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sk7326

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Everything posted by sk7326

  1. sk7326
    When we are talking about dealing a player of Betts' age and quality (which basically never happens) - there is no real difference. There is no good reason to accept a bad baseball trade for an asset that good - if you believe you should be trading him at all. You have cited a bad reason though.
  2. sk7326
    Did MLB institute a hard cap while I was asleep?
  3. sk7326
    It is hard to find a case of a player this good this young getting moved - let alone in a salary dump.
  4. sk7326
    The Red Sox took their best baseball trade chip and traded it for suboptimal return strictly to save their owner some money. That warrants criticism on its own, and when it is a high revenue team that can afford to make baseball moves for baseball reasons, it really smells. It is possible to both be okay with how ownership has spent in the past while criticizing the decisions now. There have been very few moves Henry has made in his tenure which have been bad faith - this is one. Second, even IF we accept the sympathetic framing ... that the Red Sox have actual affordability problems and payroll needed to be reduced for reasons, this was a problem apparent entering the 2019 season and yet management proceeded making multiple dicey spending choices which boxed them in here to feeling like they had to trade their best player without harming the Dodgers internal prospect rankings.
  5. sk7326
    Of course he has spent money. But right now, he traded a superstar in his prime for a steep discount for non-baseball reasons. And the move can, and should be criticized on that front. Similarly, the sudden whiplash need to cut payroll after greenlighting big money extensions just months earlier deserves criticism. Mookie Betts was the team's best hope to replenish some of its high ceiling organizational depth, especially in pitching. This trade way did not do that. Considering the $$ they ask of fans - it's unseemly at best.
  6. sk7326
    I am glad. I was worried we'd have to have a telethon for him.
  7. sk7326
    Area owner hires GM to build a winner and green lights numerous large contracts for said goal. Results in the best team of the century of MLB. Area owner greenlights a VERY shaky extension to pitcher who has been hurt frequently. Extended pitcher gets hurt. Area owner fires GM for doing exactly what he asked him to do - pivoting to reduce payroll because, reasons. (fortunately GM hired in stead looks pretty promising) Area owner mandates trade of a Top 5 player in his prime as a vehicle to dump salary without getting All-Star level ceiling in return. Area owner raises ticket prices - among the highest in the league already - while doing something the Pittsburgh Pirates would have blanched at.
  8. sk7326
    "much needed flexiblity" works off of an owner-centric framing of the whole deal. Bloom did the best he could given the mandate - and he'll probably do fine in the future. But Henry's conduct regarding the team since August has been pretty awful.
  9. sk7326
    It sucks for fans who like baseball.
  10. sk7326
    The Dodgers turning him into Rich Hill is entirely plausible and a good bet for $18M a year. And of course they got a one year look at Mookie Betts which doesn't hurt. Boston got a cost controlled starting CF and an interesting pitcher with at least some starter upside. And the Red Sox did not get the full benefit of the salary dump. Bloom's deal considering the mandate from ownership was probably the best he could do - there is no winning this deal. The mandate was deplorable.
  11. sk7326
    I also enjoy trading one of the best players the Red Sox have had (normalized for age) to line John Henry's pockets. Bloom is a smart guy and did fairly well given ownership's mandate to make like the Pittsburgh Pirates - and considering they are paying half of Price's contract, they did not even do that correctly. But it is worth noting that the Red Sox ask a larger financial commitment from their fans than virtually every other team in baseball. As someone who likes baseball, this sucks.
  12. sk7326

    Cple

    sk7326 replied to bosoxmal's topic in Boston Red Sox Talk

    It's going to be Yankees or some Los Angeles team
  13. sk7326
    https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/27923015/rays-chaim-bloom-favorite-become-red-sox-general-manager A really interesting idea, if true. Bloom has a good name around baseball circles and clearly has a lot of experience at this point in front offices. The Rays are the same sort of progressive front office the Sox had been in the middle of the decade - so going this direction makes sense. Also obviously Tampa has had to make numerous difficult calls in budget crunches, so that makes sense too. What could be a real sea change is the view of pitching. Epstein and Cherington were very suspicious of the risk level associated with amateur pitchers, and strongly favored the easier predictability associated with position players - and used other means to add pitching to the org. Tampa of course has been one of the real bright lights in the league at drafting and developing pitching and have not shied away from the risk. Neither approach is wrong - and both fit their environments and ballparks, but it could be a real shift. Certainly the Red Sox need more pitching in any case.
  14. sk7326
    Benny is still good and cheap. Bradley might not stay cheap which is the issue. That Benintendi has not found more power in the juiced happy fun ball reduces his ceiling somewhat. He might not be Betts-Devers sort of foundational, but he's not an issue.
  15. sk7326
    They kept him because he was the better player at the time with a more likely range of outcomes. Waiting on Moncada did not fit their timetable - they were contending and did not want to play such a raw dude - and of course it helped them land Chris Sale. The White Sox got a leap from him in Year 3 - but also had two years of being a poor man's Mark Bellhorn along the way. There is nothing wrong with developing a guy - but the Red Sox did not have those kind of plate appearances available given their competitive situation.
  16. sk7326
    That is the sound of a man washing his hands of the offseason despite the fact he greenlighted the money for those 8 figure AAVs for Sale and Eovaldi. Henry has done this before, after each less than awesome season (which we've had blessedly few).
  17. sk7326
    An improvement in approach and a juiced ball means a heckuva season.
  18. sk7326
    It IS a good deal - but if we are picking door number Bogaerts when the choice is Bogaerts v Betts (if it comes to that), yikes.
  19. sk7326
    Given the scale of the moves - I have to assume that ownership had to green light the big ones. The Sale and Price deals were too big to have been done without ownership weighing in. Dombrowski had just left Detroit - there was a clear MO. Henry knew this would happen and is basically using him as a human shield because the team did not make the playoffs. Henry has done this before so this is not tin foil hat stuff. Also note that Henry's issue is payroll, not the farm per se. Dombrowski maybe traded one prospect (Kopech) we'll really miss.
  20. sk7326
    He'll opt out if they intend to trade him ... and I suspect the team and his agent will be somewhat open here. It'd be bad future business for the Red Sox to doublecross him.
  21. sk7326
    He's will be woeth every penny for whomever has him - now within the Red Sox contract universe there are complications. But 26 year old superstars are not things big market teams should be dumping willy nilly. But Henry wants to cut costs - and he is the biggest controllable future cost. It's depressing to consider but he is clearly greasing the skids for it. In some ways this eventuality is a reason why I low key did not understand the Bogaerts extension.
  22. sk7326
    I don't want to deal Betts - but that would be a direction change severe enough for Dombrowski and management to not see eye to eye on. The one thing I don't bet on is Henry's consistency.
  23. sk7326
    Right. My issue with the Dombrowski thing is that Henry is not copping to being responsible for the directive. It's a demanding fan base - like it should be for the prices they pay - and Henry has consistently shown very little stomach for absorbing criticism when anything does not turn out amazing.
  24. sk7326
    You spelled Mookie wrong
  25. sk7326
    Porcello at his current salary is insane. But bringing back Porcello for a lower number is not because of the durability. He had a terrible season - but stylistically can probably still be a useful back end starter. Weirdly his batted ball stats did not change all that much - at least in terms of hard contact. But he allowed more fly balls, and in juiced ball 2019 that is a very bad thing.
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