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And has been since the end of the 2018 season. Eovaldi should have been treated like a rebound girlfriend...

0 professional at bats and 18 years old and added to the player pool? I'm guessing that, much like Casas, he is only being added so he can get some actual at-bats in...

If you want to keep it more regional, dump Pitt and add Philly...

But is that really fair? For example, in 2012, the Tigers won the AL Central with 88 wins. The Rays won 90 games that year (and in a clearly tougher division) and missed the postseason entirely! This also nearly happened in 2018, also to the Rays, who won 90 games and missed the postseason, while Cleveland won 91 games and was a division winner. We actually could have had a scenario where Tampa won 96 games and Cleveland won as few as 79 and Cleveland was the team that advanced to a full best of seven, while Tampa did not even get a one-game wild card opportunity...

Oh I do not like the 2 of 3 format. But those leagues do not give byes to the best record(s) either. I really do not even like the "division winner" thing. That means very good teams in tough divisions get eliminated while other teams advance solely because all the other teams in their geographic alignment just happen to suck even more...

Sure. There are 40 starting pitchers listed as available free agents on MLBTR. Now, some of them, notably Brett Anderson, Drew Smyly, Merrill Kelly, Jimmy Nelson, Corey Kluber, Tyson Ross, Rich Hill, and Michael Wacha I will say are less likely to throw 180 IP than Eovaldi. Others (Alex Wood, Garrett Richards, Mike Minor) are close. So that's 29 right there. (28 if you do not want to include Martin Perez, whose already here and likely to be back.) A few others have team options, but none of them look likely to be picked up. But then we could also see a wave of pitchers non-tendered. And another set of pitchers readily available in trade. The number could easily reach 40. As for "good", my premise is based on IP solely. Anything beyond that is debatable, but Eovaldi and his 86 ERA+ since 2018 does lower any bar you want to set...

We've all heard that before. However, in the case of Morton, reportedly he was surprised at how much money the Astros offered him when he heard "2 years at $8million." apparently he assumed it was $8mill total for the two years, not for each year. So he might be more than happy with his earnings and simply go home. I certainly would not blame him for not signing with a team in as much flux as the current Red Sox...

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...