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So no second chance at Morgan Magic? Also, cut Grady Little some slack. Yes, he left Pedro in too long in one game on a team that had a bullpen that couldn't struggled to get outs for 6 months. But Little had a .580 winning percentage in his two season with the Sox. That doesn't count for anything? That's the second highest percentage of all Sox managers since the Korean War, behind only Cora. And Little comes without Cheating Scandal Baggage...

Jimy Williams over Zombie Dick Williams?

Or animating Peter Cushing's face over that of some unknown actor to make a Star Wars prequel...

Absolutely. It does come down to what you think is the greater risk - 12 years and $400 mill for a 25/26 yo outfielder on a HOF track, of 7 years $217 mill for an excellent starting pitcher heading into his declining years (with degree of decline unknown).

Yes and while he was not as effective as in yeas past, he was hardly ineffective. WHIP is a good measure for number of people getting on base, which is the would-be deathnail of a closer. And while Uehar was clearly allowing more hitters to reach base, likely due to a combination of the stats you pointed out, he was still just as effective as many of the league-leading closers in MLB. Sure, he was no longer Chapman/Jansen. And while it would have been better if he still was, the premise that he could not close any more - which was your question - seems like the answer is "Yes, he could"...

So for the record, you are opposed to having the Sox managed by Zombie Dick Williams?

Well, then if the only/best option was he could have extended Mookie, that's exactly why I hated a lot of moves DD made - they made any extension of Mookie much less likely...

You think he would not have been able to? He still had a WHIP extremely comparable to many other save leaders that year, including Greg Holland, Cory Knebel and the MLB saves leader Alex Colome. And Fernando Rodney! Think Rodney was more capable of closing than Uehara?

THAT was my biggest hope. My fear was he would give it to someone like Pedroia or Papi who was clearly not going to last that long...

If they did that, they likely could have gotten multiple arms for what Kimbrel was making. The only real positive here is with extra money at his disposal, DD might have gone of and given some extension to a player akin to what he gave Cabrera...

And his condition is not contagious...

And also about the lack of replacements in the closer end of the prospect pipeline...

True. But a lot of that was the littany of weak pitchers not named Uehara...

Uehara could have closed in 2017. He declined a bit and was not as effective as Kiimbrel, but he was certainly still good. Kimbrel was great in 2017 and the first half of 2018, but then he just fell off a cliff and was not even closing when the won the WS. His postseason that year was questionable at best...

The contract was fine. The prosepct payment for a reliever not among the highest paid probably would have been fine too. but going overboard on both counts, especially for a specialty pitcher to fill the one bullpen role that wasactually working, felt unwise. That's why I liked the Thornburg trade at the time. The Sox did give up a lot, but for a pitcher that was not going to bog down payroll. But then Thornburg's later injury made it a moot point, which I don't fault Dombrowski for...

LOL And for the record, different Dick Williams. The former manager passed way 9 years ago. This one is his son...

And that is true. I even mentioned it earlier today. But that diesn't mean you go all in for a closer. Bullpens run 7 to 8 pitchers deep these days, and addressing a bullpen solely by trying to improve a ninth inning specialist is not necessarily the best way to go, even with the trickle down effect (of moving Koji to earlier innings). And as the objections to acquiring Kimbrel were largely the impact it had on the farm system and the overall cost and impact on team payroll, this was overkill, to be kind. A bit like fishing with dynamite, except in this case it substituting the TNT with C-4. Could the Sox have acquired other bullpen arms who were not among the highest paid in the game and without giving up farm talent (needed to maintain an economic balance on the team) that off-season? DD did try that route as well, and while he failed miserably, the reasons why were not on him. (I liked the deals that brought Thornburg and Smith to the Sox, despite neither working out.) But instead of Kimbrel, there were other relievers the Sox could have grabbed for a lot less while leaving Koji in the closer role. My observations on pitcher acquisition is teams are better off trading for starters and signing closers. Even the best closers who get the bigger contract at least only get them for shorter terms....

Ummmm.... no

They were disappointing, which can be worse than being flat out bad in some cases...

Which one had performance issues? They were all good pitchers, but all had major health issues. Unlke ERod, their issues were all related to their arms and not due to infectious disease...

Well that hardline stance had some serious implications...

My point exactly!!

To do what?

And you don't think the presence of Kimbrel had any impact on the amount of saves for Uehara? And really, who pitched better between the two in 2016? Kimbrel was a lot younger and Uehara was clearly winding down a brilliant MLB career. But closer was not the Sox top need...

They had already move Moncada off second. Yoan did have an abysmal debut in Boston, but I doubt that was why he was traded; Pedroia had a rough start his first call up, too. Moncada and Kopech were traded simply because Sale was not coming cheap...