sk7326
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Everything posted by sk7326
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I cringe as a fellow Georgia Tech alum.
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I'll put it this way - the deal was useful for clearing the roster of crappy players so we can replace them with non-crappy ones. Gonzalez was not quite crappy yet, but there was good evidence it was heading in that direction. I am much more skeptical of the angle that clearing their salaries meant adding more salary was possible. Given how much the Red Sox are paying now for players not to play for them, I feel comfortable with this assessment.
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The best part of that was it was the second time Grady ended up doing that - you would have thought after riding Pedro too long in Oakland that he'd have learned something.
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He may or may not - but it's the best baseball decision. 2 yrs at whatever salary you want, if someone else wants to offer job security, fine. No closer is that irreplaceable - aside from maybe prime Rivera.
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it's tempting to say he was never the same after the wrist injury, but that would be not precisely correct. He still hung a couple of 6-win seasons (including the season he was dealt). But the Achilles and other stuff piled on after that. While I love great approaches - it was genuinely amazing to watch hitters like Nomar or Vlad Guerrero who could get the head of the bat on almost any pitch.
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Lindor and Javy Baez have been the best shortstops in the league. Alex Bregman would probably be there too if that job was actually open in his infield. Andrelton Simmons is a bit less offensively but such an otherworldly defender that he has to be on the elite list. But even if I said Bogaerts was (as a total package) the 7th best SS in the majors - that's still a damn good player and at his age very much worth keeping. He'll be coveted because guys his age just don't get to UFA very often.
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No, you go the other way ... offer him more money on a shorter deal.
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To a degree - it definitely got them off of those contracts. But who is to say they would not have signed FAs anyway. It's a counterfactual which is impossible to prove. It definitely made them feel better, and freed up roster spots.
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Relievers are a fleeting, unpredictable species. Any deal over 2-3 years is asking for trouble. The best option is always just keep throwing bodies at the problem until something hits. Hell, in 2003 the bullpen was utterly flammable, but Epstein kept trying and trying and they hit on something that finally worked late in the season.
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To be a good starter, you need three good pitches. To be a good reliever, you need two. Rivera threw his cutter the vast majority of the time. He also had a useful four-seam fastball to get strikes on the other side of the plate and to keep hitters from timing the cutter. Chapman has a good slider. Uehara had pristine command of his fastball and a wipeout splitter. Kelly's non-fastball stuff is ordinary at best.
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Get a team on the other side of a trade like the Blue Jays who bet on an aging knuckleballer. (how the Mets got Syndegaard) Get a contender on the other side of a deal like the Giants who needed Carlos Beltran for the stretch run (how the Mets got Wheeler) The Red Sox have blessedly only been in the position to sell a couple of times - unfortunately due to goofy ownership priorities, the only trade which got that accomplished was dealing Andrew Miller for Eduardo Rodriguez.
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Bard had a quality splitter iirc too. Kelly's lack of secondary stuff is the real problem. Kimbrel's success this year for instance has come by often pitching backwards.
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it's symbiotic too ... you try to be fine with your pitches because you can't get swings and misses inside the zone. Walks are up in the league generally too since teams want to pitch to defensive alignments ... if your job is to aim for a PART of the strike zone, it makes the job even harder.
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It would hurt Henry's wallet. The draft pick penalties (assuming the team is good) are pretty inconsequential. I mean the Red Sox drop 10 spots in the draft - the expected value of the 40th pick relative to the 30th pick is virtually nothing.
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I think if the Red Sox knew that the market would be so dry for Encarnacion maybe things work out differently. In any case Dombrowksi though the Red Sox had a playoff team anyway - and they did. It is funny how easy it is to forget that the team won the division despite so many things going wrong.
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Bard had wipeout stuff with zero command. Kelly on the other hand throws 100 mph but somehow doesn't get swings and misses.
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I think (assuming a 4-man rotation and 11 pitchers, which is what I'd favor) 9th inning Kimbrel Rodriguez/Eovaldi in the swing position (I expect this to be Eovaldi, but if we face the Yankees, it could be Rodriguez) Wright, Brasier, Barnes, Velasquez, Workman Now maybe the Sox DO carry 12 pitchers - given the relatively low likelihood you're going to get a deep start from Eovaldi/Rodriguez. Then add Kelly/Thornburg. I don't see a LOOGY who makes much sense.
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Joe Kelly manages to simultaneously throw the ball real hard while not actually having a very effective fastball.
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Cora needs to find 5 or 6 pitchers he has faith in ... and it's all on the table. I mean besides a leftover starter and Kimbrel I don't think any of the positions are clearly set. (though some guys are pretty darn close)
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Having a fan base that has shown a willingness to pay virtually any price, and a league luxury tax system that is not really much of a deterrent for anything ... doesn't mean the team won't actually try to make good baseball decisions. Dombrowski has done an excellent job so far - and clearly has a mandate for the Sox to embrace their big-market advantages. As it should be.
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In the latter case - they did not materially impact their ability to contend. Since all of their best players were on pre-arb kind of deals (save for Price) - they were able to do this while adding to the team. 2014 involved placing some bets that did not work, and a commentary on the general sustainability of 2013. And their big pay/no pay decision was Ellsbury - and 99 out of 100 dentists would have recommended the Red Sox let him walk.
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Now Price not opting out is a mixed blessing. If he was fantastic, he probably opts out - and in a sense the deal worked out for everybody. But he has been good. The $30M would have been nice for lots of reasons - but not a big deal ultimately. As long as this team is competitive, they'll pay for the roster. Some of their roster choices will be tricky (Bogaerts and Bradley and Sale in their own ways) but ownership has been willing to pay for a contender, and there is no reason to think that will change. (and again given the price charged to consumers - that certainly is the way it ought to be)
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I'm in Fairfax County - looks like it will be like last weekend to us ... rainy, icky but clearly the folks down south will get it a lot worse
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Yeah, Swihart is an unusually good athlete for a catcher ... I am pretty confident he can handle any corner position pretty well, and possibly fake 2B if things got desperate.
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September 13, 2018 7 That is all