sk7326
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Everything posted by sk7326
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They are wallowing in last place because they are playing in the only division where that would be the case.
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There were a lot of dice rolls ... last year, the dice rolls went Renfroe and Kike ... this year, not so much. In particular, 1B and corner OF are the sorts of positions where you expect good offensive outcomes and the Red Sox getting virtually nothing (like on an absolute level, not just "bad for the position") really screwed things up. Even then, a world where the team got just a FEW more starts from Eovaldi and Wacha likely would have them right in the wild card mix.
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But - most football games at the end are not wild celebrations ... and there is WAY more at stake in an individual game. But I am sure the pressure exists. After all, there are only 780 of these positions on earth ... and teams are constantly trying to replace you with a cheaper guy. (this is true in most real jobs, but even more in baseball as the owners have amply shown).
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Pham and Hosmer have helped raise "complete garbage" production to "functional major league player" ... and that has really shown.
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I think they get excited - they don't fake those walk off celebrations. But you just can't get bogged down by games. The one thing baseball teaches players quickly is that you are going to fail ... A LOT. If you can't deal with that, this ain't the gig. After all, while we as fans care - it's not our livelihoods.
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Sure - though positions where most teams get offense were places where the Red Sox made some bets but the bets were failures. When you combine that with Story not being very good - and Kike being hurt/bad ... just a lot of the places where the team expected help just did not materialize. It is also worth blaming the defense which has been bad the last two seasons - and has certainly not provided the pitchers much help. And while the players have struggled - there are real questions about whether the defensive algorithm magic has been particularly effective. It is fair to wonder whether the machine learning defensive positioning models are actually providing good information.
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There IS a large range of outcomes ... but guys like him are the guys you bet on. It's like high school - best player on the JV team is great ... it's the 14 year old who is getting decent minutes with the varsity players who is going to be a star
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His numbers in Greenville and Salem were meh - but he was also the youngest player in that league at that time. That he was even average at that age was a real tell that he was a Guy
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Yeah - even just looking at the stats/level/age combination that is very very impressive. Devers' came on the radar simply because he smoked rookie ball as a 17 year old.
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I think Tito was happy to step away on some level. Tito did not deserve to be fired on the basis of that team - but then you could make a decent case that Grady Little should have survived 2003. But Francona in the intervening years has reinforced what a great manager he is. I'd suspect Cora would do the same elsewhere.
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Yeah - you look at how he has performed and he and Mayer are the clear bets for the next generation of Sox stars in the system.
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We'll see - for the most part the prospects make these decisions for the organization. Mayer has been very good at Greenville - I'd bet 2024 myself but second half of next season is not crazy
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Both Benintendi and Devers were effectively called up from AA. That said, that has not happened recently - but the prospects have not been that good either.
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Yeah - though the resume was deeper. Crushed AA and spent almost no time in AAA
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The $300M sounds good - but it does undervalue the player considerably.
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That is awful. I remember Hazen from the South Shore League All Star Team when he was at Abington High School. (I knew who he was and whatever, I did not "know him")
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I actually think the race has very little to do with it here. Betts was the most talented player the team has had since Williams and a real triumph for the scouting and development group. I don't think they would run from that. I think it's much more fundamental - the franchise has largely been VERY reflexive about seasons that were not amazing. The 2010-2012 stretch was the most latent of these examples ... but the 2018-2022 one is up there. Interestingly, the "coolest heads" the team has been after a disappointing season was the 2006-7 offseason and that still involved their GM leaving the team. Now the wounds are sated a bit - he team has clearly had an amazing record turning its playoff appearances into champioships - but there has been a lot of volatility. It is hard not to read the Betts trade in part as ownership's hissy fit because the team did not repeat in 2019. Really the darkly funny part is the team not being able to show Betts the giant bag after cheerfully re-upping Sale, a deal which looked dicey the second the ink was dry.
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The questions I have about the big market is less about FA and whatever - the Sox are not the only ownership who treat the tax limit like a hard cap. That was the whole point of the lockout after all. But are the Red Sox pouring money into the areas that are NOT subject to those limits - the analytics staff and the scouting and development budget. The Dodgers advantage is not that they can sign whatever player they want. (and I'll use the Dodgers since the Red Sox as a market - considering size, loyalty and pockets of fan base, owning media - is much more analogous to them than the Astros) But their machine is built because they have found and developed players - even without premium draft picks.
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We will see what happens - right now the only star in the system is Mayer and he is very very far away. But there is more pitching in the organization than in years, though again the #2 starter or above sorts are still wanting. I do think we see some of the his philosophy at work in the amateur choices. The club is counting on being able to teach getting into one's power - Yorke and Romero are both middle infielders with strong hit tools who did not really show much power. Amd it does make sense. The Dodgers (of course the development staff built from Tampa) have had a lot of success reshaping players swings to get more lift.
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I think when you get to a certain $$ level - it really has more to do with ownership. Ownership asked Cherington to get the top available position player FAs in a particular offseason and he did - they were both extremely high risk but the boss wants you to do it, you do whatever. For the most part the Sox GMs have all done pretty good jobs within the framework of what ownership asked of them.
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Now - I agree with you. But the Dodgers are using the same spreadsheets the Rays do. It ain't the spreadsheets - it's leveraging the money hammer.
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I think given their budgetary priorities (priorities of their choosing), the baseball ops did a good job with Betts trade. I am also happy to question the premise of the former to a degree - and the 2019 Sox were in a slightly tougher position to deal Betts and offer that extra control. But as of this second - the trade can be seen as Betts for Verdugo and the start of Trevor Story's post-prime which is quite the sad trombone noise.
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Who is running the Dodgers?
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I think the options were very small on the Mookie deal particularly once the team decided that moving Price was a key part of it. The trade was good considering it was "The David Price Salary Dump featuring Mookie Betts". But they did not really handle the Betts as a trade chip particularly well relative to the massive haul the Nats got for a great but inferior player. That said, there is an extra year of control with Soto which is very important. It is hard not to have a tear roll down the cheek when you realize that the team dealt Mookie Betts in exchange for precisely zero All-Star upside.
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I think this is a little dramatic. More than anything though, there are real questions about exactly "What are We Trying to Accomplish Here" as an organization which is very hard to suss right now.