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sk7326

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Everything posted by sk7326

  1. sk7326
    Here is the thing - flags fly forever, and you need to give your team a chance anytime you can. The question you ask is whether the Sox are in it or not - and the answer to me is decidedly yes. The roster is still good, and the rest of the division has been spinning its wheels. 7 games in the loss column is a haul - but there is still a lot of time. I have a long view about the franchise too - but nobody is poor, I have no interest in Luis Suarez' salary. The team is not absolved from honorably chasing the championship. What the Sox calculated this year is reasonable - some things have not worked so far, but they owe it to the fans to try to turn the ship around at least while there is still a whole 2/3 of a season left.
  2. sk7326
    Oh I agree on Bradley - this Sizemore nonsense was a silly idea from the word go. Bogaerts is a different deal. I agree in isolation, but they had an easy play to improve the team right now. Also Drew becomes the team's best trade asset the second he takes the field - which could be cashed in for something else, especially if it is a place Drew would not mind. Granted the latter is a lower probability, but one that should not be ignored. I believe in a transition year - but in this market, with these resources, a transition year is 2006 or 2010. You don't tell the fans they can't have a reasonable shot at contention. The shot is still reasonable. You don't need to do anything stupid, but you still want to give it your best shot.
  3. sk7326
    When you gouge the public more than any other team - and when you have a chance to make the playoffs (which you do when the entire division is in quicksand and you STILL have the best roster in the division), you play to win. It's a sensitive dance, but one that the franchise owes the fans that help keep a high revenue team a high revenue team.
  4. sk7326
    I think in previous entries I've expressed support for the Drew signing. I find it funny they brought in a SS since SS is the one position which has gone well - but it is clearly the simplest solution to improve an area of weakness. Drew is a significant defensive upgrade and while he is totally useless against lefties - you can wallpaper over that when it pops up. There just aren't many good SS or 3B to go around - so you do what you gotta do. Bogaerts future is at SS to me still - but there is a current problem to solve. There is an opportunity to be had here after all. The division just isn't that good. The Yankees have basically been about what any smart person would have expected - not a hell of a lot different than last year, despite all the deck chair reshuffling - only Toronto has a positive run margin. The Sox record is depressing, but nobody has run away - and nobody has shown much evidence that they will.
  5. sk7326
    Bogaerts has hit better - and his fielding has been nothing special. Not good, not a horrendous travesty - we knew coming in that his value as a SS was going to be about offense + adequate defense. UZR puts him at basically average for instance. He is certainly not Drew's equal defensively (and that combined with the disaster at 3B justifies the signing). But combine what he has done so far with the upwards trajectory he has shown (both recently as well as his career arc when he changes levels), he was well on track to upgrade that position overall from what Drew gave them. (not Drew + Iglesias together, but that is another matter) If you thought that Bogaerts was going to be our best player in April - yeah not much can be done there. But someone who has been one of the top 10 shortstops in the league as a "freshman on the varsity"? He has been good.
  6. sk7326
    Breaking down "what went wrong" by position: C: Down 1B: Same 2B: Worse 3B: Same SS: Better OF: A Lot Worse SP: Worse Bullpen: Same (can quibble about individual performances - but overall has not been a problem) While I understand the Drew signing from a team management perspective (it upgrades 3B while limiting any downgrade at SS) ... it is funny to see their first FA/trade foray in season was for the one position which has actually gone well this year.
  7. sk7326
    26-24 ... good for last place, 2.5 games out. It's a tough road for sure. However, Jays are the only team with a positive run differential. There is no real evidence that any of the other 4 teams are that good. Nothing here that a couple of good healthy weeks can't fix.
  8. sk7326
    Could be Mookie Betts, but more data collection is needed. Right now the current guys have struggled, but Bradley and Victorino clearly have the nods from here since the gloves still work (and in Victorino's case that is dependent on the hammies working)
  9. sk7326
    Farrell is probably not as good a manager as Tito. At the same time, he clearly did well enough to win the World Series, and the next day an organization can truly hit the reset button on a mistake (like the Sox did with their entire front office philosophy in 2012) will be the first. Be happy the team was smart enough to go back to the pre-2011 way. What are the manager's most important jobs? Setting the lineup and managing the pitching staff. Farrell has been excellent in the former all through his tenure - the latter less so, although at the end of last season he improved a lot there. He handles the media well. The rest of it is not that big a deal - and the players have to pick up some of the slack here.
  10. sk7326
    A bleak state that is 7 games back in a very very tight division. There is a lot that can turn around here. But personally: 1. Thank Sizemore for playing, but he has no business in a big league lineup. Promote Nava. We know he can hit righties and give some platoon choices for Farrell. 2. Make a sell or hold decision on Bradley. He has been outstanding defensively, and deficient offensively. I'd still hold, but if you think Mookie Betts has been too good to ignore and Bradley has not made some progress by June (and Betts shows he won't embarass himself in CF), I get it. 3. Promote Vasquez. He can not get on base as well as Pierzynski, and he has elite defensive skills.
  11. sk7326
    Move is OK, but it doesn't actually solve much. XB has been more or less everything we should have expected so far. The only reason he has "underperformed" in any way would be ridiculous hype. That said, in the short term - this is a cleaner way of upgrading 3B than any other alternative. The team has had offensive issues - some of it bad luck, some of it basic regression.
  12. sk7326
    Buchholz is at a low point value-wise. Trading him makes sense, but he has to actually get well first. That said, his history points to him figuring this out ... he has generally never been "in between" performancewise.
  13. sk7326
    It seems true because of Salty's reputation and strikeouts - but largely unfounded. But the contractual issues are big, enough to make a 1-year hitch with him palatable ... but it'd look a lot better if a guy like Vasquez got ready for the show.
  14. sk7326
    The bullpen has been just fine - no real need to get too fired up about the 5th and 6th inning guys sucking (if they do). Every team's is generally not good - and it is more of an indictment of the starters anyway.
  15. sk7326
    He can put the ball in play that a fielder catches ... he's not very good. A downgrade from last year - but a contractually sensible one.
  16. sk7326
    It's not because he's a big game pitcher - it's because he is an every start pitcher. I think it is the one thing the "Lester is overvalued" commenters on the board totally miss - the value of his ability to take the ball 30-35 times a year without having to worry about him. A guy like that can make your entire pitching staff better.
  17. sk7326
    Oh they believe it - their 1996-2001 run was built on homegrown talent. The financial advantage lets you keep the team together. Yes, they bought the 2009 champion - but the odds of a guy of Sabathia's caliber entering the FA market now is lower than it used to be. The Yanks, like the Sox and Dodgers, have some edges - but you do seem to misstate how the Yankees have used the leverage in the past.
  18. sk7326
    Schilling's health was an issue - but the Sox had solid rotation edges in Games 3 and 4. The Cards lineup was good - but the Sox was one of the best of recent times. Sox played two of their worst games in that entire postseason and won both games and then sparkled in the other two. In a sense, the "a few things and it'd be different" applies to any set of games. IMO, that difference is more the difference between a sweep and a 6 game series than something too directional. Sox win that series most of times it is played (this being baseball after all, that means something like 2 out of 3) - and it is more a statement on the 2004 team's quality than the Cards. (although that was a poor NL and remained that way for a while)
  19. sk7326
    2004 Cards were the best NL team at the apex of the "AL was miles better than the NL" part of the decade. Without Chris Carpenter, that series was a mismatch. The Rays were doing their thing in an insanely difficult AL East, tougher than either version of the AL West Anaheim won (and the 2004 West was not bad at all). You can also make a case the 2004 Sox were the best team of the decade - with the 2007 Sox being a solid contender. Both times they had a life and death series with the 2nd best team in the entire league in the LCS round.
  20. sk7326
    LOL - to be fair, Sox never faced an elimination game and were only behind twice in any series. It was not a blitz, but it was a lot less stressful than 2007 and 2004. That said in 2013, the Sox ALDS and WS opponents were a LOT better than the 2004 and 2007 opponents.
  21. sk7326
    A .377 OBP is pretty good at the top of the order ... for him, it's just getting reps
  22. sk7326
    Someone has been looking up the 2011 scouting reports. The leap he made to uber-prospect was related to his ability to play SS in the medium term at least. Yeah the ceiling is more of average to above average than plus - basically a Troy Tulowitzki level (which would be an MVP candidate btw). Nothing that has gone wrong with him can't be fixed by just him getting reps. That he's putting in a .377 OBP while ironing stuff out is extremely encouraging.
  23. sk7326
    True - although one constant in his career so far has been the ability to adapt to these levels where he is young. I am excited to see him figure this out.
  24. sk7326
    They are struggling because of some injuries and because it's a 14 game sample. Schedule will get easier - and guys may or may not return. The latter is the key. All of the other hooey is just stuff to give fans something to talk about. The Sox had tons of guys hurt by the end of 2011 and all of 2012. They were very lucky last year on that front. So far, not so much.
  25. sk7326
    Defense was always the uphill battle with him - the assumption is that the bat would make it ok. It's work in progress.
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