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Johnny Mize remains the only player in MLB history to hit 50 home runs and strike out less than 50 times in the same season (1947, 51 HRs, 42K). With 11HRs and 13 strike outs through 30 games, Betts is on pace to come close. Not that I care if he strikes out 70 times...

I doubt any combination of Margot, Asuaje, Allen of Guerra was going to replace Moncada, who was the clear headliner in that trade. My biggest gripe was the Sox gave up an awful lot to get a closer, when we were a last place team with much bigger needs...

Cities/Towns in Massachusetts Tim Wakefield Daryl Boston Jon Leicester (not the same pitcher as Jon Lester, but he counts, too) Amos Otis

It is true it did more to prove you can't just simply fill your bullpen with retreads and pitchers who failed to make the rotation. You do need good pitchers in the bullpenand as many as possible. These guys are going to pitch close to 40% of the IP over the season. Closers were popular among managers because they reduced doubt and made for easy press conferences, and popular with GMs because they were relatively cheap compared to starters. But last off-season, Wade Davis signed a contract worth almost 80% annually of what Darvish and Arrieta were making. The dedicated closer is moving rapidly into luxury, and it never really was a necessity. Ideally, I'd rather see a "high leverage" guy who comes in and puts out a key fire in the seventh and eighth. However, if that specialty ever caught on, it too would become very overpriced. But over the course of a season it should lead to more wins. To me, there is nothing sillier than watching the lesser arms struggle with the top and/or heart of the order in the seventh and eighth innings, hoping they can get through so the Sox can get to the closer. I'd rather see him in there when i find myself hoping on the setup guys too much...

And this is always the type of things people say in defense of closers. Not wanTing a closer doesn't mean avoiding pitchers like Kimbrel and Rivera. It means not using thsn add ninth inning specialIsts. If Rivera was in the Yankee pen all those years but somEone else was getting saves, how fewer rings would he have?

They didn't use Motte until very late. Other pitchers, including Mitchell Boggs and Octavio Dotel, handled the role for them. Ryan Franklin was the closer on opening day, but faltered right out of the gate...

Gee thanks lol The "committee" was largely Chad Fox, who got all the save chances. Fox was an ok reliever who had some bad games in Boston, but was largely the fall guy for an ineffective bullpen. He did go on to get a World Series ring with Florida that year. The rest of the bullpen struggled. During the 54 games before Byung-Yun Kim was acquired, Fox blew only three 9th inning leads, resulting in two losses. The real struggles for that pen were in the sixth through eighth innings, normally not the role for a closer. That the Sox struggled where the game was really on the line in earlier innings was the exact logic for using a committee. The problem wasn't a lack of defined roles as they had those. The problem was too many ineffective pitchers handling key situations. The true best pitcher from that committee turned out to be Timlin, but he didn't emerge as a force until the post-season, where he was unhittable. Of the committee pitchers, it was no surprise he was the only one the Sox kept re-signing...

Also bear in mind in the 2004 World Series, thr Sox had the lead in every single inning (with one exception). It was probably the most one-sided world series in history. Hard to argue Foulke put them over the top...

Please don't make me explain again why the Committee thing is often mistaken, misremembered, and proved the exact point about why it was formed in the first place

Yes they are. But if he plays well, he is moveable. And if he plays well in MLB, it is possible (although not likely) the entire contract becomes moveable

And who are you willing to let go to bring back Kimbrel? If he wants $19mill, does that mean no more Porcello or Pomeranz? Does it interfere with Sale or Bogaerts or Betts?

Does it fit Dombrowski's narrative? He's the only one who matters..

It does make me wonder - if closers are so important and great closers can make a huge difference, why is Mariano Rivera the only member of the 400 save club to win a World Series? These guys clearly played for teams that won a lot of games. (Ok, technically Fernando Rodriguez won a WS in 2002 and was very instrumental in the win. But he was also not the closer. Troy Percival was.) 400 save club - the non-Rivera members played 89 seasons. One title. Zero titles as closer. Of course that number does double if we include the next man on the list in Dennis Eckersley and his 390 saves with one title...

Well, Springer was driving the ball all over the place...

What is so wrong with "wins later on"? Are they lesser wins? You are correct that not all blown saves are losses. But then you ignore this later and call them "lock down wins". Why do you ignore this suddenly?

They could bring him up, pay the luxury tax, and maybe see if he can play well enough at the right level that he could be viable trade bait, possibly even a piece you don't pay other teams to take off your hands. ..

He's 26, has no real position he can defend well, and is sporting an OPS+ of 5. Trade bait? He'll be lucky if he isn't flat out DFA'd.

"Can't make a difference" or "don't make a difference? I think they do, but how quantifiable it is another matter...

And that's why managers get paid a million dollars while you and I watch games and criticize his decisions for free..

It's not a disconnect. Certain situations in games are more critical than others. While many fans (and sportswriters) like to believe the ninth inning are the most critical, it's not always the case. The advanced metrics suggest deploying the best reliever in the game situation with the highest Win Probability. Because while most situations may matter very little, this is ideally the one the most...

Kimbrel is very talented. But I think most players out there believe they can and want every chance to do his job. I do doubt the Sox are able to keep Kimbrel. Dombrowski has already made multiple efforts to acquire his successor. Smith hasn't impressed anyone yet, but is very good. Thornburg has yet to pitch and hopefully is over his issues soon.

The Sox absolutely needed another bat. But when JD plays RF over Mookie (on those rest days), the difference just becomes beyond obvious. The game in Toronto gave a pretty good example there, where Smoak hit a soft liner to right field to move a runner to third. Even if Mookie was unable to catch that ball (which I doubt but can't prove), at the very least the runner would have had to hold up enough to make sure and would not have been able to go to third....

Who? Do we really have bullpens full of pitchers who complain about getting 4 outs and getting saves?

Fair point. But I think the argument about specific roles might still be applicable to Eckersley and O'Brien. ..