sk7326

oh it's bad - but i am not sure it will drive his price too high

I think that is fool's gold - if you want to pick up his option, you should be ready to watch him pitch and take 20 minutes between tosses with men on board.

I do not know if the data fully backs this up, but conceptually, run prevention should help winning a wee bit more than run scoring ... (just thinking about the marginal impact of scoring the first run vs say the 8th one). With this team's offense, focusing on run prevention in the offseason is probably the easier path to getting better.

Good fastball, terrific change ... so at least he can work both sides of the plate. Patience with him will be rewarded - sort of already is.

The option is easy - it's so cheap that just by being a pretty good swingman, he will justify the investment. Doing so does not preclude the Sox from anything.

Who knows - luck in 50-50 games kicks in here. Sox are 18-22 in one run games, so there are a few games there that could be bounced back ... and the pitching will probably be better from the jump.

Sox will make a move or three - that much is fairly obvious ... will it be sledgehammer or scalpel? That is less obvious. There could be some churn at 3B - but it's not clear. Moncada clearly needs some work - and Shaw is a perfectly acceptable solution in the meantime. And there is a fair argument that Devers is the real end game there. We have a ton of OF talent, enough to turn that into a premium starter - and there is no doubt Dombrowski will look in that direction. Would Bradley and Moncada for Jose Fernandez be enough to wake up the Marlins? I don't know - but that is something which could be put out there. The good news I think is that the team has not had a ton of performances which feel unsustainable - besides Wright - and even then, knucklers will have those sorts of streaks. I guess Lyon too - but I think a "solid starter" profile for him is perfectly reasonable. Losing Ortiz will hurt a lot - but between the improvement you expect from kiddos and perhaps some small moves (like a better RH caddy for Shaw) you can get enough of that production to not drop off much.

And he has not had the best defensive season of our outfielders. Bradley is terrific - but Betts has the tools and demonstrated performance to have no meaningful dropoff there. Any time I say "Bradley is tradeable" it says nothing about my opinion of him.

I think Papi's feet really do hurt him. And at some level, he'll be happy to not have to go through the maintenance he has to go through. But he has had his best season this year - and that is remarkable.

So is a Cy Young caliber starter with 3 years of control - and there is a fair reason to bet on the under with Bradley - although I think there is no question he is a fine player.

Trading Bradley can work because the Sox have one of the league's best options to replace him (Betts). But you have to get quite a bit - personally a guy of Sale or Quintana's caliber is a fair return (for Bradley and a prospect or two)

There are concerns - but his durability has belied them enough to have to give him some benefit of the doubt. I think what you get is posturing right now - no reason the Sox won't revisit it in the winter.

I like Maddon - there is no super genius about managing per se. But if I were to hire a manager, I'd want somebody who is competent, smart - and can execute my priorities for the organization, and be flexible. Scioscia and Showalter would be problematic in that respect - Scioscia in particular - if an owner is going to let managers veto player personnel priorities, that would be very hard to deal with. This is not football or basketball where the org is small enough for that to be possible. My choice would clearly be Francona - nice guy, media savvy - able to manage coaches and turn analytic results and information into action. And he understands player personnel priorities.

He was very aggressive doing this in 2013 also - in the postseason. He has also taken advantage of the slack Porcello and Price have given him.

What he has done with Andrew Miller has been remarkable - not so much as a usage pattern itself, but violating league groupthink to achieve the best results.

Naw - I remember his retirement day faintly as one of the earlier memories of sox-dom.

most do - harder to find that raw power. Of course 108 means that you wonder if he can get to it enough.

led the league in RBIs, Runs Scored, On Base as well - and had good defensive results ... his 1967-1970 peak is as strong as there has ever been.

There is a very strong incentive to win the division (like not trusting your season to 1 game) - so that has to be the goal.

He made a mistake and lucked out - but that happens. He is pounding the strike zone again and the location is a lot better than it was earlier in the season. What is nice is that the bullpen has started to round into form. Hell, Tazawa seems to be finding his legs also. Scott may or may not have supplanted Abad as the the LOOGY of choice - but it is a fair question. Farrell has managed the pen very well lately.

Anything but a sweep and things will be okay.

After a long, sordid history of Yankee-related disasters at Fenway late in the season, wow was this fun. I think it's pretty clear (on merit) that Pomeranz is the best choice to go to the pen for the playoffs.

it is one of those cases where Remy was right - but I don't think Benintendi was wrong - if that makes sense. That is a read you have to make right away - but the way the ball was hit, I don't blame Benintendi from being fooled.

With Tanaka's elbow and the 75 man September pen - pulling him was fine. Betances on his third straight day was not. Hooray us! Any loss like that - regardless of the actual moves - would lead to aggressive second guessing.

I believe the punishment does not close the issue (since there are other trades with this issue) - hopefully they do something - I think a draft pick would be reasonable.