S5Dewey

$400M for one player is crazy. For that matter, so is $200M! Either theres a lot more money floating around MLB than we ever imagined or some GM's are being financially irresponsible. Sooner or later these chickens are all going to come home to roost. Sooner or later other teams are going to come to the place where the Red Sox are now where the previous signings and the LT implications are going to make it difficult for them to sign other quality players and remain competitive and financially viable. Unless, of course, there is that much money on MLB and the Red Sox reluctance to exceed the LT threshold this year is nothing more than a way for them to use the LT limit as an excuse as a way to protect exorbitant profits.

Meh. The people evaluating players know what they're doing and they know that having one prospect improving doesn't lessen the value of another prospect. There are enough teams (and money) to go around. It's just a matter of finding a team that we match up with, both financially and in terms of need. Maybe it'll be nobody. Moncada is what he is and keeping him until we get a better idea of his ceiling wouldn't be the worst thing that could happen to this team either.

That's what I was saying... that last year at this time we had our 3Bman. It was Sandoval's position to lose and he did it by coming into camp morbidly obese. Of course there were other options. There are always other options for every player at every position. This year it's wide open, and a mess. The good news is that at least it's a mess now and not in April as it was in 2016.

Last year the team went into ST with 3B being Sandoval's position to lose. He had played 126 games there in 2015 and we had no idea about any shoulder injury. This year it's wide open, only with Moncada included.

What a conundrum this 3B thing is. It's not outside the realm of reality that any or all of three might succeed - or fail - at 3B.

At that price it would seem to make more sense to go to arb with him rather than risk letting someone else get him.

It surprises me that Workman may be non-tendered. He had TJ surgery and hasn't pitched since so they don't know what they have in him yet.

No problem. Obviously the first ones with the money get the tickets.

It looks like I'm going to have one extra spring training ticket for almost all of the games this year. If anyone here thinks they might want it let me know. Good seat, in the shade (that's important!) about 20 rows directly behind home plate. The only catch is that you have to sit beside me. Face value, $27 or $29... I forget which at the moment.

OTOH, is home field advantage really an advantage? Kimmie, care to chime in on this? BTW, IMO it may not be an advantage to the team - I see it as being a non-issue at the worst, but it's an advantage for the fans who get to see playoff baseball at home.

This is just another case of the tail wagging the dog. For $14M he should be not only willing to move to any place they want to play him, he should beg for the right to do it. $14M to play baseball for ONE SEASON...and he thinks he has the right to tell the FO where he'll play. Think about it. Ugh.

We seem to have two problems here. 1) How to make the All-Star game relevant, and 2) How to determine who gets home field advantage in the WS. Apparently MLB tried to use one problem to solve the other and IMO it didn't work. It didn't work because the AS game is nothing more than a baseball exhibition game and has nothing to do with the regular season or the playoffs. I can't envision a solution to the problem of home field advantage that someone doesn't find something wrong with but I see this solution to be a positive thing. MLB has already changed the playoff HFA in the league playoffs to the team with the best record within the league - and it's worked. It's given teams more incentive to win games at the end of the year even when they've outdistanced their closest rival in the division. Now they've extended it to the other league as well. I like it. As to problem #1 of making the AS game relevant... meh. As I said, it's nothing more than a baseball exhibition game. A money-maker for MLB and a chance for fans to see the players the fans want to see all under one roof. The ASG is meaningless in terms of the season and teams so the ASG should be left out of the equation completely. And now it is.

See, I'd have no objection to his playing LF or even 3B if he's going to be an .800 - .850 guy. I've always been a 'solid up the middle' guy and willing to sacrifice a little defense at the corner positions to get the power if necessary. That's where I think we are with Hanley. I don't see any GG's in Hanley's future but he can be a hitting machine. If Moncado can be Hanley at the other corner I'll live with his defense, assuming it's no worse than Shaw's. And realistically, if Moncado's defense is as good as Travis Shaw's, Moncado would be an upgrade at 3B. WARNING. BLASPHEMY AHEAD! - And furthermore, if Moncado can play LF reasonably well I wouldn't object to making Beni the centerpiece in a trade for a #1/#2 pitcher. However, I wouldn't want to make that switch without seeing Moncado out there first. I'm not a fan of a player's learning on the fly!

What have you heard about Moncada at 3B that you don't like? Is it his defense or his offense? He could be an upgrade over what we had last year at 3B without being mentioned in the same breath as Machado. This is that "embarrassment of riches" thing again that I mentioned earlier. They only allow one LF'er out there at a time and we currently have two of them (including Young). Since JBJ is currently in his first arbitration year and is GG quality he's cheap for what we're getting. Moving him so we can put someone who's not as talented in his place makes no sense. The only way it makes sense is to someone who believes Moncada > Benintenti and Benintendi > Bradley, and I ain't buyin' it, even with Beni's SSS.

Do we know this? What we know is that he was sent down early in July to work on his offense and didn't get called up again until the September call-ups. In September he got 5 AB's with four of them being on the last game of the season when he got one hit for a double. Are we assuming that he didn't accomplish anything during the two months he spent in Pawtucket?

But aren't you going back to the pre-revenue sharing and pre-Luxury Tax days with that statement? (I'll take your word for it because I'm too lazy to look it up this morning. ) However, I agree, and I think you can include Tampa Bay in that list also. It's proving that teams that are well managed at the FO level can compete - once in a while. It also demonstrates that teams with money can no longer buy the WSC for teams that are poorly managed. While all of this proves that the race doesn't always go to the swiftest or the battle to the strongest, I still think that's the way to bet though.

IIRC the Competitive Balance Tax is another word for the Luxury Tax. Are you sure you're not confusing that with Revenue Sharing? And BTW, here's an excerpt from Fangraphs regarding Revenue Sharing: By 2016, the fifteen teams in the largest markets in baseball will be disqualified from receiving revenue sharing. This feature is being phased in over the coming years. The disqualified clubs will receive a refund for the amount that they would have received in revenue sharing, although teams that have exceeded the Luxury Tax threshold in recent years will not receive a full refund. (MLB.com)

I see maybe 6-7 teams that will be close to the luxury tax limit this year (LAD, BOS, DET, SFG, Cubs, NYY and maybe LAA or STL. And what do these teams have in common? 5 of the 8 qualified for the playoffs. One who didn't was the NYY which is an anomaly in itself! I don't know if it's because of the LT or the overall spending, but one could certainly say that if the LT is supposed to create parity it's not working.

We do have somewhat an embarrassment of riches in our OF at the moment. We're waist-deep in quality (and semi-quality) OF'ers right now with Beni, JBJ, Mookie, Young, Holt, and Swihart. I agree that Swihart would be fine as a LH hitting LF'er, but do we want to sit three of those guys to make it happen when Swihart may be the worst defensively of any of them? And that's not a knock on Swihart. He's simply behind some pretty good OF'ers. Some are better than others but Swihart is still the worst of the bunch. Even if someone wanted to make the case that Swihart = Holt he's still the 5th Of'er.

The Luxury Tax actually works against the teams with less revenue though. If a team is in a bidding war for a player and their revenue only lets them to to the LT threshold the penalty imposed for going over the threshold is a double-whammy for that team. That allows the higher revenue team to swoop in and sign that player. This probably isn't a big deal for one year but if that lower revenue team decides to exceed the LT limit for that one year the penalty gets larger. Even if they don't continue to exceed it in future years the salary of the player they signed may keep them from signing other high-quality players which would push them above the limit - which they can't afford. The LT works well for the teams with big revenue but it also hurts the poorer teams.

I'm not surprised. I did some negotiating of labor contracts back in my working life and more gets done in the last 48 hours before a deadline than in the preceding weeks.

I see him as having his hitting making him good enough to be a 4th OF or backup catcher for many teams. Just not ours.With the potential to move up the ladder with that team.

The reason you don't understand is because you're responding to the wrong word. Here, let me help you with that: Obtuse = "Not quick or sharp in perception". Obtuse is is the root of the word "obtusiveness" which I used and asked if it's really a word.* Obtruse = "Having a disposition to impose one's self or one's opinions on others".* *Webster's Universal College Dictionary Maybe it was a simple misunderstanding, or maybe you're just obtuse.

That's fine with me because I took offense at the obtusiveness (if that's a word). For a person who doesn't live in a PC world you sure are asking for a lot of PC from me.

Ya know, there's a lot to be said for this post. The problem as I see it is in finding a roster spot for him. It'd be a shame to have him as a 3rd DH, 3rd catcher, and 5th OFer. He's too good for that.