jd98

I wouldn't completely rule out the possibility that Kimmi is Ben.

Almost all of the cost controlled MLBers are Theo's acquisitions (Betts, Bogaerts, Bradley, Swihart, Vazquez, Shaw, Owens), as was the top prospect traded for Kimbrel (Margot). Ben gets credit for those because he was Theo's right hand man? So basically, Ben gets credit for every good move that occurred while he was in the organization, and all the bad moves he made was ownership's fault. Also, in general, it's a lot easier building a farm system when the MLB team stinks. Higher draft picks (Benentindi) and the ability to trade impending free agents for prospects (ERod), rather than the pressure to trade prospects for another piece to a playoff push. Theo never had that luxury, while Ben had that advantage 75% of the seasons he was GM.

At first glance, I like it. Swapped similar SP's while adding a good RP.

I'm not a big fan of Miley, but I completely agree. He's pretty much the definition of mediocre, but there is definite value in 200 IP of medocrity.

Cherington spent more money last year than Dombrowski has this year, and it's not like there weren't any top SP available last year. And the rotation was an even more dire need last year. So Cherington desperately needs pitching and he signs the 2 most expensive hitters, 1 of which isn't a much above average hitter, and the other a career SS/3B that he has to move to OF because of signing Panda, even though there were already about 6 other OF's on the team. Then he fills out the pitching with mediocre to bad pitchers, and gives one of them an unnecessary 4/$82m extension. Dombrowski still needs pitching because of what Cherington just did and he acquires one of the best SP in the game currently, and one of the best RP ever. If it was so easy, then Cherington should have done it last year.

Well that's generally what is considered the most important part of the GM job, which is why I asked (mostly facetiously). Also just realized after seeing so many haters calling Dombrowski Dumbrowski, I did the same thing, lol. Not intended at all. I'm liking Dombrowski way better than Cherington so far. It does help that the Sox don't seem to have a spending limit anymore.

Oh yeah, this is the first time I've been really excited for Sox baseball since realizing the 2014 season was going to suck. Price opting out is just another positive. It means we aren't overpaying for his likely declining years, and, more importantly, that he had a very good first 3 years. So I'll just consider it as Price at 3/$90 for now. Would be a disaster if he inexplicably falls apart like Lincecum/Verlander though.

I wonder if Padres would do Shields for Panda and Miley (doubt it). With a not-top prospect included? With some cash included?. Hanley is probably capable of playing 3rd as bad as Panda. Shaw was also working at 3B at the end of last year (don't know how it went). Hanley and Shaw at the corners with Holt sprinkled in. Rotation of Price/Shields/Buchholz/ERod/Porcello with Kelly in pen as backup SP. Looks pretty damn good to me. Hopefully Dumbrowski is on the phone. Dumbrowski seems to be doing all the GMing, so what's the actual GM doing? Cant even remember who it is because he's never mentioned.

I still think he will opt out. Depends on how he does next 3 years. If he's still considered one of the best pitchers, he could easily get 5 or 6 years and more total money at a lower AAV, or maybe even higher AAV the way salaries are skyrocketing. He'll only be 1 year older than Greinke is now.

I would love that. Should have tried to work that into the Kimbrel trade, to even things out a bit since Sox were overpaying with prospects. Don't know why Padres would want to do that trade on its own now. Maybe if Cherington gets a job with the Padres.

Don't know yet if his contract is frontloaded, backloaded, or evenly distributed. Decent chance his last 4 years are at less than $31m/yr.

If I had to choose between Betts and Bogaerts, I'd trade Bogaerts. I think Betts is better, but the main reason is that Betts is under control for an extra year, 5 years vs 4 for XB. Also, Bogaerts has Boras as agent, so it will be easier and cheaper to extend Betts if the team wants to. Five years of Betts for 3 years of Harvey. No thanks. Four years of Bogaerts for 3 years of Harvey. Probably not, but I wouldn't hang up the phone right away.

from rotoworld

Frank Wren is leading candidate for GM according to Bob Nightengale of USA Today. Don't know if he's just guessing or has heard something.

Hanley should have been moved to 1B at least a month ago. He very well may suck just as bad there, or he may be fine. That's something that needs to be determined during what is essentially extended spring training. If he sucks at 1B, there's still time to try him at 3B and Flablo at 1B. If he's uncooperative and refusing these moves, he needs to be moved to another team. Also, Kelly should have been moved to the bullpen at least a month ago. He could be Andrew Miller part 2. And Cherington should have been fired at least a month ago.

Why did they go for 2 instead of kicking the extra point? At least they made it. Could have backfired.

Holy crap JBJ is on fire. Last 5 games he's 13-22 with 4 doubles, 2 triples, and 3 home runs. His OPS for the season has gone from .426 to .840. Also scored 11 runs and has 13 RBI.

I agree with everything you just said, however... If you were limited to using only 1 stat, what other choice would you have besides WAR. Pitchers and hitters don't share any other stats (maybe some obscure WAR-like stat?). If you are only comparing hitters to hitters and pitchers to pitchers, I doubt WAR is best for pitchers. But like you said, it's a bad idea to do that anyway and you need to look at all information available to make the best assessment. WAR becomes useless at that point. You'll be getting the same knowledge you need from all the other stats broken down in a more informative way.

I saw his face on the front page of Yahoo and thought 'yay Farrell got fired', then read the headline and felt terrible.

When and how do I collect my money? Yep, that's what I was getting at. I was exaggerating when I said WAR is terrible. I don't hate it so much for what it is, I hate the way it is far too often being used. I've probably seen thousands of articles or posts where somebody is comparing players for the purpose of determining who is better, and then using WAR as the determining factor. That's its purpose IN THEORY ONLY. If you want to know whether Trout or Harper is having a better season, you can't look at 1 stat and determine for certain (assuming players are reasonably similar level). Such a stat does not exist for practical purposes. WAR is that stat in theory and conjecture. Did Ty Cobb have a better career than Roger Clemens? There are tons of people who would vehemently say yes because his WAR is 10.8 (or 15.6) higher. That is what's terrible. The correct answer is there is no correct answer. I didn't even get into the different site/different WAR thing, or other flaws, or what it is good for (it's not completely worthless, I hinted at it above). I'll save that for another day and another thread.

WAR is a terrible 'stat'. The fact that it varies, often significantly, depending on which website you are using tells you all you need to know. How can it be a reliable stat when it's dependent on what website you are on? Speaking of bad stats, the worst is blown saves for non-closers. It should be a blown hold. It would still be a bad stat, but I'm just tired of every time a middle reliever is being discussed for closer, some media idiot will question the move with something like "he's only 2-10 in save chances". In reality he'd be something like 2-2 in saves and 90-98 in holds.

That's where his salary comes in to play. If he was making less, he would have been cut sooner.

Taking a gamble on Masterson would have been ok if the rest of the rotation was solid. When the other 4 starters were huge question marks, rounding out the rotation with somebody who most likely will suck was a very dumb idea. And $9.5M is too much in either case.

Eckersley for manager! and/or GM

Koji should have been traded last year however. Could have got another ERod type prospect. And still could have resigned him, although it may have been more difficult.