moonslav59

nope!

See! Much better!

I think they add steroids to the drinking fountain in the home clubhouse at Yankee Stadium. It's just a theory I've had for years. No proof.

We'd have plenty of "cap space" to replace Pom, and maybe Marco (Holt) could help us avoid needing a new 2Bman.

I'm saying a ranking should be based on runs per game not total runs, since some teams have player 4 more games than others, and it's early in the season.

Exactly. All the good teams suck! (LOL)

Maybe we should lobby to play at TEX and other warmer climes in April next year!

Some teams have players 21-23 games to our 20.

Who was "that one guy" for the Cubs, Royals and Giants-- the last 3 years WS winners? CHI: Bryant (.939)? Rizzo (.928)? KCR: K Morales (.847)? SFG: Posey (.854)? .

True, and we are... 1 game better than the Dodgers 1.5 games better than the Rangers 2 games better than the Cards 3 games better than the Mets 3.5 games better than the Giants

Trade the 3 Ps for one T: Pedey, Pablo and Pom for Justin Turner (Just kiddin!)

I'm a huge "splits guy", but I thought of the same thing last night. I agree.

The ETA on Beni was 2018 as well.

It says, it might not take greatness to make the playoffs- just be a little better than decent. I think we'll end up much better than "decent", but we'll see.

Usually, that's when the best talent is available, but certainly we could do something beforehand, if the offer is right.

As bad as our offense has looked, right now we are tied for the last WC slot.

I still think our offense will end up in the top 5 in run scored by season's end. With Papi, we'd probably be number 1 or 2. HRam has yet to get it going, but if he doesn't, it could be a long season. The money saved by trading Buch could eventually be used at the trade deadline to boost the offense, something few of us thought would even be up for discussion.

I'm jonsing for some Sox ball!!!

Busted a gut laughing!

I see a big drop from 2011 to 2012, then a slow but steady decline until an even bigger drop when he came here. The uptick on defense prevented his WAR from being a total downward curve, but the curve looks pretty steady to be with maybe a plateau at 2014. WAR: '11 5.3 '12 2.6 '13 2.0 '14 2.9 '15 -2.0 (His 2014 "better WAR" was also largely a result of playing more (638 PAs compared to 584 and 442 the previous 2 seasons). His offense is a complete decline curve: OPS: .909> .804>.789>.758>.739>.658 (BOS) 1RC+: 149>118>117>110>75 (BOS) His defensive curve shows a little up and mostly down: UZR/150 +19.3 +1.4 -6.3 +3.5 (2014 was the only uptick) -21.9 (BOS) DRS 14 -5 -5 4 (2014 w SFG) -11 (BOS) We can argue semantics, but he showed a pretty much uninterrupted decline since his last good season in 2011. If we want to say he plateau'd in 2014 or did better than 2013, I won't argue, but 2014 was still worse than 2011 and better than 2015. I never saw any reason to think his plateau in 2014 was any reason for optimism. His eroding defense and the .563 OPS vs LHPs in 2014 should have been an alarm that shut the whole idea of a signing down.

He had a decent career in SF but took a serious plunge after 2011 and then followed that up with 2 more slowly declining seasons. Obviously, we got him for more than just hoped for playoff heroics. We thought he could return closer to his earlier SF days, but probably not his best SF days.

But, when we sign a guy who only succeeds in the playoffs (Pablo) that doesn't work either!

Agreed. I will add this: 1) If we didn't sign someone big that winter, with all that money "available", Sox management would have been roasted alive. 2) Most big ticket free agent signings do not meet expectations. A large percent don't even come close. Some fail right from year one. 3) It looked like the plan was to address the offense after 2014 and the pitching after 2015 (a much better pitcher market). In theory, this made sense. 4) Had HRam and Porcello played like 2016 in 2015, and Pablo not fallen off a cliff, we probably would not have looked so bad. We might have even challenged for the playoffs. It's hard to blame Ben for the timing of these good & bad years. Basically, expecting our GM to make big signings and then blaming them for "choosing the wrong ones" when a large percent fail to reach expectations is confusing to me. Look at Price. There probably wasn't a surer bet of a SP'er signing than he was. Forget the overpay and the too many years argument, Price was one of the very best FA starters to hit the open market in a decade. We did what we had to do and got him. So far, he has not met expectations. He hasn't been bad, but now that he's hurt, the signing could end up looking like the next Pablo or CC signing. Posters grumbled at the Porcello signing, yet now they are happy as can be. These signings are largely hit or miss, and since most of the big signings occur when players are in or just past prime, missing should really be the expectation for most signings.

Ross has done very well for us, but all mid RP'ers are suspect. In no way was I saying I think Ross sucks or is going to suck, but he's not done much this season to gauge him by, so my point was that we might have kept Abad around as insurance against the small chance Ross does not do well. It wouldn't be the first time a RP'er dipped unexpectedly. GMs have to plan for these types of things as well as injuries. I think this is why DD chose to keep ABad so as to lengthen our pen depth, at least until we have a better understanding on who some of our guys are. Kelly, Barnes and Hembree were all question marks going into this year. Taylor and Workman have improved their stock, and I'm thinking Abad's usefulness as depth is waning.

I agree, but as of now, I don't really think we hurt anybody by "keeping them down" on the farm in order to keep Abad on the 25. That will probably change the minute the next RP'er comes off the DL.