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And they would be better positioned to do so if they achieve the goal of resetting, right?

Are Yankee fans the only ones who don't acknowledge that MLB has said those tests were inconclusive, or that there were numerous other issues with the leaked names? Yankee Fan Steroid logic seems to revolve heavily around the uniform the player wore. Ortiz - named on a suspect list for an unnamed substance that might have actually been legal st the time - DEFINTELY GUILTY. Andy Pettitte - named by his supplier in the Mitchell Report, confessed, but said the oft-used "just one time" line that every named player pulled out of his ass - Innocent...

Maybe because that gutting of the Marlins ended in a series of trades that produced 5 straight sub-.500 seasons was a big part in not wanting Dombrowski for this one? Henry did own that team, too...

If the best deal the Sox can get is the 2020 version of the Lynn trade, than by all means keep Betts. That deal was one of the worst Sox trades since WW II. but if they can get even half of what the Diamondbacks got for one year of Goldschmidt, is it a bad idea? How about the next Luke Weaver or Carson Kelly?

Oh I agree.. The only thing the Sox save by keeping Castillo down is the tax on his salary, which is only a few million. (I love how casually I say that, like I have it for pocket change.) If the Sox pare enough salary odd the team, he might even play in the majors this year, although I think the probability is not very high. I just think it might not be 0 anymore...

Yeah that one was pretty bad. Might as well blame Henry for not earning more money so he can afford all these mega contracts...

So should the Red Sox sign Tanner Roark? Also, "Tanner" > "Tanyon" for baseball names...

1. Nice Seinfeld reference. 2. Plenty of teams have won titles with mediocre to bad 1b. Are you saying corner OF is easier? We saw Hanley Ramirez try both positions and was much better at 1b. RF especially is not easier than 1b, considering the throws involved. Saying "all you have to do is hit the cutoff man" is a massive understatement. Plenty of times, outfielders throw directly to bases, including home, and for a RF, the throw to third base is a particularly tough one. There is a reason Betts throw to third was a highlight. And while the plays might be infrequent, tracking down and catching a flyball that is over an outfielder's head is never an easy play, despite how Bradley and Betts make it look. And when those plays dont happen, it is a bad, bad thing all around. There is a reason most inferior fielders get moved to 1b. Taking throws is simply easier than fielding batted balls. The first baseman takes a lot of throws. Everyone else has the overwhelming majority of their plays fielding batted balls. (Note: "Easiest" doesn't always mean "easy.") REally, I would challenge you to name a good team that was made great by a good first baseman's glove. Hernandez won his first title with Ozzie Smith anchoring the infield. While I think Smith was an overrated defensive shortstop, that doesn't change the fact that he was still an outstanding defender (I just don't think he was the best ever at his position, and that he was inferior to Omar Vizquel) and his impact defensively was much greater than that of Hernandez...

You do realize Betts has only one more year, right? Let’s not compare this to what trading away Roger Clemens in 1988 would have been like. But by your logic, keeping Betts for 2020 and letting him walk for a fourth round pick after a season that rests entirely on the health of 3 pitchers coming off injury, and also by not resetting, have positioned the team to struggle to re-sign Betts after 2020 is the smart way to go here. And who said “next to nothing.” Whatever the package is, it will be better than a single fourth round pick (which is your choice)...

But the conventional baseball wisdom still says 1b is the easiest defensive position. If you disagree with this, what position is easier?

Someone had a big bowl of Contrarian Flakes for breakfast...

It’s not DD’s fault Betts turned down an offer, or is all about money, but the contract situation they have is certainly his doing, as is the depleted farm. These were my main gripes about Dombrowski when the Sox hired him - he signs players to absurd contracts, and he empties farm systems. Also, the albatross situation after 2020 is the same - the Sox will still have 4 (Price, Eovaldi, Sale, Pedroia). Castillo doesn’t matter

Create a market? JD Martinez is a baseball player. Not a vape flavor...

Are you kidding? Reasons like this are exactly why I didn’t like Dombrowski. Why do you think people complained about his depletion of the farm?? No one was complaining about that because they care more about the Sea Dogs than the Red Sox. Think about what the Sox are going to have to spend money on this off-season. Starting pitchers? Like Logan Allen or Kopech or Beeks. CF? Like Margot, maybe? 2b? Moncada would fit nicely. Or Dubon, so we can still get Sale. But as it stands now, if they reset it’s near impossible to fill those positions from within and not spend. Now some of DD’s trades were certainly worthwhile, but the whole stack together left the cupboard pretty bare at a time when the Sox need it not to be. At least if they want to keep Betts...

But if the Sox had kept Lynn only to watch him leave one year later, they still would have been a bad team from them until Clemens. The problem wasn’t that they traded Lynn, it was that they traded him for an aging Frank Tanana, an even older Joe Rudi, and a non-prospect borderline major league talent named Jim Dorsey...

Except that the point was it was not unforeseeable, meaning it was foreseeable, and not even by pessimists alone. The Sox had 3 pitchers with either recent or significant injury history. Really we knew someone was going to get hurt. But what happened was the worst case scenario where they all did...

But then the overwhelming majority of players made by a 1b are on throws that the thrower intended him to catch. No other position has this advantage to this degree. Most first baseman don’t come up playing the position; they end up there. As slasher said, 1b is where oldmajor leaguers go to die..,

They mean different things. “Unlikely” means “not likely to happen,” and relates to probability of an occurrence being low. But “unforeseeable” means “cannot have been predicted.” The latter does not take probability into account at all like the former does...

While true, there re two other factors. 1) Bad attitude or not, the White sox chose to move Sale. He wasn't the first malcontent in team history, and won't be the last. 2) The White Sox still chose the Red Sox package for Sale. They weren't the only team in on him...

It is entirely possible the story and rumors about the Sox resetting are overblown, and i's exactly like Kennedy said - a goal but not a mandate. Especally when you consider the luxury tax payments the Sox are trying to avoid are typically about $10-15 mill,or less than the Sox spent on Pablo Sandoval last year. If paying that extra $10-15mill allows Henry to earn, say, an extra $20-25 mill, certainly no reason he would want to avoid it, right? I certainly think he'd like to earn more without paying it, but that isn't the same as insisting on resetting. Unless his real issue is with the draft pick penalties and their long term impact on the club...

Very possible. If taxes are a factor, he is not coming to Illinois...

And while we might have seen an unlikely worst case scenario, I still wouldn't say the whole situation was unforseeable. The Sox extended one pitcher coming off an injury, and signed a long term deal to another very injury prone pitcher. All this two years after giving one of the biggest pitching contracts in MLB history out to another pitcher who had been having injury problems.

If that suits you, that's fine. But while JH might have approved the deals, he didn't write them and execute them. I mean, by that logic, shouldn't Cherington be exonerated for Sandoval, Ramirez and Castillo?

What would be a good record?

Well, if we trade Mookie this offseason, it will be be because of the contracts left behind by Dombrowski, specifically the contracts of Price, Sale and Eovaldi. If they do not trade him and he leaves via free agency, it will be because the Sox did not make the best offer (or made no offer). But the Sox offer might be limited by a budget that includes those same 3 deals. Especially if they are still paying luxury tax against Henry's wishes. While Mookie might want a change of scenery, nothing about him so far says he would reject a better Boston offer just to change teams...