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I never want the team to sell. But I do understand that is the right horse sometimes. I just hope Breslow does something…

And that’s why no one liked them…

One win, one loss, one postponement?

Booser is like a low cal version of Randy Myers. He brings the heat, follows it up with more heat, and then changes speeds by throwing even harder…

He was not. 2022 NL Cy Young winner Sandy Alcantara was also on that team…

A 2-2 split. We can call it the best completely unacceptable series outcome…

Heresy!!!

5Gold corrected me on my edit. Either way, a 93-win division champ is not exactly a sign of a strong division. Are you implying there were champs with less? Not since the AL split into 3 divisions…

Not judging global spelling variations. Just noticed the UK style and assumed a different country of origin. It’s just another reason I rarely judge people on awful typos. Besides my own horrible propensity for them, I’m trying to be cognizant of the possibility I am correcting the English on someone who could be anywhere in the world and typing in their third language…

Revenue-sharing is in the CBA; they do both about every time negotiations start up again…

I originally typed out “since the split to 3 divisions”, so slightly further back than just this century. Not sure why I changed it, but good catch. And we can discount the 1995 team that only played 144 games.

They rely heavily on revenue-sharing money…

Would you trade Roman Anthony and Richard Fitts for Garrett Crochet? Given the Sox outfield depth and likely upgrade Crochet provides over Fitts, there is an argument to make this deal…

The spelling of “favorite” was distinctly un-American. I gambled on Canada over the UK, Australia, NZ and Jamaica…

Especially our early judgments You can’t (re:shouldn’t) just a 5 year contract after 2 months…

It would not have been a bad trade off in any of the previous four seasons, when Giolito was healthy and Sale wasn’t…

Are you Canadian?

It’s also the lowest total ever to win the AL East pennant. It’s been done three times. 2016 (Red Sox), 2017 (Red Sox), and 2015 (Blue Jays)…

No. Sale was part of an increase in spending. If they keep Sale, do you think they still sign Giolito? I do think it’s reasonable to think if Sale actually pitched from 2020-2023, he would not have been traded. If the Sox were all about cost reduction as their top priority, they would have dealt Chris Martin ($8mill-ish) while he was coming off a career year instead of Sale. Heck if it was all about money, why insist on Grissom? Why not trade Sale in 2022 when some team wanted the entire contract?

I look at the end of the 2019 season in which the Sox fell 24 games in the standings, still owed about $300mill to three pitchers in Price, Eovaldi and Sale who either had a long history of physical injuries or had plenty of injury troubles just beginning at that time, and the Sox never successfully locked up Mookie. On top of it all, the farm system had nothing in the way of immediate help. And while the Sox were coming off the most successful run in team history, two of those seasons the team only won 93 games, not exactly a commanding total and more of a statement about the AL East at the time. If Henry didn’t decide to change direction at that point, he probably because he did it somewhat earlier. The problem is, he just got too extreme. Tampa North certainly can work, but is better with a built up farm. Or in this case, even a mediocre one. But the issue isn’t that model, it’s how quickly the Sox thought they could implement it. And why they decided to start the “extend our star players” after letting Betts walk. It should have started there…

Do you really think the $10mill payroll was a bigger factor than Sale’s completely absentee performance from 2020 through 2023?? That trade failed in multiple ways, but the clear goal was to replace Sale and his 40IP per year with Giolito, who has been averaging closer to 180 IP recently. They paid up to get a prospect they liked, and in the end spent $8mill more, since they re-invested all those savings almost immediately. After all, Giolito was signed only about 5 days after Sale was dealt…

I think our failure rate is probably average, but on more expensive signings it’s probably much worse. Sale, for example, was an unarguable flop. Some liked Eovaldi. Not sure why, given only one good season. The higher money free agents are the ones that aren’t supposed to be gambles. They are only supposed to be risky through the length of their deals. But really, through bad luck or questionable decisions, how many have worked out since 2013, the one year they all did? In the past 11 seasons, JD Martinez was a good signing. Others (Eovaldi) had moments. Most got injured or fell off real fast…

I like the cause/effect relationship there. But most important, Sox fans really don’t expect titles every year. I’ve been a Sox fan for a long time, and I’ve never heard a single one refer to a season as a wasted year because they didn’t win the trophy. We just want the Sox to try. Not even to compete, but at least to try yo compete. Heck, my only other expectation is “don’t do anything stupid.” That’s not hard, either…

The durability is nice. O’Neill is a better defender, which is also nice. But at the end of the day, the best ability is availability…

He’s also only 25. If the Sox gave Houck that extension last year, it would have been questioned all year, but it would look genius this season…