Kimmi

Agreed. I trust Bloom. That post was more directed at fans (not necessarily on this site) who are anxious to trade Beni away.

I don't have a specific number in mind. I might even consider 60%-40% to be a crapshoot when you are talking short series in the playoffs.

I would like to see Beni remain with the Sox, especially since the Sox would probably be selling low on him, but of course the Sox have to look into possible trade scenarios. If it makes sense for the short and long terms, then do it, but trade Beni just to trade him based off of last year.

And there in lies part of the rub. In a regular season, the best teams typically only win roughly 60% of the time to begin with. In the playoffs, with the competition being stronger overall, the chances of winning decrease. A .600 team would be expected to win against a .500 team 60% of the time. A .600 team would be expected to win against a .550 team 55% of the time. A 55%-45% split is a crapshoot.

I do not have a link that shows the records (in terms of best teams versus weakest teams) of playoff winners. I could provide you with several other links supporting the crapshoot theory. Keep in mind, when I say the playoffs are a crapshoot, I'm not saying that the odds of every team winning the championship are perfectly equal. I am saying that the odds are not significantly different enough to really matter. Yes, the better teams have a slightly better chance of winning than the weaker teams, but that difference is really not significant. In the 20 year period beginning with the wildcard era (1996-2015), the best team won the World Series 4 times. The wildcard team won the WS 6 times. Yes, that is anecdotal. The saber community has widely studied this, and they largely agree that the playoffs are a crapshoot. IMO, the fact that no one can find any stat or combination of stats, trait, or quality of the regular season that correlates to postseason wins is the very definition of randomness or crapshoot. The R^2 between regular season wins and postseason wins is approximately .1, meaning that about 10% of postseason wins can be explained by or attributed to regular season wins. In other words, there is very little correlation between the two. And that is the strongest correlation that has been found between anything and postseason wins.

As I've said before, this move was on my man Ben, not on Lucchino. Rusney was put in a terrible situation here, victim of the dreaded luxury tax. I wish him the best.

I would like to personally thank the Yankees for trading for Stanton a few years ago.

No conspiracy theory here. 5GG speaks the truth.

Not really. Not in the short series of postseason baseball.

It is absolutely a small sample size. There is no statistical relevance to what happened in the last 9 or 5 years. That would be like me claiming that a coin toss is not a random event because I tossed a coin 9 times and it came up heads 7 times. When you list examples like this, you are providing anecdotal evidence, not anything that is statistically significant. Now, perhaps there is a trend against the crapshoot notion, but it is too soon to say that.

Not every team has exactly the same chance of winning. Teams with better regular season records have a slightly better chance of winning. However, that better chance of winning is slight enough that I am comfortable with calling the playoffs a crapshoot.

Good for the Red Sox, I guess. The Guardians have now dropped in Fangraphs projected team WAR to below the Sox. Meanwhile, the Mets are now considered a powerhouse, right behind the Dodgers and the Padres.

The playoffs are a crapshoot. I was reading earlier that even the regular season of 162 games is relatively short in terms of the amount of information conveyed by the standings, and that it would take a regular season of 610 games for the MLB season standings to have as much significance as an NBA 82 game season. Eleven games in the postseason mean virtually nothing. Analysts have tried endlessly, to no avail, to find a strategy or metric that correlates strongly to postseason success. We should all embrace the randomness.

Good for you dad!

If anyone, that guy should have been Lester.

Henry should have never wavered from his philosophy of not signing pitchers in their 30s to long term deals.

I would still prefer a defensively strong CFer, like JBJ. I understand that the offseason is not finished, but I am currently concerned about the overall defense of the team going into 2021.

I don't see that happening either. The thought of a one year deal just got me excited. LOL

I wasn't thinking of the QOs on those players, to be honest. I'm just thinking 'short term deal'.

If we can get Bauer and Springer on one year deals, I'm in!

There's still a long way to go in the off season. I have confidence in Bloom to get the team where it needs to be to compete in 2021.

I have nothing against the Mariners. I wouldn't mind seeing them get back into the playoffs. I also would not be opposed to them winning the World Series if it's not the Red Sox.

The Yankees will likely end up being the favorites for the division when all is said and done. They will make the playoffs. But, didn't we hear this exact same narrative last year? One thing that is an equalizer for all other AL teams is that you guys have Boone. LOL Also, do NOT count the Red Sox out.

Seattle fans can be thankful that there are 6 teams ranked below them. The Rockies - Yikes!

Dealing with the emotional or mental side of the game is a different story altogether. I agree that if it would be hard for someone who has not played competitive sports to relate to the emotional and mental states of players. That said, Bianca has played competitive sports. Maybe she hasn't experienced failure to the degree that some of these minor leaguers will experience failure, but I can guarantee you that she has experienced failure along the way. She can relate to what these players will be going through. It sounds to me like you are trying very hard to come up with reasons why she won't be a good coach. She might very well fail. I just hope that if she does fail, it's not because players tuned her out because she is a woman or because she hasn't played baseball. That would be a mistake.