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In a lot of cases, the fans actually cling to the AAA player more than the MLB player, but that usually happens with players a lot less talented than Betts. But then, that’s not even the case with Betts. Heck the Sox don’t even have a replacement for Bradley lined up in the minors. Really the best comp we might have is Fred Lynn. Not only was Lynn a high performing player, he was amazingly popular. Not sure why he was traded away, especially for that incredibly mediocre package, but the team and fan base survived. Sox fans are lucky that the team has really always at least tried to put a winning team on the field. They never sold everything off for a bunch of minor leaguers who were 3 to 4 years away. But they are in a bind right now, left with a massive budget and a very, very weak minor league system incapable of picking up the pieces. They need/want to shed some salary, but most of the more expensive players are unreadable. The one guy that they might be able to move and plug a few holes is Betts...

If I was a GM for another team, making me take on Price to get Betts would be an absolute deal breaker.

Bottom line - if you want the good years of Betts, you have to be willing to also pay heavily for the declining years of Betts as well...

That’s just a stupid statement by whoever wrote it. The Sox have survived worse. Not to mention, if the Yankees sign Betts when he comes a free agent, it’s not like the Sox could stop it...

I actually expect one. The only three people who deeply love 3 way deals are AJ Preller, Chaim Bloom and you...

But there’s outcry when players like that depart via free agency. How many posts on this board have referenced “not understanding why people were trying to save Henry’s money.” Answer: no one, but some knew there was a budget limit. Or how many thought players like Jacoby Ellsbury didn’t re-sign because the Soxnevdr made a good offer, despite Pete Abe repeatedly insisting they did. The ghost of Jon Lester still haunts the front office. Outcry or not, a lot of fans live and die with the only season that matters is this one, and you can worry about next year next year. For fans, that’s ok. But front offices can not operate that way...

Too bad they have diddly to send back. Hoping for Padres or Braves here, if they deal him at all...

Lots of players. Do you mean in the round by other teams? Or later rounds by the Sox?

Dan Duquette came to Boston with that reputation, too...

Also, they should put sanctions on all the citizens living in the Houston greater metropolitan area. Sorry, Moon, but rules are rules...

Ah but if you trade JD, you can maybe keep Betts...

Get back in the box!!!!!

Well, it’s not that they would rather Pearce beat them than Betts. In either case, they get beat. They just figure Pearce is less likely to make a pitcher pay for a mistake...

Let’s not go overboard with the “best trade in team history.” It was a big deal, and certainly had to be a tough sell. And the Sox did shed a lot of salary, but they also got absolutely nothing back. When it comes to best trades in team history, this one falls far, far short of that one with Pavano and Armas. And that other guy. Peter Martin? Or something like that...

I'm pretty sure the people at Inside Edge watched the games in some fashion. Besides, bad defense is not always about errors...

Well, he did draft Michael Kopech, Logan Allen and Jalen Beeks. It's just that his replacement traded them all away...

Exactly. They're barely differentiated over a full season, let alone a post-season that can be as short as 3 games. A player with 4.5 fWAR does rank ahead of a player with 4.3 fWAR when sorted on Fangraphs, but that level of contribution is negligible. If we started using WAR in the post-season, it would have to be carried out to 3 decimal places just to see differences, and at that point, it's just getting stupid...

Not to mention, Randy Johnson started games 1 and 4 of that series. He did give up 5 ER in game 1, but 4 of them came in the fifth inning (his last) and he was done in by walks and singles and some shoddy attempts to catch base stealers. He then came back on short rest and started game 4, in which he went 8 innings (for a CG) and gave up 3 ER, but lost...

Not necessarily. Those "elite" pitchers in the post-season are very often on the tail end of seasons where they have already pitched 180 to 220 IP (counting previous post-season appearances in some cases). That can be a huge factor, and probably one of the biggest reasons a lot of great pitchers don't have great post-season numbers, as we all saw when David Price had a good post-season in 2018 after finally pitching in the post-season after his lowest regular season IP total in his career (not couting the injury-plagued 2016). Prior to last season, Price was labeled a post-season choker, but a definite possibility was always that he was simply worn out at the tail end of all those 200+ IP seasons...

Buy some skates...

but most players don't play every year. So then you have games 2 or 3 years apart. The player is probably not equally healthy every post-season, and in some cases the effects of aging set in. Someone like Jeter had basically a full season's worth of post-season stats. And his numbers were virtually identical to his regular season numbers. But the overwhelming majority of players have scattered post-season appearances that too often get lumped into one stat line that becomes their post-season evaluation. And this isn't jut from fans; sportswriters, sportscasters, and commentators all do this, too. It's like a few random months, like every third June in a player's career, collecting those stats, and then determining he can or cannot hit in June...

Can you send me like maybe 20 or 30 degrees?

Exactly. That's why I am not a fan of post-season stats. They're typically a bunch of small samples scattered out over a number of years. Really, I keep it simple with post-season stats ("Good post-season", "bad series" type stuff) and I think any analysis beyond that is probably going to be faulty and useless...

Actually Inside Edge Fielding has Miguel Andujar doing very well in the routine plays but not making the more difficult ones...

It's 25 degrees in Chicago today. Forgive me if I keep thinking it's January...