sk7326

If the city of Boston could be moved to the West Coast, the Red Sox would be a 110 win team. Boston's record against >.500 teams NYY: 4-6 TOR: 3-10 TB: 2-8 BAL: 3-5 CLE: 4-1 MIN: 2-2 CHW: 2-4 HOU: 2-1 SEA: 2-1 ATL: 1-1 STL: 2-1 12-29 against the East, 27-40 against >.500 teams. I guess a surge is possible - and the team deserves credit for feasting on the dregs of its schedule ... but woof

I think it is clear the rainbow is the Dodgers where they have a rich farm system but can use their financial hammer too. The Dodgers and the Red Sox indeed are both using Tampa Bay organizational best practices. Really, ownership probably gets the lion's share of the blame - not because Henry did not spend money, but because his organizational priorities have fluctuated wildly and at times seems way way too responsive to what talk shows say about the team. After all, the team greenlighted David Price, a deal which went poorly (even acknowleding Price's yeoman work in the 2018 postseason) in some somewhat difficult to anticipate ways (his arm). Ownership greenlighted the Sale extension, a deal which looked shaky as it was happening. At the same time, the team gets weak kneed about paying a superstar for the superstar's superstar years - and then moves him to help get rid of Price. I largely don't blame any of the GMs - they have all done jobs that ownership asked of them. Dombrowski drafted well and did a good job - and he did exactly what ownership wanted him to do. Bloom has done a nice job making some good value signings and bringing in more quality arms than the org has had in a while. Cora is one of the league's best managers - but when you have to negotiate "Eovaldi, a Pavetta hot streak and hope" as your starting pitching, you can only conjure up so much magic. But still, his era will come down to ownership priorities. If the team is not willing to pay Devers superstar prices for his superstar years - a team with Boston's $$ heft - then what are we doing here.

Let's put it this way - given how flaccid the team has looked against the AL East, you have to consider being sellers to some degree. 1. The team has a ready made solution for SS next year on the roster already - and 2B seems like it should be easy enough to source. 2. If the Red Sox want to be aggressive sellers, they can offer the best pitcher (Eovaldi), hitter (JD) and overall player (Bogaerts) that would be available for the deadline. 3. I hope Devers gets figured out. I sort of feel the same way I did there as with Mookie (though to a lesser extent since Betts is a better player). Even fully acknowledging that it is a negotiation, if a big market team gets weak kneed about signing a superstar through a superstar's superstar prime, it's tough to see what we are doing here.

Kiley McDaniel at ESPN: https://www.espn.com/mlb/insider/story/_/id/34276506/did-your-team-ace-2022-mlb-draft-kiley-mcdaniel-recap-all-30-teams#bos

Either Romero or Anthony will crack the list ... usually you expect a team's first rounder to crack the org top 10. And one of Lugo or Groome could crack the back end of the Top 10. Solid results at premium positions.

Oh all the public prospect guys would tell you that ... every year some team drafts a guy in the top 30 who does not appear on one of the big public scouts (Law, McDaniel, Logenhagen, Sickels) boards. The public facing guys do the best they can, but they are just not going to have the information and coverage clubs have (particularly medical information which is such a big part of the operation). There are just so many baseball players out there.

The thing with Dombrowski is that was not incompetent at drafting or anything - the man has been in baseball a billion years, he knows HOW to build a farm system. But the teams that hire him want him to turbocharge the major league club. Dombrowski's biggest strength is being able to look at the prospects, identify the "keep vs deal" and largely be right. What has happened with Bloom though is that the team has the most pitching in the system it has had in years. You wish there was a guy with more than #3 starter upside - but with how baseball pitching staffs are trending, that might not matter all that much.

He worked for the Blue Jays and lived in Boston and has largely the Sox FO and business practices. The one thing about prospect guys is that you don't know exactly what they mark for. If one site gives prospects more credit for floor vs ceiling then you are going to have different evals. Mayer is an easy choice for the org's #1 player tho.

Given what the Dodgers have been able to produce, I look at that very skeptically. One of the interesting things Law noted was that the Red Sox organizationally think they can teach the hitters to drive the ball more and get into their power - and thus seem okay drafting more of these high contact middle infielders who have not shown power at the amateur level.

Law's writeup in the Athletic - he doesn't do grades https://theathletic.com/3433211/2022/07/20/mlb-draft-report-cards-american-league/

Yeah - I'm curious. Now, they gave a big deal to Anthony ... so that seems to lead to them not forfeiting any pool money. But we'll see.

or pitching

Roman Anthony signs for $2.5M, well above slot. Expect a bunch of cheap seniors rounds 3-10.

This year is a very poor year for college pitching ... and prep arms have such high attrition rates that the team might wait on diving in there

And famous from sad news of recent years ...

Mikey Romero ESPN's #56 ... Kiley McDaniel Athletic #40 ... Keith Law Fun fact: Roman Anthony went to Stoneman Douglas HS in Florida ... wow

one country can implement banal public health standards and the other won't. Seeing the team have this many cranks is kind of gross.

2 months + the playoffs of him!

I think it's possible - but you don't waive NTCs for nothing, and no reason for Bogaerts to be the first. It's going to be to go somewhere he wants to be - or it's going to require giving Bogaerts more money. Either way, the Red Sox are on a 90-win pace and in a position to make the tournament and nobody is/should be dealing Bogaerts under those circumstances.

People don't hire Boras because they dislike his advice.

Yes ... a no-trade clause is really a "don't trade me without paying for it"

If pitching staffs are going to allow for anti-public health cranks, it seems inevitable.

That said, one of the effects could also be the evolution of more people like Whitlock - who could be true 100 inning relievers, which itself is kind of old school.

What has been interesting in the negotiations is that we see reports of MLB coming down off of its maximum asks ... but we don't see MLB making deals that are responsive in any way to player interests. (the two big ones, more money for younger players and incentivizing/forcing competitive behavior by teams.

The frustrating thing about the spin of some of the reporting is that we get stories about "MLB is proposing ______" or "The union is discussing ____________" ... and reporting it in a way that the issue is actually settled or it is the one thing separating us from a deal. A good though exercise is - suppose there was a report "The Red Sox have added Kike Hernandez into negotiations with the Angels". This is all fun to know - but it's leaving out a LOT of details about the negotiation. After all, if the Angels offer Mike Trout that means one thing, and if the Angels offer a trout named Mike, it means something else entirely. If it turned out the Angels offered the latter, reporting that "The Red Sox offered Kike to the Angels but then went back on it" is pretty dishonest spin.