moonslav59

I tend to agree. I remember the year Reggie Jackson went after Billy Martin in the dugout. I thought to myself, "No way the Yankess can win now!". Ooops! Baseball more than any other "team sport" is mostly about individual effort. Pitcher vs batter, Batter vs fielder, fielder vs runner... Only things like DP's and relay throws involve any advanced teamwork efforts. I have come to believe that "team chemistry" matters more than I used to think it did, but the talk about "identity" does seem a little overboard.

I do think building a top rotation, especially the top 3 slots, above all else, improves the odds of making and winning the WS. After all, odds makers look at the starter match-ups more than anything else when setting the odds.

I voted other, though my issue is tangentially related to Ortiz' departure. And, Pedey is the only guy from 2007. We only have 5 guys on our current 40 man roster who were on the 40 man roster at the start of the 2013 championship team: 2013 Pedey Wright (no ML gams) Vazquez (no ML games) Holt (played in 26 games) JBJ (no Ml games) (Workman and Bogey were added during the 2013 season, and Bogey played 18 gms late in the season)

They also had speed. The point made, however, was a strong rotation in April (on paper) or in October for real is not needed to make it to the dance or win it. There is also a recent history (last 15 years) of several teams making it to or winning the WS with one or two of their top 5 starters having an ERA above 5.00.

Ross actually had good home away splits in 2015.

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Here is the report (note: it's from Faux News, but they quoted Pedro): http://www.foxnews.com/world/2017/01/24/report-yordano-ventura-was-robbed-and-let-to-die-after-car-accident-in-d-r.html Kansas City Royals pitcher Yordano Ventura was robbed and left to die after the car accident in the Dominican Republic that took his life on Sunday, former MLB star and Yordano’s compatriot Pedro Martinez said. In a series of Monday night tweets, the Hall of Famer demanded an investigation on the matter and said he would be embarrassed of his country if the robbery version is confirmed. Follow Pedro Martinez ✔ @45PedroMartinez "Ahora es más doloroso al saber que Yordano quedo vivo luego del accidente y en vez de alguien socorrerlo, le robaron y lo dejaron morir." "How outrageous to know that a life like Yordano's could have been saved had it not been looted in the way they looted him," said the three-time Cy Young Award winner. Ventura, 25, passed away after his vehicle veered of the road reportedly due to heavy fog. "Now it is more painful to know that Yordano was alive after the accident and instead of being rescued, they robbed him and let him die," Martinez wrote.

I understood your point, and I did get away from it in my response. Your point was a good one, however, I do think using just 2014 numbers short-changed Miley and to some extent Porcello. I think expectations were higher than 15-13 for Porcello and 8-12 for Miley and justifiably so. Don't get me wrong, I hated that rotation and was irate over the Masterson signing. At no time since Henry took over the team did we need to sign an ace more than pre-2015 (and by extension pre-2016 since we didn't get one during the season either). I'm always for only rebuilding a rotation from the top. It's almost always a mistake to throw money at trying to slightly improve your 5th starter by signing a better 5th starter or decent 4th starter type.

Yes, those one year $9.5M contracts given every year add up. I used to call it the "quantity vs quality" argument. I prefer top quality than amassing a bunch of mediocre players in hopes a couple rise to the top and give you a career or outlier season. The other issue has been paying top dollar for not so top players like Pablo and Crawford.

Yeah, but I figured 3B is a major weak area- at least top 3, so I expected it to be listed among the 7 listed (not counting "other"). No biggie- I voted for the pen.

It was a major cluster you-know-what, but we had the money to sign Scherzer instead of Pablo & Masterson, so we had a chance to redeem ourselves somewhat.

Had we just signed Lester or Scherzer, instead of Pablo & Masterson...

Kind of surprised not to see 3B listed as a choice. I'd put that second to the pen. As for losing depth due to trading prospects, I think the only prospect traded that had any 2017 depth value was Moncada.

Way worse than the Royals.

I agree, but I did expect Porcello to do much better in 2015. I guess we could have expected an adjustment period, but the guy had been in the league a long time. Had he done like he did last year in 2015, maybe some would be looking at BC differently. Miley sucked in 2014, but he had been pretty good before, especially away from AZ. Buch was always a question mark with huge promise. I had some faith in Kelly but was totally down on Masterson. I think Ben felt the offense would be greatly improved with HanRam and Pablo, which was not a stretch to think. The pen looked decent. I don't think he felt we had a championship team with that rotation, but certainly the Royals rotation did not look worthy either, even when looking at their 2015 numbers. I don't want to put words in notin's mouth, as he is a quality wordsmith on his own, but I think he meant that our rotation in 2015 could have put up similar numbers as the 2015 Royals did, and in fact they were pretty close. 13-9 Volquez 3.55/1.31 WHIP 13-8 Ventura 4.08/1.30 8-8 Guthrie 5.95/1.55 (one of the worst starters in MLB that year) 7-8 Duffy 4.08/1.39 11-6 C Young 3.06/1.09 (out of nowhere) 5-2 Vargas 3.98/1.35 (They picked up Cueto at the deadline.) Sox in 2015 11-11 Miley 4.46/1.37 9-15 Porcello 4.92/1.36 10-6 J Kelly 4.82/1.44 10-6 ERod 3.85/1.29 7-7 Buch 3.26/1.21 5-4 Wright 4.09/1.29 2015 SP WAR BOS 12.6 KCR 8.3 ERA- BOS 104 KCR 105 WHIP BOS 1.33 KCR 1.37

I think both played into the Moreland signing with a 1B defense upgrade being a side perk.

How much worse is Moreland vs LHPs offensively than some other Sox batters? .429 Beni (only 33 PAs) .667 Vaz (85 PAs) .673 Swihart (98 PAs) .673 Moreland .681 JBJ .709 Holt .750 Leon (150 PAs) Yes, wanting to PH Young (.848 vs LHPs and much better recently) for Moreland might come up late in games, but we could just PH him for Leon or Vaz and keep the DH. Also, losing the DH is not always a terrible thing in the 8th or 9th inning as the lost DH slot never gets to hit again. Here are the Sox widest career splits: .555 Beni (tiny sample sizes) .139 Young (still .707 vs RHPs) .130 Bogey (.717 vs RHPs might need demoting in line-up) .105 Moreland (.673 vs LHPs) .069 Ramirez (still .844 vs RHPs) .050 Pedroia (still .797 vs RHPs) .029 Betts (still .832 vs LHPs) .005 Holt (actually hits LHPs slightly better than RHPs) Catchers: .097 Leon (.652 vs RHPs) .083 Vaz (.584 vs RHPs) .054 Swi (.727 vs RHPs/.673 vs LHPs- maybe a platoon might develop, if he is called up)

I doubt they have options remaining to be put in AAA without exposing them to waivers. I guess they will start on the DL and be given lengthy rehab periods.

Naps wants 2 years. All Chris Carter does is score touchdowns!

I disagree. Chris Young needs to start vs every LH'd starter, and unless you want to platoon Beni and/or JBJ, then Young at DH vs LHPs makes a tom of sense. That leaves the need for a LH'd batter to allow for a platoon. Moreland has a career OPS 105 points higher vs RHPs, and his better defense than HanRam allows us to get HanRam more PAs (in theory) by keeping him rested through being our DH for two-thirds of our games. With Papi's departure, a healthy and productive HanRam is essential. While the PH issue is a concern, Moreland's .673 OPS vs LHPs is not the worst career split on the team.

That certainly could be an option as Barnes has 2 options remaining. I see no way we DFA Hembree. If he is stinking up the place in ST'ing we'll DL him for some reason or another. I have always liked Hembree and would prefer him over Abad as well, but I think they have this idea that we need a lefty. We obtained Thorburg, and he has one of MLB's widest reverse splits. Lefties have a 200 point lower OPS against him than righties. We also have Ross, and if I had my way, Pom would be in the pen.

Man o man! The Dodgers are looking like an all star team. One wonders how long they can continually under perform. On paper, here's how I'd rank teams: 1 Cubs 1B Dodgers 3 Red Sox 3B Guardians 5 Nats

Big question marks about their health, but if they can get well quickly, then they could be the steals of the FA market though the incentives would kick in to lessen the "bargain".

My projected opening day roster (assuming 100% healthy, except Carson Smith): 12 Pitchers: Sale, Price, Porcello, ERod Wright, Pom Kimbrel, Thornburg, Kelly, Ross, Barnes, Abad (Hembree placed on phantom DL) 2 Catchers: Leon & Vaz (Swihart in AAA) 7 Infielders: HanRam, Moreland, Pedroia, Holt, Bogaerts, Sandoval, Rutledge (Hernandez & Travis in AAA) 4 Outfielders: Benintendi, JBJ, Betts, Young (Lake & Castillo in AAA with Brentz DFA'd)

OK, if the pitcher thinks he's good enough to crack the top 5 for opening day, then you are right. I'm talking about the pitchers that aren't good enough to start for anybody on opening day but are better or equal to Owens.