sk7326
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Everything posted by sk7326
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The entire purpose of your minor league is to service the major league team, full stop. That can mean as cost-controlled future talent. It can also mean stuff to trade for big league help. One goal is not more correct, or more noble than the other. It is all based on where the franchise is, both in terms of payroll and contention. These are not mutually exclusive aims. If a team did not have near term World Series goals (with a reasonable likelihood of achieving them with a move or two), then you'd make different decisions. But if you are where the Cubs were in 2016, you owe all of your stakeholders your best chance to win the whole damn thing. This does not mean make an idiotic (Bagwell for Andersen) deal, but your priorities are different than the 2018 Orioles.
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Yes and no - it was an overpay, but the Cubs system was deep and flags fly forever. At some point you have to cash in some chips - that's the whole point of having them. Foulke was also not just a closer - but arguably (with Rivera) the best reliever in baseball those years previous. Theo went very top shelf - with the sort of closer you could actually bring in at any time. Chapman was similarly top shelf. Even that crazy Game 7 when he gave up the tying homerun, he pulled things together to keep the game alive for the Cubs to eventually win.
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It's not a rational market - because there are not a lot of quality players. Teams play a premium to win the process. Now while this is long run inefficient - flags fly forever, and the early part of the contract can justify the net worth of the deal in general. And with the owners having been found guilty of collusion before, any mass reduction is looked at (correctly) with suspicion.
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It's been a remarkable year for AL position talent. 6 guys over 7 WAR (to give a contrast, in 2008 when Pedey won the MVP there was only 1). Betts, Ramirez, Trout, Chapman, Bregman and Lindor all have good cases. That said, Betts probably wins it - and deserves to.
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25-man roster. Has to be set for each series. An injury replacement can be made BUT the replaced player is not eligible to return until the series after. So - a player replaced in the ALDS to injury cannot return until the World Series.
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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.