S5Dewey

Sure, there are several current CF'ers in MLB whom I could see out there instead of JBJ. Pillar, Keirmeier, and some of those guys Notin mentioned earlier. I haven't seen them play but I'd defer to Notin's judgement if he has seen them. The problem is, they're not on the Boston Red Sox, and a secondary problem is that the team that 'owns' them probably isn't going to get rid of them. While, yes, JBJ is my favorite current Red Sox player at the same time the Red Sox are my favorite team and that takes precedence over any one player. To me this still comes down to what Mookie does and we're probably not going to know what's going to happen with him until after next season. I think (HOPE!) we can agree that Fenway is an unusual park due in part to the outfield dimensions. I also think & hope we can agree that CF & RF each need to be manned by someone better than an average outfielder. There's been chatter about Billy Hamilton, and his defense could probably replicate JBJ or Mookie. Now we come to question #2: If we non-tender JBJ and then Mookie walks we're now in the market for TWO outfielders of Hamilton's quality. This is still probably the best outfield in baseball. Do we really want to screw it up completely by letting 2/3 of it get away when we could only let 1/3 of it go? I'll say it again. Let JBJ go to arbitration if necessary but keep him in the fold. Then if Mookie walks we can attempt to extend him - and there's always a better chance of extending someone than of signing him. If Mookie stays, THEN look for this CF whiz-kid who's going to make us forget all about JBJ. And certainly if Mookie gets traded in the off season we're going to NEED JBJ out there to maintain 2/3 of that outfield, because JBJ can cover some of that ground that Mookie's replacement most likely won't be covering. Sorry, but I don't understand why people aren't crawling all over this idea. It's called "Insurance". Insurance against Mookie's leaving.

This is exactly why I don't think Mookie is going to be in Boston in 2021 and why I think JBJ will be. Mookie will leave because he won't want any part of this rebuild that's occurring with no talent in the system to draw from, and since the Sox need JBJ more than he needs them he'll get a raise in pay in 2021 and stay.

This is what I was referring to in an earlier post, that someone would come up with a bizarre situation where a team won the WS with a second-rate CF'er. Are you suggesting had the Sox had the 2004 version of Johnny Damon in CF they'd have won the WS last year? Or to put it a different way, gun to your head, would you rather have 2004 Damon or JBJ running down balls in CF?

As the old saying goes, "There's no substitute for having been there."

I have resigned myself to the idea that Mookie isn't coming through that door in 2021. If you were a championship-type player, someone you build a team around, would you want to come back to a team that's obviously in the start of a rebuild, but with a decimated farm? I sure wouldn't. Trust me. After you've been on a winning team losing becomes not an option if you can control it. I'd be wiling to settle for a few million dollars less over the life of the contract to play for a winner. (And I know that "a few million dollars' is still a lot of money but it's not as much when you have 300 of them piled up anyway). So I don't see him coming back. In fact, IMO he'd be stupid if he does come back. So then we have JBJ, who can be signed for a whole lot less to anchor that outfield. I don't expect to see anyone throwing $300M, $200M, or even $100M his way unless it's a lifetime contract - and the Sox would be stupid to offer anyone not named Mookie (or maybe Devers) a lifetime contract. Like DD, I like defense! I believe that defense is as important to winning games as is offense and I believe our pitching staff would tell you the same thing. Like DD, I also believe in the old adage (if 'old adages' haven't been outdated in this time of metrics) of being Solid Up The Middle. Our up-the-middle defense is weak enough as it is with Bogaerts and a PTBNL in the infield. [sidebar disclaimer: IMO Bogaerts offensive capability outweighs his defensive shortcomings so I'm not advocating moving him but that doesn't make him any better defensively]. Getting back to SUTM now, I've always believed that a winning team should be solid defensively at C, 2b, SS, & CF and accept any offensive shortcomings at those positions to be that way. I've also believed that if a team has to have defensive weaknesses it should be at the corner positions. I don't particularly like having defensive weaknesses anywhere but if a team has an offensive player like XBo in an UTM position they can afford a weakness at a corner position. In a nutshell, if the Sox are going into a rebuild mode I believe they should take the longer view and keep the best players they can afford to keep in the long run and not be so focused on the next year that they let one (or more) of those players get away. I also believe that one in the hand is worth two in the bush. We KNOW we can sign JBJ to another season and then deal with signing him (or not) for 2021 depending on what the 2021 team looks like. I'd rather do that and accept the salary consequences than risk our outfield defense in 2021 & beyond by losing both JBJ for 2020 & Mookie in 2021 in two years. I DO NOT want to see this team turn into Baltimore or Toronto for the sake of a 'rebuild'. And BTW, I also haven't given up on the future of the team that takes the field now. Our only weakness is starting pitching and it's entirely possible that we, for some reason, hit The Perfect Storm of bad pitching this year. The thing that concerns me most is the situation with Sale, which, in spite of what I read here, hasn't been resolved yet and won't be until they can do more diagnostic work on his elbow. But even if Sale goes down in 2020 I still keep JBJ and try to sign him for 2021 and beyond. Phew!

Pedey for hitting coach!!

IMHO there are few things in baseball any prettier than a 3-6-3 Double Play.

Does a CF'er have to be the unequivocal best CF'er in baseball in order for it to be smart for his team to keep him? I'm not sure how Keiermeier got dragged into this conversation. I'm not trying to make the case that JBJ is the best CF'er in baseball. I'm just saying that 1) I don't put a lot of faith in a Yankee fan poster who has an agenda of frequently trolling this site, 2) keeping JBJ is smarter than releasing or trading him, and 3) JH knows it.

Really? You've seen enough different teams with all those players play on different days with different announcers to know that they all "rave" about all of those guys???

If I'm starting a Mt. Rushmore of owners Bob Kraft is right there beside John Henry.

Oh, well then, if he has better defensive metrics that settles it.

Maybe JBJ isn't an "elite defender" when viewed through pinstripe glasses but it sure seems like every broadcaster I've seen or heard still salivates at his defense. I tend to take the word of people whose career is in baseball rather than a Yankees fan whose goal is to see the Sox finally become a team the Yankees can beat.

I never understood Owings anyway. Period.

I don't even fault him for that. If we had Kimbrel on the team this year he'd spend a lot of time sitting on the bench saying, "Gee, I wish we had a lead going into the 9th" so I could pitch". BP's are such a crapshoot anyway. This year's BP reminds me of last year's BP - shaky and maligned during the early part of the season but finding their stride later in the year.

By default, but yes.

I don't see why that won't work. MLB is full of guys who are as good or better than JBJ. I know that because whenever someone 'new' comes to the broadcast booth then NEVER rave about how good JBJ is. Oh... wait...

The thing is, some of these guys want DD's head on a stick but he did what a good GM does - he put together a team that should win. NOBODY could have predicted that all three of our starting pitchers would implode.

Yep. In a nutshell our offense scores enough runs to win but the pitching allows too many.

I've gotta say, and I know I'm not going to make any friends with this, but.... Good God. You want to let a GG CF'er who's (probably) going to hit 20 HR's go either by non-tendering him or by trading him for PROSPECTS?? If either of you guys ever have anything to sell I want to be there early because you're pushovers! Cue up the obscure GG'ers who've been traded for prospects in the past 50 years, and you know what? I DON'T CARE! If I couldn't get a respectable pitcher for JBJ I'd keep him. Of course, I'd keep him anyway.

I wanted Porcillo to bat there. At least not bunt. Bunting is what pitchers do when they can't hit.

What's a Tom Helmer, and what's he doing in a Red Sox booth?

Haha. Those Colts fans sure do have a sense of humor! Even thinking about asking for a refund is a stretch.

I just turned on the game. Who are the two guys in the booth, and where's Dave O'B??

It seems like that's the mirror opposite of last year, possibly not in the quantity of runs but in the fact that it seems like last year our starters frequently had a lead early in the game. Now they're behind and pitching for their lives.

I don't, but it's ok. I do remember that he was posting as Hill back then. Ironic that a troll would choose the name Harmony though. Hmmm... subliminal messaging, maybe?