sk7326
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Everything posted by sk7326
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I think the more interesting question regarding this is who is actually driving? We know Cherington has had a lot of experience in org development, and the scouting is top notch. This franchise has drafted well year after year. I think ownership priorities shift very violently - and Cherington and the baseball working stiffs are left to make the best of it baseball-wise. That is a flaw in the machinery. I think at times the dynamic in the front office is more or less like what we saw in the Gonzalez trade. Ownership made the dump with the Dodgers, and it was up to Cherington's folks to swoop in and identify prospects to make it a tractable (in fact, quite good by salary dump standards) baseball deal. I am not trying to exempt him from accountability or scrutiny, but I do wonder how empowered he is at times. (or whether the level of empowerment has been consistent, if that makes sense)
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I forget where the literature is - but your best place to put your best hitter is 2nd ... balancing number of plate appearances with RBI opportunities. Now most lineups do not act that way. Right now the way I look at the "Top 13" C: Vasquez 1B: Napoli 2B: Pedroia 3B: Sandoval SS: Bogaerts LF: Ramirez CF: Betts RF: Castillo DH: Ortiz OF: Nava (platoon value - still a solid on-base dude) OF: Victorino IF: Holt (plays a lot of positions) C: (Somebody) Clearly there is a squeeze for Cespedes and Craig here. That will need to be resolved. Now theoretically they can only carry 11 pitchers, but it is not how staffs work in 2014-15, and I doubt Farrell will do differently early in the season. Given this, a starting lineup: CF: Betts LF: Ramirez 2B: Pedroa DH: Ortiz 1B: Napoli 3B: Sandoval SS: Bogaerts RF: Castillo C: Vasquez
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Youk and Pedroia fall in that time frame. So did Lester and Buchholz (who has fallen on his face as a #1, but not as a viable starter). Some misses, lot of hits. And many that were valuable trade assets, which has to count. There are real questions as to whether this staff is up to dealing with young regulars - that is legitimate. At the same time, Bogaerts' falling on his face is a pretty phenomenal overreaction when considering how Pedroia and Iglesias did in extended trial runs at first. Now I wish Bogaerts had a Trout season so we could (correctly) dream of Hall of Fame things for him. Alas, that did not happen. However, he has hung in at the big league level at an age when most of his buddies are in AA - that is an overwhelmingly positive sign. The odds are still very good that he will have a strong career playing baseball for a living.
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True about Bradley. Only reason you'd say that about Middlebrooks was because it was a serious case of selling low. Hard to expect him to actually get LESS valuable than he was in 2013.
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We'll see how it goes - in many of the essential ways it is the same front office it has been for the past decade, which has been a pretty good one. There will be upgrades in pitching. Whether it is Lester or something via trade (Latos, Cueto, Zimmermann?) or both. But fixing two positions where they got essentially zippo last season was essential.
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Would be nice to have Beltre - although from the "things that we did not anticipate" area which was referred to earlier here. The Sox letting Beltre walk was defensible given the strategy - but Youk's body falling to pieces so quickly put a blowtorch to much of the plan.
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The Sandoval contract is ok too - consistency is there, the youngest premium FA available (so there is at least improvement possible). Do I wish he hit more homers? A bit, although some of that is choice. He could be a Monster-hitting machine.
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The key thing here also is that when guys like Fred or whomever worry about the budget - the luxury tax is a choice. The Red Sox have room under the tax, but they can also go over - and for the Red Sox, the market forces make it very desirable to do so if the right guy is there. I hate the $/WAR argument since each franchise has its own values for that thing. But no doubt the Sox and Yanks $/WAR is very high, enough to make bold moves (not stupid ones obviously).
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What is interesting about Sandoval when you watch him is that: 1. He is a good athlete. He is tubby, but the feet are nimble and the hands are good. He is a legitimately above average 3B. 2. He obviously lacks the patience Wade Boggs has. But what he does have is the same sort of plate coverage and willingness to use the whole field, at the expense of maximizing his natural power. He is not a huge HR guy, but as much of it has to do with his approach than anything. He could make a killing peppering the Monster.
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If you look at the last 3 years, he was MVP caliber in 2013 (over just 86 games!) and good last year. The salary looks bad but given the surrounding economics it's fine. It's just money that would go in John Henry's pockets or somebody at Liverpool.
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I'd say sign Ross and live with it. If they want a starting caliber guy (not a true excellent backup like Ross), Geovany Soto is there and a guy who might be up for a 1-year "rebuild value" sort of deal.
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He might have been able to hit well enough to play as a catcher - but he was a poor catcher. And not a good enough hitter to play anywhere else. If his bat were Jose Abreu like, they could have found a spot for him - but it wasn't.
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Relatively close in terms of performance to date. Zimmermann if 5 years younger. He was a co-#1 on the best team in the NL last year.
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Strasburg or Jordan Zimmermann (short hitches on both, but you asked)
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That is more an aspect of his FA timing than anything else. Moving from the infield to the outfield is rare but not unprecedented. (Biggio, Yount to name two) Moves to preserve value - whether an incumbent team comes up with the idea or a FA suitor ultimately makes little difference. It's the same risk-reward assessment.
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Cespedes + XB gets you a James Shields level pitcher? 2 years of David Price cost the Tigers less.
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Right now the planning with Betts is most likely thinking of him in a Zobrist or (if you are old like me) Tony Phillips. The position can be figured out later because he is a good enough athlete (with mature enough beisbol skills) to do a lot of things. The arm is not ideal for RF but the range is (at least for Fenway). I know it is fun to talk about Ramirez being signed to play SS but that is far fetched at best - this is not the 2007 model of Ramirez, and given his recent durability issues, moving off of SS was going to be a natural thing for him to volunteer.r
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More like goodbye Cespedes and goodbye Victorino's starting gig. Betts and XB could be had for the right guy (I suspect Hamels alone for one might be it - but not much else). Otherwise they are in firm spots and you arrange the other deck chairs accordingly.
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Not a lot of people talk about it in narrative-land, but his breaking down was central to a lot of what collapsed about the Red Sox in general. They have not been able to adequately replace him. He was one of the five or six best offensive players in the league for a couple of years.
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All he has to be is what he is already ... an above average defender with good contact rates (which is hard to find) and good makeup. He is also still young enough to have a little bit of projection left. For the $/WAR (which applies more to Boston than other teams because of the market rewards), it is reasonable.
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This seems unfair. One of the funny things fans say is "you can only evaluate a move after waiting to see if it works". But really, that is garbage. The only accurate evaluation of these moves is AT THE TIME YOU MAKE THEM, because all you have are percentages. You look at the Pierzynski signing at the time Cherington made it, what was he looking at: - A solid starter who was going to command a multiyear deal - A couple of near big league ready guys who were not quite there, but both looked like better prospects than the solid starter - Almost all free agent catching was some variation of meh What are the choices? Sign a bridge guy or take your shot with the not quite ripe kiddos. I'd have gone with #2, but it was not at all obvious. Cherington's move was one of the two sensible things to do - and it did not work out. Nobody could have expected the AJ signing to be as actively negative as it was.
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There is some risk there - but the solution might be moving him off of the physically problematic job.
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Indeed - signed to play LF and spot DH. He could play 3B if Sandoval doesn't work out. Also remember, Sandoval's deal (if it is only 5 years) means that the Red Sox will be paying $18M a year for his 29-33 years ... he has less age risk than most FAs. There are teams who would take that contract on.
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If the Heyman tweet is accurate, getting Sandoval and Ramirez each for under $20M a year is a very strong haul. Panda in particular remains a trade asset if other stuff doesn't work out (in particular a solid chance that you are only getting a small part of his decline years)
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How many of them have physically broken down playing said position - this is pretty clear. This is not asking prime Alex Rodriguez to move to 3B to accomodate an inferior player - this is a guy who will do what it takes to be a 600 PA dude again (and thus someone who can be paid like a guy who contributed 600 PAs). Ramirez in 2014 WAS a dropoff from Ramirez 2013. But Ramirez 2014 was more or less in line with his entire career, it was 2013 that was the outlier.