sk7326

Uehara returning would allow a lot of this stuff to fall into place. Also will be interesting is Brandon Workman is in a position to be a September call-up.

Also the youngest of the top UFAs.

I am not sure what the answer was. Barnes has pitched more - but you do want to balance things. Ziegler starting the 8th also would have been okay - although he has had his issues also. Ultimately the dude has to perform. Funny thing is, in that game, the biggest tactical howler I saw was Ausmus actually pitching to Betts in one of the rare situations where the intentional walk made sense - and somehow survived it.

Sigh ... quietly amazed they did not put Betts on there ... sometimes weird tactics work

What the evidence tells me is that Leon can actually hit big league pitching, and there is a .260-.270 sort of hitter there, which combined with plus defense is a legit starter and not that far away from All-Star level. What he is producing now is MVP level stuff - and as such, I am comfortable betting the under going forward.

When Young returns, he will probably go back to the usage that was intended ... start against lefties - and maybe a few other starts sprinkled in if the team goes through significant times without facing lefties.

The increased LD numbers explains some of it - but it could not explain all of it ... I remain a skeptic, and constantly happy to be wrong.

Gold Gloves are entirely useless - though I am happy Pedroia has won them before. Cy Young - I think there is a decent chance Britton wins the Cy Young. There is not an obvious dominant starter out there, and voters have historically gone to dominant relievers in seasons like this. Now it is utterly bonkers that Britton should be a viable candidate - but there you go. AL MVP - It's a three or four man race, and is going to stay that way the final 40 games of the season and it's close enough that the rest of the season really has to play out to create any meaningful separation. Trout is probably the dark horse. While he is still the league's best player - MVPs on godawful teams are rare. Yes, the voters are fundamentally voting on the competence of his teammates in this worldview - but we know it happens. So that leaves Donaldson, Altuve or Betts in some order. I think Altuve is probably the favorite - the Astros might not make the playoffs, but they are good. Altuve has been an emerging force for a while and has leapt into true superstardom this season. It is a good story. Betts has obviously gone crazy since the break, and could very easily wrest this away Josh Hamilton style in September. Voters love that stuff. The latter applies to Donaldson as well - but being the defending MVP, voting for him is not as fun as voting for someone new. David Ortiz stands as an even darker dark horse - but a viable one - for obvious reasons.

Depending on the approximation method you use, based on 133 ABs, there is only a 2.5% chance Leon's "true" level is below .305. (using BA as a binomial variable - if you want to get into the math) Once again, the spectacular - and unsustainable - .459 BABIP is big here. However, you cannot undervalue what he has actually done - which is what the numbers actually convey - basically if he had a full catcher season of this, he would be firmly in the MVP race.

With lineups I think it is really - some players care about where they bat, others don't. And if you can placate the first group without doing something stupid (like bat Papi 8th for instance) - then ultimately it doesn't really matter. Why has the Red Sox lineup clicked lately? It is because they are good - and have been this good all season. The fallow period out West and against the Yankees was just a SSS exception. And the 11 game road trip were all in famously low scoring ballparks. The Sox are going to have one more West Coast swing through Oakland and San Diego - and they could have trouble scoring runs, even though both teams stink ... because of where they are playing.

True in a sense - but I actually agreed with Farrell's logic here. If the team is going to go through a long stretch without seeing a lefty starter (which it did early) you can't just cryogenically freeze Chris Young until then - he needed some reps even if it was suboptimal in a numbers sense. Just can't be silly about it.

That part is true - but there is not a rush to get things done by August 31. And it makes more sense NOT to add Moncada that way, because it still allows the Red Sox to make a small waiver deal (perhaps for another relief arm)

I don't think Barnes in the 9th improves that situation over Kimbrel. I definitely don't think Kimbrel would be an improvement over Barnes in the mid-innings.

1. Me neither 2. If you remember what a dumpster fire the end of that season was ... I wanted the perfect game. (indeed there would plenty of time to register the key wins over the Yankees)

TL DR version ... If the Red Sox want to get a look at Moncada or (less likely but worth asking because we know Dombrowski is) Kopech - they can add them to the 40-man anytime. They would be playoff roster eligible because of injury replacements.

Kimbrel has been striking out guys at a lights out rate - it's life as a reliever, your bad outings look worse. It is an inherently volatile gig. Barnes is more useful in the position he is right now because he is capable of getting more than 3 outs. The closer job is a bit too limiting.

This question I think is in regard to postseason eligibility

This reasoning is sound. But given how many on boards like this snivel about why this organization cannot find good (sniff!) pitching in the minors ... there's your answer. Can't have it both ways. My favorite part of the trade was one place where I read pointing to his 4+ ERA at Greenville as evidence he wasn't that good - which was a bit of a howler.

You can replace guys on the DL provided they did not get on the 60-day DL after September. It's how Francisco Rodriguez was added prior to the 2002 playoffs for the Angels.

They were both good prospects - neither worked out ... it happens. Considering the Red Sox were practically giving them away - to get something with a reasonable probability of return was good. Almost all coverage of the 2011-12 seasons in retrospect was mind numbingly stupid.

I had no opinion on the fire sale - Cherington did a good job making it somewhat adequate return ... but it did not suddenly open up budget or create any magic for 2013. Victorino's miracle season and the team just being healthy for once had more to do with it than anything.

He left - but they hired his right hand man, who had been his right hand man since the Miami days. So it might not have been as simple as a rebuke of his work there. I suspect it was simply that his successor was cheaper and they wouldn't have to change the infrastructure.

Given what the Yanks got - almost certainly too much

Bunk. The acquisitons were made possible because the Red Sox - who have a mint erected on Yawkey Way - decided it was possible. They wanted to clear payroll - which is a fair priority for an org that likes making money (e.g. all of them). I do give Cherington a lot of credit - that what was an ownership mandated fire sale actually got them a couple of reasonably good arms - they were able to turn the deal into an (at the time - which is all you can really look at given imperfect information) acceptable baseball deal is a credit to the GM. Now neither De La Rosa and Webster worked out (in particular they kept deluding themselves into thinking Webster could start instead of developing him as a reliever) ... that happens, but that was not the sort of deal where you should be able to get a couple of Top 100 sort of prospects.

Just a phenomenal athlete figuring out his superpowers before us. Teams draft guys like him in the 4th and 5th round (multi-sport ath-a-letes, who play baseball, but who have not played a lot of baseball) and hope that moving full time to baseball unlocks magic - it is nice to see it happen here.