S5Dewey

It will be interesting to see what JH's attitude is toward spending now that the Sox aren't making the PO's. There's a lot of money to be made in playoff baseball. My best guess is that there are bean counters (nothing personal, Bell. ) hired by JH who can tell him exactly how much money is there. Then he'll make his decision about spending past the limit accordingly. Whatever happens it'll give us some insight as to the difference in income between making the PO's and not making them.

LOL. I'm sure.

I'm not sure what Gale's long term strategy is but here's mine: 1) Patch up that pitching staff by letting Porcillo go, getting an innings-eating #3 to take his place. 2) Encourage JDM to stick around another year by pointing out how good this team can be with solid pitching. We're talking about the potential for another ring here. 3) Let JBJ go to arbitration and pay him. 4) Sign another respectable 'pen arm to as short a contract as possible. 5) Pay or trade Pearce and fill his spot from our minors. 6) Call it a day and prepare to reset after the 2020 season. If we're not prepared to make another run until 2025 rather than in 2024, so be it. It's worth the risk.

Let me first say that I'd support something like this, but it sure would be great if Betts would recognize the "insurance" aspect to a long term contract and be thinking about a slight discount in exchange for it. I also supported Pedey's contract - and I still do. IMO he took that discount in exchange for the "insurance" and now he's collecting on it. He was worth what he was getting paid and more while he was playing so it evens out in the end.

And while I'm on the topic of things I don't understand.... I don't understand the finger-pointing at Cora for not playing the regulars enough in ST. Hey! These guys are among the leaders in runs scored and their defense is solid! Give it a rest. ST playing time for regulars is not the problem.

I don't understand all the hand-wringing about who we could or should have traded to get the players who helped win a WSC. The goal was to win in 2018 and they did. So many posters justified (and yes, I'm going to say this) trading Iggy for Peavey by saying that it helped win a WSC. If one believes that then it has merit but these same posters who then were implying that 'the end justifies the means' are now whining about the means that were used to win in 2018. Me? I like the banner over being able to say, "We had the best AAA team in baseball in 2018".

That's exactly true, and that's the time to reset. Not when a team has a core of players good enough to win it all. If you're right about being #30 by then - and there's no reason to think otherwise - what have we lost by making another run in 2020? Only a chance to win it all in 2020, and we put off our losing seasons by a couple of years. I share the opinion with you that we have a few down years in our future but I'm in no rush to start them. From what you say I think I'm only slightly older than you are and like you I'm planning on a couple of more decades here, but I'd like to have another WSC soon - just in case I'm wrong.

See, this is where we part company. I see this team as being something nearly every other team would love to be...except for the pitching staff. (I know, I know... but EXCEPT.. but still...). We've currently got a combination of players at every position who are good enough to be WSC's. The FO has been several years building this team and there's no assurance that those we draft will make the 2024 Boston Red Sox as good as the current version. There's a very real possibility that some of the core players on this team will be leaving after the 2020 or 2021 seasons, Then would be the time to reset. Not now. Right now this team has the horses to make another run at it. To think that future draft picks will be able to replicate this team is 'buying a pig in a poke', as well as wishful thinking. The attitude of "wait 'til next year' was what got us into the 84 year drought. "Next year" is the window of 2018-2020. It's time to pay the money and continue to run, not to quit after an unpredictable stumble and fall.

Because I don't respond to trolls.

Is the goal now to save money, or to win?

Don't you ever get tired of trolling this site?

It wouldn't do much to create action but it would keep the game moving, which is one of the biggest goals of MLB right now. They've tried giving the umpires responsibility of keeping the pace of play moving quickly and the umpires have essentially ignored it. They're still allowing hitters to step into and out of the batter's box at will, adjust their batting gloves, scratch their nuts, take a deep breath, assume their batting stance, then call time out so they can start all over again. If the umpires aren't going to do it someone else has to.

I could live with a foul ball on the third strike being a K. I never understood why a foul ball is a strike on the first and second strikes but if it happens on the third one it's essentially a 'no pitch'. My personal preference would be that two foul balls after two strikes would be a K but as I said I could live with it either way.

There's a lot that's odd about the racial thing and MLB. However, IMO the thing that separates MLB from the NFL and the NBA is that MLB was around long before either of the two other sports were. Therefore the breaking of the "tradition" was more newsworthy. That still doesn't explain why they celebrate it. One would think that they would prefer to run and hide from it instead. IMO one of the oddities is that it took as long as it did for integration to occur. The negro leagues were playing baseball at the same time the white MLB teams were playing and I would guess that some of the negro league players were as talented (or more so) than some of the white players. That speaks more to me about the blatant discrimination that was occurring than anything else.

"Worse" covers a lot of ground. I expected them to be "worse" too, winning ~95 -100 games. But I didn't expect a 23 game swing. Did you? If they put this same team on the field next year a/k/a 'standing pat' would you expect them to win 62 next year?

So you expected them to go to 85 (projected) wins in 2019 because the Sox stood still after winning 108 the year before??? I sure didn't.

Now, THAT's not going to happen! :D

Well, during the past off-season they trotted out what did work in the previous year and expected it to be the same. Should we have expected it to be different?

If there's one thing I've learned about fans it's that when they drop their fanny into their seat there are two things they're sure they can do better than the person who's doing it. They can coach better and they can officiate better.

Optimism seems to be in short supply around here right now. :-(

I'm not at all sure that's a fair indication of who's watching. Speaking for myself, I find the continual repetition of "these guys suck", "Cora sucks", and of course the Yankees non-troll chiming in occasionally to remind us of exactly how bad the Sox are playing to be something I don't want to deal with AND watching the team lose. And I don't think I'm the only one. Of course the downside is that this is a self-perpetuating issue in that the fewer posters there are in the game thread the less reasonable discussion that takes place so more posters stay away, and so ad infinitum. I usually drop by to see what's going on for chatter in the GT's and I've even gotten into some good conversations there but I don't have the patience to deal with the negativity. Consequently where I used to spend much of the game on the GT I now don't. But that doesn't mean I'm not watching the game.

Besides that, it's unethical. Some of us have already complained about how teams are tanking and would like to see some remedy like a much higher minimum wage for players. How can we complain about that, then suggest the Sox do the same thing?

No more - or less - outrageous than I what I said. I've often said that I'd like to be a fly on the wall during some of the discussions between JH, DD. Lucchino, Theo, Farrell, Cora, etc. that involved the Red Sox. "What? You signed WHO... for HOW MUCH MONEY?? This damn well better work!!" LOL

Agree. Completely. JH didn't become a millionaire by turning his big decisions over to someone else, and no matter how much money one has $145M to Chris Sale, $217M to David Price and a projected ~$250M or more to Mookie Betts is a lot of money. My opinion (FWIW) is that DD was given a framework within which to work and JH didn't want to be bothered with rubber stamping contracts like $2.6M to Sandy Leon, $1.6M to Matt Barnes or even $6.5M to Mitch Moreland but when those salaries start to run into nine figures he damn well wants to be consulted!

C'mon. That's unfair and you know it. You imply that he's so wealthy that he can buy anything he wants but do you actually know that? Have you personally seen his bank statements and investment portfolios? How do you know he's not mortgaged to the hilt? I'm guessing that you don't. All anyone is going to get here is opinions. Asking "push-poll questions" and then saying that you don't want opinions may be a great way to make a point (or try to prove that someone is "right") but it's a disingenuous way of doing it.