sk7326

Boggs was a great player, and the best 3B of his era. His numbers some of those years are hard to get your mind around now. The first time I ever watched 20/20 was because of him. And I remember the chicken. The Red Sox of the mid-80s were good, but decidedly uncuddly - but they were the team's that afflicted me with this disease.

Castillo-Bradley-Betts left to right against righties should be what you expect Against lefties, the lion's share you expect Castillo-Betts-Young. Although you also cannot dismiss Young spelling Castillo too, or that Young will give Papi the occasional rest. Like Damon Buford years ago - a fourth outfielder who was put on this earth to hammer lefthanded pitching.

.320 or .330 with that glove is a true starter, and a possible All-Star if that comes with a little pop

Obviously these are "non-pitcher" sacrifices ... as a general rule, the sacrifice can increase your probability of getting 1 run, while reducing the likelihood of getting more. That limits the situations a lot. There are almost no situations where the "expected runs scored" is better with an additional out. I think last year the A's (of course) led the way with only 14 sacrifices all season. The Red Sox 30 was 21st ... Even the World Champion Royals were 19th with 34 sacrifice bunts. For a team with their bat control, you can get a lot of the work of a sacrifice done without bunting - with at least a shot at a hit.

Some of them are older than the incumbent NL MVP!

Analysts are being paid very well to do it. Especially with the increased information on lineup turnover and such ...

You never "pick" a guy drafted last year to have an impact on 2016. However, Benintendi has the profile (accomplished collegian, slaughtered the short season levels) to at least be on a watch list. One expects he starts in Salem but with every expectation he's not gonna be there long ... although he might force them to start him right at Portland.

Really, what you have is two forces working together. 1. The 9th inning is not special. Leverage is a little higher - but fundamentally, the job of getting 3 outs without allowing a run entering a game with the bases empty is not especially difficult. 2. Workers like to understand their job function. Pitching in the 9th is a job - not the most difficult on the staff, but a distinct one. It is hard to shuffle roles and I do think that the bullpen jobs are not 100% substitutable. So - essentially having a "closer" is critical. But that closer does not have to be your best reliever. You look at the long, long, long line of mediocre pitchers who have done that job adequately (Mike Williams, Doug Jones, Heathcliff Slocumb, Joel Hanrahan) and that should tell you something. It is one of the interesting pieces of the Kimbrel acquisition that will be tricky. Neither Kimbrel nor Uehara are guys who you feel comfortable giving larger, more variable workloads. They both should be very effective - but they both will probably need specific targeted work. Farrell will have to use Tazawa and Smith to help organize the game to facilitate things for both of them. It is a little harder than the normal bullpen juggling. Fortunately both pitchers are very capable.

Greenville I think. He had to finish in Greenville last season because he was too young too be eligible for the AFL.

I think Law had Margot as a Top 30 guy anyway - good upside, but lots of polish. I put these up not so much as an endorsement as some comprehensive opinions that are behind a paywall. He is very bullish on Guerra. Really when you look at it, #4 and #10 is not a huge difference, and can come down to upside valuation. (the Red Sox have taken a large hit in the guys close to major league ready - because a lot of them are playing!)

If Benenintendi is up before September, it's either REALLY BAD NEWS (see: 2015 Catcher injuries) or REALLY GOOD NEWS (see: 2014 Betts refusing to be ignored)

This team has generally avoided arbitration - and have been proactive with locking up their core young guys. The case for Bogaerts' extension is a strong one. Betts the Red Sox might be slow walking it a little bit - just because they are so loaded at those positions that perhaps they can afford for a measure of internal competition to work things out to a degree. It's also a two way street. If the Red Sox offer Betts 7/150 (for instance) - Betts could argue against taking it because of how flush with cash the market is.

Red Sox 10th ranked system: http://espn.go.com/mlb/insider/story/_/id/14726383/atlanta-braves-top-farm-system-rankings-2016-mlb 2016 Top 100 ... Sox Blurbs ... Team clearly hit hard by trades and graduations ... but nobody is starving http://espn.go.com/mlb/insider/story/_/id/14740563/index-top-100-prospects-2016-including-corey-seager-others-mlb #7: Rafael Devers #17. Yoan Moncada #18. Andrew Benintendi #38. Anderson Espinoza FWIW: Margot #25, Guerra #34

On base is an A ... could be better, but plenty good for 2016 Power is a B ... a lot of this comes down to Hanley being "playable" and healthy Infield defense is suspect ... although I think more at 3B than at 1B. I am reasonably confident in Ramirez just coming back to an infield position. I'd still prefer him at 3B and Sandoval in another uniform Outfield defense is an "A" ... you're not going to get much better, this side of Kansas City Starting - what is nice about the Price signing is that the rest of the staff could fall into place. I expect Porcello to have a bounceback to "solid #3 level" - his final month showed quite a bit. Relief - No point grading it. Bullpens are flimsy, and you can never have too many arms to throw at it. But the Red Sox made some positive strides and there is reason to be hopeful. Manager - Farrell is fine. Now he might not add too much value, but he doesn't actively detract from the operation (see Matt Williams, Dusty Baker) either.

One other note on the Miley deal is to note that DiPoto, Seattle's GM did do a bit of a ride-along with Boston late last season, so Miley is not being acquired blind. I think it's probably a mild win for Boston, but both teams addressed needs with surplus - which is what you want from trades generally.

I agree that ownership priorities changed. Also - some truth there, but I don't think Dombrowski really is going to manage a lot of the other parts of the operation (say, the draft, international FA) ... his job is the major league roster, which is the most important bit of course

Deal fits both teams - Sox got a couple of solid arms (granted they both worked in a lot of great pitcher's parks) Miley's peripherals were in line with his career (aside from a drop in strikeout rate) - some evidence of bad luck and defense in his performance. Seattle gets him into a friendlier pitching environment, and Miley is extremely durable, and the Mariners needed some back end starting. Miley was a 2 win pitcher last year, which is an excellent value given the contract. I am not weeping for Seattle here - it's not easy to find 200 starting innings, even 200 meh ones.

This a weirdly early thread - especially since their jobs are somewhat different. (Dombrowski's is a narrow but very important subset of Cherington's) Really all that has shifted is ownership priorities - that much is obvious. Dombrowski is making a lot of moves, pablum for the chat board posters and whatnot. What is obvious is that the 2016 Red Sox are on paper better than the 2015 one. Of course that was true about 2015 relative to 2014. Specific moves? Kimbrel - good pickup at an unreasonably steep price. High risk - because relievers go belly up quickly and unpredictably, but if you gotta do it, Kimbrel is a good hoss to back Price - excellent pickup at a very reasonable price. Modest risk - he'll have to learn how to pitch with lesser stuff for the deal to be a homerun, but even 3 "David Price" seasons is plenty Young - excellent pickup at reasonable price. Platoon masher. If Farrell is creative there are 300 PAs for him. Carson Smith - solid pickup at a price which seems ok. Miley was not in the Sox plans - then getting a quality setup arm makes sense. Roenis Elias is another swingman candidate, although he could be a lefty killer in the pen too. The question about Dombrowski will be whether he leeches the system dry for a relatively short window of opportunity ... that is largely inconclusive. But the team has gotten better without sacrificing much of its real premium future. There will always be questions (vis a vis the Kimbrel trade) whether the prospect assets have been optimized in deals, but no matter. This has been a B+ offseason so far.

Cueto is an ace - but what is inside his elbow is very much an open question

No, Betts as a potentially better Ben Zobrist ... I'm not saying it's likely - but it'd be a sensible use of his athleticism and skills

Between JBJ, some Papi off days and Castillo's unproven-ness there should be enough for 300 PAs for a guy who smokes lefthanders. This also puts working out Betts in the infield into play - to possibly play some 3B so they can get Young's bat in and sit Sandoval.

The Cards landed an elite corner outfielder for him and have pitching depth for days. I think it was just resource usage for them. The Braves have a rotten local TV deal and were awful last year. I suspect they think their rebuild might last longer. A young good starter could net them a bit more. Why did the Braves deal the best defensive SS in the league on a fairly solid deal? Weird goings on there.

They laid out for the top name in the FA market - to be fair, they did that last year and in 2010 ... fortunately Price seems like a better bet. "Hey! Let's try to lure David Price with lots and lots of money" is not necessarily something that would differentiate a GM - compared to say differentiating ownership

More specifically, a .330 sort of OBP with his glove is a clear solid starter

Every other part of the GM position that does not involve maneuvering the major league roster.