-2023.html

The telling fact is that they stayed under the tax threshold 2 years in a row. They re-set and stayed re-set. And of course Sam did flat out tell the world in January the payroll was probably going to be lower in 2024 than it was in 2023, to cap off an amazing offseason of mixed messages.

I think the public announcements also included some stuff about competing and about making the playoffs still being top priority. And they would never say that reduced spending is a goal.

Through the magical powers of bulls**t luck, the White Sox did indeed end up at 41-121 as I speculated. Worst winning % of modern era: 1962 Mets .250 2024 White Sox .253

3 solid years of being: Stuck in a rut. Treading water. Hamsters on wheels. Maestros of Mediocrity.

Nicely balanced takes, thanks.

There are certainly plenty of closer types who were really good for a year or two and then gone well before age 35. But as to whether it was "burnout" vs. plain old injuries or loss of effectiveness, that would be kind of a rabbit hole to go down.

Mostly based on he's obviously not healthy right now. They thought he was going to pitch some at the end of this year but he had the dreaded setback.

Larry, you are on fire at the keyboard today. 👍

I think there's a new field in baseball metrics - Pollyannalytics. With Pollyannalytics, you can make anything look like a positive.

Little Raffy still stuck on 15 walks. 150 Ks for a nice round 10-1 ratio. In kangaroo courts around MLB there's probably a stiff fine for any pitcher who walks Rafaela.

Maybe Priester will have a nice game today and make us feel a little better. Maybe.

But he has been horrible in September, like most everyone else.

I would but there just aren't that many of them. If we signed Schwarber we would have had to trade JDM at a loss, understood. But he only had one year left.