notin

That he lost the team is not in doubt. That the "chicken and beer" incidents were part of it is overblown. As at least one player has said, that type of thing happens all over the league, and it is entirely possible it had been going on in Boston for a long time as well...

Why not? Most playoff formats do that. The only league in the USA that does not is the NFL. I don't mind the best record still having to play in the first round, but I think a 5 game series at minimum would be better. The real problem MLB is facing is that if they retain this format, the post season could drag on to nearly Thanksgiving and the legitimate threat of snow-outs increases substantially. I do hate the Wild Card one-game format for the simple reason that the team with the second best record stands a chance at being eliminated after one game, with the possibility hat the team with the fifth best record (or even worse) actually gets a bye solely based on the geographic alignment of their division. This nearly happened in 2006, but it was before the one game format. But if it had been adopted at that time, the Dodgers had tied for the second best record in the NL and would have had to play one game to keep going, while the Cardinals and their 5th best record would have received a bye (and, naturally, they went on to win the World Series)...

While I cannot guarantee anyone, I can name 30 or 40 more likely to do so. The last time Eovaldi threw that many innings was 2014. Even IL mainstays Alex Wood and Garrett Richards have topped that total more recently...

I could see the Sox taking a dirt cheap flier on Kluber, assuming he can pass a physical. But Bloom's success story Charlie Morton is also probably on the radar, and he is familiar with Chris Archer as well. And there is the possibility of someone like Cole Hamels or Jake Arrieta receiving a short term deal...

I like the "best of three" better than having two teams play a single game where their entire effort over a 162 game season can be abruptly ended after one bad inning or one fielding miscue...

We could also move it to the 2020 thread. There isn't much else worth talking about on this team...

That is why it because so overblown. The collapse of the Sox has also been tied to making the team play an unscheduled makeup doubleheader against the A's, which is always seemingly ignored in favor of the more popular "chicken and beer" fiasco that had probably been going on for years. Like AJ implied, that type of behavior is ubiquitous among MLB franchises. Do we think the 2004 starting rotation did not have some sort of equivalent behavior during games they were not pitching?

It has impact on 2021, so I don't see it';s inclusion here as wildly inappropriate. Especially if the Sox learned nothing from the history here...

The most overblown scandal in American Sports History. In the words of then-White Sox catcher AJ Pierzynski - "I've played on three different teams, and seen that in three different clubhouses."

That's potentially a very weak pair of corner outfielders. Not to mention, why the weird alignment of Verdugo in CF and Duran in RF. Both are clearly better suited to be switched back. I like Munoz as a 2B/utility INF candidate, along with Arroyo, assuming the former doesn't have a fit and storm out of camp again. But neither is a guaranteed solution even at 2B as it is. I don't think Munoz' bat will play in LF any better than Benintendi. At this point, you taking a guy who has "disappointed" with a .751 OPS since 2018 and replacing him with a guy whose career OPS is .736 in limited play. You're just replacing a disappointment with a surprise and not taking into account that there, at best, the same hitter, and you're re-arranging the defense to accommodate him. If the Sox can trade Benintendi for a pitcher, that's not necessarily the worst idea. I've thrown out Benintendi for Matt Boyd or Benintendi for Reynaldo Lopez as trades that seem fair. Don't expect much more. But if the Sox do that, they have no good internal candidates to play LF. There OF prospect depth begins and ends with Duran, who would be wasted there. And Munoz is only 16 months younger, so there is no argument that he is more likely to get better than Benintendi over time...

Or not...

I think it is bigger than you think. Really, star or not, if you get the minimum wage starter, then it becomes easier to retain your stars. Fr example, if the Sox still had Margot and Allen, sure neither are stars, but also maybe they do not extend Eovaldi and repeated extend Bradley. Now while Allen is hardly stellar, we would say the same thing about any prospect who gave us what we have gotten from Eovaldi, who has given us 105 IP of 5.57 ERA (86 ERA+) since signing that deal after 2018. That representant close to $85mill i right there. Certainly not enough to retain Betts on it's own, but a big chunk of it. And the decisions can be piled on to it. Was the Sale extension done (which it clearly appears to have been) because he was injured and unable to pitch? Should that have been done? That's another $145 mill and we still have to replace him anyway. And how many of those 5 years will he be effective?

But this is year 6 of his deal.. In the previsous 5 years, Lester posted an ERA+ of 118, which is essentially what the Sox got from Price (also ERA+ of 118) but for 354 fewer IP and for $73 million more...

If he throws 180 innings, he’s better...

If you like, I can play it forward a bit, to when we trade Devers so we can hold onto so mid-30’s overpaid hype like Trevor Bauer and Marcus Stroman. But you’re going to have to accept that the “we didn’t give away any exceptional players” crap is actually not the point...

Maybe, but Ben had to get the team out of “sell mode” before I can accept that...

No pitching? The Sox did draft Brandon Belt as a pitcher a while back, but I think that ship has sailed...

The Shane’s. The Sox could increase the return by taking back the contract of Kevin Kiermaier, which helps clear up the CF logjam for Tampa and clears a path for Margot or Arozarena. Vazquez to Tampa for Kiermaier, McClanahan and Trevor Richards. Boom. Done...

Bingo. For example, we could use a 2b right now...

Not all at once. I hated that Cherington never traded any. Dombrowski traded them all. We need a happy medium. Trading all the prospects left the Sox with no minimum wage replacements, and that was likely a factor in not signing Betts...

If I could have filtered the ads, I would have...

And really, who from Dalbec, Houck, Casas, Chavis, Ward, Song, Mata and Duran is a quality MLB player?

Except that they can still be traded before they don’t turn out. Tony Armas Jr. was a good prospect, for example, and probably one of the most important ones in Sox history. But not for his pitching...

When people talk about the low-ranking farm, it doesn’t mean no one in is capable of playing in MLB ever. It means we have fewer and lesser prospects than other teams...

Funny thing about walks. They don't count less just because you're younger.