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Worth pointing out, like every player with a partial no-trade list, Bumgarner has included the Red Sox...

You do even if you take it yearly...

And he was a player-coach for his last two NBA titles

Yes!! The Sox FINALLY get a left-handed starter!!! (Sarcasm)

Really? Bad move for multiple reasons. Even a 2.35% interest rate on a $25,000,000 deposit would yield a balance of over $50,000,000 in 30 years...

And his gritty ignorance and refusal to quit...

I live in Chicago, where apparently basketball before Jordan was basically an Aur Bud movie, but without the skill. Any time anyone challenges Jordan as the best player all time with Kobe or LeBron, Chicago sports fans instinctively chant “SIX RINGS!!! SIX RINGS!” To which I respond “But Jordan played for 19 years and only got 6 rings. Bill Russell played for 13 years and won 11.”

Maybe. But reportedly she messed around with a few of his teammates and was allegedly the reason the Cubs traded Rafael Palmeiro....

If he did do that, he wouldn’t be the first. Ryne Sandberg temporally “retired” from baseball to screw his completely unfaithful wife out of money, taking all of 1995 off. Once his divorce was final, he returned to MLB...

It would be ridiculous to think he was the only Sox hitter to luck into a few bad pitches. He was the MVP because he made those opportunities count...

We’ve all seen hitting lead to a parade as well. We won two rings with defensive grab bag Manny Ramirez playing the field. And one of those teams had defensive clusterf*** Julio Lugo at shortstop. I do think outfield defense is becoming paramount. It’s a launch angle game right now with increases in flyballs and strikeouts. But whether or not Bradley-Betts is better than Benintendi-Betts isn’t the question. (Or another lesser than Bradley defender in CF.) The question is, is that type of drop in CF defense still sufficient? Especially in the wake of Bradley’s non-existent offense. This isn’t the NFL, where you can gameplan around elite defenders. Hitters aren’t avoiding Bradley. But he isn’t as involved defensively as many CFs, and it looks like it’s because of the guys at the corners.

Well, in the case of Bradley, he did win the ALCS MVP. But not for his defense. His timely hitting was a bigger factor. But the subject of debate is his defense vs his defensive metrics. Not his timely hitting...

What camera angle do you have access to that shows his first step on contact? Mine is on the hitter until the director switches me over to the outfielder, whose typically either already in motion or where he (thinks he) needs to be. Unless you’re being sarcastic...

One issue with defensive metrics - and any other subjective defensive evaluation technique - is they rely on opportunity. If a player makes fewer plays, he isn’t as valuable defensively. A really big factor in Bradley’s defensive metrics this year is he hasn’t made as many plays as most MLB center fielders. And a big part of the reason appears to be Betts, who helps take a huge chunk of right-center field flyballs that Austin Meadows and Avisail Garcia don’t get to (which is why Kiermaier makes more plays). This isn’t a flaw in defensive metrics. Eye test can’t tell you how good a CF is on plays he doesn’t make either. But instead is it brings in an extra level of evaluation. For example, as long as the Sox have Betts, do they really need a CF with Bradley’s defensive skill set? If they moved Benintendi to CF or acquired a less range-oriented CF like Joc Pederson, would there be a significant difference? Sure they would miss out on Bradley’s highlight reel plays, but what is the actual big picture impact on defense?

The MLBPA isn’t the issue here. They’d love to do away with luxury taxes and anything else that dissuades teams from spending $1billion on payroll. The issue is the MLB front office and the CBA. Even this is a clear attempt to circumvent paying a luxury tax. Since the MLB office not only is responsible for calculating the tax and also for collecting it, they’re very likely to call this a deliberate attempt to circumvent it. Pedroia has two years left at a modest amount. The best course of action is to simply ride out his deal. It’s not like building a 40 man roster with $230mill is so much more difficult than building one with $244mill. Like nearly every GM, Dombrowski has had to deal with deadweight contracts before and ones far, far worse than Pedroia’s, like Sandoval for example. Heck if he had that extra cash to spend, chances are it would end up on another deadweight deal at some point. Maybe 3 years from now, we can have this same discussion about turning Price into a $31mill bullpen coach. The Sox will be fine in spite of this complete non-issue.

It’s not that dWAR has to confirm pre-existing beliefs. Like most stats in baseball, it’s just difficult when comparing players whose careers started so far apart. The baseline for a lot advanced metrics on both sides of the ball is the league average. In this case, people are taking numbers compared to league average center fielders from the 70s and 80s and comparing them to numbers based on center fielders from the 2010s. It’s actually a big deal. MLB has gone through periods where defense was valued differently by varying managers and GMs, which is why players like Tony Armas and Alfonso Soriano have played CF. Lynn did have some stellar defensive contemporaries, like (the tail end of the career of) Paul Blair, Rick Manning, Andre Dawson and Cesar Geronimo. But also a lot of Chet Lemon/Gorman Thomas types who would be corner OFs today, but played CF because they could hit and played for teams that valued the offense. Bradley has a lot of stellar defensive contemporaries as well, because the focus on defensive metrics has created a league with more players playing CF who might have been relegated to reserve duty in the 1980s, like Kiermaier and Pillar...

It’s very obvious. Especially since the Sox are so far over the threshold for payment. If the Sox had a payroll of $170mill, you’d have a better argument. But this scenario is obvious even to us on a message board. Don’t you think MLB accountants who know the luxury tax code inside out would easily be just as suspicious

The Sox could do it, but Pedroia would still have to count towards the luxury tax. And that wouldn’t be a ridiculous outcome for that situation, like it was when the NBA decided the late Reggie Lewis still counted against the league salary cap...

And the Sox sweep came in the next series between the two teams...

Heyward was also 26. Porcello would have been had the Sox not extended him. Probably one or two more I can’t think of off the top of my head...

Especially not with the offensive struggles on the Sox bench...

But what we didn’t know at the time and that is NOT speculation is that the Sox prioritized a backup 1b over the bullpen. And considering the one reliever the Sox did add is the worst one, maybe it means they should have...

But isn’t your stance typically that you have to spend money to get quality players? If fans think this is representative, maybe the Sox should sign Robbie Grossman over Mookie Betts when the time comes...

To be fair, it was unknown at the time signing Pearce would supplant replacing bullpen help. Although earlier in this thread I appear to be concerned about that, as well as bidding an early goodbye to Swihart...

I agree and have said so multiple times. But there has always been that continue that thinks he can be rehired as a coach/instruct/mascot for the same money and circumvent the CBA, despite the CBA specifically prohibiting this...